So I had just finished a flight and I had about 50% battery when I landed. The IPhone 6S that I was using to pilot was low battery so I left the Phantom on and walked inside to grab another device so I could keep flying and put the controller on my counter and UNPLUGED the IPhone 6S. Then I procrastinated and took about three minutes to grab the other IPhone and I grabbed the controller which WAS EXACTLY WHERE I LEFT IT UNTOUCHED with no device in and I walked outside to start up the new IPhone and the Phantom was GONE!! I thought it was stolen for a minute and then I stopped and listened and it was flying IT TOOK OFF AND FLEW BY ITSELF over or the left about 400 feet at a high altitude and I could not see it but I heard it flying then I heard the loud crashing sound of it crashing into a tree and falling I estimate about 30ish feet to almost fall into a pool!! The battery luckily remained in which kept the GPS alive so I was able to recover it. It sustained I estimate close to $500+ dollars in damage with the gimbal destroyed, the shell wrecked, the props broken, possible damage to the motors and other very likely internal damage! This is INSANE this does not just happen and I am very unhappy and in a state of utter confusion and anger!

If you have any input or suggestions of any kind feel free to let me know and if you have any affiliation with DJI I would really appreciate an explination. Thanks

It is unfortunate that you didn't have it connected to your phone at the time as this should show a flight record that would help explain the incident.
But details would be recorded to the hidden SD card inside the Phantom and accessible to DJI.

There have been many cases of Phantoms left running on the ground lifting off when temperature change causes the barometer reading to change making the Phantom believe it is in the air flying.
If you had switched off the controller, it may have been attempting RTH.
What height did you have set for RTH?
You would have been able to control it with the controller even though you had no phone connected.
The moral of the story is: Don't leave your Phantom running after a flight.

When you plan to leave the drone, you first turn it off.  There's no excuse, or explanation required, for future thought.
Surprised you didn't make a quick cup of coffee too. Ha


RedHotPoker

Leaving an aircraft on the ground with motors running post flight is an invitation for trouble. This is not an engineering fault but human error.

Labroides nailed it.   Even with everything connected, if you land the Phantom without powering it off, it will, after several seconds, rise into the air again.  

Kneepuck do you know why that is and is it intended to happen?

Labroides thanks so much for the info and it definitely was not attempting RTH because it was going the opposite direction from home and my RTH height was set to 40 meters which is well above trees and do you have any idea why it went where it did with no human assistance

fansf40da505 Posted at 2016-11-27 16:35
Labroides thanks so much for the info and it definitely was not attempting RTH because it was going  ...

That's why I said it's unfortunate that there's no record we can see.
I'd be interested to see what it showed.

Oh alright well thanks anyways

with motors running? I bet it recognized battery level and said "oh my! No radio signal?! I better go home now" and clearly it was confused where home was, or wanted someone who will not leave it with no radio supervision with motors on! ;) Now i have to test it one day, standing y to take over if needed....  I often have the drone on, before the radio is on, so it will warm up while i prep things, but of course no motors running there.... but the above comment about barometer making it think it's in the air.. i can sort of see that... I guess it's not supposed to shut the motors on it's own, unless it's in rth or autolanding mode? Regardless of time spent on the ground?

Were the motors completely disarmed when you disconnected the mobile device? Its not recommended to disconnect any components while the unit is turned on, let alone leaving it unattended.

Sorry to hear about your crash, I do suggest you to send it in then get it fixed by our engineers.
Please send an e-mail with the subject "Forum Support" to support@dji.com and include the following information, we'll help you create a case:
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fansf40da505 Posted at 2016-11-27 16:35
Labroides thanks so much for the info and it definitely was not attempting RTH because it was going  ...

When you land a Phantom, you should always shut the motors down by pulling the left stick fully down and holding it until the motors stop. Never leave it on the ground with the motors running, because in that conditrion, the Phantom thinks it is still meant to be hovering somewhere in the air, it has no idea that it has landed.

With small changes in GPS position, it might decide that it should be one foot to the left and will try to move to that position, tipping the aircraft over and possibly smoking one or more of the motors.

