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Amazon will resume Prime Air drone deliveries in Arizona on Friday, even as U.S. authorities continue to investigate a recent incident in the Phoenix area. The Federal Aviation Administration (the U.S. civil aviation regulator) and the National Transportation Safety Bureau, or NTSB (the U.S. accident investigator), have opened inquiries into what the company and local reports describe as a collision involving two delivery drones and a construction crane outside Phoenix on Wednesday. No injuries were reported, though police said one person on the scene was evaluated for possible smoke inhalation.
Following the mid-air contact with a crane boom—described by one reporter as causing “substantial” damage—Amazon temporarily paused the service in the West Valley of Phoenix, including Tolleson.
The company completed an internal review and says it has introduced enhanced visual inspections to better monitor potential obstacles before flights, a step it frames as part of a broader safety commitment as operations restart.
Prime Air, launched in November 2024, is central to Amazon’s plan to use small autonomous aircraft to carry lightweight packages to customers.
The company is still rolling the program out in only a handful of U.S. cities and aims to scale to 500 million annual deliveries by the end of the decade. Earlier this year, Amazon paused drone deliveries in two cities in Arizona and Texas after a crash at its Oregon test site, then resumed service once a software issue was addressed.
The resumption comes as Amazon and rivals such as Walmart and Uber look to expand drone delivery, betting that low-altitude air routes can speed up last-mile logistics.
For now, the restart in Arizona under active federal probes underscores how operators are trying to keep services running while they work through safety checks and regulatory oversight.
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