Listen to this articleListen to this article | 4 minsinfoUnited States aviation authorities have announced that the airspace over El Paso, Texas, has been reopened after initially closing the airspace due to an alleged drone incursion from a Mexican cartel.Wednesday’s announcement walked back an earlier statement from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), abruptly pausing air traffic over the southern border city for 10 days.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listSuch a closure would have been unprecedented. By late morning, though, the FAA announced that flights would resume in and out of the area as normal, prompting questions about the legitimacy of the drone claims.“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 agency said in a social media post.El Paso is one of the largest cities in Texas, and it is located on the banks of the Rio Grande River, directly across from Ciudad Juarez in Mexico.Securing border areas, however, has been a focus of President Donald Trump’s second term in office.The Trump administration has asserted that Wednesday’s brief airspace closure was a result of a drone operated by a Mexican drug cartel infiltrating US airspace. It has since suggested the drone was destroyed.“The FAA and [the Department of Defense] acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote on social media at 9:37 US Eastern time (14:37 GMT).“The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.” Advertisement But the Mexican government has not confirmed the drone incursion.At her morning news conference, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters, “There is no information about drone use on the border,” but she added that the security cabinet would investigate the incident.Anonymous US officials have told media outlets like CNN and CBS News that the sudden airspace closure may have been a false alarm, caused by the US military’s tests of its laser-based counter-drone system near El Paso …
