NTSB Investigates Drone Injury

[kshaw]

NTSB Investigating Drone Pilot Injury - AVweb

The NTSB says the pilot of a DJI Matrice drone suffered a serious hand injury after tangling with the uncooperative aircraft near Young Harris, Georgia, on May 6. According to a preliminary report (search CEN21LA224), the pilot was demonstrating the drone to a prospective customer but the...

www.avweb.com

 

[dirkclod]

Well bet his prospective customer isn’t so prospective no more ?

 

[JackL]

This guy sounds like he would probably get hurt by a toaster.

 

[Itzmyobsession]

This guy sounds like he would probably get hurt by a toaster.

?

 

[Phantomrain.org]

This is Panic , brought on by the Demonstration of a sale , and a terrible lack of judgement.
I would be ashamed to be in the article as the pilot let alone the guy reaching in with his hands.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in the Rain.

 

[spsphotos]

Bet he didn't bother trying to move the drone away from him and the jail. Id10t. That's a powerful drone..you don't just pull it out of the air.

 

[screwthepap]

"The drone and the remote are being examined by the NTSB."

What's there to examine? The Matrice was doing exactly what it was programmed to do, i.e., not fly into a restricted zone.

If anything needed examination, it was the pilot's proficiency for operating a drone.

 

[brett8883]

Did you guys read the article? He wasn’t in the restricted zone when this happened per the article. This drone has RTK reception, it is capable of centimeter level GPS precision. He flew the drone away from the jail when it became unresponsive. Refusing commands to land is not typical restricted zone behavior. Becoming unresponsive to control stick input but allowing RTH is not restricted zone behavior. The drone clearly went haywire and I blame DJI for having software that takes the control out of the pilots hands.

Sound all the alarms and prevent takeoff in restricted zones but do not take away control from the pilot. Nobody would drive a car that could suddenly prevent the driver from controlling the vehicle.

This is a $30,000-$45,000 drone btw. This shouldn’t have happened.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Did you guys read the article? He wasn’t in the restricted zone when this happened per the article. This drone has RTK reception, it is capable of centimeter level GPS precision. He flew the drone away from the jail when it became unresponsive. Refusing commands to land is not typical restricted zone behavior. Becoming unresponsive to control stick input but allowing RTH is not restricted zone behavior. The drone clearly went haywire and I blame DJI for having software that takes the control out of the pilots hands.

Sound all the alarms and prevent takeoff in restricted zones but do not take away control from the pilot. Nobody would drive a car that could suddenly prevent the driver from controlling the vehicle.

This is a $30,000-$45,000 drone btw. This shouldn’t have happened.

TRUE , however the INJURY should have never happened .

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

 

[brett8883]

TRUE , however the INJURY should have never happened .

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

I think it’s easy to look in hind sight and say what he should have done and not have done but we weren’t there and don’t know what he was experiencing. The props are inverted and underslung on the M300. I’m not sure it was such a terrible idea to try to pop the batteries if you didn’t know what happened to him. Not a ton of other options. This drone was clearly going haywire so who knows what it would do next, I’d probably rather it be me than a bystander.

Only other thing I can think of is to try and flip it but could be the M300 is too powerful for that

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I think it’s easy to look in hind sight and say what he should have done and not have done but we weren’t there and don’t know what he was experiencing. The props are inverted and underslung on the M300. I’m not sure it was such a terrible idea to try to pop the batteries if you didn’t know what happened to him. Not a ton of other options. This drone was clearly going haywire so who knows what it would do next, I’d probably rather it be me than a bystander.

Only other thing I can think of is to try and flip it but could be the M300 is too powerful for that

the pilot was demonstrating the drone to a prospective customer but the aircraft wouldn’t respond correctly to control inputs. He hit the “return to home” feature and the drone settled into a hover at about seven feet above a vehicle in the parking lot where the demonstration took place. When the drone refused to budge and ignored a command to land, the pilot gave his customer the remote and tried to move the drone manually by grabbing the landing gear. The drone resisted and headed back to its holding position. When he tried to take the batteries out of the still-hovering drone he was hit by one of the propellers and suffered tendon and nerve damage in one hand. It wasn’t until he discussed the incident with an NTSB investigator that he learned what had caused the drone’s obstinance.

Its Panic : We have all had drones exhibit the same behavior when in the Geo Zone, , i have a ton of video showing how that happens . Let alone taking off from a Parking Lot surrounded by Cars. Not the best move.


Notice how the Phantom will not move forward or backward , but only up and down. IN THE GEO ZONE
Also notice how it gets stopped going forward.

