NTSB Cites Blade Separation in Electric Aircraft Accident

The National Transportation Safety Board is citing blade failure as the cause of the crash of a remotely piloted Joby Aviation electric aircraft in 2022.

Meg Godlewski

Tuesday, February 13, 2024 at 06:08 PM ET

Verified

Joby Aviation is developing an electric air taxi to carry a pilot plus as many as four passengers. A preproduction prototype suffered an accident during flight testing on February 16, 2022. [Courtesy: Joby Aviation]

Key Takeaways:

The NTSB concluded that blade failure was the cause of the 2022 crash of a remotely piloted Joby Aviation eVTOL prototype during a high-speed dive test.
The accident began with a propeller blade bending failure, which led to a cascading effect of further blade separations, loss of control, and the aircraft crashing.
Joby Aviation stated that such experimental tests are crucial for determining aircraft limits and have led to the incorporation of various design and testing improvements since the incident.
Despite the crash, Joby's certification efforts are progressing, with the FAA recently accepting its propulsion system certification plan.

See a mistake? Contact us.

Co-authored with Jack Daleo.

The National Transportation Safety Board is citing blade failure as the cause of the crash of a remotely piloted Joby Aviation electric aircraft in 2022. According to the NTSB’s final report, the accident, which took place on February 16, happened during the second test flight of the day for the JAS4-2, the first of two second-generation preproduction prototypes.