SpaceX rocket explosion leads to flight delays at Florida airports over fears of falling debris

The explosion of a huge SpaceX rocket above South Florida led to massive headaches for air travelers who were forced to endure unexpected delays due to the company’s latest mishap on Thursday.

The FAA had to halt air traffic around Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Orlando in fear of “space launch debris,” following the SpaceX failure.

“After all my years of traveling, this is a first,” wrote a Facebook user who identified himself as pharmaceutical executive Ray Peck after his flight to South America was forced to land in Miami.

He quoted his flight’s pilot as telling passengers: “Unfortunately, a SpaceX rocket just exploded in space over our flight, and the debris is falling back to Earth along our flight path. We are not in any danger, but we are going to need to turn around and circle until it clears.”

“We eventually had to go back to Miami. Wow,” Peck continued. “I’ve had flights delayed because of weather, or because of mechanical difficulties, and even an unruly passenger, but never because of a rocket exploding.”

Traveler Jesse Winans, who had been on a fight from Costa Rica to Charlotte, could only look on in disbelief as he and his fellow flyers were forced into an unexpected layover in Fort Lauderdale.

“They’re trying to handle customers, but I think it’s gonna be a long process to get to where we’re going,” the exasperated traveler told NBC South Florida.

SpaceX, which experienced a similar mishap in January, vowed again to learn from this latest failure.

“We will review the data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause,” tje company said in a statement Thursday night. “As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability.”

Or as Musk tried to more succinctly explain: “Rockets are hard.”