SpaceShipTwo Pilot Speaks Through Dad

The pilot who survived the in-flight breakup of SpaceShipTwo in late October told his father he was unconscious for about half of his parachute descent from 50,000 feet but he managed a thumbs-up for the occupants of a chase plane that circled him on the way down. The Mail quoted Peter Siebold's physician father Klaus as saying his son is in "good spirits" 10 days after the spacecraft broke apart on a test flight. The other pilot on the spacecraft, Michael Alsbury, didn't survive. "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 quoted Dr. Siebold as saying his son told him.

The NTSB has determined the re-entry system of the vehicle deployed prematurely and caused SpaceShipTwo to break up but has not determined a cause. There were no ejection seats aboard but Siebold told his father, who told the Mail, that he suffered a broken shoulder but was back at home in Tehachapi, California, three days after the accident. His father lives in Seattle and visited his son at home last week. Siebold has yet to speak to investigators but apparently laid out the sequence to his dad. "He doesn't remember anything from the actual crash. He came to during the descent. He must have woken up about halfway down," Dr. Siebold told the Mail. "When he was on the way down the chase plane was circling him and he was waving and giving the thumbs-up to indicate he was all right while he was dangling from the parachute. He's recovering at home. He broke the head of the humerus bone that sits in the right shoulder. He's got a rib and lung contusion and there is an issue with his eyes because of the cold. It was around minus 60 degrees up there."