An Amazon Prime Air MK30 delivery drone made a precautionary landing on a patch of dry grass at a workplace in Waco, Texas. Danny Bishop, who works there, posted three photos of it to Facebook on Monday, September 21, and wrote that Amazon sent a chase truck to rescue the aircraft, which he said is “expected to make a full recovery.” Nobody was reported hurt.
The drone, registration N328PA, is sitting in its landing attitude on the tail of its fuselage and its lower wing, with the two small wheels on metal arms extended onto the grass. It is the second MK30 in 10 days to set itself down in public view, after one landed beside a Baton Rouge boulevard on September 11, and it came down in the market where another MK30 cut an internet cable last November. Amazon has not said what made this one stop flying.
The FAA Registry Ties N328PA to Amazon’s MK30 Fleet
FAA registry records list N328PA as an MK30 owned by Amazon.com Services LLC, serial number 178650103U, with a registration certificate issued May 14, 2024, and the last five characters of that serial, 0103U, are printed on the fuselage beside the N-number in Bishop’s photos.
All six propellers look whole in the pictures, and nothing lies loose in the grass around the aircraft. The deployed wheels are the tell that this was a landing, not a fall: the MK30 that set down on a Goodyear, Arizona sidewalk in October 2025 had the same wheels out. Amazon describes this Safe Contingent Landing as a switch to vertical flight, a camera and radar scan for a clear spot, and a descent onto it. It lists sudden weather, cell outages, emergency air traffic and system failures as triggers.
Waco Is Where an MK30 Cut an Internet Cable Last November
Amazon began Prime Air deliveries in Waco in November 2025, flying from beside its fulfillment center in the city. On November 18, less than two weeks after launch, an MK30 clipped a residential internet cable after a drop-off, came down on its own and drew an FAA investigation.
That drone, N139PA, shut down its motors after cutting the line, and Amazon paid for the repair. Waco is one of 11 cities where Prime Air currently flies, KWTX reported on September 22, in a story on residents’ reactions, including a noise complaint to the city and the FAA, that ran a day after Bishop’s post and did not mention the landing. A web search on Friday turned up no news coverage of N328PA and no Amazon statement about it. Bishop’s post had 84 reactions, 23 comments and six shares when DroneXL captured it.
DroneXL’s Take
Two days after Bishop posted his photos, I sat in a Westborough, Massachusetts ballroom while Amazon’s Tareq Wafaie told residents the company has delivered hundreds of thousands of packages this year without incident. By Amazon’s framing, this landing probably doesn’t break that record. The drone found open grass, put its wheels down and waited for the truck, which is what a 78-pound aircraft with no parachute should do when something goes wrong. My problem is the word “incident.” Something made this drone abandon its flight, just as something did in Baton Rouge on September 11, and in both cases the public found out from a Facebook post, not from Amazon. If Amazon wants nearly 500 cities and towns to trust these landings, it should count them and publish the causes itself. Until it does, the Drone Delivery Tracker will keep the count.
Sources: Danny Bishop (Facebook), FAA Aircraft Registry, Amazon, KWTX
DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.
