"The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) abruptly suspended for nine hours on Wednesday all flights departing from or arriving at El Paso International Airport, which is located in Texas, on the border with Mexico. Although no details were initially provided, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy explained once air traffic had resumed that the measure was a response to an incursion of drones belonging to a Mexican cartel into U.S. airspace, which were neutralized."
"The FAA's initial notice, issued around midnight, merely cited special security reasons and warned that the airspace closure would last 10 days. The temporary closure of airspace over El Paso has been lifted. There is no threat to commercial aviation. All flights will resume as normal, the FAA announced in a message on social media, again without offering further explanation for such an unusual shutdown."
"The unusual measure had only been applied once before in El Paso, in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, when federal authorities closed U.S. airspace after terrorists from the radical Islamist group Al Qaeda hijacked four planes. Three of them crashed into the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon on the outskirts of Washington."
All flights to and from El Paso International Airport were suspended for nine hours by the FAA. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said drones belonging to a Mexican cartel crossed into U.S. airspace from Mexico and were neutralized. The FAA initially cited special security reasons and warned the closure could last 10 days. The airspace was reopened after the Pentagon neutralized the devices and the FAA said there was no threat to commercial aviation. The shutdown risked major disruption in El Paso, a city of nearly 700,000 residents, and echoed the only prior closure there after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Read at english.elpais.com
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