Mavic Air caused itself to crash, twice

[5murf]

Hi Everyone, i only got my Mavic Air yesterday, and this is my first drone.

I was flying it fine and then i bought it into land (manually) I got a bit too close to a wall and the front sensors detected it, stopping the drone from going forward any more. But then i could not fly the drone backwards either (was clear behind), the drone then slowly drifted towards the wall until it crashed, i had no control over it happening. The exact same situation happened again later in the day.

The drone is fine, with just a couple of scuffs.

Does anyone have any idea on why this might have happened? Thanks

EDIT:
Flight logs - DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
Point of impact is at 3m 35s

 

[Detritalgeo]

I am not sure why it happened.

I wonder if the Pause button would have prevented it?

Maybe trying to calibrate the vision sensors using the dji assistant?

Would the prop guards have saved it?

 

[skyrex]

Have read of this happening to someone else (have a dig around the forum).
From memory the general consensus was firmware issue or sunlight on sensor(s) issue along the lines of what is seen as lens flare through a camera, the sensors think there is an obstacle where there isn't.

 

[Meta4]

close to a wall and the front sensors detected it, stopping the drone from going forward any more. ... the drone then slowly drifted towards the wall until it crashed, i had no control over it happening.

Flying close to obstacles is always a risk. It's hard to get into trouble when there's nothing to hit.

Slowly drifting close to a wall sounds like you may have blocked reception from GPS satellites and thus lost horizontal position holding ability.
But the only way to be sure what the issue was is to check the recorded flight data.
To do that, go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

 

[krauzz]

A quick recovery in situations like this is to switch to sports mode and maneuver away from obstacles or just go up if its clear.

 

[nalo_b]

I wonder if the Pause button would have prevented it?

The pause button is your friend! I’m no expert but get used to that button. I fly in an open park and have tested what happens when you press that button as well as other various safeguards. Try it out.

 

[Meta4]

The pause button is your friend! I’m no expert but get used to that button. I fly in an open park and have tested what happens when you press that button as well as other various safeguards. Try it out.

The pause button won't help much if there's no ability to hold position because GPS reception has been lost.

 

[5murf]

Flying close to obstacles is always a risk. It's hard to get into trouble when there's nothing to hit.

Slowly drifting close to a wall sounds like you may have blocked reception from GPS satellites and thus lost horizontal position holding ability.
But the only way to be sure what the issue was is to check the recorded flight data.
To do that, go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

Thank you (and everyone else) for the replies. I will definitely stick to flying in more open spaces from now on. As i said in the first post i am a complete newbie with this so this is most probably pilot error

Here are the flight logs: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

From what i can tell in the logs, 3m 35s was the point of impact

 

[InvisibleName]

A quick recovery in situations like this is to switch to sports mode and maneuver away from obstacles or just go up if its clear.

Err, no it's not! Pause is your friend in a situation like this

 

[sar104]

Err, no it's not! Pause is your friend in a situation like this

I don't quite see how "Pause" is going to help when there are no flight actions happening to be paused.

 

[Moose1967]

Might be you lost a few satellites when you got close to the building then went into ATI mode - being a newer pilot did you notice the top of the screen go from green to yellow?

 

[sar104]

Might be you lost a few satellites when you got close to the building then went into ATI mode - being a newer pilot did you notice the top of the screen go from green to yellow?

The log is posted above - it did not switch to ATTI mode.

 

[InvisibleName]

I don't quite see how "Pause" is going to help when there are no flight actions happening to be paused.

Ah, good point!

 

[GFields]

When that happens to me, I rotate the drone so the sensors are not facing the object and that has worked for me. Just make sure you move the MA correctly away from the obstacle and not into it.