Was there a damn good reason for this?

Shutting down El Paso airspace for 10 days will cost lives...NEVER MIND

UPDATE: The White House has announced that the threat was “Mexican cartel drones,” according to news reports (this one from Newsweek).

Mexican cartel drones breached US airspace. The Department of War took action to disable the drones. The FAA and DOW have determined there is no threat to commercial travel.

Okay? The airspace is opened up again. We are safe from the Mexican cartel drones. Is it worth canceling a bunch of flights and causing a panic? Seems like an overreaction to me. But what should we expect? We play with the players on the team, not the ones we wish we had.

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The F.A.A., without warning, shut down El Paso airspace, within 10 nautical miles of ELP airport, up to 18,000 feet. The notice said it’s for “Special Security Reasons,” which is not specified. The Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) is from February 10, at 11:30pm until February 20, at 11:30pm. Ten days, no air traffic. No flights in or out, not even general aviation. This has never been done since 9/11, and even then the shutdown was not for 10 days.

Image: F.A.A. El Paso Sectional Chart (VFR)

It’s hard to compile a list from my head of all the negative effects of shutting down air traffic in a city of 681,000 residents. Starting with the most pressing: life flights may be impacted, since special permission will need to be obtained. I am almost certain someone will die. Medicine will not be delivered, because overnight package services will not function.

Overnight letters, packages, payrolls, checks, including government tax refunds, will not be delivered. U.S. Mail services will be impacted. Insurance cancellation notices (10 day notices) will not be delivered, and therefore policies that should be cancelled will be in effect, leaving insurance companies open to fraud and other risk. Premiums will increase.

The cost of various items will increase. Factories needing critical parts will not receive them and may need to shut down production. Legal proceedings that depend on documents being filed on time will be delayed. Purchase and sales and various acquisitions will be put on hold, since executives and paperwork won’t be able to get into El Paso.

The border station at El Paso / Juarez, Mexico will be overrun with people trying to get out of or into the city from Cuidad Juarez International Airport. That is, if the border remains open.

This reads like a bad made-for-TV movie plot. Shut down airspace, then block the roads. A killer virus from space, or aliens (literal aliens not illegal immigrants), or some secret lab like in “Stranger Things” goes sideways, or terrorists are trying to infiltrate us with a suitcase nuclear explosive device. Actually, that last one sounds more real than the rest.

What I’m saying is whatever the reason for a “Special Security Reasons” TFR for 10 days for an entire city, it better be a damn good one. There better be some emergency issue that affects the whole country, or at least all of Texas or the southwest U.S. to justify something like this. And, yes, national security or no, we citizens deserve to know what it is. The government does not get a pass to act like this without some public, believable, real threat.

Brian Bedford is the F.A.A. administrator. This goes to his desk, as an order like this would need his explicit approval. I wouldn’t call Bedford a pioneer or deep thinker in aviation: he was the head of Republic Airways, a smallish regional airline. His degree is in accounting. But this is about his job, because if there’s not a reasonable explanation for a shutdown of this magnitude and duration, I’d love to see Congress fry him. And if he was forced to make this decision by others, like Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, then it would be his duty to resign if he didn’t agree with it. Whatever deaths might result from this would be on Bedford’s head.

I’m also sure Secretary Duffy would have to give the green light here, though legally that isn’t necessary. And the White House, all the way up to President Trump, would be in the loop. If this is truly national security, then the National Security Adviser (happens to be Marco Rubio, acting), Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, head of the NSA Lt. Gen. Bill Hartman (acting), and the execrable Stephen Miller, whose title is Homeland Security Adviser, would need to be consulted. Someone threw the switch on this, and if I had to bet, I’d go with Miller or Noem.

I am all for doing what’s necessary to keep this country safe. But Kash Patel’s FBI has not given me a whole lot of confidence. DHS is running a jackboot operation. This has all the earmarks of overreaction or incompetence. But then again, maybe there is a terrorist organization trying to smuggle a suitcase nuke over the border and fly it from El Paso into New York City and detonate it in the air. It would make a heck of bad made-for-TV movie script. But something like that would justify shutting down El Paso for 10 days.

I’m waiting to hear what this is. We should demand an explanation.

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