Hi Board!

on friday i was shooting stills and movies of a bridge. I was flying  under the bridge. It was expected, that I will lose GPS and keep flying in  ATTI-Mode, when i´m under the bridge. After we passed the bridge we climbed again. Here is what happened:

Flight Time / Event
02:46 Weak GPS Siginal
02:47 Weak GPS Siginal
02:48 No GPS Siginal
02:51 GPS OK
02:57 No GPS Siginal
02:57 Disconnected

At the moment the Inspire disconnected the video ends without showing any anomaly.
A second later my colleague and i saw, the Inspire falling from the sky  into the river beneath. It was leveled out - no rotation or something  else. Seemed like it had a complete Power loss. We were unable to  recover the debries until now. Battery was fully charged on takeoff . There were no warnings, Battery was at the time of the crash  all green with 72%.

Firmware of the X5, Inspire and Remote were all latest version.
Go App was Version 2.7.2
The Flight Recorder data also shows no anomalys for me. Everything fine.

How can such a thing happen?
The Video from the Cache is here:

Mario,
   Sorry for you incident! Were you able to recover the Inspire or is it lost in the river?
The cache video shows pixilation at the bottom of the video as the RC looses connectivity, so the RC txt file log isn't going to show anything after connectivity lose. Only the  Inspire Flight Data Recorder internal DAT log will explain exactly what happened...
  After signal lose, the Inspire should have entered RTH, depending on your settings. Do you recall what your RTH settings were for this flight?

Sorry for your crash, Mario.If you get your drone back. I'd suggest you to send the drone to our repair center for the diagnose and data analysis.
Email: support.eu@dji.com
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Honestly, to me it looks like it may have hit the bridge (possibly due to RTH initiating when it disconnected). The slight shudder/pixelation could be from the moment of impact. I watched the clip several times and it really looks like the distance and altitude fall roughly where that bridge is. I may of course be wrong, but that is what I see from the video.

Sorry for your loss Mario.

From what you have told us and watching the video, I am convinced that the I1 hit the bridge. Watch the video again in slow mo, at around 29 seconds in if you look at the trees and horizon in the background you can just make out in the gap between the two bridges, there is a tree almost level with the horizon. ( see  pic )



At 1:05 you were under the bridge and these two marks are again aligned.
You hit the bridge mate.
If it appeared that the bird had no power, it is probably because she had lost the rotors or the motors had stopped due to the collision.

Once again, sorry for your loss pal.

Mark G.

Mario

Sorry for your loss and crash. Did you ever locate the inspire? I believe that Mark has a great observation of the aircraft hitting the bridge.   Once you loose the line of sight your RTH could have started do to loss of signal. This may have put the Inspire into the bridge too.


I certainly hope you are able to determine what happened!

Don't give up and keep us posted

Rich

Mario,
Sorry for your loss of aircraft, it indeed may be that the aircraft hit the bottom of the bridge. From the video, it looks like it may have been just a tad short of clearing the other side while going under it.
if you provide your email, I can at least look at the flight record from the flight in the app to see if there's anything abnormal.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-5-9 17:54
Mario,
Sorry for your loss of aircraft, it indeed may be that the aircraft hit the bottom of the bri ...

Hi Ken,

the german fire department went on a diving excursion last weekend and snug the Inspire 1. The Zenmuse X5 was also still connected to the Airframe and the final video is also working. The propellers have all the same damage and the video ends, when the stream to the ipad ended. You see the Inspire 1 not falling or any other anomaly. When there would be a crash, you should have seen it falling. You can see the unedited and uncut RAW Footage here:

For me it seems like a Powerloss in Mid Air because:
1. Video ends when the connection to the TX ends
2. All Props got the same damage (maybe when the Inspire hit the water)
3. Battery is gone in the river (ejected when the Inspire hit the water)
4. They found the inspire about 20 meters after the bridge. The stream of the river is not so powerfull, especially so close to the shore.

DJI Germany will check the Blackbox.

markaguille Posted at 2016-5-9 17:37
Sorry for your loss Mario.

From what you have told us and watching the video, I am convinced that t ...

There's also a good chance the battery would get knocked off the inspire on a mid air colission with a solid object like a bridge.

leanlinao Posted at 2016-7-4 06:13
There's also a good chance the battery would get knocked off the inspire on a mid air colission wi ...

But then you should see the crash in the video. There are also no marks from a collision on the airframe.
What´s interesting: I had a "Propulsion Output limited" message about 30 seconds before i lost the Inspire.

Mario A. Posted at 2016-7-4 14:46
But then you should see the crash in the video. There are also no marks from a collision on the ai ...

We'll have to wait and see what DJI says when they do the flight analysis.
The Propulsion Output Limited is not a big deal and you will get that when the battery gets low, or full throttle climb outs, ans especially if you have a X5 on a Inspire V1.

Mario A. Posted at 2016-7-4 14:46
But then you should see the crash in the video. There are also no marks from a collision on the ai ...

It doesn't have to have a mark for it to get knocked off. I get propulsion limit a lot but anyway it's all about the data.

Just for info: After data analysis and telling DJI Germany serveral times, that i´ll call my lawyer, i get a new Inspire 1 Pro with X5 Camera. It was definately a powerloss, because the video file was broken - the drone was recovered by firefighters from the bottom of the river.