Catastrophic crash tonight - Phantom 3 Pro destroyed!!

Joined
Jun 16, 2015
Messages
119
Reaction score
35
Location
FL
I'm on day 3, maybe 6 flights in. My son and I wanted to take a short sunset flight tonights. All preflight checks, full battery, safe to fly, auto takeoff, go up to about 250' over my neighborhood, and the P3 suddenly starts violently spinning, controls unresponsive, makes a 250' plummet right in the middle of the street in front of our house, and its in about 100+ pieces. Completely destroyed. My kids and I retrieved most all of the parts. I wanted to cry. Now I'm just pissed. WTF happened? I wasn't doing anything crazy, and I am so careful and overly cautious. I located the Micro SD card...and there is a video file about 450MB...but it says that it is corrupt. How do I get flight data off of this thing to ensure DJI is buying me a new one?
 
  • Like
Reactions: TulsaReiner
What firmware?
What Pilot App version?

Copy the SD card incase you corrupt or damage the card.
Then reinsert into phantom 3 and see if you can power up? If the gimbal board can power up, it can then finalise the vid. If this fails, there is software that can salvage the vid (at a cost).

Maybe also go into the pilot app > User Centre and look at the flight records/cached vids.

I usually fly with a screen recorder. I use Mobizen on android.
 
Latest firmware was correctly downloaded to controller and P3P the day it was released v1.2.6 released on 6/15. Pilot app (iOS) v1.1.2

Yep, the flight data is there there, I took a small video of the 40 second flight via my iPhone recording the iPad. You can see where it goes to actually 300', no decent, starting to move forward, and you can see it go into a spin and decend at 50mph. Somebody please tell me this should be a slam dunk and DJI will back this and replace it. I'm sick.

Here is the video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/i3ca5awj9ki9xba/Video Jun 18, 9 39 55 PM.mov?dl=0
 
  • Like
Reactions: TulsaReiner
Latest firmware was correctly downloaded to controller and P3P the day it was released v1.2.6 released on 6/15. Pilot app (iOS) v1.1.2

Yep, the flight data is there there, I took a small video of the 40 second flight via my iPhone recording the iPad. You can see where it goes to actually 300', no decent, starting to move forward, and you can see it go into a spin and decend at 50mph. Somebody please tell me this should be a slam dunk and DJI will back this and replace it. I'm sick.

Here is the video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/i3ca5awj9ki9xba/Video Jun 18, 9 39 55 PM.mov?dl=0
I don't believe that anyone can predict DJI's opinion. I am still flying the old firmware 1.1.9 because I have not had any issues with it and there are numerous issues with 1.2.6-- some of them are showing up on this forum.

Really sorry for this misfortune-- :(hope that DJI will do right and get you another to replace this one. Were you having any issues on 1.1.9?
 
  • Like
Reactions: TulsaReiner
Sorry to hear about the crash. You should look at the stick inputs at the time of crash. You can toggle them on or off by clicking on the controls icon I n the lower left corner of the playback screen. That way you will be able to prove there was no CSC input by you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TulsaReiner
I don't believe that anyone can predict DJI's opinion. I am still flying the old firmware 1.1.9 because I have not had any issues with it and there are numerous issues with 1.2.6-- some of them are showing up on this forum.

Really sorry for this misfortune-- :(hope that DJI will do right and get you another to replace this one. Were you having any issues on 1.1.9?

Thanks man. I never even got to try 1.1.9...the day I got the P3 (that I've been researching and planning for months), they released the newer one. I work in tech, and typically a firmware update is always a good thing. Clearly not always. Not to say it was firmware...but not sure what else could be up. It seems like Vortex Ring State, but I was doing nothing that would put it there. I'll post back how it goes and the experience with DJI, and I'll post some crash pics tomorrow :(
 
Sorry to hear about the crash. You should look at the stick inputs at the time of crash. You can toggle them on or off by clicking on the controls icon I n the lower left corner of the playback screen. That way you will be able to prove there was no CSC input by you.

Thanks Jeff. CSC?
 
Thanks Jeff. CSC?
Combination Stick Command. The series of motor start/stop commands that can be entered to start or kill the motors. These combinations are supposed to be so unlikely in flight that they can't happen. Unfortunately, in reality, some can happen and cause a bird to drop from the sky.
 
sucks.. when this happen i'd switch to P-ATTI. but anyhow. hard to say what happened without full flight logs. compass failure? motor failure? Prop not well screwed in?
 
sucks.. when this happen i'd switch to P-ATTI. but anyhow. hard to say what happened without full flight logs. compass failure? motor failure? Prop not well screwed in?
Thanks...it does suck. I had a lot of flying plans this weekend, and I know this is not going to be a quick process. When you say flight logs...where do those come from?
 
  • Like
Reactions: TulsaReiner
Combination Stick Command. The series of motor start/stop commands that can be entered to start or kill the motors. These combinations are supposed to be so unlikely in flight that they can't happen. Unfortunately, in reality, some can happen and cause a bird to drop from the sky.

