Why did my Mavic Air 2 fall out of the sky after 1 minute of flight?

[samysys]

Also, while the battery disconnect theory is the most plausible explanation so far, it may still be due to other reason. The battery performance was stable during the flight. No major voltage deviation and all cell discharge evenly…..

yet, I don’t have any other better explanation too…

 

[rjwmorrell]

46 charges, column DM of the Ph csv, "BATTERY.timesCharged"

That doesn't seem excessive, so maybe the prior crash caused some internal damage.

 

[shb]

My mavic pro platinum battery came off during flight, and I don't remember any warnings like reposition your antenna. It just instantly lost connection.

 

[Meta4]

I don't remember any warnings like reposition your antenna. It just instantly lost connection.

Those messages simply mean that connection has been lost.
And the reason connection was lost was that the drone had lost power.
Repositioning antennas won't make any difference in that situation.

 

[Dumeinao]

To me it looks like an impact distorted the battery. If it popped out just slightly and the drone wasn't hovering, I can see an initial loss of signal, followed by a decaying flight path that would eventually let the battery fall out. If it was hovering it MIGHT have been able to say connected just enough to stay hovering. I'm totally speculating here.

 

[MNewman]

Okay, so, couple things about this.

1) I have three batteries -- and I absolutely do not know if the battery that was in the drone when I crashed into the tree branch was the same as the battery I flew when the drone fell out of the sky. It probably wasn't, actually. But even if it was the same battery, why would it still be able to fly properly for several minutes after hitting the tree branch? Wouldn't it have just crashed or fallen out of the sky right then and there? The battery I used yesterday was definitely not swollen. Which means it would have had to suddenly swell within 60 seconds of being in the air. Is that even possible?

2) As far as where the battery was found compared to the drone, keep in mind that it crashed on a somewhat steep hill side. Is it not possible that the drone crashed on its side, causing the battery to pop out and then roll down the hill, hitting the stones at the bottom and flying off at a diagonal? Also, the site of where I drew on those pictures for where everything was found are rough estimates, so it's not 100% exact. I didn't take any pictures of the exact spot of the wreckage.

3) Assuming the battery was fine, is it at all possible that an angry neighbor with a jammer knocked the power out of it and that's what made it fall out of the sky? Has anybody encountered this happening? I ask because two of my last three drone shoots have involved neighbors getting in my face to complain about me flying a drone in their neighborhood, and one even called the cops on me (they took my side, of course). To be clear, both of those incidents were in completely different neighborhoods.

4) If a battery can look okay, charge okay, and seem okay, but then fail out of the blue during flight, doesn't that mean flying drones is extremely unsafe since they can just fall out of the sky at any time?

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

The attached is the motor rpm plot for this flight, it has no value in terms of diagnosis in this flight but I thought it might interest you.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Okay, so, couple things about this.

1) I have three batteries -- and I absolutely do not know if the battery that was in the drone when I crashed into the tree branch was the same as the battery I flew when the drone fell out of the sky. It probably wasn't, actually. But even if it was the same battery, why would it still be able to fly properly for several minutes after hitting the tree branch? Wouldn't it have just crashed or fallen out of the sky right then and there? The battery I used yesterday was definitely not swollen. Which means it would have had to suddenly swell within 60 seconds of being in the air. Is that even possible?

With regards to
1) If you have the log from the tree crash flight then the log will contain the serial number of the battery in use, this should be found in the columns entitled "RECOVER.batterySerial" & "DETAILS.batterySerial".
The battery of this thread's flight has the serial number 1Z3PH8LEA102E1.

2) I VERY much doubt that the battery would roll diagonally across the face of the hill. Even if it did I suspect it would end up beyond the remains of the drone and not 'behind' the drone by an apparently significant amount.

3) I very much doubt it, from what I have read jammers are intended to force loss of control and or more likely a controlled descent to the ground.
To cause a mid air shut down would be dangerous and probably illegal under FAA rules and considered as an attempt to damage an aircraft. I suspect the user of a device that would force a shut down could be liable to Federal prosecution.

4) Not being nasty but there is always a risk with flying a drone. This is why I, personally, think people are nuts flying over built up areas, all sorts of things can cause a drone to crash and the pilot should take that into consideration when flying.
For this reason I can't help but wonder why a real estate photographer took off from one street and flew 230ft away to another street.
To my mind it would have been better to fly close to the property I assume was being photgraphed.

BTW if this was a commercial flight you might be legally obldged to report the crash to the FAA, I suggest you look into that and possibly message @Vic Moss and or @BigAl07

 

[rjwmorrell]

Okay, so, couple things about this.

1) I have three batteries -- and I absolutely do not know if the battery that was in the drone when I crashed into the tree branch was the same as the battery I flew when the drone fell out of the sky. It probably wasn't, actually. But even if it was the same battery, why would it still be able to fly properly for several minutes after hitting the tree branch? Wouldn't it have just crashed or fallen out of the sky right then and there? The battery I used yesterday was definitely not swollen. Which means it would have had to suddenly swell within 60 seconds of being in the air. Is that even possible?

