El Paso Airport Shut Down By The FAA For Special Security Reason

The FAA shut down the EL Paso Airport starting 11:30PM local time, Tuesday night and it will remain closed until 11:30PM Feb 20th.

This was abrupt. Local and State civilian and military authoring received no prior notification.

This affects 1,000 flights, nearly half served by Southwest Airlines.

I did a search on when the last time a US airport was shut down for special security reasons, and it turned up no results. Flights are diverted at times, for a short period of time, when someone like the President or Vice President is landing or taking off, but this is highly unusual.

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exexec · 70-79, C

It is highly unusual. They shut down some airports during the 9/11 event, but I think that is the only other time it has happened.

Northwest · M

@exexec During 9/11 the FAA grounded ALL flights within the USA and in and out of the USA. But yes, you seem to be right, I think this is the first time a single airport was shut down and for a predetermined period of time.

Security related work is usually done at the San Antonio location, but even that does not involve shutting the airport down.

Carla · 61-69, F

Im listening to bondi now. She just mentioned in her self congratulatory rant that cartel drones were shot down.
Im not aware though, of when that happened.

Northwest · M

@Carla

She just mentioned in her self congratulatory rant that cartel drones were shot down.

Weird. So cartels are only allowed to operate between 11:30PM last night and 11:30PM on the 20th? 🤣

Just listening to CNN, they said the FAA lifts the shutdown with no explanation.

Carla · 61-69, F

@Northwest i concur with mr waterspring...weird.

Crazywaterspring · 61-69, M

According to CNBC this has been called off. No explanation why the feds put it in place. El Paso is a busy place and it is next to Ft Bliss, a huge Army base in the desert.

The hell?

Ynotisay · M

Here's the New York Times take from about 10 minutes ago.
.
When you see "conflicting explanations" you can fill in the blanks. Someone's lying.

- Officials on Wednesday offered conflicting explanations for a temporary closure of airspace over El Paso, after the Federal Aviation Administration rescinded an order issued hours earlier to ground flights for 10 days.

Sean Duffy, the Secretary of Transportation, and officials from the White House and the Pentagon said Mexican cartel drones breached U.S. airspace, prompting the temporary closure of airspace over El Paso. But two people briefed by Trump administration officials said the shutdown was prompted by the Defense Department’s use of new counter-drone technology and concerns about the risks it could pose to other aircraft in the area.

Carla · 61-69, F

Do you reckon the military is planning something for that area?

Northwest · M

@Carla A couple of things U can think of:

1. Adding infrastructure to make it a staging station for deportation flights.

2. Trump needs some facilities to allow work on the Qatari plane they gifted him. Usually that work is done in San Antonio, but this is something they had not been planning on,

Carla · 61-69, F

@Northwest is ten days long enough for that work on his flying palace?
And why would they close down for that work?
And the staging thing...
They do work at airports all the time.
Keeping it out of the public eye would be only temporary.

Northwest · M

@Carla

is ten days long enough for that work on his flying palace?

That's a 12-18 months contract, that's being mostly done in the military portion of the San Antonio airport. I figured they might be related because his flying palace "disruption" was unplanned, so they may have needed some minor stuff done in El Paso.

Keeping it out of the public eye would be only temporary.

Yes. The thing can also be related to a military operation that will last for less than 10 days.

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