The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has lifted a rare notice that threatened to ground flights out of El Paso, Texas, for ten days after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that the threat that had prompted the highly unusual action had been “neutralized.”
The FAA issued the notice late on Tuesday, giving just three hours’ notice of the flight restrictions that are officially known as a ‘Temporary flight restrictions for Special Security Reasons’ or TFR for short.
The TFR covered a radius of 10 nautical miles from coordinates centered on the El Paso International Airport (31.80722, -106.37639). A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) which provides further details of the airspace closure read:
“The Federal Aviation Administration classifies the airspace defined in this NOTAM as ‘NTL Defense Airspace’. Pilots who do not adhere to the following procedures may be intercepted, detained, and interviewed by law enforcement/security personnel.”
The restrictions came into effect at 11:30 pm (MST) on February 10 and were not due to be lifted until 11:30 pm (MST) on February 21.
The restrictions appear to have caught the airport and local officials off guard, with the FAA not providing any prior notice before issuing the flight restrictions.
Some airlines were still operating flights to El Paso in the hours leading up to the restrictions taking effect, and have now been left with aircraft stranded on the ground.
One of these airlines is Southwest Airlines, which operated a flight to El Paso shortly before the NOTAM took effect. An interaction between the air traffic controller and the pilots of the Southwest Boeing 737 has since gone viral, after they were informed of the lengthy airport closure.
“Just be advised that there’s a TFR going into effect, uh, at 0630 (UTC) for the next 10 days, we’re stopped, all ground stopped,” the tower controller told the pilots of Southwest flight WN-1249, which had just arrived from Houston.
Perhaps thinking they had misheard the tower controller, one of the pilots then responded: “Okay, ground stop 0630, for how long?”
- Air traffic controller: “Ten days.”
- Pilot: “So the airport’s totally closed?”
- Air traffic controller: “Apparently… we just got informed about 30 minutes ago.
- Pilot: “So for ten days you guys are not open.”
- Air traffic controller: “Well, we’ll be here, but no air traffic.”
It perhaps goes without saying that this type of flight restriction is highly unusual and, unlike typical NOTAMs that restrict flight movements, there are no exceptions for law enforcement or medical flights.
The flight restrictions caught local officials off guard, with Chris Canales, a member of the El Paso City Council, describing the NOTAM as “crazy.” Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, said the “unprecedented” decision to issue the TFR over El Paso had caused “significant concern within the community.”
Just hours later, the FAA had lifted the TFR, with the White House and Duffy saying that the decision had been prompted by Mexican drug cartel drones being flown across the border.
“The FAA and DOW acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion,” Duffy said in a post on X. “The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.”
