Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has confirmed that a Reagan National air traffic controller has been charged with assault and battery following an altercation in the cab last Thursday. Damon Marsalis Gaines, 39, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland was arrested and charged after the alleged fracas. It has been reported that the other person involved was also an on-duty controller in the tower.
During my years as ATC, tensions would flare occasionally resulting in folks being physical. But we didn’t “tell on each other” and make an issue. I once worked with a jerk who just could not keep his mouth shut. He finally pushed it too far. Another controller decked him. I provoked an area supervisor so much once, really didn’t mean to trigger him though. He grabbed me and tossed me backwards across a flat top radar scope. We went out and talked about it , shook hands, both admitting a little guilt, and it became a topic of great humor later in the facility. That’s as far as it should go. Not national news worthy. My opinion, and I’ve been there.
Roger, you’re showing your age, man. Back in the '60’s and 70’s, that was fairly common to take care of your own beefs. Then PATCO struck, the union became NATCA many years later, and the words “hostile work environment” and “sexual harassment” became prominent terms and the FAA was in charge of fixing any reported kerfluffle. HR or sups were required to follow up and investigate any reported problem in the workplace, from name-calling to favoritism with leave, you name it. Investigate anonymously too (that’s pretty hard to do) and report back to the reportee. Spent a ton of time investigating pretty petty stuff and had to elevate to HR some of the things uncovered. Yeah, my time was supposed to be spent in operations overseeing the tower or TRACON, but these reports all had required timeframes to accomplish each step or the FAA was at fault for not meeting contract requirements.
As to this slugfest in a facility while working traffic, it sounds like it had been brewing for awhile. Where were the sups (yeah, I know, they’re Front Line Managers, just tryin to keep this shorter)? How were these two both allowed to be working together? Has the CIRT team had plenty of time to interview and decompress all the controllers involved? Sounds like someone wasn’t doing their job to allow this type of altercation. More than one controller should have had some extra time off or some mental health help.
I retired 22 years ago, and part of the reason was what you said. I was a sup/staff/ manager type guy by then. Were far removed from a handshake to resolve or accomplish anything. Suspicion everywhere you turned. Glad I had my time when I did.