News: Pilot who survived Virgin spacecraft explosion tells how he regained consciousness

The pilot who miraculously survived the Virgin spaceship disaster has revealed how he was blasted from the wreckage of the disintegrating rocket ship and plummeted nearly ten miles back to Earth.

Having suffered serious injuries, the experienced test pilot only regained consciousness halfway into his fall but was composed enough to give a thumbs-up to colleagues in a passing aircraft to show he was alive.

Brave Peter Siebold spoke for the first time about the tragedy that killed his close friend, co-pilot Mike Alsbury, revealing he blacked out as the craft broke up around him at 50,000ft but was saved by his emergency parachute.  

Siebold, 43, a married father of two, said: ‘I must have lost consciousness at first. I can’t remember anything about what happened but I must have come to during the fall. I remember waving to the chase plane and giving them the thumbs-up to tell them I was OK. I know it’s a miracle I survived.’

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that despite his injuries, Siebold – who is yet to speak to crash investigators – returned home to his family on Monday, just three days after Sir Richard Branson’s SpaceShipTwo tore apart.

He gave his amazing account of survival to his father, Dr Klaus Siebold, who visited him yesterday at his modest £150,000 ranch home in Tehachapi, California, on the edge of the Mojave Desert where the spaceship crashed. 

Dr Siebold, who is also a pilot, travelled to California from his home in Seattle to see his son. He told The Mail on Sunday that Peter was ‘in good spirits’ despite suffering serious injuries, including a shattered shoulder.

Both pilots were strapped into standard pilot seats and wearing thin flight suits and emergency parachutes when SpaceShipTwo was released from its mothership WhiteKnightTwo shortly after 10am on October 31.

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Culled From DailyMail