00:00I want to provide an official update to the people of El Paso regarding the FAA's decision
00:07to place a temporary flight restriction and then their decision to lift the temporary
00:13flight restriction over our city.
00:16This unnecessary decision has caused chaos and confusion in the El Paso community.
00:24I want to be very, very clear that this should have never happened.
00:31You cannot restrict airspace over a major city without coordinating with the city, the
00:39airport, the hospitals, the community leadership.
00:45That failure to communicate is unacceptable.
00:48These types of decisions have consequences.
00:54Medical evacuation flights were forced to divert to Las Cruces.
01:01All aviation operations were grounded, including emergency flights.
01:07This was a major and unnecessary disruption, one that has not occurred since 9-11.
01:16El Paso is not just a dot on a map.
01:20We are a major, major city.
01:23We are the sixth largest city in the state of Texas, and we are the 22nd largest city in
01:31the United States without hospital, military operations and emergency services and critical
01:39infrastructures that depend on coordinated and reliable airspace operations.
01:46Decisions made without notice or coordination puts lives at risk and creates unnecessary danger
01:53and confusion.
01:56From the moment we learned about this, my office worked with Congresswoman Veronica Escobar,
02:04Major General Taylor at Fort Bliss, and our local, state, and federal partners to get answers,
02:11and to push for this to be corrected and lifted, which it was.
02:15I appreciate those efforts.
02:18I also want to say thank you to the leadership across our community who came together to work
02:24through this problem.
02:25The city leadership, the El Paso Airport, and our federal and state partners.
02:30Your professionalism and dedication to public safety made a difference.
02:36El Paso deserves better.
02:38El Paso deserves better communication and better coordination and more respect for the El Paso
02:47and the people that live in this community.
02:49We will be following up with the FAA to make sure that this never happens again.
02:55In closing, I want to emphasize that El Paso has always been a safe city, and we will remain
03:04one of the safest cities in the United States.
03:08Teasy ofowane
03:08Thursday
03:08Thursday
03:08Thursday
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