Phantom 3 Standard falls out of sky and almost injures people

Pilot_Andy · Jun 11, 2017

Hi all. I'm still in a state of shock today as I write this. My Phantom 3 standard fell out of the sky as I was coming in to land and very nearly hit some people.

I was flying in Cheoc Van beach in Macau and was coming in to land. According to flight data, the drone was 90 metres up when it suddenly started falling. It landed in a restaurant next to the beach. Luckily a table umbrella slowed it down, but it still managed to smash the glass table and all the plates and glasses on it, as well as ruining the meal of a group of Australians.

I immediately ran into the restaurant was in a state of shock and was praying that I hadn't injured or killed anyone. Luckily no one was hurt. And luckily the restaurant manager did not call the police and was surprisingly reasonable and just asked me to pay the damages.

The group of Australians, who's meal I ruined, were not injured and were extremely understanding, surprisingly. Nonetheless, I paid for their meal and bought them a round of drinks and apologized profusely.

So what should I do as next steps guys? Below here are the photos of my drone (I removed all the propellors except for the one where it seems to have been the problem) and uploaded the flight data video. At the moment, I really don't know what caused the drone to fall out of the sky, but I can say that I saw the propellers were still spinning as it crashed down.

I'm based in Hong Kong and there is a DJI store there. Should I go straight to them or raise it to customer service on their website? If it is found to be DJI's fault, do I have grounds to ask for compensation? I could have severely injured or killed someone, and I had to pay damages to all those involved, and it also put me into a state of shock.

Thanks

msinger · Jun 11, 2017

Did you inspect your Phantom before taking off to check for any cracks in the shell? It appears it might have been cracked beneath at least one of the motors.

BTW, I realize hindsight is 20/20, but you could have easily avoided this situation by not flying over people.

macoman · Jun 11, 2017

According to the video you posted, at the end appear to be a compass error apart from the strong interference warning showing up.

Pilot_Andy · Jun 11, 2017

msinger said:
Did you inspect your Phantom before taking off to check for any cracks in the shell? It appears it might have been cracked beneath at least one of the motors.

BTW, I realize hindsight is 20/20, but you could have easily avoided this situation by not flying over people.

Hi thanks for you reply. I was flying on a fairly large beach with not that many people and was trying to land it on the sand. When it started falling, it was actually falling towards the sand but either a gust of wind or the propellors (which were probably perpendicular as it fell) took it over the restaurant.

With regards to your analysis - yes I guess I should have checked. If it is a failure of the body of the drone, is that technically my fault or DJIs?

msinger · Jun 11, 2017

Pilot_Andy said:
If it is a failure of the body of the drone, is that technically my fault or DJIs?

If the shell was cracked prior to flying, DJI might have covered it under warranty if you had contacted them and sent it in for repair. They still seem to be fixing issues like this since it's a known defect in the Phantom 3 shells. I think you're going to have a hard time proving those cracks were not caused by the fall at this point. You could contact them and see what they say though. Perhaps they'll cover the shell and make you pay for everything else that's damaged.

dchao · Jun 11, 2017

i've broken the propelle once, so I know they're very fragile. Definitely more fragile than the plastic shell of the drone. If the crack happened after the fall, I can't see how you can damage the motor mount on the arm without breaking its propeller. I think you have a good case against DJI here. Good luck!

Pilot_Andy · Jun 11, 2017

Should I mentioned what happened after the crash to DJI? Such as the smashed table, ruined meal, having to pay the restaurant owner, and the fact I could have injured someone? Or should I just it keep it strictly about the drone.

msinger · Jun 11, 2017

Pilot_Andy said:
Should I mentioned what happened after the crash to DJI? Such as the smashed table, ruined meal, having to pay the restaurant owner, and the fact I could have injured someone?

That's why I was asking if you inspected your Phantom pre-flight. It sounds like a bit of pilot error was in play here. It doesn't seem fair to try to hold DJI accountable if you were flying a damaged Phantom.

Monte55 · Jun 11, 2017

Pilot_Andy said:
Should I mentioned what happened after the crash to DJI? Such as the smashed table, ruined meal, having to pay the restaurant owner, and the fact I could have injured someone? Or should I just it keep it strictly about the drone.

Why would DJI care or need to know? When you buy and fly a drone, it's your responsibility.

Pilot_Andy · Jun 11, 2017

Monte55 said:
Why would DJI care or need to know? When you buy and fly a drone, it's your responsibility.

Yeah you're right. My apologies that was a bit of a daft question. I'm a little bit in shock still from the incident.

dchao · Jun 11, 2017

Monte55 said:
Why would DJI care or need to know? When you buy and fly a drone, it's your responsibility.

Because U.S.A. is run by lawyers. Only in the U.S., one could sue McDonald over a cup of hot coffee and won.

solentlife · Jun 11, 2017

dchao said:
Because U.S.A. is run by lawyers. Only in the U.S., one could sue McDonald over a cup of hot coffee and won.

