LOS ANGELES - The Virgin Galactic spaceship crash last year occurred after a co-pilot prematurely unlocked a flap assembly that's only supposed to be deployed at almost twice the speed, well past the speed of sound, the National Transportation Safety Board reported Tuesday.

The findings, disclosed at a Washington, D.C., hearing found that while the error caused the accident in the California desert that killed the co-pilot and injured the pilot, the operator of the craft, Scaled Composites, is at fault for never considering that such an accident could happen.

The company, which operated SpaceShipTwo from the Mojave Airport north of Los Angeles, "did not account for the possibility that a pilot might prematurely unlock" the flap system, causing a catastrophic failure. The company "assumed that pilots would correctly operate the ... system every time."

The crash involved a unique craft designed to be dropped from a mothership, then power into space using its own rocket engines. The test flight in which the crash occurred was one of several as Virgin Galatic, a venture backed by Virgin Atlantic Airlines founder Richard Branson, was going to carry paid passengers into space. The company said it at the time it had many bookings, including some from celebrities.

As a result, the investigation blames Scaled Composites' "failure to consider and protect against the possibility that a single human error could result in a catastrophic hazard to the SpaceShipTwo vehicle." That failure "set the stage" for the accident. (USA Today)

Story Date: July 30, 2015