Barack Obama's plane was forced to endure an emergency landing after the Democratic presidential candidate's aircraft suffered mechanical problems over Missouri, it emerged today.

A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Authority confirmed to The Times that there had been an emergency landing in St Louis last month after the pilot notified air traffic control of problems. It is understood that the pilot of Mr Obama's plane had warned that he was having problems controlling the "pitch" of the plane and requested emergency assistance.

A controversy has erupted over the landing. According to a US news channel, control tower tapes show that the pilot of Mr Obama's plane demanded an emergency landing. At the time, both the FAA and Midwest Airlines insisted that there was no emergency.

But Laura Brown, a spokesman for the FAA said that she had said minutes after the incident happened that there had been no emergency because of what she had been told by the agency's public affairs staff for air traffic control.

"Information we get in real time is preliminary and may be subject to change when we get a fuller account of what happened. We didn't have any real reason to go back and question what we were told initially. Nobody called us to question that."

The control tower tapes reveal the pilot reported he no longer had total control of the aircraft. Ms Brown said: "There are many situations in which a pilot declares an emergency and in the vast majority of cases the pilot lands the plane safely. Declaring an emergency gives that aircraft priority and ensures there is rescue equipment available in case there is a real problem."

After the plane landed, Mr Obama said jokingly:" I just thought we'd spice things up a little bit today," and referred to the incident as a "little glitch".

Spokesmen for Barack Obama and Missouri officials failed to return calls to The Times last night.

State authorities claimed the National Transportation Safety Board was investigating the incident but refused to rule out whether national agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation were also investigating the incident.

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