Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 631 posts

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

#281

Post by jeffwask »

fluidcruft wrote: post #276
Trasmatta wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So bizarre Why the 10 day announcement overnight only to totally rescind it before the majority of US citizens wake up and read the news?

NYT reports they're claiming it was about testing anti-drone tech at Fort Bliss. > The brief shutdown was related to a test of new counter-drone technology by the military at nearby Fort Bliss Army base, according to a person briefed on the matter.

There is also a detention center at Fort Bliss from which some very unsettling reports have emerged.

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

#282

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

fluidcruft wrote: post #276
Trasmatta wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So bizarre Why the 10 day announcement overnight only to totally rescind it before the majority of US citizens wake up and read the news?

NYT reports they're claiming it was about testing anti-drone tech at Fort Bliss. > The brief shutdown was related to a test of new counter-drone technology by the military at nearby Fort Bliss Army base, according to a person briefed on the matter.

I'm not a huge fan of conspiracy theories, but starting a 240 hours closure, ending it after 4, and claiming it was a test? What sort of testing are they doing that they were off by two orders of magnitude about the duration?

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

#283

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

diogenes_atx wrote: post #265
thomasjudge wrote: post #260

Closure rescinded https://x.com/FAANews/status/2021583720465969421

WTF? The FAA announces a ban on all flights at an international airport and then withdraws the ban within a few hours of the announcement? What kind of insane police state would try a stunt like that? Even for the Trump administration, that is setting the bar at a new low.

I think the military did a thing without telling the FAA so they had to guess?

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

#284

Post by OldSchool »

spaceywilly wrote: post #271
Trasmatta wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So bizarre Why the 10 day announcement overnight only to totally rescind it before the majority of US citizens wake up and read the news?

Hanlon’s Razor "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." Someone probably just screwed up

If there was ever a time when the old Soviet Union could have won the Cold War... Fortunately for us, the window of top-down incompetence came far too late.

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

#285

Post by belter »

sva_ wrote: post #200

> Airline sources told Reuters the grounding of flights was believed to be tied to the Pentagon's use of counterdrone technology to address Mexican drug cartels' use of drones of the U.S.-Mexico border. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-halts-all-flights-texass...

"FAA abruptly lifts order halting El Paso airport flights for 10 days" - https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/11/faa-el-paso-airport.html

don't attribute to security concerns...what can be explained by incompetence...

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

#286

Post by cucumber3732842 »

kotaKat wrote: post #270
diogenes_atx wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WTF? The FAA announces a ban on all flights at an international airport and then withdraws the ban within a few hours of the announcement? What kind of insane police state would try a stunt like that? Even for the Trump administration, that is setting the bar at a new low.

[flagged]

So basically an ass-covering squabble between bureaucrats?

"can you guarantee shit will be fine?"

"we can't guarantee anything"

"so you're saying it won't be fine"

"no, I'm saying it will"

"so you're guaranteeing it'll be fine then"

"no, I said I can't make any guarantees"

"well if you can't guarantee it'll be fine we have to shut it all down and you'll have to explain that to the boss"

"be my fucking guest"

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

#287

Post by BoredPositron »

p-e-w wrote: post #226
nessbot wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Murdering buses of people doesn't bring the full force of the US military on them. The difference is the risk not the depravity.

This is the answer. The cartels would have to be insane to poke that particular bear. They would get crushed like a bug. IIRC they murdered a single US undercover officer in the 90s and the retaliation was so bad that they themselves handed over the perpetrators.

You are right rationality is their strongest character trait.

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

#288

Post by satiated_grue »

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

FL180 is the floor of Class A airspace, "the flight levels", where airliners etc. operate.

Relevant chapter from FAA "Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge": https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/17_phak_ch15.pdf

In the "Flight Levels", altitudes are referred to not in feet above sea level but as "FLxxx" where xxx is a nominal altitude in 100s of feet.

Altimetry is done using barometric pressure. Since this varies with weather, airplanes at lower altitudes set their altimeters to the local barometric pressure for a reasonably accurate reading. In the flight levels, where planes are typically covering ground quickly and there is very little chance of your path conflicting with the surface of the Earth, every plane sets to an agreed-upon reference of 29.92 inches of mercury as the altimeter setting.

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

#289

Post by willturman »

alex43578 wrote: post #202
guerrilla wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They would want to avoid escalation. Escalation with cartels historically does not go well for anyone involved.

Escalation by attacking US civilians or the homeland has also gone poorly. It’s been the casus belli many times, notably ending in two Japanese cities getting nuked…

The homeland? Yikes.

The last time there was an attack within the United States’ borders it notably ended with a self-owning combination of perhaps the largest bureaucratic waste of time and money in human history (DHS/TSA) and the systematic erosion of enumerated rights.

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

#290

Post by fluidcruft »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #282
fluidcruft wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NYT reports they're claiming it was about testing anti-drone tech at Fort Bliss. > The brief shutdown was related to a test of new counter-drone technology by the military at nearby Fort Bliss Army base, according to a person briefed on the matter.

I'm not a huge fan of conspiracy theories, but starting a 240 hours closure, ending it after 4, and claiming it was a test? What sort of testing are they doing that they were off by two orders of magnitude about the duration?

Who knows. Maybe the system was malfunctioning and they didn't know how long it would take to shut it down. More likely the admin is just blabbing the first thing they think will shut everyone up.
Post reply on HN