NASA · Aviation Safety Reporting System
Lancair ES pilot reported penetrating a TFR resulting in an airborne conflict with skydivers.
What is ASRS?
The Aviation Safety Reporting System is NASA's voluntary, confidential, non- punitive incident-reporting system, established 1976. Pilots, controllers, dispatchers, and maintenance technicians file reports describing safety- relevant events. NASA de-identifies every report before adding it to the public database. Reports are not investigated by NASA, the FAA, or the NTSB — they represent the reporter's perspective.
Pilot narrative
Verbatim from the de-identified NASA record. First-person account by the
reporter. NASA strips identifying details (names, company, specific time);
anonymization placeholders are ZZZ,
X, Y.
I was flying practice approaches for currency in and around ZZZ airport. I was briefed and was aware of the TFR over ZZZ1 for an air show. I was flying a practice GPS XX approach. I selected the GPS XX approach as it was on the opposite side of the airport from the TFR. I was communicating and monitoring the UNICOM frequency. I announced my position multiple times. When I was on short final, a King Air suddenly appeared on downwind for Runway XY [opposite direction] and announced his intention to land on XY, despite me having announced multiple times that I was on short final for XX. My attention was on the King Air when I glanced up and saw a windshield full of skydivers. I immediately began evasive action, turning first to the left so as to pass behind the King Air. However, I realized that turning left limited my visibility of the skydivers, so I then proceeded to turn back right parallel to the runway so I could see the skydivers. I also began a climb. I was very shaken by the event. By the time I composed myself and stopped looking for skydivers, I looked at my MFD and realized I had penetrated the TFR. I immediately executed a steep turn to the right to exit the TFR space. At the same time I switched from the UNICOM frequency to 121.5. About 20 seconds later I got a call on 121.5 from ATC. I described the situation to him, and was given a number to call. My penetration of the TFR was inadvertent and a result of the emergency situation with the skydivers. I believe my actions were justified, as avoiding contact with a skydiver was my priority during the emergency. I believe the King Air that appeared had been carrying the skydivers and made no attempt on UNICOM to inform me of their presence. I exited the TFR promptly on my own volition once the emergency situation had resolved itself.
NASA classification — Anomalies
- Airspace Violation
- Conflict
- Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural
- Inflight Event / Encounter
NASA classification — Assessments
- Contributing Factors / Situations
- Human Factors
- Primary Problem
- Human Factors
ASRS reports are voluntarily submitted, de-identified by NASA, and represent the reporter's perspective. The presence of reports on a topic cannot be used to infer prevalence in the National Airspace System. The authoritative source is the NASA ASRS Database Online at asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↗.