Swiss Post suspends medical delivery drones for the second time

A drone belonging to a Swiss Post medical deliveries programme crashed last week in a forest in Zurich reports Swiss Info. It is the second crash in four months.

The drone was not carrying any supplies but the national postal service has decided to suspend all drone flights.

The Zurich city police reported that the drone, weighing 10kg but not carrying any deliveries, had crashed just before 11am on Thursday.

Swiss Post technicians and the police were able to recover the badly damaged device which was flying from the University of Zurich to the University Hospital in the city.

For safety reasons, Swiss Post has decided to suspend all drone delivery flights for the University Hospital of Zurich and the Hospital of Lugano.

On 25 January, a Swiss Post drone that was carrying laboratory samples across Lake Zurich was forced to initiate a controlled emergency landing and landed on Lake Zurich.

The Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (STSB) has determined the cause of the incident. According to the STSB’s final report, it is highly likely that a short circuit led to the emergency drone landing. It stated: “The short circuit interrupted the power supply to the GPS. The drone’s safety mechanisms worked flawlessly: as intended in such cases, the drone initiated the emergency landing itself. To do so, the drone stops its rotors and opens its parachute. The drone glides downwards, emitting a high- pitched whistling sound and using bright blinking lights to attract attention.”

All drone flights on the test scheme were stopped temporarily in Zurich and Lugano.  Flights resumed on April 15.

“Postal drones” have already carried out several thousand flights without accident in Lugano, Zurich and Bern.