Flights near Turks and Caicos were diverted in the moments after Starship explosion

• SpaceX’s Starship rocket exploded during a test Thursday.
• The Federal Aviation Administration issued a warning after the explosion calling the area “dangerous.”
• After the explosion, some flights near Turks and Caicos were diverted, per Flightradar24.

Flights near the Turks and Caicos islands were spotted diverting the airspace after SpaceX’s Starship exploded on Thursday.

SpaceX was conducting its seventh test flight of its unmanned Starship mega-rocket from its Starbase launch site near Brownsville, Texas. The launch occurred around 5:30 p.m. ET.

The Starship’s Super Heavy Booster, which boosts the Starship spacecraft, successfully touched down back to the launchpad, marking another milestone in SpaceX’s goal to create reusable boosters.

However, the upper stage of the system, Starship, was lost in what the company called a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”

Videos on social media appeared to show debris light up the sky near Turks and Caicos as it fell back to Earth.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a warning immediately after the explosion calling the area “dangerous” and warning of “falling debris of rocket Starship.” The FAA did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.

That debris caused some flights near the islands to divert or hold from takeoff, according to Flightradar24, which provides real-time flight data.

“After SpaceX Starship’s rapid unscheduled disassembly, our most tracked flights are all aircraft holding or diverting to avoid any potential debris,” Flightradar24 said in a post on X.

One flight was an Airbus A320-232, operated by JetBlue, headed to San Juan, Puerto Rico, from Fort Lauderdale, according to the website. The flight was diverted back to Fort Lauderdale International.

A spokesperson for JetBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket has exploded in two of its previous tests.

In November 2023, the Super Heavy booster exploded as it came back to Earth while Starship continued to climb toward space.