Mavic 3 Cine "malfunction'....

[Little Gary]

A long time professional/licensed pilot flying Mavic 3 cine for a commercial purposes shooting a Nordic skier on a snowy trail. At about 40 ft up and 50 yards out getting ready for the skier to ski past the drone, it randomly looses power, the DJI RC Pro goes black, and the drone plummets to ground hitting groomed trail resulting in a broken arm/gimbal/drone. 3 experienced pilots observe this unexplainable crash as the motor/props seemed to stop spinning, the remote flashes to black and the drone falls. Battery was still well in place with full voltage. It did not throw a prop. ALL proper pre-flight checks were done. Small residenital power lines were nearby... I initiated a DJI Care Refresh "Express" order ($239) as I needed to get back to work ASAP. Initially they told me, via telephone convo with a represenative, that they wouldn't be able to process a repair or data analysis unless I sent it in normally as a repair/product malfunction claim, which could take weeks... but after recieving my crashed unit it appears they attempted a "data analysis" after I uploaded/synced my flight records. (see below.) According to the analysis, the result is inconclusive. Unable to determine the cause of the crash using the flight records provided. The flight controller data was overwritten. FLY262 1. Unit’s flight controller data is missing/damage. 2. Unable to determine issue with app records only as it cuts off. Date of incident: 2023-02-20 Incident GPS coordinates: 43.7882770, -114.5691094 Activation date: 2022-03-22 MY REPLY: Thanks for your email. However this case remains VERY unsettling to me and my team of professionals who use your products! A $5000+ kit (Drone + Remote combo) randomly malfunctions... causing the drone to fall out of the sky with no warning or reason... and you are unable to determine anything about the potential cause for this crash...?! NO other information or ideas as to why this might have happened? Any other similar cases..? How can I feel comfortable trusting your product while flying commercially for clients or over populated areas... Instead I have to PAY DJI to replace this drone in the form of Care Refresh Express..! Why was the the "flight controller data overwritten"..? Why did it cut off..? Can I get credit for a Care Refresh replacement I had to use that was not pilot error of any kind..? Thank you for any further assistance... Has this happend to anyone else..? Any ideas or info would be gratly apprecaited so I can returned to flying the Mavic 3 with confindence....

 

[Dumeinao]

Does the remote still work? Can you control another drone with it? Sounds like you got hit with some sort of EMP source, whether random or not. Does the drone still power on and check in with the remote even though you can't fly it?

 

[Little Gary]

Does the remote still work? Can you control another drone with it? Sounds like you got hit with some sort of EMP source, whether random or not. Does the drone still power on and check in with the remote even though you can't fly it?

Yes the remote works fine and is now paired with a new Mavic 3 Cine. After the initial crash I did not attempt to power on the drone and connect with the remote. I believe it did reconnect after it hit the ground but we turned it off immediately. We were in the remote mountains so any EMP would be completely random...

 

[Meta4]

Sounds like you got hit with some sort of EMP source, whether random or not.

That's about the most unlikely cause.
It's not something that drones are going to encounter.

 

[Deleted member 162835]

I've had malfunctioning Cines but nothing like you describe. I've flown 150+ flight on my current Mavic 3 Cine using the same original RC Pro and have not ever experienced an issue with the RC Pro. I've not seen your scenario posted on here but maybe your tale of woe will spark others to speak up with like incidents. Shame you have no flight records.