Who is responsible for the accident of the drone?
According to data released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, by the end of 2023, there were more than 1.26 million drones in the mainland, a year-on-year increase of about 32%. In 2023, civilian drones will fly more than 23 million hours.
Behind the huge market potential, some safety issues of UAVs have attracted widespread attention. Although drones are designed with some safety measures in mind, some safety issues are easy to be overlooked in complex application scenarios. At the extreme, drones have caused bodily harm to innocent people when they are out of control.
In this regard, the reporter launched an interview and investigation.
The drone crashed out of control, and consumers demanded that DJI be responsible
In February this year, Mr. Zhang, a consumer, test-flew the DJI drone Mini 3 in an open area and recorded it. "When the drone flew to an altitude of about 100 meters, it lost the image transmission (black screen) and signal, and the signal was restored according to previous experience, but from the later video, the drone has completely lost control", according to him, the drone fell 3 kilometers away from the take-off point and smashed the panoramic sunroof of a car.
After DJI received the drone, it was analyzed that the cause of the fall was that there was interference in the flight area and caused it to lose control. However, Mr. Zhang was dissatisfied with this, the first is that the App only defines the flight area as a "weak interference area", which is not actually a complete loss of signal, and the drone cannot be manually controlled at that time; second, the drone does not automatically perform the return or hover function after losing the signal, which is not in line with the publicity.
Fallen drone
The vehicle involved in the incident was smashed by Mr. Zhang's drone
At present, Mr. Zhang has paid nearly 9,000 yuan to the owner of the smashed car for car maintenance. His appeal is that DJI will replace the drone that fell for no reason for free and bear the car repair fee he paid in advance. But DJI can only meet his new demands.
DJI's public relations department replied to reporters that the user took off in the enhanced warning area, and when taking off in the area, the app will prompt the user to pay attention to flight safety in a pop-up window before takeoff, and the user needs to check the option of responsibility consent before continuing to fly. At the same time, in the enhanced warning area, due to signal interference and GNSS positioning system cannot work normally, the automatic return function of the drone will be interfered with, and the automatic return may not be completed. DJI's after-sales service principle is still more reasonable, and has specially applied for the replacement of a single device for the user, and obtained the user's consent.
It is worth mentioning that DJI has asked Mr. Zhang to sign a letter of commitment for the free replacement process. The general content is that after Mr. Zhang accepts DJI's replacement plan, he can no longer hold DJI liable for any liabilities, and if a third party demands that DJI be held liable for the incident, he will be responsible for compensating DJI for its losses. In addition, Mr. Zhang was required to maintain the confidentiality of the handling of the incident.
Mr. Zhang showed the reporter a letter of commitment signed by DJI
In response to the DJI Mini 3 drone's uncontrolled return, DJI's customer service replied to the reporter that in DJI Fly, the behavior of the aircraft after the remote controller signal is interrupted can be set to return, land, or hover. If set to land or hover, the aircraft will not perform a runaway return to home. If it is set to RTH, when the GNSS signal is good, the compass is working normally, and the aircraft successfully records the home point, when the aircraft and the remote controller signal are interrupted for 11 seconds or more, the aircraft enters a runaway home. The DJI Mini 3 user manual mentions that the restricted flight zone will affect the automatic return to home, and the wind speed may not be successful.
DJI customer service showed the DJI Mini 3 user manual to reporters
In March this year, the DJI Avata drone purchased by Mr. Ding, a consumer, had a signal interruption during the flight and automatically returned home. According to him, the drone cannot support the return of the original route on the way back, but performs a point-to-point straight line return, automatically reduces the flight altitude on the way back, and loses it after hitting an obstacle.
DJI engineers believed that the accident was a human operation problem, but Mr. Ding was dissatisfied with this, the first was that the drone could not return after only flying about 200 meters, the second was that the device could not be connected after disconnection, which was not a human operation problem, and the third was that the drone did not return according to the original route after the disconnection, and the machine automatically lowered its flight altitude.
Under his repeated complaints, DJI changed from the original "6% off to buy new" to "3% off to buy new". Mr. Ding finally chose to compromise and buy the same drone at a price of 1,004.4 yuan, but he still insisted that the drone accident was caused by a flaw in the design of the machine.
Mr. Ding showed the reporter the cost of purchasing a new machine
DJI's public relations department replied to reporters that the automatic return of drones does not refer to the return of the original route, but the planned route for return. After verification, the user manually adjusted the return altitude to 30 meters, and on the way back, he passed through a small area with a height of 18 floors (about 50 meters high), and the plane crashed and fell. The user mentioned that he could not return after flying 200 meters, which was also due to the blockage of the buildings in the community and the weak signal.
According to the description of automatic RTH in the DJI Avata user manual, when the RTH distance is greater than 50 meters, the aircraft will rise to the RTH altitude for RTH (if the set RTH altitude is greater than the current altitude, otherwise it will return to RTH at the current altitude), and the horizontal speed is 12m/s. It is also mentioned in the precautions that the aircraft cannot avoid obstacles above and around it.
