Section 107.9 is titled safety event reporting. Remote pilots still call it accident reporting. The trigger is narrow, the clock is calendar days, and the drone's own wreckage is excluded from the property threshold. Those three details are the question.
What must be reported
No later than 10 calendar days after an operation that meets either trigger, the remote pilot in command must report to the FAA, in a manner acceptable to the Administrator, any operation of the small unmanned aircraft involving at least:
- serious injury to any person, or any loss of consciousness, or
- damage to any property, other than the small unmanned aircraft, unless the cost of repair (including materials and labor) does not exceed $500, or the fair market value of the property does not exceed $500 in the event of total loss.
Either trigger is enough. You do not need both.
The clock is 10 calendar days, not 10 business days, not 48 hours, and not "immediately in writing." There is no unpopulated-area exemption in the section.
The drone itself does not count as the property
If a gust destroys a $3,800 aircraft in an empty field, no person is hurt, and nothing else is damaged, §107.9 does not require a report. The $500 figure applies to property other than the small unmanned aircraft. The cost of replacing your own drone, however large, is not the threshold. That feels backward and it is the point of the question.
If the same aircraft hits a parked car, read both triggers. A repair estimate of $450 is under $500, so the property trigger is not met. If a bystander loses consciousness, even for a moment, and then refuses medical care, the injury trigger is met. Loss of consciousness is listed alongside serious injury. You report within 10 calendar days because of the blackout, not because of the car, and not because an insurer opened a claim.
Stop the flight when the aircraft is unsafe
Section 107.15 is the companion rule. No person may operate the small unmanned aircraft system unless it is in a condition for safe operation. That includes inspecting it before flight and, during flight, discontinuing the operation if you know or have reason to know it is no longer safe. An intermittent motor fault is that moment. You do not finish the real-estate shot. The report, if a trigger was met, is separate from the decision to land. A 30-day mandatory grounding period is not in §107.9 or §107.15.
Who reports, and what this is not
The remote pilot in command makes the report. Designating someone else as "RPIC for the paperwork" after a crash does not satisfy §107.19. The person who was actually designated and responsible during the flight owns the duty.
The section heading changed to safety event reporting on December 9, 2022. Older books still say accident reporting. The duty did not become optional under the new title. Distractors on this item include an immediate NTSB report, a 30-day window, and a clock that counts only business days. None of those is in §107.9. Weekends and holidays sit inside the 10 calendar days, so a Friday crash does not wait for a second Monday.
A roof inspection that ends in a $1,400 skylight is a report. The glass is property other than the aircraft, and the repair is over $500. The same gust that only breaks the aircraft, with no injury and no other property loss, is not. Write down the date of the operation when it happens. A repair estimate can arrive later. The 10 days do not start when the invoice does.
This report is not an insurance form and not an NTSB form you invent thresholds for. Use the FAA method the Administrator has specified for Part 107 safety events, and keep the 10-calendar-day date from the operation, not from the day the repair estimate arrives.
Preflight is how you reduce the chance you ever use this rule. Section 107.49 requires you to assess weather, airspace, people, and ground hazards before flight. Those checks are the NOTAM and weather pages. They do not replace the report if a qualifying event still happens.