Facepalm: Amazon took down the internet again, but this time it wasn’t an AWS error. One of the retail giant’s drones severed an internet cable in Waco, Texas, last week, and the FAA is investigating the incident.
On November 18 at around 12.45pm, an Amazon MK30 drone got caught on a hanging overhead internet cable. As the video of the incident shows (below), the drone then severed the thin cable when it tried to fly away.
Amazon later said that the drone had just completed a delivery when it clipped the cable, which triggered a safe contingent landing – a built-in safety feature that causes the drone to land immediately in unexpected situations.
Amazon said that there were no injuries or “widespread” interruption to internet services as a result of the incident. It added that it had paid for the cable line to be repaired and apologized to the customer. The company suggested that the collision was due to the cable being so thin – the drone didn’t recognize it when taking off.
While Amazon is trying to downplay the whole thing, it still reported the incident to the FAA, which is investigating what happened. The company hasn’t received any follow-up inquiries, but that doesn’t mean it has avoided another federal probe.
Federal investigators opened a probe into Amazon last month after two of its MK30 drones crashed into a crane in Arizona, resulting in heavy damage and a fire. There was “substantial” damage to the two 80-pound drones, but no injuries. Amazon decided to suspend all drone deliveries in the West Valley Phoenix Metro area for two days following the crash while it conducted an internal review.
Amazon says its Prime Air engineering team spent nearly two years developing the MK30. The drones use sense and avoid technology that allows them to detect and avoid obstacles including people, pets, and property – it’s unclear how two of them managed to hit a crane.
Amazon also boasts that the drones have innovative safety-critical features, are quieter than previous models, and can fly twice as far. The company asks customers to maintain “about 10 feet of open space” on their property so drones can complete deliveries.
