An air taxi turboprop captain reported being advised by air traffic control of possible birds in the...

Narrative:

During a night; visual approach; ATC advised us of a radar return at our '2 o'clock'. They said it could possibly be birds. I; being pilot monitoring; began to visually scan because the pilot was focusing on our soon to be landing. I spotted a stationary red beacon abeam our wing and about 1-2 miles at our altitude (5;000 ft). I ultimately decided it was either a drone or a helicopter much further away. I asked tower if there was a helicopter to the east and they said negative. I told them the position of the drone and they confirmed that's where the return was coming from. As for us and our flight path the drone was not close enough to be a threat; but if we were approached runway 35 or even 32 it would have been much closer.the only thing I could think of is to get a more precise description of the position of the drone. It was difficult preparing for landing and tending to this situation simultaneously.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air taxi turboprop Captain reported being advised by air traffic control of possible birds in the vicinity of his aircraft. It appeared the target was actually a drone operating nearby; however it did not appear to be a threat; and no evasive action was required.

Narrative: During a night; visual approach; ATC advised us of a radar return at our '2 o'clock'. They said it could possibly be birds. I; being pilot monitoring; began to visually scan because the pilot was focusing on our soon to be landing. I spotted a stationary red beacon abeam our wing and about 1-2 miles at our altitude (5;000 ft). I ultimately decided it was either a drone or a helicopter much further away. I asked tower if there was a helicopter to the east and they said negative. I told them the position of the drone and they confirmed that's where the return was coming from. As for us and our flight path the drone was not close enough to be a threat; but if we were approached runway 35 or even 32 it would have been much closer.The only thing I could think of is to get a more precise description of the position of the drone. It was difficult preparing for landing and tending to this situation simultaneously.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1495469
Time
Date	201711
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	SLC.Airport
State Reference	UT
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Light Transport Low Wing 2 Turboprop Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 135
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	UAV - Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle
Operating Under FAR Part	Other 107
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial
Events
Anomaly	Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

An air taxi turboprop captain reported being advised by air traffic control of possible birds in the vicinity of his aircraft. It appeared the target was actually a drone operating nearby; however it did not appear to be a threat; and no evasive action was required.