Launched from SpaceX’s base in Boca Chica, Texas, a state-of-the-art Starlink rocket exploded shortly after liftoff. The burning debris was filmed in the skies over Haiti and the Turks and Caicos. Several flights in the Caribbean have been diverted or canceled.
On Thursday, January 16, 2025, the FAA, the United States Federal Aviation Administration, closed Puerto Rico’s airspace.
Permissions for planes to take off from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Caribbean countries have been canceled. The area above Puerto Rico was designated dangerous for aviation.
A plane from the American company JetBlue had to circle several times west of Martinique to burn its full kerosene. The plane had taken off from Grenada towards New York.
An American Airlines flight that took off from Guyana to the United States has had to turn around.
The plane of the American company Frontier Airlines which had taken off from the international airport of Trinidad and Tobago had to turn around at Saint Lucia.
Caribbean Airlines, the national airline of Trinidad and Tobago, was forced to cancel a flight to New York.
A second Caribbean Airlines plane from Guyana turned around over Grenada to land in Trinidad.
The aircraft spent several hours circling the sky south of Trinidad to burn off its fuel. For safety reasons, the plane was not allowed to land with full fuel tanks.
Tourists on a beach in the Turks and Caicos, an archipelago located in the northern Caribbean, filmed the burning debris in the sky.
-Videos filmed from the ground in the Dominican Republic and Haiti also made the rounds on social networks.
Two hours after the explosion, flights between the Caribbean and the United States were authorized again.
According to SpaceX, the Starship rocket exploded after launch at Boca Chica, SpaceX headquarters located south of Texas. It was around 4:40 p.m. on January 16, 2025.
All six engines stopped operating approximately 8 minutes after takeoff.
This was a failed test flight. The rocket which measured 123m should have risen into the sky above the Gulf of Mexico. An hour later, she is expected to make a controlled dive into the Indian Ocean.
According to Elon Musk, the rocket developed a fuel leak near the reactors.
In recent weeks, falling debris from Elon Musk’s satellites has delayed several flights between Australia and South Africa.
In 2023, the FAA, the United States Federal Aviation Administration, pinned down the activities of Elon Musk’s SpaceX program. There have been explosions, unauthorized rocket launches, security violations and harmful impacts on the environment.
SpaceX has already announced an increase in its launch program.
