WASHINGTON, March 12 (Reuters) - Amazon.com's drone unit Prime Air is withdrawing from the Commercial Drone Alliance, taking issue with the industry trade group's opposition to a regulatory proposal for detect-and-avoid systems to prevent drone collisions with crewed aircraft.
In a previously unreported letter seen on Thursday by Reuters, the Amazon unit said the alliance's positions "on the most consequential safety questions facing the commercial drone industry are incompatible with Prime Air's core safety tenets."
Prime Air said in the letter, sent late on Wednesday, that in more than 70,000 drone flights, its detect-and-avoid system performed "successful collision avoidance maneuvers on two potential mid-air collisions with aircraft that could have led to catastrophic safety consequences, including the loss of life."
The Federal Aviation Administration last year proposed requiring drones to have systems to detect and avoid aircraft that are not broadcasting their position, potentially because of equipment failure. The Commercial Drone Alliance opposed the requirement.
The requirement was part of proposed federal rules to speed deployment of drones beyond the visual line of sight of their operators.
The Washington-based trade group said the FAA instead should require aircraft operating below an altitude of 500 feet (152 meters) to be able to broadcast their position through the use of satellite-based technology that lets them automatically broadcast their precise location, speed and other data, or other electronic systems.
The proposed rules have not yet been finalized.
The Commercial Drone Alliance includes Skydio, Zipline, Alphabet's Wing Aviation, among others.
The group said on Thursday it is sorry to see Prime Air leave but added that its members have conducted millions of safe drone operations "demonstrating that a performance-based framework, rather than prescriptive technology requirements, (enables) safe operations while fostering competition and innovation."
Prime Air said in its letter that the safe integration of drones into the national airspace is its highest priority.
"This requires rigorous, capability-based standards - including requirements that mandate drone technologies capable of detecting non-cooperative crewed aircraft," it said in its letter.
The term non-cooperative crewed aircraft refers to planes or helicopters that do not transmit active identification or position signals and do not communicate with air traffic control.
Prime Air said one of the two potential mid-air collisions it cited involved a helicopter that was not broadcasting a safety system known as the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast as required, and without Amazon's detect-and-avoid system "would have led to a catastrophic outcome."
"The risk of a drone collision with a crewed aircraft is not theoretical," the company said.
A deadly crash near Washington last year underscored issues with congested airspace in certain parts of the United States, though the incident did not involve a drone. A January 2025 mid-air collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and a U.S. Army helicopter killed 67 people and prompted National Transportation Safety Board recommendations for reforms.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Will Dunham )
