Person affiliated with a company which operates uavs reported that an inexperienced operator lost co...

Attributes
ACN	1462458
Time
Date	201706
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	UAV - Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle
Operating Under FAR Part	Other 107
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Other / Unknown
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200 Flight Crew Total 8000 Flight Crew Type 1
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control

Narrative:

I have been made aware of an incident concerning a drone that my company owns. An inexperienced drone operator attempted to launch with multiple sensor errors. A takeoff was successful; however; the drone initiated an uncontrollable climb and no corrective action was taken. The drone continued to climb out of sight and was not seen again. The last reported altitude from the drone was 6332 AGL. The telemetry last reported by the drone was directly overhead. As contact between the controlling laptop and drone was lost; that is the last information available. The information I have given is compiled from interviewing the operators and inspection of the laptop computer that was used to control the vehicle. It is my assumption that the drone continued to climb until a critical battery level was reached. Upon this happening it would have initiated a 'return to land' function at its point of departure. I would assume that the battery level would not have allowed it enough energy to return home and it has crashed somewhere downwind.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Person affiliated with a company which operates UAVs reported that an inexperienced operator lost control of a UAV which apparently crashed in an unknown location.

Narrative: I have been made aware of an incident concerning a drone that my company owns. An inexperienced drone operator attempted to launch with multiple sensor errors. A takeoff was successful; however; the drone initiated an uncontrollable climb and no corrective action was taken. The drone continued to climb out of sight and was not seen again. The last reported altitude from the drone was 6332 AGL. The telemetry last reported by the drone was directly overhead. As contact between the controlling laptop and drone was lost; that is the last information available. The information I have given is compiled from interviewing the operators and inspection of the laptop computer that was used to control the vehicle. It is my assumption that the drone continued to climb until a critical battery level was reached. Upon this happening it would have initiated a 'return to land' function at its point of departure. I would assume that the battery level would not have allowed it enough energy to return home and it has crashed somewhere downwind.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Person affiliated with a company which operates uavs reported that an inexperienced operator lost control of a uav which apparently crashed in an unknown location.