Dear pilots,

I sadly crashed my drone into the water yesterday. Although I have one replacement left on my DJI Care Refresh I believe it could be a hardware error and it could go through warranty.

Here is the situation:

I was on a beach flying around and went back to the land with 30% of battery. With 12% and 20m above the ground, and one meter away the land it lost connectivity (probably was 20m-40m from me but didnt have LOS because of some palm trees. Aircraft disconnect so it landed... on water, one meter from land . It took me aprox 2 minutes to find it with find my drone.

I filled the request service and I read DJI might charge a damage assessment fee of 65 dollars per hour if you refuse to repair your aircraft after being quoted but if I dont accept the repair it will be because I choose to pay the replacement fee.

DJI Susan helped me but I would need a confirmation before send it to today internationaly (I am not in the US right now). Could I send it to warranty service, if it doesnt apply path the replacement fees with no further fees?


Should I send the remote? For the warranty service way I have to, but not for the replacement via DJI Care Refresh.

Thank you!

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Hi there, we are sorry to hear about what happen to your aircraft, please send the remote controller and the aircraft back so we can check and conduct further investigations. Once we received the unit we will be conducting a damage assessment and data analysis, if we found out that the reason why the unit crash is a product malfunction and the aircraft is still within warranty period it will be covered by your warranty however, if it's a human error since you have DJI Care Refresh you can used that for the 1st replacement. Please let us know if you have any, questions. Thank you.

DJI Diana Posted at 12-17 09:12
Hi there, we are sorry to hear about what happen to your aircraft, please send the remote controller and the aircraft back so we can check and conduct further investigations. Once we received the unit we will be conducting a damage assessment and data analysis, if we found out that the reason why the unit crash is a product malfunction and the aircraft is still within warranty period it will be covered by your warranty however, if it's a human error since you have DJI Care Refresh you can used that for the 1st replacement. Please let us know if you have any, questions. Thank you.

Thanks Diana! It would be the second replacement already

DJI Diana Posted at 12-17 09:12
Hi there, we are sorry to hear about what happen to your aircraft, please send the remote controller and the aircraft back so we can check and conduct further investigations. Once we received the unit we will be conducting a damage assessment and data analysis, if we found out that the reason why the unit crash is a product malfunction and the aircraft is still within warranty period it will be covered by your warranty however, if it's a human error since you have DJI Care Refresh you can used that for the 1st replacement. Please let us know if you have any, questions. Thank you.

Diana, I have send it already thru DHL.

iamjavmorales Posted at 12-17 14:18
Diana, I have send it already thru DHL.

Hi there, thank you for the response. Could you please send us a message with the tracking number that you used in sending the Aircraft back. Thank you.

DJI Diana Posted at 12-17 15:50
Hi there, thank you for the response. Could you please send us a message with the tracking number that you used in sending the Aircraft back. Thank you.

Here! Thanks

http://www.dhl-usa.com/en/expres ... 92052&brand=DHL

iamjavmorales Posted at 12-18 07:02
Here! Thanks

http://www.dhl-usa.com/en/express/tracking.html?AWB=7798492052&brand=DHL

Hi there, we already forwarded the tracking number that you have used to send the unit in our facility. You will receive an email from us once we have received the aircraft back. Thank you.

DJI Diana Posted at 12-18 09:38
Hi there, we already forwarded the tracking number that you have used to send the unit in our facility. You will receive an email from us once we have received the aircraft back. Thank you.

Thank you Diana!

iamjavmorales Posted at 12-18 10:58
Thank you Diana!

You are welcome. As for the case status, you may also check from our website: https://repair.dji.com/en/support/RepairTrace Hope we can figure this out soon.

DJI Susan Posted at 12-19 00:38
You are welcome. As for the case status, you may also check from our website: https://repair.dji.com/en/support/RepairTrace Hope we can figure this out soon.

Thank you, its under "conducting damage assesment"

iamjavmorales Posted at 12-23 14:10
Thank you, its under "conducting damage assesment"

Alright, if you need any assistance, please feel free to let us know.

DJI Mindy Posted at 12-23 19:27
Alright, if you need any assistance, please feel free to let us know.

I have received and email requesting again the same info I submitted on December 17th: Date, accident description and sync flight record. Do you know why?

iamjavmorales Posted at 12-26 13:11
I have received and email requesting again the same info I submitted on December 17th: Date, accident description and sync flight record. Do you know why?

Sorry to have kept you waiting, upon checking the case, more data is required and I see our support team also sent you email, in case the flight records fail to sync and our support comes to you again, I recommend to export the whole folder manually according to instruction in the email.

Hello everybody,

I received and answer from the Technical Support team:

1. Unit was in Sport mode and was responsive to RC input;   
2. At t=13:13s, relative height=18:16m, battery reached critical level, and initiated auto landing.
3. At t=15:16s,unit landed in water.
Force impact date:2018-12-16
Force impact GPS location:9.561557 -78.879829

According to the analysis, the the incident was not caused by any product malfunction.

I appreciate the time to anlyze the flight data. Sorry to say that I am not satisfied with the answer, I believe its only protecting DJI, not the customer.
I know and have said that it was with low battery (19% at t:12:14 and 12% at t13:13) but the problem was that it got disconnected from the remote controller.

Aircraft had 12% of remaining battery (with 1:47 min left) for a 20m landing, one or two meters away from land. It disconnected and that is why I could not land it.

