Fatal plane crash in Nashville may have gone unnoticed for hours

(Reuters) - A fatal plane crash at Nashville International Airport earlier this week may have gone unnoticed for hours, the Nashville Tennessean newspaper reported on Wednesday. A single-engine Cessna crashed at the airport some time after 2 a.m. on Tuesday, killing the pilot, but the wreckage was not discovered until about 8:45 a.m., said Jay Neylon, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, during a press conference aired on NewsChannel5.com. The exact timing of the crash is unknown, Neylon said. "We're still examining the air traffic control tapes and radar to determine if there was any communications between the aircraft and the control tower," Neylon said during the news conference. Neylon said a runway sweep was performed at about 2 a.m. on Tuesday, and nothing out of the ordinary was found. Then, at 8:45 a.m., the crew on another aircraft reported that they had seen debris on the runway. The Canadian pilot, Michael Callan, 45 of Windsor, Ontario, was killed in the crash, the Tennessean reported. Airport and Federal Aviation Administration officials declined to answer questions about the crash, the newspaper said. (Reporting By Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Sharon Bernstein and Sandra Maler)