{"id":"d0f3ddd5-35c6-47e3-8555-4945d74ffc2e","slug":"zipline-rwanda-crash-2019-07","kind":"malfunction","headline":"Zipline delivery drone crashes in Muhanga District, Rwanda (Jul 2019)","summary":"A Zipline autonomous delivery drone crashed near a village in Muhanga District, Rwanda in July 2019 after a technical failure during a medical supply delivery mission. The drone deployed its parachute recovery system and came down in a rural area; no injuries were reported. Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo acknowledged the incident in media coverage and described it as a validation of Zipline's parachute-recovery design. Zipline's Rwanda fixed-wing delivery network had made over 10,000 deliveries by mid-2019 and was the world's largest drone delivery network at the time.","occurredAt":"2019-07-01T00:00:00.000Z","reviewStatus":"unreviewed","modelId":"a2e6c165-004d-43ff-a411-29e794733ff1","deploymentId":null,"companyId":"42d14bb5-bff5-4976-a287-882a60bfe765","aliases":[],"collisionRisk":"none","reviewNote":null,"severity":null,"rootCauseCategory":null,"rootCauseDetail":null,"affectedUnitsCount":null,"affectedUnitsBasis":null,"remediationStatus":null,"regulatoryAction":null,"regulatoryBody":null,"propertyDamageEstimateUsd":null,"damageEstimateBasis":null,"bodilyInjurySeverity":null,"fatalityCount":null,"lossCostClass":null,"sourceQualityTier":null,"createdAt":"2026-06-11T02:12:09.747Z","updatedAt":"2026-06-11T02:12:09.747Z","model":{"id":"a2e6c165-004d-43ff-a411-29e794733ff1","companyId":"42d14bb5-bff5-4976-a287-882a60bfe765","modelName":"Zipline Platform 2 (P2)","slug":"zipline-platform-2","description":"Zipline's second-generation precision-delivery system: a fixed-wing drone that hovers and lowers a tethered 'droid' to place packages accurately at homes and businesses. Powers the Walmart and US healthcare home-delivery rollouts.","formFactor":"aerial","maturityStage":"commercial","lifecycleState":"active","supersededByModelId":null,"specs":{"type":"fixed-wing + tethered droid","method":"tethered precision drop","unveiled":"2023-03-15","useCases":["home delivery","healthcare","retail"]},"manufacturerSerial":null,"reviewStatus":"reviewed","sources":[{"url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/15/zipline-unveils-p2-delivery-drones-that-dock-and-recharge-autonomously.html","title":"Zipline unveils P2 drones that dock and recharge autonomously (Mar 15, 2023)","sourceName":"CNBC"},{"url":"https://spectrum.ieee.org/delivery-drone-zipline-design","title":"How Zipline designed its droid delivery system (P2 engineering)","sourceName":"IEEE Spectrum"},{"url":"https://www.commercialuavnews.com/drone-delivery/zipline-s-p2-a-next-generation-home-delivery-platform","title":"Zipline's P2: a next-generation home-delivery platform","sourceName":"Commercial UAV News"},{"url":"https://www.zipline.com/about/zipline-fact-sheet","title":"Zipline fact sheet: Platform 2 (P2) specs (8 lb payload, 10/24-mi range, tethered Delivery Zip) + partners","sourceName":"Zipline (official)"},{"url":"https://www.zipline.com/newsroom/our-next-flight-with-walmart-will-reach-millions-of-americans","title":"Zipline x Walmart Dallas-Fort Worth expansion (Jan 2024; P2 deployment partner)","sourceName":"Zipline (official newsroom)"}],"aliases":["P2","Platform 2"],"collisionRisk":"low","reviewNote":null,"manufacturerTermForTeleop":null,"keyFacts":[{"label":"Form factor","value":"fixed-wing + tethered droid"},{"label":"Delivery method","value":"tethered precision drop"},{"label":"Unveiled","value":"2023-03-15"},{"label":"Use cases","value":"home delivery, healthcare, retail"}],"createdAt":"2026-05-31T03:31:57.054Z","updatedAt":"2026-06-28T16:50:32.835Z"},"deployment":null,"company":{"id":"42d14bb5-bff5-4976-a287-882a60bfe765","name":"Zipline","slug":"zipline","description":"American autonomous drone-delivery company (South San Francisco, founded 2014 by Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, Keenan Wyrobek, Ryan Oksenhorn, and Will Hetzler). Began with medical delivery in Rwanda and Ghana and expanded to US commercial and healthcare delivery; surpassed 2 million commercial deliveries and raised over $600M in January 2026 at a $7.6B valuation. Operates under FAA Part 135 air-carrier certification.","status":"private","founded":2014,"hq":"South San Francisco, California, USA","fundingTotal":"600000000","type":"both","reviewStatus":"reviewed","sources":[{"url":"https://www.zipline.com/newsroom/zipline-surpasses-2-million-deliveries-raises-more-than-600m-to-power-next-phase-of-growth-and-expands-operations-to-houston-and-phoenix","title":"Zipline surpasses 2M deliveries, raises $600M+, expands to Houston and Phoenix (Jan 21, 2026)","sourceName":"Zipline (official)"},{"url":"https://www.zipline.com/about/zipline-fact-sheet","title":"Zipline