May 1, 2024
After more than a year of successful flights, we, had a landing mishap at Erding Airbase on the afternoon of the 30th of April 2024. In a training flight with a manual landing, the control system exhibited unexpected behaviour, leading to a flip-over touchdown. The aircraft stayed in its designated flight volume right over the runway and neither people nor third party property was harmed. For safety, the local fire brigade was alarmed but only had to monitor without the need for intervention.
We are currently investigating all available information to clarify the root cause of the failure and also draw conclusions on how to improve our processes and procedures.
As the second prototype of the Grille - a significant evolution step with many technological advancements - nears completion, we plan to resume flight operations as soon as we have incorporated all lessons learnt from the current mishap. In a first evaluation we found that many of the high-value assets of the prototype avionics have survived the mishap.
By pushing ahead at a high pace and testing beyond the status quo every week, we must always expect setbacks. Nevertheless, we are passionate about our joint vision of saving live. Fast progress never works without disappointments along the tough road.