2) As far as where the battery was found compared to the drone, keep in mind that it crashed on a somewhat steep hill side. Is it not possible that the drone crashed on its side, causing the battery to pop out and then roll down the hill, hitting the stones at the bottom and flying off at a diagonal? Also, the site of where I drew on those pictures for where everything was found are rough estimates, so it's not 100% exact. I didn't take any pictures of the exact spot of the wreckage.

3) Assuming the battery was fine, is it at all possible that an angry neighbor with a jammer knocked the power out of it and that's what made it fall out of the sky? Has anybody encountered this happening? I ask because two of my last three drone shoots have involved neighbors getting in my face to complain about me flying a drone in their neighborhood, and one even called the cops on me (they took my side, of course). To be clear, both of those incidents were in completely different neighborhoods.

4) If a battery can look okay, charge okay, and seem okay, but then fail out of the blue during flight, doesn't that mean flying drones is extremely unsafe since they can just fall out of the sky at any time?

So, this is why I mark my batteries and use them in order as much as possible. Knowing which battery was in an aircraft for an incident is pretty important information, and though indication have this practice last month when my Air 2S collided with wires, it's something I'll be including on collision reports I do from now on.

If the battery released post crash, its unlikely to have been that badly damaged simply from rolling away from the crashed aircraft. In factbits unlikely to roll downhill very well at all, it's an orthotope (rectangular 3s object).

It's very unlikely your neighbour possesses the unusual and highly illegal technology to jam drone signals. Even if they did, this would not cause instant power down of the drone, it would simply prevent the drone and C2 connection, which would initiate a RTH. If your neighbour perhaps possessed a directed electromagnetic pulse device, again highly illegal and dangerous, not to mention very technical, I suppose it's possible it could power down a drone. Perhaps someone here who knows more about EMPs can supply more information about that feasibility. But bottom line, there is a principal in accident investigation (and indeed most of life) that says the most obvious cause is, in absence of any other evidence, the most probable. It isn't probable that a person had an EMP and shot it at your drone. EDIT: This is known as Occam's Razor.

Finally, yes, drone are inherently dangerous. You are putting an moving object with high speed spinning blades in the sky, and yes it can fall, or parts of it can fall, at any time. That's why you need a licence for them, why you need to register them, and why in many places you need liability insurance - just like any other aircraft. Anything under 250g is not heavy enough to cause serious injury in most cases, and so many places exempt smaller drones. But the fact is, yes they are potentially dangerous. They are not toys, they are not just another way to take pictures.

 

[shb]

Maybe the battery was not inserted properly. On the mavic 3 we get a message if we do that. Sorry for your loss.

 

[MNewman]

With regards to
1) If you have the log from the tree crash flight then the log will contain the serial number of the battery in use, this should be found in the columns entitled "RECOVER.batterySerial" & "DETAILS.batterySerial".
The battery of this thread's flight has the serial number 1Z3PH8LEA102E1.

4) I can't help but wonder why a real estate photographer took off from one street and flew 230ft away to another street. To my mind it would have been better to fly close to the property I assume was being photgraphed.

To point 1 -- where exactly do I find the RECOVER & DETAILS for the batterySerial? In the txt file, the csv, the dat or the kml?

To point 4 -- as a real estate photographer, it is very normal to capture the house at multiple altitudes and to also capture the neighborhood as a whole. I usually never go above 250 feet unless the property has expansive land. In this case, the agent on site requested I show how close the house was to a hiking trail a block away, so it was necessary to go that high and to travel a block away.


I do have follow-up questions about the above explanations:

1) After I inserted the battery into the drone, I then carried the drone at a 90 degree angle towards a suitable home spot before setting it down upright. If the battery really wasn't inserted correctly, how is it possible that it could stay in during that walk, power on, take off, and fly for a full solid minute?

2) If the battery used was the same as the one involved in the crash with the tree branch, how can there not be any evidence in this flight log that the battery was compromised and/or dying?

3) If the battery was inserted properly but then swelled enough after 60 seconds of flight that it lost touch with the connective points and then the whole thing lost power and fell, what would cause it to swell like that? I should add it was not in any extreme cold or hot temperature, and that it was currently moving and not hovering when it lost its signal.

4) Jammers are actually not that hard to acquire and definitely can knock a drone out of the sky (Cheap GPS jammers a major threat to drones) (An Ultimate Guide To Drone Jammers | Updated (July 2023).). Even if it is illegal, there would be basically no way of catching who did it over a crowded neighborhood. Given that many people are paranoid that any drone they see is violating their privacy, why is it impossible that this is not what happened here?

 

[mobilehomer]

The easy way is Airdata. It shows the battery S/N.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

RECOVER & DETAILS

from the csv downloaded from the Phantomhelp wecsite/

1) After I inserted th

I don't know

2) If the battery used was

I don't know, you'd need to ask battery designers, chemists, or enginners.

