Retired US Airways pilot Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger, who famously landed a passenger jet in New York's Hudson river in 2009, says that more training is needed for pilots of the Boeing 737 MAX jets before the troubled aircraft takes flight again.
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"These crashes are demonstrable evidence that our current system of aircraft design and certification has failed us," Sullenberger stated at a congressional hearing on Wednesday. "These accidents should never have happened."
Sullenberger, who retired in 2010, said he had been in a flight simulator that recreated the two Boeing 737 MAX crashes that killed a total of 346 people.
"Even knowing what was going to happen I could see how crews could of run out of time before they could have solved the problems," the pilot said.
"We should all want pilots to experience these challenging situations in a simulator and not in flight, with passengers and crew on board. And reading about it on an iPad is not even close to sufficient, pilots must experience it physically first-hand," he added.
The 737 MAX series has been banned from flying worldwide, with no indication when the flight ban will be lifted.
Sullenberger's emergency landing in 2009 was featured in the 2016 movie Sully, starring Tom Hanks as the lauded pilot.
Australian Associated Press
