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The U.S. military shot down a drone with a laser Thursday night, according to three Congressmen and multiple media outlets, and the FAA issued a temporary flight restriction over an area on the US border in west Texas around Fort Hancock. The drone reportedly belonged to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
A similar situation earlier this month involving drones, lasers, and the federal government resulted in a TFR over nearby El Paso that snarled commercial air traffic. This TFR, which runs through June 23, is not expected to impact commercial flight paths.
A request for comment from GlobalAir.com sent by email Friday morning to press offices for the FAA and US Department of Transportation did not receive a response as of early Friday afternoon. This story will be updated if a response is received.
RELATED: IT'S MUCH MORE THAN THE MOST ACCURATE FBO FUEL PRICES ON THE INTERNET - FIND ACTIVE TFRs IN THE GLOBALAIR.COM AIRPORT RESOURCE CENTERThe Associated Press was among the media outlets to report on a joint statement from the FAA, DOT and the Department of War issued Thursday night.
"At President Trump's direction, the (agencies) are working together in an unprecedented fashion to mitigate drone threats by Mexican cartels and foreign terrorist organizations at the U.S.-Mexico Border," it stated.
Ranking Democratic members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the House Subcommittee on Aviation and the House Committee of Homeland Security also issued a joint statement, calling the shootdown of a federal drone by the military a result of incompetence and a lack of coordination between federal agencies.
"Our heads are exploding over the news that DoD reportedly shot down a Customs and Border Protection drone using a high-risk counter-unmanned aircraft system," they stated. "We said MONTHS ago that the White House's decision to sidestep a bipartisan, tri-committee bill to appropriately train C-UAS operators and address the lack of coordination between the Pentagon, DHS and the FAA was a short-sighted idea."
The three Congressmen are Reps. Rick Larsen (D-Washington, Transportation and Infrastructure), Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi, Aviation) and Andre Carson (D-Indiana, Homeland Security).
Other recent aviation situations involving governments, cartels andamp; drones
US border security has been a heightened issue since the start of President Donald Trump's second term as president last year, and in recent weeks has had a significant impact on aviation operations in several places.
A NOTAM issued on Feb. 11 included the 22nd-largest U.S. city and its 680,000 residents. Flights in and out of El Paso were dropped as local leaders said they received no advanced notice. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the closure was because Mexican cartel drones breached US airspace. The order was canceled several hours later, and at least one El Paso official said there had been no foreign drone threat.Reports from outlets, including NBC and CBS, later cited unnamed government sources that said the military laser was operated by CPB under clearance from Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth to shoot down what turned out to be a cluster of party balloons. According to the reports, CPB did not coordinate the shootdown with the FAA, triggering the hasty NOTAM.
RELATED STORIES:Temporary shutdown of El Paso Airport blamed on cartel drones Flights to 2 Mexican airports cancelled following surge of cartel attacks Bitlux conducts emergency relief flights to stranded passengers in MexicoAt least two airports in western Mexico, in Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta, had to cancel flights as airport staff and passengers fled armed attackers thought to be supporters of Nemesio "El Mencho" Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) killed earlier this month by the Mexican military.
In the wake of the unrest in the Mexican state of Jalisco, charter jet operator Bitlux completed a series of emergency relief and recovery flights out of the area. The company said it activated internal crisis-response procedures to transport passengers out of PVR and move aircraft out of GDL when airport access permitted.