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

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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 determined that the 2022 crash of a Joby Aviation eVTOL prototype was caused by a blade failure at propulsion station 3 during a high-speed test dive.
The initial blade failure led to a cascading effect, damaging other propellers, resulting in a loss of aircraft control and the destruction of the uncrewed experimental aircraft.
Joby Aviation has since incorporated design and testing improvements based on the incident, viewing it as critical learning, and continues its progress toward FAA type certification, with its propulsion system certification plan recently accepted.

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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.