Mavic Air2 Crash

rustyc · Nov 13, 2020

Hi All
Flying my Air2 for about a minute when it started spiralling out of control to its death in a gorge / river / tree. Drone couldn’t be located unfortunately. Wind conditions were calm and only warning on replaying the flight via the Fly app is Communication warning RC not connected. Motors sound like they were running as it spiralled as noise was oscillating.
Flight log is DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Any ideas what happened - I have DJI Care. Propeller edges were checked as I unfolded them and no nicks or cuts - drone probably only flown about 8 flights from new but I have over 60hrs flying time on Air and work Air2.

StantonZ · Nov 13, 2020

In light of recent firmware issues, would be good to post both the firmware and app version you were on. I'm kind of curious what the manufacture date of your battery was as well (we know that April MA2 batteries are suspect).

rustyc · Nov 13, 2020

StantonZ said:
In light of recent firmware issues, would be good to post both the firmware and app version you were on. I'm kind of curious what the manufacture date of your battery was as well (we know that April MA2 batteries are suspect).

I had trouble with an update about a week ago that it would disconnect all the time even only 60m away. Updated to latest on Wednesday and issues seemed to be fixed - flew the flight before this one over 1400m away without issue. Drone was bought in May so battery maybe made in April?? I have a work drone the same so will put spare battery in that to get details about it from there.

Meta4 · Nov 13, 2020

rustyc said:
Hi All
Flying my Air2 for about a minute when it started spiralling out of control to its death in a gorge / river / tree. Drone couldn’t be located unfortunately. Wind conditions were calm and only warning on replaying the flight via the Fly app is Communication warning RC not connected. Motors sound like they were running as it spiralled as noise was oscillating.

Your flight data doesn't give many clues as it ends just after a minute with the drone hovering 100 feet up.
The battery was fine and the pitch, roll and yaw data don't show any sign of a collision.

A disconnection wouldn't cause the drone to fall from the sky, but would have triggered RTH.
The most likely cause appears to be a sudden complete loss of power.

rustyc · Nov 13, 2020

Was strange as it was spinning out of control with motors going as we could hear and see it - the motor sound was oscillating up and down in pitch - we thought maybe propeller came off or one motor stopped and others were compensating trying to keep it in the air but the logs show nothing of what we heard which is strange

skunky1 · Nov 14, 2020

Maybe one of the props broke off?

Meta4 · Nov 14, 2020

rustyc said:
Was strange as it was spinning out of control with motors going as we could hear and see it - the motor sound was oscillating up and down in pitch - we thought maybe propeller came off or one motor stopped and others were compensating trying to keep it in the air but the logs show nothing of what we heard which is strange

If a drone could loses a prop or a motor, it will spiral down, but that doesn't kill the controller signal.
If a drone loses power, signal is lost immediately and the drone comes down.
The chances of your drone losing signal, and very soon after, also losing a prop or a motor are too small to consider as a likely explanation for the incident.

boblui · Nov 14, 2020

The case should be covered by warranty. Suggest to file a claim to DJI. The flight log has already proven that was due to equipment faulty.

Meta4 · Nov 14, 2020

boblui said:
The case should be covered by warranty. Suggest to file a claim to DJI. The flight log has already proven that was due to equipment faulty.

The flight data doesn't prove a thing.
DJI would be wanting something much more definite.

boblui · Nov 14, 2020

Meta4 said:
The flight data doesn't prove a thing.
DJI would be wanting something much more definite.

Not sure why you are so certain.

This case is at least not a pilot error. I definitely would encourage the OP to file a claim. I remember coming across a recent case in which DJI told the owner that the log could not prove whether it was due to equipment fault or pilot error and they offered the owner a new drone at 40% of the original price.

Meta4 · Nov 14, 2020

boblui said:
Not sure why you are so certain.

This case is at least not a pilot error. I definitely would encourage the OP to file a claim. I remember coming across a recent case in which DJI told the owner that the log could not prove whether it was due to equipment fault or pilot error and they offered the owner a new drone at 40% of the original price.

You would be giving him false hope.
The data just stops and doesn't point to any fault.
DJI would want to see something that explains what happened, not something that leaves that completely unexplained.
Without the wreckage, he can't hope for much more than DJI making a small % discount (and I've only seen them offer 40% just once).

StantonZ · Nov 14, 2020

Need that battery manufacture date guys! Something purchased in May could easily have an April manufacture date.

hiflyer201 · Nov 14, 2020

Mine are all May 3...hope that's a good date

Jane · Nov 15, 2020

rustyc said:
Hi All
Flying my Air2 for about a minute when it started spiralling out of control to its death in a gorge / river / tree. Drone couldn’t be located unfortunately. Wind conditions were calm and only warning on replaying the flight via the Fly app is Communication warning RC not connected. Motors sound like they were running as it spiralled as noise was oscillating.
Flight log is DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Any ideas what happened - I have DJI Care. Propeller edges were checked as I unfolded them and no nicks or cuts - drone probably only flown about 8 flights from new but I have over 60hrs flying time on Air and work Air2.

Sorry to hear about your drone. I have a Mavic Air 2 too and almost afraid to fly with this new app mess. But my question is how did you save your date files to send them as attachments here. This is probably a stupid question, but I want to be prepared to back up my drone in case it crashes. Thanks.

slup · Nov 15, 2020

Jane said:
... how did you save your date files to send them as attachments here.

You have the 2 usable logs saved in the mobile device you flew with. One ends with .TXT & contains mainly the telemetry, battery data, camera data & error flags ... but no raw sensor or motor data. The .TXT log records between motor start/stop. The other one ends with .DAT and contain similar data as the .TXT but also raw sensor & motor data, it records between power on/off.

The .DAT log stored in the AC itself is not usable for others than DJI staff as they mainly from all drone models coming after Mavic Pro are encrypted.

Go here and read up about logs in the first post --> Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide ... under section 3 there, it's described how to retrieve them.

Meta4 · Nov 15, 2020

Jane said:
But my question is how did you save your date files to send them as attachments here.

To send flight data to DJI, all you have to do is synch your flight records from the app.

rustyc · Nov 16, 2020

I made a claim with DJI so got a case number but they certainly make it hard to find it on their website and make it hard to fill details etc when you don’t have the drone to send in. Then also sent support an email with flight logs in dat and txt formats explaining what happened with case number - Let’s see what the response is.