Does "narrowly avoiding" something always imply an action was taken?

To avoid is:

to keep out of the way of

That doesn't necessarily require an action. In fact it almost implies a lack of action - the dictionary talks about keeping out of the way of something, but not getting out of the way of something. This contradicts my own personal usage of "to avoid", so I'm not sure a dictionary is actually the best reference for this. I am hence going to rely on my own personal usage:

• I would be happy to use avoid to mean "getting out of the way of something". This would definitely constitute an action. e.g.:

I avoided being hit by the car by jumping inside a shop doorway.

• I would be happy to use avoid to mean "keeping out of the way of something" provided that the "keeping" is deliberate. e.g.:

I normally see Angela on my walk home. Yesterday I didn't want to see anyone I know as I was having a bad hair day, so I avoided Angela by walking a different route.

• I would not be happy to use avoid to mean "keeping out of the way of something accidentally". e.g.:

Incorrect: I normally see Angela on my walk home. Yesterday I didn't see her, maybe I avoided her because she took a different route or walked at a different time.

Correct: I normally see Angela on my walk home. Yesterday I didn't see her, maybe I missed her because she took a different route or walked at a different time.

"Narrowly" is an adverb modifying avoid, it makes no difference to whether to avoid requires a conscious act or not.

In summary: if the skier was oblivious, and made no manoeuvres which took him out of the path of the drone, I do not believe he narrowly avoided being hit by the drone, but I do believe he narrowly missed being hit by the drone.

No, narrowly avoiding doesn't have to be a conscious act.

From the Free Dictionary:

narrowly: just, barely, only just, scarcely, by the narrowest of margins, by the skin of your teeth, by a whisker or hair's-breadth

Nothing about intent or conscious decisions.

Similarly, "avoid" doesn't always imply a conscious act: the phrase "unintentionally avoid" is well known to Google.

While "avoid" has more than one definition, one that means to passively keep one's self away from something, ("one should avoid overeating during the holidays") the other, to take action to keep something from happening (like "avoiding the chatty neighbor in the grocery story"), the expression "narrowly avoid" implies the active form of "avoid", in my experience and usage of the expression.

In my opinion, the skier did not narrowly avoid being hit by the drone, on the contrary, the drone, through sheer coincidence, narrowly avoided hitting the skier.