Or there may be a pressure change, and the on-board barometer might decide that the aircraft should be 10 feet up in the air, so it will take off.

fansf40da505 Posted at 2016-11-27 16:35
Labroides thanks so much for the info and it definitely was not attempting RTH because it was going  ...

It may have been in RTH, but on the way down when it clipped the trees.  I doubt you would hear it at 400 ft so I don't think it would be that high.  Not sure why you would have a bogus home point, we haven't heard of these cases for a while since the Standards with old firmware.  Certainly it was initiated by leaving it idling on the ground why you changed devices.  Without seeing the flight log it will all be speculation.  Your best bet is to power up the aircraft and plug it in to a computer via the USB at the front of the aircraft next to the nameplate.  You will be able to read the internal "black box" flight recorder.  If you copy off the relevant "FLYXXX.dat" record for this flight, you can have DJI analyse it and determine what happened.  The record could also be uploaded to https://www.djilogs.com/#/ to translate the flight record but it will require a paid account to see the full flight record.

These high tech flying gizmos have the will to live! Hench all the fail safes built into them to help protect itself from us humans. Now it could be that a dog wondered in and started sniffing too close to your P3 looking for a place to hike a leg for a quick pee. The P3 says to itself, "I'm outta here!"

endotherm Posted at 2016-11-27 06:04
It may have been in RTH, but on the way down when it clipped the trees.  I doubt you would hear it ...

Just to let you know, I often fly my P3 at 400 feet. Yes I can hear it when it is above me or in the area of me.

If someone is going to test this theory of it taking off on its own, maybe tether the landing gear so it can't go up more than a foot.

trance728- Posted at 2016-11-28 00:09
If someone is going to test this theory of it taking off on its own, maybe tether the landing gear s ...

No need to test it.
There have been more than enough similar cases already to know that it's not a safe thing to do.

DJI Natalia Posted at 2016-11-27 14:41
Sorry to hear about your crash, I do suggest you to send it in then get it fixed by our engineers.
P ...

Why even bother with this thread? Just program motor shut down on landing just as it is on the Mavic. Do a logic check that the surface is not water. Your engineers have already implemented this.

The OP is just trying to find an excuse for making a claim. Ranting about the craft is just not on and sorry, there is no nice way of saying this.

DJI-Jamie Posted at 2016-11-27 01:36
Were the motors completely disarmed when you disconnected the mobile device? Its not recommended to  ...

The motors were completely off when I walked inside

endotherm Posted at 2016-11-27 06:04
It may have been in RTH, but on the way down when it clipped the trees.  I doubt you would hear it ...

Thanks for your input and also the drone was at about 130 feet and flew itself 400 feet to the left

MJLSTUDIOS Posted at 2016-11-27 07:18
These high tech flying gizmos have the will to live! Hench all the fail safes built into them to hel ...

Haha maybe

Phantomski Posted at 2016-11-27 00:53
with motors running? I bet it recognized battery level and said "oh my! No radio signal?! I better g ...

My battery was at 50% so I don't think that happened

And I'm almost positive it was not returning to home because when I reconnected my device the home point was still the same as it always had been. The place where it took off by itself

Mike-the-cat Posted at 2016-11-27 09:33
Why even bother with this thread? Just program motor shut down on landing just as it is on the Mav ...

I'm definitely not trying to make an excuse this is a legitimate case and almost all the explinations people have put in couldn't have happened so there definitely is some question behind what actually happened

Also the temperature only changed 1 maybe 2 degrees so I don't think it had to do with the barometer

fansf40da505 Posted at 2016-11-27 10:24
The motors were completely off when I walked inside

So the motors were powered down, not spinning......and the drone took off?

If it was still powered(spinning) i could understand it kind of.

If it was powered down then I'm completely shocked it would act that way! I power down and walk/drive away until i want to fly again while recording equipment(follow me feature didnt work for awhile).

That scares me that it could loose signal and power up and fly off.   

fansf40da505 Posted at 2016-11-27 15:49
I'm definitely not trying to make an excuse this is a legitimate case and almost all the explinati ...

