Part 107 UAS pilot reported flying in controlled airspace without the proper authorization.

Date: 2024-09 · Aircraft: Small UAS (At or above 0.55 lbs and less than 55 lbs) · Phase: cruise

Anomalies: airspace-violation-all-types|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-far|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-unauthorized-flight-operations-uas

Synopsis

Part 107 UAS pilot reported flying in controlled airspace without the proper authorization.

Narrative

I noticed that the FAA on hand had the wrong dates and looked on FAADroneZone for an updated waiver. I found two that had the adjacent site that was flying at later in the week (Original and updated one). I didn't see that the current site I was working did not have clearance for me to fly. After pulling the updated authorization; I contacted ZZZ tower to alert of operations. The operator at the tower took my information (Name/number/authorization #/etc) and then cleared me to fly. Thinking I was good to fly; I continued normal operation of UAS with no issues. On a different day; I called the tower again to let them know that we were operating again at the same site; this time we were told that we didn't have an authorization in place. All operations were cancelled.This event occurred due to not confirming/checking that we had an authorization in place for this site and confusion about another site close by. The tower personnel who is responsible for checking the information also did not accurately check our authorization number after giving all our information to them (Or they could have thought we were flying at the other site). I acknowledge that it is not towers responsibility to verify my authorization. This was breakdown in communication and confirming details before flying this operation. In the future; I will check the authorization information and all the details 2 weeks before conducting operation that requires an authorization.

NASA callback

The reporter indicated they inadvertently used a waiver from a few year prior which combined their two work sites. A few months ago; the waiver was amended to separate their two work sites into separate waivers.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.