DJI customer service showed the DJI Avata user manual to reporters
Regarding the question of whether the drone will fly back autonomously after the signal is interrupted, DJI's customer service replied to the reporter that it successfully recorded the return point before takeoff, and the GPS and compass were normal during the flight, and it would return to the home point.
In fact, DJI's consumer complaints are not unique. The reporter retrieved a total of 3,076 consumer complaints related to DJI on the Black Cat complaint platform, mainly involving problems such as the inability to return to the flight after being lost, the refusal of insurance during the warranty period, and the high maintenance fee.
Who is responsible for the drone smashing and injuring people?
In the process of following up on DJI's complaint case, the reporter noticed that some complainants expressed concern that the drone might smash and injure others when it lost contact and lost control.
This concern is not unfounded. In recent years, drone injuries have occurred from time to time.
In November 2020, a 3-year-old girl in Wuhan was hit by a drone while playing on the lawn, suffering a traumatic intracerebral hemorrhage in the right temporal region and a comminuted fracture of the right temporal skull, and the court sentenced the drone operator to pay 194,000 yuan in compensation.
In 2021, a man in Jiangxi Province was investigating and punished by the police for a drone landing in a square, and the drone scratched the face of a 5-year-old child. In August 2022, a drone fell out of control in People's Square in Yongchuan, Chongqing, hitting a girl on the head.
In June 2023, a young girl was scratched in the face by a DJI Mini 3Pro drone that fell from the sky on Hubin Pedestrian Street in Hangzhou. The owner had registered the flight online, but there was a mistake due to the low battery of the drone.
Article 1179 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China stipulates that a person who infringes upon another person and causes personal injury shall be compensated for reasonable expenses incurred for treatment and rehabilitation, such as medical expenses, nursing expenses, transportation expenses, nutrition expenses, and hospital meal subsidies, as well as the loss of income due to lost work. In the case of disability, compensation shall also be made for the cost of assistive devices and disability compensation, and in the case of death, funeral expenses and death compensation shall also be compensated.
In order to regulate unmanned aircraft flights and related activities, and promote the healthy and orderly development of the unmanned aircraft industry, the "Interim Regulations on the Administration of Unmanned Aircraft Flights" will come into force on January 1, 2024, and Article 10 stipulates that civil unmanned aircraft owners shall carry out real-name registration in accordance with the law. Article 25 Units or individuals organizing unmanned aircraft flight activities shall abide by relevant laws, regulations, and rules, take the initiative to take accident prevention measures, and bear the main responsibility for flight safety.
It is worth noting that the regulations divide unmanned aerial vehicles into five categories according to their performance indicators: micro, light, small, medium, and large.
The reporter counted the weight and maximum horizontal flight speed of the hot-selling DJI drones on the market, and found that except for the mini series, which is miniature, the other series are light.
Article 17 stipulates that personnel who operate micro and light civil unmanned aircraft do not need to obtain a controller's license, but they shall be proficient in the operation methods of relevant aircraft types, and understand the risk warning information and relevant management systems.
Persons without civil capacity (generally referring to minors under the age of 8) can only fly with miniature civil unmanned aerial vehicles, and persons with limited civil capacity (generally referring to minors over the age of 8 but under 18) can only fly with miniature and light civil unmanned aerial vehicles. However, in these two cases, on-site guidance shall be provided by a person with full capacity for civil conduct who meets the relevant provisions.
Article 24 stipulates that when unmanned aircraft other than micro aircraft carry out flight activities, the operator shall ensure that the unmanned aircraft can report identification information to the unmanned aircraft integrated comprehensive supervision service platform (coordinated and constructed by the national air traffic management leading institution) in accordance with relevant national regulations.
The regulations also stipulate that the use of civil unmanned aerial vehicles for commercial flight activities, as well as the use of small, medium, and large civil unmanned aircraft for non-commercial flight activities, shall be insured with liability insurance in accordance with the law. This means that consumers do not have to take out liability insurance to buy the hot-selling micro and light drones on the market.
The reporter noticed in DJI's official mall that DJI provides consumers with paid value-added services "free exchange", which generally includes low-cost replacement (limited times), fly/water/fall protection, a certain amount of three-party insurance and other rights and interests. In addition, DJI's public relations department also showed reporters the entrance to the official mall to purchase third-party liability insurance. This liability insurance provides protection for the personal injury or death of a third party or property damage accident during the flight, mainly including compensation for property damage of third party, compensation for personal injury of third party, compensation for legal litigation costs, and compensation for damage to public goods.
Screenshot source: DJI official website
Regarding the situation that the drone may be smashed and injured when it is lost, DJI's customer service replied that if there is really a problem of injury or third-party loss, there will be a special person to deal with it for consumers. The customer service mentioned that DJI's drones will have a protection mechanism, and there will be few problems with hurting people.
Consumer Reports suggests that it is best to purchase a suitable insurance when buying a drone to cover third-party compensation caused by personal misoperation or drone problems.