‘Mass Confusion’: Government Texts Reveal Chaotic Response to Shutdown of El Paso Airspace

On the night of Feb. 10, Curtis Dowling, a local Federal Aviation Administration air traffic manager, texted an operations manager at El Paso International Airport, Alexander Rao, with a message he seemingly couldn’t believe.

The FAA’s headquarters, Dowling said, had just issued a “NOTAM” — notice to airmen — indicating airspace over El Paso would soon be closing.

“What’s this for?” Rao shot back.

“Security and it’s gonna be until almost 11 days … From 2/11 to 2/21.”

“Straight?”

“Yes.”

“Zero flights,” Rao pressed.

“Yes,” Dowling confirmed.

So began a crisis in the skies for El Paso, Texas, government and aviation officials who found themselves grappling with a shutdown of their local airspace without knowing — for hours — what triggered the unprecedented situation. Originally slated to last 10 days, the airspace closure ultimately lasted fewer than eight hours, but not before causing extreme turbulence for local authorities.

Nearly 100 text messages, group chat logs and emails obtained by NOTUS through the Texas Public Information Act and the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act detail how unconfirmed reports about Mexican drug cartels, U.S. military operations and drone-zapping lasers swirled as officials struggled to obtain basic situational information from federal officials.

The records also describe how officials in El Paso and nearby Doña Ana County, New Mexico, in the absence of federal-level intel, quickly coordinated with one another to obtain answers, ensure public safety and manage a torrent of inquiries from airlines, journalists and the flying public about the “TFR” — aviation-speak for a “temporary flight restriction.”

Initially, confusion reigned.

“Insane,” the El Paso airport’s director of aviation, Tony Nevarez, remarked in a text with an airport colleague shortly after Dowling informed him of the air traffic stoppage.

“Crazy,” another official said in a group chat with airport officials.

An unidentified official texted another: “Damn. I’ve called everyone. No one knows nothing.”

“This is wild,” the other official responded.

Dowling, the local FAA official, said in another chat that he didn’t have any additional details beyond the NOTAM. Transportation Security Administration officials based in the area had no answers, either.

At 10:47 p.m. local time on Feb. 10, Shawn Naegele, an El Paso Airport security manager, emailed the TSA Coordination Center, along with airport operations supervisors and assistants: “All aircraft operations within the area are prohibited” as of 11:30 p.m., indicating that the no-fly zone extended 10 nautical miles. “No other information given,” he added.

Five minutes later, he emailed FAA headquarters: “Is there any additional information at this time for this TFR at El Paso?”

No immediate response arrived.

One official suggested calling nearby Fort Bliss, while another official suggested contacting the FBI. “I was waiting to see if error. I’ll call them now,” Naegele responded.

Airport officials didn’t just wait around that night for answers that were slow to come.

Anticipating the worst, officials immediately contacted local police. A sergeant and additional officers soon arrived at the airport. Two K-9 teams would come in the early morning. Regional commands would send one uniformed crew each — “12 additional officers” — in the early morning, as well.

Local TSA officials, meanwhile, would call in all of their transportation security officers “if we need them for crowd control,” Naegele noted in a separate message.

The airport officials debated seeking answers from the Department of Defense, with Nevarez concluding that officials there probably wouldn’t tell them anything.

“Going to be a lot of angry people at the terminal tomorrow morning,” an El Paso airport operations official, Nick Judd, told Nevarez.

“Affirm,” Nevarez replied.

“Better go big and scale down if needed,” another airport official added.

“It’s going to be a long night,” Nevarez conceded later.

The press soon learned of El Paso’s plight. And not just local reporters.

“We’re live on national news now,” Naegele wrote in the text message group chat with airport officials, with someone adding a double-exclamation-point emoji response.

“Oh dam,” Willie Paris, the assistant director of aviation operations and security, remarked.

“Lots of calls from media into dispatch,” Naegele said.

“Send to Tammy or Laura please,” Nevarez directed, referring to the city’s public information officers.

But inquiring reporters appeared to be the least of airport officials’ concerns as the clock ticked past midnight.

Of particular urgency: coordinating with Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines and the several other commercial and cargo carriers that use El Paso’s airport, as well as major hubs in Dallas and Atlanta. On a typical weekday, more than 100 commercial flights arrive at or depart from El Paso International Airport.

A man identifying himself as “Kenneth from Southwest” texted Nevarez early Feb. 11 to ask if there would be a “briefing call to provide any additional info?”

Another man identifying himself as “Marty from Blue Origin,” the space rocket company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, texted Paris: “What ended up happening today at the airport?! Or is it top secret?”

“Just want to keep you all informed. We are monitoring the TFR. We do not have any further information on this,” Rao, the airport’s operations manager, wrote early in the morning of Feb. 11 in a blast email to 11 airline, air cargo and ground services representatives, including those at FedEx, UPS, DHL, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and GAT Airline Ground Support. “Airport operations is keeping the airfield open and it is ready for if and when the TFR is lifted.”

A compliance manager at American Airlines, Bella Farley, messaged Rao back to confirm that one flight had been cancelled and nine delayed because of the shutdown.

Another concern: members of Congress.

