For a few hours this Wednesday (11), the quiet airport in El Paso, Texas, became an unexpected focus of confusion.
On Tuesday night (10), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a brief warning to pilots informing them that airspace in the region would be closed — for an unprecedented 10 days — for “special safety reasons.” Almost as quickly as it imposed the measure, the FAA lifted the restrictions Wednesday morning.
Conflicting reports about what prompted the decision quickly began to emerge.
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Trump administration officials, including Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, said the blockade was a response to drones operated by Mexican drug cartels that had allegedly violated U.S. airspace. Duffy said in a social media post that the FAA and Department of Defense “acted quickly” to deal with the incursion and “neutralized” the threat.
Others with knowledge of the situation paint a different picture, one that points to a breakdown in communication between key parts of the U.S. government.
The FAA closed the airspace because the Pentagon was operating drones and testing high-energy laser technology to combat unmanned aircraft as part of an initiative aimed at countering potential threats from drones operated by cartels, according to people familiar with the matter. One said Pentagon drones were flying outside normal routes.
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The military activities were being conducted in airspace near El Paso International Airport, which shares airspace with a U.S. Army base, raising concerns at the FAA about possible interference with civilian aircraft, said the sources, who requested anonymity because the information is not public.
The FAA and Defense Department had a meeting scheduled for Feb. 20 to discuss the safety impacts of this anti-drone technology, but the department wanted to move faster, one of the people said.
The FAA did not respond to requests for comment. The Defense Department did not respond to requests for comment on testing of anti-drone technology or coordination with the FAA on safety protocols. The Army declined to comment and referred questions to the Defense Department.
The differing versions have fueled confusion over what prompted this highly unusual measure.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said at her daily briefing that her government would investigate the reasons behind the closure of airspace over Texas.
“There is no information about the use of drones at the border,” he said.
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Representatives Rick Larsen, top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and André Carson, ranking Democrat on the aviation subcommittee, called the situation “unacceptable.”
In a statement, they blamed legislation that expands the Defense Department’s powers to combat drones for allowing the Pentagon to “act recklessly in public airspace.”
The federal government did not provide advance notice to local authorities, the airport or the local military presence before the closure, said Chris Canales, a member of the El Paso City Council.
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“We have no reason to believe that there is any type of immediate threat to the safety of El Paso, but we also have not received any justification for the flight restriction from the FAA or any federal authority,” he said in an email to Bloomberg on Wednesday, before the restriction was lifted.
Senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials told lawmakers last year that Mexican drug cartels use armed drones to attack each other and could pose a threat to the U.S. military or police, and asked for help to combat drones used by criminal groups for surveillance and smuggling.
President Donald Trump has vowed to crack down on Mexican cartels, which have increasingly used drones to smuggle drugs across the U.S. southern border. The decision to close airspace so close to the border with Mexico fueled speculation that the military could be about to make good on Trump’s repeated threats to attack drug trafficking organizations on foreign soil.
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Late last year, the FAA urged pilots to exercise caution because of “intensified military activity in or around Venezuela” as the Trump administration concentrated forces in the region. Authorities later temporarily closed parts of Caribbean airspace while the US military carried out a surprise operation to capture Venezuela’s then-president Nicolás Maduro.
The US Army has for years been developing directed energy weapons, including high-energy lasers, to help combat enemy drones as a cheaper and more versatile alternative to missiles.
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