The greatest enemy of aerial drones is often unbeatable.
I recently had a friend of mine tell me that he had sunk his drone – but managed to recover it fairly quickly. A day later, he inserted a new battery and was elated to find that the Air 2S actually turned on. His excitement was short lived; less than a minute later the lights turned off, the fan stopped, and the gimbal went limp. He had let the drone dry for a day, so what went wrong?
This is the insidious nature of water damage. A single drop of water anywhere on the main board or ESC could cause a fatal short, and that is most likely what happened here. But water damage isn’t just an immediate risk.
Suppose he gave the drone a week to dry, or took it apart and used high-concentration isopropyl alcohol to rapidly dry the drone as I attempted to, there would still be failure risk due to water damage. Corrosion on the main board, ESC, or connectors could lead to unrecoverable failure during flight operations. Moisture inside the camera unit could make photos and videos unusable. Sensor failure, especially on DJI drones, could cause a wide variety of serious safety issues, or cause the drone to become inoperable.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU EXPERIENCE WATER DAMAGE:
Remove the battery from the drone as soon as you get it out of the water. The batteries are designed to stay intact after exposure to water, but they are still dangerous. Safely dispose of the battery as soon as you can. It cannot be saved.
Next, remove as much water from the exterior of the drone as you can. Towel it off thoroughly.
If you are comfortable disassembling your drone, take it apart as quickly as you can and begin to use 90% or higher isopropyl alcohol on a microfiber cloth to help aid drying. Be very careful. Modern drones have extremely small components that can be knocked off the main board. Do not use much force. After you have finished cleaning the boards, give the drone ample time to dry. It is important to make sure that no water remains on the board. After drying, reassemble and hope for the best.
If you are not comfortable disassembling your drone, ensure it is in a low humidity environment. If you live somewhere with high humidity, you can use an airtight box and a desiccant like Damp Rid to ensure low humidity. Let the drone dry for at least three days, give it more time if you can. After drying, try powering it on and hope for the best.
The unfortunate reality is that in many cases, drones that have been severely water damaged are not safe to fly unless all safety critical components have been thoroughly tested or replaced. In my opinion, if your drone experiences severe water damage, 15 minutes or greater at any depth, you should exhaust a DJI care refresh option if the drone is inoperable after sufficient drying.
I hope you find this helpful!
-Everett
topshelfdrones@gmail.com
Top Shelf Drones 
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