On Feb. 10, 2026, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a flight restriction at El Paso International Airport in El Paso, Texas and the surrounding airspace. The flight restriction was an immediate order to ground all flights within 18,000 feet of El Paso. The restriction was ordered for 10 days without first notifying the White House, and all flights to El Paso were to be grounded until Feb. 20. However, the following morning, on Feb 11, the restriction was suddenly lifted.
According to a recent article from CNN, the FAA originally warned that the United States Government may use “deadly force” against aircrafts in violation of the flight restriction if they deem it to pose “an imminent security threat.”
“We’ve never seen anything like this here at least since 9/11, when everything was grounded,” said Robert Moore, the founder and CEO of the news site El Paso Matters.
According to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the sudden flight restriction was issued after Mexican cartel drones were detected entering US airspace. The FFA decided they could not ensure the safety of civilian flight paths. However, many were still speculating about a different reason for the sudden closure, as these cartel drones are reported to often fly around the border and the airport had never been shut down up to this point. El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson and other local leaders said they were given no advanced notice of the flight restriction.
Recent reports from CNN and several other news sites say the airport was shut down, not due to Mexican cartel drones, but due to a nylon party balloon nearby. This balloon, mistaken by the Department of Defense for a drone, was taken down by high-powered anti-drone lasers, creating a hazardous situation for flights in the airspace. This Enduring-High Energy Laser (E-HEL) weapon system was previously requested by the Army, and the request was signed off by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The confusion over the sudden closure and the lack of communication between the FAA and the city of El Paso created chaos in the city and the government. President Trump has only briefly commented on the matter, dismissively stating, “People learn” in a recent interview outside of the White House, according to KTSM.
