While city and state leaders celebrated the incoming expansion of Irish drone company Manna Air Delivery in Tulsa Wednesday, some area neighbors feel excluded from the conversation and have concerns about the impacts.
“Most everybody is blindsided right now,” said Diama Norris, a Swan Lake resident. “I think everyone is trying to process what this all means.”
As part of the company’s expansion, Manna has applied to build a drone hub — the first of many planned for Tulsa — on a vacant lot at 1631 E. 15th St. just east of Chipotle on Cherry Street. These hubs will serve as launch sites for Manna drones, which will deliver groceries, meals, coffee and pharmaceuticals, among other items, at an order’s notice.
The site is less than a mile from two Tulsa hospitals — one of Norris’ chief concerns. John Spillyards, secretary of the Maple Ridge homeowner’s association, says he is worried about safety protocols related to Manna’s drones and their impact on nature.
“What happens if they fail? All equipment fails,” he said. “What if this thing is flying to a delivery, and then it fails in the middle of Cherry Street and drops on top of my car?”
Terri O’Keefe, Manna’s director of corporate affairs, told the Flyer Thursday each of their drones is equipped with a parachute in case of emergencies.
“It has a multi-rotor system, so if one fails, they generally compensate,” she said. “Now, if two fail, the parachute would deploy.”
O’Keefe also says Helicopter and Medical Services, or HELMS for short, take priority in air space and are typically among the first stakeholders the company engages with on a new venture.
Vincent Murray, Manna’s community and stakeholder relations manager, says the company can ground their drones during emergencies.
“Because our flights are (usually) three to four minutes, if there were any issues or emergencies, we can ground our fleet quite instantaneously,” he said.
Spillyards also expressed concern about how drones might impact birds and wildlife.
“We also have a lot of very rich tree life in all these neighborhoods, wildlife,” she said. “I’m a bit of a wildlife advocate and protector. Does this affect their flight patterns, does it scare them?”
O’Keefe says Manna completed multiple studies in Ireland on whether drones impact birds’ quality of life and found no evidence “either way.” She says their drones have never collided with a bird.
“We’ll probably do something similar once we embed ourselves here,” O’Keefe said of wildlife studies. “But there’s no evidence. Our drones generally follow predictable paths, so the birds, they tend to avoid us and they can see us coming.”
CEO Bobby Healy said Wednesday they hope to operate 30 to 40 hubs across the city. O’Keefe says each hub would have two or three drones, which can cover a fairly large area.
“The idea that you’d see more than 10 or 15 in any one neighborhood, we don’t ever see that happening. I know that’s a natural fear because we all saw Paw Patrol,” she said, referencing an episode of the animated children’s show with out-of-control drones dropping food everywhere, according to IMDB.
The Manna leaders told the Flyer the company does not have town halls currently scheduled, but they plan to engage with city councilors, state legislators and residential neighborhoods about their operations.
“We want to show the community that we’re here,” said O’Keefe. “We want to work with the local sports teams. We want to bring kids down to the base, bring our drone to school. We want to ensure that Tulsa feels like they are part of this journey with us, and we definitely don’t want anyone to feel like it’s been forced on them.”
O’Keefe says Manna wants to build trust with Tulsans.
“We are here to listen. We want to make sure that people feel that we are listening to them, that we get their trust,” she said. “We don’t want to frighten anybody… and we would love people to come by and see our base once it’s operating.
“This is our baby and we love it, and we’re so excited. We understand that not everyone’s going to be as excited. We want to embed ourselves in the community.”
The Flyer reached out to the City of Tulsa Thursday with neighbors’ concerns about not being included in the planning for drone deliveries. City spokesman Carson Colvin provided a statement on behalf of the city, saying Tulsa leaders have “been upfront” about becoming a national leader in drone technology.
The statement cites the Blue Ribbon Commission, a group of city and industry leaders who produced a 2024 report outlining Tulsa’s path to becoming “drone capital of the world.”
“That planning has helped position Tulsa to thoughtfully integrate these emerging technologies while remaining attentive to important community considerations, including safety and privacy,” reads the statement.
It continues, saying the city “will pursue any additional actions, including additional public engagement if appropriate, as needed.”
Norris believes city and state leaders should have better engaged with neighbors before Wednesday’s announcement.
“To bring the lieutenant governor, the governor and mayor, and act like this is a done deal, when they’re still applying for permits and none of the neighbors know — that’s just bad,” she said. “They had a real opportunity to talk to people.”
Norris says she does not oppose Manna’s arrival in the city, calling it a “great opportunity for Tulsa,” but she will reserve her support until more questions are answered.
“These are meant to serve communities, and if we’re not talking to the communities that they are intending to serve, there’s a huge disconnect there,” Norris said.
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