The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has declared that human error was responsible for the crash of an experimental Virgin Galactic rocket ship on October 31, 2014. Specifically, the NTSB stated in a report, the "probable cause" of the crash was the pilot's "unlocking of SpaceShipTwo's feather locks." The feather locks are essentially a braking system designed to allow the rocket to safely descend from space, according to CNN.
SpaceShip Two was more than 10 miles in the air over Mojave, Calif. on a test flight when it disintegrated seconds after firing its rocket engines. The crash left the Virgin Galactic co-pilot dead and the pilot badly injured.
The crash was a major setback for British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, which was created with an end goal of ferrying wealthy tourists to the edge of space, according to the Los Angeles Times.
There were a multitude of complaints from staff and engineers who said the ship wasn't ready to fly because certain parts needed to be replaced for ones with better specs and additional tests had to take place.
Despite all of the design flaws, it's noted that none of those aforementioned issues had any connection to the crash, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Federal investigators previously determined that the test co-pilot who was killed, Michael Alsbury, manually unlocked a movable tail section.
"We cannot undo what happened, but it is our hope that through this investigation we will find ways to prevent this from happening again," NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart said during the hearing. "We are not a regulator and have no power to require changes. We make safety recommendations, which if acted upon can help prevent recurrences."
For more about the Virgin Galactic crash, click HERE.
