Dozens of flights diverted and delayed after FAA warned about SpaceX wreckage

Several commercial flights were diverted or delayed after SpaceX’s Starship rocket broke during its seventh flight test on Thursday.

According to flight tracker Flightradar24, dozens of flights were affected.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it “slowed and briefly diverted aircraft around the area where spacecraft debris was falling” after issuing a warning to pilots about “a hazardous area for falling Starship rocket debris.”

The rocket lifted off from the SpaceX facility near Brownsville, Texas, shortly after 5:30 p.m. ET, and was headed toward east Texas. It was dissolved and SpaceX said in X that it will “continue to review data from today’s flight test to better understand the root cause.”

The FAA has not received any reports of injuries or property damage from Starship debris, an agency spokesperson told CNBC.

TO JetBlue Airways The flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to San Juan, Puerto Rico diverted back to Fort Lauderdale, nearly two hours into the flight, according to FlightAware, another flight tracking site. JetBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other flights near Turks and Caicos, including a Fedex A cargo plane appeared to turn, according to flight tracking data, while a Spirit Airlines plane also changed course.

The airlines and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the outages.

A american airlines The spokeswoman said the airline had fewer than 10 diversions due to the problem.

Airlines and other commercial flights, as well as private planes, compete for airspaceespecially in the congested area around Florida.

— CNBC’s Michael Sheetz contributed to this report.