Several local and regional flights heading to North American destinations last night were forced to return to their ports of origin as falling debris from an exploded SpaceX Starship forced the closure of airspaces.
Video of the debris was captured by onlookers in the Dominican Republic and other northern Caribbean countries, creating a spectacular sight in the night skies.
A Frontier Airlines flight which took off from the Piarco International Airport just before 7 pm, returned to Trinidad after reaching as far as St Lucia as the San Juan, Puerto Rico airspace was closed.
Caribbean Airlines’ flight BW550 destined for JFK, New York was also forced to return to POS just before it reached Puerto Rico.
Another Caribbean Airlines flight from Georgetown, Guyana to JFK, BW 526 had just passed Grenada before it was turned around.
The aircraft spent hours circling the skies of southern Trinidad burning fuel before it was allowed to land at the Piarco International Airport in keeping with Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) landing restrictions.
Other affected regional flights included Jetblue B6350 from Grenada to JFK which was also forced to circle several times west of Martinique before it was allowed to land in Grenada again and American Airlines AA2694 from Georgetown to JFK.
SpaceX launched the rocket from Boca Chica, south Texas, on Thursday around 4.40 pm local time.
The flight was the seventh test for the newly upgraded Starship, which was due to make a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean about an hour after launch.
However, the company said it lost contact about eight and half minutes into the flight, with the last data indicating an altitude of 90 miles and a velocity of 13,245 mph.
The FAA often closes airspace for space missions and can create a “debris response area” to protect aircraft if a rocket has a problem outside the original closed zone.
Affected flights were allowed to take off two hours later for their destinations
