Trump admin 'playing cleanup' after 'friendly fire incident' results in airspace shutdown

The U.S. military used a laser to shoot down a Customs and Border Protection drone in Texas, forcing the closure of more airspace near El Paso, and CNN's Pete Muntean tried to explain what happened.

It's not yet clear why the laser was used against the drone – the second such instance in two weeks in that area – but the incident again shows a breakdown in communication between the military and the Federal Aviation Administration, which is required to receive notification of counter-drone activity within U.S. airspace.

"I just got a very rare joint statement from the agencies involved in this," Muntean told "CNN News Central," "which signals the Trump administration and the White House is really playing cleanup right now, since this sounds a lot like the El Paso incident of two weeks ago, when an anti-drone laser was used without concern for commercial flights. That incident led the FAA to trigger a chaotic emergency airspace shutdown, and really highlighted the lack of basic communication between government agencies."

"This new case is described by three Democrats in Congress as essentially a friendly fire incident involving a government drone," he added. "A congressional aide tells me that these members, including the top Democrat on the committee overseeing Homeland Security and also Transportation, were told about this incident through official channels yesterday, and in a statement, they say the military shot down a Customs and Border Protection drone using what those House Democrats call a high-risk counter-unmanned aircraft system."

The FAA has shut down the airspace over the border town of Fort Hancock, Texas, but that restriction covers only a nine-mile radius instead of the 20-mile restriction over El Paso earlier this month, and Muntean said the joint statement did not disclose when the incident took place.

"The agencies say this reported engagement occurred when the Department of War employed counter-unmanned aircraft system authorities to mitigate a seemingly threatening unmanned aerial system operating within military airspace," Muntean said. "By the way, Congress has still not been briefed officially on that El Paso incident of two weeks ago, though there have been really major calls to do so now. A congressional aide tells me it's time for the military to brief them on this incident, to really highlighting maybe the military and the government has not learned its lesson about using these counter drone systems at the border with so much concern there about drone incursions over the border."

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