2026-02 · NASA ASRS report 2331497
Air taxi flight crew reported a NMAC with a military transport during climb. Flight crew took evasive action and continued the climb.
At approximately XA:30 local; I and my Captain departed Kalaupapa headed towards ZZZ. I was the pilot flying at the controls and my Captain was the pilot monitoring. Captain made the appropriate calls on LUP CTAF advising that we would be holding short of RWY 5 and monitoring for inbound traffic. I also checked ADSB on my iPad to confirm that the airspace was clear of any transitioning or landing aircraft. We then held short of RWY 5 in LUP as an aircraft was on short final. Aircraft landed; back taxied and parked. He then made the call on CTAF that we would be taking RWY 5 for a left downwind departure back to ZZZ and would be starting a back taxi. We then reached the approach end of RWY 5 and then began takeoff. As we rotated and climbed through 200ft AGL; a military transport on our iPad ADSB with a traffic warning. They weren't on ADSB when I had checked and cleared the area of traffic nor were they advising on CTAF that they would be overflying the field at any altitude. They were at 500ft AGL. I would estimate that they were 2-3 miles or less from the field at a high rate of speed (250kts+). If we were to remain on our current flightpath; I have no doubt in my mind that a mid-air collision with the military transport was inevitable. Captain quickly took controls from me; pulled the power back; and dove the plane down and back towards the airport; leveling off at 200ft AGL over the water. At the closest I had seen on the iPad; I would estimate that the military transport was 1/4 miles or less horizontal separation and 100ft or less vertical separation from collision. As I leveled off at 200ft AGL and followed the shoreline westbound; the Captain made repeated calls on CTAF in an attempt to hail the military transport if they were on CTAF. I had no communication from the military transport before; during; or after the incident. Captain and I assessed the situation; climbed back to 4500ft; setup the aircraft for cruise and continued the flight home to ZZZ. Captain then contacted HCF center to get flight following and then over to HCF approach for arrival into ZZZ. On approach; we advised them as to what had happened and gave a detailed report to the controller. They then said they handed off the information to the supervisor on duty. We then got cleared into ZZZ via the ZZZZZ arrival and landed on XX without any further incident; taxied the plane into the ramp and shutdown for the day.
[Report narrative provided no additional information.]
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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