Airspace Over El Paso Reopened After Drone Incident

Thu Feb 12 2026 01:13:43 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

The US has reopened airspace over El Paso, Texas, following a temporary closure due to drone incursions. Transportation Secretary assures local residents of their safety.

In a surprising move, the US Department of Defense has lifted the temporary airspace closure over El Paso, Texas, imposed in response to a drone incursion. The decision came after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that the threat had been neutralized and there was no danger to commercial flights. The abrupt closure led to confusion among residents and local leaders, who reported a lack of advance notice. Although the airspace is now reopened, authorities are still seeking clarity on the motivations behind the initial restriction.

The US Department of Defense took action to disable drones that it said were part of an incursion over El Paso, Texas, which sits on the border with Mexico, and has lifted its order to shut down the area's airspace for 10 days.

The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday night suddenly ordered flights in and out of the El Paso International Airport to be halted until February 20, causing shock and confusion among local residents and elected leaders.

The agency said on Wednesday morning restrictions had been lifted and flights could resume.

City Council member Chris Canales, who represents an area on the southwestern side of El Paso, told the BBC that local authorities did not receive any advance notice or reason for the closure.

El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson confirmed that they were not notified, during a news conference on Wednesday after the airspace had been reopened.

We woke up, just like many of you, at midnight last night, one in the morning, to the text and the calls that we received that our airspace was shut down, he said.

Our community was scared, he continued. You just cannot do that.

Medical evacuation flights were diverted because of the closure, he said. Another flight that was carrying surgical equipment did not show up here in El Paso.

Renard said he was still waiting to hear from the FAA about the official reason why the airspace was shut down.

Long-term airspace closures are rare. Since 2018 the FAA has cut airspace closures from an average of more than four hours per launch to just more than two hours, according to its web site.

The restriction covered a 10-mile radius around El Paso, including parts of southern New Mexico, west of the town San Teresa.

After the initial closure, El Paso International Airport said in a statement it was told on short notice to halt all flights and contacted the FAA for more information.

The notice was published without any advance notice to local governments or to local air traffic controllers, Canales said.

The cancellations were so abrupt that people reported being told by airlines that their flights were still scheduled, even after the FAA's announcement.

Some on social media speculated about broader conspiracy theories and wondered if the US was on the brink of war.

It is significant that the US shut down a major airport, Mick Mulroy, a former US Marine, CIA paramilitary officer and deputy assistant secretary of defense told the BBC.

If the purpose was for counter drone activity related to cartel drones, it makes sense as the primary means to do so is through electronic warfare (EW), he added. EW poses a real risk to civilian aviation. Therefore it was prudent to do so.

Mulroy said the alleged cartel drones were most likely being used for surveillance and not anything offensive.

Mexico's Ciudad Juarez is just south and west of El Paso, and US Army base Fort Bliss and White Sands Missile Range lie to the north.

Fort Bliss is a military post focused on training and White Sands Missile Range is the country's largest overland testing range for missiles, rockets, and advanced weapons.

In Mexico's interior, cartels have used drones to drop explosives on rivals or security forces, and one cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, has a specialised drone unit.

But along the border, drones are used primarily to help cartels gather intelligence and mostly for human smuggling operations.

They monitor the position of Border Patrol agents and relay that to migrants to direct them across the border, said Parker Asmann, an expert in Mexican cartels at the Washington-based think tank Insight Crime. It's about gathering intelligence, surveillance, and doing reconnaissance.

In the El Paso area, which Asmann called a hub for human trafficking, drones are a newer technology performing work that would have previously been done mostly by spotters in the hills.

Drone activity in the area, however, is extremely regular, and it remains unclear why the reported incursion on Wednesday prompted a sudden and large-scale airspace closure.