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Heroic pilot gives input on Boeing 737 Max controversy

Retired pilot Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger, who pulled off the “miracle on the Hudson” when he landed a plane with failing engines in the Hudson River, testified before Congress today. Sullenberger told a Congressional subcommittee that the automated flight control system on the 737 Max was ” “was fatally flawed and should never have been approved.”

Sullenberger explained to subcommittee members that the pilots on the doomed planes probably became disoriented as they tried to regain control of the aircraft, while the automatic flight control system forced the planes to nosedive.

“I can tell you firsthand that the startle factor is real and it’s huge. It absolutely interferes with one’s ability to quickly analyze the crisis and take corrective action,” he said.

Daniel Carey, president of the Allied Pilots Association, a union of American Airlines pilots, told the subcommittee that Boeing tried to enact “cost-cutting” measures that turned out to be deadly.

“Boeing designs and engineers and manufacturers superb aircraft,” Carey testified. “Unfortunately in the case of the Max, I’ll have to agree with the Boeing CEO, they let the traveling public down in a fatal and catastrophic way.”

The Max 737 crashes both happened overseas. But Sullenberger and Carey disagreed with Boeing’s claims that the crashes would not have happened in the United States, where pilot training is more rigorous. They maintained that the problem was with the automated flight control system, not the pilots.