Amazon is facing an investigation from US regulators after a delivery drone cut out the internet in a customer’s house.
The company’s MK30 drone snapped a suspended internet cable after completing a delivery at a house in Texas last week.
It comes as it prepares to launch UK deliveries as soon as next month.
Amazon has spent more than a decade seeking to realise Jeff Bezos’s vision of autonomous aerial drones delivering packages to households minutes after they are ordered.
However, progress has been slow with deliveries currently taking place in a handful of suburban areas in the US.
A video of last week’s incident showed the Amazon drone taking off after delivering a package but being caught in an internet cable between a telegraph pole and a customer’s house.
The drone cut the cable in two before performing an emergency landing.
The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), which regulates Amazon’s drone trials, said it was investigating the incident.
Amazon said the drone had carried out a “safe contingent landing” after the incident.
“There were no injuries or widespread internet service outages. We’ve paid for the cable line’s repair for the customer and have apologised for the inconvenience this caused them,” the company said.
Amazon has launched and subsequently wound down drone operations in several US cities, with the company testing deliveries on the outskirts of Detroit, Dallas and Kansas City, as well as Waco and San Antonio in Texas.
It is seeking permission to bring deliveries to the UK with a pilot in Darlington as soon as December, although it is yet to secure approval from the Civil Aviation Authority and has faced targeted local opposition from model aircraft enthusiasts.
The drones operate independently and are designed with detect and avoid technology that means they are supposed to evade obstacles.
Amazon is already under investigation from the FAA after two of its drones crashed into a crane in Arizona.
Two drones also crashed last year in Oregon after rain caused their landing systems to become confused. They both suffered substantial damage and caused the company to stop trials in the area.
Amazon has said it plans to deliver 500 million packages a year by drone by the end of the decade, with the autonomous aircraft taking off from a local distribution centre and landing in customers’ gardens.
Mr Bezos announced the drone programme in 2013, saying he hoped to make deliveries within five years.