Hello everyone, i have a Mavic Air since 2 weeks and something strange happen to my drone today !

1 / I was making a music video so I was in cinema mode and I know the risks of this mode. However, the drone flew very close to me (3 – 4 meters of altitude). It was a proper flight environment (Wan Chai Park zone ), the flight was very safe.

2 / I had 50% of battery, the GPS was rather stable (the drone never switched between GPS and ATTI mode during the last minute previous the accident), I controlled the drone by myself and all went well until the moment when the drone began to litteraly fly by itself and slowly enter into the buildings, I saw the drone crossing Bullock Lane then turn to Wan Chai Road by itself (after 09:25 moment ). It was scary.

            

After looking at the data of my last flight, i think there was a problem with vision positioning system at the time. At 9:26, the drone may have geo located itself at the intersection of Wan Chai Road and Burrows Street by mistake and so moved very quickly towards this GPS coordinate to "get back into place".  I have nothing to do with this very quick move and was in a proper flight environment.

So I think that maybe a problem due to a bad vision positioning system happen. The control of the device was perfect during all the 9 minutes and 25 seconds of flighy and after the drone was no longer controllable.

By the way, I don’t know where the drone is right now. And i ask to DJI:

The response of the Data analysis team is

The conclusions of the data analysis of case number CAS-2694923-Z5X2H9 are as follows:

Flight time 2019-1-21 02:11:30

1. The user uses the image mode, but due to the high flying environment, the GPS signal is blocked, and the GPS signal quality level often falls to 0 grid. At this time, the aircraft actually works in the attitude mode;

2. In the attitude mode, the aircraft cannot hover, brake and avoid obstacles at a fixed point, and the horizontal direction will drift;

3. The flight record is cut off at T=09:59 and H=12.1m.

1/ The GPS signal was stable just before the accident : during the last minute previous the accident, the signal was clear and never switched between GPS and ATTI mode.

2/ I know the drone couldn't recognize the obstacles and I was flying my drone perfectly during all the 9 minutes and 25 seconds (what happen after??)

If you have ever had this similar strange experience with your Mavic Air, I would like to have an explanation and try to figure it how.

Also, I would like to contest the data analysis's decision. How am I supposed to do that?

Thanks for your help and your time,

Nicolas

did it respond to the controller at all? reason i ask is,  i seen this happen before not exactly this but where mavic air just keeps moving like its repeating last few instructions sometimes appear as if the drone was possessed, and none of the controls work, pause button, rth, up/down/left/right..nothing  like its stuck but eventually clears whatever errors were stuck in a loop and halts itself.  if this is the case where controllers have no input then its a wifi issue, likely down to DJi's very poor implementation of error correction.

if there was a vision system error you would have received a vision system error.. either inform of not enough ambient lighting and exiting vision mode or in the effect of vision system failure error..

i dont not expect DJI to push any fixes out for the mavic air, i hope they do, amazing drone thats not given any love by DJI...but they seem to left this drone out to die a quiet death while tons of us are b*tching about its faults.

Hello,
during all the flight the controller worked well until this 9:25 moment when the drone flew very quickly to the GPS point (at 9:26). I didn't even have time to try to control the drone when it moved. One surprising thing is that the drone seemed to avoid obstacles in its quick path. I never found him after that.
It's very strange isn't it?

Also how can i contest the decision of the data analysis center?  It seems very unfair content of the events that took place and I had nothing to do with what happened. I need an explanation from the DJI staff about this sad event.
Thanks,
Nicolas

Hi Nicolas, sorry to read about what happened recently with your Mavic Air. I know that this is really frustrating and I'd love to help you with this. With the case number provided in your post, I will be calling the attention of the team responsible for the data analysis dispute that you mentioned. Kindly give us time to review and re-evaluate the assessment as it takes time for this to be rectified. We appreciate your patience and understanding and rest assured that you will notified with the needed updates once we finalized the assessment. Thank you.

Thank you DJI Diana!

Hello DJI Diana,
I  keep you informed of the latest news from the DJI data center.

From DJI:
Blair.Tang （DJI Support）
1月23日 CST14:25

Dear Nicolas,

Thank you for contacting DJI Technical Support.

We feel bad about this unfortunate situation you're encountering right now regarding your Mavic Air. Checking the case in our system, our engineers have done data analysis and find this accident is not caused by the aircraft's abnormal performance.

According to the data, the GPS signal of the drone was very weak because of the flight environment, then the drone drifted leading to this accident.

Because of the weak GPS signal, the drone cannot hold its position in the air and pilot need to control the drone.

My answer:
Hi Blair Tang,

as I explain the accident in this forum https://forum.dji.com/forum.php? ... D402%26typeid%3D402,
the GPS signal allowed me to control the drone perfectly for more than 9 minutes at the same place.
The accident was not caused by a lack of signal. Look at the 2 captions from 9:25 (were all went perfectly during the last minutes) and from 9:26. Indeed, the drone instantly flew with a lightning speed to the intersection of Wan Chai Road and Burrows Street on its own. One strange thing was that the drone was already geolocated at this intersection when it started this weird flight while it was in my field of vision (and really not at the location indicated on the GPS).
How can a drone that stays in the same place for more than 9 minutes suddenly fly by itself and move away from my position? In my opinion it’s a problem with the vision positioning system. There’s clearly information missing or details are not being considered in your approach. Please investigate this further and have this escalated.

The battery was more than ok, it was a proper flight environment, the signal allowed me to control the drone perfectly for more than 9 minutes in the same area and after 9:26 an incident with which I had nothing to do happened. It would be unprofessional and unfair if  the DJI team still believe in my fault. I wish this strange accident should be covered on the warranty and I hope you can send me a replacement soon because it took me already 3 days.


PS: the drone disappeared and was never found after the incident, is it possible that the drone was hacked (or has this never happened?)

Thanks again for your support and to really take into account the incident facts that was in front of my eyes,
Nicolas


Then this is followed by several emails and the analysis centre always uses the same argument. How do I get to call the centre and have someone on the phone? I went to the support center of the DJI in Hong Kong and even the zone manager was talking to me about a technical defect. The problem is that he doesn't have the authority to go against the DJI data center. This is a very serious problem. A centre with little evidence can thus avoid any responsibility?

Thanks again DJI Diana for you time and support,
Nicolas Juan

Hello DJI Diana,

my last message was:
Can you just answer one question?
How can a drone stay in the same place for 9 minutes 25 seconds and at a specific time, completely detach itself from its position?
Thank you for answering this question.
If the problem came from the flight zone, I would have lost my drone in the first minute of flight, wouldn't I?
There is no command from me that contributes to the movement of the drone and to the incident.  I am convinced that it is the manufacturer's fault.

And since i have no answer!! Can you do something??
Damn DJI are bad at after-sales services!!