Inspire 1 caught fire while in transit in plain.

Noël · Mar 16, 2015

According to the "owner" everything is being blown up now.
Dutch:

Martijn Krabbé liet vanmorgen in een korte reactie aan het AD weten dat er feitelijk weinig aan de hand was. ,,Ach, het viel erg mee allemaal. Er is nooit sprake geweest van vuur. Alleen de batterij van de drone die we hadden meegenomen was een beetje gaan smeulen. Van een enorme rookontwikkeling was, zo is mijn indruk, zeker geen sprake. Personeel heeft meer dan adequaat gehandeld, en nadat iedereen van boord was is de drone netjes bij de security ingeleverd. De cameraman is echter niet aangehouden''.

Terrible Google translation:

Martijn Krabbé responce this morning to the AD (Dutch newspaper) was that there was is in fact not much happening . ,, Well, it was really not that bad. There was never any question of fire. Only the battery of the drone that we had taken with us got smoldered. My impression of a lot of smoke was certainly not the case. Staff acted more than adequate, and after everyone had left the plain the drone was handed over to security. The cameraman was not held for questioning. '

flyingclint · Mar 16, 2015

Noël said:
More media is picking it up now.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/t...fire-breaks-KLM-flight-Amsterdam-Bangkok.html

CRAP!

Mazz · Mar 16, 2015

Camera man was not arrested! Does that mean there was a question about whether or not he would be? At least it was focused on the battery and didn't say drone drone drone fifty times during the article. I will be placing my batteries in my OTHER bag (back pack) from now on. At least if something goes it won't be my quad.

Noël · Mar 16, 2015

Arrested should reed "held". As in "held for questioning"

Aerial Entertainment Studios · Mar 16, 2015

This goes back to the charge level of Lipo batteries. My bet is that one or all of these batteries were at full charge instead of being discharged prior to flight. Would be good to get confirmation of that. This guy is blessed for having the whole thing occur prior to takeoff. Can't imagine the potential panic if this happens in mid air and tons of smoke are coming out of the overhead bin.

For sure, batteries should be out of the bird and discharged. Good warning for all of us, not only Inspire 1 owners.

beatnik · Mar 16, 2015

Quick Question for Inspire batts and DJI charger - More familiar with my standard RC lipo charger that has a discharge setting. Where do I find the discharge options, in the Pilot App? Also Lipo storage bags great idea. I keep my RC batts in a steel ammo box. Just Youtube Lipo fire. Plenty of videos show what can happen. Just because it's in a pretty white plastic case - it's still a lipo.

NEJO/Wisconsin · Mar 16, 2015

Pelican case company is going to love this one! I take it if this goes bad to the luggage bin our birds go

Aerial Entertainment Studios · Mar 16, 2015

beatnik said:
Quick Question for Inspire batts and DJI charger - More familiar with my standard RC lipo charger that has a discharge setting. Where do I find the discharge options, in the Pilot App? Also Lipo storage bags great idea. I keep my RC batts in a steel ammo box. Just Youtube Lipo fire. Plenty of videos show what can happen. Just because it's in a pretty white plastic case - it's still a lipo.

If I'm not wrong, the Inspire and Phantom Lipos have an auto discharge function that you can program from the Pilot app. You can select from a few options ranging from 3 to 10 days for the discharge to take place.

sirnikolas · Mar 16, 2015

Thank god they weren't up in the air!
I keep my I1 in my study on top of a cupboard with the battery just sitting in the slot and not clipped all the way in and my spare batteries live in the same room on a shelf and they're usually fully charged. Should I perhaps start storing them in my garage and in separate lipo bags? I'm a bit paranoid now...
I never ever had an issue with my P2 batteries.

Stu101 · Mar 16, 2015

Maybe it might be time to invest in some Lipo bags and play it safe and not sorry even if this incident was a freak one. And hopefully avoid any issues at the airports as well. Does anybody know of brands/sizes that are a good fit for the I1 batteries?

CoastalBird · Mar 16, 2015

A LiPo bag that is suitable for I1 batteries would be good to have vetted by folks in the know. Anyone have one they want to recommend?

dreadwing · Mar 16, 2015

Wonder how long now until all UAV's are banned from air travel ;-(

sirnikolas · Mar 17, 2015

Apparently the owner had left the battery/aircraft switched on prior to boarding.

Dji might want to factor in an auto shut off rule on the next FW.
ie: when the aircraft motors aren't running and the RC isn't connected to the aircraft for eg: 10 minutes therefor the aircraft will auto switch off.

Like the RC will start beeping after X amount of minutes when it's no longer connected to the aircraft and it automatically switches off.

Figbar · Mar 17, 2015

Does this mean we should keep batteries out of the Inspire when it's just sitting around? I usually just keep one in my unit...not a problem to keep batteries out of the unit when is not in use. I may have missed this, but seems like it is an important issue.

Endjinnear · Mar 18, 2015

I thought the inspire plus battery doesn't really fit in the case? Does it not press on the lid pretty hard?
Kind of stupid to leave it in.

Mazz · Mar 18, 2015

Endjinnear said:
I thought the inspire plus battery doesn't really fit in the case? Does it not press on the lid pretty hard?
Kind of stupid to leave it in.

It fits fine but it does touch the top foam.

PetePerrim · Mar 18, 2015

I'm just surmising here but in my experience the media only give you the half of the story that will sell the papers or work as 'click bait'. The other half of the story (the half that rationalises the exciting half and DOESNT sell papers) is usually carefully ignored. It has already been reported here that the owner said he left the battery switched on but what if the case had also taken a knock or had another heavy case dropped on top of it. Surely a heavy impact on top of an Inspire that is already switched on (or even if it wasn't) is potentially enough to cause this kind of event. We all know the Inspire case from DJI is pretty and OK as a really basic case but there is no f*#king way I'd use it for transporting my Inspire anywhere where there was ANY risk of external damage. I've got the GPC 'Landing mode' case, big but very good. I took my Phantom 2 to Australia last year in its Pelican case and even then the baggage handlers smacked it around enough to make the gimbal fall off!!

damoncooper · Mar 18, 2015

I'm going to speculate (all we have at this point) that perhaps the Inspire was turned on, and in the closed case, enclosed in the overhead bin, the heat had nowhere to go and enough heat was generated over some time that the battery heated up and became unstable.

Be easy enough to try to reproduce I suppose, but I'm not likely to volunteer....