Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk Helicopter Collided With An Unregistered DJI Mavic 3T Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Location: Ingram, TX Incident Number: CEN25LA242
Date & Time: July 7, 2025, 15:57 Local Registration: UNREG
Aircraft: Sikorsky UH60 Injuries: 1 None
Flight Conducted Under: Public aircraft

On July 7, 2025, about 1557 central daylight time, an unregistered Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter collided with an unregistered DJI Mavic 3T unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) near Ingram, Texas. The UH-60 received substantial damage to the tail rotor system and the Mavic 3T was destroyed. The pilot and occupants of the UH-60 were not injured, and the helicopter made a successful landing. The UH-60 was operated by the National Guard and the Mavic 3T was operated by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), as public use aircraft during flood response operations arising from the July 4, 2025, flooding of the Guadalupe River.

Postaccident inspection of the helicopter by the operator revealed substantial damage to the tail rotor blades.

According to the Texas DPS pilot who was operating the drone. He received instruction on mission plans from the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), that had been set up in response to the flooding in the area. Each drone team consisted of 2 pilots. One pilot would fly the drone, and the other would monitor radio frequencies and visually scan the area. They would receive a mapping mission to fly and once completed they would land the drone and relocate to the next assigned mapping mission. During operations, they would monitor several radio communication frequencies and if other aircraft traffic was heard in their area, they would descend to 50 ft above ground level (agl) and wait until the other aircraft traffic was no longer a factor and then resume their mission.

The drone team was starting a mapping mission that was to fly a programmed grid pattern but were hand flying the drone to the start of the grid pattern. They did not see, nor did they hear any other traffic announce operations or positions in the area, and suddenly lost communication with the drone. After losing communication with the drone, they saw the helicopter make an emergency landing. 

The drone pilot reported that that the deconfliction strategy, that was in place at the time of the collision, was verbally passed down, and that drones were to operate at altitudes at or below 200 ft agl, and that manned aircraft would operate no lower than 400 ft agl unless a specific need required going lower.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov