EXCLUSIVE: Pilot who survived Virgin spacecraft explosion tells how he regained consciousness on the way down to earth... and gave the thumbs up to a passing aeroplane to say: 'I'm OK!'

Peter Siebold, a pilot on the doomed Virgin flight, has spoken for the first time about the tragedy which killed his close friend and co-pilot Mike Alsbury in the Mojave Desert. Siebold said he was 'lucky to be alive' after the crash, which Sir Richard Branson's SpaceShipTwo tear apart 50,000ft above the ground. Siebold was knocked unconscious immediately, but came to while drifting down to Earth, attached to his parachute. Despite his injuries, he gave a thumbs up to a passing jet to show that he was alive.