FAA probes Amazon after delivery drone snaps internet cable in Texas
Trucks are parked outside an Amazon facility at AllianceTexas, a 27,000 acre business complex boasting some of the country's largest freight operations, in Texas, U.S., May 18, 2022. REUTERS/Cooper Neill
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Tuesday it is probing Amazon after one of its delivery drones downed an internet cable in central Texas last week.
"A MK30 drone struck a wire line in Waco, Texas, around 12:45 p.m. local time on Tuesday, November 18," the regulator said in a statement to Reuters, adding that it "is investigating" this incident.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the agency is not investigating the incident.
On November 18, after completing a delivery, a drone clipped a thin, overhead internet cable then performed a "Safe Contingent Landing," as designed, an Amazon spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed response, adding that "there were no injuries or widespread internet service outages."
Video footage reviewed by CNBC, which first reported the incident, showed one of Amazon's MK30 drones ascending from a customer's yard when one of its six propellers became entangled in a utility line. The drone's motors subsequently shut down, resulting in a controlled descent.
This comes after the NTSB and FAA said in October that they would investigate a separate incident in which two Amazon Prime Air drones collided with a crane boom in Arizona.
Amazon began delivering prescription medications by drones in partnership with Amazon Pharmacy to customers in College Station, Texas in 2023.
The e-commerce firm aims to deliver 500 million packages annually by drone by the end of 2030.