fact sheet (company stats and history)","sourceName":"Zipline (official)"},{"url":"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-20/drone-delivery-startup-zipline-hits-7-6-billion-valuation","title":"Zipline hits $7.6B valuation (Jan 20, 2026)","sourceName":"Bloomberg"},{"url":"https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/21/zipline-charts-drone-delivery-expansion-with-600m-in-new-funding/","title":"Zipline charts drone-delivery expansion with $600M (Jan 21, 2026)","sourceName":"TechCrunch"},{"url":"https://www.therobotreport.com/zipline-raises-over-600m-in-funding-surpasses-2m-commercial-drone-deliveries/","title":"Zipline raises $600M+, surpasses 2M commercial deliveries (Jan 2026)","sourceName":"The Robot Report"},{"url":"https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/23/zipline-snaps-up-another-200m-to-fuel-its-drone-delivery-expansion/","title":"Zipline raises another $200M for delivery expansion (Mar 23, 2026)","sourceName":"TechCrunch"},{"url":"https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/01/21/3222432/0/en/zipline-surpasses-2-million-deliveries-raises-more-than-600m.html","title":"Zipline surpasses 2M deliveries; raises $600M+ (official wire) (Jan 21, 2026)","sourceName":"Zipline (GlobeNewswire)"},{"url":"https://fortune.com/2023/03/22/zipline-ceo-keller-rinaudo-cliffton-logistics-health-care-farmers-walmart/","title":"How Zipline turned a logistical nightmare into success (founding, Rwanda origins, CEO) (Mar 22, 2023)","sourceName":"Fortune"},{"url":"https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/26/zipline-begins-us-medical-delivery-with-uav-program-honed-in-africa/","title":"Zipline begins US medical delivery with a program honed in Africa (May 26, 2020)","sourceName":"TechCrunch"},{"url":"https://spectrum.ieee.org/in-the-air-with-ziplines-medical-delivery-drones","title":"In the air with Zipline's medical-delivery drones (Rwanda/Ghana operations)","sourceName":"IEEE Spectrum"}],"keyFacts":[{"label":"Founded","value":"2014, South San Francisco, California"},{"label":"Founders","value":"Keller Rinaudo Cliffton (CEO), Keenan Wyrobek (CTO)"},{"label":"Product","value":"Zipline P2 and P3 autonomous delivery drones; fixed-wing with tethered package release; delivers to porch or locker"},{"label":"Funding","value":"Series A $2M; B $25M; C $120M; D $190M; E $250M; total ~$587M+"},{"label":"Valuation","value":"$2.75B (2021, unicorn)"},{"label":"Countries","value":"Rwanda (2016), Ghana (2019), Nigeria, Kenya, Cote d'Ivoire, Japan, US (North Carolina, Utah, Arkansas)"},{"label":"Deliveries","value":"60+ million commercial deliveries; 40+ million vaccine doses; largest autonomous drone delivery network globally"},{"label":"Leadership","value":"Okeoma Morant (COO), Ezra Czyzyk (VP Engineering)"},{"label":"Patents","value":"2 USPTO patents (tethered delivery, sense-and-avoid) under Zipline assignee"},{"label":"Regulatory","value":"FAA Part 135 air carrier certificate (2022, first for drone delivery); beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) approvals"}],"aliases":["Zipline International"],"collisionRisk":"low","reviewNote":null,"atsProvider":null,"atsSlug":null,"createdAt":"2026-05-31T03:31:56.735Z","updatedAt":"2026-07-03T03:34:37.086Z"},"derived":{"status":"active"},"sources":[],"responses":[],"statusEvents":[],"jsonLd":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://registry.deploy.report/incidents/zipline-rwanda-crash-2019-07","url":"https://registry.deploy.report/incidents/zipline-rwanda-crash-2019-07","headline":"Zipline delivery drone crashes in Muhanga District, Rwanda (Jul 2019)","description":"A Zipline autonomous delivery drone crashed near a village in Muhanga District, Rwanda in July 2019 after a technical failure during a medical supply delivery mission. The drone deployed its parachute recovery system and came down in a rural area; no injuries were reported. Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo acknowledged the incident in media coverage and described it as a validation of Zipline's parachute-recovery design. Zipline's Rwanda fixed-wing delivery network had made over 10,000 deliveries by mid-2019 and was the world's largest drone delivery network at the time.","identifier":"d0f3ddd5-35c6-47e3-8555-4945d74ffc2e","datePublished":"2019-07-01T00:00:00.000Z","articleSection":"malfunction","publisher":{"@id":"https://deploy.report/#organization"},"author":{"@id":"https://deploy.report/#organization"}},"framework_metadata":{"framework_schema_version":"0.1.0","verification_status":"unreviewed","maturity_stage":null,"lifecycle_state":null,"architectural_position":{"cohort":null,"sub_cohorts":[]},"within_cohort_verified_vs_claimed_pair":null,"cap_flags":[],"verification_depth":{"sources_count":0,"primary_source_types":[]}}}