Nampa asks Amazon for Prime Air flight data after complaints about drone noise

Nampa, Idaho, wants flight data from Amazon on the Prime Air drones that have delivered over the city since 30 October, DroneXL reports, citing BoiseDev. City staff went to the delivery area last week to watch the drones.

Amy Bowman, the city's communications director, said Nampa has had roughly 20 to 25 calls and emails about the drones, has passed residents' concerns on to Amazon and is talking to the company about keeping to the conditional use permit for its launch pad. The city's Planning and Zoning Commission approved that permit 6-1 on 26 May. BoiseDev's report cites no city finding that Amazon broke its terms.

Residents' public complaints are about noise. At the permit hearing in May, Amazon senior manager Sam Bailey said a backyard delivery in an Arizona sound test reached 68 decibels. Neighbouring Meridian, partly inside the 7.5-mile delivery radius, says it has had a handful of complaints and tells residents that cities are "generally preempted" from regulating delivery drones.