El Paso Airspace Closure: $100 & Lost Sleep – My Story

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kiva Lucero, 21, who is from El Paso and studies in New York City. He is the cofounder of a Paris-based creative collective. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I was scrolling on Instagram on Tuesday when I saw the El Paso airspace was closing for 10 days. Immediately, I was stressed and anxious.

I had a flight booked from El Paso to Dallas for Thursday, and then Dallas to Paris, and had to get to Paris by the weekend for work.

When I found out that what was supposed to be a 10-day closure lasted seven hours, I didn’t feel much relief — I had canceled my flight to Dallas and spent nearly $100 on a bus that I haven’t been able to get refunded.

I booked a bus ticket at three o’clock in the morning

When I first found out about the airspace closure at around midnight on Tuesday, I called my airline immediately and explained the situation. I kind of freaked out.

I asked them if it was possible for me to cancel the El Paso to Dallas leg of my flight, and I would just figure out a way to get to Dallas.

They canceled my flight after a lot of hard negotiation. At three o’clock in the morning, I booked a ticket for a 12-hour bus ride from El Paso to Dallas, leaving at 7 p.m. on Wednesday and getting to Dallas 6:30 a.m. Thursday.

I didn’t even know if I was going to make it to the bus. I was thinking El Paso could get completely locked down. I was up all night.

I just didn’t expect anything good to come of the situation. I thought it could be a serious evacuation. I called my mom to make sure everything was good, because I didn’t want her staying in town if there was a major issue.

I felt stressed and helpless

When I saw on the New York Times in the morning that the closure was liftedI still couldn’t sleep.

I called the airline again to reinstate my original booking, because I didn’t want to take a 12 hour bus. Luckily, they did.

But it was hours of just stress and anxiety and feeling so helpless.

I had already canceled plans with friends and work meetings because I thought I would be on the bus the next day.

Thankfully, I should make it to Paris now, but it cost me $100 and a full night of sleep.

A Trump administration official told Business Insider of the disruption: “Mexican cartel drones breached US airspace” and the Defense Department “took action to disable the drones,” and there was no threat to commercial travel.