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We had a situation in El Paso Tuesday\u00a0 this week – seems one or more drug cartel drones intruded into our air space, causing the FAA to call a ten DAY<\/em> closure over El Paso.<\/p>\n The El Paso International Airport is located less than 10 miles from Biggs Army Airfield on Fort Bliss.<\/p>\n Leadership at the installation remained in the dark about the decision to shut down the air space around the base and were not informed when the restrictions were lifted, according to a defense official.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Restrictions were lifted, as noted above, within a few hours after some of our finest at Ft. Bliss took said drone\/s out of commission. The method was not specified.They moved the Love that “located less than 10 miles” line…as anyone who has ever been stationed at Ft. Bliss knows, the two airfields miss bumping up into each other by maybe a couple of miles on a good day.<\/p>\n Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, in a post on X, said the Department of Defense \u201cacted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion,\u201d though he did not specify how many unmanned systems were involved.<\/p>\n \u201cThe threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region,\u201d he wrote, adding, \u201cNormal flights are resuming.\u201d<\/p>\n On Tuesday, the FAA announced that it would ground flights \u2014 including commercial, cargo and general aviation \u2014 in and out of the airport until Feb. 21 due to \u201cspecial security reasons.\u201d That decision was lifted hours later.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n One can only assume that cartel ownership was established when instead of vanishing in a puff of orange powder the way God intended clay pigeons to do, there was a large white cloud and anguished cries of “Ay Caramba!”… nah, I’m kidding. Just suffering the aftereffects of that white cloud…\u00a0 Be interesting to know how they took the drone\/s down… for that matter, how many there were so I could quit using this silly slash\/s.<\/p>\n One would think the only people who could get upset about this were people who make money off cartel shipments. Purely coincidentally, by the way:<\/p>\n Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat who represents the El Paso area, called the move \u201cunprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe highly consequential decision by the FAA to shut down the El Paso Airport for 10 days is unprecedented and resulted in significant concern in the community,\u201d Escobar said in a statement. \u201cThere was no advance notice provided to my office, the City of El Paso, or anyone involved in airport operations.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Military Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Guess she thinks the cartels should publish a schedule?<\/p>\n A tip of the old Hatlo hat to Jeff LPH for the Military Times link.<\/p>\n Think you last flight sucked?<\/p>\n A guy flying out of LAX to Houston and on to Managua seems to have been directed to the wrong plane, and after six hours of a supposedly 3-hour flight, found out he was on a flight to Japan. United seems to think they were responsible – apparently they comped two days at a hotel in Japan and his fare to get him to the right destination. (Houston used to be really bad for this – they would scan your pass, send you down an escalator to where an agent would direct you right or left to your proper flight – maybe. Twice in the ’90s I almost wound up flying to Mexico instead of El Paso.)\u00a0 Daily Mail<\/a><\/p>\n Oh, and it could be worse – there is a permanent desk at the Wien (Vienna) airport to handle passengers who mistakenly booked their tickets to the wrong country. Think about it.<\/p>\n Thursday update<\/em> – now it is claimed that the weapon was a new laser loaned to Customs and Border Patrol (without the FAA being notified first.) When the FAA got wind of it, they shut down commercial flights for 10 days. A few hours later, cooler heads prevailed and everything went back to normal. Sounds a bit of a Charlie Foxtrot. Nothing like inter-agency coordination, huh… and “nothing like it” occurred in advance when it should have.\u00a0\u00a0Military Times II<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n
duckhunter<\/del> air defense artillery school years ago, but then, the Ft. Bliss Rod and Gun Club isn’t that far away and I’m sure if they asked for volunteers to yell “Pull!” they would have attracted a crowd.<\/p>\n\n
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