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Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

nytimes.com

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Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#171

Post by Etheryte »

FranklinJabar wrote: post #161
lilytweed wrote: post #114

As someone else mentioned, there’s some speculation in aviation subreddits that the bounds of the altitude restriction map to the MANPAD capabilities that some cartels are purported to have. https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1r1s4zt/comment/o... My read is that the admin is planning forceful strikes on the cartels within Mexico and is worried about their ability to retaliate by taking down US aircraft across…

[flagged]

I'm pretty sure no one else reading the comment has any trouble understanding what is meant when talking about cartels in Mexico. What exactly is ambiguous to you?

Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#172

Post by petesergeant »

FranklinJabar wrote: post #161
lilytweed wrote: post #114

As someone else mentioned, there’s some speculation in aviation subreddits that the bounds of the altitude restriction map to the MANPAD capabilities that some cartels are purported to have. https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1r1s4zt/comment/o... My read is that the admin is planning forceful strikes on the cartels within Mexico and is worried about their ability to retaliate by taking down US aircraft across…

[flagged]

It means organized crime focusing on drugs in this context

Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#173

Post by estearum »

nateburke wrote: post #158
fabian2k wrote: post #65

There is a circular restriction around the airport and a trapezoid one next to the city ( https://elpasomatters.org/2026/02/11/unexplained-faa-order-s... ). What are the plausible explanations here? I can't think of anything except military action against Mexico (or the cartels inside Mexico). But even that doesn't fit well. A suspected terror attack could explain the airspace around the airport, but not the weird tr…

My guess is nuclear test. Airport circle to secure the transport of the device to the ground adjacent to the test site. Trapezoid is the test site, wider on the side that is less controllable (border-facing). Disconnected because two separate teams executed in parallel without informed oversight.

... I don't think they're detonating a nuclear weapon in a National Monument 50 miles from a large US city...

There are plenty of better places for them to do this.

Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#175

Post by petesergeant »

pigbearpig wrote: post #163
lilytweed wrote: post #114

As someone else mentioned, there’s some speculation in aviation subreddits that the bounds of the altitude restriction map to the MANPAD capabilities that some cartels are purported to have. https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1r1s4zt/comment/o... My read is that the admin is planning forceful strikes on the cartels within Mexico and is worried about their ability to retaliate by taking down US aircraft across…

"Maybe, or maybe FL180 is a nice clean line for class A airspace. No need to bother transcontinental flights for a local issue." Way more plauible

What does that mean sorry?

Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#176

Post by [deleted] »

viraptor wrote: post #77
fabian2k wrote: post #65

There is a circular restriction around the airport and a trapezoid one next to the city ( https://elpasomatters.org/2026/02/11/unexplained-faa-order-s... ). What are the plausible explanations here? I can't think of anything except military action against Mexico (or the cartels inside Mexico). But even that doesn't fit well. A suspected terror attack could explain the airspace around the airport, but not the weird tr…

The not-totally-crazy ideas from Reddit include: - it's related to the annouced GPS disruption test (although that's a really long time and doesn't seem urgent enough) - someone in Mexico is getting kidnapped by Gov - nuclear tests I wish those were crazy ideas, but here we are...

[deleted]

Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#177

Post by FranklinJabar »

Etheryte wrote: post #171
FranklinJabar wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I'm pretty sure no one else reading the comment has any trouble understanding what is meant when talking about cartels in Mexico. What exactly is ambiguous to you?

[dead]

Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#178

Post by ClarityJones »

ganzsz wrote: post #120
expedition32 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The president has way too much executive power. In my country everything is decided by a cabinet meeting in America one man orders and everyone obeys.

Who forms the cabinet though? In a two party system - where one party seems to be built around a personality cult - cabinet can be filled with rubber stampers

Yeah, it could be formed by one person, or from two parties, or possibly by an even more opaque network of influence backed by god knows who.

Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#180

Post by FergusArgyll »

FranklinJabar wrote: post #161
lilytweed wrote: post #114

As someone else mentioned, there’s some speculation in aviation subreddits that the bounds of the altitude restriction map to the MANPAD capabilities that some cartels are purported to have. https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1r1s4zt/comment/o... My read is that the admin is planning forceful strikes on the cartels within Mexico and is worried about their ability to retaliate by taking down US aircraft across…

[flagged]

A drug cartel is a criminal organization composed of independent drug lords who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the illegal drug trade.[1] Drug cartels form with the purpose of controlling the supply of the illegal drug trade and maintaining prices at a high level. The formations of drug cartels are common in Latin American countries. Rivalries between multiple drug cartels cause them to wage turf wars against each other. Drug cartels often transport both drugs and narcotics, and most often the term "Narcotics cartel" is not used to describe an organization that transports the latter legally defined set of illegal substances, such as marijuana.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_cartel

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