Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Sighting Data 2016 to 2019

<p>This dataset is based on the publicly available Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Sightings Report published by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The dataset takes information in the narrative description and extrapolates it to a row of data for each UAS sighting. The dataset also includes information about airports based on the National Plan for Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS), also published by FAA. The dataset consists of 6,551 UAS sighting reports during the three-year period from September 2016 to August 2019. The FAA’s UAS sighting reports generally provide information about the event date, time, city, state, and a narrative of the event. For each event, the following information was extracted from the narrative:</p>

<ul>
<li>Type of manned aircraft involved in a UAS sighting,</li>
<li>Source of a UAS sighting report,</li>
<li>UAS altitude in feet above ground level,</li>
<li>Distance between the UAS sighting location and the airport in nautical miles,</li>
<li>A nearby airport close to the UAS sighting location,</li>
<li>Whether manned aircraft pilot(s) takes evasive action to avoid UAS, </li>
<li>Whether a Mandatory Occurrence Report (MOR) was filed,</li>
<li>Law enforcement department(s) being notified of the UAS sighting,</li>
<li>Distance between manned aircraft and UAS in feet,</li>
<li>Position of UAS relative to manned aircraft.</li>
</ul>

<p>The FAA 2019-2023 National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) Report Appendix A: List of NPIAS Airports with 5-Year Forecast Activity and Development Estimate was used to identify the category of airport that had a UAS sighting nearby. </p>