Thursday June 20, 2019
BY ZACK BUDRYK
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Former airline pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger testified Wednesday that pilots should receive updated simulator training for the Boeing 737 Max before the jet returns to the air.
“We should all want pilots to experience these challenging situations for the first time in a simulator, not in flight with passengers and crew on board,” Sullenberger said in prepared remarks at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing.
Sullenberger, who was publicly lauded in 2009 after successfully landing a damaged jet on the Hudson River, weighed in during a hearing focused on the Boeing aircraft that has been grounded following two deadly crashes that killed more than 300 passengers.
Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are working on software fixes before the 737 Max returns to service. The proposed fixes would aim to prevent the nose-down dives that occurred in the two crashes, thereby reducing the need for further training.
However, Sullenberger said the simulator training was still necessary to allow pilots to experience the same warnings as the crews in the flights that crashed.
"Pilots must develop the muscle memory to be able to quickly and effectively respond to a sudden emergency," he said.
Sullenberger told the committee he himself had undergone a simulated recreation of the crashes, and “even knowing what was going to happen, I could see how crews could have run out of time and altitude before they could have solved the problems.”
"I’m one of the relatively small group of people who have experienced such a sudden crisis — and lived to share what we learned about it. I can tell you firsthand that the startle factor is real and it is huge — it interferes with one’s ability to quickly analyze the crisis and take effective action. Within seconds, these crews would have been fighting for their lives in the fight of their lives," he said.
Sullenberger also called on the FAA to update its certification system.
“Our current system of aircraft design and certification has failed us,” he testified.