Mavic Air 2 Sea crash due to a malfunction.

[cuckaburra]

With all due respect your honour he's badgering the witness my client deserves better.

 

[Meta4]

You are probably right. The drone cannot fill up within 5 seconds and sink 50m (unless a shark grabs it and pulls it down ...)

At 608.4 seconds the drone starts to slowly rotate anti-clockwise without any matching joystick input.

Half a second later the drone is tumbling and the first of several not enough power messages appears:
Max. Power output reached. Fly carefully. The aircraft has reached its maximum power rating. Decrease altitude and fly carefully. Should the problem persist ...


Around 612 seconds the IMU error message shows up (but the damage is already done)..
The error message shows as: Gyroscope initialization failed. Restart the aircraft (code: 30045). Max. Power of the aircraft reached. Decrease altitude and fly carefully.

At 612.8: Gyroscope initialization failed. Restart the aircraft (code: 30045). IMU calibration required. Please calibrate (Code: 30050). GPS signal weak. Stable hovering not possible. Please fly carefully (Code: 30002).
The GPS issue is due to the drone being upside down and tumbling, so it can't receive GPS signals properly.

This is repeated again several more times along with gimbal overloaded messages as the drone falls, tumbling at around 12 m/s.

The launch was around 53 metres above sea level.
The last data shows as 74 metres below the launch point, which would be about 20 metres below sea level (if the barometric data was accurate).
The pitch, roll and yaw data doesn't show any collision which should be obvious if the sensors are working properly.

That gyro message is interesting and not one that I've seen in an incident like this before.
Was it the cause or was it a symptom of the spinning and tumbling?

Definitely worth submitting this one to DJI for them to decide.

 

[Meta4]

With all due respect your honour he's badgering the witness my client deserves better.

Your client should know better by now

 

[Phantomrain.org]

That's irrelevant in this case

DJi is going to be much more interested in the data.
Video would just show that the drone fell but give no indication of why

Really?
I've been looking at Phantom data for 6 years and never seen any proof of one flying away.
I think you just mean drones lost without understanding the cause.

Truly : Before I knew anything about drones I submitted my fly away to DJI , they asked me for the video Cashe and the logs and we had 31 emails back and fourth each email taking 1 day , they sent me a 100% coupon for a brand new Drone without the controller, The Second time it happened they did the exact same thing, So i only have experience as Ihave written about the situation plenty. DJI forum and this one.

Both times I remember the result being a yaw error and having the video each time helped them make a decision in the case .

Both time Magnetic Interference was the start of the Fly Away.
Have not had anything like that happen since the Dawn of the Mavics.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your DJI in the Rain / Snow

 

[Meta4]

Both times I remember the result being a yaw error and having the video each time helped them make a decision in the case .

The video wouldn't have been any use in analysing the cause of the incident.
But if they say it was a yaw error, that's not mysteriously flying away.
It a drone zipping off because you launched from a spot where magnetic interference caused the compass used to initialise the gyro sensor to read incorrectly.
That causes serious issues when you move the drone away from the magnetic interference.
If DJI gave you a free drone over that, consider yourself lucky.
Someone there slipped up.
Yaw error incidents are usually regarded as user error.

Have not had anything like that happen since the Dawn of the Mavics.

Mavics have been involved in plenty of yaw error cases too.

But there's no hint that magnetic issues were at all involved in the incident that this thread is about.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

The video wouldn't have been any use in analysing the cause of the incident.
But if they say it was a yaw error, that's not mysteriously flying away.
It a drone zipping off because you launched from a spot where magnetic interference caused the compass used to initialise the gyro sensor to read incorrectly.
That causes serious issues when you move the drone away from the magnetic interference.
If DJI gave you a free drone over that, consider yourself lucky.
Someone there slipped up.
Yaw error incidents are usually regarded as user error.


Mavics have been involved in plenty of yaw error cases too.

But there's no hint that magnetic issues were at all involved in the incident that this thread is about.

I get that, new to the Gyro error so was curious about that situation . Got Lucky twice within the same Month. lol
I really think it was an update as they were putting out new ones every week, That is when I landed on the 501 legend firmware for the phantom 4 , the same one I use today.

 

[DroneZone Samui]

I only have 1 Question for you , were you using any Third Party Cables or Ribbons on your drone , was it all stock ?