Best thing to do would be to send it in to DJI as suggested in post 12. The DJI engineers will be able to scrutinize all the data not visible to us mortals. They will certainly be able to prove whether or not the motors were off at any point.

RedHotPoker Posted at 2016-11-26 23:12
When you plan to leave the drone, you first turn it off.  There's no excuse, or explanation required ...

The running motors will keep the coffee hot since it isn't flying.
Where to you put the coffee? LOL

In retrospect, I guess I shouldn't make light of someone else's misfortune. Although, personally speaking, I NEVER leave any of my drones running if I don't have my eye on them! Unless I'm planning on taking off again almost immediately, when I land, I shut down the props.

Art - N4PJ

Art - N4PJ Posted at 2016-11-27 13:03
The running motors will keep the coffee hot since it isn't flying.
Where to you put the coffee? LO ...

I may have over spoken my feelings. OP said that the drone was shut off, but didn't turn off the battery, is all. I and others mistakenly thought it was left sitting, in idle mode, with the rotors spinning.  If the flight LOG gets proper Analysis the mystery facts will be revealed. Let's hope it was an actual drone failure and it gets replaced or repaired for nil. That just seems so unlikely that it would start up and fly away on its own. Strange one.


RedHotPoker

fansf40da505 Posted at 2016-11-28 02:53
Also the temperature only changed 1 maybe 2 degrees so I don't think it had to do with the barometer ...

The temperature change INSIDE the Phantom is what matters.
Lots of hot electronics and battery but no moving air = rising temp = changed barometer altitude.

I just checked the "black box" and the crashed flight did not record!! How crazy is that!

The last flight recorded was my last successful one

RedHotPoker Posted at 2016-11-27 15:15
I may have over spoken my feelings. OP said that the drone was shut off, but didn't turn off the b ...

Ya definitely is a very strange one

fansf40da505 Posted at 2016-11-27 23:49
I'm definitely not trying to make an excuse this is a legitimate case and almost all the explinati ...

I would agree with Aardvark that the only way to know for sure what happened is to have the unit sent in for evaluation, so that the flight data can be read. Since you are in the US, you will want to either email support.us@dji.com or call +1 (818) 235 0789 to get started with a RMA. It would also be recommended to sync your Go app flight records as well.

fansf40da505 Posted at 2016-11-27 17:02
Ya definitely is a very strange one

I know that it has now been understood that you said the motors were completely off. I can tell you first hand that I landed my phantom on the ground once without shutting off the motors, because I was just practicing the landing and was going to take right back to the air, and just sitting there after just a couple seconds,with no hands on the remote it started to lift right off. I was able to just push up on the controls and everything was fine....but I wasn't expecting that for sure....and have never done it again. I always pull the left stick back killing the motors.
One question no one has asked: Is there any chance that someone could have been around and possibly touched the remote? I know this probably sounds crazy, but just wondering if while you were inside if some curious sole might have touched it. I just can't imagine if the motors were turned off, how in the world the motors would be able to start on their own. Might never know the answer. Sorry for your mishap.

RicardoGray Posted at 2016-11-28 16:28
I know that it has now been understood that you said the motors were completely off. I can tell yo ...

Ya I thought that as well but my wife was sitting a few feet away and said no one touched it or even entered the room

well never leave the aircraft running unattended. but you already said that didn't happen. next, the motors wont start until a csc is performed or the automatic take off feature is activated on the device connected to the remote. so maybe, you accidentally slid the sticks to the bottom corners? honestly, i would have never left my phantom on and alone outside in the first place under any circumstances. I can guarantee, that if i leave my phantom idle on the ground, it'll be taken the second i look away. i don't know how i can help you, but i will offer this advice if you haven't already learned this from this experience: never leave your phantom alone.

share with me your log from this flight, We are MinnesotaUAV.com, a DJI dealer. Ill help you out

scottyduzitbest Posted at 2016-11-29 16:39
share with me your log from this flight, We are MinnesotaUAV.com, a DJI dealer. Ill help you out

You maybe need to check, you're not on DJIs approved dealer list yet:-

http://www.dji.com/where-to-buy