Passengers flying over the Caribbean on Thursday night were met with a spectacular sight. Fiery trails shooting through the sky that were visible from the cockpits and cabins of commercial aircraft and private jets transpired not to be a natural phenomenon, but debris from a SpaceX rocket .
Elon Musk’s latest Starship launch ended early with the explosion of its vehicle in a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” eight minutes after it blasted off from Boca Chica in Texas.
The launch has had knock-on effects for air passengers, airports and carriers throughout the region, forcing groundings and diverting dozens of planes to avoid the area. Departures from Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports in Florida were delayed by around 45 minutes.
The US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) said it had “briefly slowed and diverted aircraft around the area where space vehicle debris was falling” and warned pilots of a “dangerous area for falling debris”. “Well here’s an FAA delay note you don’t see every day,” FlightRadar, a site which tracks air traffic, said in a post on X.
One JetBlue flight, from Florida to Puerto Rico, was forced to return to the US mainland almost two hours into its flight, according to tracking data. Others, including transatlantic flights, were forced into holding patterns above the Caribbean, delaying their approach.
You must be 21 years or older to access this website.