Spanish Flights Grounded Due to Risk of Chinese Rocket Debris
- Flights paused for about an hour in Catalonia, Basque Country
- Rocket booster heads for uncontrolled fall through atmosphere
A Long March 5B rocket lifts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre, Hainan Province on Oct. 31.
Source: -/AFP/Getty Images
Several Spanish airports grounded flights Friday morning due to the risk of falling debris from a massive Chinese rocket booster that’s headed for an uncontrolled fall through the atmosphere.
Flights were stopped for close to an hour in regions including Catalonia and the Basque Country as well as in the Balearic Islands, according to tweets published by air traffic control. Operations were due to restart from around 10:30 a.m., the controllers said. Flights were stopped “due to the risk of the space object CZ-5B passing through the Spanish air space,” a Catalan government agency said in a separate statement on Twitter.