So today i was flying over a lake... everything was going great until i was coming back. i had around 30%  of battery left and was maybe 150 -200 meters away... i went low to get a nice over the water shot but still several meters above the surface.    All of a sudden it started loosing altitude on its own and lowering itself down toward the water all by itself even though i was pushing full throttle to go back up, it just kept going down until it submerged into the ice cold lake...  im not sure how or if i can ever even retreive it now!!.... wow this sucks!!  my poor poor drone!... and it wasnt even my fault!!  i have care refresh for it but from what ive read so far, they wont replace it..  i have the whole cached video on my phone.   anyone have any suggestions and is it at all possible dji will replace my drone since it was a malfunction that resulted in the loss?  has anyone else had their mavic mini start decending on its own??

wao, same case with us and in Vietnam we have many same case like this.

CRAZY MINI

We are sorry for your loss, DJI Care Refresh does not cover any loss or partial loss aircraft, gimbal or accessories, thanks for your understanding.
It is recommended to contact our support team www.dji.com/support to start a ticket for the data analysis, our team will do their best to figure out what happened and provide the proper resolution, thank you.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2019-12-29 19:56
We are sorry for your loss, DJI Care Refresh does not cover any loss or partial loss aircraft, gimbal or accessories, thanks for your understanding.
It is recommended to contact our support team www.dji.com/support to start a ticket for the data analysis, our team will do their best to figure out what happened and provide the proper resolution, thank you.

In my experience. I do fly inspire, Mavic pro, phantom and mini also. All of this drones intend to lose altitude if you fly a few feet above water. But not above solid ground.  I experienced over a frozen lake lackey me.

I've tried searching in the lake 3 times now with a wet suit and goggles in the cold water...  Still haven't found it... Soooo dissapointing... At least if I can find it I can get a replacement... I just wish there was a big warning in the box and advertising from DJI that it has problems near water so I could avoid this... Now I ordered an underwater fishing camera with lights to see if I can find it like that... Another $200 dollars. I hope this will work!

Does anyone have any comments on just how low you can safely fly over water?  Does DJI have any guidance?

Mypinknee Posted at 1-27 17:30
Does anyone have any comments on just how low you can safely fly over water?  Does DJI have any guidance?

When it’s frozen . I don’t think you have a problem.  

JbJXw6ntYki2 Posted at 1-2 06:33
I've tried searching in the lake 3 times now with a wet suit and goggles in the cold water...  Still haven't found it... Soooo dissapointing... At least if I can find it I can get a replacement... I just wish there was a big warning in the box and advertising from DJI that it has problems near water so I could avoid this... Now I ordered an underwater fishing camera with lights to see if I can find it like that... Another $200 dollars. I hope this will work!

I once used a GPS app on my phone to make sure I was searching in the right place - based on the last known position on the flight log.
This was in a wood though not underwater, so I wish you luck!

Exactly same thing happened to me yesterday. I was cruising over the lake maybe 3-4 meters above. I hoped to get a nice footage. Suddenly, about 20m away from the shore drone started loosing altitude. There was nothing I could do and... it sank forever
Looks like it's a case when the ground is not solid. Now the only option is to buy a replacement. $300 on Ebay. Be careful folks over the water. I learned my lesson.

Same thing happened to me just now!
Was flying with 100% Battery, and went above a nice Lake and swamp for about 30metres. Then lost control all of a sudden, start to go south by it’s own. Eventually went out of my eye sight over bushes.
Such a disappointment!
Anybody heard back from their investigation or luckily had it replaced?

I'm always on edge when flying over water, I usually fly along the shoreline on the river that flows through my property. Sorry for your loss and hope that eventually that you will find it.

So I had a similar issue... I was flying about 100 feet over a lake last week and my Mavic Mini literally fell out of the air. I do not have the care package and figured I was out of luck. My buddy has 5 of their drones and told me I should reach out... I opened a case and to my surprise, they deemed it an equipment failure and they are sending me a replacement drone and battery, free of charge. I'm impressed and will be purchasing a Mavic Air 2 tomorrow because of how they're backing their product. Great experience.

Had the same thing happen to me today! My mini kept losing altitude while flying over a river then it hit a rock because of this and sank into the raging river waters

Same thing happened to me today, the drone was 4 meters above the lake , suddenly , it was out of control and dropped into to the lake! . I recorded the flight by GoPro , I will share it here!

As I said in the previous comment I missed my drone over the lake , I retrieve the log and nothing special in the log, no caution , no warning!
any one has any idea ? I bought protection plan , but I dont have my missed drone on my hand to return to DJI , I just have a video of the drone when it's dropped and the log of flight.

