Thread #1488146
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https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/11/faa-el-paso-airport.html
The Federal Aviation Administration abruptly grounded all flights in and out of El Paso International Airport in Texas for 10 days starting Wednesday morning, citing “special security” instructions, and then lifted the order hours later.

A Trump administration official said the Department of Defense disabled Mexican cartel drones that had breached U.S. airspace and that there was no threat to commercial air travel currently.

“The temporary closure of airspace over El Paso has been lifted,” the FAA said in a post on X. “There is no threat to commercial aviation. All flights will resume as normal.”

The airport sits next to Biggs Army Airfield and is near the Mexican border, about 12 miles from Juarez, Mexico. The Pentagon referred a question about the nature of the security issue to the FAA.

Flights were initially halted until late Feb. 20 and the ban applied to a 10-nautical-mile area around the airport. The FAA hadn’t immediately disclosed what the security reasons for the temporary sudden halt were or why it was set for so long.

While the FAA regularly halts flights at airports for weather, traffic or even rocket launches, a security issue is highly unusual, as is announcing such a long effective airspace closure.

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Texas Democrat whose district includes much of El Paso, said the move to suddenly close airspace was “unprecedented” and said that “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.”

“There was no advance notice provided to my office, the City of El Paso, or anyone involved in airport operations,” she said in a statement. “We have urged the FAA to immediately lift the Temporary Flight Restrictions placed on the El Paso area.”
+Showing all 10 replies.
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Well, if the admin says it was Mexican cartel drones, then the only thing we know for sure is it wasn't Mexican cartel drones.
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>>1488146
Ok take your pick
>Incompetent Trump admin panicked out of some mexican kid flying a drone too close to the border
>Incompetent Trump admin is planning to bomb the cartels and realized right after giving the alert this would've been so telegraphed it defeated the point of doing it
If there was literally any actual danger they wouldn't have lifted this within like two hours.
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FAA official stated that it was US DoW drones over Mexican airspace. Doesn't matter ... both sides have been doing this for decades, but the airspace hasn't been closed until now.
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>>1488153
Analyzing it further it genuinely looks like they're fucking spamming drones to locate illegals and/or protestors to the point the airlines had to outright tell them to fuck off because it was making it unsafe to fly in the area, but they didn't listen until the FAA literally put out this warning to make it clear they were endangering all flights in the area.
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>>1488148
They already admitted under oath it was actually DOD drones. Nothing to do with Mexico.
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>>1488172
But that doesn't push the narrative they want.
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I read it was a party balloon.
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>>1488153
How dare these upstarts contradict the POTUS
OFF WITH THEIR HEADS
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>>1488146
>Escobar
They aren't even trying to hide their ties to drug lords, huh?
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>>1488146
Ok final report is in and it's actually even fucking stupider than any of the initials. Turns out one of the brainlets in CBP decided to take out an anti-drone laser they had on loan from the DOD to deal with what they thought was a "Cartel Drone" but actually turned out to be a loose party balloon, at which point the FAA had to ground everything because they got no word of it (and probably would've told them "don't fucking do that near an airport" if they did) and couldn't risk aircraft getting caught in the crossfire since those lasers fuck with their systems.

TLDR: CBP retard decides to use a new toy to shoot down a balloon, FAA forced to treat it as potential terror attempt because he didn't bother telling them.

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