Comment by lysace
15 days ago
Good thing they allocated 10 days of airspace shutdown for taking out a single (edit: or a few) drone(s).
I get the feeling this was a case of really wanting to test a new weapon combined with general organizational dysfunction for something unusual like this.
On CNN, they talked about how a shutdown like this would be the first time something like this has happened since 9/11. Is that really correct?
How do we know it was a "single" drone, or that they knew for sure that it was?
New updates are in.
The single drone was in fact a mylar party balloon.
Who's to say that balloon wasn't transporting a kilo of cocaine?
1 reply →
Indeed.
So with this lack of information: Why 10 days? Why not 3, or 12, or some other number instead?
Or: Why must there be a number?
Is the officious equivalent of "We've got some shit to deal with, so El Paso's airspace is closed for now" insufficient?
CNN is now reporting that the FAA had a meeting scheduled with the DoD on the 20th to discuss use of the system, but someone decided to use the system earlier. (The 20th is one day short of 10 days.) They also report that CBP was operating it.
https://lite.cnn.com/2026/02/11/us/faa-el-paso-texas-flight-...
> Or: Why must there be a number?
NOTAMs require a range of timestamps for which they're in effect.