National Transportation Safety Board said the veteran air traffic controller who was staffing the tower at Washington Reagan National Airport early Wednesday has admitted he was napping

National Transportation Safety Board said the veteran air traffic controller who was staffing the tower at Washington Reagan National Airport early Wednesday has admitted he was napping when two airplanes tried unsuccessfully to contact the tower.

Said the NTSB:

"The controller in the tower at the time of the incident, along with other FAA officials at DCA [Washington National], were interviewed by the NTSB today. The controller, who had 20 years' experience, 17 of those at DCA, indicated that he had fallen asleep for a period of time while on duty. He had been working his fourth consecutive overnight shift (10 pm - 6 am). Human fatigue issues are one of the areas being investigated."
Here's the timeline from the NTSB about the incident, which began late Tuesday and continued into early Wednesday:

• 11:55 pm - The tower controller's last radio transmission before the service interruption.
• 12:04 a.m. - FAA approach controllers at the regional TRACON facility told American Airlines Flight 1012, from Miami to Washington National, to contact the Washington tower. (The NTSB report says the flight was from Dallas/Fort Worth. We think it was coming from Miami.)
• American pilots made "numerous attempts to contact the DCA tower," then executed a missed approach. They then told the TRACON controllers than they couldn't make contact with the airport tower.
• TRACON controllers vectored the American plane back to the airport for another approach.
• TRACON personnel tried unsuccessfully to call the controller at Washington National by telephone, then advised the American crew to handle their landing as an arrival at an uncontrolled airport.
• 12:12 a.m. - The American pilots landed at the airport after again being unable to reach the controller.
• 12:22 a.m. - TRACON personnel informed pilots on United Airlines Flight 628T from Chicago O'Hare International Airport about the problem. The United pilots weren't able to raise the tower, either.
• 12:26 a.m. - The United flight landed at the airport after making position reports on the unresponsive tower frequency during its approach.
• 12:28 a.m. - The American pilots, with their airplane on the ground, established "contact with the tower controller."

The NTSB, in its update on the incident, noted that it had recommended Monday that the Federal Aviation Administration prohibit air traffic controllers from both supervising air controllers and handling air traffic at the same time.