Nevarez alerted the group chat that airport officials would meet virtually with Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat who represents El Paso, at 9 a.m.

And when the congressional office of Rep. Gabe Vasquez, a Democrat from New Mexico, issued a statement indicating that the Santa Teresa, New Mexico, airspace would apparently remain closed for 10 days, a Doña Ana County International Jetport manager, Jody Young, emailed other county officials: “We need to clarify that it is not airspace ‘around’ Santa Teresa, it is airspace to the west/southwest of Santa Teresa.”

Ariana Parra, a public safety communications coordinator for Doña Ana County, noted that a reporter at local TV station KFOX14 had asked for an interview. “I think it would provide good insight and clarify what has now caused mass confusion,” she said.

“Well, Las Cruces will be a real airport for 10 days,” an unnamed person on the El Paso airport text chain joked, referring to another, small public airport in nearby Doña Ana County that wasn’t affected by the airspace closure.

Doña Ana County officials weren’t just joking around: they traded emails about how the flight restrictions would affect medical transports.

Very early in the morning on Feb. 11, Naegele sent the text group an intelligence assessment from a Department of Homeland Security field intelligence officer labeled “unclassified/for official use only,” citing the FAA, TSA and “multiple” open sources. Someone at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had provided it.

The message said that the federal government was “tracking ongoing efforts to counter potential” unmanned aircraft systems “emanating from Mexico.”

“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,” the intelligence assessment read. “In coordination with the [Department of Defense], FAA is ensuring the safety of civil air operations in the National Air Space, should the military look to interdict the drones.”

Paris, the airport assistant director of aviation operations and security, responded: “Maybe now we can get more funding.” Three colleagues punctuated his message with laugh/cry and thumbs-up emojis.

More than 20 people named in these messages and contacted by NOTUS either did not respond to messages or declined to comment on their exchanges. Several individuals who appeared in the messages are only identified by their first names or initials, and their identities could not otherwise be confirmed.

Nevarez and Rao confirmed the validity of messages in which they were named but declined further comment. Naegele referred questions to the city’s public information office. City of El Paso spokesperson Laura Cruz-Acosta also declined comment, referring NOTUS to statements Mayor Renard Johnson made during a press conference on Feb. 11.

At that time, Johnson said: “You cannot restrict airspace over a major city without coordinating with the city, the airport, the hospitals, the community leadership. That failure to communicate is unacceptable.”

The FAA lifted the El Paso airspace restrictions at 7 a.m. on Feb. 11. In their messages to one another, local officials continued to express uncertainty about what truly caused the flight restrictions or why federal officials initially indicated the airspace would be closed for days, not hours.

“I’ve been up all night trying to get information to share with the public, but we’re just not getting

much from the federal government at the moment,” Chris Canales, an El Paso city representative, wrote in text for a social media post.

“The fact that we were given no advanced notice and had to divert critical medical, cargo, and passenger aircrafts shows the lack of respect and concern from the federal government towards the people of El Paso,” Josh Acevedo, an El Paso city representative, wrote in a statement, describing the result as “pandemonium.” “This unacceptable order by the federal government put lives at risk and threatened the stability of our economy.”

Some airport officials did their best to maintain a sense of humor amid the tumult.

Shane Brooks, an assistant director of aviation development, sent Paris a cartoon of a walkie-talkie brandishing bunny rabbit, remarking, “WTF, OVER,” along with the message, “All of airport staff today.”

“Hahahaha yup,” Paris replied.

City of El Paso

“Can we stop with the ‘this is unprecedented’ shtuff for a while? Can’t we just be normal,” Nevarez lamented. “It’s only February.”

Several emails and text messages obtained by NOTUS also contained grace or praise for officials for their handling of the shutdown.

“Hey bro … just wanted to let you know I prayed for you this morning amid what I’m sure was all the chaos of the airport stuff. And I’m continuing to pray for you as you guys are trying to get things back on track,” a man named “Ricky” wrote to an unidentified airport official.

As Feb. 11 went on, flight traffic resumed. Only later that day would news break that the FAA closed the El Paso-area airspace when, according to The Associated Press, the Department of Defense allowed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to use an anti-drone laser against suspected drones originating in Mexico.

One problem: the obliterated drones weren’t drones. They were wayward party balloons.

The Department of Defense, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the FAA did not respond to requests for comment.

By the week’s end, the El Paso International Airport was back up to speed and fully operational.

But other, related challenges loomed. On Feb. 13, Alejandra Gorski, El Paso’s federal affairs legislative liaison, emailed the mayor and City Council to warn that a then-pending partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security would require TSA officials, among others, to work without pay.

Moreover, “non-essential support functions (IT, facility maintenance) may be furloughed, which may impact system maintenance and administrative processing. We are exploring what this means for trade processing, permitting, and federal grant reimbursements.”

Then, on Feb. 26, it happened again: another airspace closure along the Texas-Mexico border.

This time, the FAA shut down airspace near the town of Fort Hancock, Texas, after soldiers fired a laser at what it considered to be a threatening drone, according to The New York Times.

The drone belonged not to a Mexican drug cartel, but rather, to Customs and Border Protection.