STAFF and servicemen at Boscombe Down air base were paying special attention to the news that the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo had crashed in the Mojave Desert during a test flight which killed one pilot and seriously injured another.

There were rumours that chief pilot Dave Mackay, a former RAF test pilot at Boscombe Down, was one of the victims in the disaster but a spokesman from Virgin Galactic confirmed he was not involved.

“No Virgin Galactic pilots were on board the spaceship,” a company press officer told the Journal.

It was also announced that the two on the spaceship, which crashed in California, were scaled composites pilots.

Mr Mackay, 57, lived in Salisbury until four years ago when he moved to Nevada with his wife Sue and two children Duncan and Katherine.