Narrative:

While taking off of runway 19 from flo we spotted traffic; a light helicopter; and were advised of the traffic. The flo tower also notified the helicopter that it had traffic (us) passing on its left. The helicopter responded to the effect; 'okay turning left.' the helicopter then made a left hand turn into our flight path requiring me to take control of the aircraft (the first officer didn't have visual on the helicopter) to maneuver it out of the flight path of the helicopter. I estimate that the helicopter was with in a few hundred feet horizontally of my aircraft at the same altitude. We saw the helicopter in close proximity. This event occurred because we were given a takeoff clearance with traffic in the departure corridor of our runway. It also occurred because the helicopter misunderstood communication from the tower that wasn't corrected by the tower upon the helicopter's erroneous read back. I took control of the aircraft made a turn to avoid striking the helicopter; then notified ATC of our deviation from assigned heading. Returned aircraft back to the first officer after clearing the conflict and then obtained a new clearance. This event could have been avoided if the tower controller would have instructed the helicopter clear of the departure end of the runway prior to launching us. It could have also been avoided if the tower controller would have corrected the erroneous read back of the traffic call from the helicopter.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier departure from FLO experienced a conflict with a helicopter; both aircraft were advised of one another but ATC failed to hear an incorrect read back by the helicopter resulting in the conflict.

Narrative: While taking off of Runway 19 from FLO we spotted traffic; a light helicopter; and were advised of the traffic. The FLO Tower also notified the helicopter that it had traffic (us) passing on its left. The helicopter responded to the effect; 'Okay turning left.' The helicopter then made a left hand turn into our flight path requiring me to take control of the aircraft (the First Officer didn't have visual on the helicopter) to maneuver it out of the flight path of the helicopter. I estimate that the helicopter was with in a few hundred feet horizontally of my aircraft at the same altitude. We saw the helicopter in close proximity. This event occurred because we were given a takeoff clearance with traffic in the departure corridor of our runway. It also occurred because the helicopter misunderstood communication from the Tower that wasn't corrected by the Tower upon the helicopter's erroneous read back. I took control of the aircraft made a turn to avoid striking the helicopter; then notified ATC of our deviation from assigned heading. Returned aircraft back to the First Officer after clearing the conflict and then obtained a new clearance. This event could have been avoided if the Tower Controller would have instructed the helicopter clear of the departure end of the runway prior to launching us. It could have also been avoided if the Tower Controller would have corrected the erroneous read back of the traffic call from the helicopter.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.