I lost my dji mini yesterday in big bear lake California and the Battery 32% it just was go down to the water from 50 feet like give error motor over loaded how dji Company sale drone without test 100% it’s excellent for the customer and they will tell us that’s my fall and a lost 500 $ in 5 second also I have approved in dji fly recorded the fly and everything .

Hi, I'm really sorry for you. So it's a recurring problem with the mini. That's why I don't dare fly over the water. I opened a post asking for advice and I had many positive responses, but reading you it does not reassure me. Dji could give real advice the dos and don'ts to fly over the water with the MM I think you are best placed to enlighten MM users.

Similar story here:
I was flying my brand new Mavic Mini over the lake in still conditions it suffered some kind of control malfunction.
It was about 4m over the water when it started to climb by itself (which I countered by throttling down) then started sinking (and throttle up didn't help).
Hit the water 15m out, 5m deep.
I see in the flight log the altitude change and the stick action, there was definitely something wrong with the behaviour of it (no connection problem as footage and telemetry were good, no warnings of any sort).
I drove home, brought the SUP, used the last frame of the video to identify the crash point (from the drone's POV) then spent 25 minutes scanning the bottom, couldn't believe when I found it.
Just on the very verge of visibility.
Took me another 30 minutes to fish it out (using a hard drive's magnet on a fishing rod).
Probably been underwater for an hour and a half or so.
It's in a sealed bowl with desiccant now. I'll see how it goes in a couple of days...

I'm new to DJI drones but not to flying over water.  You guys are all disabling your VPS right?  The light reflections can really confuse any drone that uses it.  Also on a hot day the downdrafts to cold water can be pretty intense.

My mavic mini literally fell out of the sky into water aswell it was flying fine then all of a sudden started diving down i still have the drone and hope its still usable just wish dji had some sort of warning about this malfunction.

Literally was just flying my drone all day over the ocean/ beach. Threw in my second battery and was just gonna take a quick picture on the beach with my girlfriend. The drone was hovering over the waves about 20+ feet in the air. I took my eye off of the drone for literally 5 seconds and when I looked back at my screen it was disconnected and gone forever. Wasn’t even controlling the drone at the time it happened. Bums me out!

Same thing just happened to me with battery at 65%. I noticed it started climbing itself up at some points when it was flying above the water which scared me but at least it was safe. Unfortunately all of a sudden it decided to do the opposite and landed in the water, without my input. Same as mentioned above, in the flight log I can see the sudden altitude change and then lost connection. I have DJI Care Refresh so I got back with a wet suit, trying find it but no luck...    

DJI Mindy Posted at 2019-12-29 19:56
We are sorry for your loss, DJI Care Refresh does not cover any loss or partial loss aircraft, gimbal or accessories, thanks for your understanding.
It is recommended to contact our support team www.dji.com/support to start a ticket for the data analysis, our team will do their best to figure out what happened and provide the proper resolution, thank you.

You guys are not sorry for the loss. .  I had the same problem.  Flying over water and suddenly descended into the lake about 15 feet from shore.  The replacement policy makes no sense.  If I send the drone in full of water and mud I get one for $49.  But if I can't retrieve it I get nothing!   It's not like you can refurbish a drone that's been underwater for weeks.  This DJI Care Refresh is a ripoff.   If the company had any compassion whatsoever and were truly sorry for the loss,  you'd treat these just like any other crash.  I get that you want to make sure people don't  abuse the policy and just say they lost it to get a second one for free, but I provided video and showing it went down.  If I can retrieve it I will send it in for the replacement but I'll never buy another DJI product and will tell everyone I know how  despicable DJI is.

djiuser_YOHtDCTXRK4w Posted at 5-14 19:17
You guys are not sorry for the loss. .  I had the same problem.  Flying over water and suddenly descended into the lake about 15 feet from shore.  The replacement policy makes no sense.  If I send the drone in full of water and mud I get one for $49.  But if I can't retrieve it I get nothing!   It's not like you can refurbish a drone that's been underwater for weeks.  This DJI Care Refresh is a ripoff.   If the company had any compassion whatsoever and were truly sorry for the loss,  you'd treat these just like any other crash.  I get that you want to make sure people don't  abuse the policy and just say they lost it to get a second one for free, but I provided video and showing it went down.  If I can retrieve it I will send it in for the replacement but I'll never buy another DJI product and will tell everyone I know how  despicable DJI is.

We are sincerely sorry for your loss. According to the policy, DJI Care Refresh doesn't cover the loss of the drone. If this situation happens, we suggest contacting our support through the link below and start a case. https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav We will provide a solution according to your situation.

Martyzion Posted at 2020-8-18 21:38
I'm new to DJI drones but not to flying over water.  You guys are all disabling your VPS right?  The light reflections can really confuse any drone that uses it.  Also on a hot day the downdrafts to cold water can be pretty intense.

I was just about to say this! absolutely this feature has caused probably 80% of these situations