--- title: "An Amazon Delivery Drone Crashed and Caused a Large Fire" description: "Insider reports that last summer, an experimental Amazon drone crashed in Oregon and caused a large fire that consumed several acres." date: "2022-03-25" modified: "2022-03-25" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/amazon-drone-crashed-fire" categories: - "Drones" - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "Amazon" - "drone delivery" - "fire" - "the digest" --- # An Amazon Delivery Drone Crashed and Caused a Large Fire ![Insider reports that last summer, an experimental Amazon delivery drone crashed in Oregon and caused a large fire that consumed several acres.]() *\Image: Getty\* ## Amazon Air Over the past few years, retail megacorporation Amazon has been [investing serious resources]() into technology that it hopes will one day reliably deliver goods to consumers via flying drones. But the program, dubbed Amazon Air, has had a rough road so far. Case in point, [*Insider* reported this week]() that last summer in Oregon, one of the company's experimental delivery drones suffered a failure at 160 feet and crashed down to the ground, where it burst into flames and caused an "acres-wide" fire. According to a Federal Aviation Administration report obtained by the site, there exists video showing the drone plummeting to earth and sparking up "several acres of wheat stubble" — an unfortunate incident, but also one that illustrates the potential pitfalls of the much-hyped concept of widespread drone deliver if it ever starts to operate at a meaningful scale. ## Sorry Folks Amazon issued an extremely lengthy statement about the incident to *Insider*. "Prime Air's number one priority is safety," it read in part. "We conduct extensive testing to gather data that continually improves the safety and reliability of our systems and operations. During these tests our drones fly over sterile ranges to ensure our employees are safe from potential injury." "We follow thorough procedures on how flight tests are conducted and how we respond to any incident. In this instance, we carried out a test with the utmost caution, as is normal in the aviation industry," it continued. "No employee or community member was at risk and the team followed all appropriate safety procedures and reporting requirements." It's unclear where the accident leaves the Amazon Air program. *Insider*, for instance, pointed to [previous reporting]() showing that the program had exceptionally high employee turnover — leaving open the possibility that for now, the concept of successful, safe, and widespread drone delivery remains technologically or logistically unfeasible. **More on Amazon:** *[Amazon Is Quietly Researching How to Block Out the Sun]()* ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()