The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued a preliminary report on the February 16 crash of a Joby electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi prototype, citing “a component failure” as the cause.
Apart from that detail, the laconic NTSB initial finding doesn’t shed much light on what was already known about the eVTOL aircraft’s crash, which occurred during a remotely piloted test flight above an uninhabited area about halfway between San Luis Obispo, California, and Joby’s Santa Cruz headquarters. Its stipulation of a component failure, however, will allow Joby to eliminate an array of other potential sources and focus on correcting or replacing the responsible element.
“On February 16, 2022, at 09:58 am pacific standard time (PST), a Joby Aviation JAS4-2 experimental aircraft, N542AJ, experienced a component failure over an uninhabited area near Jolon, California,” the NTSB preliminary report said of the eVTOL’ craft’s…
