“Chaos and confusion”: inside the shutdown of El Paso airspace
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Good morning. Conflicting accounts emerge over the sudden closure of a major city's airspace.
This unnecessary decision has caused chaos and confusion in the El Paso community.
Conditions at ICE facilities leave detainees wanting to return to their country of origin. The Associated Press tells us why they're stuck. And the personal injury lawyer who could become Team USA's oldest ever Winter Olympics competitor.
What caused the sudden closure of El Paso airspace?
It's Thursday, February 12th. I'm Cecilia Ley, in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
On Tuesday night, out of nowhere, federal officials mysteriously closed a large patch of airspace over El Paso, Texas, bewildering pilots.
Okay, ground stop 0630 for how long? 10 days. So the airport's totally closed? Apparently, we just got informed about 30 minutes to an hour ago. So for 10 days, you guys are not open? Well, we won't be here, but no air traffic. Okay, thanks for that heads up.
El Paso Airport hosts about 3.5 million passengers and serves not only large areas in Texas, but parts of New Mexico and northern Mexico.
How did the El Paso community react to the airspace disruption?
Dan LaMoth is a Pentagon reporter for The Washington Post. He told us the sudden decision caught everyone off guard.
I think in particular, the idea that you would restrict it for 10 days was pretty striking. You know, it would be one thing to restrict it for a couple hours for a specific reason.
What issues are reported inside ICE facilities?
But a 10-day period of time, that's a major airport, that's a major city. It just struck people as kind of like completely out of pocket.
And yet, despite the order, airspace opened just a few hours later. This confusion appears to center on government departments at odds with one another.
The Pentagon was interested in testing counter drone technology, and I think using the counter drone technology. And we're told it was a laser based technology, basically shooting down drones was the idea. And FAA was not sufficiently comfortable with how this would work, and whether commercial flights would be safe. So when they didn't have the level of detail they wanted, we are told that they then restricted the airspace.
The Trump administration didn't address claims of miscommunication publicly. Instead, they said that drones operated by Mexican cartels had breached U.S. airspace. Multiple outlets reported that the Pentagon gave Customs and Border Protection the green light to use the lasers without coordinating with the Federal Aviation Administration. But it's not even clear what they actually hit.
They apparently did shoot down a couple things. There is reporting that they actually ended up shooting down Mylar party balloons. So not a threat, if that's what it was.
Reports suggest aviation officials had warned a closure like this could happen if they weren't given the time to review how laser systems might cause disruptions, and a meeting was in place to discuss the technology next week. El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson criticized the disruption in his community.
Medical evacuation flights were forced to divert to Las Cruces. All aviation operations were grounded, including emergency flights. This was a major and unnecessary disruption, one that has not occurred since 9-11.
Meanwhile, El Paso's Democratic Representative Veronica Escobar said she was skeptical of the administration's explanation, suggesting that drone invasions at the border are common in the region for as long as drones have been around. Lamothe told us the Pentagon wants the authority to use counter-drone systems for the border and for big events like the upcoming World Cup. But, as yesterday demonstrated, those systems might run into trouble with routine travel.
I think when we look forward, the question is going to be, how do you address this? And that comes around airports, around military bases, around stadiums. Like there's all kinds of places where you would potentially have a concern with these drones.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz said that he will schedule a classified briefing about the temporary closure to figure out more details of the incident.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was at the White House yesterday as foreign policy watchers searched for signs of movement on two major issues, sustaining a fragile peace in Gaza and looming military action in Iran.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:05–0:32
2
What caused the sudden closure of El Paso airspace?
0:32–1:23
3
How did the El Paso community react to the airspace disruption?
1:23–1:41
4
What issues are reported inside ICE facilities?
1:41–11:15
5
How did the Pentagon and FAA conflict over airspace restrictions?
11:15–14:20
Speakers
6 identifiedMore from Apple News Today
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