Two air traffic controllers traded punches when a shocking fight erupted inside the tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
The facility is already under massive scrutiny following January’s deadly midair collision between an American Airlines flight on final approach and an Army helicopter.
And trouble flared again Thursday when a pair of on-duty tower controllers got into a blazing argument before one threw a punch at the other, a source tells us.
By the time the brawling colleagues were separated, there was blood spattered over a control console, according to our insider.
The tower would likely have had a supervisor and at least six or seven controllers directing air traffic at the time.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it is investigating the shocking incident.
‘I’ve heard of controllers going at it in the parking lot but this was on a whole new level,’ the source told DailyMail.com.
‘That facility is out of control. People are cracking because of what happened in January.’
Emergency units respond after a passenger aircraft collided with a helicopter in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington Airport on January 30
Two air traffic controllers got into a physical fight inside the control tower on Thursday
DailyMail.com understands that the controllers involved were not working the night American Airlines Flight 5342 slammed into the Black hawk helicopter half a mile short of runway 33.
However they were almost certainly caught up in the aftermath as corpses and wreckage were retrieved from the icy Potomac River, our source explained.
All 64 people on board the CRJ700 regional jet perished, along with the three-member crew of the chopper, making it the deadliest aviation accident in recent US history.
There was only one controller managing traffic for both helicopters and planes at the time – a job normally handled by two people – because of staffing shortages at the DC-area airport, one of the Nation’s busiest.
‘The people working in that tower had to sit and watch bodies being pulled out of the river. There was no way you could not see it,’ the source added.
‘Leadership has not given these people enough support. They never really sent in professionals to make sure these people were okay mentally.’
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are yet to release their final report into the January 29 tragedy, insisting the investigation could take up to a year.
But a preliminary report highlighted the dangers of commercial flights and helicopters operating in close proximity to one another above the Nation’s capital.
From 2011 to 2024 there was at least one ‘close call’ per month, NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy told a Senate subcommittee Thursday.
Reagan is one of the busiest airports in the country, handling more than 26 million passengers last year
The controllers involved in the punch-up were not believed to have been working the night American Airlines Flight 5342 slammed into the Black hawk helicopter half a mile short of runway 33
From 2011 to 2024 there was at least one ‘close call’ per month, NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy told a Senate subcommittee Thursday, the same day the two controllers fought
Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wanted to know why the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk wasn’t transmitting ADS-B location data at the time of the collision.
Acting Federal Aviation Administrator Chris Rocheleau said that would be required immediately from all helicopters, with the exception of Presidential aircraft.
‘Something was missed at the DCA crash. I take that seriously. I take that on myself,’ he told the hearing.
‘I returned to the FAA just two months ago and I care about the National Airspace System for safety and the workforce.
‘I’m dedicated to continuing that work, and I will continue to review what I mentioned before with respect to the hot spots, working closely with NTSB to learn what happened here and to make sure it never happens again.’
Dailey Crafton, the brother of Casey Crafton, one of the victims of the crash, said before Thursday’s hearing that he wants officials to urgently address the dangerously congested skies near Reagan National airport.
‘There’s been so many near misses, and it took this crash for anyone to wake up and do anything about it,’ he told USA Today.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has pledged to follow the agency’s recommendations.
President Donald Trump blamed January’s collision on ‘DEI’ hiring within the FAA, issuing a Presidential memo prohibiting the regulator from promoting diversity, equity and inclusion over competence.
An FAA spokesman said of Thursday’s incident: ‘We are investigating the matter.’
Pressed for more detail, she responded: ‘We are not confirming or commenting on the details of the open investigation.’