The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) confirmed Tuesday that an individual was taken into police custody after reports of an incident in the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) on March 27.
Airports Authority police arrested Damon Marsalis Gaines, 39, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and charged him with assault and battery, MWAA spokesperson James Johnson told NTD, sister media of The Epoch Times, in an email.
Emily McGee, also a spokesperson for MWAA, said Gaines is not an employee of MWAA.
“On Thursday night, he was taken to the Arlington (County) Detention Center and released in a magistrate summons for assault and battery,” McGee told NTD in an April 1 email.
A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesperson also told NTD via email about the altercation that “the employee is on administrative leave while we investigate the matter.”
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association deputy director of public affairs, Galen Munroe, declined to comment.
The incident occurred after a fatal collision on Jan. 29 between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet that killed 67 people who were on board both aircraft near the airport.
More recently, on March 28 at 3:15 p.m., a Delta Air Lines flight departing the airport, and four flyover military jets, narrowly averted a collision.
Since the Jan. 29 collision, the FAA has placed permanent restrictions on helicopter flights.
Prior to the ban, 28 government agencies were authorized to fly helicopters near Reagan National, such as emergency medical services, the Department of Defense, military, and police. Exceptions will now only be made for presidential flights, law enforcement flights, and lifesaving missions.
The FAA is also requiring most Ronald Reagan National Airport planes to have their Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) tracking technology turned on. The Black Hawk helicopter’s ADS-B was off when it collided with the American Airlines flight and killed 67 people, investigators told senators during a briefing. ADS-B provides more accurate and real-time surveillance of a plane’s altitude, location, and ground speed.
