Scuba diver recovers drone after mysterious plunge into the ocean in Fiji

When a drone is launched to film over the ocean, almost anything can happen. An expensive camera and a costly piece of equipment are held aloft by four tiny propellers. Obstacles, wind, or tiny grains of sand can stop a propeller and make the drone plummet to the ground, or in this case, the water below.
Flying over Voli Voli resort in Fiji, this drone was capturing spectacular footage and recording the shore, the ocean, and the resort. But as it flew along the coastline, the drone operator was surprised to see the monitor image suddenly jump around as if the drone had struck something. The camera tilted and showed the sky at an angle that the drone is not designed to fly at. Then there was chaos on the screen. The image transmission suddenly stopped and the screen went blank. The drone operator walked the shoreline and looked for his drone. He could not figure out why the drone had disappeared. There were no obstacles anywhere that the drone could have struck. He had to assume that there had been a rogue gust of wind, or a malfunction.
Construction workers along the shore had seen the drone flying past them. They told the owner that the drone had suddenly headed out over the water in an erratic manner, as if out of control. With a serious language challenge, it was hard to understand much, but they pointed to the general area that the drone went to. The owner could not understand why it fell from the sky but it was clear that it was now submerged.
The drone was probably finished within seconds of touching salt water, but the data card held the footage that the drone operator had come here for. He put on his scuba gear and searched underwater for the drone, without success. The following day, the owner made another attempt to find it. In 7m (222 feet) of water, the drone's white shell was seen. The owner had proudly placed a "Rumble" sticker on the drone and the familiar lime green logo now reflected back in the lights.
The drone was definitely unsalvageable and the battery was also useless, but the data card was unharmed. The props of the drone were bent and broken from the impact with the water, suggesting that the drone had hit hard and fast. The last file on the SD card was corrupted, as is often the case when the power supply is cut off before the recording is stopped. Using Stellar video repair, the owner was able to recover the last footage that the drone had ever recorded. It showed the unnatural angle that the drone had taken, suggesting a propeller failure, along with a view of the sky and then the water.
Although a drone crash like this one can be costly, at least this drone operator was able to retrieve the footage that he had recoded that day. He was also able to solve the mystery surrounding the sudden plunge into the ocean.