[Trasmatta]

So bizarre

Why the 10 day announcement overnight only to totally rescind it before the majority of US citizens wake up and read the news?

[LanceH]

If you shut it down for too long and there is a lapse in reopening it, planes are grounded for an extra bit of time.

If you shut it down for too short and there is a lapse in extending the grounding, planes are getting shot out of the sky (or whatever threat it was).

edit: I would add that maybe there are forms for shutting down airspace of various specific time lengths and a convenient time for something of unknown duration would be 10 days. 10 days might also be enough time to be sure whatever resources need to be brought to bear on this are available where an hour or day might not be. Shut it down basically indefinitely, or at least long enough that the crew who handles this extraordinary situation will be on hand to turn it off.

[fluidcruft]

NYT reports they're claiming it was about testing anti-drone tech at Fort Bliss.

> The brief shutdown was related to a test of new counter-drone technology by the military at nearby Fort Bliss Army base, according to a person briefed on the matter.

[jeffwask]

There is also a detention center at Fort Bliss from which some very unsettling reports have emerged.

[philistine]

This is ridiculous and patently false. The US is equipped with many bases with permanent air space restrictions where they could perform such tests. It makes less than zero sense to test anti-drone tech in a crowded civilian space. I fully blame incompetence.

[SketchySeaBeast]

I'm not a huge fan of conspiracy theories, but starting a 240 hours closure, ending it after 4, and claiming it was a test? What sort of testing are they doing that they were off by two orders of magnitude about the duration?

[embedding-shape]

Hoping it slips under other news like "Woah someone else should pay for this wall/bridge/investigation" so no one really notices it. To be fair, seems most things are about trying to direct the news somewhere else, most of the times being successful at that too.

[spaceywilly]

Hanlon’s Razor

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

Someone probably just screwed up

[input_sh]

You don't screw up something this major, it doesn't happen by accident nor by incompetence.

They had plans to bomb something south of that airport, they had to postpone those plans now that the info is public enough that whatever their target was is definitely aware of those plans.

[OldSchool]

If there was ever a time when the old Soviet Union could have won the Cold War... Fortunately for us, the window of top-down incompetence came far too late.

[fuzzylightbulb]

Their stupidity is a true threat to our lives. Regardless of how you want to classify it we need to remove it as a threat.