Karoun Demirjian, Kate Kelly and Eric Schmitt
Washington: Airspace was abruptedly closed over El Paso late on Tuesday (Texas time) when Customs and Border Protection officials deployed an anti-drone laser on loan from the US Department of Defence without giving aviation officials time to assess risks to commercial aircraft, according to multiple people briefed on the situation.
The episode led the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to declare that nearby airspace would be shut down for 10 days, an extraordinary pause that was quickly lifted on Wednesday morning at the direction of the White House.
Top administration officials quickly claimed that the closure was in response to a sudden incursion of drones from Mexican drug cartels that required a military response, with US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declaring in a social media post that “the threat has been neutralised”.
But that assertion was undercut by multiple people familiar with the situation, who said that the FAA’s extreme move came after immigration officials this week used an anti-drone laser shared by the Pentagon without co-ordination with the FAA. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Customs and Border Protection officials thought they were firing on a cartel drone, the people said, but it turned out to be a party balloon. Defence department officials were present during the incident, one person said.
The Defence department and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The FAA declined to comment.
The military has been developing high-energy laser technology to intercept and destroy drones, which the Trump administration has said are being used by Mexican cartels to track Border Patrol agents and smuggle drugs into the United States.
The airspace closure provoked a significant backlash from local officials and sharp questions by lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including some Republicans, who expressed scepticism about the administration’s version of the events.
“At this point, the details of what exactly occurred over El Paso are unclear,” Republican Senator Ted Cruz from Texas, chair of the Senate Commerce Committee that oversees the aviation agency, told reporters on Wednesday after attending a closed-door briefing with FAA administrator Bryan Bedford.
The move left El Paso officials blindsided.
“I want to be very, very clear that this should’ve never happened,” El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson said in a news conference on Wednesday morning.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
