Starship Explosion Causes Chaos in the Sky

Dozens of planes were forced to divert or fly holding patterns following the breakup of SpaceX's unmanned Starship rocket on Thursday. The Federal Aviation Administration said it had to "briefly" slow and divert aircraft in response to falling debris, per TechCrunch. Tracking app FlightRadar24 said its most-watched flights were those holding or diverting over the Caribbean near Puerto Rico, per Sky News. The rocket launch in Boca Chica, Texas, also caused disruptions at some airports. Florida's Miami International and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International both cited the launch as the reason for short delays.

The trouble came days after Australia's Qantas airline complained that it had been forced to delay flights at the last minute "over the past few weeks" due to the risk of debris from the reentries of SpaceX rockets landing "over an extensive area of the Southern Indian Ocean," which sits on Qantas' route from Sydney to Johannesburg. A rep noted "the timing of recent launches have moved around at late notice which has meant we've had to delay some flights just prior to departure," per the Guardian. The airline said it was "in contact with SpaceX to see if they can refine the areas and time windows for the rocket re-entries to minimize future disruption." (More SpaceX stories.)