Two Amazon Prime Air MK30 delivery drones strike crane in Tolleson

What happened

On October 1, 2025, a 275-ton mobile crane was working on a building in a commercial area near 96th Avenue and Roosevelt Street in Tolleson, a suburb west of Phoenix. According to the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report, the crane arrived at about 5:30 a.m. and was erected between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m., with its boom extended to roughly 197 feet above the ground.

Amazon’s Prime Air delivery center is about 1.25 miles to the southwest. Flight data shows one MK30 drone left the center at about 9:47 a.m., climbed to its planned cruising height of about 200 feet above the ground and turned east. Its data recording ended at 9:49 a.m. about 150 feet west of the crane. The crane operator felt an impact at that time. The operator stopped work and was assessing what had happened when a second drone, following the same route, struck the now-stationary boom. The impacts were estimated at 150 to 165 feet above the ground.

Both drones fell into nearby parking lots with fuselage and wing damage. A battery thrown from one of them caught fire, and a hazardous-materials team responded. The crane had paint marks from the drones but no structural damage. No one was injured.

The system involved

The MK30 is Amazon’s autonomous electric delivery drone. The two aircraft, registered N579PA and N791PA, were on non-scheduled cargo flights under Part 135 and an FAA exemption that allows Amazon’s delivery operation. Amazon had been delivering by drone in the Tolleson area since November 2024.

The NTSB’s preliminary report says Amazon’s ground surveillance crews normally scan the surrounding area from a rooftop twice a day, in the morning and around midday, to look for new obstructions. On the day of the collision the morning scan was done at about 6:58 a.m. and found nothing that would interfere with flights.

Investigation and response

The FAA and the NTSB both opened investigations. Tolleson police and Amazon staff went to the scene. Amazon suspended deliveries in the area on October 2 and said it planned to restart on October 3.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company’s internal review left it confident there was no issue with the drones or their supporting technology, and that it had added enhanced visual inspections of the landscape to watch for moving obstructions such as cranes. The NTSB’s preliminary report, released later in October 2025, set out the timeline above but did not assign a cause.

What is not established

A final NTSB report with a probable cause was not found when this entry was researched. The material reviewed does not explain why the drones did not detect and avoid the crane boom.