By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration said on Thursday they would investigate the collisions of two Amazon Prime Air delivery drones with the boom of a crane in Tolleson, Arizona, a day earlier.
Amazon began drone deliveries in the Phoenix metro area’s West Valley from its same-day site in Tolleson in November 2024, allowing customers to purchase an eligible item weighing 5 pounds (2.3 kg) or less and receive it by drone in under an hour.
The online retailer, which paused drone deliveries in Arizona on Thursday, said they would resume on Friday.
“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,” Amazon spokesperson Terrence Clark said.
“Nonetheless, we’ve introduced additional processes like enhanced visual landscape inspections to better monitor for moving obstructions such as cranes,” he added.
Amazon has a goal of delivering 500 million packages annually by drone by the end of 2030.
In 2023, it began delivering prescription medications by drone in partnership with Amazon Pharmacy to customers in College Station, Texas.
In August, the U.S. Transportation Department proposed new rules to speed deployment of drones beyond the visual line of sight of operators, a key change needed to advance commercial uses like package deliveries.
“It’s going to change the way that people and products move throughout our airspace… so you may change the way you get your Amazon package, you may get a Starbucks cup of coffee from a drone,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at the time.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Jamie Freed)
