Narrative:

We landed on runway 22L in ewr without a landing clearance. We were assigned an airspeed of 180 KTS to the final approach fix by new york approach; and instructed to contact ewr tower. When we contacted tower; they asked us if we had the DH-8 in sight in front of us. We did not see them right away and tower instructed us to slow to our final approach speed. We were a mile from the FAF; we slowed to our final approach speed; and called the DH-8 in sight. The tower instructed us to maintain visual separation with DH-8; but did not clear us to land; later; we attempted to get a clearance to land after we saw DH-8 was clear of the runway. At this point we were approximately 400 ft AGL on short final. Frequency congestion prevented clear communication with tower. Tower control did issue clearance to land to an aircraft behind us; referring to us in his clearance to other traffic ('traffic on short final a crj'). This was an indication that tower was aware of our position; and perhaps not aware that he had not cleared us to land. The first officer (pilot flying) said; 'we still don't have clearance to land.' I instructed the first officer to 'land anyway.' considering traffic taking off from close parallel runway 22R; congested ny airspace; and tower's communication to the aircraft behind us indicating his knowledge of our position; the safest course of action was to continue and land rather than go-around. A normal landing was made without incident.I would suggest:1. Our assigned speed of 180 to the FAF was too fast considering the DH-8 traffic we were following. The DH-8 might hold 180 to the FAF; but they're going to get to their slower final approach pretty quickly. 2. If tower clears each aircraft in order; there is less chance of someone being faced with the decision to go-around or land without a clearance. If tower withholds one landing clearance; they might consider withholding clearance to following aircraft until the first situation is resolved.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CRJ900 landed without clearance at EWR when clearance was not received from Tower who issued a landing clearance to the following aircraft.

Narrative: We landed on Runway 22L in EWR without a landing clearance. We were assigned an airspeed of 180 KTS to the Final Approach Fix by New York Approach; and instructed to contact EWR Tower. When we contacted Tower; they asked us if we had the DH-8 in sight in front of us. We did not see them right away and Tower instructed us to slow to our final approach speed. We were a mile from the FAF; We slowed to our final approach speed; and called the DH-8 in sight. The Tower instructed us to maintain visual separation with DH-8; but did not clear us to land; later; we attempted to get a clearance to land after we saw DH-8 was clear of the runway. At this point we were approximately 400 FT AGL on short final. Frequency congestion prevented clear communication with Tower. Tower control did issue clearance to land to an aircraft behind us; referring to us in his clearance to other traffic ('Traffic on short final a CRJ'). This was an indication that Tower was aware of our position; and perhaps not aware that he had not cleared us to land. The First Officer (pilot flying) said; 'We still don't have clearance to land.' I instructed the First Officer to 'Land anyway.' Considering traffic taking off from close parallel Runway 22R; congested NY airspace; and Tower's communication to the aircraft behind us indicating his knowledge of our position; the safest course of action was to continue and land rather than go-around. A normal landing was made without incident.I would suggest:1. Our assigned speed of 180 to the FAF was too fast considering the DH-8 traffic we were following. The DH-8 might hold 180 to the FAF; but they're going to get to their slower final approach pretty quickly. 2. If Tower clears each aircraft in order; there is less chance of someone being faced with the decision to go-around or land without a clearance. If Tower withholds one landing clearance; they might consider withholding clearance to following aircraft until the first situation is resolved.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.