Of all the things required to operate an airport safely and efficiency, a competent air traffic controller ranks right up there with a high concentration of Cinnabons inside each terminal. (After all, when you’re charging so much for checked luggage, it’s vital that irate passengers be satiated with melty frosting and cinnamon, lest an uprising take place.) But having someone to tell pilots when and where they can land planes is very important indeed. That’s why Reagan National Airport will install a second controller during overnight hours, after the first one apparently went missing from the post early Wednesday morning.

The most recent incident — the second time radio calls from pilots to the tower have gone unanswered at DCA in the last two years — involved two planes carrying 165 passengers and crew members, reports the Post:

Both planes–an American Airlines Boeing 737 flying in from Miami with 97 people onboard, and a United Airlines Airbus 320 flying in from Chicago with 68 people onboard–landed safely, within minutes of each other.

The planes’ pilots took matters into their own hands, broadcasting their progress as they approached and landed. They also were communicating with controllers at a separate facility in the region that does not handle landings.

The pilots certainly did a fine job handling the situation. NBC 4 Washington’s John Schriffen was on one of the planes that landed without clearance. “The plane kept going back up, circled back around,” Schriffen said in NBC’s report, adding that the pilot said the plane would “keep circling” until a response could be gained. But it’s pretty wild to think that there are planes flying so close to the District and Northern Virginia that are landing without tower guidance — especially since National hardly has a pristine track record when it comes to managing the number of planes in the air.