El Paso’s mayor has condemned the sudden and unexpected shutdown of the city’s airport, claiming it was carried out without co-ordination with local authorities.
The US FAA issued a temporary flight restriction covering airspace around the airport from 11 February – initially scheduled for up to 10 days, although it was rescinded within a few hours.
El Paso mayor Renard Johnson, speaking during an 11 February briefing, expressed his frustration over the situation.
“This unnecessary decision has caused chaos and confusion in the El Paso community,” he says. “I want to be very, very clear that this should have never happened.
“You cannot restrict airspace over a major city without co-ordinating with the city, the airport, the hospitals, the community leadership…that failure to communicate is unacceptable.”
While the FAA cited security reasons, and US transportation secretary Sean Duffy indicated that the situation related to drone incursions, Johnson says his office is “still determining the official reason”.
“These types of decisions have consequences,” he adds, stating that all aviation operations were grounded and adding that medical evacuation flights were forced to divert to Las Cruces airport, to the north of El Paso.
“This was a major and unnecessary disruption – one that has not occurred since 9/11,” claims Johnson.
He states that El Paso is “not just a dot on a map, we are a major, major city”, and is vowing to press the issue with the FAA “to make sure it doesn’t happen again”.