When is expected to enter in autolanding mode, at exactly 12%? According to what tech support said said it took two minutes to land... I really dont understand that. If I would have had connection between RC and aircraft, I would have landed safely.

I couldnt wait for this issue to be solved and bought a new unit (Mavic 2) but I am highly regreting it.

I will appreciate your comments, let me know if I am mistaken (I know that is safer to not fly under water and return to home with 75% of battery ).

iamjavmorales Posted at 12-27 14:27
Hello everybody,

I received and answer from the Technical Support team:

Hi there, sorry for the data analysis result, the Low-Battery RTH will be triggered when the battery is depleted to a point that may affect the safe return of the aircraft. Your concern has been escalated to the appropriate department to review, we will have someone to contact you soon, please wait patiently, thank you.

DJI Mindy Posted at 12-28 05:07
Hi there, sorry for the data analysis result, the Low-Battery RTH will be triggered when the battery is depleted to a point that may affect the safe return of the aircraft. Your concern has been escalated to the appropriate department to review, we will have someone to contact you soon, please wait patiently, thank you.

The aircraft got disconnected from the remote. I dont understand why the technical team is not saying anything about this...

Thank you for escalating the situation but I receive a message with a quotation of 400$ for repairing the aircraft ¿?¿?
Are they really analyzing it?

iamjavmorales Posted at 2018-12-31 08:19
The aircraft got disconnected from the remote. I dont understand why the technical team is not saying anything about this...

Thank you for escalating the situation but I receive a message with a quotation of 400$ for repairing the aircraft ¿?¿?

The disconnection might appear if the signal was shielded or blocked, that's why RTH was triggered at that time. For your case, the critical low battery level is the main reason to cause the crash, hope for your understanding. The management will keep following up your case during the working time.

DJI Susan Posted at 1-1 01:14
The disconnection might appear if the signal was shielded or blocked, that's why RTH was triggered at that time. For your case, the critical low battery level is the main reason to cause the crash, hope for your understanding. The management will keep following up your case during the working time.

The main reason for the crash was that it got disconnected from the remote controller. After that it hovered for almost 2 minutes until it landed in water.

After more talks with the technical team they told me that in fact the aircraft got disconnected. Even that was proved, they say it is my fault. Sorry, but.. is this some kind of joke?

I think this is not being fair. I have had a long discussion already with DJI regarding this accident. Some messages assured it was no disconnection, now indeed it was. The only thing all messages were clear about is that it was pilot's error.

So it doesn't matter what I or the technicians are able to prove, its always going to be pilot's fault. Including a disconnection a few meters away from the remote because of palm trees.

This is only protecting DJI's own interest.

I thought DJI cared about the clients and its experience. I know different now.

iamjavmorales Posted at 1-4 15:13
The main reason for the crash was that it got disconnected from the remote controller. After that it hovered for almost 2 minutes until it landed in water.

After more talks with the technical team they told me that in fact the aircraft got disconnected. Even that was proved, they say it is my fault. Sorry, but.. is this some kind of joke?

I understand your situation and very sorry for the result. The management will keep following up and see if there is anything else we can help.

I can't believe it, Tech Support says that aircraft disconnection cannot be considered a hardware malfunction... being at less than 100m from the remote, open space, no metal objects near by.

iamjavmorales Posted at 1-10 11:18
I can't believe it, Tech Support says that aircraft disconnection cannot be considered a hardware malfunction... being at less than 100m from the remote, open space, no metal objects near by.

Yes, the disconnection can be interfered by any environmental factors, per the remaining flight records, it cannot prove there is a product issue, our manager has explained via the email, hope for your understanding.

DJI Diana Posted at 2018-12-17 09:12
Hi there, we are sorry to hear about what happen to your aircraft, please send the remote controller and the aircraft back so we can check and conduct further investigations. Once we received the unit we will be conducting a damage assessment and data analysis, if we found out that the reason why the unit crash is a product malfunction and the aircraft is still within warranty period it will be covered by your warranty however, if it's a human error since you have DJI Care Refresh you can used that for the 1st replacement. Please let us know if you have any, questions. Thank you.

Hello! I did as suggested, sent the unit with the remote and after the assessment, repairing thru warranty was refused.

So I payed the replacement fee and spend the DJI Care Refresh 2nd replacement. I received a message today saying the drone is been sent by UPS. Could you check if the remote control is there as well?

Thank you

iamjavmorales Posted at 1-12 08:13
Hello! I did as suggested, sent the unit with the remote and after the assessment, repairing thru warranty was refused.

So I payed the replacement fee and spend the DJI Care Refresh 2nd replacement. I received a message today saying the drone is been sent by UPS. Could you check if the remote control is there as well?

Hi there, thanks for getting back with us. Upon checking on our system the Remote Controller is being assessed by our Damage Assessment Team . Kindly, check your email time to time for the update. Should there be any questions, please don't hesitate to reach us. Thank you.

DJI Diana Posted at 1-12 09:30
Hi there, thanks for getting back with us. Upon checking on our system the Remote Controller is being assessed by our Damage Assessment Team . Kindly, check your email time to time for the update. Should there be any questions, please don't hesitate to reach us. Thank you.

I dont understand. I sent the remote and the aircraft together last month so they could check on them together. What are they checking now?

iamjavmorales Posted at 1-12 09:40
I dont understand. I sent the remote and the aircraft together last month so they could check on them together. What are they checking now?

They have created a different case for the Remote Controller since it was not included under DJI Care Refresh. We will make a follow up on this case and we'll get back to you as soon as we received an update. Thank you.