US aviation authorities have suspended an air traffic controller suspected of falling asleep on the job and forcing two planes to land without guidance at Washington’s Reagan National airport.

The pilots of the American Airlines Boeing 737 flight from Miami and the United Airlines Airbus 320 from Chicago, carrying a total of 165 passengers and crew, tried frantically to contact the control tower, but to no avail.

The American Airlines pilot contacted the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facility 64 kilometres away in Virginia as he circled the airport after midnight on Wednesday trying to keep passengers calm.

“Is there a reason it’s not manned?” the American Airlines pilot asks, according to a transcript published by The Washington Post.

“Well, I’m going to take a guess and say that the controller got locked out. I’ve heard of it happening before,” the TRACON controller replies, after making repeated unanswered calls to the tower.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials quoted by the US media said the controller, who was alone in the tower for the midnight to 6 a.m. shift, had actually fallen asleep.

Although the planes landed safely after the pilots took matters into their own hands and followed emergency procedures, the incident raised concern, particularly occurring just a few miles from the White House and the Capitol.

The incident comes after an FAA report in February showed an alarming jump between 2007 and 2010 in air-traffic errors, from 1,040 to 1,887, a rise of 81 per cent.