STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The Federal Aviation Administration says a ground stop has been lifted in El Paso, Texas. The FAA abruptly shut down the airspace around El Paso late last night for, quote, "special security reasons." The agency initially said these restrictions were to remain in place for 10 days, which is a long time to shut down a major airport, effectively cutting off a major American city, but then was lifted after a few hours. NPR transportation correspondent Joel Rose has been asking what the heck happened here. Joel, good morning.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Hey, Steve. Good morning.
INSKEEP: Good morning. What do you know?
ROSE: I mean, this is very much a developing and a fast-moving story. I can tell you that the FAA says the temporary closure of airspace over El Paso has been lifted. Quote, "there is no threat to commercial aviation. All flights will resume as normal," unquote, from the FAA. But that is not what the agency was saying last night when it abruptly closed the airspace around El Paso and its suburbs in New Mexico up to 18,000 feet. That included commercial cargo and general aviation, and it was supposed to be in place, as you said, for 10 days. At the time, the FAA said only that these restrictions were put in place for special security reasons but did not elaborate on what those were.
INSKEEP: Yeah. It creates the impression that they wanted to be able to target something that might be coming into that airspace or have clear - a reason to keep the skies clear. How did local leaders react?
ROSE: You know, it appears they really had no advanced notice that this was coming. In a post on Reddit, El Paso City Council Representative Chris Canales said local officials were not warned about the flight restrictions ahead of time, including military leaders at Fort Bliss, which is a major Army post in the area, according to Canales' post. Even local air traffic controllers seemed to get very little notice. Here's an archived audio recording of a conversation between an air traffic controller and a pilot for Southwest Airlines via the website liveatc.net.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: At 0630 for the next 10 days, we're stop - all ground stop.
UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: OK. Ground stop at 0630 for how long?
UNIDENTIFIED AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Ten days.
UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: So you - the airport's totally closed?
UNIDENTIFIED AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Apparently. We just got informed about 30 minutes to an hour ago.
UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: (Laughter) OK. Thanks for that heads up.
ROSE: I think you can hear the surprise there, right?
INSKEEP: Yeah.
ROSE: This is very unusual. We have not seen the entire airspace over a major city shut down like this in a long time, possibly since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
INSKEEP: The surprise is even more impressive, Joel, because as you know, I mean, pilots in that situation, trained to be calm, stound (ph) calm at all times, and you still hear the shock. What is the effect even of this short shutdown?
ROSE: I think it's still going to be an inconvenience for travelers this morning in El Paso, trying to get in or out. But had it continued, it would've been a major disruption for travelers across West Texas who do not have a lot of air travel options. El Paso International Airport is the biggest U.S. airport for hundreds of miles in any direction. You know, six airlines fly in and out.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
ROSE: More than 45 departures per day on average, according to the aviation analytics company Cirium. So if these restrictions had continued for 10 days, that would've added up to hundreds of flights.
INSKEEP: Joel, I want to jump in right there and just ask one other thing. What is your best sense, given that it's early, as to what happened and what the motive of the authorities was?
ROSE: I need to emphasize that we don't know yet, but I will note that El Paso is right on the U.S. border with Mexico. The U.S. has raised concerns about the use of drones by drug cartels along the U.S.-Mexico border. President Trump has threatened in the past to strike against drug cartels in Mexico, which he has said are ruining the country. But again, we have no confirmation yet that any of that is a factor here. It could turn out that this notice was just sent in error. We just - we still don't know.
INSKEEP: OK. Joel, thanks so much for your insights. Really appreciate it.
ROSE: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Joel Rose. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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