Several Spanish airports closed their airspace before an out-of-control Chinese rocket crashed on Earth.
The rocket, which was rumoured to land somewhere in Spain following numerous airspace closures, has actually ended up in the South Pacific Ocean.
Flights into and out of Barcelona, Tarragona, Ibiza and Reus are known to have been grounded with reports that other regions including La Rioja and Castilla and Leon have also been affected.
A spokesman for Catalonia’s Civil Protection Agency confirmed: “Due to the risk associated with the passage of the CZ-5B space object crossing Spanish airspace, flights have been completely restricted from 9.38 am to 10.18 am in Catalonia and other communities.
“Airports and other organisations have already been informed.”
A spokesman for the United States Space Command tweeted: "#USSPACECOM can confirm the People’s Republic of China Long March 5B #CZ5B rocket re-entered the atmosphere over the south-central Pacific Ocean at 4:01 am MDT/10:01 UTC on 11/4."
The roughly 25-ton rocket launched on October 31 to deliver the Mengtian laboratory cabin module to the Tiangong space station and is predicted to reenter Earth's atmosphere on Saturday.
Spanish air traffic controllers tweeted: “Eurocontrol has informed us about the non-controlled re-entry of a Chinese rocket into the Earth’s atmosphere.
“Rate Zero has been established for certain parts of Spanish airspace and that could affect air traffic by way of delays and diversions.”
Some air passengers are understood to have been informed about the Spanish airspace closures after they had already boarded for take-off.
The rocket “is designed with special technology; most of the components will burn up and be destroyed during the re-entry process, and the probability of causing harm to aviation activities and on the ground is extremely low,” Zhao Lijian, a foreign ministry spokesman said.
The booster is speeding around the globe at 17,500 miles per hour and the difference of even a few minutes would shift where it lands by hundreds of miles.
This is the fourth time in two years that China has disposed of its rockets and the previous crash landings saw metallic objects rain down on the Ivory Coast and in the Indian Ocean near the Maldives.
Plus rocket chunks crashed dangerously close to villages in Borneo.
China has insisted that uncontrolled reentries are common practice and has dismissed concerns about potential damage as "shameless hype."
Spanish Air Force has confirmed its Space Surveillance Operations Centre called COVE is involved in tracking the remains of the rocket.
Air traffic controllers said in a second tweet a few minutes ago: “The forecast is that the airspace closure will be deactivated shortly and aeroplanes can begin to leave on the routes affected."
Spanish airspace has now been reopened.
It was not immediately clear how many flights have been affected or will be affected by ongoing delays as the situation gets back to normal.
Corvera Airport in Murcia confirmed a flight due to leave for London had been delayed by an hour.
