US officials lift surprise 10-day closure of airspace around El Paso, Texas | El Paso
The top US aviation agency lifted a surprise 10-day closure of airspace over the US-Mexico border town of El Paso, Texas, just hours after it abruptly announced it would close the skies for “private safety reasons” without further explanation.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced “Temporary flight restriction” announcement Late Tuesday local time, the website said a 10-nautical-mile circle around El Paso international airport in Texas up to 18,000 ft would be off-limits to all commercial, cargo and general aviation flights.
“No pilot may operate aircraft in the covered areas,” the FAA said. The closure will last until February 20, and the statement warned that the government “may use lethal force” against a pilot who does not comply with instructions.
But on Wednesday morning, after hours of chaos that caught both airlines, local politicians and tens of thousands of passengers off guard, the FAA wrote to X that the order had been lifted. “There is no threat to commercial aviation. All flights will continue normally.” he said.
Reuters quoted unnamed airline sources as saying the suspension of flights was due to the Pentagon using counter-drone technology to address the use of drones by Mexican drug cartels in the border area. Donald Trump signed administrative order In a study conducted in June to build capacity against unmanned aerial vehicles, it was stated that drug cartels use unmanned aerial vehicles to smuggle fentanyl.
A US administration official was later quoted as saying that Mexican cartel drones were violating US airspace.
Before the FAA reversed its decision, Democratic Texas congresswoman Veronica Escobar of El Paso had called on the agency to repeal what she said was an extremely important and unprecedented decision that “raised significant concern within the community.”
“Based on the information my office and I have received overnight and early this morning, there is no immediate threat to the community or surrounding areas,” he said. wrote to x. “No advance notice was given to my office, the city of El Paso, or anyone involved in airport operations.”
A large area west of El Paso and along the Mexican border also close for the same period. It is not yet clear whether the airspace will reopen.
The restrictions came so suddenly, with just three hours’ notice from the FAA, that radio communications from El Paso international airport revealed that a stunned airliner pilot had been told they could not leave the next day.
An air traffic controller can be heard asking the incoming Southwest flight if they planned to take off again. “No, we’re going to the hotel,” the pilot can be heard saying in the audio recorded by live air traffic radio company atc.com.
“Understood,” the controller replied. “I just want you to know that [temporary flight restriction] “It will come into force at 06:30 for the next 10 days.”
“So the airport is completely closed?” the pilot asks with a chuckle, and the controller replies: “Apparently, we were notified about 30 minutes to an hour ago.”
Temporary flight restrictions are imposed for natural disasters such as wildfires and hurricanes, as well as for major sporting events and emergency or national security situations.
Although the ban was still in effect overnight, the airport said on its Facebook page that all flights to and from the airport would be canceled and passengers should contact their airline to get the most up-to-date flight status information.
Closing the airspace would have a significant impact on the city of approximately 700,000 people, which borders the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez.
El Paso Airport, through which approximately 3.5 million passengers passed last year, operates multiple direct flights across the USA. Photos taken early Wednesday showed airport corridors nearly empty. Employees told local media they were unsure what caused all flights to be grounded.
