EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — “People learn.”
That’s what President Donald Trump said on Friday, February 13, when asked by a reporter about the nearly 7-hour closure over the El Paso airspace, which happened earlier this week.
When talking to the a group of reporters outside the White House before boarding Marine One, a reporter aske Trump, “Are you pleased with the way Sean Duffy handled the closure over El Paso?”
“You mean the way it happened?” Trump responded. After the reporter confirmed, Trump shrugged and said, “People learn, you know, people learn.”
According to The Hill, a White House official said that FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford pulled the trigger on closing the airspace without notifying the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, or the Pentagon.
“The Department of War and the Department of Transportation having been working together for months regarding drone incursion operations. Last night’s action to disable the cartel drones was not a spontaneous action,” the official said in a statement. “At no point in the process of disabling these cartel drones were civilian aircraft in danger as a result of the methods used by DOW to disable the drones.”
Party balloons? FAA’s surprise El Paso airspace closure fuels questions
As KTSM previously reported, for seven hours, from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning, Feb. 11, all aviation operations were grounded, causing the cancellation of multiple flights and forcing a flight with surgical equipment to divert from El Paso.
The initial closure of the airspace was for 10 days.
Chaos, confusion and criticism over El Paso drone scare miscommunication
Many local, state, and federal leaders voiced their confusion and frustrations, calling out the FAA and the Department of Defense for not notifying anyone of the temporary airspace closure.
“I want to be very, very clear that this should have never happened. You cannot restrict airspace over a major city without coordinating with the city, the airport, the hospitals, and the community leadership. That failure to communicate is unacceptable,” El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson said.
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