Fatal Crash - Battery Explosion in mid-air

[imprimatur]

I am sad.













So, I was flying today (I do commercial videos). I was using a Phantom 2 + genuine DJI battery (30 or less flights) + lightbridge + gopro hero 3+ black and the H3-3D gimbal. After 7 minutes in the air (I usually get around 15) the bird falls from the sky... and has a horrible crash. Everything is broken. It was a miserable battery failure... and yes, it exploded. Check out the video and the pics at the end of the video.

I contacted DJI and they gave me an RMA. I am supposed to send it in and wait around 4 weeks for them to tell me it was their fault (hopefully they will take responsability). So far they have said they can't do anything about the gopro (with a bad lens now) because its a 3-rd party accesory... I told the guy in the phone "the Phantom was designed to carry a GoPro... it falls because of your fault... and you won't pay for the gopro?" Answer/ "I am sorry, that's how things are".

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldi6ieFQyvI[/youtube]

Has anyone here had a similar problem? what did DJI do? do they seriously have no legal repsonsability regarding the gopro in this type of scenario? This sux.

Thx guys...

 

[TodayTrader]

Yes I had DJI replace my P2 and Zenmuse but NOT the Gopro3+. The told me the same thing.

I was happy to get what I could from them and then bought a used Hero 3+ on EBAY and feel whole again.

 

[imprimatur]

Yes I had DJI replace my P2 and Zenmuse but NOT the Gopro3+. The told me the same thing.

I was happy to get what I could from them and then bought a used Hero 3+ on EBAY and feel whole again.

Did they send you a new unit? why did yours crash?

 

[UrAwFuL]

Holy crap.. that's a TON of loss.

I'm sorry for your loss..

How was the battery before flight? Was it swelling?

 

[gruvpix]

****, I am getting more and more worried about this as although my batteries don't have many charge cycles on them, I am noticing a couple are more puffed up than the others... Maybe I am just being worrisome but if that happened to me on a shoot there goes our phantom and likely some reputation points (not to mention whatever may be below when the beast drops like a rock).
I will be feeling much more comfortable when DJI releases the parachute attachment (if ever)

 

[imprimatur]

Holy crap.. that's a TON of loss.

I'm sorry for your loss..

How was the battery before flight? Was it swelling?

It looked great. I didn't notice anything weird.... this battery has less than 30 flights.

 

[maximusa]

As cool as the DJI Phantom is, in all reality its still (mostly unproven) cheap Chinese parts. To mitigate the GroPro issue, I will be buying the 'accidental damage' warranty from Best Buy.

 

[imprimatur]

As cool as the DJI Phantom is, in all reality its still (mostly unproven) cheap Chinese parts. To mitigate the GroPro issue, I will be buying the 'accidental damage' warranty from Best Buy.

how much is it? and how many months does it cover?

 

[planedr]

That looked like it got shot down. Were you flying over Ukraine?

 

[imprimatur]

That looked like it got shot down. Were you flying over Ukraine?

LOL :lol: don't be mean!

 

[Bluegrass]

Did the battery exploded from the crash or cause the crash? It looks the it must have exploded when it hit the ground.

 

[imprimatur]

Did the battery exploded from the crash or cause the crash? It looks the it must have exploded when it hit the ground.

I think it exploded in mid air... or at the very least, it failed, and exploded when it crashed. Whatever the case DJI has to replace it, its their fault. :evil:

 

[Almmohd]

Wow! I'm scared now. A couple of my batteries a slightly puffed. I haven't flown for a month cause I was on vacation. Yesterday I decided to take the P2 outside and hover. The first battery was in the p2 of the month, I took the p2 up to about 14m and hovered, the battery was at 80% and ran down pretty quickly. At 45%, the p2 just lost altitude quickly reaching ground level in seconds I had to push up all on the throttle to avoid a hard landing. My 3 other batteries were at 98-99% but one of the others did the same thing, discharged quickly and the p2 lost altitude quickly. The two batteries that did this are the same age, one came with the p2 and the other was an extra battery I bought at the same time. The other two batteries that worked well were bought months later. All are less than a year old.

 

[noiseboy72]

I think the P2 battery life is massively over stated. I look after my battery, have never crashed and fly quite gently, so little chance of over discharging and yet it is starting to puff a little. That's after just 50 or so flights.

I do wonder if the electronic power switch fails, as this seems to be total failure while in the air. I doubt the battery "exploded" as the lipo cell is still intact. It looks more like impact damage to me.

Best of luck with your RMA. Hopefully the GoPro is repairable as well.

 

[N017RW]

I think the P2 battery life is massively over stated. I look after my battery, have never crashed and fly quite gently, so little chance of over discharging and yet it is starting to puff a little. That's after just 50 or so flights.

I do wonder if the electronic power switch fails, as this seems to be total failure while in the air. I doubt the battery "exploded" as the lipo cell is still intact. It looks more like impact damage to me.

Best of luck with your RMA. Hopefully the GoPro is repairable as well.

Agreed on life expectancy.

I've used 3S-2600mAh LiPos for years in CP helis and it was always usually about 100 +/- flights before retirement preceded by reduced flight times.

 

[garrock]

I was using a Phantom 2 + genuine DJI battery (30 or less flights) + lightbridge + gopro hero 3+ black and the H3-3D gimbal.

How did you wire up the LightBridge Module inside the P2 Drone ???

 

[Bombular]

Is the lightbridge fine? Will they replace it if it is broken?

 

[quadroger]

Welcome to the club.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aQPejb ... nwhk_R-I-A

 

[bpippin]

Yup. I've just noticed 4 of my 5 batteries are puffy, with reduced flight times and the Quad "auto-landing" as early as 50%. All 4 batteries were acquired 8 months ago. What the hell?

 

[witold]

I have one puffed battery. I noticed the puffing around 40th flight.

It flew fine, it charged fine, and in Phantom Assistant everything looked good.

On the 49th flight, I was low-above-ground flying FPV and all the sudden I realize I'm in the grass. I thought I screwed up and didn't pick it up with wide-FOV on Gopro...

So on 50th flight, I test it. The quad is flying fine until 57% battery on Iosd. Then there was 1 red blink... then it went immediately into sequential red blinks and autolanded. I checked in Phantom Assistant and the battery is also showing 57%.

I emailed DJI. They "resolved" it by telling me to call instead. Tomorrow I will be giving them a call.