It was all original, no ribbon and the battery has 22 charging cycles. There is also no video bcs. the cam was turned off on the way back.
Compass and gyroscope were okay and freshly calibrated. On the first flight (half an hour before) there was no error message. I also saw on the display that the drone suddenly began to spin wildly, as if a sudden failure of gyro data messed everything up ...... and also called for "recalibration".

 

[Phantomrain.org]

It was all original, no ribbon and the battery has 22 charging cycles.

So as Meta 4 Suggested it worth sending it in , what about the video Cash do you have any as there going to ask you for it. ?

 

[DroneZone Samui]

So as Meta 4 Suggested it worth sending it in

The Drone is still in the ocean there 50m deep. It is not possible to recover it because of the depth and current. Maybe for an experienced diver with good equipment, but this is here not available at the moment ....
I will probably get a replacement drone. But what concerns me is whether such an incident can happen again? Is it the age of the drone that matters? Does electronics really only have such a short lifespan to function perfectly?

(So far all MA2 are only a few months old with more or less flight time)

 

[Phantomrain.org]

The Drone is still in the ocean there 50m deep. It is not possible to recover it because of the depth and current. Maybe for an experienced diver with good equipment, but this is not available at the moment ....

Sorry I am talking about the video that is captured on the Controller, ? A video cashe of sorts.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic 2 in the Rain / Snow and Float on Water.

 

[DroneZone Samui]

You mean the video on the phone? but this was not activated, only capturing on SD Card.
Anyway the cam was turned off and also the screenrecorder.....

 

[Phantomrain.org]

You mean the video on the phone? but this was not activated, only capturing on SD Card.
Anyway the cam was turned off and also the screenrecorder.....

Oh no thats to bad , the chances of DJI doing the happy dance with you are not as good from my Experience without the cashe video but none the less you can still move forward with a claim.

 

[boblui]

.... what concerns me is whether such an incident can happen again? Is it the age of the drone that matters? Does electronics really only have such a short lifespan to function perfectly?

(So far all MA2 are only a few months old with more or less flight time)

Similar incidents due to IMU failing mid-flight have been reported in the past in this forum but its kind of rare. The common symptoms are the warning messages about IMU failure, compass error, motor overload and the craft subsequently going into ATTI mode because the flight controller determined that the IMU was unable to sense the orientation correctly.

Higher end models like the Mavic 2 are equipped with two IMUs so if one fails, the other can take over. They are supposed to be more reliable but I have seen crash reports involving IMU malfunction for those models also.

These drones are just consumer-grade machines, they can fail and I believe it's more due to manufacturing defects or poor quality control instead of aging. This is no doubt a warranty case so you should be able to get a free replacement from DJI.

 

[slup]

Yep ... even with only Airdata to check off the log, this is pretty clear, can't see a single sign that this was caused by a pilot error, the lack of some kind of video proof will not matter at all. These drones don't have enough redundancy built in so when a enough vital component fails it's usually game over... all man made thing's will fail eventually, what we pilots can do is to take failures like this into consideration when choosing how & where we fly.

My guess is that DJI will return a message to your favor in this case ...

 

[icecoldgin]

Sorry for your loss. It is always sad whenever a fellow flyer loses a drone.

I hope that DJI resolves this claim to your favor.

 

[DroneZone Samui]

Dji products are without a doubt the best available, even if they are a bit expensive.
Let's hope that such rare malfunctions can be fixed in the future with new developments and that we will have even more fun with the next Air 3 or Mavic 3 ....
Thanks for your answers and always have a good flight!

 

[Drone-Retriever]

Sorry to hear about your loss.
For your next drone when flying over water there are several devices that would allow you to recover it.
Check out drone-retriever .com for some insight on various products and your options for next time.

 

[Meta4]

Here is the flight log:

FYI .. water depth where it went in is only 5 metres if you wanted to snorkel for the wreck.

 

[DroneZone Samui]

FYI .. water depth where it went in is only 5 metres if you wanted to snorkel for the wreck.

I've already looked at it more closely with the binocular. The zone is 20m deep, probably even deeper. The drone also moves quickly with the current and is very difficult to find. That takes a lot of effort and is not worth it ...

 

[tlswift58]

That means: Dji is currently working on the case, and I would like to wait for their assessment and decision ... before speculation and opinions begin here in the forum
Just wait a little; I think the support will let me know in the next few hours...

If you post your logs here, then you can have some possible answers before DJI tells you it's pilot error or something to keep from replacing your drone weeks from now.

And believe us, it will be weeks before DJI gets back to you. Slower than mud during Covid.