Hobby UAS pilot reported their UAS had several failures during flight. A lost link occurred and the UAS flew away; crashing into the backyard of a residence.

Date: 2023-02 · Aircraft: DJI Mini 2

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-critical|ground-event-encounter-loss-of-vlos-uas|inflight-event-encounter-fly-away-uas|inflight-event-encounter-loss-of-aircraft-control

Synopsis

Hobby UAS pilot reported their UAS had several failures during flight. A lost link occurred and the UAS flew away; crashing into the backyard of a residence.

Narrative

UAS 'target area' was 30 m up and 68 m away (100 x 226 feet). 1 minute and 25 seconds into flight while beginning flight back to 'Home' position; UAS started responding in jerk-like movements and 2 seconds later it lost connection to both GPS and Remote Controller and flew up and to the southeast into the Sun; lost VLOS. Of candor; the UAS seemed to have; well; a 'spasm'; like a big muscle twitch; actually; like it had an electrical pulse 'hit' it.I was unable to track the UAS visually; as it flew into the sun; there was no way to control UAS with Remote Controller. UAS was later found in nearby neighbor's house backyard; approximately 82 m (268 ft.) away to the southeast of its last known position; of which 'lines up' with the last known flight path/direction. The UAS; while not capable of flight; correctly connect to the manufacturer's (smartphone) software and remote controller; and does 'respond' to control commands; and does register connects with 14-20 GPS's; all indications of 'ready to fly'.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.