{"id":161853,"date":"2026-02-12T17:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/161853\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T17:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:38:15","slug":"el-paso-airspace-closure-tied-to-faa-pentagon-standoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/161853\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso airspace closure tied to FAA-Pentagon standoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

What happened<\/p>\n

The Federal Aviation Administration\u2019s abrupt hourslong closure of El Paso\u2019s airspace Wednesday stemmed from a standoff between the Transportation Department, Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security over testing an anti-drone laser weapon, according to news organizations. The FAA late Tuesday grounded all flights in and around El Paso and a nearby stretch of New Mexico for 10 days, citing \u201cspecial security reasons,\u201d before backtracking Wednesday morning amid an outcry in Washington, D.C., and Texas.<\/p>\n

Who said what<\/p>\n

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on social media that the FAA and Pentagon had \u201cacted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion\u201d and the \u201cthreat has been neutralized.\u201d Trump administration officials have been \u201cslinging blame back and forth in private\u201d about the extraordinary airspace closure, Axios<\/a> said, but their \u201cofficial statements mirror Duffy\u2019s language around a drone incursion<\/a>.\u201d Lawmakers and El Paso officials said that explanation made little sense, in part because drone incursions from Mexico are a daily occurrence along the border.<\/p>\n

The drone \u201cassertion\u201d was also \u201cundercut by multiple people familiar with the situation, who said that the FAA\u2019s extreme move came after immigration officials earlier this week used an anti-drone laser\u201d from Fort Bliss, which abuts El Paso International Airport, The New York Times<\/a> said. The FAA and Pentagon had a Feb. 20 meeting scheduled to \u201cdiscuss the safety implications of deploying\u201d the military\u2019s \u201chigh-energy laser,\u201d but Customs and Border Protection officials preemptively \u201cdeployed the technology\u201d without giving the FAA \u201cenough time to assess the risks to commercial aircraft<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

FAA officials are concerned because \u201chigh-powered lasers can temporarily blind or distract pilots, leading to eye injuries and potential loss of aircraft control, particularly during takeoffs and landings,\u201d The Wall Street Journal<\/a> said. In this case, CBP used the laser to \u201ccounter what officials believed to be a drone\u201d but \u201cwas actually a party balloon.\u201d According to \u201cseveral sources,\u201d CBS News<\/a> said, \u201cone balloon was shot down.\u201d<\/p>\n

What next?<\/p>\n

The incident was \u201cyet another in a line of misfires between the FAA and Defense Department, including last year\u2019s 67-fatality midair crash<\/a> over the Potomac River,\u201d Politico<\/a> said. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) said they wanted a classified briefing on the incident from the FAA and Pentagon.<\/p>\n

The Week<\/p>\n

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nSUBSCRIBE & SAVE\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up for The Week’s Free Newsletters<\/p>\n

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day \u2013 and the best features from TheWeek.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What happened The Federal Aviation Administration\u2019s abrupt hourslong closure of El Paso\u2019s airspace Wednesday stemmed from a standoff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-161853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}