Narrative:

We were in a crj-900 with 30 passengers (very light weight). On arrival; ATC advised us to keep up our speed; 'speed 310 or greater'...we complied. Just before turning downwind; captain's mfd went blank...first officer (pilot monitoring) ran checklist. I decided to continue as pilot flying since it was VMC...no big deal. We had just been slowed and; turning downwind; were told to expedite descent. Approach was aggravated by a flight that missed radio calls...ATC even asked; 'are you in a 737?' then realized that it was not our company but another. To expedite descent; we extended flight spoilers and flaps to 8 then 20 degrees. Shortly after; flight attendants called on intercom. I told my first officer; 'I got (com) 1'. First officer spoke to flight attendants on interphone; I continued descent for approach. Approach control turned us onto base about 12 miles out. We called MD88 ahead of us 'in sight'; first officer was done with intercom and told me that passengers advised flight attendants that we had a loose wire/cable/tube (?) sticking out from under the flight spoilers...the flight attendants confirmed the sighting and therefore advised us via intercom. We had no warnings in the cockpit and decided that we could continue safely to landing. We were slowed to 180 knots; and cleared for the visual behind the md-88. Turning final we were slowed to 160 knots (not a problem with flaps 20). I was slow to drop the gear until over the FAF (just a bit late...I didn't have my usual mfd for reference). We were slow enough to drop the gear and flaps 45 and were stabilized and configured for landing early enough so that a stabilized approach was never a factor. I do not know if we were ever told to switch to tower; either way we as the crew should have noticed it and done it anyway. We were distracted with the lack of mfd; the thoughts of a loose cable on the wing; the possibility of malfunctioning ground lift dumping and I was certainly thinking about if I would be able to land a very light crj-900 smoothly. We watched the the md-88 ahead of us clear the runway and we landed (without landing clearance). We turned off; and only then realized we were not on tower frequency. The whole approach was so 'normal' that we never even thought about what frequency we were on.the loss of the mfd removed a bit of situational awareness...it caused things to be just a little different than usual; but alone would not have been more than a small distraction. The need for my first officer to address the intercom while on downwind/base phase of flight turned us temporarily into a single pilot operation. Thoughts of if the spoilers/ground lift dumping would operate normally were a distraction. Short approach would not have been a factor if nothing else had occurred...i.e. Mfd; intercom; etc. This was a good example of a 'chain of events'. None of the things that happened were significant by themselves; but together they obviously had quite an impact. We switched to tower frequency and requested taxi instructions. Tower advised that he had tried to call us several times...we acknowledged and apologized. If you lose any info (displays) on your side; let the other guy fly. Don't think so much about making a smooth landing if it is going to take away from your brain power required to fly the airplane. Be extra aware when something...anything is different than usual.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ900 Flight Crew report on the series of events that led up to landing without clearance.

Narrative: We were in a CRJ-900 with 30 passengers (very light weight). On arrival; ATC advised us to keep up our speed; 'Speed 310 or greater'...we complied. Just before turning downwind; Captain's MFD went blank...F/O (Pilot Monitoring) ran checklist. I decided to continue as Pilot Flying since it was VMC...no big deal. We had just been slowed and; turning downwind; were told to expedite descent. Approach was aggravated by a flight that missed radio calls...ATC even asked; 'are you in a 737?' Then realized that it was not our company but another. To expedite descent; we extended flight spoilers and flaps to 8 then 20 degrees. Shortly after; Flight Attendants called on intercom. I told my F/O; 'I got (com) 1'. F/O spoke to Flight Attendants on interphone; I continued descent for approach. Approach Control turned us onto base about 12 miles out. We called MD88 ahead of us 'in sight'; F/O was done with intercom and told me that passengers advised Flight Attendants that we had a loose wire/cable/tube (?) sticking out from under the flight spoilers...the Flight Attendants confirmed the sighting and therefore advised us via intercom. We had no warnings in the cockpit and decided that we could continue safely to landing. We were slowed to 180 knots; and cleared for the visual behind the MD-88. Turning final we were slowed to 160 Knots (not a problem with flaps 20). I was slow to drop the gear until over the FAF (just a bit late...I didn't have my usual MFD for reference). We were slow enough to drop the gear and flaps 45 and were stabilized and configured for landing early enough so that a stabilized approach was never a factor. I do not know if we were ever told to switch to Tower; either way we as the crew should have noticed it and done it anyway. We were distracted with the lack of MFD; the thoughts of a loose cable on the wing; the possibility of malfunctioning Ground Lift Dumping and I was certainly thinking about if I would be able to land a very light CRJ-900 smoothly. We watched the the MD-88 ahead of us clear the runway and we landed (without landing clearance). We turned off; and only then realized we were not on tower frequency. The whole approach was so 'normal' that we never even thought about what frequency we were on.The loss of the MFD removed a bit of situational awareness...it caused things to be just a little different than usual; but ALONE would not have been more than a small distraction. The need for my F/O to address the intercom while on downwind/base phase of flight turned us temporarily into a single pilot operation. Thoughts of if the spoilers/Ground Lift Dumping would operate normally were a distraction. Short approach would not have been a factor IF nothing else had occurred...i.e. MFD; Intercom; etc. This was a good example of a 'Chain of events'. None of the things that happened were significant by themselves; but together they obviously had quite an impact. We switched to tower frequency and requested taxi instructions. Tower advised that he had tried to call us several times...we acknowledged and apologized. If you lose any info (displays) on your side; let the other guy fly. Don't think so much about making a smooth landing if it is going to take away from your brain power required to FLY the airplane. BE EXTRA AWARE WHEN SOMETHING...ANYTHING IS DIFFERENT THAN USUAL.

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.