DJI Phantom 2 Death Drop Crash Caught on Video

[Kelso Kubat]

can anyone explain :shock: why these things do that crazy side to side freak out type of thing and then crash? :shock:

 

[goldfishrock]

It's a horrible feeling not being able to trust your P2. Mine was 1.5km from me when it took a dive after a prop failure.... I was lucky I knew roughly where it had come down and was able to recover it. But now I haven't flown it more than a couple of hundred meters from me.

Just as an aside, the lights not being on after it hit the floor.... I found with mine that the battery had popped itself out enough to be disconnected.... That may be the reaon for having no lights once it had hit the deck?

 

[DroneRookie]

Mine did the exact same thing this past week. Unfortunately, I was at a higher elevation and over concrete. Fortunately, I was also recording it all. I will have a dealer for life if they can resolve the issue and get me my $$$ back or a new p2' although not sure that I will trust it anyway.

 

[tom3holer]

Same thing, I think, happened to me 2 weeks ago.

The P2 3Z was less then 3 weeks old with only a dozen flights on it and all the latest s/w. Other then toilet bowl issues it had been working fine.

I was about 800m upwind and was hovering at 60m or so photographing a waterfront house. Battery was at 50-60% as I turned to come back the video on the monitor started getting slightly noisy which is normal as antenna orientation is changing. Then all of a sudden there was absolutely no video at all. I gave it up elevator to gain height to see it that would help, it didn't. I then engaged failsafe (I operate in Naza-M mode) and expected to see it in less than 30 sec but it never returned. I spent many hours searching the area but it was not to be found. I did have a home lock before heading up the beach and also had my name on it. I believe it was a battery/power failure.

I did contact DJI and they did offer a 30% discount for a new one. It will ease the pain but an still out the FPV cost not to mention the new GoPro black+.

Tom

 

[Ejazzle]

wow I pretty much only fly mine over the ocean. This has me a little more concerned now.

 

[solargravity]

The battery did not eject and was intact even after the 10 ft fall. There is nothing else to the video but my dog running around the P2 as it was completely still after that. Secondly, my P2 will not power up at all anymore it simply turns on for 3 seconds and then turns off so I can't connect it to the software. It's all so crazy.

About DJI, I'm giving them a few more days before I start shaking my fist. Like I mentioned in my article on my site I was contacted already via FB and was told a support member would contact me but we are approaching 1 week. I can tell you that I'm not going to rest until this I receive a new Phantom P2 with a new Zenmuse H3-2D.

The unit was not even 35 days old and I only had 30 flights. I understand things happen but falling out of the sky for no reason is a product failure. I'm not about to see $1000 thrown away.

The crazy part is that I was shooting video to boast and promote how amazing the P2 has been. I'm reserving my fury to see what happens and giving them the chance to make it right.

Just curious if the battery will power up when disconnected to the Phantom? Have you tried a different battery in the craft? I just wonder if it's an issue with the battery or the craft? Sucks that you had to be one of the unlucky ones, and while these posts make me a bit nervous about flying, I think it's also good to keep in mind that there are thousands of these out there and for every person who's had such a failure there are probably many, many more who have flow without issue. I fly with floats over the water though JIC.

jimdenburg. I did have 2 batteries (the one I was using during the crash) and one not involved in the crash. The battery in the crash would power up and charge. After the crash I tried putting in my other new battery and it did nothing for the P2. We will see what happens next.

 

[solargravity]

Update: May 12, 2014

Well I heard back from DJI last week. Maybe my email, blog post tweets and YouTube posts finally sunk in. Nevertheless, I spoke with a very nice support member and after he apologized several times for DJI dropping the ball and not contacting me sooner and we finally have a plan for returning my unit to California for repair. - Yes Cali. weird right?

I was supposed to send the unit out late last week but I was busy so it went in the mail today. So the clock has officially started for DJI and I will make sure to post the info here.

Regardless, after all of my research and the number of people commenting to me after reading my blog posting (and of course the great visitors to PP as well) it's a little nerve racking to say the least.

I'm not sure if I will ever recover from the trauma that this crash ensued.

Like I mentioned before you can also keep tabs on my repair progress via my blog.
http://www.rchelimag.com/dji-phantom-2-death-drop-crash/

Sounds like DJI may actually come around after all but the proof will be when I’m back in the air.

Thanks everyone!

 

[solargravity]

can anyone explain :shock: why these things do that crazy side to side freak out type of thing and then crash? :shock:

To be honest it's really varied. It seems the majority of the issues are blamed on pilot error. However, when I review the footage in crashes like mine, I believe 8 out of 10 times it's the units failing. Of course this includes people using GoPro WiFi with their 2.4 ghz P2 which is never a good thing.

I would like to hear from all of those pilots that have had a crash due to an electronic failure. Maybe there are more out there then we would care to admit.

The one thing it does surface is that you should never fly these quads over people or water. Unfortunately that takes away about 70% of what people like to do with these multi-rotors.

 

[merlo]

I have a phantom 2 with a H3-3D gamble and just had this happen to me yesterday. Mine was only a week old and had only flown it 4 time. I was flying it with a fully charged battery and a GoPro camera attached with Wifi turned off and was hovering still while only 3 minutes into my flight when the engine on the Phantom appeared to stall whilst approximately 30 metres in the air, causing it to fall from the sky and land upside down breaking all of the propellors and the top cover sustained a significant crack near one propellor. The Phantom was then emitting an alarm but had no LED fault signals showing and would not power up any engines. I plugged the Phantom into my laptop but the laptop wouldn't communicate with the Phantom. I then removed top cover and found that a small square component on the centre board was broken away from one side. I have been In contact with the supplier about what had happen and I'm waiting to back. It was hart breaking to watch something you've saved up for fall from the sky for no reason and only after 4 flights

 

[Rob98723]

Here's another

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhD6aHy ... e=youtu.be

Check out the sudden cut in power and the reboot sound when landed.

Hmmm ?

 

[BMEWS]

Here's another

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhD6aHy ... e=youtu.be

Check out the sudden cut in power and the reboot sound when landed.

Hmmm ?

Looking at the video Rob, it seemed to enter erratic flight / stall with some power (lights on as it enters spin), also the rapid increase in prop / motor noise (that could be due to airflow through the rotors). The lights then go off further into the descent and obviously the re-initialisation after it's hit the ground. Something definitely weird happened there though. Was the flight up to point of erratic behaviour ok?

Bmews

 

[Rob98723]

The flight was fine up to then, luckily landed in mud and only damaged the gimbal. Been flying fine since. (but now not over anything)

Have since been back to location and flown fine.