NASA · Aviation Safety Reporting System
Air carrier pilot reported an NMAC with a UAS during initial approach. No evasive action was taken.
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.
Flying the ILS 19R a drone was observed passing within 200-300 feet of the aircraft through approximately 2300 ft. MSL. Aircraft was within .2 NM of the fix JMBOB. Drone was a black quadcopter type, initally looked like a bird, the closer we got we thought it was a ballon due to the lack of relative motion observed, once abeam the object in question was very visible, without a doubt it was a black drone. Four propellers, resembling a hobby drone. No evasive action was needed to dodge the drone but the fact that I was able to clearly identify details of the drone leads me to believe it was dangerously close to our aircraft. Cause: Illegal drone flying
NASA classification — Anomalies
- Airspace Violation
- Conflict
- Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural
NASA classification — Assessments
- Contributing Factors / Situations
- Environment - Non Weather Related
- Primary Problem
- Environment - Non Weather Related
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 ↗.