Narrative:

Near midair [with] a small drone flying one block east of the hospital. Our aircraft was on initial climb out at approximately 65 knots and was climbing from helipad to 2200 MSL. Elevation [at] time of near miss was probably 100-150 feet above helipad which is approximately 1250 MSL. The primary departure path from this helipad is standardized due to close noise sensitive areas and must be protected from drone activities and intrusions due to high flight volume around the hospital. We had to look up through the rotors to keep it in sight as it passed directly over the aircraft by about 25-50 feet. We saw it at the last second and had no time to react. Ground all private drones. They are going to cause a mishap with a manned aircraft; the regulations for their operation do not provide helicopters with a margin of safety that is acceptable to flight crews who cannot see them because they are too small. The drones also do not have lights or markings that aid in their visual acquisition. They also do not register on TCAS or other radar systems. Alternately; 'no drone' fly zones within 1 NM of all hospital helipads.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Helicopter pilot reported a NMAC with a UAV shortly after takeoff from a hospital.

Narrative: Near midair [with] a small drone flying one block east of the hospital. Our aircraft was on initial climb out at approximately 65 knots and was climbing from helipad to 2200 MSL. Elevation [at] time of near miss was probably 100-150 feet above helipad which is approximately 1250 MSL. The primary departure path from this helipad is standardized due to close noise sensitive areas and must be protected from drone activities and intrusions due to high flight volume around the hospital. We had to look up through the rotors to keep it in sight as it passed directly over the aircraft by about 25-50 feet. We saw it at the last second and had no time to react. Ground all private drones. They are going to cause a mishap with a manned aircraft; the regulations for their operation do not provide helicopters with a margin of safety that is acceptable to flight crews who cannot see them because they are too small. The drones also do not have lights or markings that aid in their visual acquisition. They also do not register on TCAS or other radar systems. Alternately; 'no drone' fly zones within 1 NM of all hospital helipads.

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.