AAIB Report: DJI Phantom 4 RTK, UAS lost power and dropped to the ground

[Colin McDonald]

The UAS, a DJI Phantom 4 RTK, was being operated in an automated flight mode to survey a railway track and surrounding infrastructure when one of the four propellers detached whilst in-flight. The aircraft rapidly descended from a height of 70 m (230 ft) where it struck the ground in the rear garden of a house. No one was injured.

With the increasing use of UAS for survey work I suppose it was inevitable that some kind of incident would occur eventually.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/a...nge-midlothian

[Andrew Smith]

From the report it did so more than "rapidly", as the motors were continuing under normal power even though the drone was upside down. The gem is located on page 5 of the report.

"The data indicated that, from a height of about 60 m, the aircraft descent rate increased beyond that associated with free fall. This was because of thrust from the propellers whilst the aircraft was inverted."

I guess there might be a software patch for that one in the future, granted though a broken propeller isn't an expected scenario. LOL.

Andrew