Dozens of flights diverted, delayed after FAA warned of SpaceX debris

Many commercial flights were diverted or delayed after SpaceX’s Starship a missile exploded during its seventh flight test on Thursday.

Dozens of flights were affected, according to flight tracker Flightradar24.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it “briefly slowed and diverted the aircraft around the area where the spacecraft debris had fallen” after issuing a warning to pilots about the “dangerous fallout area of debris from the Starship rocket.”

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

The FAA has received no reports of injuries or property damage from the Starship debris, an agency spokesperson told CNBC.

A JetBlue Airways flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to San Juan, Puerto Rico diverted 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 cargo jet appeared to turn around, 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 disruptions.

An American Airlines The spokeswoman said the carrier had fewer than 10 diversions due to the problem.

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

— CNBC’s Michael Sheetz contributed to this report.