Amazon suspends drone deliveries after test accidents

According to Bloomberg, an incident occurred last month while the latest MK30 drone models were being tested at a test site in Pendleton, Oregon.

Two drones collided while flying in the rain, after which one of them caught fire on the ground. During the investigation, the company discovered that the failure was due to a software problem.

The problem occurred because a plane flew over the drones in light rain. At the same time, Amazon spokesperson Sam Stevenson explained that the Pendleton incident is not the “main reason” for the pause in deliveries. But he didn’t talk about the problems that should be fixed by updating the software.

“We are currently making changes to the drone software and are voluntarily suspending our commercial operations,” Stevenson said.

The MK30 is a new delivery drone model from Amazon. As the developers explain, it is lighter and quieter than its MK27-2 predecessor and is also capable of flying in light rain.

In October 2023, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorized the delivery of goods to customers using MK30 drones in select areas of Texas and Arizona.

Delivery will resume once the FAA completes and approves the updates, Stevenson said.

Amazon’s Prime Air drone delivery program aims to reach 500 million deliveries per year by the end of this decade. However, this is not the first time that Prime Air has faced difficulties since its launch in 2022.

Another recent incident occurred in September 2023: drone operational tests when one of the propellers failed caused a mid-air collision between two drones.