It’s a case of back to the drawing board for Russia Post, after its first parcel-delivery drone crashed into a wall on its maiden flight, in front of assembled journalists.

The Russian-made drone was on its way to making a first parcel delivery but was smashed into pieces when it crashed at speed into a wall in the Siberian city of Ulan-Ude on Monday (local time), shocking local residents and regional officials at the scene.

The unmanned aerial vehicle was sent to deliver a small package to a neighbouring village in an event that was meant to showcase Russia Post’s new service to deliver mail in the sparsely populated Buryatia region, located more than 4400 km east of Moscow.

https://twitter.com/EnglishRussia1/status/980732179348180992

Video footage from the scene showed the drone – reportedly worth $27,000 – lifting off from a miniature launch pad bearing Russian Post’s blue and white logo, buzzing through the air for several seconds before losing height and crashing into a three-storey residential building in front of a small crowd of spectators who were heard uttering expletives.

No one was harmed in the incident, which left debris from the drone in pieces on the ground.