2013-05-23 - Los Angeles, CA - Unknown

Strange directional "swoosh" sound in the sky near LAX draws attention of 3 witnesses to look up at an empty sky

I was returning a rental car at the Hertz rental car return facility near LAX, as I have done many times before at this same location (probably more than 50 times).

This day there were 2 ladies processing my return, which is unusual since normally it's a one-on-one transaction. The three of us were standing next to the car and going through the routine process which includes questions like "did you replace the fuel" and so on.

I always hear planes flying above that location, as the place is located at the foot of the runway. This time, though, I heard a very strange sound that was somewhat similar to a jet but sounded "broken", as if it was digitally altered to sound like special FX for a movie.

It was like a loud "swoosh" sound that appeared to go by in the sky above us. The sound moved in the same direction as the planes normally do as they land, that is, westbound towards the ocean. Instinctively, and immediately, I looked up and scanned the sky from my right to my left, following the sound, only to see a clear blue sky with absolutely nothing in my entire field of view, as far as I could see in all directions, except for the late afternoon Sun. I have seen many planes fly above my head at that location before, and sometimes I look up and sometimes not. This time, the unusual sound drove me to immediately look up because I was curious to see what kind of aircraft made that strange sound. But with the sky being empty, in the end the only thing that caught my attention was the fact that one of the ladies processing my car return, who was standing in front of me and facing my direction, did the exact same head motion that I did, except she was going from her left to her right, so that we were both scanning the same section of the sky at the same time.

At this point, the other lady said, "That didn't sound like a plane, it sounded like water!". I understood what she meant - that it sounded sort of like a wave at the beach, or a cross between that and a jet plane flying by if you can imagine what that would sound like. It was her interpretation of the sound, just as I gave my interpretation above.

So this is not a report of a "sighting" per se, but I believe I heard a UFO instead of seeing one. Right after the fact, I remember thinking to myself that the simultaneous head motion of the lady standing in front of me made me feel validated, and that there was no reason to question myself about whether I really heard a sound that appeared to come from an invisible source.

For the record, I am an IT Consultant and I travel for work. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science.

Although I'm not adverse to being contacted about this event, I believe I have provided all the information available. I am making this report in case there are other people out there who had a similar experience, so that perhaps collectively the reports can have statistical significance or provide some clue about the phenomenon.