Border Officials Are Said To Have Caused El Paso Closure by Firing Anti-Drone Laser (nytimes.com)
- Reference: 0180782172
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/02/12/1712232/border-officials-are-said-to-have-caused-el-paso-closure-by-firing-anti-drone-laser
- Source link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/us/trump-administration-el-paso-airspace-closure-questions.html
> The abrupt closure of El Paso's airspace late Tuesday was precipitated when Customs and Border Protection officials deployed an anti-drone laser on loan from the Department of Defense [1]without giving aviation officials enough time to assess the risks to commercial aircraft, according to multiple people briefed on the situation.
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> The episode led the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly declare that the nearby airspace would be shut down for 10 days, an extraordinary pause that was quickly lifted Wednesday morning at the direction of the White House. Top administration officials quickly claimed that the closure was in response to a sudden incursion of drones from Mexican drug cartels that required a military response, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declaring in a social media post that "the threat has been neutralized."
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> But that assertion was undercut by multiple people familiar with the situation, who said that the F.A.A.'s extreme move came after immigration officials earlier this week used an anti-drone laser shared by the Pentagon without coordination with the F.A.A. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. C.B.P. officials thought they were firing on a cartel drone, the people said, but it turned out to be a party balloon. Defense Department officials were present during the incident, one person said.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/us/trump-administration-el-paso-airspace-closure-questions.html
99 balloons (Score:4, Insightful)
Just one? That's ok then, I guess.
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*has terrifying flashbacks to the recentish Celestial Toymaker episode.
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That will be the workaround, send 100 balloons and one drone with drugs... while everyone is looking high to the balloons, send the drone low and no one will notice! :D
Or send the drone attached to the balloon, only after it pops (ie: taken down), it will be activated after a few seconds and fly away
So ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Seems like they are saying the Admin lied about the drones.
Seems though it, was the drones? Just that the drones required the laser and the FAA freaked about the laser and shut down the airspace.
I mean, if they are not firing the laser at Commercial or GA aircraft indiscriminately, why would the FAA need to close the airspace? And, right off the bat for 10 days?
Someone at the FAA is either on heavy anti anxiety meds that no longer work, or they wanted to make it a big deal, Right?
Maybe I am wrong but, I don't get the decision making tree here.
Re:So ... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd rather the airspace be shut down for a few days than have a military laser accidentally hit a commercial jet. I'd prefer neither happen, of course.
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I get it, but, really?
Laser operators are going to mistake a 737 for a cartel drone?
Re: So ... (Score:5, Insightful)
When your only tool is a laser, every problem looks like a large balloon.
Re: (Score:3)
Funny we have THIS reaction on to a party balloon (mylar?)....
Yet just a few years ago, we had a MASSIVE huge balloon, a spy balloon from China slowly wend it's way across the whole US over military bases and other sensitive sites on the ground.....and didn't take any action till it had essentially completed it's mission and they shot it down with a missile over the ocean off the east coast I believe....
Is there not a happy medium for dealing with UFOs?
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well, at least one of those was actually really a weather balloon... but panic is always the best choice for many officials
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Military tends to be better trained than law enforcement and my gut tells me if you deployed these to 100 commands and put them in a dozen hands at each one. You'd be due for an incident somewhere in 4 years.
Training people so they can hand over a firearm without negligent discharge is impossible. Why? I dunno but every year people shoot themselves or someone else despite X and Y number of certification and training hours and even deployment of tooling like clearing barrels.
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> I get it, but, really? Laser operators are going to mistake a 737 for a cartel drone?
These are CBP laser operators. You know, the agency responsible for the current crop of ICE agents who couldn't catch a clue if you carefully placed it in their hands.
I seriously would not discount the likelihood - never mind the mere possibility - of one of those yahoos mistaking a jumbo jet for a drone.
The Bible sez Tribulation would only be 7 years (Score:1)
I really wouldn't trust a 10MW laser in the hands of those traitorous Jan6'ers, Proud Boys and general stupid rubes. That endangers the profitability of the beleaguered US airline industry.
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Happened in the Iraq war.
An idiot at a Patriot trigger shot down two Tornadoes in landing approach. Aka: slow, flaps out, gear down ...
4 pilots dead.
And a Tornado is pretty unique aircraft, despite the fact that Iraq at that time supposedly had no fighters left.
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Not the same. Mistaking friendly fighters for enemy fighters is not comparable to mistaking a drone with a commercial airliner.
