Confidential Human Factors

Incident Reporting Programme

Submit Report

The Charity

Aviation

Maritime

The Charity

Aviation

Maritime

Submit Report

DUAS 0037

Go back

Single Column View
DJI Mini 5 Flyaway

Initial Report

“Flying near The Angel of the North my DJI Mini Pro 5 suffered a transmission malfunction and was lost.

We believe it was a flyaway and probably safely landed somewhere once the battery began to die.

Last known coordinates were 54.913728, -1.5891143 but this was simply where the transmission failure occurred.”

In dialogue with the reporter, we understand that the manufacturer has said they are unable to say whether it was pilot error or their aircraft that was at fault, even after looking at the CSV files, which record multiple parameters at millisecond intervals. The last line of the CSV file reads “No image transmission signal. Aircraft not connected to RC. N/A Image transmission signal lost (Code: 80001)”.

CHIRP Comment

The Board had the following comments:

  • Although, on the face of it, this may not be a Human Factors related occurrence, it is odd that the manufacturer is unable to find a technical reason for the flyaway. There is a chance that HF might have had something to do with the occurrence.
  • The Angel of the North site is not in controlled airspace or marked in any way as being a risk.
  • If GPS jamming had been deployed, it should have been notified via the publication of a NOTAM.
  • Depending on the position of the pilot with the controller relative to the aircraft, it is possible that the signal between the two disconnected because it couldn’t go through the large metal wings of the sculpture.
  • The DJI Mini 5 is a very recent product. If there was a manufacturing related issue, it may get dealt with in a software update that would be issued a few months after the drone had become available. DJI have a track record of doing this.
  • If the drone did not have time to get a GPS loc on start up, it is possible that its RTH functionality did not work properly.