WACO, Texas — Federal aviation regulators have launched an investigation into Amazon’s Prime Air drone program following a November 18 delivery flight cut short by one of the company’s MK30 aircraft, which severed an overhead internet cable in central Texas. The Amazon drone had just completed its drop-off when its propeller became caught in the line, triggering an emergency landing protocol, federal officials and the company said, Nov. 26, 2025.
Amazon drone crashes in Waco, re-igniting safety debate.
An MK30 delivery drone “struck a wire line” over Murfreesboro Road, a residential street, around 12:45 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement to Reuters. The collision brought down an internet cable but led to no reported injuries. The Amazon drone, the company said, performed a “Safe Contingent Landing” by turning off its motors and descending as one of its six rotors got stuck in the cable over this city of about 140,000.
A video reviewed by CNBC shows the Amazon drone rising from a customer’s yard before hitting a thin overhead wire, an event also reported by tech site TechBuzz. Amazon said it has apologised to the customer and covered the repairs, while working with the FAA on a review. The National Transportation Safety Board said it was aware of the incident but had not initiated its own investigation, according to reports in The Straits Times and other outlets.
Internet providers in the area reported only short-term or localised disruption, but the strike is among the first publicly disclosed incidents in which a large commercial delivery drone has caused damage to vital communications infrastructure in the United States.
Amazon drone incident pattern raises questions.
The Waco incident comes weeks after federal investigators began investigating a separate incident in which two of the company’s drones collided with a construction crane in Tolleson, Arizona, suspending flights in that suburb west of Phoenix for some time, according to a PREVIOUS Reuters report.
Late last year, it suspended drone deliveries of Prime Air in College Station, Texas and Tolleson to update software for its new MK30 model after test drones experienced crashes on location at a site in Pendleton, Oregon, under rainy conditions, including one crash that led to a fire, as reported by the Houston Chronicle and other outlets.
The company’s testing program in Oregon has previously drawn scrutiny: an earlier crash of a separate Amazon drone model caused an acre-wide field fire, according to an F.A.A. report described by Business Insider.
Against that backdrop, safety advocates say the Waco cable strike illustrates how quickly mundane package flights can intersect with power, telecom and other low-level infrastructure as Amazon’s drone operations move beyond occasional test ranges into denser neighbourhoods.
What the FAA investigation means for Amazon’s future drone deliveries
Amazon has pursued its vision of near-instant aerial delivery for more than a decade, launching a limited commercial service in College Station and Lockeford, California, in 2022, followed by expansion to Phoenix’s West Valley and other U.S. cities. The company’s latest MK30 plane recently received FAA approval to fly beyond visual line of sight in some markets, a crucial step toward scaling up operations.
The Prime Air program has faced layoffs, regulatory delays, and repeated technical setbacks, according to recent coverage by The Finance 360, but executives say they aim to deliver 500 million packages a year by the end of the decade.
In Waco, the F.A.A. investigation might result in altered operating conditions for Amazon drone flights — such as greater separation from overhead utility lines, different rules about how close to a route companies can plan and fly their drones, or expectations that companies quickly alert local officials in the event of an accident. In the meantime, Amazon says the Prime Air service continues as it works with regulators to determine what happened.
Residents and local officials, meanwhile, are considering the convenience of near-instant deliveries — as well as the risks of low-flying robots flying over their streets. The Waco incident offers both regulators and the public an early, physical test of how safely drones from Amazon can navigate a sky filled with ordinary infrastructure — and of how promptly the system reacts when something goes wrong.
