Air traffic controllers rush to divert aircraft after Elon Musk's rocket explodes

Flights across the Caribbean were hastily diverted on Thursday following the explosion of a rocket built by Elon Musk's company, SpaceX. The chaos was revealed in flight tracking data and audio exchanges between pilots and air traffic control, as reviewed by NPR.

Audio from LiveATC.net showed confusion in the moments after the giant Starship rocket exploded.

"Just got a major streak going from at least 60 miles with all these different colors," one unidentified pilot told air traffic controllers on the ground in San Juan, Puerto Rico. "It looked like it was coming towards us … just letting you know."

"Can you give an estimate on how far away it is?" asked the controller.

"It was Starlink," chimed in another unidentified pilot, speculating that the streaks may have been communications satellites that are frequently launched by SpaceX.

In fact, the streaks were the remnants of SpaceX's experimental Starship spacecraft. Starship lifted off from its pad in Boca Chica, Texas, at 5:37 p.m. ET for its seventh flight test. The launch appeared to go smoothly until SpaceX lost contact around 5:45 p.m. ET. Within minutes, pilots near Puerto Rico reported seeing strange lights in the sky.

"I don't know what it is, it's red lights … I don't know what it is," a pilot of Silver Airways flight 127 told controllers. In response, the pilot was advised to lower his altitude and was permitted to deviate from his flight path to avoid debris. The plane landed safely in San Juan.

It was only at 5:58 p.m., roughly 13 minutes after the spacecraft reportedly exploded — that controllers in Puerto Rico declared a "space vehicle mishap" and closed the airspace around the incident. By then, ATC communications suggested that much of the debris might have already fallen into the water.

"Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!" SpaceX founder Elon Musk wrote of the incident on his social media platform X, sharing a video of the debris taken by a user in Turks and Caicos.

SpaceX is currently investigating the precise cause of the explosion, but telemetry data from the launch showed that several rocket engines on Starship shut down unexpectedly as it ascended into space. In a statement on the company's website, it was noted that "Initial data indicates a fire developed in the aft section of the ship, leading to a rapid unscheduled disassembly."

While Musk envisions Starship potentially transporting people to Mars, the test flight had no passengers aboard.

Around the same time, bystander videos taken from cruise ships and resorts across the Caribbean showed what appeared to be a large explosion in the sky, followed by a spray of brightly colored shooting stars. The debris appeared to pass directly over the Turks and Caicos, startling vacationers.

Aircraft data from flight-tracking websites FlightAware and Flightradar24 showed at least 20 flights that appeared to have been delayed or diverted by the incident. Ian Petchenik with Flightradar24 said at least 16 of those flights actually had to divert to a different airport.

Videos that were posted on X also seem to capture the view from aircraft, although they could not be immediately verified by NPR. Nevertheless, they were consistent with other recordings shown of the incident.

Kathleen Bangs with FlightAware says she believes "dozens" of other flights were delayed because of the incident. Some flights had to change their flight paths, while others remained on the ground, waiting for the airspace to reopen.

"There was a fair amount of disruption," she says, adding that the disruption was not as big as those created by weather events like blizzards or major thunderstorms.

In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees both SpaceX and commercial aviation, said there were no reports of injuries or property damage.

"Several aircraft requested to divert due to low fuel levels while holding outside impacted areas," the agency said. It will require SpaceX to conduct a mishap investigation.

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