 

[screwthepap]

Since the drone was just hovering in one position, if he had just waited for the batteries to run out, would it have just landed itself? It would have landed on top of a vehicle, but that would have been safer than trying to yank the battery out whilst the drone was still airborne.

 

[brett8883]

the pilot was demonstrating the drone to a prospective customer but the aircraft wouldn’t respond correctly to control inputs. He hit the “return to home” feature and the drone settled into a hover at about seven feet above a vehicle in the parking lot where the demonstration took place. When the drone refused to budge and ignored a command to land, the pilot gave his customer the remote and tried to move the drone manually by grabbing the landing gear. The drone resisted and headed back to its holding position. When he tried to take the batteries out of the still-hovering drone he was hit by one of the propellers and suffered tendon and nerve damage in one hand. It wasn’t until he discussed the incident with an NTSB investigator that he learned what had caused the drone’s obstinance.

Its Panic : We have all had drones exhibit the same behavior when in the Geo Zone, , i have a ton of video showing how that happens . Let alone taking off from a Parking Lot surrounded by Cars. Not the best move.


Notice how the Phantom will not move forward or backward , but only up and down. IN THE GEO ZONE
Also notice how it gets stopped going forward.

Sounds like he couldn’t get it to come down either. He tried doing the same thing you did but the M300 requires both hands to catch. He gave the remote to the client so he could hand catch while the other person tried to stop the motors which didn’t work. He tried pulling it away from the car so it wouldn’t land on the car. That didn’t work either.

Obviously it didn’t work well him but putting myself in his shoes with a $30,000 14 pound flying lawn mower merchant of death going haywire I don’t really blame him for trying everything in his power to get it down as quickly as possible.

 

[kshaw]

I do not know about this particular drone, but my MA2 has an emergency shutdown procedure which can turn off power to the props. At seven feet AGL, this would have likely worked without damaging the drone. There was even time to move the car that was underneath it.

 

[Ralph thompson]

Somebody operating a powerful expensive drone and he doesn’t have a mandatory checklist that requires him to check the area for restrictions? Imagine a pilot taking off with a pitot cover in place or swinging the prop without checkin the ignition. Don’t blame DJI. An adage amount pilots “you won’t live long enough to learn from your mistakes”

 

[Armillaria]

Considering how many warning messages the pilot missed I would be pretty surprised if he didn't miss something else. The guy seems to have some serious problem with decision making (starting with his choice of the place to fly the drone at).

 

[cgmaxed]

Why did he get the NTSB involved. I know the rule, you are supposed too in a situation like his. But he was the pilot. I would only report it, if I were planning to sue the drone manufacturer or make a disability claim. I suspect the game this guy is playing, though unintentional, is not over. I think he may get the judge on his side. A drone shouldn't lock out the drone pilot in any circumstance. If the judge sees it this way, this pilot's gonna be rich.

 

[gajman]

NTSB Investigating Drone Pilot Injury - AVweb

The NTSB says the pilot of a DJI Matrice drone suffered a serious hand injury after tangling with the uncooperative aircraft near Young Harris, Georgia, on May 6. According to a preliminary report (search CEN21LA224), the pilot was demonstrating the drone to a prospective customer but the...

www.avweb.com

So, in the air space research, he saw nothing. The Pilot in Command didn't check with Aloft, Be4ufly, or Airman before takeoff. He did not deserve the injury, no one does, but Darwin would be pleased. What a failure of checklist, situational awareness and preparation. It is this (deleted by moderator) that has caused many restrictions.

 

[cgmaxed]

NTSB Investigating Drone Pilot Injury - AVweb

The NTSB says the pilot of a DJI Matrice drone suffered a serious hand injury after tangling with the uncooperative aircraft near Young Harris, Georgia, on May 6. According to a preliminary report (search CEN21LA224), the pilot was demonstrating the drone to a prospective customer but the...

www.avweb.com

So, in the air space research, he saw nothing. The Pilot in Command didn't check with Aloft, Be4ufly, or Airman before takeoff. He did not deserve the injury, no one does, but Darwin would be pleased. What a failure of checklist, situational awareness and preparation. It is this (deleted by moderator) that has caused many restrictions.

Question. Just asking. Why do you think he reported himself to the authorities? I doubt the ER doctors did. It's not in their purview to do so.

 

[kshaw]

Question. Just asking. Why do you think he reported himself to the authorities? I doubt the ER doctors did. It's not in their purview to do so.

The NTSB regulation CFR 830 requires that the operator of an aircraft provide notification of any “accident” and certain “incidents” to the NTSB immediately. An accident is where (1) a person on board suffers serious injury or loss of life or (2) where the aircraft suffers substantial damage.