A law enforcement crew flew into restricted airspace while flying at night low over mountainous terr...

Attributes
ACN	875842
Time
Date	201002
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Light Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	VFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Military
Flight Plan	DVFR
Component
Aircraft Component	VHF
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 85 Flight Crew Total 10535 Flight Crew Type 2500
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 15 Flight Crew Total 5100 Flight Crew Type 20
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Airspace Violation All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Track / Heading All Types
Miss Distance	Horizontal 24000 Vertical 2000

Narrative:

While conducting a night intercept training mission our radar control facility informed us we had a problem. ATC had contacted our agency; to inform us of two things: 1) we had unauthorized penetration of restricted area. 2) we had come to close to the uav (our radar facility informed me; 4 miles and 2;000 ft. I'm unsure of the distance and altitude spread; ATC saw. We were unaware of both the penetration and the uav conflict. Reasons; I believe this situation occurred: a) flying at night; VFR in mountainous terrain; shortly after sunset. We were heavily focused on avoiding the mountains. B) I have been informed by ATC; NOTAMS have been recently changed. Restricted area would show hot in the past. I believe they are now obtained by going through the ATC center. C) not familiar with the local area. We are not based in this area. D) flying with the newest copilot in the fleet (soon to be one of the best); helping him at the expense of my losing situation awareness. Things to prevent this event from happening in the future: a) return uav NOTAMS back to the nearest airport versus the ARTCC. We were more concerned with staying away from the mountains; than getting close to the restricted areas. B) flying a jet at night VFR; low level; new area; new copilot;in a similar but different style airframe (example B737-200 vs B737-800; same jet type - lots of differences) with unaided vision is challenging. Flying this profile requires a steep learning curve. Our first mission was full of important lessons. I've learned not to sacrifice my situational awareness at the expense of helping a new pilot.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Law Enforcement Crew flew into Restricted Airspace while flying at night low over mountainous terrain and were later informed about a conflict with an unmanned aircraft (UAV).

Narrative: While conducting a night intercept training mission our radar control facility informed us we had a problem. ATC had contacted our agency; to inform us of two things: 1) We had unauthorized penetration of Restricted Area. 2) We had come to close to the UAV (Our radar facility informed me; 4 miles and 2;000 FT. I'm unsure of the distance and altitude spread; ATC saw. We were unaware of both the penetration and the UAV conflict. Reasons; I believe this situation occurred: A) Flying at night; VFR in mountainous terrain; shortly after sunset. We were heavily focused on avoiding the mountains. B) I have been informed by ATC; NOTAMS have been recently changed. Restricted Area would show hot in the past. I believe they are now obtained by going through the ATC center. C) Not familiar with the local area. We are not based in this area. D) Flying with the newest Copilot in the fleet (soon to be one of the best); helping him at the expense of my losing situation awareness. Things to prevent this event from happening in the future: A) Return UAV NOTAMS back to the nearest airport versus the ARTCC. We were more concerned with staying away from the mountains; than getting close to the restricted areas. B) Flying a jet at night VFR; low level; new area; new copilot;in a similar but different style airframe (example B737-200 vs B737-800; same jet type - lots of differences) with unaided vision is challenging. Flying this profile requires a steep learning curve. Our first mission was full of important lessons. I've learned not to sacrifice my situational awareness at the expense of helping a new pilot.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

A law enforcement crew flew into restricted airspace while flying at night low over mountainous terrain and were later informed about a conflict with an unmanned aircraft (uav).