Originally Posted by
verticalspin
They wouldn't send up drones sniffing in the world's busiest airspace without any NOTAMs or TFRs. The risk of a mid air between a drone and a helicopter would be way too high. Also, that's what NEST is for. They operate AW139s with all that sort of equipment. HeliOps has a story about them in their latest issue.
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The 2 NEST helicopters are primarily used for target monitoring/protection for large-scale NSSEs like the Super Bowl, etc. When an area search is needed, protracted monitoring, or for high exposure/risk (God forbid), drones cover greater area far more efficiently than a helicopter. It is also hard to hide helicopter/KA350ER aircraft from the public for sensitive and covert operations-imagine the panic if the public learned of a large-scale nuclear radiation detection operation. NOTAMs? Seriously.