The FAA lifted the restrictions hours after they were put in place. Rep. Veronica Escobar stressed there is no threat to El Paso or the surrounding areas.
by Terri Langford
Texas Tribune
The Federal Aviation Administration suddenly shut down airspace over El Paso and part of southern New Mexico because of an impasse with the Department of Defense over the use of unmanned military aircraft, according to an industry official who had been briefed on the matter by the FAA in a morning call.
The FAA later reopened airspace on Wednesday morning, just hours after the notice shutting it down was issued.
“The temporary closure of airspace over El Paso has been lifted. There is no threat to commercial aviation. All flights will resume as normal,” the FAA shared on X.
The Defense Department has been operating unmanned aircrafts, or drones, against drug cartel operations from a base near El Paso’s airport without sharing information with the FAA, the source, who asked not to be identified, told The Texas Tribune early Wednesday.
“It has to do with the FAA’s inability to predict where [unmanned aircraft systems] might be flying,” the official told the Tribune. “They have been operating outside the normal flight paths.”
A Trump official said the closure occurred because Mexican cartel drones breached US airspace. The Department of War took action to disable the drones, the official said, and both the FAA and the military have now determined there is no threat to commercial travel.
The unexplained notices late Tuesday closed airspace over El Paso and a large patch of southern New Mexico west of Santa Teresa for 10 days. El Paso International Airport was set to be closed to all flights, the city had said. The orders closed off all air travel in the affected area, which could cause massive disruption in the nation’s 23rd-largest city.
Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said her office has been told there’s no imminent threat to El Paso.
The Tribune was unable to immediately reach Fort Bliss officials for comment.
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The Federal Aviation Administration issued notices late Tuesday, closing airspace over El Paso and a large patch of southern New Mexico west of Santa Teresa for 10 days. El Paso International Airport is closed to all flights, the city said.
The orders close off all air travel in the affected area, which could cause massive disruption in the nation’s 23rd largest city.
Pilots who do not adhere may be intercepted and detained, the notices said. The government could use deadly force if the aircraft poses an “imminent security threat.”
The notices, known as Notice to Air Missions, or NOTAM, took effect at 11:30 p.m. Mountain Time Tuesday, and expire at 11:30 p.m. Feb. 20. The announcement caught officials with local government agencies and Fort Bliss by surprise, multiple sources told El Paso Matters.
The El Paso city government issued an advisory early Wednesday that flights at El Paso International Airport are canceled.
“The FAA, on short notice, issued a temporary flight restriction halting all flights to and from El Paso and our neighboring community, Santa Teresa, NM. The restriction prohibits all aircraft operations (including commercial, cargo and general aviation) and is effective from February 10 at 11:30 PM (MST) to February 20 at 11:30PM (MST),” the city said in a news release.
“Airport staff has reached out to the FAA, and we are pending additional guidance. In the meanwhile, commercial airlines operating out of El Paso are being informed of the restriction, which appears to be security related. Travelers are encouraged to contact their airlines to get the latest information on their flight status.”
Closing off airspace over a major U.S. city is a rare action, and officials with the Federal Aviation Administration didn’t immediately respond to questions from El Paso Matters on the reasons for the action.
A person familiar with the notices, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, said the action to close airspace over a major U.S. for security reasons over an extended period hasn’t happened since immediately after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“All air traffic has been halted in a 10 nautical mile range around the airport, so encompassing El Paso and Fort Bliss, from the ground to 17,000 feet. So no aircraft in or out, regardless of what they are, whether it’s air carriers, military, medevac helicopters, law enforcement. Nobody can fly as this thing is written up,” the person said.
The notices include a phone number at the FAA’s Special Operations Support Center to call for more information. A man identifying himself as Eric spoke briefly to El Paso Matters late Tuesday and said he couldn’t explain the reason for the notices.
“Not really, not because I won’t, it’s because I don’t know. I mean, this is just the office that publishes. So we’re handed the sheets and they say go with it,” Eric said.
The restricted airspace covers most of El Paso County, but doesn’t include Mexican airspace, according to information provided by the FAA.
It also includes a large area of southern New Mexico west of San Teresa, but not the airport in the suburb west of El Paso. The restricted New Mexico airspace goes from the Mexican border on the south to the Organ Mountains-Desert Peak National Monument to the north.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
This article first appeared on El Paso Matters and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.