Dave Mackay, Virgin Galactic's chief pilot has opened up about the company's spaceship crash. In the incident in which the company's new spaceship was torn apart in air in mid-air over California, Mackay lost his colleague, Mike Alsbury.

Mackay said that in the incident, he, Mike Alsbury and Peter Siebold were involved. They were testing two airships - the VSS Enterprise SpaceShipTwo and the mothership White Knight Two. The first one was operated by late Alsbury and survivor Siebold. The latter was directed by Mackay and other colleagues.

Mackay said that he launched the latter spaceship to around 50,000 feet before the rocket ship was released. Mackay said that he came to know something was wrong when announcement was made on radio that things are not going right with Alsbury's team.

"We didn't see anything. We launch the spaceship and it drops below us several hundred feet before it ignites the rocket motor", said Mackay. When it became clear that the ship had hit the ground then Mackay said that they tried to offer any support that they can, like by finding out where the vehicle has been found and where were the survivors.

It was then found that Alsbury, 39, died in the incident and Siebold, 43, survived the crash. Mackay continued that the incident left people shocked. There were many reports on what would have actually happened with several possibilities mentioned in them. But Mackay said that his colleague's death will not go in vain as it will give valuable insight for the future success of their space project.