FAA stopped flights from El Paso airport after Mexican cartel drones ‘breached’ US airspace, officials say
Why the FAA closed El Paso airport as airspace reopens after 8 hours
- The FAA says airspace above El Paso has reopened after it announced a 10-day closure that forced the nearby international airport to ground all flights.
- The federal agency cited “special security reasons” in its reasoning for closing the airspace, and it issued a flight restriction over nearby Santa Teresa, New Mexico, as well.
- The closure was expected to cause significant disruption for the border city of El Paso, which has a population of nearly 700,000.
- On Wednesday morning, the FAA announced a sudden reversal, writing, “The temporary closure of airspace over El Paso has been lifted. There is no threat to commercial aviation. All flights will resume as normal.”
- A Trump administration official said the El Paso airspace closure was because of Mexican cartel drones and that the US military disabled them.
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