The National Transportation Safety Board has concluded its investigation into the fatal accident involving Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo. The space ship disintegrated during a test flight on October 31, 2014, resulting in the death of copilot Michael Alsbury.
The NTSB concluded that Scaled Composites, the contractor for the program, failed to “consider and protect against the possibility that a single human error could result in a catastrophic hazard to the SpaceShipTwo vehicle.” The NTSB found that Alsbury prematurely unlocked the feather system “as a result of time pressure and vibration and loads that he had not recently experienced.” This lead to an un-commanded feather extension that ultimately caused the in-flight breakup.
