DJI Drone explodes at 330 FT over US highway - Debris lands on highway I could have killed several people

[Mossiback]

This picture shows body parts pushed into the battery compartment.



I would think that if the battery exploded, parts would be pushed away from the battery compartment. This looks more like impact damage.

 

[JAW]

We need to call the NTSB in on this one!

 

[AnzacJack]

Can’t imagine why it would have been hard to find a smoking battery.
Also, is there the possibility that it was shot? That could cause the battery to suddenly fail and fly out smoking. You were in a hover, the battery cannot of gone to far.
Your story doesn’t make sense and doesn’t appear to be supported by anything you have offered up, hence people’s scepticism. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen though. Try and find that battery

 

[sar104]

Can’t imagine why it would have been hard to find a smoking battery.
Also, is there the possibility that it was shot? That could cause the battery to suddenly fail and fly out smoking. You were in a hover, the battery cannot of gone to far.
Your story doesn’t make sense and doesn’t appear to be supported by anything you have offered up, hence people’s scepticism. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen though. Try and find that battery

Let's not distract an already random conversation. I'm pretty sure that the OP would have mentioned gunshots.

 

[AnzacJack]

Didn’t see it as a distraction. I think it is certainly feasible for a very lucky shot from a .22
I’ve seen video of a drone that was shot that behaved very similar to this story, hence me putting forward the idea
If you think it’s impossible so be it, I’ll withdraw my idea.

 

[sar104]

Didn’t see it as a distraction. I think it is certainly feasible for a very lucky shot from a .22
If you think it’s impossible so be it, I’ll withdraw my idea.

No - it's not impossible, but it seems pretty far-fetched and this incident is already looking unusual enough. I'm hoping that the OP will come back and answer some specific questions, whether or not the battery is found.

 

[AnzacJack]

Ok. I think it’s far fetched that the battery just exploded.

I’ll keep my nose out and ideas to myself

 

[WithTheBirds]

Are you sure it wasn’t run over by more than one vehicle before you retrieved it?

That damage seems more significant than what might be expected from a single impact.

 

[sar104]

Ok. I think it’s far fetched that the battery just exploded.

I’ll keep my nose out and ideas to myself

One possibility is that there was an ignitable hydrogen mixture produced by the battery. If there was a battery disconnect due to the maneuver I mentioned above leading to a large induced EMF then it's possible that a small hydrogen air explosion might result.

 

[Saigondroner]

One possibility is that there was an ignitable hydrogen mixture produced by the battery. If there was a battery disconnect due to the maneuver I mentioned above leading to a large induced EMF then it's possible that a small hydrogen air explosion might result.

Edited to add my Babe Ruth impersonation....pointing at 3rd base!!! Doh!!!

 

[Photoman482]

Battery rocketed off drone trailing grey smoke in opposite direction from drone wreckage and was not recovered. No clue where it landed, I was more concerned about getting my drone off the highway. The battery clearly exploded if you look at the damaged bent battery connector pins, and the rear area looks like it was shot by a bullet.

Flight log DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com


DJI Technical staff says Out of Warranty send $982

DJI stated
"First, we have coordinated your concern and provided the pictures you presented with our Engineers and they reviewed it. They have checked it and we coordinate this to our analysis team to check the flight records. I was able to get the result of the analysis and based on their investigation, they didn't say that the battery exploded while flying.

Since the unit is already out of warranty, I'm sorry but we cannot provide free service and the quotation should be settled for us to continue on the case. Please check the after-sales policy on this link:After-Sales Service Policies -

To help you with the quotation, I can offer a 10% discount and should you accept it, you can inform me here. Please take note that the final notice was already sent to you and the drone might be sent back to you unrepaired in case the quotation will not be settled for a certain period of time.

Looking forward to your early reply.

Thank you for choosing DJI Products."

 

[Formosa Straight]

The picture entitled "explosion" does not appear to support an explosion. Rather than explosive forces acting on the plastic forcing it outwards / away from the body as you would expect in a close proximity explosion, the deformation creases in the plastic where it has not sheared appear to be going inwards. This implies to me at least that this damage was a result of the impact with the ground and not as a result of a mid air explosion. Also as others have pointed out, there is no fire residue in that picture. I don't know what brought the aircraft down, but that damage was done by the ground.

 

[John Lord]

Battery rocketed off drone trailing grey smoke in opposite direction from drone wreckage and was not recovered. No clue where it landed, I was more concerned about getting my drone off the highway. The battery clearly exploded if you look at the damaged bent battery connector pins, and the rear area looks like it was shot by a bullet.

Flight log DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com


DJI Technical staff says Out of Warranty send $982

DJI stated
"First, we have coordinated your concern and provided the pictures you presented with our Engineers and they reviewed it. They have checked it and we coordinate this to our analysis team to check the flight records. I was able to get the result of the analysis and based on their investigation, they didn't say that the battery exploded while flying.

Since the unit is already out of warranty, I'm sorry but we cannot provide free service and the quotation should be settled for us to continue on the case. Please check the after-sales policy on this link:After-Sales Service Policies -

To help you with the quotation, I can offer a 10% discount and should you accept it, you can inform me here. Please take note that the final notice was already sent to you and the drone might be sent back to you unrepaired in case the quotation will not be settled for a certain period of time.

