A person on top of one of the roughly 200-foot-tall spires of the Air Force Memorial in Arlington on Wednesday morning caused a stir on social media.

       Many worried that the person was in trouble, but officials said not to worry: The person was authorized to be up there.

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       First Lt. Gabriel Cushing, a spokesperson for the Air Force District of Washington — which oversees the memorial — said the person works for a contractor and was up on the spires doing routine maintenance and inspections of the structure and checking for any repairs that may be needed. He said the work is done every five years.

       Peter Doran, a former Republican candidate for governor in Virginia, posted a video on Twitter showing the person on top of one of the spires and wrote: “They are keeping the Air Force Memorial beautiful. What a way to earn a paycheck.”

       Video captured a man cleaning the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Va., on Nov. 10. (Courtesy Peter Doran)

       The Air Force Memorial was dedicated in 2006. The three stainless steel spires at the memorial — which gets about 350,000 visitors a year and honors airmen who lost their lives in wars and battles — are meant to look as if they’re soaring into the sky. It sits on a ridge next to Arlington National Cemetery and overlooks the Pentagon and the city.