New texts, emails detail response and confusion in wake of FAA airspace closure over El Paso

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- A flurry of texts, calls, and emails in the early morning hours followed the first notice that the airspace over El Paso was closed in February.

ABC-7 is learning more about what city leaders and staff knew - and when - as the Federal Aviation Administration closure confusion unfolded.

ABC-7 obtained dozens of emails and text chains between staff with the city of El Paso and elected officials starting in the late night hours of February 10th as the first notice of the FAA's decision to issue the notice of the closure of the airspace over El Paso and near Santa Teresa came down.

The messages are also giving us another perspective on what the cause was.

Through open records requests made by ABC-7 Content Manager Lesley Engle, we found that the first mention of the closure came just before 9:30 p.m. that night as local air traffic control let the airport operations manager know about the FAA NOTAM - or 'Notice to Airmen' that the airspace would be closed for 10 days.

That's about the time the last flight into the airport was landing and pilots reacted as hear in air traffic control audio.

A bit before 10 p.m., staff had begun organizing a response in an expanding group text - at first just including airport officials but growing to include police and others as the night went on.

While not all entries in the text chain are timestamped, by about 10:30 p.m. City Manager Dionne Mack had been notified and a message sent to Mayor Renard Johnson.

By midnight, plans were underway to set up an emergency operations center at the airport.

Coordination continued through the night for a response expected at that point to last 10 days.

Most communications we reviewed were matter-of-fact or seeking updates, like this one from the airport operations manager.  ​​​​​​​"There is[n't] an a single person who knows in the city and if there are they aren't talking."

Though some of the frustration, confusion and even humor in light of the situation came through.

The airport made it's first public post about the airspace shutdown just after midnight.

Uncertainty continued throughout the night, with multiple early morning messages from many concerned or confused people connected to the airport.

Phone calls are not represented in the documents, so it's not clear when Mayor Johnson became fully aware.

The first messages he acknowledged came from Rep. Veronica Escobar just after 6 a.m. with her statement on the closure.

The first further information about why the closure was happening came around 6:40 a.m. That's when staff shared a security assessment from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis.

"Per the FAA, they are tracking ongoing efforts to counter potential UAS threats emanating from Mexico," the assessment read. "Cartel-affiliated UAS operations along the southwest border are almost exclusively occurring at lower altitudes (between 100-8,000 feet) and have recently been operating outside of their normal flight routes. The FAA assesses that they have operated exclusively for surveillance or smuggling and are not tracking any weaponized systems at this time, but are operating without permission and in violation of U.S. airspace sovereignty. In coordination with DoW, FAA is ensuring the safety of civil air operations in the National Air Space, should the military look to interdict the drones."

The FAA lifted the airspace closure just before 7 a.m. as the city was preparing for a news conference on the subject.