The Federal Aviation Administration took an extremely rare measure, announcing a 10-day suspension of all flights to and from El Paso, Texas, as well as overflights due to "special safety reasons" from February 10 to 20, but later canceled this restriction. Transportation Secretary DeFazio said that the FAA and the Department of Defense had "acted swiftly to address a drug cartel drone intrusion incident. The threat has been eliminated." A government official said that drones from Mexican drug cartels had entered U.S. airspace. However, other officials gave conflicting explanations. According to CBS, the real reason was that the Pentagon was testing a drone-jamming laser system near Fort Bliss at the time, which led to a dispute with the FAA, and both sides had disagreements on the test schedule and safety impacts. Earlier this week, the U.S. government had used this technology to shoot down a target that looked like a drone but was actually a party balloon. Subsequently, FAA Administrator Brian Bedford decided to close the relevant airspace on Tuesday evening, without informing officials from the White House, the Pentagon, and the Department of Homeland Security. This decision was revoked after a meeting held in the office of the White House Chief of Staff, Wiers, on Wednesday. Some local leaders strongly criticized the Trump administration's handling of the situation, as the measures disrupted various flight activities, including medical evacuation flights, and El Paso is about the same size as Washington, D.C. Mayor Leonard Johnson said: "This unnecessary decision caused chaos and confusion in the El Paso community."
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Original: toutiao.com/article/1856894819646667/
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