'Never ever in history': Expert reveals new details about El Paso airspace closure

CNN's Pete Muntean could not hide his shock at the Federal Aviation Administration's "unprecedented" overnight move to shut down a U.S. airport for more than a week.

The FAA closed the airspace over El Paso, Texas, for 10 days without explanation, but Muntean told "CNN News Central" that a source familiar with the situation told him the decision was related to an unspecified military operation at a nearby U.S. Army base.

"It's a huge deal," Muntean said. "Youknow, it was a mystery, now, alittle bit less so, and the newreporting from me, a sourcefamiliar briefed by the Federal Aviation Administration on thisreally unprecedented 10-dayairspace shutdown over El Paso, Texas, right on the border therewith Mexico, says this is alllinked to military activity atnearby Fort Bliss, specifically Biggs Army Airfield. You can seeit on the map there, just northof the El Paso International Airport. That is significantbecause it seems that the Defense Department was carryingout some sort of operation there, still sort of unspecified,which caused the FAA to thinkthat they could not assure thesafety of flights going in andout of El Paso International Airport. Therefore, that led tothis blanket sweeping airspaceshutdown without modernprecedent."

"A lot of peopleonline have been pointing to 9/11as a similar incident causingsomething like this, that was anationwide emergency airspaceshutdown," Muntean added. "The situation wasfluid, but it was pretty obviouswhy that shutdown went intoplace. This really brokeovernight, and it wasn't veryclear why this went into place.There is never, ever in thehistory of the Federal Aviation Administration, and I can saythat with some authority as apilot and a flight instructor,been a large scale shutdown ofairspace over a largemetropolitan area. We're talkingabout a city of about a millionpeople, about a thousand flightsoperating in that 10-day periodin and out of El Paso, Texas."

The shutdown should have a significant ripple effect on air traffic around the country, and Muntean said he's never seen a similar situation.

"This is not a smallairport, really billed as thegateway to Mexico, this airport," he said. "So this is going to have a bigtrickle-down here. I want toalso point out the things inthis notice to airmen ortemporary flight restrictionthat make this so different thanother temporary restrictions onflights that we see for thingslike VIP movements orpresidential movements. Thisincludes all flights up to18,000 feet. The emphasis there onall flights that's commercialflights. Also police helicoptersand medevac helicopters. Usuallythose things are exempted from alarge ban on airspace of about10 miles here. So this isreally significant, andthe new details are just comingin we now have a better idea ofwhy this was put in place. A bitof an impasse between the Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Administration."

Muntean said he's especially interested in what sort of operations the Defense Department is conducting at the base.

"Youknow, Biggs Army Airfield is amajor helicopter base," he added. "A lot oftraining there done for the Army, also a drone base. So somequestions about drone operationsthere, of course, some bigquestions here about whetherthis is something that thefederal government and the Department of Defense has notdisclosed, and maybe that is whywe're not getting some clarityabout why this is being put inplace with such a sweeping handby the Federal Aviation Administration. It's reallyinteresting that the Defense Department is actually referringpeople, calling them to the FAA, and so now we're kind of stuckin this zone where nobody isreally able to get a lot of newinformation. We'll keep pushingand trying to get that for you."

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