Dozens of flights were delayed or diverted following an FAA warning about debris from a SpaceX rocket.

 

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

Dozens of flights were impacted, according to Flightradar24, a flight-tracking service.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stated that it “temporarily slowed and rerouted aircraft” in the area where debris from the rocket was falling, following a warning issued to pilots about the “hazardous area” near the Starship’s trajectory.

The rocket launched from SpaceX's facility near Brownsville, Texas, at approximately 5:30 p.m. ET, heading east from the state. After breaking apart, SpaceX confirmed via X (formerly Twitter) that it would "continue to analyze data from the flight test to better understand the root cause."

The FAA has confirmed there were no reports of injuries or property damage linked to Starship debris, according to an agency spokesperson.

One flight, a JetBlue Airways service from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to San Juan, Puerto Rico, was forced to return to Fort Lauderdale nearly two hours after takeoff, according to FlightAware. JetBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other flights near Turks and Caicos, including a FedEx cargo jet, also appeared to have changed course, as did a Spirit Airlines flight, based on flight-tracking data.

Neither the airlines nor SpaceX immediately commented on the disruptions.

An American Airlines spokesperson reported fewer than 10 diversions caused by the incident.

The congested airspace around Florida, where commercial airlines and private planes compete, added complexity to the situation.