DCA Air Traffic Controller Arrested On Assault Charges After Fight In Control Tower

An air traffic controller at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, was arrested and charged with battery and assault last week after a fight broke out in the control tower.

The Daily Mail reported last Friday that two air traffic controllers began throwing punches after an argument. At least six air traffic controllers and a supervisor were likely working when the fight broke out. On Monday, POLITICO reported that Damon Marsalis Gaines, 39, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, was arrested by airport authorities and charged in connection with the scuffle.

“The employee is on administrative leave while we investigate the matter,” the Federal Aviation Administration told The Hill. The FAA did not provide any further details about the charges or the nature of the fight in the air traffic control tower.

The arrest of an air traffic controller at DCA follows a deadly plane crash near the airport in January when an American Airlines flight with 64 people aboard collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River. While the investigation into the crash continues, authorities believe that DCA’s air traffic controllers properly warned the helicopter pilots about the inbound American Airlines flight.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said in February that the helicopter’s cockpit recorder appeared to indicate that incomplete radio transmission likely prevented the pilots from hearing air traffic controllers telling them to “pass behind” the passenger jet seconds before the collision.

Lawmakers have called for the U.S. military to stop conducting helicopter training runs near the busy airport, and the FAA has banned those particular helicopter routes when planes are flying into the shorter runway at DCA. During a Congressional hearing on the crash, both Republicans and Democrats agreed that the tragedy could have been prevented.