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Qantas South Africa flights delayed by falling debris from SpaceX rockets

Delays on Sydney-Johannesburg route after advice from US government over debris from SpaceX rocket re-entry in southern Indian Ocean

Qantas says it has been forced to delay several of its flights to South Africa at the last minute due to warnings of falling debris from Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets re-entering Earth. Ben Holland, the head of Qantas’s operations centre, said there was often little advance notice of where the rockets would fall over the southern Indian Ocean – the re-entry zone chosen by the space company due to its remoteness – causing the airline to delay flights on its Sydney-Johannesburg route. “Over the past few weeks we’ve had to delay several flights between Johannesburg and Sydney due to advice received from the US Government regarding the re-entry of SpaceX rockets over an extensive area of the Southern Indian Ocean,” Holland said.

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