Amazon's drones won't be making any deliveries in the foreseeable future. According to BloombergThe company has paused all commercial drone deliveries in Texas and Arizona after an undisclosed incident in which two of Amazon's MK30 drones crashed at the Pendleton, Oregon airport it uses for in the test. MK30 is the company's next-gen drone model, which is lighter and has a longer range than its predecessor, the MK27. The incidents occurred in December, where one of the drones even caught fire after it fell. Amazon reportedly determined that its drones crashed due to a software issue related to light rain at the time the tests were conducted.
The company said, however, that crashes are not the “main reason” it is halting its drone deliveries. Amazon spokesman Sam Stephenson said Bloomberg that it is “currently in the process of making software changes to the drone” and that the operational pause is voluntary. After the updates are complete, Amazon still needs to get approval from the Federal Aviation Administration before it can resume operations. “Employees at the drone sites, who were told of the action on Friday, will continue to be paid during the pause,” Stephenson added.
In addition to the December crashes, two MK30 drones collided in another test a few months earlier. Stephenson explained that Amazon expects to see incidents like this during testing and that they help the company improve the safety of the service. Amazon has been sending non-medical shipments via drones in Texas since 2022 adding a prescription drug a year later. In 2024, Amazon stopped drone deliveries in California, but this too launched the service in Phoenix, Arizona.
