Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo plane crashes, pilot reportedly dead
Virgin Galactic announced Friday that its SpaceShipTwo plane crashed in California, after suffering from a "serious anomaly" in-flight.
One of the plane's pilots was reportedly found dead with his "body still in seat," and the other suffered a "major injury" and was taken to a hospital for treatment.
A witness of the crash stated that the plane "blew up" and "came down in pieces." An ABC News crew also found some of the plane's wreckage.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Friday's test was the SpaceShipTwo's 35th flight. The test flight, its first in more than nine months, was intended to be preparation for future trips farther than 62 miles in altitude. Virgin Galactic changed the SpaceShipTwo's fuel mixture from rubber-based to a plastic-based mix to improve its engine performance, but it's not yet known if this was related to the crash.
"We will work closely with relevant authorities to determine the cause of this accident," the company said in a statement. Roughly 800 potential passengers paid $250,000 to ride in the plane. Mojave Air & Space Port, from where the Virgin Galactic plane was flown, has scheduled a press conference for 5:00 p.m. eastern time on Friday.
