Virgin Galatic Spaceship Two down in the Mojave.

[Radix]

I put my money on either:
- the pneumatic (!) system failed to pre-pressurize causing the tail booms to move without much effort
- or the aerodynamic forces at the transsonic region were so different from what they thought them to be that the design couldn't cope unless being fully locked. E.g. good old sound barrier strikes again.

Sounds the most plausible from these 10 pages of expert opinion on PPruNe.

The other pilot will be able to tell why they moved the unlock lever at a point different to the brief and whether this was ever discussed with the engineering team.

edited