Two airliners landed at Reagan National Airport near Washington without control tower clearance because the air traffic supervisor was asleep, safety and aviation officials say.
The supervisor - the only controller scheduled for duty in the tower around midnight on Tuesday when the incident happened - had fallen asleep, said an aviation official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the incident.
The National Transportation Safety Board is gathering information on the occurrence to decide whether to open a formal investigation, board spokesman Peter Knudson said.
The pilots of the two commercial planes were unable to reach the tower, but they were in communication with a regional air traffic control facility, Knudson said. That facility is in Virginia, about 64 kilometres from the airport.
The planes involved were American Airlines flight 1012 and United Airlines flight 628T, Knudson said.
The Federal Aviation Administration released a statement confirming the incident.
"The FAA is looking into staffing issues and whether existing procedures were followed appropriately," agency spokeswoman Laura Brown said in an email.
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