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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018
Pilots say Boeing didn’t disclose jet’s new control feature
By DAVID KOENIG
Associated Press
Boeing didn’t tell airline pilots
about features of a new flight-con-
trol system in its 737 MAX that
reportedly is a focus of the inves-
tigation into last month’s deadly
crash in Indonesia, according to
pilots who fly the jet in the U.S.
Pilots say they were not trained
in new features of an anti-stall sys-
tem in the aircraft that differ from
previous models of the popular 737.
The automated system is
designed to help pilots avoid rais-
ing the plane’s nose too high, which
can cause the plane to stall, or lose
the aerodynamic lift needed to keep
flying. The system automatically
pushes the nose of the plane down.
But if that nose-down command
is triggered by faulty sensor read-
ings — as suspected in the Lion Air
crash — pilots can struggle to con-
trol the plane, which can go into
a dive and perhaps crash, accord-
ing to a Boeing safety bulletin and
safety regulators.
The bulletin included new details
on how to stop a runaway series
of events from leading to a crash,
pilots say.
“It is something we did not
have before in any of our training.
It wasn’t in our books. American
didn’t have it,” said Dennis Tajer,
a 737 pilot and spokesman for the
pilots union at American Airlines.
“Now I have to wonder what else is
there?”
The MAX is the newest ver-
sion of the twin-engine Boeing 737.
More than 200 have been delivered
to airlines worldwide, including
American, Southwest and United.
Boeing Chairman and CEO
Dennis Muilenburg said Tuesday
that the Chicago-based company
remains confident the MAX is a safe
airplane, and that operating details
were not withheld from airlines and
Sturgell: ‘I’m sorry to my family’
Continued from Page 1A
Cunningham, who is in
prison for a separate criminal
case, faces trial in January.
Several of Sturgell’s convic-
tions carry a minimum of more
than eight years in prison for
each count. Circuit Court Judge
Paula Brownhill may, however,
rule that some of the sentences
run concurrently.
Daniel Wendel, an attorney
with the Oregon Department
of Justice, and Clatsop County
Deputy District Attorney Dawn
Buzzard prosecuted Sturgell.
Wendel was the lead prosecu-
tor due to a number of direct
or indirect relationships local
police have with the victim.
“The DA’s office is very
proud of the fine work of Senior
Deputy DA Dawn Buzzard
and Assistant Attorney Gen-
eral Dan Wendel and the hard
work of all the jurors,” District
Attorney Josh Marquis said in
a statement. “Nobody is above
the law.”
Brownhill ruled Friday that
prosecutors needed to prove
that Sturgell knew the woman
was incapacitated or physically
helpless.
Prosecutors and Jason
Thompson, Sturgell’s Salem-
based attorney, agreed that
Sturgell and the victim drank
alcohol and took cocaine and
that they engaged in a number
of sex acts.
The victim consumed some
beers and liquor shots, some of
which were paid for by Sturgell.
Described as “blackout drunk,”
the victim left a Warrenton bar
and got into Sturgell’s truck.
Sturgell drove her across the
Astoria Bridge to his wooded
property in Naselle, Washing-
ton. Along the way, he provided
her with cocaine.
“Who needs a gun and
a knife when you’ve got
drugs and alcohol?” Wen-
del told jurors during closing
arguments.
“He used drugs and alcohol
to prey on this young woman in
order to satisfy his own twisted
sexual desires,” Wendel said.
Thompson, though, argued
that the woman voluntarily
drank.
“She was consuming alco-
hol, and she ended up mak-
ing decisions that she did not
like,” Thompson said. “No one
was forcing her to drink that
alcohol.”
‘I blacked out’
After arriving at the Naselle
property — a field inside a large
collection of trees — Sturgell
engaged in sex acts with the
woman, along with another
man who joined them. Because
the acts took place in Washing-
ton state, they were not prose-
cuted in Clatsop County.
Sturgell and the victim then
drove back to Astoria, taking
more cocaine along the way.
The victim, at one point, got out
of the car and vomited.
After arriving in Astoria,
Sturgell checked into a hotel,
and the victim — struggling
behind — followed him into
the room.
The victim, who testi-
fied during the trial. was often
overcome with emotion, once
asking for a break during
questioning.
She repeatedly said she did
not recall some things or why
she took certain actions.
“I blacked out, but I was
kind of there,” she said. “It’s
like pictures almost.”
Cunningham
allegedly
arrived at the hotel after sev-
eral calls with Sturgell. At one
point, Cunningham looked at
the victim, who was lying on a
bed, and said, “Where did you
find this one?” she said.
The victim also testified
that, at least once, she could not
sufficiently move her body to
commit a sex act.
