No one can deny that Captain Sullenberger and his crew (and it was, afterall, a crew effort) did amazing work on the Hudson years ago. But that does not suddenly give him license to be an aviation safety expert in all fields, particularly as it relates to Boeing aircraft.
Captain Sullenberger, following the Colgan Air accident in Buffalo took a high profile stand with regard to pilot training and experience, which is rightfully a domain he has an expertise. But why, with that expertise, does he not advocate for what is really the cause of this accident - incompetent pilots.
As the Indonesian report clearly showed, the accident MAX aircraft was flown flown for over 90 minutes from its point of departure to its intended destination (even that is questionable airmanship) but nevertheless the aircraft was perfectly flyable once someone recognized a trim stab runaway, did the drill and turned it off. Similarly, the accident aircraft the next day was flown for 11 minutes by the Captain despite not recognizing and performing the runaway stabilizer drill and the aircraft was lost after he passed control to the first officer who had no clue how to hand fly an aircraft and use this thing called “trim”.
The Ethiopian final accident report has not been released and is overdue; I have serious doubts if it will be a legitimate report if their preliminary report is any indication however that accident reeks of pilot incompetence too, particularly since Boeing had issued an Airworthiness Directive following the Indonesian accident.
If Captain Sullenberger was really interested in furthering aviation safety, he should stick to what he knows best - training and human factors - and render an opinion that its not the beautiful, modern safe aircraft made by Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier and others are the problem but “puppy mill” pilot training schemes, poor regulatory oversight and the low-cost mentality of some of the air carriers.