Sikorsky UH60 incident near Ingram, Texas, July 7, 2025
On July 7, 2025 at about 8:57 pm local time, a Sikorsky UH60 (helicopter), registered UNREG, suffered minor damage in an incident during enroute (cruise) near Ingram, Texas. It was a public-use flight under public-use (government) rules. No one was hurt; 1 person was on board or involved. The weather was visual conditions (good weather).
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The NTSB's probable cause their words, unchanged
The NTSB has not yet published a probable cause for this incident. Investigations usually take one to two years; this page updates when the final report is released.
Source: NTSB aviation accident database, copy made October 4, 2026. Docket and reports at the NTSB.
What the record shows
- Date
- July 7, 2025 · about 8:57 pm local time
- Place
- Ingram, Texas · map
- Type
- Incident · mid-air collision
- Injuries
- No one was hurt; 1 person was on board or involved.
- Weather
- visual conditions (good weather)
- Aircraft
- Sikorsky UH60 · all UH60s on the register
- Registration
- UNREG · no longer on the register
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Flight
- Public-use flight · public-use (government) rules
The NTSB's narrative preliminary · quoted from the NTSB record
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.
The complete narrative as the NTSB published it. The NTSB's docket holds the report as a PDF and any photographs, statements and other documents from the investigation.
The factual record from the NTSB's investigation tables, in plain English
What happened, in order
- Midair collision during enroute (cruise) defining event
The aircraft
- Landing gear: fixed
Weather at the time
- Light: daylight
- Wind: from 180° at 7 knots
- Visibility: 10 statute miles
- Sky: scat at 12,000 ft
- Temperature: 86°F (30°C), dew point 70°F (21°C)
- Altimeter: 30.06 inHg
- Observation at 3:55 pm from KERV, 10 miles away
Weather report (METAR): METAR KERV 072055Z AUTO 18007KT 10SM SCT120 30/21 A3006 RMK AO2 T02950212=
Injuries
| Fatal | Serious | Minor | None | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flig | 1 |
Other NTSB records under UNREG the same tail number, which may have belonged to a different aircraft at the time
About this page
Everything above comes from the NTSB's public accident database: the narrative, probable cause and findings are the NTSB's own words, and the coded tables behind its report (pilot, aircraft, flight, weather, injuries, sequence of events) are written out in plain English. Pilots' ages, home towns and medical details are left out on purpose. The docket at the NTSB holds the report as a PDF and the investigation's photographs and documents. This site never names pilots, passengers or anyone else involved. A preliminary report describes what is known soon after the event and can change; the final report, with the probable cause, usually follows one to two years later and this page is refreshed when it does. Case number CEN25LA242.