I purchased a DJI Phantom 4 drone on December 31, 2016. I had flown it outdoors on two occasions before this incident, and completed all recommended firmware updates.
On January 6, 2017 I was flying the drone in a regional park, in GPS-mode, with 12-16 satellite connections. I commanded the drone to fly forwards, parallel to a nearby river approximately 20m (65ft) from the river. At that time I observed the drone roll to the right and began travelling north-west while accelerating. I briefly attempted to stop the flyaway by imputing a roll-left command to counteract the drone's trajectory, to which the drone ignored. About 10 seconds after the flyaway I initiated the Return to Home (RTH) function. The drone ignored this command and continued its looping trajectory over the river. The RTH had no effect on the drone's trajectory, nor did it attempt to ascend to the pre-set altitude of 70m. I then cancelled the RTH function and back to GPS-mode which resulted in no change in trajectory. The drone did not hold its GPS position and was now heading south-east over the river. The drone then pitched-up and impacted the river at 45km/hr. I was able to retrieve the drone from the river.
I called DJI (waited on hold for 1.5hours) and started a claim. I sent in the drone as per their instructions. On January 27, 2017 I received an email from DJI claiming among other things that "unit was responsive", "flight environment was near a house...", "user was not familiar with RTH logic", and "No fly away Non warranty Repair. They also claimed that RTH was initiated at 953 seconds and that drone "clipped an object in air" and fell to ground at 962 seconds, despite my detailed description of the event included with the returned drone. My flight data clearly shows that the drone hit the water at 962 seconds, not an in-air object. DJI quoted me $1388 to repair a defective drone when a new complete drone package costs only $1200 on their website.
It's important to note three things:
1. That DJI ignored the 10 seconds of flight data before the RTH was initiated which clearly shows a flyaway situation.
2. The nearest house is 110m (360ft) away from where the drone was flown.
3. The drone was flown in a farmland area.
I called DJI and spoke to "AJ" (CSR) who advised that I could not speak to any technicians directly but did transfer me to a supervisor. I spoke to a supervisor "Oscar L". Despite advising Oscar that the event began well before the RTH command, he continued to fixate on the RTH command and insisted it was pilot error. Oscar stated that DJI drones are not 100% failsafe or accurate but stated that my case was certainly pilot error. Oscar further stated that he was not trained to interpret flight data. Oscar indicated that a drone flying away from its operator, contrary to operator commands (this is supported by in-app flight data) does not constitute a flyaway. Oscar advised that a secondary evaluation could be done but if no discrepancy in flight data is found, that the case would be closed without any process for appeal.
Oscar sent screen-shot of flight data to me via email. The flight data clearly indicates at least two errors starting at 940 seconds, exactly when the drone began it's flyaway event. Again, three lines are highlighted in the screenshot, starting with the RTH command. No mention of the errors.
I have the flight data from my app, and the onboard video to support the events that occurred on January 6, 2017.