A few hours after arriving
in the hotel room, the victim
began to regain normal func-
tions. She left the hotel and
called a cab that took her to her
car at the Warrenton bar.
The victim gave conflict-
ing reports to investigators and
friends about whether she ever
explicitly said “no” during the
encounters with the two men.
She also testified that she suf-
fered from anxiety, post-trau-
matic stress disorder, night-
mares and suicidal thoughts as
a result of the night.
Dr. Mindy Mechanic, a psy-
chology professor at California
State University, Fullerton who
specializes in crime trauma,
was hired by prosecutors to
testify. She said sexual assault
victims’ actions during their
ordeals can often be “counter-
intuitive” — such as not escap-
ing situations when opportuni-
ties arise — and that memories
can be inconsistent.
Thompson argued that,
while she may have been
“blacked out,” Sturgell could
not have been expected to
know.
“If it takes an expert from
Southern California to come up
here into this courtroom in Ore-
gon and tell us all that, how did
this fisherman from Warrenton
know all that?” Thompson said.
Bribery
Sturgell was also convicted
of two counts of bribing a wit-
ness and one count of tamper-
ing with a witness stemming
from a meeting he held with
the victim’s father. During the
meeting, he offered $5,000 and
threatened to hire attorneys to
“dig up dirt” on witnesses in
the case, her father testified.
When the victim heard about
the offer, she became angry and
contacted authorities.
Thompson said the vic-
tim and her father were hoping
Sturgell would give her money.
In an email sent earlier this year
to Oregon Assistant Attorney
General Erin Greenawald, the
lead prosecutor at the time, the
victim said she would rather
pursue a civil case than a crim-
inal one.
Buzzard, however, chal-
lenged the notion that she
only reported the crime for the
money by citing the victim’s
anger at Sturgell’s bribe, which
had taken place months before.
“First of all, she would have
asked for the money before she
went through with prosecution,
and when he offered her money,
the first thing she did was call
the police,” Buzzard said.
Sturgell did not testify
during the four-day trial. He
placed his head in his hands
and appeared to cry a few times
during closing arguments.
Sturgell is known as a polar-
izing figure among commercial
fishermen. His crabbing career
has brought him from the Ore-
gon Coast to Alaska and the
San Francisco Bay Area.
As he was being led out of
the courtroom in handcuffs
Tuesday, a crying Sturgell
peeked at some of his family
sitting in attendance.
“I’m sorry to my family,” he
said.
Forum: Bitter partisanship has spread in Oregon
Continued from Page 1A
“The Democrats in power
have failed,” Horvick said in
summarizing Buehler’s mes-
sage. “Moderates, liberals —
the candidates that you’ve
supported in the past are not
delivering on the things that
you care about. Try something
new.”
In January, 65 percent of
Oregonians hadn’t heard of
Buehler. Brown’s strategy,
then, was to define and dis-
qualify him, using large sums
of money from labor unions
and progressive groups to do
so.
“It was a blank slate,” Hor-
vick said. “So one of the things
that she had to do … (was to)
do what she could to define
him, to tell voters who he is
before he had an opportunity
to do it for himself and define
him in a way that was going
to be negative to the average
voter in Oregon, which right
now means Republican. It
means Trump. It means Wash-
ington, D.C.”
In speaking with Demo-
crats, Horvick noticed that
they were generally not upset
with the governor but could
name few, if any, of her
accomplishments.
“Satisfaction, but not ela-
tion,” Horvick said. “She was
doing OK, but they weren’t
super excited about her either.”
As a result, Horvick said,
she needed to tap into her
actions as governor that would
energize a left-wing base —
minimum wage increases, paid
family leave, clean energy pol-
icies and the $5.3 billion trans-
portation package.
One major factor work-
ing in Brown’s favor was the
economy. Because of an eco-
nomic upswing this decade,
the percentage of Oregonians
who identified jobs and the
economy as the state’s top
issue plummeted from 30 per-
cent to 9 percent in the past
five years, Horvick said.
“So this wasn’t going to be
an election that Knute Buehler
was going to be able to say,
‘The incumbent has ruined the
economy,’” Horvick said. “So
he’s going to have to run on
some other things.”
The strategy didn’t pro-
pel Buehler to a win. Horvick
noted, though, that economic
concerns have not gone away,
largely due to the cost of hous-
ing and other things.
Partisanship
On top of polarized
answers to specific questions,
including economic concerns,
Horvick presented data that
highlighted exactly how much
bitter partisanship has spread
in Oregon.
In 1994, 16 percent of
Democrats held a “very unfa-
vorable view” of Republicans,
and Republicans felt that way
about Democrats at a 17 per-
cent rate. Now, those numbers
have skyrocketed to 43 per-
cent and 45 percent.
