Aviation

Former U.S. Airways pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger made his debut as a CBS News contributor this week.

Sullenberger appeared on "CBS Evening News" Tuesday to discuss the two-year anniversary of an Air France crash that killed 228 people. He was was hired last month as an aviation and safety expert for the network, and is famous for averting a similar accident in 2009, when he landed a disabled jetliner safely on the Hudson River in New York City.

He said Tuesday on CBS that the Air France crash was going to be "a seminal accident that will be studied for years."

"We need to ask ourselves as an industry tough questions about the way we're designing airplanes, the way we're displaying information to the pilots in the cockpit," he said in his first appearance as a regular television analyst. "And about whether or not making airplanes more complicated, more technologically advanced makes it more difficult for pilots to very quickly intervene and very effectively act when things go awry."

Your morning transportation speed-read:
 
A bear was shot and killed at Greensboro, N.C.'s, Piedmont Triad International Airport.

Las Vegas's McCarran Airport broke ground on a new $99 million flight tower.

A passenger at Boston's Logan Airport was arrested for allegedly slapping a JetBlue flight attendant.

The driver in a fatal bus crash in Northern Virginia has been charged with reckless driving.

Conservative critics of the National Labor Relations Board's lawsuit against Boeing hammered President Obama Tuesday for picking a Commerce secretary who sits on the company's board of directors, but the White House said that service is part of what makes him qualified for the job.

NLRB critics have argued the panel's lawsuit against Boeing should be dropped since Obama has tapped businessman John Bryson to be the next Commerce secretary. Bryson, 67, is a member of the Boeing board of directors.

But White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday that Bryson's tenure on the Boeing board was apart of the "diversity of his experience" that appealed to the president.

"He served on the board at Boeing. He served on — he serves on the board at Disney," Carney said. "These are obviously companies that do a lot of international business."

A key South Carolina senator predicted Tuesday that the tenure of President Obama's choice to be Commerce secretary at Boeing will be a topic of conversation when his nomination is debated.

A spokesman for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that when the chamber has to vote on businessman John Bryson's nomination to replace Gary Locke, Republican lawmakers would likely look to make a point about the National Labor Relations Board's lawsuit against Boeing for allegedly retaliating against labor strikes by building a new plant in South Carolina.

"In light of the NLRB’s unprecedented complaint against Boeing, one would expect that Mr. Bryson’s service on the company’s Board of Directors when they created the second 787 assembly line in South Carolina will be discussed at-length during confirmation,” Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop said in a statement. 

Critics of the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) lawsuit against airplane manufacturer Boeing denounced President Obama's choice of a member of the airline's board of directors to be secretary of Commerce.

On Tuesday, Obama tapped businessman John Bryson to replace outgoing Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, whom Obama nominated to be ambassador to China. Locke is replacing former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R), who is anticipated to make a run for the 2012 GOP nomination to challenge Obama next year.

Bryson, 67, is a member of the board of directors of Boeing, which the NLRB has sued for allegedly retaliating against strikes by unions in its home of Washington state by planning to open a plant to build more 787s in South Carolina. Boeing has currently been building 787-model airplanes at its unionized plant near Seattle, but South Carolina is a “right to work” state, where employers are not obliged to join a union.

The conservative Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI) said Monday afternoon that Boeing's decision must be OK if Obama thinks a member of its board of directors should be in his Cabinet.

Virgin Atlantic Airways pilots are voting on whether or not they should strike, airline officials said Monday.

The British Air Line Pilots' Association (BALPA) said that talks with the airline that began in 2010 have stalled, leaving the pilots with no choice but to consider walking off the job in protest.

"Pilots in Virgin Atlantic have not had a pay increase since 2008," BALPA general secretary Jim McAuslan said in a statement. "During the tough years pilots have made sacrifices to help the business on the basis that fair pay would return. But that hasn't proved to be the case."

A Virgin Airways's strike could affect U.S. passengers the airline partners with JetBlue Airways.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Friday in a speech in crucial 2012 primary state South Carolina that the National Labor Relations Board's lawsuit against Boeing was proof of big government's ability to destroy jobs.

Speaking at the Five Points Rotary Club, Gingrich slammed the NLRB, which has sued Boeing for allegedly retaliating against strikes by unions in its home of Washington state by planning to open a plant to build more 787s in South Carolina. Boeing has currently been building 787 airplanes at its unionized plant near Seattle, but South Carolina is a “right to work” state, where employers are not obliged to join a union.

Gingrich said Friday the lawsuit was an "illegal action" that "puts all those jobs at risk."

"Here in South Carolina you are witnessing first hand and up close another glaring proof of the corrupting nature of big government and it ability to destroy jobs," Gingrich said in prepared remarks released by his campaign. "I’m speaking, of course, about the effort by the Obama administration’s National Labor Relations Board to stop Boeing’s Dreamliner plant from opening up in Charleston."

Your morning transportation speed-read:

A woman landed a plane in Denver with help from air traffic controllers and nearby planes when her pilot husband had a medical problem in flight.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) did not veto a sweep of the state's transportation trust fund that advocates were hoping for.

New York City bus ridership is down, though subway numbers are up.

The Department of Transportation has rejected a proposal to push back the beginning of construction of a California high-speed rail.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Rail-killing Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) has taken a nosedive in the polls.

A 500-foot wheel has been approved for the Las Vegas strip by the FAA, which worried it would affect flights at McCarran International Airport.

Wisconsin DOT outsourcing is costing taxpayers millions.

Boeing is considering replacing 737s.

The Senate approved a one-month extension in current funding for the Federal Aviation Administration late Tuesday, clearing the way for President Obama to sign the measure to provide money to the FAA through the end of June.

The House and Senate are bogged down in negotiations over a larger bill to fund the FAA for multiple years, which FAA officials say they desperately need. The legislation currently funding the agency, the 18th short-term extension, is set to expire at the end of the month. 

The Senate passed the measure to give negotiators another month by unanimous consent.