Singapore Tour Travel - Two Commercial Airliners Land at DC Airport without Air Traffic Contoller in Tower

Indications from at least one airport official are that the lone controller on duty at the time had fallen asleep at his post. The other tower called the Reagan tower several times on the telephone and were also unable to get anyone to respond. They eventually contacted air traffic control at a nearby airport for assistance. The two crews of the in-flight airliners did not get a response, despite repeated calls to the tower. Two passenger jets were unable to reach anyone in the air traffic control tower at Reagan National Airport at about midnight on Tuesday, in an incident that is already garnering national attention.

Protocol has been modified to ensure that there are always two controllers on duty at all times during the midnight shifts at Reagan National, already. Just to name a few, capitol Building. The White House and the U.S, this obviously raises very significant safety and security concerns for an airport that is located within a virtual stone's throw from the Pentagon.

This incident is a failure of policy more so than of a single air traffic controller falling asleep on the job, more than anything. Even if this incident was due to someone falling asleep on the job - literally - the same result would have occurred if that person had been stricken with some sort of stroke or heart attack. It is unclear exactly how such a situation could have occurred and it is equally troubling to consider why standard procedure would have allowed for only a single controller on duty during any shift at Regan National, with the investigation ongoing into the incident.

No one was injured in the incident. An Airbus A320 with 63 passengers and five crew members, and United Airlines flight 628T, a Boeing 737 with 91 passengers and 6 crew members on board, the planes involved in the incident were American Airlines flight 1012.