I have to report a severe inccident. 2 weeks ago, My Spark was taken off with full battery besides a beach, it suddenly dropped from 100M height. Fortunately, there were only a few people, no one was hurt. You can imagine how severe the inccident is！

After so-called investigation by DJI tech department, they said the flight record ended at that point, so the reason is unknown. They asked me to buy a new one with 30% discount. Is it the way to handle such severe inccident？You know it can put us in court if there is anyone hurt or killed！！

Hey,

I had the same situation, but I was handling it on multiple places; starting with this forum. Forum moderators/admins are super nice and will help you with everything.

Long story short: After negotiating with support and on forums, I sent my drone to them, they said it was not a pilot error and repair/replacement was free. The drone is on its way to me as we speak.

See the thread here: https://forum.dji.com/thread-108591-1-1.html

I suggest starting a thread here on forum + support ticket. Online support is not going to help you in most of the cases, and if you have the forum thread, moderators are usually way faster to reply than support.

Cheers!

I suppose latest firmware was not available at the time of fall right?

Sorry for the crash, did you find the drone?  If yes, did you send it in? Please provide me with your case number so I can look into it.

My case number is CAS-918842-N4M5C8. The drone dropped into the sea, no far from the beach. I sent all flight data and films to support team. Please help！

I had a similar issue, drone disconnected 2000' away, never returned home and wasn't found. AftIer 2 weeks, DJI tech came to the same BS conclusion... flight record ended without any error, we ll send you a 30% coupon.  Not acceptable in light of the mandatory firmware update which came out a few days late but I guess all I can do is give spark another chance. Maybe the new FW fixed the problem.

I was tempted to upgrade to a Mavic but I still ont feel like risking $1000 every time I want to use it... plus it's heavier and could do more damage.

First off, I'm sorry to hear of your bad experience. It's what many of us and drone owners worry about. Now, to play devil's advocate. DJI and many agencies specifically advise against operating any drone near people. Even the best drones experience fly-aways, malfunctions and operator areas. It's best to always operate away from people and animals.

Also sorry, but also agree.  Keep away from people and animals.  Again sorry for your loss.

Not sure what the last couple of responses have to do with the OPs problem.  If they were asking for help from DJI because they injured someone, then yes, those responses would be valid.  That's not the case here though.  It doesn't matter if anyone was around or not.  It would not have prevented the Spark from apparently losing power and dropping into the sea.  

I def think DJI should be replacing your Spark under warranty.  Good luck!

I don't fly near people but when these things decide to fly away or drop out you can't know where they're going to end up.

DJI Diana Posted at 2017-8-31 01:17
Sorry for the crash, did you find the drone?  If yes, did you send it in? Please provide me with your case number so I can look into it.

Please provide case number to DJI here.
Usually they can help.

Thanks all for your advice and support. We all know drone is dangerous if it is not operated properly. We do try to stay away from the crowds when it takes off. However, if it suddenly loses power during flight, it is obviously not an operator problem, right？

Once again, my case number is CAS-918842-N4M5C8. DJI please look into it and give a reasonable response. Also for all who have encountered similar problem, we need to fight for our right.

Same thing happen to me. My spark was lost at sea, DJI offered me the coupon and as this is a known issue DJI still refuses to replace my drone. I was eventually stuck in a tight place either buy the drone at a discount or lose everything all together. It sucks, I hope DJI fixed this issue with their new firmware release. Their approach to this entire situation was some of the worst customer service I've seen ever. I would advice against buying anything from them until they hire someone to handle their Customer service department better. BTW I did everything from calling, emailing, and chatting with online technical support. Tried the forums.

Good luck with your case, search these forums there are many others like us.

It is ridiculous！We have to fight for our right all together.

fans1b799873 Posted at 2017-8-31 01:52
My case number is CAS-918842-N4M5C8. The drone dropped into the sea, no far from the beach. I sent all flight data and films to support team. Please help！

Since you provided your flight data to support, they would help you analyze the data and find out the problems. Please wait patiently.

fans1b799873 Posted at 2017-8-31 06:58
Thanks all for your advice and support. We all know drone is dangerous if it is not operated properly. We do try to stay away from the crowds when it takes off. However, if it suddenly loses power during flight, it is obviously not an operator problem, right？

Once again, my case number is CAS-918842-N4M5C8. DJI please look into it and give a reasonable response. Also for all who have encountered similar problem, we need to fight for our right.

Be aware that our support had sent you email about the solution today. And they confirmed that it was not caused by user and recommended replace it for free. Thanks for support.

Finally, DJI agrees to replace a new drone for me. I am appreciated they reconsider my case after I sent them an appeal mail stating all points mentioned above.
I hope they can fix all potentially dangerous issues such as power cut and flyaway as soon as possible.

Thanks all again.

I m glad that dji is offering you  a free replacement in your case as they only offered me a 30% coupon even though the cases seem very similar

This is tech support explanation for my  lost spark

----

For your claimed case CAS-923424-R2B0D0, we have already finished the analysis, and the result is as follows:

1. The aircraft worked in GPS mode, and responded to pilot's control well;
2. The pilot was pushing throttle stick upward(97%), then at flight time 02:38, H=81 m, D=579.2 m, the flight record ended;
3. The home point : 24.2615063 -76.5133729; the last point: 24.2657238 -76.5167435.

With the record ended without any sign of abnormality, we could not verify what happened afterwards.

---

Obviously if the droen shuts down, and disapears, there won't be any further entry. I wonder why your log showed anything different

I have accepted th 30%, no choice, but not sure if if will just use the park or sell it right away and get something else

Hi there!! So strange behavior of the spark. This happened to you with the latest firmware?  V 01.00.0600 ??? Thanks

PascalG Posted at 2017-9-1 04:17
I m glad that dji is offering you  a free replacement in your case as they only offered me a 30% coupon even though the cases seem very similar

This is tech support explanation for my  lost spark

For all sudden power loss cases, the flight log is probably similar. Sudden flight log ended without any abnormality before that point, and they cannot figure out the reason. Only in cases that there is a second camera following the drone and recording what is happenings. But it is not realistic.
DJI should find a way to idenify this situation, otherwise, this will happen again leaving us hopeless.

That was before the firmware came out, about 3 weeks ago. I hope the new firmware will make it more reliable. It's a very nice drone but reliability needs to be improved

fans1b799873 Posted at 2017-9-1 04:06
Finally, DJI agrees to replace a new drone for me. I am appreciated they reconsider my case after I sent them an appeal mail stating all points mentioned above.
I hope they can fix all potentially dangerous issues such as power cut and flyaway as soon as possible.

Thanks for your feedback, we will also report this case to our engineers to confirm, sorry again for this fly away case. Hope you will get your drone back soon.