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O<\/span>fficials in Texas were left scrambling for answers on Wednesday after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a surprise order to shut down<\/a> the airspace over El Paso for 10 days and then, as turmoil ensued in the city on the US-Mexico border<\/a>, abruptly lifted it within hours.<\/p>\n Local leaders in the west Texas<\/a> city said that they received no prior warning or explanation and the stunning announcement had put lives at risk.<\/p>\n The sudden federal order came through in the night hours and temporarily grounded commercial, cargo and general aviation traffic.<\/p>\n \u201cThis unnecessary decision has caused chaos and confusion in the El Paso community,\u201d said the city\u2019s mayor Renard Johnson. He criticized the FAA order that came through early on Wednesday as a major disruption on a scale that had not occurred there since the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis should have never happened. You cannot restrict airspace over a major city without coordinating with the city, the airport, the hospitals, the community leadership. That failure to communicate is unacceptable,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n The FAA had issued a \u201ctemporary flight restriction\u201d notice on its website, citing \u201cspecial security reasons\u201d, saying it would apply to a 10-nautical-mile area and up to an 18,000ft altitude, and encompassing El Paso<\/a> and its local military base, the massive Fort Bliss \u2013 which also currently houses the largest immigration detention camp in the US.<\/p>\n No further explanation was given, and residents in the city of about 700,000 were immediately rattled, speculating furiously about what was the spark or what might be about to occur.<\/p>\n The FAA restriction was originally ordered to be effective from 10 February at 11.30pm local time to 20 February at 11.30pm local time, according to El Paso international airport. But even as confused travelers were being turned away from the airport and commercial flights were unable to take off, the order was lifted at about 7am local time on Wednesday, after the FAA abruptly posted on social media there was \u201cno threat to commercial aviation\u201d.<\/p>\n