Swiss drone crashes near children, forcing suspension of delivery program
Swiss Post and Matternet have been using drones to make deliveries for the healthcare sector. | Image: Swiss Post
A drone delivery program in Switzerland has been suspended indefinitely after one of the vehicles crashed just 50 yards away from a group of children. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports (via IEEE Spectrum) that the 10-kg (22-pound) drone, capable of carrying up to 2-kg of cargo, encountered an issue during a flight in Zurich in May. Although the drone was equipped with an emergency parachute, it managed to cut the connecting cord during its emergency landing, resulting in an uncontrolled crash. Nobody was injured.
The incident comes as multiple regulators are easing flight restrictions to allow commercial drone deliveries. Google’s Wing has been granted regulatory approval to make deliveries in the US and Australia, and in the US the…
