Confusion Reigned in Hours-Long Shutdown of Air Space Over El Paso
Wednesday, 11 February, was a strange day for El Paso, Texas, transportation. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration closed airspace below 18,000 feet in the region for 10 days, then rescinded the closure hours later. The decisions caused a great deal of confusion as the morning unfolded and various explanations for the orders added to the chaos and frustration.
El Paso is the 23rd largest city in the United States, and its international airport which serves a population of 1.1 million in the wider El Paso-Las Cruces region, which borders Mexico. In February 2025, the airport served a total 243,148 arriving and departing passengers. The closure forced the cancellation of seven departures and seven arrivals before it was lifted, however, travelers had to scramble to make other travel arrangements given the nearly unprecedented 10-day closure order. Local officials as well as airlines were surprised by the closure as well.
Rich Davis, a senior security adviser at risk mitigation company International SOS and former chief security officer at United Airlines, told the Associated Press a prolonged airspace closure is highly unusual.
“It’s extremely, extremely rare for an airport to shut down for any length of time due to a security issue,” he said. Davis also noted that the initial 10-day timeline was especially striking because even a closure lasting several days is uncommon, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
By evening, long after the flight restriction had been lifted, the media had pieced together information to explain what happened, though absent a full explanation from the federal government, the explanation is hazy, and one part is still sheer speculation. At its heart, it appears the confusion was a result of three government departments—Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the Department of Defense (DOD)—not communicating well with each other.
According to reports, CBP deployed one of the DOD’s anti-drone lasers near El Paso. Using the drone countermeasure in or near U.S. cities is a new development, and the FAA needed to assess how the technology could affect aircraft. The FAA and DOD were set to discuss the safety implications in a meeting scheduled for 20 February. Use of the technology by CBP in or near El Paso appeared to surprise the FAA, which issued the flight restriction.
Was the deployment successful? The answer is unknown, though The New York Times cited multiple unnamed sources that said the target ended being a “party balloon” rather than a cartel drone.
Why was the restriction for 10 days? That’s the speculation. No official has commented, but closing the airspace for 10 days set the reopening date for the day after the scheduled 20 February meeting.
Shortly after the ban had been lifted, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in an X post that the FAA and DOD “acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion. The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.” This echoed previous statements from officials that the closure was related to a cartel drone incursion on the border, which sounds serious and like a reasonable explanation for the events. Except such drone activity is a common occurrence on the border with Mexico.
“For any of us who live and work along the border, daily drone incursions by criminal organizations is everyday life for us. It’s a Wednesday for us,” said Republican Representative Tony Gonzales, who is not the representative for El Paso, but does have a district that shares more than 800 miles of the border with Mexico.
Many democrats criticized the Trump administration for causing the confusion and for not providing information to explain the actions and decisions made by the agencies involved.
“The information coming from the federal government does not add up,” Democratic Representative Veronica Escobar, who represents El Paso, said in a new conference. “I believe the FAA owes the community and the country an explanation as to why this happened so suddenly and abruptly and was lifted so suddenly and abruptly,”
“The military has made fast progress in recent years building an arsenal of guns, missiles, lasers, jammers and even high-powered microwaves that can shoot down drones,” the Times reported in a piece on U.S. military drone countermeasures. “But it has made much less progress figuring out the rules and procedures needed to use those technologies safely in a crowded civilian airspace.”
