Medical emergency evacuation flights heading to El Paso, Texas, were forced to divert to New Mexico on Wednesday after the U.S. Department of Defense ordered the Federal Aviation Administration to shut down all flights in and out of El Paso for 10 days. The order was rescinded after a few hours, but the excuse\u2014Mexican cartel drones breaching the U.S.-Mexico border\u2014doesn\u2019t make any sense, given the fact that drug-smuggling drones do that on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
A new report from CBS News suggests that infighting between the FAA and DOD is behind the chaos and confusion around the El Paso airspace. Earlier this week, DOD deployed anti-drone technology to shoot down what were believed to be foreign drones at the border. But at least one of the objects shot down was just a party balloon, according to CBS News<\/a>.<\/p>\n El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson held a press conference<\/a> on Wednesday morning to discuss the major disruptions in the city and emphasized the historic nature of DOD\u2019s decision to shut down airspace over a major U.S. city without any notice.<\/p>\n \u201cMedical evacuation flights were forced to divert to Las Cruces. All aviation operations were grounded, including emergency flights. This was a major and unnecessary disruption, one that has not occurred since 9\/11,\u201d said Johnson.<\/p>\n The mayor was asked how many emergency flights needed to be diverted, and he replied that he had been on a call with hospital operators this morning but didn\u2019t have an exact number. \u201cBut I can tell you that there was a lot of surgical equipment that was coming in from Dallas and other parts of the country to do surgeries here in our community,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cThat type of equipment did not show up here in El Paso.\u201d<\/p>\n The initial notice to shut down airspace over El Paso was both last-minute and extremely broad, covering every type of aircraft, including cargo, passenger, and military flights. The order was lifted after a few hours, and the reasons given by President Donald Trump\u2019s officials didn\u2019t make much sense to aviation experts.<\/p>\n \u201cThe FAA and DOW [sic] acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion,\u201d Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a tweet Wednesday,<\/a> using an acronym for the so-called \u201cDepartment of War.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region. The restrictions have been lifted and normal flights are resuming,\u201d Duffy continued.<\/p>\n CBS News reports that Wednesday\u2019s disruption in El Paso stemmed from a disagreement between the Pentagon and the FAA over closing airspace for the tests of anti-drone tech, which reportedly included lasers. The U.S. military first shot down a drone with laser technology in 1973<\/a>, but it wasn\u2019t until the 21st century that lasers became more common in such applications. The Department of Defense\u2019s research and engineering arm tweeted an image<\/a> of an eagle and lasers shooting down hobby drones on Wednesday.<\/p>\n DEFEND THE HOMELAND \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 pic.twitter.com\/WCUZ6uxwei<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Department of War CTO (@DoWCTO) February 11, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n The Pentagon uses nearby Fort Bliss for anti-cartel drone operations, and CBS notes that there appeared to be terrible miscommunication in the lead-up to the airspace closure. The abrupt nature of it all was surprising to local officials.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one from the local government or the local military base received any advanced notice more than a few minutes, nor did the mayor,\u201d El Paso City Rep. Chris Canales told the Wall Street Journal<\/a>. \u201cWe have never seen something quite this extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n Shutting down a major city\u2019s airspace on such short notice with a plan for 10 days of closure is so unusual that it\u2019s almost inherently suspicious. And it feels like nobody in the Trump regime is being forthcoming about what\u2019s actually happening in and around El Paso.<\/p>\n Last summer, Homeland Security\u2019s head of counter-drone activity, Steven Willoughby, testified to Congress that there were about 60,000 drone flights within 500 meters of the U.S.-Mexico border in the second half of 2024, according to the New York Times<\/a>. It seems wildly improbable that some drones at the border (or party balloons) would prompt a 10-day shutdown of airspace unless there was something extremely unusual about the drones and their potential threat to U.S. interests. The drones are often used for drug smuggling, according to DHS.<\/p>\n The airspace closure in El Paso was discussed during a White House meeting on Wednesday morning, and \u201cwithin minutes the FAA lifted the restrictions,\u201d according to CBS News. It\u2019s unclear if President Trump was involved in that meeting.<\/p>\n