Looking forward to your early reply.

Thank you for choosing DJI Products."

]he standard [Edited by ADMIN] response from DJI Customer Service. Even when kit is within warranty they will do everything to blame someone else, usually the pilot. The sooner DJI gets some real competition the better. DJI make fantastic products but this is totally undermined by extremely poor customer service. They make a 10% discount sound like they are doing a big favour and it is what my friend was offered when he lost his Mavic 2 Pro within the warranty period and through no fault of his own. All the profits DJI make they should be able to do much better than 10%.

 

[Loduklodge]

To bad no video of her going down

 

[sar104]

The standard [Edited by ADMIN] response from DJI Customer Service. Even when kit is within warranty they will do everything to blame someone else, usually the pilot. The sooner DJI gets some real competition the better. DJI make fantastic products but this is totally undermined by extremely poor customer service. They make a 10% discount sound like they are doing a big favour and it is what my friend was offered when he lost his Mavic 2 Pro within the warranty period and through no fault of his own. All the profits DJI make they should be able to do much better than 10%.

The standard response from DJI when an aircraft is lost and the cause cannot be determined from the mobile device logs is a 30% discount. And in my experience, based on having examined numerous flight logs to determine the cause of crashes or lost aircraft, DJI quite consistently replaces equipment when it is shown to be a hardware or firmware problem.

 

[Deleted member 109934]

Battery rocketed off drone trailing grey smoke in opposite direction from drone wreckage and was not recovered. No clue where it landed, I was more concerned about getting my drone off the highway. The battery clearly exploded if you look at the damaged bent battery connector pins, and the rear area looks like it was shot by a bullet.

Flight log DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com


DJI Technical staff says Out of Warranty send $982

DJI stated
"First, we have coordinated your concern and provided the pictures you presented with our Engineers and they reviewed it. They have checked it and we coordinate this to our analysis team to check the flight records. I was able to get the result of the analysis and based on their investigation, they didn't say that the battery exploded while flying.

Since the unit is already out of warranty, I'm sorry but we cannot provide free service and the quotation should be settled for us to continue on the case. Please check the after-sales policy on this link:After-Sales Service Policies -

To help you with the quotation, I can offer a 10% discount and should you accept it, you can inform me here. Please take note that the final notice was already sent to you and the drone might be sent back to you unrepaired in case the quotation will not be settled for a certain period of time.

Looking forward to your early reply.

Thank you for choosing DJI Products."

I would rather bet on battery not being fully "clicked" into the place, and then a few cars went over the drone after it fell from the sky.
I have purposely cased a few laptop lipo batteries to go on fire as an experiment. They bulge first, and at that time they would be ejected from the drone so there would be no marks on the drone, but once they explode it would be impossible not to see them... It would be a flaming meteor falling from the sky, you would actually recover it before you recover the drone itself.
Here is a good example of lipo exploding, notice how puffed up it is, it is consistent with at list 5 I managed to blow up. You would not miss that battery.

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[E90RAW]

welcome to the forum ,sorry for the circumstances of your post i makes you realise how much energy is stored in the lipos we use to fly

Maybe it really was "shot". Some people hate drones.

 

[Rogat19]

Doesn’t look too bad.
Maybe do an IMU and compass calibration and should be fine.

So you think the damage should just buff out then? my thinking is along the same lines!

 

[Rogat19]

Battery rocketed off drone trailing grey smoke in opposite direction from drone wreckage and was not recovered. No clue where it landed, I was more concerned about getting my drone off the highway. The battery clearly exploded if you look at the damaged bent battery connector pins, and the rear area looks like it was shot by a bullet.

Flight log DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com


DJI Technical staff says Out of Warranty send $982

DJI stated
"First, we have coordinated your concern and provided the pictures you presented with our Engineers and they reviewed it. They have checked it and we coordinate this to our analysis team to check the flight records. I was able to get the result of the analysis and based on their investigation, they didn't say that the battery exploded while flying.

Since the unit is already out of warranty, I'm sorry but we cannot provide free service and the quotation should be settled for us to continue on the case. Please check the after-sales policy on this link:After-Sales Service Policies -

To help you with the quotation, I can offer a 10% discount and should you accept it, you can inform me here. Please take note that the final notice was already sent to you and the drone might be sent back to you unrepaired in case the quotation will not be settled for a certain period of time.

Looking forward to your early reply.

Thank you for choosing DJI Products."

I am of the same opinion of some replies on here, without reading anything i looked at the pictures first and my first thought was, this is not a battery exploding, there are no burn marks no scorching whats so ever and it doesnt matter how quickly it ejected from the aircraft you would have scorch marks for sure those things send out a really strong flame immediately or smoulder red hot then send out flame, someone said maybe the battery was loose ? and fell out and the drone augered into the highway and was run over sounds like a plausible scenario to me, did it get hit by any cars?

 

[Rogat19]

You must work for DJI... They need glasses also.

I would say a number of us need glasses then because @sar107 is not the only one who cant see any burn marks on the drone