Narrative:

Maintenance of certification (moc) disaster drill at airport involving large contingent of fire; police; and haa. The incident was taking place on 17R and was closed for the training. 17L was still open and active. I was landing on the lz located on the west side of 17R; picking up the patient; taking off to the west and making right traffic patterns and landing back on the lz. I was in contact with the tower at all times and was cleared to do operations west of the active runway. The pattern put us between the two runways. On the third pattern and setting up for landing; a plane flew from underneath us and to the left. We could hear the engines and it appeared very close. I never heard a takeoff clearance being given to an aircraft and I was not given any information about the takeoff aircraft. I was talking to the tower; the lz commander; the crew and our local dispatch; and could have easily missed any clearance. When I radioed the tower that we were close to the takeoff aircraft; he said 'I thought you would be west of the inactive runway'. I had indeed drifted closer to the active runway on the pattern; but it was basically the same pattern I had flown twice before. Management called the tower and airport operations and they said we were no closer than 300 feet; although it seemed much closer than that.during an actual disaster; the airfield would be closed to all arriving and departing aircraft. This is a very busy airport. Keeping the airport open and doing the drill is actually more dangerous than that of an actual event. It is recommended to close the airport for a short time if air operations for a disaster drill are conducted.also; we work within the airspace on a daily basis and have a good relationship. I was over confident that I would be given traffic information; and I believe the controller was overconfident that since I was doing operations off the runway that I would be clear of all traffic.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A night airport emergency training event resulted in a near miss over a parallel runway after the evacuation training helicopter pilot drifted further from its expected landing zone approach area too near the active runway.

Narrative: Maintenance of Certification (MOC) disaster drill at airport involving large contingent of fire; police; and HAA. The incident was taking place on 17R and was closed for the training. 17L was still open and active. I was landing on the LZ located on the west side of 17R; picking up the patient; taking off to the west and making right traffic patterns and landing back on the LZ. I was in contact with the tower at all times and was cleared to do operations west of the active runway. The pattern put us between the two runways. On the third pattern and setting up for landing; a plane flew from underneath us and to the left. We could hear the engines and it appeared very close. I never heard a takeoff clearance being given to an aircraft and I was not given any information about the takeoff aircraft. I was talking to the tower; the LZ commander; the crew and our local dispatch; and could have easily missed any clearance. When I radioed the tower that we were close to the takeoff aircraft; he said 'I thought you would be west of the inactive runway'. I had indeed drifted closer to the active runway on the pattern; but it was basically the same pattern I had flown twice before. Management called the tower and airport operations and they said we were no closer than 300 feet; although it seemed much closer than that.During an actual disaster; the airfield would be closed to all arriving and departing aircraft. This is a very busy airport. Keeping the airport open and doing the drill is actually more dangerous than that of an actual event. It is recommended to close the airport for a short time if air operations for a disaster drill are conducted.Also; we work within the airspace on a daily basis and have a good relationship. I was over confident that I would be given traffic information; and I believe the controller was overconfident that since I was doing operations off the runway that I would be clear of all traffic.

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.