Bryan Bedford wasn’t happy. Against the expressed wishes of the FAA, officials from Customs and Border Protection had used the Pentagon’s highly classified laser-weapon system to shoot down what it thought was a handful of Mexican cartel drones on the southern border, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
Bedford, the Federal Aviation Administration chief, issued a notice late Tuesday night that the FAA would close the airspace covering a roughly 11-mile radius over El Paso International Airport for 10 days, stunning officials at the White House, Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the CBP.
The aerial objects turned out to likely be party balloons, and the laser weapon is an experimental system the military uses overseas that can pose serious risk to commercial aviation.
The episode sowed chaos for a few hours in the Texas city, forcing hospitals to divert medical flights and travelers to cancel their plans. It also caused an uproar in Washington, particularly at the Pentagon, where officials scrambled to figure out what had happened and whom was to blame.
The FAA lifted the restrictions hours later, with little explanation. The FAA and Pentagon determined there was no threat to commercial travel, Trump administration officials said.
The incident sheds light on a longstanding spat between the FAA and the Pentagon over which government authorities are responsible for taking down drone threats over major airports and military bases, and the use of laser weapons to do the job.
The FAA, DOD, DHS and White House spokespeople didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Aviation experts say high-powered lasers can temporarily blind or distract pilots, leading to eye injuries and potential loss of aircraft control, particularly during takeoffs and landings. The Pentagon thinks the weapons have great potential to solve the growing problem of drone threats worldwide by taking out hazardous aerial objects with precision at a much lower cost than using an expensive missile.
The drama came down to miscommunication between the Pentagon, FAA and the DHS, according to lawmakers and people familiar with the situation. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D., Ill.), urged the FAA and the Pentagon to coordinate better. Duckworth is the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee that oversees the FAA. She said the the information she has seen has been “contradictory.”
“We could do something legislatively, but I’d rather that they just started talking to each other,” said Duckworth, who is also a a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican and the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said he was expecting a briefing soon. Sen. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also said he hadn’t been briefed.
The series of events began last month when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved the lending of the weapon, AeroVironment’s Locust laser weapon system, to Customs and Border Protection for use at Fort Bliss, an Army base in El Paso, according to the three people familiar with the discussions. The Army has been testing the weapon—a highly secretive system that has been deployed outside the U. S.—since last year at Fort Bliss.
Earlier in February, CBP notified the FAA that it wanted to use the laser weapon in the vicinity of Fort Bliss, according to one of the people. The FAA pushed back, warning about the risk to commercial aviation, the person said. CBP ignored the warning, and fired the weapon on Monday, taking down multiple objects operators at the time thought were Mexican cartel drones.
The FAA “went nuclear,” according to one of the people. On Tuesday night, the FAA published a notice that it would restrict the airspace over El Paso starting at 6:30 a.m. local time the next morning for the next 10 days, without first notifying officials at the White House, Pentagon or DHS of the airport closure, according to one of the administration officials.
“No pilots may operate an aircraft in the areas covered by this NOTAM (except as described),” according to the FAA notice, using the acronym for “notice to airmen.”
Trump administration officials said Wednesday morning that the FAA had closed the airspace because the Pentagon had downed Mexican cartel drones that breached U.S. airspace. Such drone incursions happen frequently, however, and they typically don’t lead to long-term airspace closures. That led to questions on Capitol Hill about why the incident prompted officials to close the airspace for 10 days.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum quickly cast doubt on that claim. She said Wednesday that her administration didn’t have information about the use of drones around that border area in recent days but promised to “find out exactly what caused the closure.”
In El Paso, Mayor Renard Johnson said the closure forced medical evacuation flights to be diverted to Las Cruces, N.M., a city roughly 40 miles northwest of El Paso. The last time the airport faced widespread disruption was during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Johnson said. Southwest Airlines, American Airlines and United Airlines each have hundreds of flights scheduled to pass through the airport this month, according to Cirium, an aviation-data provider.
At the Pentagon and in Colorado, the headquarters of U.S. Northern Command, officials were furious that they were being blamed for the incident, according to the people. They began making frantic phone calls within the government and Capitol Hill colleagues to find out what had happened and how to best push back.
Meanwhile, law-enforcement officials began analyzing the debris from the shootdowns to understand more about the suspected cartel drones. At least three of the objects were found not to be drones but party balloons, according to two people with knowledge of the investigation.
Hours later, the FAA abruptly reversed the restrictions, with little explanation.
“The FAA and DOW acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X. “The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.”
On Wednesday night, Bedford was briefing senators about air-traffic control updates in a previously scheduled meeting unrelated to the El Paso incident. Cruz and Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D., N.M.) asked him about the situation in El Paso, according to people familiar with the matter.
Bedford referred the senators to Duffy’s tweet. Duckworth mentioned the exchange in a congressional hearing Thursday related to the deadly midair collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army helicopter last year.
“The FAA administrator yesterday…said that Secretary Duffy’s tweet about drug cartel drones was absolutely correct, that they knew about the request for closure of the airspace, but he did not know why FAA actually closed the airspace for 10 days,” Duckworth said, adding: “Now we’re hearing it’s a party balloon that they shot down. So I’m still waiting to hear what’s happening.”
Write to Lara Seligman at lara.seligman@wsj.com and Dean Seal at dean.seal@wsj.com