Good call...so I recorded the same video with the stick commands turned on.... you guys tell me what you think. Clearly I panicked as it was falling, but didn't do anything abnormal prior (at least I don't think)

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/av89c8ssz8ke21z/Video Jun 18, 10 34 07 PM.mov?dl=0
 
Ok. Looks like no CSC input to me[emoji322]. Next will to be to extract the flight logs from the internal data card. Not really for the rookies. Search in Phantom 3 Discussion section for reading data. It requires that your bird be capable of being turned on. Basically, you light up the controller and the app, then the bird. You connect the bird to the computer via the micro USB port on the bird. On the app you open the settings by clicking on the 4 dots arranged in a square. Then click on the copter icon. Go to advanced settings and scroll down and click on Enter Flight Data Mode and then download the file. The file can be read by using some free 3rd party apps online.
As I said that is just a quick overview and you should search for more specifics over in the Phantom Discussion section.
 
All these random crashes with no reasons to them are making me nervous! I know I won't be upgrading to the latest firmware once I receive mine. Sorry for your loss and hopefully DJI pulls through! From what I've seen, it certainly looks like something failed on the unit and not pilot error.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TulsaReiner
How many batteries did you have?
I assume you are from downunder and only have 1 battery that comes with the P3.
There are tolerance differences between the supplied battery and one purchased separately.
 
How many batteries did you have?
I assume you are from downunder and only have 1 battery that comes with the P3.
There are tolerance differences between the supplied battery and one purchased separately.
What you mean? Spare ones are better?
 
How many batteries did you have?
I assume you are from downunder and only have 1 battery that comes with the P3.
There are tolerance differences between the supplied battery and one purchased separately.

You'd think by the screen name I'm from down under, but am actually in the US. Was flying with the original battery (has maybe 6 or 7 flights on it) - on same day I received a spare battery, but it never flew.
 
Latest firmware was correctly downloaded to controller and P3P the day it was released v1.2.6 released on 6/15. Pilot app (iOS) v1.1.2

Yep, the flight data is there there, I took a small video of the 40 second flight via my iPhone recording the iPad. You can see where it goes to actually 300', no decent, starting to move forward, and you can see it go into a spin and decend at 50mph. Somebody please tell me this should be a slam dunk and DJI will back this and replace it. I'm sick.

Here is the video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/i3ca5awj9ki9xba/Video Jun 18, 9 39 55 PM.mov?dl=0
They "should" replace it, for sure. Whether they will or not is anyone's guess. I had a catastrophic crash in the Netherlands last week with my P2, which did a power dive into a Haarlem canal, and am just about to start the warranty process. Good luck to us both.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TulsaReiner
DattaGroover - best of luck to you. I don't look forward to that process.

Upon further inspection this morning, it looks like one of the props came off!. the other 3 props were either sheared off on impact or badly damaged. The 4th rotor had no prop. I looked all over for it around the crash site to no avail. I always give these a nice snug tightening after spinning them on, so I know it had nothing to do with how I put them on (I even double checked in my pre-flight). After reading a bit more on how this could potentially happen, sounds like maybe a motor failure either locking up, changing direction or something similar could spin off a prop?? Sounds rare, but not sure what else it could be.

Since I just received this 3 days ago, bought through Amazon, using my Amex, I am almost inclined to send it back and get a replacement unit this way, after hearing some horror stories about DJI warranty, and the fact that it could take 6+ weeks (unacceptable IMO). I feel like I would be on trial or something - after spending $1300 for a defective unit, to wait weeks, to only have them subjectively determine whether or not to replace it?? Any thoughts?

Here are all of the pics: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jlrwieleltlqyu1/AADJxWJh_Y4L2RXhCUN1ndRka?dl=0
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0412.jpg
    IMG_0412.jpg
    1.6 MB · Views: 10,857
DattaGroover - best of luck to you. I don't look forward to that process.

Upon further inspection this morning, it looks like one of the props came off!. the other 3 props were either sheared off on impact or badly damaged. The 4th rotor had no prop. I looked all over for it around the crash site to no avail. I always give these a nice snug tightening after spinning them on, so I know it had nothing to do with how I put them on (I even double checked in my pre-flight). After reading a bit more on how this could potentially happen, sounds like maybe a motor failure either locking up, changing direction or something similar could spin off a prop?? Sounds rare, but not sure what else it could be.

Since I just received this 3 days ago, bought through Amazon, using my Amex, I am almost inclined to send it back and get a replacement unit this way, after hearing some horror stories about DJI warranty, and the fact that it could take 6+ weeks (unacceptable IMO). I feel like I would be on trial or something - after spending $1300 for a defective unit, to wait weeks, to only have them subjectively determine whether or not to replace it?? Any thoughts?

Here are all of the pics: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jlrwieleltlqyu1/AADJxWJh_Y4L2RXhCUN1ndRka?dl=0
Amex doesn't cover quads. But I'd definitely go the amazon route first. Just make sure you back up the logs before doing anything else, just in case.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,354
Members
104,933
Latest member
mactechnic