Yesterday, I lost my drone while using active tracking to follow someone close to the shoreline in a kayak. The drone had been tracking this individual for less than a minute from a height of 10-15 feet when it suddenly surged straight at this person (a child) and would have hit him in the face if he did not put up his hand to protect himself. His quick reaction saved him from what could have been a very serious injury to instead receiving multiple cuts on his hand. The drone continued it's rapid descent and was lost in the lake. This all took place at approximately 16.49 on May 28 at Lake Bob Sandlin in Pittsburg Texas. I have uploaded the flight log to DHI and still have it on my iPad if it needs to be uploaded again.

I have 5 witnesses who can attest that the drone literally charged at this child and I am convinced that it was not pilot error. I believe the log will easily demonstrate this. Active tracking is an automated function and I was not attempting to override it, not did I "accidentally" do so.

I have already reported this incident to DJI, but wanted to see if anyone else had experienced anything similar. I was using the DJIGo app, the battery was fully charged, GPS signal was strong and I was on the shoreline no more than 20-25 feet away from the drone.

It is a hot topic recently
https://forum.dji.com/thread-148119-1-1.html

And here https://forum.dji.com/thread-150293-1-1.html

chiplifter Posted at 2018-5-28 10:57
And here https://forum.dji.com/thread-150293-1-1.html

Wow. That little girl's experience is EXACTLY what happened, with the important difference that I never saw the drone again after it sank to the bottom of the lake. DJI better take this very seriously. Thank you for your response.

Sorry to hear this.  What sucks is you cannot claim warranty unless you recover the drone.  But if you have DJI Care refresh you will get a replacement.  Do you have refresh?  Yeah I have seen similar cases here as of late and is very scary.  I am very cautious to use Active Track with my mavic pro and would never attempt to do so over water.  Sorry for your loss.  Either way you need to open a case with DJI.  https://www.dji.com/support/product/mavic-air

fans7f5b853b Posted at 2018-5-28 11:21
Wow. That little girl's experience is EXACTLY what happened, with the important difference that I never saw the drone again after it sank to the bottom of the lake. DJI better take this very seriously. Thank you for your response.

Sorry for you loss, but grateful nobody gets hurt. I sincerely hope DJI takes this very serious and make it a number 1 priority. If it is a malfunction, DJI carries a great responsibility and will face lawsuit if accidents happen.
I would suggest anyone not to use active track until these malfunctions  are solved.

SparksBird Posted at 2018-5-28 11:27
Sorry to hear this.  What sucks is you cannot claim warranty unless you recover the drone.  But if you have DJI Care refresh you will get a replacement.  Do you have refresh?  Yeah I have seen similar cases here as of late and is very scary.  I am very cautious to use Active Track with my mavic pro and would never attempt to do so over water.  Sorry for your loss.  Either way you need to open a case with DJI.  https://www.dji.com/support/product/mavic-air

What borders me most, there is still no response from any DJI employee on these topics. Are they waiting for a CNN newsflash of a DJI killer drone? It is not a gimbal vibration or something like that.

chiplifter Posted at 2018-5-28 11:51
Sorry for you loss, but grateful nobody gets hurt. I sincerely hope DJI takes this very serious and make it a number 1 priority. If it is a malfunction, DJI carries a great responsibility and will face lawsuit if accidents happen.
I would suggest anyone not to use active track until these malfunctions  are solved.

Active track should been taken out of the FW until this has been fixed.
This will end with someone get badly hurt.
FIX this ASAP DJI.

G_Sig Posted at 2018-5-28 12:00
Active track should been taken out of the FW until this has been fixed.
This will end with someone get badly hurt.
FIX this ASAP DJI.

You can not be more right. Better safe than sorry.

Agreed. Do NOT use active track and anyone not believing me should see that little girl's video at the top of this thread. Mine was identical, except that the video evidence is at the bottom of a lake.

Regarding DJI Care, I do have insurance, but I no longer have the drone itself, given that it's in a lake. I have lodged a case with DJI and we'll see where this all goes. No threats at this point, except to say I will not be passive. I want a new drone (battery included) and I want the cause fixed, or for active tracking to be disabled until one is found.

fans7f5b853b Posted at 2018-5-28 12:02
Agreed. Do NOT use active track and anyone not believing me should see that little girl's video at the top of this thread. Mine was identical, except that the video evidence is at the bottom of a lake.

Regarding DJI Care, I do have insurance, but I no longer have the drone itself, given that it's in a lake. I have lodged a case with DJI and we'll see where this all goes. No threats at this point, except to say I will not be passive. I want a new drone (battery included) and I want the cause fixed, or for active tracking to be disabled until one is found.

