{"id":163311,"date":"2026-02-13T15:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/163311\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T15:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:40:13","slug":"faa-reopens-el-paso-airspace-after-confusion-with-the-pentagon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/163311\/","title":{"rendered":"FAA reopens El Paso airspace after confusion with the Pentagon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Federal Aviation Administration reopened the airspace over El Paso, Texas, early Wednesday after shutting it down over<\/a> \u201cspecial security reasons\u201d apparently rooted in confusion with the Defense Department.<\/p>\n

The U.S. military was planning to test a high-energy laser on a military base in the El Paso area that could be used against drones, two congressional officials told MS NOW. The FAA abruptly issued a 10-day closure Tuesday night for air traffic in the area upon learning about those plans, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, however, said<\/a> the FAA and the Defense Department \u201cacted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region,\u201d said Duffy, whose department includes the FAA.<\/p>\n

The congressional officials said there was no mention of drones, just the laser test, when members of Congress were briefed early Wednesday on the reason for the airspace closure.<\/p>\n

El Paso officials said Wednesday they weren\u2019t given advance notice from the FAA and they still are unaware of what caused the sudden closure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis unnecessary decision has caused chaos and confusion in the El Paso community. I want to be very, very clear that this should have never happened,\u201d Mayor Renard Johnson said.\u00a0\u201cYou cannot restrict airspace over a major city without coordinating with the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tRecommended<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"David\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDavid Rohde\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDavid Rohde is the senior national security reporter for MS NOW. Previously he was the senior executive editor for national security and law for NBC News.\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tEbony Davis<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tEbony Davis is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked at CNN as a campaign reporter covering elections and politics.\u00a0\u00a0\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"MS<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a02026 Versant Media, LLC<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Federal Aviation Administration reopened the airspace over El Paso, Texas, early Wednesday after shutting it down over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":{"0":"post-163311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-el-paso","9":"tag-el-paso-headlines","10":"tag-el-paso-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163311","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=163311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}