Amazon grounds drone deliveries in Arizona after crash • The Register
Amazon has grounded its drone fleet in Arizona after two of the airborne delivery vehicles crashed on Wednesday.
The accident occurred at around 1600 UTC on Wednesday over the city of Tolleson, the Federal Aviation Administration told The Register, after two of Amazon’s Prime Air delivery drones hit the boom of a crane. Both suffered heavy damage, and presumably, there are a couple of peeved Amazon customers out there still waiting for their goods.
The crash didn’t injure anyone, and the agency confirmed it is investigating the incident. The National Transportation Safety Board is also looking into it, and told El Reg it would have a preliminary report within 30 days.
Amazon suspended all flights over Tolleson while looking into the incident, but they’re expected to resume on Friday, a company spokesperson told us.
“Safety is our top priority, and we’ve completed our own internal review of this incident and are confident that there wasn’t an issue with the drones or the technology that supports them. Nonetheless, we’ve introduced additional processes like enhanced visual landscape inspections to better monitor for moving obstructions such as cranes,” the spokesperson said.
Amazon started its drone-delivery service in Tolleson less than a year ago, and this is the first time a dual-drone crash has occurred. The online souk wanted the drones to be capable of delivering an order within an hour of someone hitting the buy button and it has been trialing that system in Texas and Arizona, as well as in Europe.
Police are reportedly investigating the incident, and Amazon technicians also turned up at the crash scene, local media said.
The MK30, for when you just can’t wait – Click to enlarge
The drones involved in the crash were Amazon’s MK30 models, which were cleared for takeoff in 2023. The drone uses six propellers and can carry up to five pounds of payload, with an operational radius of about 7.5 miles.
The drones use onboard vision systems to locate that spot and, according to Amazon, they also rely on “advanced machine learning algorithms trained to accurately identify objects like humans, animals, obstacles, and other aircraft.” But not cranes, apparently.
The practical uses of Prime Air are somewhat limited. The drones can deliver within an hour – albeit within a very limited range – but who really needs that kind of delivery speed? The most popular item for air delivery is AA batteries, Amazon said.
Prime Air is also somewhat geographically limited, in that customers have to have space for the drone to land. In addition, flight authorities will have to be convinced such flights are safe, and incidents like this won’t help much. ®
