For a U.S. flight under Part 107, the remote pilot in command must report a qualifying drone accident to the FAA no later than 10 calendar days after the operation. Reporting is required for serious injury, any loss of consciousness, or damage to property other than the small unmanned aircraft above the rule's $500 threshold. Submit through the FAA's DroneZone reporting service or contact the nearest Flight Standards District Office.
Check the National Transportation Safety Board's requirements separately: some events require immediate NTSB notification, even when the FAA's property-damage test is not met. The two agencies have different triggers and reporting processes.
On This Page
- Decide whether the FAA report is required
- Confirm which rules governed the flight
- File through the FAA reporting route
- Check NTSB notification
- Preserve the record before flying again
Decide whether the FAA report is required
14 CFR 107.9 is titled “Safety event reporting.” The duty belongs to the remote pilot in command, or RPIC, rather than automatically to the aircraft owner or whoever happened to be holding the controller. Assess injuries and property damage independently; either can trigger the report.
For damage to other property, the regulation provides an exception when repair costs, including materials and labor, do not exceed $500. For a total loss, the exception applies when the property's fair market value does not exceed $500. Exactly $500 is within the property-damage exception. A serious injury or loss of consciousness still requires reporting regardless of repair cost.
The following are hypothetical examples applying that rule, with no additional injury or damage beyond what each row states.
| Event during a Part 107 operation | FAA report under § 107.9? | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Only the drone is damaged | No, on those facts alone | The small unmanned aircraft itself is excluded from the property-damage test |
| A window needs $500 in repairs, including labor | No, on those facts alone | Repair cost does not exceed $500 |
| A window needs $650 in repairs | Yes | Repair cost exceeds $500 |
| Other property is a total loss with a $450 fair market value | No, on those facts alone | Total-loss value does not exceed $500 |
| A person briefly loses consciousness, with no property damage | Yes | Any loss of consciousness is a separate trigger |
Source basis: § 107.9, checked September 9, 2026. These examples address that FAA rule only; they do not decide NTSB notification or other applicable duties.
Do not substitute the price of a new replacement for the fair market value of a used item that was destroyed. Obtain a written repair estimate or a documented valuation, and keep the basis with the event record. The rule excludes the aircraft, not all property owned by the pilot or operator.
What counts as serious injury?
The FAA's AC 107-2A, section 4.4 explains its serious-injury threshold using Level 3 or higher on the Abbreviated Injury Scale, a medical injury-severity scale. Do not try to settle a borderline injury classification from a photograph or from whether someone initially declined treatment. Seek the treating clinician's assessment and contact the FAA promptly when the reporting decision is uncertain.
Record a loss of consciousness separately. It does not have to meet an additional injury-severity or property-value threshold to trigger § 107.9.
Confirm which rules governed the flight
The ten-day requirement above applies to Part 107 operations. A Remote Pilot Certificate in your wallet does not, by itself, establish which operating rules governed a particular flight.
The FAA Aeronautical Information Manual, section 11-8-4 distinguishes three situations:
- Part 107: Apply § 107.9 and any additional applicable approval conditions.
- Fully compliant recreational operations under 49 USC 44809: The FAA says these flyers are not required to report crashes to the FAA under that framework. NTSB reporting can still apply.
- Part 91 civil or public operations: Read the incident and accident provisions in the applicable certificate of waiver or authorization, commonly called a COA. Do not assume the Part 107 threshold satisfies those terms.
An emergency deviation is also a separate issue. Under § 107.21, an RPIC who deviates from a Part 107 rule to address an in-flight emergency must send the FAA a written deviation report if the Administrator requests one. That conditional report does not replace a qualifying safety-event report under § 107.9.
File through the FAA's official reporting route
The FAA's accident-report submission instructions link to FAADroneZone and identify the nearest Flight Standards District Office, or FSDO, as another reporting route. Use that official page to reach the current service and office directory.
- Identify the RPIC and operation. Confirm the aircraft registration and the operating authority for the flight.
- Open the Part 107 reporting service in DroneZone. Follow the current safety-event or accident-report prompts. Portal labels can change; use the FAA's linked service rather than relying on an old screenshot.
- Enter the known facts. Describe the sequence, injury or consciousness loss, and damage. Distinguish confirmed information from estimates and matters still unknown.
- Submit within the deadline and retain the result. Keep the submitted report and any confirmation or reference provided. A saved draft is not proof of submission.
- Use the FSDO route if access prevents filing. Contact the office before the deadline and request instructions for making the report. Do not assume a login problem extends the regulatory reporting window.
