AvTalk Episode 357: Frickin’ drones with frickin’ laser beams

02/13/2026

Blog > AvTalk Podcast > AvTalk Episode 357: Frickin’ drones with frickin’ laser beams

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On this week’s episode of AvTalk, Ian is joined by Ned Russell in the studio as Jason and Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren report from their outpost in the Caribbean. We try to understand what happened in El Paso on Wednesday morning and offer some thoughts on the FAA administrator’s actions to close airspace around the city. Cuba says it is out of jet fuel. This has led to flight cancellations by some airlines, but a few seem to still be able to top up before returning home. Lufthansa pilots strike for better compensation and investigators focus their sights on why a LATAM 777 suffered a tail strike on departure from Milan last year.

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5 Responses

J Gray says:

2026-02-13 at 17:45

Geeze, guys! Work on your sound quality. This was interesting, but painful to listen to.

Reply
Elizabeth Gross says:

2026-02-14 at 09:16

Is there a transcript of this broadcast of AvTalk? I’m not seeing a link.

Reply
Allan Pelch says:

2026-02-14 at 14:56

Glad to join you!

Reply
Grant says:

2026-02-15 at 22:30

In relation to the El Paso NOTAM, i was wondering if you had seen this article.

“Advanced Pentagon laser weapon shot down party balloons instead of drone by mistake, says report — airport shut down after Customs and Border Protection mistakenly believed it was targeting Mexican cartel drones.”
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/advanced-pentagon-laser-weapon-shot-down-party-balloons-by-mistake-says-report-airport-shut-down-after-customs-and-border-protection-mistakenly-believed-it-was-targeting-mexican-cartel-drones

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cooper says:

2026-02-18 at 06:02

H guys great podcast as always. could you put a link to the video of the landing at saint barts thanks

Reply

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