Mavic Mini crash

[Crashbandicot]

Low quality images of the cache recorded on the phone before the crash.
After many successful flights with the Mavic Mini, I finally lost it for unknown reasons.
It sank to the river suddenly for no technical reason. Sufficient satellite coverage, no wind warnings or overloaded engines, only 300 mts. distance from the remote control without interference, 40% battery, .....
I have sent the video and flight record to DJI to determine the causes of the accident.
Attached the flight record
See the video here:

 

[mullern88]

I remember comments here about issues when flying very low over unstructured surfaces (water, snow). Maybe your MM ran into that.

 

[ThorDar]

Looks like you may have clipped a tree branch.

 

[Crashbandicot]

Looks like you may have clipped a tree branch.

Looking frame by frame final footage seems no tree branch is in front of the dron. Going to crash site afterwards I did not see tree branches close to the water.

 

[Abe Froeman]

Low quality images of the cache recorded on the phone before the crash.
After many successful flights with the Mavic Mini, I finally lost it for unknown reasons.
It sank to the river suddenly for no technical reason. Sufficient satellite coverage, no wind warnings or overloaded engines, only 300 mts. distance from the remote control without interference, 40% battery, .....
I have sent the video and flight record to DJI to determine the causes of the accident.
Attached the flight record
See the video here:

Looks like you lost connection when you went behind that large concrete support. That is when the drone seemed to start dropping

 

[Airbeaver]

Strange, looking at the video it does look like it hit something or something hit it. Maybe some fishing line / other debris was hanging off the bridge and got caught in the props. Were you able to retrieve it?

Curious to see what the pros find in the flight data.

 

[Airbeaver]

Bit of a strange anomaly in the video frames just before 1.49 seconds. Might just be a bug zipping by, not sure... Seems to pop out of nowhere for one frame and then vanish just as quickly as it appeared.

Maybe its a missed pellet gun shot, somebody standing on the shore and shot it down? The way the video cuts out almost instantly might back that up idk?

Screen shot attached.

 

[sar104]

Looking frame by frame final footage seems no tree branch is in front of the dron. Going to crash site afterwards I did not see tree branches close to the water.

I think you hit these branches - your turn to the left at the end didn't correct the course fast enough.



The telemetry records a sudden deceleration and pitch up:

 

[Guitarzan]

Can you go back to those low branches and see if there's some old fishing line hanging out? There are several old grain mills in my area and all have bridges close by and also power lines crossing the water. I've considered flying under said bridges, but they all have abandoned fishing lines and lures hanging off. I only saw these lines after walking across the bridge and looking up close.

 

[Crashbandicot]

Can you go back to those low branches and see if there's some old fishing line hanging out? There are several old grain mills in my area and all have bridges close by and also power lines crossing the water. I've considered flying under said bridges, but they all have abandoned fishing lines and lures hanging off. I only saw these lines after walking across the bridge and looking up close.

As said before, I was carefully looking from the river side close to the site of the accident. The branches of the tree seen in the footage did not seem to be the problem, and there was nothing hanging anywhere. In fact the place was very inaccessible and it took me half an hour to get there.

 

[old man mavic]

i have watched the video some twenty times now ,and i am with Sar on this one, it just didn't react to your stick input quickly enough and touched the twigs ,and because of the height you were flying at it did not have time to recover

 

[sar104]

As said before, I was carefully looking from the river side close to the site of the accident. The branches of the tree seen in the footage did not seem to be the problem, and there was nothing hanging anywhere. In fact the place was very inaccessible and it took me half an hour to get there.

How did you determine that they were not the problem?

 

[Drone Master]

I watched the video as well several times and it looks like fishing line to me.
A fraction of a second before the video ends, you can almost see it wrap around the camera or the front right prop. You have to watch it closely. Last 3 frames.
Just my observation of course.

 

[lannes]

I watched the video as well several times and it looks like fishing line to me.
A fraction of a second before the video ends, you can almost see it wrap around the camera or the front right prop. You have to watch it closely. Last 3 frames.
Just my observation of course.

+1, I also see the fishing line at 1:47

 

[m80116]

He's simply hit the water. MM has a 24mm wide angle camera, what's passing underneath in the final moments it's not a bug nor an artifact but very likely one of the many small objects kept afloat by surface tension, probably a winged seed. Other water surface specks approach pretty fast on the left moments prior to the incident.

 

[subcon959]

He's simply hit the water. MM has a 24mm wide angle camera, what's passing underneath in the final moments it's not a bug nor an artifact but very likely one of the many small objects kept afloat by surface tension, probably a winged seed. Other water surface specks approach pretty fast on the left moments prior to the incident.

Yes, seems pretty clear, especially if you slow the video down to 0.25 speed. No idea if it was pilot error but it definitely didn't hit anything, just got too low and went into the water.

 

[Moixixon]

Just before crashing, MM did a sudden turn left, and then gos straight on again. I’ve had the same strange behaviour in my last flight.

 

[sar104]

He's simply hit the water. MM has a 24mm wide angle camera, what's passing underneath in the final moments it's not a bug nor an artifact but very likely one of the many small objects kept afloat by surface tension, probably a winged seed. Other water surface specks approach pretty fast on the left moments prior to the incident.

Yes, seems pretty clear, especially if you slow the video down to 0.25 speed. No idea if it was pilot error but it definitely didn't hit anything, just got too low and went into the water.

I wondered if that was what happened - especially since the last few video frames look as if they were underwater - but the view immediately before that looked to be a bit high.r Here are consecutive frames at the end:






The VPS system was reading almost zero though, so you may be right.

 

[Rodders]

i have watched the video some twenty times now ,and i am with Sar on this one, it just didn't react to your stick input quickly enough and touched the twigs ,and because of the height you were flying at it did not have time to recover

I think you are right first time, yes.

 

[sunbinder]

Funny, this is the second drone crash video within the context of metallic structures of bridges (also w. embedded rebar) this week. Coincidence?