A uav presence at 300 feet on the final approach to slc parallel runway overloaded the TRACON and di...

Narrative:

After hand-off from center to approach; I heard the tail-end of an event warning from approach control regarding our preferred runway - 34R. At check in with approach I asked what the event at approach end 300 MSL was; and the controller did not answer me; instead giving instructions - assignment to a different runway than expected (34L); and a heading of 010 to intercept the localizer. I read the clearance back; then I queried controller two more times about the issue with 34R before controller responded to me - the event was unauthorized drone activity on the approach path. Shortly thereafter I was looking at the CDI and thinking the vector to join was not very good. Then approach called and asked if we were off of the arrival. I responded that we were flying the assigned heading to join the localizer; and controller said that our clearance was present heading to join. At that point controller gave us heading 020 to join; which was a more effective vector. The approach to landing proceeded normally from that point; although the position of the drone reports changed somewhat. There were no terrain or traffic separation issues.the sudden report of the drone seems to have thrown everyone's game off just a bit. I only heard a fragment of the report; and in good weather conditions I was wondering what the warning could be about. The sudden change also changed the workload for the controller. I am pretty sure I heard 010 heading; I don't know if it was a controller error or hear back/read back error. I did make a mistake by combining my query with the check in call - I should have made that two separate communications. Or I also could have waited to hear the report again; as we were more than 20 miles from the airport and there was really no time pressure (other than getting our preferred runway to end the day).if my read back was in error; the controller did not correct me from 'heading 010' to 'present heading'.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A UAV presence at 300 feet on the final approach to SLC parallel runway overloaded the TRACON and disrupted communications with arriving flight crews. All associated personnel experienced workload increases.

Narrative: After hand-off from Center to Approach; I heard the tail-end of an event warning from Approach control regarding our preferred runway - 34R. At check in with Approach I asked what the event at approach end 300 MSL was; and the controller did not answer me; instead giving instructions - assignment to a different runway than expected (34L); and a heading of 010 to intercept the localizer. I read the clearance back; then I queried controller two more times about the issue with 34R before controller responded to me - the event was unauthorized drone activity on the approach path. Shortly thereafter I was looking at the CDI and thinking the vector to join was not very good. Then Approach called and asked if we were off of the arrival. I responded that we were flying the assigned heading to join the localizer; and controller said that our clearance was present heading to join. At that point controller gave us heading 020 to join; which was a more effective vector. The approach to landing proceeded normally from that point; although the position of the drone reports changed somewhat. There were no terrain or traffic separation issues.The sudden report of the drone seems to have thrown everyone's game off just a bit. I only heard a fragment of the report; and in good weather conditions I was wondering what the warning could be about. The sudden change also changed the workload for the controller. I am pretty sure I heard 010 heading; I don't know if it was a controller error or hear back/read back error. I did make a mistake by combining my query with the check in call - I should have made that two separate communications. Or I also could have waited to hear the report again; as we were more than 20 miles from the airport and there was really no time pressure (other than getting our preferred runway to end the day).If my read back was in error; the controller did not correct me from 'heading 010' to 'present heading'.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1326360
Time
Date	201601
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	SLC.Airport
State Reference	UT
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Regional Jet 200 ER/LR (CRJ200)
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Vectors Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	UAV - Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Track / Heading All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

A uav presence at 300 feet on the final approach to slc parallel runway overloaded the TRACON and disrupted communications with arriving flight crews. All associated personnel experienced workload increases.