A Zipline delivery drone came down under its emergency parachute onto the southbound lanes of Highway 6 near Timber Creek Place Lane in Cypress, northwest of Houston, on Friday morning, September 4. Nobody was hurt and nothing was damaged, Zipline says, and law enforcement agencies told KPRC 2 News they never got a single call about an aircraft sitting in a traffic lane.
A photo shot through a windshield shows the white Platform 2 Zip lying across the lane, wing and rotor booms still attached, with its orange canopy stretched toward the curb and cars a few lengths ahead. A second photo shows the aircraft on the grass verge with the parachute folded beside it. Zipline says the Zip was on its way to pick up an order when it hit what the company calls a midflight issue and deployed the parachute as designed. The cause has not been determined.
Two days ago I published a piece from Commercial UAV Expo on Amazon Prime Air’s 83-pound MK30, which flies over US neighborhoods without a parachute. Zipline’s aircraft is 20 pounds lighter and carries one.
Zipline Says A Midflight Issue Triggered The Parachute
Zipline told KPRC 2 News the aircraft encountered a midflight issue on its way to a pickup, deployed its parachute and landed without injuring anyone or damaging property. A spokesperson said such landings, which the company calls paralands, are rare and part of the redundant safety system…