Incidents and near misses, as investigators record them.

What these records are

Three bodies supply the records on this page, and each counts something different: a single investigation with a probable cause from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB); assessed Airprox reports, in aggregate, from the UK Airprox Board (UKAB); and short record-only entries from the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB).

The research behind this site found no AAIB field investigation of a drone racing event and no NTSB investigation involving an FPV racing drone. Nothing below should be read as a picture of racing in particular.

United States: the NTSB's Staten Island investigation

NTSB investigation DCA17IA202 concerns an event on 21 September 2017 at about 19:20 local time. A privately owned DJI Phantom 4 small unmanned aircraft collided with a US Army Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter about 1 mile east of Midland Beach, Staten Island, New York.

• Probable cause (NTSB): the drone pilot failed to see and avoid the helicopter because he was intentionally flying beyond visual line of sight.
• Contributing factor (NTSB): the pilot's incomplete knowledge of the regulations and safe operating practices.
• Outcome (NTSB): the helicopter had minor damage, the drone was destroyed, and no one was injured.

Army Times reported it as the first time a civilian drone had crashed into a military aircraft. Press coverage of the final report said the operator had not known about a temporary flight restriction over New York during the UN General Assembly; that detail was not checked against the NTSB docket and is unconfirmed.

United Kingdom: the UK Airprox Board

The UKAB is a joint service of the UK Civil Aviation Authority and the Military Aviation Authority. Its 40th annual report covers January to December 2024.

The 2024 figures

What the UKAB says about the trend

• It describes a surge in UA/Other Airprox from 2014 as the market for small recreational drones grew, and says the picture began to settle once regulation and registration were introduced.
• The sector reporting the most encounters with UA/Other is commercial air transport (large carriers), mostly during departure or landing, when encounters are fleeting and pilots cannot manoeuvre.
• It names the band below 500 ft above the ground as a concern, because neither drone flyers (often below 400 ft) nor some piloted aircraft need permission or must publicise what they are doing there.
• More Airprox reports now come from drone operators themselves. In all but one such case in 2024, the pilot of the other aircraft did not see the drone.
• The UKAB says it is highly likely that many Airprox go unreported each year, and cautions against drawing conclusions from comparing one year with another.

2025 so far

No UKAB annual total for 2025 had been found by 30 October 2026; the Board publishes monthly reviews for 2025. Its review for the meeting of 10 December 2025 listed three reports in the drone, balloon, model or unknown-object group. One was rated Risk A: an A321 and a drone in the London TMA on 16 November 2025, where the Board found that a definite risk of collision had existed. The other two were rated Risk C, which the Board's reviews word as safety having been reduced but with no risk of collision.

United Kingdom: the AAIB's record-only roundups

The AAIB publishes a roundup every two months of drone occurrences that it records but does not investigate in the field or by full correspondence. It says these entries are wholly or largely based on information from the aircraft's commander, and that their accuracy cannot be assured.

• April to May 2026 (published 9 July 2026): six occurrences between 9 April and 26 May 2026, with no injuries stated in any of them.
• Sutton, Greater London, 20 May 2026: a DJI Mini 5 struck a high-voltage power line during a survey. The AAIB noted that the drone's automated obstacle avoidance is not designed to detect power lines, and that the first-person video view did not give the pilot enough information to keep a safe distance.
• Near Puttenham, Surrey, 26 April 2026: a model aircraft became unresponsive and struck the bumper of a car. The cause was not determined.
• April to May 2021 (seen only as a search summary, not opened): entries said to include a DJI FPV drone that fell after loss of control over a hillside at Waskerley, County Durham, and an FPV aircraft on a commercial shoot near Newquay whose control feed cut out. Unconfirmed.

What is not here

• FAA occurrence data. Every faa.gov page tried for this site's research returned an error, so FAA drone sighting reports were not read.
• Battery incidents. Fires reported to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, such as the 28 overheating or melting reports in its 2008 recall of radio-controlled helicopter batteries, are product reports rather than flight occurrences; they are covered on battery fire risk.
• Injuries. Emergency-department studies are on propeller injuries research.
• Other countries. No investigator's drone records were researched for the EU, Canada or Australia.

An occurrence involving people or property hurt or damaged is a matter for emergency services first. How authorities respond to unsafe flying is on enforcement.