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Correction: "Mistaking a Panavia Tornado with literally ANYTHING in Iraq's inventory." Just look at the Tornado and compare & contrast with the MiGs and Mirages Iraq operated at the time. To get those mixed up with a Tornado, you'd have to be blind, an idiot, or a blind idiot.
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What about [1]the Russians doing that [wikipedia.org] although they used a missile rather than a laser? It was 13-14 months ago.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan_Airlines_Flight_8243
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It happens all the time. In the last ten years the Russians have done it a couple times, Iranians once. Going further back the Americans have done it too. One of the reasons we have civilian access to GPS is because the Russians shot down a Korean 747.
There's a famous video of some carrier personel getting excited about 737s on approach to LAX. More video of the US congress being told they're drones, or UFOs or something.
And those are supposedly trained military types. Well, except for one of the Russian sh
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> Laser operators are going to mistake a 737 for a cartel drone?
The same laser operators who supposedly mistook a balloon for a cartel drone? Yes, plausibly.
That'd be the only part of this whole story that is plausible though.
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They mistook a party balloon for a drone, so why not?
Then there's simply missing the target and hitting whatever might be behind it. Lasers go a long way.
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Because a party balloon is much closer to a drone than a commercial airliner is.
Did you not understand my statement?
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> I get it, but, really?
> Laser operators are going to mistake a 737 for a cartel drone?
Not like the head of the Department Of War (sigh) accidentally texted classified information to a journalist...
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MH17. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
I was on the same flight a few weeks earlier.
Fucking ruzzkie murderers from a regular anti-aircraft unit.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17
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Well... certain pinheads at the FAA are so paranoid about their mental association of the word "laser" with sci-fi ray guns that they think any Joe Schmoe can bring down a Boeing or Airbus with a $5 cat toy he got from Petco. So, an actual military laser that really could legitimately damage an aircraft? I'm actually not surprised at all that they completely flipped their shit.
Now, the "left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing" aspect of the event is certainly troubling. But the absurd overreac
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Not to call you stupid, but you are stupid if you point any laser to a plane, specially at night!! During the day, there isn't much issue but during the night can be very dangerous.
Even weak lasers can travel far, and during the night, our eyes open more to receive more light and see. The fact that a weak can reach the plane and light it enough to cause temporary blindness to pilots, that guess, need their eyes to read all the info and control the plane.
If the plane is high enough, usually isn't much a issu
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I mean, I would rather have the military check their damned target before firing a military-grade laser.
Re:So ... (Score:5, Informative)
If the border patrol can't tell the difference between a drone and a balloon then it's probably a wise move to make sure there are no planes around where they're playing with their pew pew lasers.
Lasers are famous for doing things you don't expect. Reflecting off a shiny mylar balloon and blinding pilots for example.
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Apparently drones flown by drug cartels actually are an increasing problem at the border. I'm not clear if they are just surveilling border patrol positions or actually carrying drugs.
People will die (Score:5, Interesting)
This outrageous level of paranoia over "alleged" drone sightings will cost human lives soon.
Here we have the US military mis-identifying a party balloon as a drone and firing a powerful laser at it -- while members of the public get prosecuted every year for flicking their laser-pointers at helicopters and airliners.
In Germany, [1]police will be allowed to shoot at "alleged" drones [theguardian.com] even though it has been clearly proven that most (if not all) of the recent drone sightings were simply mis-identified aircraft lights.
Can anyone see the potential for disaster here?
The mis-identification of aircraft flying at night as "drones" has become rife, dating back beyond the NY/NJ "drone" incidents that caused such concern in the USA a year or two ago. Almost without exception, these "drones" are real aircraft (often passenger flights) carrying people through the skies. How long before one of them is shot down by paranoid trigger-happy idiots?
Paranoia is a mental health issue and it's infecting governments and authorities around the world.
Before someone says "but... Ukraine..." I ask you: how many people have died as the result of actions by bad actors using drones in the USA or outside the war zones in Europe?
That's a big fat ZERO!
Yes, it "could" happen but right now it's far more likely that innocent people will die from friendly fire produced by paranoid idiots on the ground with guns and lasers.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/08/germany-draws-up-law-to-allow-police-to-shoot-down-drones
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> The mis-identification of aircraft flying at night as "drones" has become rife, dating back beyond the NY/NJ "drone" incidents that caused such concern in the USA a year or two ago. Almost without exception, these "drones" are real aircraft (often passenger flights) carrying people through the skies.
