Nine months after a crash that killed co-pilot Michael Alsbury and injured fellow pilot Peter Siebold, the National Transportation Safety Board has announced the findings of its investigation into the events that led to the mid-air breakup of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo over the Mojave Desert.
According to the NTSB, while human error was found to be the immediate cause of the crash — with Alsbury prematurely unlocking the so-called feather system that's designed to slow the vehicle, resulting in increased loads that caused the breakup — the real blame falls to vehicle manufacturer Scaled Composites for failing to consider and protect against a single human error that can have such catastrophic results.
In a statement, the NTSB explains, "the Board found that Scaled Composites failed to consider the possibility that a test pilot could unlock the feather early or that this single-point human error could cause the feather to deploy uncommanded," adding, "the Board also found that Scaled Composites failed to ensure that test pilots adequately understood the risks of unlocking the feather early. "
The NTSB also laid some blame on the FAA for failing to ensure that Scaled Composites had met its hazard analysis requirements, and it has made a number of recommendations to the agency that it says could help strengthen its evaluation process and promote increased collaboration between its technical staff and the operators of commercial space vehicles.
Via: Wired
