Air traffic controller arrested after ‘incident’ at Washington DC area control tower

An air traffic controller was charged with assault and battery after an “incident” at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Thursday night, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority told CNN in a statement. Damon Marsalis Gaines, 39, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, was charged with assault and battery, according to the airport. “The employee is on administrative leave while we investigate the matter,” the FAA told CNN. The arrest comes at an airport under scrutiny since January’s mid-air collision between a military helicopter and a passenger plane. The day after the arrest, another close call happened when military jets flying to nearby Arlington National Cemetery set off a collision alarm in a Delta Air Lines plane that was taking off.<br/>