Risk Management Magazine

As an aviation safety officer at Kandahar Air Base assigned to Task Force Out Front, I was a pilot in command (PC) and air mission commander (AMC) and flew more than 150 combat missions responding to numerous troops-in-contact calls in Kandahar province. During my deployment, we had a mid-air collision with an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) because communication and tracking of UASs between ground units within the same brigade was ineffective. Here’s what happened.

The PI stated he could not see anything and was not comfortable with the landing and transferred the flight controls. We conducted a go-around and proceeded to come back and attempt the landing. This time we planned on landing on a dirt road because, due to the lack of contrast, we could not confidently rule out hazards such as large rocks or other protruding objects on the ground. We could only see dark spots on the ground up to about 10 feet. Only light dust kicked up as we landed.

This aircrew was fortunate they started at 4,500 feet with sufficient altitude for recovery and were able to walk away with only a lesson learned. Had they started at 3,500 feet, it would have been a really uncomfortable event. At 2,500 feet, they might not have been able to recover.