Investigators: Surviving SpaceShipTwo Pilot Unaware Feathering System Unlocked

摘要

The pilot who survived the Oct. 31 crash of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo has told federal investigators he was unaware that the vehicle's co-pilot, who died in the accident, had unlocked the vehicle's feathering mechanism prematurely. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a Nov. 12 statement that its investigators interviewed the vehicle's pilot Nov. 7, a week after the accident. The statement did not identify the pilot by name, but he was previously identified as Peter Siebold, the director of flight operations for Scaled Composites, the company conducting the test flight for Virgin Galactic.