Sullenberger warns Congress over cutting FAA budget

US' Captain Chesley Sullenberger, accident investigator and the pilot who ditched US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River in 2009, stated Congress needed to be careful when it comes to cutting the FAA's budget (AP, 28-Apr-2011).

Mr Sullenberger: "It's very difficult to cut the budget that much and not have an effect on safety. If we chose to cut it, then we need to do it with our eyes wide open, and to be upfront and honest with the American people, and tell them that we are choosing to cut the budget knowing full well that one of the possible implications is that we will not have properly staffed regulatory agencies, that we will not have done the very best we can to take into account what we've learned from the science of safety, that we're choosing not to update our rules and to hold ourselves to the highest professional standards we know how to do, and that we realize that by not doing these things, we're increasing the risk that at some future unknown date, someone will come to harm that otherwise would not have." Source: AP, 28-Apr-2011.