“Voting, more and more,
has been about who you dis-
like more than who you like,”
Horvick said. “I don’t have
an answer to that — what
we should do, how to change
Stone: Next appearance set for December
Continued from Page 1A
Circuit Court Judge Cin-
dee Matyas ruled that Stone be
held at the Clatsop County Jail
without bail.
Stone and Russell had been
driving west on U.S. Highway
30 when one became angry
at the way the other passed
ahead. They repeatedly passed
each other, and one of the men
directed an obscene gesture
toward the other.
Russell stopped his car
in front of Stone after pass-
ing him one more time after
the two turned onto Old Mill
Town Road. The Longview
man got out of the car and
walked toward the truck with a
small baseball bat in hand and
three other people around him.
The truck was struck during
the encounter, leading Stone to
accelerate around the car and
hit Russell, District Attorney
Josh Marquis said in court ear-
lier this month.
In addition to the murder
and manslaughter charges,
Stone faces two counts of
first-degree attempted assault,
felony failure to perform
the duties of a driver, driv-
ing under the influence of
intoxicants, reckless driving
and two counts of reckless
endangerment.
The murder charge carries
a minimum 25 years in prison
and the first-degree man-
slaughter count carries at least
10 years.
Stone was once the chief
of the Westport Volunteer Fire
Department. In 2004, he set
fire to business records after
being accused of embezzle-
ment, Marquis said in court.
He was convicted of first-de-
gree arson and first-degree
theft and sentenced to 17
months in prison.
Stone’s next court appear-
ance is scheduled for
December.
it. But I show these to help
remind us that not everybody
in this room is going to think
like us.”
flight crews.
A Southwest spokeswoman
said the new automated maneuver-
ing system was not included in the
operating manual for MAX models.
An American spokesman said the
airline was unaware of some new
automated functions in the MAX
but hasn’t experienced nose-direc-
tion errors. A United spokesman
said Boeing and the FAA do not
believe additional pilot training is
needed.
Housing: ‘This doesn’t
solve our problems’
Continued from Page 1A
Under the proposal, worker
housing would be an outright
permitted use. But neighbors
and some City Commission-
ers pushed for a conditional
use process, which would
give the city and the public
more of a say in how the dor-
mitory-style housing would
be developed.
Pacific Seafood is open
to a conditional use pro-
cess, company representa-
tives said.
“We know people are
concerned about this and
I think that’s fair,” said
Michael Robinson, a land
use attorney representing the
seafood processor.
The company offered to
hold community meetings
and draft a “good neighbor”
commitment before apply-
ing for any building permits
if the code amendment was
approved.
A housing shortage on the
North Coast and the logistics
of housing employees who
may only need somewhere to
live for a season has forced
the company to look at cre-
ative ways to house seasonal
employees, Pacific Seafood
representatives said.
If they can’t find a place
for employees to live, “this
business won’t be here,”
Robinson said.
Pacific Seafood rebuilt
its Warrenton processing
plant after a fire destroyed a
previous plant in 2013. Ini-
tially, the company expected
to employ as many as 140
full time and 100 seasonal
workers at the new plant.
On Tuesday, plant manager
Hiram Cho said the com-
pany could need 260 to 280
employees to run the facility
at full capacity.
Loren Gramson, a resi-
dent who spoke against the
housing project, said the
code amendment would help
Pacific Seafood and their
employees, but would not
do much to solve the city’s
housing needs overall.
“It’s not housing for
young families looking for a
place to start. It’s not hous-
ing for people looking to be
a part of the community in
any way, shape or form,” he
said.
“This doesn’t solve our
problems,” he added. “This
is short-term housing for a
major company to shuffle
workers in and out and then
warehouse them somewhere
else for the next season to
roll around. Who benefits?
This only benefits Pacific
by allowing them to shuffle
around a transient workforce
instead of paying them a fair
amount to allow them to put
down roots.”
Concerns about neigh-
borhood safety and crime
were common themes Tues-
day as the City Commission
considered the code amend-
ment, leading Commissioner
Mark Baldwin to exclaim,
“Are we hiring barbarians?
They’re cannery workers.”
Baldwin felt the proj-
ect and workers were being
vilified. He said he trusted
Pacific Seafood to conduct
background checks and
manage employees, not-
ing that the business is an
important support to both
the local fishing-based econ-
omy and the city. Still, he
agreed with other commis-
sioners that they, along with
the community, needed more
information.
“I think we have a lot of
the answers we need,” Com-
missioner Pam Ackley said.
But, she added, “I think
there’s some more work to
be done.”
Mayor Henry Balen-
sifer agreed, calling the
code amendment proposal
and housing project “bold
experimentation.”
“Just because it’s new
and it’s scary doesn’t neces-
sarily mean we shouldn’t try
it,” he said.