Trump administration blames Mexican cartel drones for triggering El Paso airspace shutdown
The FAA lifted a 10-day airspace closure after mere hours, assuring the public the drone incursion was resolved and travel could continue
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reopened the airspace around El Paso International Airport in Texas on Wednesday morning, just hours after it announced a 10-day closure that would have grounded all flights to and from the airport.
The FAA said in a social media post that it has lifted the temporary closure of the airspace over El Paso, saying there was no threat to commercial aviation and that all flights will resume.
Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on social media that the FAA and the Defence Department “acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion. The threat has been neutralised and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.”
He said normal flights are resuming Wednesday morning.
The shutdown announced just hours earlier “for special security reasons” had been expected to create significant disruptions given the duration and the size of the metropolitan area.
El Paso, a border city with a population of nearly 700,000 people and larger when you include the surrounding metro area, is a hub of cross-border commerce alongside the neighbouring city of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. The brief closure did not include Mexican airspace.