Bloody Fight Breaks Out In DCA Tower Between On-Duty Controllers?!

If reports are to be believed, a fight broke out in the air traffic control tower at Washington National Airport (DCA), and it got so bad that blood was spattered on control consoles.

Bloody fight breaks out at Washington DCA tower

The Daily Mail reports on an event that reportedly happened on Thursday, March 27, 2025. According to sources, two air traffic controllers traded punches, when a fight erupted inside the control tower at Washington National Airport.

As it’s described, a pair of on-duty controllers got into an argument before one threw a punch at the other. By the time the two were separated, there was blood spattered on a control console. It’s believed that at the time, the tower would’ve had six or seven air traffic controllers, plus a supervisor. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is now investing the incident.

According to the unnamed source:

“I’ve heard of controllers going at it in the parking lot but this was on a whole new level. That facility is out of control. People are cracking because of what happened in January.”

“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. Leadership has not given these people enough support. They never really sent in professionals to make sure these people were okay mentally.”

Let me emphasize that I of course can’t speak to the accuracy of this report. On the one hand, the Daily Mail isn’t typically the most accurate breaking news source. On the other hand, I can’t imagine this is just completely made up, so it’ll be interesting to see what an investigation reveals (if the facts are made public).

It can’t be easy to be a DCA air traffic controller

Obviously we don’t know the full circumstances here, and if this event happened as reported, then it’s grossly inappropriate to behave this way while on duty.

At the same time, I can’t help but feel bad for the controllers at DCA. Air traffic controllers have stressful jobs to begin with, given the constant stress from the amount of responsibility they have, plus the never-ending staffing issues. But I have to imagine that it’s a particularly tough time for DCA controllers.

Not only have they been dealing with so much civilian and government traffic for so long, but in January, they saw the first fatal airliner crash in the United States in many years. It can’t have been easy to witness that, and to watch the wreckage and bodies removed from the river near the airport while performing their jobs. It’s unfortunate that it sounds like they haven’t received the support that they need, following the accident.

Bottom line

On Thursday, two air traffic controllers reportedly got into a violent fight in the tower at DCA, with punches being traded. I wonder if there was any interruption to operations as a result of that. It’ll be interesting to see what an investigation reveals.

What do you make of this reported DCA incident?