UPDATE 1-Senator says El Paso airport shutdown shows coordination problem between FAA, Pentagon

The top ​Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee said ​on Thursday the brief shutdown ‌of El Paso ​airport by the Federal Aviation Administration because of safety concerns posed by the use of a military laser-based anti-drone system was unacceptable. The ‌FAA moved late Tuesday to shut down the Texas airport for 10 days after the Pentagon vowed to move ahead with deploying the anti-drone system without completing a safety analysis, only to reverse course ‌early Wednesday and lift the shutdown after about eight hours.

"We have a real problem of coordination ‌between DOD and FAA, so we need to resolve that," Senator Maria Cantwell said at a hearing. The sudden closure of the nation's 71st busiest airport by the FAA stranded air travelers and disrupted medical evacuation flights overnight. The FAA ⁠initially said ​the closure of the airport ⁠handling 4 million passengers yearly was for "special security reasons." The 10-day shutdown would have been an unprecedented action involving a ⁠single airport.

Government and airline officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the FAA closed the airspace due ​to concerns that an Army laser-based counter-drone system could pose risks to air traffic. The two ⁠agencies had planned to discuss the issue on February 20, but the Army opted to proceed without FAA approval, sources ⁠said, ​which prompted the FAA to halt flights. Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas, said he wants a classified briefing to understand what happened.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who ⁠oversees the FAA, said the closure had been prompted by a drone incursion by a Mexican drug ⁠cartel. However, a ⁠drone sighting near an airport would typically lead to a brief pause on traffic, not an extended closure. The Pentagon says there are more than ‌1,000 such incidents ‌each month along the U.S.-Mexico border.