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Virgin Galactic Crash Due to Pilot Error and Design Flaws

posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday July 29 2015, @10:46AM   Printer-friendly
from the the-dangers-of-being-a-test-pilot dept.

takyon writes:

The National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) has found that a mix of pilot error and design flaws led to the crash of SpaceShipTwo last year:

The crash of a Virgin Galactic spaceship last fall in California's Mojave Desert was caused by pilot error and design problems, the National Transportation and Safety Board announced Tuesday after a nine-month investigation.

NPR's Geoff Brumfiel reports the NTSB found that SpaceShipTwo broke apart during a test flight on Oct. 31 because the co-pilot prematurely unlocked a section of the space plane's tail used in braking. The pilot survived, but the co-pilot, Michael Alsbury, was killed.

"But investigators found that SpaceShipTwo's design was also to blame. NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt says proper safeguards to prevent such human error weren't in place," Geoff says.

Detailed summary at Wired. Richard Branson's statement [video] in response.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday July 29 2015, @11:45AM

    by wonkey_monkey (279) on Wednesday July 29 2015, @11:45AM (#215377) Homepage

    "Galactic" is capitalised, though.

    But yes, my brain did go "shouldn't that be 'last fell?'"

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday July 29 2015, @11:58AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 29 2015, @11:58AM (#215380) Journal

    "Galactic" is capitalised, though.

    Oh, yea? What about TFT?

    Virgin Galactic Crash Due to Pilot Error and Design Flaws

    "Translation": Pilot Error and Design Flaw Caused a Galactic Crash on a Virgin?.. or was it just a simple "Galactic Virgin Crash"?

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    • (Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday July 29 2015, @01:21PM

      by wonkey_monkey (279) on Wednesday July 29 2015, @01:21PM (#215436) Homepage

      Oh, yea? What about TFT?

      Well that's because title case is stupid.

      I may have mentioned it once or twice in the past...

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk