Air Traffic Control Sends Delta Plane Into SpaceX Rocket’s Launch Area: Falcon 9 Scrubbed With 11 Seconds To Spare
SpaceX scrubbed the launch of its Falcon 9 rock on Sunday morning with just 11 seconds to blastoff – because air traffic control directed a Delta Air Lines flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu into the restricted airspace of its path.
During the live broadcast, and as blastoff approached, a voice could be heard in the control room: “Hold, hold, hold!” And then, “Held for a possible aircraft in the airspace.”
[T]he aircraft involved in the incident was a Boeing 767 operated by Delta Air Lines that had just taken off from Los Angeles International Airport bound for Honolulu, Hawaii.
After departing LAX at around 7:15 am, the airplane…flew north along the California coastline before turning Westward just above Vanderburg Space Force Base – the exact location where the Falcon 9 rocket was just to launch from.
The area around the launch was subject to a Temporary Flight Restriction prohibiting flying. A NOTAM would have informed pilots of these restrictions. However, the pilots of Delta 480 were following instructions from air traffic control when they entered the restricted airspace.
According to Delta Air Lines,
The Delta crew on flight 480 continues to follow ATC instruction along its journey from Los Angeles (LAX) to Honolulu (HNL). The flight is en route to HNL with no issue.
From connecting astronauts in space, to providing high-speed internet to more than 4.6M active customers here on Earth, the @Starlink team is laser focused on expanding coverage, increasing speeds and lowering latency so we can connect as many as possible around the world pic.twitter.com/twBoSToUsK
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 16, 2025
The FAA’s Air Traffic Organization which is very broken and a silent safety risk. Controllers aren’t the tools they need. Technology modernization has been poorly managed and in crisis there for decades. The launch is now delayed until Monday.
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