{"id":168039,"date":"2026-02-17T12:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/168039\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T12:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:04:09","slug":"el-paso-airspace-closure-prompted-by-laser-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/168039\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso Airspace Closure Prompted By Laser Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

The abrupt closure of airspace over El Paso last week was prompted by the Pentagon\u2019s use of an anti-drone laser, the Associated Press reported.<\/p>\n

The US Defence Department determined to test the laser near Fort Bliss, north of El Paso, without coordinating with the Federal Aviation Administration, the report said, citing unnamed people.<\/p>\n

The FAA closed airspace in the region to protect civilian air traffic, according to the people.<\/p>\n

\"A
\nLack of coordination<\/p>\n

The uncoordinated test was reportedly carried out in spite of a meeting planned for later in February between the Defence Department and the FAA to discuss the issue.<\/p>\n

Initially the FAA said the El Paso airspace would be closed for 10 days, without giving a reason, leading to cancelled flights.<\/p>\n

The order was lifted three hours later, adding to passenger confusion.<\/p>\n

Airport, city and state officials said they were not informed ahead of time about the sudden closure.<\/p>\n

Confusion<\/p>\n

The Defence Department and the US administration said the closure was implemented to deal with a drone incursion by Mexican cartels.<\/p>\n

However, local officials in El Paso said such drone sightings are a daily occurrence along the border.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe information coming from the federal government does not add up,\u201d said Representative Veronica Escobar, whose district includes El Paso.<\/p>\n

Seven arrivals and seven departures were cancelled during the closure, with medical evacuation flights also rerouted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The abrupt closure of airspace over El Paso last week was prompted by the Pentagon\u2019s use of an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-168039","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\/168039","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=168039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}