For two or three weeks during that time, I saw many aircraft in my area that were unlike any others I had ever seen (and I spent most of my life living under the approach route of an international airport). Th
Re: People will die (Score:3)
Yeah. Sure. It wasn't that you were misidentifying large, loud, distant aircraft as small, quiet, low flying aircraft. Sure. Absolutely. You wouldn't make such a mistake. Not like all those other people we know are making these same misidentifications. You are the gold standard for reporting drone aircraft. If only we could send you to Ukraine to identify enemy drones...
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> If only we could send you to Ukraine to identify enemy drones...
In non-Soviet Ukraine, enemy drones identify you !
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I did too back then across parts of South Texas where I was working at the time. Once around San Antonio, and once around Laughlin AFB out in west Texas. My question always was, though, "If I was a foreign military power, why would I illuminate my drone like this unless I wanted to try and cause chaos among the civilian population?"
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Because it wasn't a foreign military power. You have to look at the time and context these things were deployed in the first place. It was almost immediately after the CEO of a large health insurance company was murdered in the street and Americans from both sides of the aisle were banding together against the current power structure. Then all of a sudden the news cycle shifted to become dominated by unusual aircraft flying over numerous areas of U.S. airspace, including the vicinity of military bases, a
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You are absolutely right, and the likely response by said officials will be "oops, have a scandal to divert your attention".
And Ukraine is only a problem area because those same officials don't take anything seriously unless it impacts their promotion prospects.
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> Yes, it "could" happen but right now it's far more likely that innocent people will die from friendly fire produced by paranoid idiots on the ground with guns and lasers.
The airspace was closed to everything including medevac. There seems to be a variety of avenues for disaster from fools cosplaying Captain Kirk.
If you have a hammer (Score:3)
Everything looks like a nail...
The best people (Score:2, Insightful)
We are literally giving high-powered lasers to high school dropouts that can't pass a fifth grade fitness test. Read that sentence again and stop and ask what's wrong about it. The facts aren't what's wrong...
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Remind me again... What language do they speak in Mexico and why?
Dumbass.
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They speak Spanish and recognize over 68 indigenous languages from the displaced tribes they conquered.
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lol- of all the stolen land across these 2 continents, the Mexican Cession to the US following the Mexican-American war is some of the least stolen.
Now Mexico City? That sits upon the stolen capital of a fucking empire, lol
No more DEI in CBP and DoD ...FAA not on Signal (Score:1)
... only very competent white MAGA men ...
Was the action coordinated on Signal?
FAA should be on the chat...
Shoot first... (Score:3)
Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen.
One more passenger in the clown car. (Score:2)
Blame it on a boogeyman but, "it was just here, it's gone now." They would should print it on shirts to save some time. Just point and move on to deflection.
The next party balloon ... (Score:1)
... will have cameras and telemetry on it that feed back to TEH CARTELS.
Oh, and it will have fentanyl er I mean candy inside so when it pops everyone gets a treat.
Seriously, if I were the cartels reading this I'd be exploring how to "flood the zone" with party balloons and put cameras on a few of them.
Yeah, that never happened (Score:2)
Yeah, that "drug cartel drone invasion" never happened.
Someone goofed.
Vote for clowns, (Score:3, Insightful)
Get clowns.
This sort of thing is what happens... (Score:5, Insightful)
When a leader's #1 job requirement is being a sycophant and there is no #2.
This is just a continuation of the crap we keep seeing because the cabinet was populated with toadies and Congress is led by cowards. Trump chose an incompetent person to head DHS; who then installs incompetent (or even evil) people to head CPB, ICE, etc.; who then inevitably keep making bad decisions that the population has to live with (or die with, as we've also seen).
The good news is, because of this it'll probably go very badly for Trump at the midterms.
The bad news is, the ongoing damage will take years-to-decades to repair - assuming it can be repaired at all.
Re:This sort of thing is what happens... (Score:5, Informative)
The good news is, because of this it'll probably go very badly for Trump at the midterms.
He's already laying the groundwork to invalidate or take over control of the midterms to ensure that your vote only counts if it's for his toadies.
Wut? (Score:1)
How slow do they think the speed of light is? We fired a laser in the air...better close it for 10 days!
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> How slow do they think the speed of light is? We fired a laser in the air...better close it for 10 days!