Sorry to go off topic ... but McD has reminded me ... I think it New York where a group of extremely Obese people took McD to Court accusing them of causing their obesity. They claimed that McD advertising and such 'made' them eat up to 12 .... (can you believe it ... ) Big Mac's each day !! Thats EACH person !!

If I remember correctly - case was denied.

Nigel

James McLennon · Jun 11, 2017

Pilot_Andy said:
Hi all. I'm still in a state of shock today as I write this. My Phantom 3 standard fell out of the sky as I was coming in to land and very nearly hit some people.

I was flying in Cheoc Van beach in Macau and was coming in to land. According to flight data, the drone was 90 metres up when it suddenly started falling. It landed in a restaurant next to the beach. Luckily a table umbrella slowed it down, but it still managed to smash the glass table and all the plates and glasses on it, as well as ruining the meal of a group of Australians.

Thanks

The same thing happened to me when I took my drone to the park for a test flight, it crash landed on the football pitch I'm just so glad it didn't hit anyone, it could have been a lot worse.

Pilot_Andy · Jun 12, 2017

James McLennon said:
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The same thing happened to me when I took my drone to the park for a test flight, it crash landed on the football pitch I'm just so glad it didn't hit anyone, it could have been a lot worse.

Yeah yesterday's incident was almost traumatic for me. The damaged drone and smashed table/plates didn't mean anything to me - it was the safety of those on the ground who I'd almost hit. I'd never forgive myself if I'd injured someone.

Needless to say it's put me off drone flying for a while. I won't be buying a replacement drone for at least a couple months, and it certainly won't be a phantom 3 again.

If it the crash was caused by the shell, then I put my hands up and I say, yes I should have checked the shell. However it is worrying that a leading drone company would make their product to fail so easily. I'd only had my drone for just over a year!

macoman · Jun 12, 2017

Pilot_Andy said:
Yeah yesterday's incident was almost traumatic for me. The damaged drone and smashed table/plates didn't mean anything to me - it was the safety of those on the ground who I'd almost hit. I'd never forgive myself if I'd injured someone.

Needless to say it's put me off drone flying for a while. I won't be buying a replacement drone for at least a couple months, and it certainly won't be a phantom 3 again.

If it the crash was caused by the shell, then I put my hands up and I say, yes I should have checked the shell. However it is worrying that a leading drone company would make their product to fail so easily. I'd only had my drone for just over a year!

It does not mean that all phantoms 3 have the same issue. It was yours that something happened. Bad calibration or bad ECS board.

James McLennon · Jun 12, 2017

Pilot_Andy said:
Yeah yesterday's incident was almost traumatic for me. The damaged drone and smashed table/plates didn't mean anything to me - it was the safety of those on the ground who I'd almost hit. I'd never forgive myself if I'd injured someone.

Needless to say it's put me off drone flying for a while. I won't be buying a replacement drone for at least a couple months, and it certainly won't be a phantom 3 again.

If it the crash was caused by the shell, then I put my hands up and I say, yes I should have checked the shell. However it is worrying that a leading drone company would make their product to fail so easily. I'd only had my drone for just over a year!

Man that sounds horrible I cant imagine how embarrassing that must have been for you. I was just so worried it would hit one of the children playing football. Certainly wont be flying in busy parks again. I have lost a lot of confidence in the reliability of the machines though I'm now scared to fly them even in situations I shouldn't be.

dchao · Jun 12, 2017

macoman said:
It was yours that something happened. Bad calibration or bad ECS board.

If it was a bad calibration, the crash would have happened at the beginning of the flight, not 20 min later towards the end. If it's the ESC board, it's still DJI's fault.

With The Birds · Jun 12, 2017

You should upload the log file to phantomhelp or healthydrones and post a link here- it will reveal a lot more than the djigo replay.

Whatever the cause I can't see DJI paying any damages for property or drinks (unless you might demonstrate it was a hardware failure and then you would have to sue them, expect the counter argument to be contributory negligence given where you were flying). I would consider myself lucky that you got out of this so easily to be honest and cop it in the chin. It could have been so much worse.

It might be that the shell failed in flight, they don't fly on three motors.

With The Birds · Jun 12, 2017

macoman said:
According to the video you posted, at the end appear to be a compass error apart from the strong interference warning showing up.

Compass errors don't cause the AC to fall out of the sky- you will always have compass errors at the end of a flight following a prop loss or propulsion failure. It is because the AC is yawimg uncontrollably. Same as you often see GPS errors while the AC is hanging upside down in a tree etc.

macoman · Jun 12, 2017

With The Birds said:
Compass errors don't cause the AC to fall out of the sky- you will always have compass errors at the end of a flight following a prop loss or propulsion failure. It is because the AC is yawimg uncontrollably. Same as you often see GPS errors while the AC is hanging upside down in a tree etc.

You right about that!