Aircraft Battery Fire

[Eyeup Aerial Solutions]

No...I haven't suffered one. And I can't remember reading about any instances of Inspire or Phantom batteries going rogue during flight at all.

I was shown some horrific images during ground school, but these were of batteries that had been badly packed in an aircraft hold, hadn't been discharged etc.... Or individuals deliberately overcharging until they went pop. Basically accidents waiting to happen.

But properly maintained DJI batteries going up in smoke mid-flight....anybody?

 

[The Editor]

No...I haven't suffered one. And I can't remember reading about any instances of Inspire or Phantom batteries going rogue during flight at all.

I was shown some horrific images during ground school, but these were of batteries that had been badly packed in an aircraft hold, hadn't been discharged etc.... Or individuals deliberately overcharging until they went pop. Basically accidents waiting to happen.

But properly maintained DJI batteries going up in smoke mid-flight....anybody?

Not in flight but this was a Phantom battery just sitting on the bench.......

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[jkerrins]

and that folks is why I carry a small portable fire extinguisher with me now during every flight

 

[Eyeup Aerial Solutions]

Yes, I saw that one too a few months ago. To be honest, if there was to be a case of a battery doing this I would sort of expect it in a repair shop. This is where damaged and possibly abused kit gets sent. I too carry a fire extinguisher and blanket to every job...but I sort of think I'm more likely to need it on my car on the way to the job than the drone!

 

[RobH2]

I keep my 6 batteries in a steel ammo box in my house. The box sits on a brick. I had one of these batteries catch on fire after getting wet. They go off so intensely that if one caught fire in a house sitting on a carpet or table it would surely burn the house down. I can't imagine what it would be like in the ammo box if one caught fire and the other 5 right behind it but it would contain it better than 6 batteries in my foam DJI case I imagine.

Still no an answer to the original question of fire in flight. But, if one caught fire in flight and fell on a house or in the woods it might get ugly. Good advice to have a small fire extinguisher in the car.

 

[Eyeup Aerial Solutions]

I keep my 6 batteries in a steel ammo box in my house. The box sits on a brick. I had one of these batteries catch on fire after getting wet. They go off so intensely that if one caught fire in a house sitting on a carpet or table it would surely burn the house down. I can't imagine what it would be like in the ammo box if one caught fire and the other 5 right behind it but it would contain it better than 6 batteries in my foam DJI case I imagine.

Still no an answer to the original question of fire in flight. But, if one caught fire in flight and fell on a house or in the woods it might get ugly. Good advice to have a small fire extinguisher in the car.

So in this case the battery was wet and therefore could be classed as not correctly maintained. I'm glad you survived this experience but I'm really searching to find real-world examples of fires of correctly maintained batteries in an I1 during flight. Posted in a few forums and no joy yet. Could be wrong but I'm thinking it is incredibly rare and possibly one of the lease likely failure modes.

 

[RobH2]

Yea, I'm hoping it's rare too. Since there has not been a flood of horror stories I'm guessing it is truly rare. I've not heard of one.

I don't think we need to worry about it. I think there are a lot of other things that have a higher probability of going disastrously wrong, like you implied.

 

[Experimental]

I've never had, nor heard of, a battery fire mid-flight while it's in use on a drone. And I've got a few thousand flights over the past 7 years of flying drones at this point.

With that said, I have been in the room when a lipo battery charger decided to fail and open a gateway of hell on a workbench 8 feet away from where I was sitting. Luckily it was a small lipo battery with a capacity less than 2500mah. And no, it was not a DJI charger or battery that caught fire. I was not in charge of that particular part of the production I was on, so I don't know for sure that the charger or battery weren't damaged or abused beforehand. Info from the person who had put the battery to charge said nothing was wrong or out of the ordinary before the fire, nor was the battery puffy. I suspect the charger had been set to it's highest charge rate (3 amps) since the day it was put into service and it eventually failed because it's a fairly cheap charger. For the record, I have the same charger, so I've been beyond extra careful with mine ever since this incident.