Why Did FAA Abruptly Close Then Reopens El Paso Airport?

El Paso International Airport — Source: Kirby Lee / Getty

Boy, I sure love having people with zero competence making consequential decisions. There was widespread confusion in El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday morning when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced and then abruptly reversed a 10-day shutdown of the airspace around the El Paso International Airport in Texas.

According to AP, the shutdown was announced in the early hours of Wednesday morning, with “special security reasons” being the only explanation provided by the FAA. “No pilots may operate an aircraft in the areas covered,” the FAA said in a statement, adding that the government “may use deadly force” on any pilot who doesn’t obey orders. The 10-day shutdown only lasted a few hours before ending.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the FAA “acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion. The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.” There were no details given about how many drones there were or how they knew they were cartel drones. The New York Times reports that officials in the Trump administration, familiar with the closure, said it was due to the military testing counter-drone technology.

Now, unless the cartel has access to military-grade UAVs, I’m struggling to understand why the appearance of drones needed the FAA to disrupt air traffic so significantly. If it were only drones, why announce a 10-day closure instead of redirecting air traffic away from the area where the alleged drones were? If it were about testing anti-drone technology, why not communicate that to air traffic officials beforehand so that they aren’t scrambling to figure out how they’re going to redirect 10-days of planned air traffic at a moment’s notice?

Steven Willoughby, deputy director of the counter-drone program at the Homeland Security Department, testified before the House in July in an effort to continue the program. He explained that the technology can have a significant impact on American air traffic and that the program works with the FAA “to properly coordinate the use of each piece of equipment at specific locations and times to ensure that impacts to the national airspace system are minimized.”

You know, I wouldn’t describe the events of Wednesday morning as “properly coordinated.”

The abrupt closure and reopening have understandably led to questions from both local officials and federal legislators. Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat who represents El Paso, has been critical of the FAA’s handling of the situation. “The highly consequential decision by the FAA to shut down the El Paso Airport for 10 days is unprecedented and has resulted in significant concern within the community,” Escobar said in a statement. “From what my office and I have been able to gather overnight and early this morning, there is no immediate threat to the community or surrounding areas.”

“Our community was scared because someone decided to shut down our airspace. You just cannot do that,” El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson said during a news conference. He added that local officials weren’t initially given any explanation for the abrupt closure.

If you’re going to announce a 10-day closure of airspace, the least you can do is explain the situation to local officials so they can properly relay it to their constituents. Sean Duffy won’t shut the hell up about “woke” transportation initiatives, but is alarmingly silent when it comes to issues with will consequences.

During a news conference, Escobar was skeptical of the FAA’s apparent overreaction to the presence of drones. “There have been drone incursions from Mexico going back to as long as drones existed. So this is nothing new,” Escobar said at a news conference. “The drone incursion from Mexico — obviously not something any of us want to see. But this is not unusual, and there was nothing extraordinary about any drone incursion into the U.S. that I’m aware of.”

The whole reason for the closure is ostensibly safety, but the slapdash way this was executed only raises concerns about the FAA’s ability to keep us safe in the event of an actual emergency. We’re not getting a straightforward explanation of why this happened, and the answers provided only make the FAA look incompetent.

Air Travel Will Still Be Hampered Despite Government Shutdown Ending

Questions Arise After FAA Abruptly Closes Then Reopens El Paso Airport was originally published on newsone.com