AAIB investigation to DJI Matrice 210 (UAS, registration n/a) 061020
Loss of power in flight and deployment of recovery parachute, Danbury, Essex, 6 October 2019.
Summary:
The DJI Matrice 210 unmanned aircraft system was being operated in a manual flight mode over a nature reserve in support of emergency service operations. Whilst the aircraft was hovering at a height of about 54 m, the ballistic recovery parachute system fitted to the aircraft activated unexpectedly. The aircraft descended under the parachute and became lodged in a tree.
Testing of the parachute system did not identify any evidence of a system malfunction which could have triggered an erroneous parachute deployment, but a false-positive activation of the parachute system could not be ruled out.
Analysis of the aircraft recorded on-board data did not provide any insight into why the flight was abruptly terminated, although several possibilities were identified. It was not established whether the parachute system activated first, cutting power to the aircraft motors or whether the aircraft experienced an inflight failure which triggered the parachute deployment.
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