AC 107-2A, section 4.4.1, identifies the information the report should contain:
- RPIC name, contact details, and FAA airman certificate number.
- Aircraft FAA registration number.
- Accident location, date, and local time.
- Whether serious injury or a fatality occurred; also describe any loss of consciousness.
- Property damaged and the known extent of damage.
- A factual description of what happened.
Add the time zone to avoid ambiguity. If a repair estimate or medical detail is pending, identify it as pending and ask the receiving FAA office how to provide the update. Do not delay a report you already know is required while trying to finish an internal investigation.
Check the separate NTSB notification requirement
49 CFR Part 830 uses its own accident and serious-incident definitions. Under § 830.2, an unmanned-aircraft accident covers the period from system activation for flight through deactivation at the mission's conclusion, when an occurrence causes death or serious injury, or substantial damage to an aircraft that holds an airworthiness certificate. The current aircraft-damage test is airworthiness-certificate status, not the obsolete 300-pound threshold found in older material.
Part 830 defines serious injury separately, including specified hospitalization, fractures, tissue or organ injuries, and burns. Do not use the FAA's advisory injury explanation as a substitute for the NTSB definition.
Section 830.5 also lists serious incidents requiring immediate notification, such as a flight-control-system malfunction or failure, an in-flight fire, and an aircraft collision in flight. It includes damage to other property estimated to exceed $25,000, using repair cost including materials and labor or fair market value in a total loss, whichever is less. Review the full list after a malfunction; “no one was hurt” does not resolve the notification question.
For a reportable event, the operator must notify the NTSB immediately by the fastest available means. Part 830 defines the operator as the person who causes or authorizes the operation, which may be the owner or lessee. Its aircraft accident reporting page gives the 24-hour Response Operations Center number: 844-373-9922. Provide the known aircraft, operator, pilot, event, location, injury, weather, and damage information. Call even if some details remain unavailable.
Immediate notification and the later written report are separate steps. Section 830.15 sets a ten-day written accident-report requirement and a seven-day provision for an overdue aircraft still missing; written reports of listed incidents are required when requested. The NTSB's current process says to complete Form 6120.1 after an investigator contacts you and provides submission instructions. Raise any approaching deadline with the Response Operations Center if investigator contact has not occurred.
Preserve the record and resolve the cause before flying again
First obtain emergency help and protect people from remaining hazards. Where NTSB notification is required, § 830.10 requires preservation of wreckage and relevant existing records to the extent possible. Before the Board takes custody, moving wreckage is limited to removing injured or trapped people, protecting the wreckage, or protecting the public. If movement is necessary, document the original positions and condition when possible, and seek the investigator's instructions about recovery.
For the working event file, preserve original flight logs, controller data, photographs, videos, witness details, estimates, and the reports sent to each agency. Use copies for analysis. Record later corrections without overwriting the original account. Part 830's preservation duties may prevent routine deletion; § 107.9 itself does not prescribe one universal retention period for a submitted FAA report.
Our guide to required versus recommended Part 107 flight records explains how to separate regulatory records from a program's own documentation practices.
An FAA submission is not a determination that the aircraft is safe to fly. Section 107.15 requires a safe-condition check before each flight. Resolve damage or unexplained behavior using the applicable aircraft instructions, subject to any preservation hold. Then revisit the drone risk assessment if an operating assumption or control failed, and use the commercial drone preflight checklist for the next proposed launch.
Keep two explicit decisions in the event file: whether the FAA reporting trigger was met, and whether immediate NTSB notification was required. Assign responsibility for each submission and retain its record. This prevents a completed DroneZone form from being mistaken for completion of every reporting duty.
Sources
- 14 CFR Part 107: regulatory text for safety-event reporting, safe aircraft condition, and emergency-deviation reports, particularly §§ 107.9, 107.15, and 107.21.
- FAA AC 107-2A: advisory guidance on injury assessment and FAA report contents in §§ 4.4 and 4.4.1. Its older NTSB weight-based wording in § 4.4.2 has been superseded by current Part 830.
- FAA accident-report submission instructions: current official links to DroneZone and the alternative FSDO reporting route.
- FAA Aeronautical Information Manual, section 11-8: guidance distinguishing Part 107, recreational, and Part 91 reporting responsibilities.
- 49 CFR Part 830: NTSB definitions, immediate notification, evidence preservation, and written reports.
- NTSB aircraft accident reporting instructions: initial telephone notification and investigator-directed Form 6120.1 submission.
Last checked: September 9, 2026. Reporting interfaces, agency instructions, and regulations can change. Recheck the linked current rules and official reporting instructions when an event occurs.