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Texas - After initially reporting temporary flight restrictions to El Paso International Airport would ground flights for 10 days, the Federal Aviation Administration says the closure has been lifted.
In a statement on X, the FAA stated: The temporary closure of airspace over El Paso has been lifted. There is no threat to commercial aviation. All flights will resume as normal."
El Paso mayor, leaders hold press conference
Mayor Renard U. Johnson held a press conference on Wednesday to discuss the FAA's initial decision to close the El Paso airport airspace, then reopen it.
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City of El Paso on the FAA flight restrictions - Full News Conference
After initially reporting temporary flight restrictions to El Paso International Airport would ground flights for 10 days, the Federal Aviation Administration says the closure has been lifted. The City of El Paso responded with a news conference after the lift was issued.
"This unnecessary decision has caused chaos and confusion in the El Paso community," he said.
The mayor claims the decision should never have happened over a major city without coordination from the City.
Johnson says medical evacuation flights were forced to divert and aviation operations, such as emergency flights, were grounded. He shared a lot of surgical equipment coming from other cities were not able to come into the city due to the airspace closure.
"El Paso deserves better communication and better coordination," Mayor Johnson said. "We will be following up with the FAA to ensure this never happens again."
According to Johnson, city officials were not notified ahead of time about the temporary airspace closure by the FAA ahead of time. He states they woke up Wednesday morning to learn about the flight restrictions, the same as the public did.
Mayor Johnson says the El Paso International Airport has not been closed like it was since 9/11.
Trump administration response to closure
What we know:
According to the Associated Press, a Trump administration official reports the closure came after Mexican cartel drones breached the airspace. The Defense Department was able to disable the drones.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated on X that the FAA and Defense Department acted swiftly, and the threat was "neutralized."
There is no threat to commercial travel and flights will resume as normal, Sec. Duffy reports.
What we don't know:
Officials have not said how many drones were involved and how they were disabled.
El Paso airspace briefly closed
The backstory:
According to the FAA website, the temporary flight restrictions was supposed to run from Feb. 10 at 11:30 p.m. MST to Feb. 20 at 11:30 p.m. MST. The reason for the restriction was reported as "special security reasons."
The Mexican airspace was excluded from this airspace closure.
Early Wednesday morning, the El Paso International Airport stated all commercial, cargo, and general aviation flights are grounded at this time until the restrictions have ended.
The AP said the shutdown would likely to cause disruptions due to the size of the metropolitan area.
What they're saying:
Texas Senator César Blanco from the 29th district stated:
Our office is aware of the FAA’s temporary suspension of flights in and out of El Paso for national security reasons. We are actively working with the appropriate agencies to better understand the situation. Actions like this are taken out of an abundance of caution to protect our community. I encourage everyone to remain calm and patient as we await further information. We will share updates as they become available.
The Source: Information has been gathered from the Federal Aviation Administration website, the El Paso International Airpoort, and the Associated Press.