ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 264958
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| Date: | Sunday 6 October 2019 |
| Time: | 11:50 UTC |
| Type: | DJI Matrice 210 |
| Owner/operator: | Essex Police |
| Registration: | Unregistered |
| MSN: | 17TDG350020016 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Backwarden Nature Reserve, Danbury, Essex. -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) |
| Nature: | Aerial patrol |
| Departure airport: | Backwarden Nature Reserve, Danbury, Essex. |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information verified through data from accident investigation authorities |
AAIB investigation to DJI Matrice 210 (UAS, registration n/a): Loss of power in flight and deployment of recovery parachute, Danbury, Essex, 6 October 2019. The AAIB Final report was published on 11 February 2021, and the following is an excerpt from it:
"The DJI Matrice 210 is a quadcopter Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) with a maximum takeoff mass of 6.14 kg. It is controlled on the ground using a handheld flight controller via radio frequency and a software application running on a tablet device attached to the controller. For the accident flight the takeoff mass was calculated to be approximately 5.5 kg, which included an underslung camera, two TB55 batteries and a ballistic recovery parachute system.
The UAS was being flown manually in support of police operations at Backwarden Nature Reserve, Danbury, Essex. A pre-flight risk assessment noted that the forecast wind speed was 16 mph with 26 mph gusts, but the actual wind speed on the ground was measured as 7 mph. The pilot conducted function checks after takeoff and checked the aircraft’s stability in the wind conditions. The UAS controller indicated a high wind warning and a FLY WITH CAUTION message was displayed, but the pilot assessed that the aircraft’s flight was stable.
The aircraft was flown at a height of approximately 50 m to the area of interest. While in the hover, the ballistic recovery parachute system deployed without warning. The aircraft’s motors stopped and it descended under the parachute, coming to rest in some trees. No other warnings were displayed on the controller. From the ground, the pilot assessed that no damage occurred when the aircraft landed in the trees but it was subsequently damaged during recovery from the trees.
The aircraft was sent to a UK repair organisation, which forwarded it to the UAS manufacturer for repair and analysis of the recorded onboard data. The parachute system was sent to the parachute manufacturer for examination and analysis of the recorded on-board data from both the parachute system and the aircraft’s flight log.
=AAIB Conclusion=
A routine flight of an unmanned aircraft terminated prematurely when the ballistic recovery parachute system activated unexpectedly. It was not established whether the parachute system activated erroneously, cutting power to the UAS motors or whether the UAS experienced an inflight failure which triggered the parachute deployment.
=Safety action=
The parachute system manufacturer is aware of the log alignment issues between its system and the DJI Matrice 200 series of aircraft. As such, the latest parachute system that is being designed for the DJI Matrice 300 series
aircraft will communicate directly with the aircraft to cut power to the motors, leaving power on the aircraft to continue logging data, and enable more accurate syncing of the aircraft and parachute system log files.
=Damage Sustained to Airframe=
Per the above AAIB report, the UAV sustained no damage.
Sources:
1. AAIB Final Report: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5ffef886e90e07639e9b13b0/DJI_Matrice_210_UAS_reg_na_02-21.pdf
2. https://www.essexwt.org.uk/nature-reserves/backwarden
3. https://www.wildessex.net/sites/Backwarden.htm
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danbury_Ridge_Nature_Reserves
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 01-Jul-2021 19:54 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
| 01-Jul-2021 19:55 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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