3) If the battery was inserted pro

I don't know, you'd need ti ask battery designers, chemists and engineers.

At the end of the day you have been given what people think is the most likely reason for the drone crashing. The precise mechanism may never be known.
Perhaps @slup @Meta4 or @sar104 would care to weigh in

If you wish to believe its jammers then that is your choice.

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

I've had this happen to me where the battery was fine. I flew it around for a bit and was backing out to set up another shot and power went out and it came straight down. It was an Air 2S but the battery was older and out of my Air 2. It was basically about 20 ft in the air and about 30 ft from me at the time. Totally lost power but when I went to pick it up, it started the gimbal dance and powered on. Obviously there was just enough swelling to push the battery out of connection with the aircraft but not enough to dislodge the battery. That sounds to me what may have happened in this instance.

 

[rjwmorrell]

If you read through the forum, you'll find numerous reports of spontaneous power loss resulting in crashes. Whether the battery pops out mid-flight, or after the crash, or some other occurrence happens, the result is the same. The power loss results in immediate termination of flight resulting in impact with the ground.

The likelihood they're all as a result of jammers or EMPs is very slim to none. That technology isn't widely available, and who honestly would bother. We already know that LiPo batteries can have issues and can be volatile, so with the numbers of reports it seems the most likely cause.

However, as someone else said, you are free to draw your own conclusions about causes.

 

[gadroneguy]

I crashed an Air 2 because the batteries had swelled a bit and it wiggled it's way loose. This happened twice. The first time from 30 feet into the sand didn't destroy the drone. The last time from 300ft into rocks definitely did. I probably was close to 300 hours on the drone (but not the battery) by then. The Mavic 3 has a way better design so that the batteries don't simply fall out.

 

[MNewman]

Someone I ran into today said the same thing happened to them and they said it was because they were close to a lot of telephone poles/power lines. Could interference from that potentially cause the battery to short circuit? And if so, would that show up in the flight log?

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Someone I ran into today said the same thing happened to them and they said it was because they were close to a lot of telephone poles/power lines. Could interference from that potentially cause the battery to short circuit? And if so, would that show up in the flight log?

How could they? Genuine question.
I would have thought that domestic voltage power cables, 220?V /110V, carry, in British terminology, both live and neutral conductors which are adjacent and 'parallel' to one another and as such wouldn't their magnetic fields be opposing one another and thereby cancel each other out?
Wouldn't telephone cables operate in the same way but at MUCH smaller amperages?

If your high voltage (kV level) stuff is a single conductor per 'cable' then perhaps when close to an individual HT cable but otherwise........

 

[samysys]

@MNewman ,

Two facts:
1) the C2C link to your drone stop instantly,
2) Drone and battery are found in the vicinity of it's last known location.

For argument sake, let's say it was caused by drone jamming.... how was it done?
If just jam C2C, the drone will take it as connection lost and simply return home (inconsistent with Fact 2)
If just jam GPS, you willl able maintain the connection. (inconsistent with Fact 1)
It has to be jamming C2C link + GPS at the same time.

Is EMP likely?
No, for a EMP of such power (reaching 228 ft), the power ouput would be massive. you can expect that most electronics in the neighborhood would be affected (toasted, most likely) . Many would complain headache... If you did not notice anything like that, EMP is very unlikely.

So, what would happen to your drone?
It willl just behave like if it doesnt have GPS + signal...... it just hover until the battery is exhausted to "critical low level " and auto land..... in that case, the drone should be intact on landing....

Yes, the damage to the battery may be caused post landing by hateful bieghbor but DJI drone are robust, it is not easy to "break" at all....

Anyway, I think it would also help if you can post the photo of the damaged drone here. we may be able to find out more clues.

 

[BigAl07]

Someone I ran into today said the same thing happened to them and they said it was because they were close to a lot of telephone poles/power lines. Could interference from that potentially cause the battery to short circuit? And if so, would that show up in the flight log?

Someone doesn't know what they are talking about.

If the signal is lost/jammed the drone then initiates the Lost Signal action that has been established in the App. Default is usually Return To Home but it could be "Hover In Place". Neither of those are "cut power and fall to the ground".

A LiPo doesn't swell (aka PUFF) quickly unless there is some type of catastrophic discharge event (short in the cells, short in the aircraft wiring, short in the charge) and it puffs quickly with a high probability of catching fire if conditions are just right.

Here are my uneducated but experienced thoughts:

• 1) Battery was not fully seated and battery disconnect occurred during flight.
• 2) Upon impact (either in the aircraft or apart from the aircraft) the battery suffered enough internal damage that it shorted out "internally" and caused the PUFF.

I have had my M2P battery "pop out" post flight. I got lucky that it didn't happen in flight. I was walking back to the car carrying the M2P by one of it's legs and the battery just popped right out completely. Best I can tell is that I had 1 of the 2 latches secure but that one eventually released but nothing was damaged. Now when I go to turn ON the aircraft I literally give the battery a good "pull" to make sure it's completely seated and a couple of times it was NOT.