One of Amazon’s MK30 drones, the company’s latest-and-greatest model, downed an internet cable in Waco, Texas, earlier this month, bringing on a probe from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
“An MK30 drone struck a wire line in Waco, Texas, around 12:45 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Nov. 18. The FAA is investigating,” the FAA said in an emailed statement.
A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the agency will not investigate the incident.
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Amazon uses drones to deliver small parcels in a number of regions across the U.S., and the company has been adamant about further expansion in recent months. The company shuttered its initial Prime Air site in Lockeford, California, in 2024, but has continued operations in College Station, Texas, and Tolleson, Arizona, with more recent expansions into areas like Kansas City, Missouri, San Antonio Texas, and Ruskin, Florida.
Drone delivery in Waco only came online early in November, according to an Amazon Facebook post.
Video reviewed and posted by CNBC, which first reported the incident and the subsequent investigation, shows that, after dropping off the parcel it had been delivering, an Amazon drone ascended, becoming tangled in an internet cable. The video shows the six-propeller drone struggling to free itself from the wire, causing the wire to snap. The drone then slowly lands on the ground.
Amazon spokesperson Terrence Clark said the drone “performed a Safe Contingent Landing, as designed.”
On its site, Amazon calls an SCL its “way of being prepared for the unexpected.”
Clark said the drone’s entanglement did not cause any serious issues in the Waco region.
“There were no injuries or widespread internet service outages. We’ve paid for the cable line’s repair for the customer and have apologized for the inconvenience this caused them,” Clark said in a written statement.
Amazon self-reported the incident in Waco to federal authorities.
“We have clear reporting protocols and open communication with regulators whenever a landing happens outside the planned delivery path,” the company wrote in a blog about its SCL procedures.
Amazon has set its sights on delivering 500 million parcels by drone by 2030. Progress toward that goal has been slow going.
The incident in Waco comes on the heels of a drone-crane crash in Tolleson, which is just outside of Phoenix, in early October. Two Amazon drones collided with a crane outside a distribution center, causing serious damage to both drones and triggering investigations from both the FAA and the NTSB.
Earlier this year, the company voluntarily paused operations for its drones in Tolleson and College Station while it made software upgrades to the MK30.
Amazon has permission to fly its MK30 drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), which means that they can fly without an operator being able to see them.
Clark declined to comment on whether the company has any concerns that its BVLOS eligibility will be impacted by the collisions in Tolleson and the wire-cutting issue in Waco. The FAA did not provide comment on Amazon’s BVLOS permissions.