If you know the place in the lake, isn’t there a dive club in the area who are willing to do search and rescue dive? I am a diver for about 25 years and have recovered lots of stuf in the past using search patterns, even in water with a visibility < 30 cm. We did it just for fun and the challenge.

fans7f5b853b Posted at 2018-5-28 12:02
Agreed. Do NOT use active track and anyone not believing me should see that little girl's video at the top of this thread. Mine was identical, except that the video evidence is at the bottom of a lake.

Regarding DJI Care, I do have insurance, but I no longer have the drone itself, given that it's in a lake. I have lodged a case with DJI and we'll see where this all goes. No threats at this point, except to say I will not be passive. I want a new drone (battery included) and I want the cause fixed, or for active tracking to be disabled until one is found.

This would bee the right time for DJI to make a tread with sticker at the top to warn about this.
Now we cant see video from this flight but I suspect the target is turning or has just turned.
That will change the shadows on the target and make it hard to follow by the camera alone
as it has changed shape and there for the camera don't reconice it any more.

Seems like a very good reason for Dji to activate "follow me" linked to phone GPS on the Air and remove camera based active track until sorted.

So sorry to read your post. Please kindly send the child to the hospital asap for inspection. Also, as you mentioned, you have uploaded the flight log to DJI, right? Is there any case number for further follow-up?

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-5-28 22:31
So sorry to read your post. Please kindly send the child to the hospital asap for inspection. Also, as you mentioned, you have uploaded the flight log to DJI, right? Is there any case number for further follow-up?

The child has been taken care of. That was the first concern. I'm not sure what you mean by "if the drone is still at my end"? If you mean do I have it, no I don't. It is at the bottom of the lake. I do however have flight records and have provided those to DJI. Case # is 1158628.

What this a Mavic Pro or an Air?

Also, which firmware are you on?  Would be interesting to narrow this down some as I have some big plans for active track in July...

SS

@ SS,
His first post shows it is a MA in the attached picture, not sure of the firmware but I'll bet it's .400

Bill B Posted at 2018-5-29 06:14
@ SS,
His first post shows it is a MA in the attached picture, not sure of the firmware but I'll bet it's .400

It is a Mavic Air and I am using DJIGo4 version 4.2.16

fans7f5b853b Posted at 2018-5-29 04:44
The child has been taken care of. That was the first concern. I'm not sure what you mean by "if the drone is still at my end"? If you mean do I have it, no I don't. It is at the bottom of the lake. I do however have flight records and have provided those to DJI. Case # is 1158628.

Thanks for getting back to us. Per the case log, the analysis has been finished, it is a warranty case. The designated team has informed you the result by email. If there is anything else we can help, feel free to contact us.

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-6-2 02:27
Thanks for getting back to us. Per the case log, the analysis has been finished, it is a warranty case. The designated team has informed you the result by email. If there is anything else we can help, feel free to contact us.

Thanks Susan. I have no complaints about the way the warranty issue was handled and sometime soon a replacement Mavic Air is going to be shipped.
Separately, I do have a concern that not one mention was made of the cause, especially given that this is not the first time something like this has happened. It's like a car company selling vehicles while knowing that the brakes don't work properly. That sort of thing seldom has a happy ending.

fans7f5b853b Posted at 2018-6-2 06:01
Thanks Susan. I have no complaints about the way the warranty issue was handled and sometime soon a replacement Mavic Air is going to be shipped.
Separately, I do have a concern that not one mention was made of the cause, especially given that this is not the first time something like this has happened. It's like a car company selling vehicles while knowing that the brakes don't work properly. That sort of thing seldom has a happy ending.

We do apologize for the unpleasant experience with our product, but not all the accidents are caused by the same reason, each one should be analyzed case by case, we are doing our best to improve our product both in hardware and software, hope the similar issue will not happen again. Please let us know if there is any other issue.

Final update on this case. My replacement Mavic Air arrived today, including props and battery. I'm told that the SD card and filter will also be replaced, but I haven't heard anything. That notwithstanding, I am impressed with DJI's speed and courtesy throughout this process. I continue to be a fan!

fans7f5b853b Posted at 2018-6-8 13:09
Final update on this case. My replacement Mavic Air arrived today, including props and battery. I'm told that the SD card and filter will also be replaced, but I haven't heard anything. That notwithstanding, I am impressed with DJI's speed and courtesy throughout this process. I continue to be a fan!

Thanks for keeping us updated, the SD card and the filter issue have been escalated to the local team to look into, we will have someone to keep following up your case and ship these two accessories as soon as possible, thanks for your patience and continuous support to DJI.