

Pilot error possible cause of Virgin Galactic crash, NTSB says - ilamont
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-virgin-investigation-20141103-story.html#page=1

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codewritinfool
"The lack of an adequate emergency escape system on spacecraft has been
controversial since the Apollo moon program, when three astronauts were sealed
inside a capsule that caught fire on the launch pad. The three deaths forced
NASA to delay the program and provide a hatch that could be opened from the
inside."

This is both poorly researched and poorly written. AS-204 (later called Apollo
1) had an escape system. It was entirely inappropriate for the accident mode,
so the mention of it here is unclear. Certainly, "adequate" is a term best
applied _after_ an accident, since all possible failure modes cannot be
designed for, especially given size and weight constraints.

In addition, the hatch mentioned _was_ openable from the inside, but it was an
inward-opening hatch. The nature of the accident (too much cabin pressure)
prevented it from being opened.

The later Block II spacecraft incorporated an outward-opening hatch. Still
openable from the inside, but had Apollo 1 had such a hatch, it is more likely
that it could have been opened under the conditions encountered, given enough
time.

Indeed, two astronauts were following the exit procedure to the letter,
attempting to open the hatch. Unfortunately, temperature & pressure & suit
breach resulting in asphyxiation prevented them from succeeding.

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hga
" _Last year, its safety chief resigned and has not been replaced._ "

If true, that sounds unforgivable to me.

It echoes other reports of high level people leaving recently, and there's
more of that sort of thing in this article. Plus the demonstrated safety
culture problem in their handling of N02, which killed three of their
employees in 2007.

On the other hand, this is being reported as white-line (co-)pilot error,
although not definitively the cause of the breakup.

