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A B757 flight crew encountered a uav on final approach to lax as they descended through 3;000 feet MSL.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1242105 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201502 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1201-1800 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | LAX.Airport |
| State Reference | CA |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B757 Undifferentiated or Other Model |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Final Approach |
| Route In Use | Visual Approach |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Aircraft 2 | |
| Make Model Name | UAV - Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | First Officer Pilot Not Flying |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Flight Instructor |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 150 Flight Crew Total 3000 Flight Crew Type 540 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Conflict NMAC Ground Event / Encounter Object Inflight Event / Encounter Object |
| Miss Distance | Horizontal 150 Vertical 100 |
Narrative:
We were on the ILS 25L coming into lax on an unusually clear day with excellent visibility and none of the usual la haze. The captain (ca) was pilot flying (PF) and I was pilot monitoring (pm). We had just passed hunda by approximately 1 to 1.5 miles and were about to descend through an altitude of approximately 3;000 feet. I was just about to contact tower after being handed off by approach when something caught my eye slightly ahead and to the right of the aircraft. At first I thought it was a large bird soaring towards us; but as it passed outside of the right forward first officer's (first officer) window; I very clearly saw a large square-shaped bright red drone with black accents and black propellers. I had it in sight for approximately 3 seconds as it approached and passed. It appeared to be heading opposite our direction and I would estimate it was only about 50 to 100 feet higher than us when we were passing abeam it and it was probably only between 100 and 200 feet right of us. It was definitely close enough for me to very clearly see it and recognize what it was; but not close enough that I feared it would strike our right wing; engine; or stabilizer. Immediately after we passed it; I checked in with tower and reported that we had just passed a drone inside of hunda. The tower controller asked if an estimate of about 3;200 feet altitude for the drone was accurate and I agreed. A few seconds later he asked approximately how far away from us I thought it had passed and what color it was; and I gave a conservative estimate of approximately 200 feet away from us and red with black for the color.I'm not sure there is anything we as pilots or the tower controller could have done to prevent this uncomfortably close encounter between a drone and a large passenger airplane unless these objects are made to be detectable on radar and/or TCAS and traceable to their extraordinarily irresponsible owners/operators.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A B757 flight crew encountered a UAV on final approach to LAX as they descended through 3;000 feet MSL.
Narrative: We were on the ILS 25L coming into LAX on an unusually clear day with excellent visibility and none of the usual LA haze. The Captain (CA) was pilot flying (PF) and I was pilot monitoring (PM). We had just passed HUNDA by approximately 1 to 1.5 miles and were about to descend through an altitude of approximately 3;000 feet. I was just about to contact tower after being handed off by approach when something caught my eye slightly ahead and to the right of the aircraft. At first I thought it was a large bird soaring towards us; but as it passed outside of the right forward First Officer's (FO) window; I very clearly saw a large square-shaped bright red drone with black accents and black propellers. I had it in sight for approximately 3 seconds as it approached and passed. It appeared to be heading opposite our direction and I would estimate it was only about 50 to 100 feet higher than us when we were passing abeam it and it was probably only between 100 and 200 feet right of us. It was definitely close enough for me to very clearly see it and recognize what it was; but not close enough that I feared it would strike our right wing; engine; or stabilizer. Immediately after we passed it; I checked in with tower and reported that we had just passed a drone inside of HUNDA. The tower controller asked if an estimate of about 3;200 feet altitude for the drone was accurate and I agreed. A few seconds later he asked approximately how far away from us I thought it had passed and what color it was; and I gave a conservative estimate of approximately 200 feet away from us and red with black for the color.I'm not sure there is anything we as pilots or the tower controller could have done to prevent this uncomfortably close encounter between a drone and a large passenger airplane unless these objects are made to be detectable on radar and/or TCAS and traceable to their extraordinarily irresponsible owners/operators.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.