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).
Synopsis
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.
Second reporter narrative
A contributing factor was that normally we would monitor VHF Guard 121.5 but our radios had a problem with the volume stuck full high so that we could not hear each other talk so we deselected Comm One.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.