Explore

DJI Crash Report - Clayton & Nico - 02/24/2026

1. Background and Context

The crash on 4/16/2025 involved a DJI M300C which was flown by Anesti Tsagris with Cameron Perry as his VO. They were testing newly installed propellors at the Purdue Wildlife area when one of the props sheared off mid fight causing a loss of control and the drone crashing top down. Before the crash they performed multiple flights, checking the props before and after each flight. The drone had the Zenmuse P1-2 attached as a payload, they were using DJI software to control and view the feed from the camera.

2. Root Cause Analysis

We came to the conclusion that the primary cause of the crash was failure to conduct maintenance per manufacturer standards. The maintenance team, Ryan, took off and reinstalled the props after PAD with instructions from the UAS dispatch coda page which did not follow the manufactures’ guidelines. There may have been a hairline crack in one of the props, which was not detected, that led to the inevitable failure of one of the props to sheer off mid-flight. The team was flying in really good weather with 10SM visibility and 0KTS of wind. This clearly indicates that it wasn’t a weather issue but was based on human errors for failure to perform proper maintenance and mechanical failures of the part.

3. Crash Dynamics

The drone took off at a constant altitude of about 690 with battery 1’s current starting to fluctuate. Around 1 minute into the flight a yaw input was applied at around 10ft above the ground and note that battery 1 is fluctuating a bunch and battery 2 has just increased its current. The vertical speed stays pretty constant until around 103 seconds through the flight with the drone at about 46ft, you can see a sharp decrease then increase in vertical speed from the drone. This is also where the IMU data displays sharp fluctuations in yaw, roll and a little bit of pitch deviation during the spiral towards the ground. Interesting enough, when the prop sheared off the drone, there was an increase in cell voltage deviation in the drone to maintain control during the rapid decent. Once the drone touched down it’s clear to depict that the drone was on its top and rolled over from the yaw and roll data. The 3D space model also depicts these events unfolding in this order due to the drone maintaining control until the prop sheered and spiraled towards the ground in an uncontrolled manner.

⁠

⁠

⁠

⁠

4. Post-Crash Response and Consequences

The PIC filled out the proper crash report for both UAS and SATT, no crash report for the FAA was required. The PIC and VO did not take a video post-crash, although pictures were captured once the drone was taken back to COMP 101. The drone was severely damage with 4/8 props being broken, damage to the sensor mount, damaged antenna, damaged landing gear, and possible structural damage. Afterwards M300C had to be sent to DJI for repairs and all M300s were grounded until the props were inspected. There was also a potential emphasis on following manufacturer instructional guidelines.

5. Recommendations

We would recommend changing or removing certain UAS dispatch instructions so that they always follow the manufacturers’ guidelines. We’d also recommend a well formatted pre-test flight checklist that can be referenced in later inspections also. The main reasoning for this is because with normal checklists they prepare the aircraft for flights under normal conditions, but as soon as something is change there should be a different set of guidelines that should be followed to accommodate. Another recommendation is when conducting testing, after a prop is reinstalled, is to strap the drone on a testing surface and run the motors. This test would encompass performing basic motor controls like pitch, roll, and yaw while keeping the drone safe and humans out of the equation if another prop was to fail.

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ··· in the right corner or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.