WPR25LA103 · AMAZON.COM Services LLC MK30
AMAZON.COM Services LLC MK30 · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) during initial climb
From Eastern Oregon Regional Airport at Pendleton (PDT) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR25LA103
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
AMAZON.COM Services LLC MK30
- Aircraft type
- Amazon Com Services MK30
- Category
- Helicopter
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N265PA
- Operator
- Amazon.Com Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Eastern Oregon Regional Airport at Pendleton (PDT), Pendleton, ORTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2024)
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The operator of the unmanned aircraft system (UAS) reported that, the purpose of the flight was to test the Safe Contingent Land (SCL) during a flight test operation, vertical ascent following a delivery. An obstacle (cart) was intentionally placed in the delivery area. As the UAS hovered over the delivery location, a commercial drone piloted by another employee, intentionally flew above the UAS. The UAS detected the drone and descended. During the descent the UAS struck the cart and came to a stop on the ground near the cart. After landing, the UAS performed an unplanned vertical ascent, started to oscillate, and descended into the ground.
The UAS sustained substantial damage to the upper wing struts and fuselage.
The operator reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the UAS that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The unmanned aircraft system’s failure to maintain clearance from an obstacle, which resulted in a loss of control and impact with terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR25LA103
- Event ID
- 20250224199746
- Case number
- WPR25LA103
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, coordinates, cause areas. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: dcf2d1f6e8ef87107524ba6cab9f1f986d6f446ed52649b4599b9b0429bda754; retrieved 2026-09-16T19:41:03.335Z.