The explosion of a huge Spacex rocket over southern Florida led to massive headaches for air travelers who were forced to withstand unexpected delays due to the last accident of the company on Thursday.
FAA had to stop air traffic around Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Orlando for fear of “space launch debris”, after the Spacex failure.
“After all my travel years, this is the first time,” wrote a Facebook user who identified himself as the pharmaceutical executive Ray Peck after his flight to South America was forced to land in Miami.
He cited the pilot of his flight like telling passengers: “Unfortunately, a Spacex rocket simply exploded in the space on our flight, and the rubble are returning to the earth along our flight route. We are not in danger, but we will have to turn around and roll until it is clarified.”
“We eventually had to return to Miami. Wow,” Peck continued. “I have delayed flights due to the weather, or due to mechanical difficulties, and even a rebel passenger, but never for a rocket that explodes.”
Traveler Jesse Winans, who had been fighting from Costa Rica to Charlotte, could only look disbelief while he and his fellow flyers were forced at an unexpected scale in Fort Lauderdale.
“They are trying to manage customers, but I think it will be a long process to get where we are going,” said the traveler exasperated to NBC South Florida.
Spacex, who experienced a similar accident in January, promised to learn from this last failure.
“We will review today’s flight test data to better understand the root cause,” said Tje Company in a statement on Thursday night. “As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve the reliability of the spacecraft.”
Or as Musk tried to explain more succinctly: “The rockets are difficult.”
Brian Hamacher, NBC South Florida and Sara Mhaidli contributed.
