NASA · Aviation Safety Reporting System
Part 135 helicopter pilot reported a near midair collision with a UAS during initial climb.
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.
Shortly after takeoff from 30th St Heliport JRA in NYC at approximately 300 ft. and 30 kts, the right seat pilot (pilot monitoring) observed an quad copter type drone off our nose (20-30 ft.) and slightly below (20 ft.) moving right to left. Shortly after seeing the drone he saw it pitch over and descend from view. Left seat pilot (flying) never saw the drone. There was no NOTAM for drone ops and JRA was not aware of any drone ops in the area.
NASA classification — Anomalies
- Airspace Violation
- Conflict
- Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural
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 ↗.