Date: 201502
Local time of day: 1201-1800
Location: ZMA.ARTCC, FL
Light: Daylight
Aircraft: Medium Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Flight plan: IFR
Flight phase: Climb
Airspace: Class A ZMA
ATC / advisory: Center ZMA
Second aircraft: UAV - Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle
Reporter organization: Government
Reporter function: Enroute
Reporter qualification: Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Human factors: Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Situational Awareness; Time Pressure
Anomaly: Airspace Violation All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: In-flight
Contributing factors: Aircraft; Procedure
Primary problem: Aircraft

Narrative: I was working sector 21/01 by myself.  It was a very slow period.  Aircraft X who was at the time direct PERMT climbing to his requested final altitude keys up asking if there was any known drone activity in the area.  The pilot sounded very shaken up.  I said not that I was aware of and called my Supervisor over to verify.  My Supervisor calls the DEN [Domestic Event Network] to confirm and the OM came down asking for the pilot to give as much detail of the drone as the pilot could remember. Aircraft X informed us that he saw the suspected drone when he was climbing out of FL250.  He said the drone was southbound; large; and moving rapidly.  Aircraft X also determined the drone to be white with wings.  There was never a primary target observed on the radar scope.  I then asked my Supervisor what steps I should follow concerning the drone and he said nothing else was required.  I didn't feel comfortable with this and knew the sector to the west of mine works a lot of Miami arrival traffic descending in that area so I called to inform them and also continued to call the last known position altitude and direction of flight of the drone until I had several aircraft report not seeing it. When asked if I needed to fill out any reports my supervisor told me no.  Also when I asked for how long I should call the drone and if the supervisor reported it to the Carr area since the drone was last reported southbound and that would be the next area it would violate if still on that heading the supervisor reported no since we did not know where the drone was.  In my opinion that would be the exact reason why we would want to inform the aircraft and other controllers in the vicinity so that the pilots could be more diligent scanning their surroundings. It was suspected that the occurrence was military based on the altitude and position so far from land of the drone.  I wasn't made privy if that was in fact what happened.  But if so I hope the military would be more diligent in keeping us informed of possible drone activity especially in a position where we have dense traffic periods.  Also I believe we need to have better standard procedures in place for dealing with an unmanned aircraft as far as what the pilot needs to report and if we need to call other sectors or inform other pilots in the area.




Synopsis: ZMA Controller while working a combined position is asked by a pilot of any known drone activity in the area. Pilot reports to Controller of observing a drone. Controller advises superiors and wonders what to do next.