The US military mistakenly shot down a drone belonging to Customs and Border Protection near the Mexican border in Fort Hancock, Texas, according to reports from Reuters and The New York Times. The Thursday incident reportedly led the Federal Aviation Administration to close the airspace where the military fired the anti-drone laser.
This marks the second time this month that officials closed airspace near the US-Mexico border due to an incident involving an anti-drone laser. On February 11th, officials closed airspace around the El Paso International Airport for hours after the CBP fired an anti-drone laser without coordinating with the FAA, The New York Times reported at the time. Though Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement that the FAA and Department of War moved to “address a cartel drone incursion,” it reportedly turned out to be a party balloon.
Now, the FAA, CBP, and the Pentagon tell Reuters that the military “employed counter-unmanned aircraft system authorities to mitigate a seemingly threatening unmanned aerial system operating within military airspace,” adding that the incident “took place far away from populated areas and there were no commercial aircraft in the vicinity.” This most recent incident reportedly led to a smaller airspace closure and was also done without approval from the FAA, the Times reports.
In a joint statement, Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), André Carson (D-IN), and Rick Larsen (D-WA) — the top Democrats on committees overseeing homeland security, aviation, and transportation — expressed outrage over the incident. “We said MONTHS ago that the White House’s decision to sidestep a bipartisan, tri-committee bill to appropriately train C-UAS [Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems] operators and address the lack of coordination between the Pentagon, DHS and the FAA was a short-sighted idea,” the statement says. “Now, we’re seeing the result of its incompetence.”