The FAA didn't close the airspace for 10 days because they thought the atmosphere was lasermatrogrified and they had to wait for 10 days for it to dismatrogrify. But it was something equally silly. Per TFS:
> Top administration officials quickly claimed that the closure was in response to a sudden incursion of drones from Mexican drug cartels that required a military response, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declaring in a social media post that "the threat has been neutralized."
Translation: they thought a party balloon was "a sudden incursion of drones from Mexican drug cartels that required a military response." But don't worry, "the threat has been neutralized." Phew, that was a close one.
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I expect it went something like this:
Somebody: Hey, FAA, the DOD gave ICE anti-air weapons and they're shooting at something in El Paso!
FAA: Shit. Close the airspace now! We don't need our own Malaysia flight 17, Ukraine flight 752 or Azerbaijan flight 8243!
ICE: It's safe! We got it!
FAA: Jesus. You've got to warn us when you do this stuff. At least everyone's safe. What was it?
ICE: Party balloon.
FAA: !?
Suzie Wiles: Idiots. You can't say that. Let's go with "terrorist cartel drug drone."
Better a balloon than something else (Score:2)
Kind of reminds me of the Malaysian airlines flight 17, some Russian army guys (though vaguely not russia, just you know, those mercenaries who may be indirectly paid by russia, but not russia themselves) that had access to that BUK anti air missle launcher, that took down the airliner In this case it's border patrol, a new toy, and a party balloon, but better I guess than shooting down the local crop duster
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A couple of other examples:
- Iran shot an Air Ukraine flight down (this was before the Russians invaded Ukraine) because they thought it was Israeli, and they had reason to expect an air strike from that direction.
- Russia shot an Azerbajani passenger flight down because they were expecting Ukrainian drones (I can't remember whether they were already under attack from that direction).
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And the US shot down an Iranian airliner, and the Soviet Union shot down a Korean airliner, which fucking Sully'd onto a frozen Soviet lake with only 2 casualties... then the Soviet Union shot down another Korean airliner... they made sure this one didn't leave witnesses confirming that the Soviet pilots knew it was a commercial plane.
There are dozens of examples of smaller flights being whacked by State militaries too- sub-100 passenger planes. You don't want to be flying those around anything hostile.
Who is getting fired (Score:2)
Someone authorized the use/firing of the weapon. That someone needs to be held accountable. They at least need to get fired, and, potentially, charged with a crime (of endangering the public?). The FAA and the Defense department had a scheduled meeting later in February to discuss the use/safety of the weapon in public airspace, but, apparently, someone in CBP decided to just shoot first, and ask permission later.
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Well, this is the lawlessness era where the only people that get fired are competent or don't kiss the ass of the mango Mussolini.
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> That someone needs to be held accountable.
I'm not sure what you've seen out of this administration that would indicate holding people accountable for their actions was on the table. I mean, if you said something mean about Trump or his goon squad that's going to garner some attention, but that's really the end of the list.
China just wanted to celebrate (Score:2)
Little Johnny's 11th birthday.
What a lovely gift to give the cartels (Score:2)
When you're operating aircraft in hostile airspace, there are a lot of questions you'd really like to answer. Such as (1) how good are the adversary's detection mechanisms? (2) how long does it take them? (3) what range do those mechanism have? (4) how good are the adversary's targeting mechanisms? (5) what's the nature and range of the adversary's weapons? (6) what's the firing rate of those weapons? I'm sure any of you can think of more.
So one of the outcomes of this incident is that it tells the
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The future is disco ball drones filled with contraband. Disco ball drone shoots back when shot at.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye (Score:2)
It's not legal to use a high-classed laser without a beamblock.
US defeated for less than $100? (Score:2)
So now the Chinese/Russians/Iranians/NKoreans/Danish/Venezuelans/Canadians/PuertoRicans can effectively shut down US airspace for a week+ by purchasing and releasing a few dozen mylar balloons from the dollar store?
99 Red Balloons (Score:1)
You and I in a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got
Set them free at the break of dawn
'Til one by one, they were gone
Back at base, bugs in the software
Flash the message, "Something's out there"
Floating in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it's red alert
There's something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
When ninety-nine red balloons
What a fucking clown show (Score:2)
This administration continues to demonstrate it does not deserve to govern. Complete incompetence.
Re: The balloon never knew what hit it (Score:2)
Ok, your us of a definitely sucks eggs. How can "white house" tell FAA what to do? That NTSB lady should shut it down now, noone can tell her what to do from what I've seen. If she can that is...
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Im not sure you understand how Authoritarianism works.