All Coverage · Drone Incidents
UPS Pilot Reported A Drone At 5,000 Feet. It Was A Bird.
A UPS crew told ATC they hit a drone or balloon at 5,000 feet. UPS confirmed a bird. Why drone is now the first word pilots reach for.
All Coverage
The full firehose — every story on DroneXL, newest first. Breaking news, deep dives, reviews, and the deals ticker archive.
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This is the DroneXL news wire: every story we publish, newest first, across consumer drones, DJI launches and rumors, FAA regulation, public safety, delivery, and the drone war reshaping the industry. We publish daily. For a single company’s coverage, jump to its hub from the companies index, or follow the DJI news desk for everything from the biggest drone maker.
Key facts
- What this page is
- The full DroneXL wire — every story we publish, newest first, across every beat
- How often it updates
- Daily. Most days carry several stories; launch weeks and regulatory deadlines carry more
- The beats
- DJI and the other manufacturers, FAA and drone law, public safety, delivery, counter-drone, FPV, reviews and deals
- Publishing since
- 2020, independently owned and edited
Last updated September 14, 2026 — the feed below updates with every new story.
Louisiana
Prison Drone Flew $31,000 of Meth Back to Its Launch Site
A Grant Parish deputy found the drone on the ground with the meth still strapped to it. A dying battery had flown it home, and two Texas men are in jail.
Drone Service Providers
The Drone Industry Is at a Crossroads: What Drone Service Providers Should Do Right Now
I sat down with revenue operations specialist Amy Wiegand to talk through the drone market squeeze, the Part 108 question mark, and the decisions drone service providers should be making today.
Drone Delivery
Dexa Takes Its FAA-Certified Drone Airline To TechCrunch Disrupt
Dexa, the Dayton drone delivery operator with a Part 135 certificate, made TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield 200 and pitches at Disrupt in October.
Amazon
Amazon Brought a Drone to a Car Show. Tracy Got No Comment Period
Amazon displayed its MK30 at a Tracy car show before launch. The FAA has published no environmental assessment for the site, and no comment period opened.
Drones for Good
Two Drones Flew a Rope to a Climber on a 10-Inch Ledge at Night
Squamish Search and Rescue flew a floodlight drone and a line-delivery drone to get a roped-out climber off the Stawamus Chief. Here is how it worked.
Drone Delivery
Amazon Made 500 Drone Flights. Now It Wants a Whole UK Town
Amazon asked the CAA to fly Prime Air across all of Darlington after 500 flights, against a permission that already allows 100 deliveries a weekday.
Counter-Drone
NATO Jet Scrambled, Vilnius Airport Closed. It Was a Flock of Birds
A NATO jet scrambled and Vilnius airport shut for 38 minutes over a radar contact that turned out to be birds. Poland made the same call eight days ago.
China
Beijing Bans Owning A Drone, Then Offers To Buy Yours Back
Beijing bans drone possession citywide on November 15, voiding the May registration deal and paying owners subsidies to sell at designated buyback sites.
DJI
DJI SDR Transmission 2 Hits Amsterdam. US Crews Still Can't Buy It
DJI is showing SDR Transmission 2 at IBC in Amsterdam, with pricing due September 17. China pays 1,999 yuan. The FCC Covered List keeps US crews at zero.
Amazon
Amazon Drone Lands Itself Beside a Baton Rouge Road, Two Months In
An Amazon MK30 set itself down on a Florida Boulevard grass strip Friday, props intact, as storms crossed the parish. Amazon has not said why.
Ukraine
Anthropic Catches Russians Using Claude to Code Self-Targeting Drones
Anthropic says a freelance Russian team used Claude Code to build kamikaze drone swarm software that picks targets, including people, with no human veto.
Zipline
Zipline Taught Its Drones to Dive for Speed, and They Got Quieter
A Zipline software update has its drones dive to build speed and climb to brake. Here is why gravity makes them faster, quieter and cooler.
Disaster Response
DJI FlyCart 100s Feed Nepal Flood Survivors As US Taxes Them 100%
China answered Nepal's plea with four DJI FlyCart 100s flying up to 16 relief runs a day. The US put the same aircraft in a 100% tariff bracket on Sept. 3.
DJI
Zipline Drone Comes Down Under Parachute Near Houston, TSA Delays Part 108 Security Talks, and FCC Proposal Draws 3,829 Comments
Welcome to your weekly UAS news update. We have three stories for you this week: a Zipline drone has a mishap near Houston, a Part 108 progress update from the TSA and OIRA, and the FCC gets over 3,800 comments on its military-grade drone proposal. Let's get to it.
Ukraine
Eric Schmidt Warns Ukraine's Drone Edge Is Gone. He Sells the Fix
Schmidt's Washington Post op-ed says Ukraine's innovation edge is losing to Russian mass. His byline omits Swift Beat, the drone maker he runs.
Industry
Vic Moss: The Drone Photo Mistakes Quietly Costing Pilots Clients
Vic Moss, a commercial photographer since 1988, told Commercial UAV Expo which planning, camera, editing and business mistakes cost drone pilots clients.
Ukraine
Erik Prince's Swarmer Buys Ukraine's Ratel Robotics for Up to $224M
Nasdaq-listed Swarmer, chaired by Blackwater founder Erik Prince, is buying Ukraine's Ratel Robotics for up to $224 million, mostly in stock.
US Government
White House Drone List: Three Trump-Family Firms In, Ten Winners Out
The White House list for its Drone Dominance event names 40 entries. All three Trump-family drone firms made it. Ten of eleven Gauntlet I winners did not.
DFR
St. Paul Pulls $200K Police Drone Grant. There Was No Plan B
St. Paul's council withdrew a $200,000 grant request for more police drones a week after the deputy chief said there was no other money to expand.
Counter-Drone
1,500 US Agencies Are About To Get Counter-Drone Powers
A new federal rule lets certified local agencies detect and disable drones. The government expects about 1,500 of them to sign up within two years.
Drones for Good
2,977 Drones Rebuild New York's Twin Towers for 9/11
A 2,977-drone tribute rebuilt the Twin Towers at full architectural scale over New York Harbor, one light for every life lost on 9/11.
DOCKET 26-189
I Scored Every FCC Drone Ban Comment. On the Money Question It Was 1,701 to One.
Pilot Institute coded all 3,824 readable filings in FCC docket 26-189 against the 11 questions the Commission actually asked. Here is what the record says.
Amazon
Amazon Says Quieter Than a Truck. Its FAA Filing Says 92 Decibels
Amazon told Baton Rouge its delivery drones beat an idling truck. Its own FAA noise filing puts the delivery hover at 92.1 decibels.
Frequently asked questions
What is the latest drone news today?
The feed on this page is ordered newest first, so the top entry is the most recent story we have published across every beat. If you want one subject rather than the whole wire, the beat links above the feed narrow it to DJI, FAA, police, Ukraine, FPV, reviews or industry.
Where does DroneXL's drone news come from?
Our own reporting, plus primary documents — FCC filings, FAA rulemaking dockets, court records, company announcements and manufacturer firmware notes. We say where a claim comes from, and we distinguish a photographed leak or a filed document from an unsourced rumor.
How do I follow only DJI news?
The DJI news desk collects every DJI story in one feed, and the DJI Rumors page filters that down to leaks and unannounced products. Both are reachable from the DJI News item in the top menu.
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