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CNN Live Today
Families of Victims to Hear CVR Today
Aired April 18, 2002 - 14:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In an unprecedented move, the families of the passengers and crew killed aboard one of the hijacked airliners September 11th are being allowed to hear the cockpit voice recordings today. CNN's David Mattingly joins us today from Princeton, New Jersey, with details on that.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, the United flight 93 left Newark, New Jersey on September 11th bound for San Francisco. And now families from both coasts are together here at Princeton, New Jersey at a hotel behind closed doors, sharing once again in the pain of that day.
And out of all of them, not one person has lobbied harder for this to come about than Deena Burnett of San Francisco.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): It's a day Deena Burnett has been asking for since the early hours after the 9-11 crash of hijacked United flight 93. A crash that took the lives of her husband, Tom, and 39 other passengers and crew.
DEENA BURNETT, WIFE OF UNITED FLIGHT 93 VICTIM: When I found out that plane crashed, I knew that was not in Tom's plan. I wanted to know what happened. And that was my first question -- what went wrong.
MATTINGLY: But that is just one of many questions on her mind as she makes the journey from her San Francisco area home to New Jersey to listen to the cockpit voice recorder, a private family's only opportunity offered by the FBI.
BURNETT: They think we're looking for peace of mind, when in fact we do not expect to find peace of mind from listening to the last 30 minutes of that flight.
MATTINGLY: For Deena, peace of mind has been hard to come by. A former flight attendant, she is now afraid to fly. Even more so without her children.
BURNETT: I have this incredible fear of leaving them alone. And of something happening to me and not being able to raise them. And so, that is brought with me when I get onto the airplane. MATTINGLY: Still, it is a journey she is compelled to make. She is looking for insight into her husband's last minutes alive, that began with a series of chilling cell phone calls over Pennsylvania, telling Deena they were going to charge the cockpit.
BURNETT: I look at the aisle and I think about the passengers and the crew charging down the aisle to the cockpit. I think about the movements they must have made on the airplane, and their experience.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: And now all of the families here listening to the tape, listening for the same thing, that one identifiable distinct voice that tells them something about the last moments of their loved ones' lives. Back to you in Atlanta.
WHITFIELD: And, David, those family members, particularly the family members of the passengers, got a chance to hear that recording after the family members of the flight crew, right?
MATTINGLY: That's correct. The flight crew families were able to listen to the tape this morning. They emerged from there telling the family members that there was something encouraging that they were able to hear on there. They were able to hear distinct voices.
So the family members in there now are listening for those distinct voices. And some of them talked to us just before they went inside.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALICE HOGLAN, MARK BINGHAM'S MOTHER: My heart goes out to all of the family members. And yes, of course it will be painful. There are some really excruciating moments. And I hope that I'm emotionally prepared for that.
Our feelings are somewhat secondary, though, to the fact that we -- I feel a compulsion, I feel a responsibility, to understand how Mark Bingham spent his last 30 minutes and how he worked with the other family members to pull it together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAULA NACKE-JACOBS, SISTER OF VICTIM: I think I'm apprehensive. I think that every time we get an opportunity to try to go about the normalcy of our life, something else happens and these wounds are reopened again. And that to me is very hard. I have two children who need their mom. And every time I feel like the business of my life settles down, something like this happens that we're faced with, and it just opens everything up all over again.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MATTINGLY: A short time ago Attorney General John Ashcroft said that today's event has two purposes. One for prosecutors to interview family members again in hopes of gathering more information. Also for family members to receive grief counseling. The attorney general also said that the Justice Department will have no further statements on this, out of respect for the privacy of the family members.
WHITFIELD: All right, Dave Mattingly, thank you very much, from Princeton, New Jersey.
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