The Federal Aviation Administration abruptly grounded all flights in and out of El Paso International Airport in Texas for 10 days starting Wednesday, citing “special security” instructions, and then lifted the order hours later.
“The temporary closure of airspace over El Paso has been lifted,” the FAA said in a post on X. “There is no threat to commercial aviation. All flights will resume as normal.”
The FAA didn’t immediately say what the security reasons for the temporary sudden halt were. The airport sits next to Biggs Army Airfield and is near the Mexican border, about 12 miles from Juarez, Mexico. The Pentagon referred a question about the nature of the security issue to the FAA.
Flights were initially halted until late Feb. 20 and the ban applied to a 10-nautical-mile area around the airport.
While the FAA regularly halts flights at airports for weather and traffic, a security issue is highly unusual as is an effective airspace closure for this long.
