The Federal Aviation Administration briefly shut down the airspace over El Paso, Texas, late on Tuesday, a sudden decision that surprised local officials, disrupted travelers and alarmed many others.
The shutdown was lifted less than eight hours later, but much remains unknown about why officials took the drastic action. Trump administration officials said Mexican cartel drones had breached U.S. airspace, but others have disputed that explanation.
Here’s what we know.
The order came without warning.
At 11:30 p.m. local time, the F.A.A. halted all flights to and from El Paso International Airport for 10 days for “special security reasons.” The restriction encompassed a 10-mile area around El Paso and included the neighboring community of Santa Teresa, N.M., but did not apply to aircraft flying above 18,000 feet, the F.A.A. notices said.
The notices did not detail the security reasons that prompted the restriction. But in one notice, the F.A.A. said the federal government “may use deadly force” if an aircraft violating the airspace was determined to pose “an imminent security threat.”
The shutdown caught travelers, local officials and the airlines themselves off guard. When reached by phone early Wednesday, Representative Joaquin Castro, a Democrat who represents San Antonio, said he did not know any more about it. “Sorry, I don’t have some clear answer,” Mr. Castro said.
Alex Torres, 42, arrived at the airport unaware that flights had been grounded. Ms. Torres, who had been expecting to fly to New York, said she spoke with an American Airlines representative on the phone who had yet to hear the news. “They didn’t know anything about the airport being closed,” she said.
The airport said in a statement that the restriction had been issued “on short notice.”
By 7 a.m., less than eight hours later, the F.A.A. abruptly reversed course, allowing flights to resume. “There is no threat to commercial aviation,” the agency said on social media.
The brief shutdown caused chaos in El Paso.
Renard Johnson, the mayor of El Paso, said at a news conference Wednesday morning that many local officials remained unclear why the F.A.A. had made the decision to shut down, and that the “failure to communicate is unacceptable.” He said it had resulted in a series of chaotic events around El Paso, including medical evacuation flights that had been forced to divert to Las Cruces, N.M., a city about 45 miles to the northwest.
“This unnecessary decision has caused chaos and confusion in the El Paso community,” Mr. Johnson said. “I want to be very, very clear that this should’ve never happened. You cannot restrict air space over a major city without coordinating with the city, the airport, the hospitals, the community leadership.”
The Trump administration blamed a drug cartel drone.
Sean Duffy, the Secretary of Transportation, said on social media that a cartel drone had breached U.S. airspace, prompting the temporary closure of airspace over El Paso. That explanation was echoed by officials at the White House and the Pentagon.
The presence of a drone has not been independently confirmed.
Others are skeptical of the drone explanation.
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. The nature of the technology was not immediately known.
Representative Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat, pushed back on the drone explanation given by Trump administration officials, saying at a news conference it was “not the information that we in Congress have been told.”
She added: “There was not a threat, which is why the F.A.A. lifted this restriction so quickly. The information coming from the administration does not add up.”
Ms. Escobar also said that drone incursions from Mexico were common, and that “there was nothing extraordinary about any drone incursion into the U.S. that I’m aware of.”
Edgar Sandoval, Reyes Mata III, Karoun Demirjian and Luke Broadwater contributed reporting.
Daniel Victor is a senior editor at The Times on the Live team, which covers breaking and developing news.
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