Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Transcripts of Cockpit Conversations Providing New Information About Crash of Flight 587

Aired October 29, 2002 - 09:46   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.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, some breaking news out of Washington. Transcripts of cockpit conversations are providing some new information about the crash of Flight 587. For that, let's turn to Kathleen Koch who just pulled herself out of the hearing room to share some of this information with us, Kathleen.
Good morning, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Well, what the cockpit voice recorder reveals is just how quickly this plane went from normal flight into very deep trouble.

Basically, according to cockpit voice recorder, it was less than a minute after the plane had lifted up off the ground that the pilot mentioned the wake turbulence, caused by the Japan Airlines jet that had taken off in front of it, he says, "A little wake turbulence, huh." Then the co-pilot, 10 seconds later, calls for "max power." The copilot is at the controls.

The pilot says, "You all right?" Co-pilot says, "Yes, I'm fine." The pilots says, "Hang on to it, hang on to it." Fourteen seconds after they noticed the wake turbulence, there's a sound of a loud bang. Twenty three seconds after they noticed the wake turbulence, you hear the copilot yell, "What the hell are we into? We're stuck in it, stuck in it." And then just 28 seconds after they first noticed that wake turbulence, just barely a minute and a half after they have taken off, there is nothing left on the cockpit voice recorder except for the pilot calling, "Get out of it, get out of it."

So very dramatic, very troubling, obviously, for the families of the pilot and co-pilot. And today, we are here at the NTSB, where we're going to be hearing from experts from Airbus who made the plane, from actually, American Airlines, which was operating it. And also, we'll also be hearing from people with the NTSB, that have been investigating it and experts from NASA, who've been taking a look at the issue of wake turbulence. What causes it, whether that might have been something that precipitated this crash, set into effect a chain of events that brought this plane down on November 12th.

Paula.

ZAHN: But aren't they also looking at some major structural components in the plane and why the tail fin snapped off? And because under normal flight allowances, obviously, the planes are built to sustain wake turbulence, are they not? KOCH: They certainly are, Paula. So they're looking at several things, obviously, this tail is made out of a composite, which is not a metal. It's something similar to fiberglass. So they're looking at the construction of that. And initially, there was concern that there might have been a failure of the composite. They haven't found any issues there, though. They're still looking at that.

But they are going to be looking at the design of the entire tail fin. They're going to be looking at the design of the rudder, and how those are certified and tested and how they're checked on a regular basis to make sure that they're sound. So they're looking at a lot of these structural issues. But at this point, they haven't found any mechanical explanation for what went wrong.

ZAHN: I know you were you on duty on the same day, I was on November 12th, when this plane went down. And there was a lot of speculation about the possibility of terrorism. That's all but been ruled out. What about sabotage, at this point?

KOCH: They have said, pretty much, from the start, Paul, when the investigators were right in there on the ground and they were examining the wreckage, that there is clear pattern that's left from a blast, from an explosion, say, from the luggage compartment or from the passenger compartment. There's also residue of the explosive material, and they found none of that, so they ruled that out early on, just as they ruled out terrorism. So now they're looking at all these different factors, be they design, be they pilot performance, be they pilot training. But we won't hear exactly what their final ruling on this is, probably until late this summer.

ZAHN: It's so, so chilling, of course, to have a look at the pictures of far Rockaway (ph), of course, a community Deeply impacted by September 11th, losing, I think, over half dozen firefighters there. So I think everybody would be relieved, once they finally figure why this plane went down.

Kathleen Koch, thank you for giving us a preliminary view of what these investigators might find. Appreciate it very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Information About Crash of Flight 587>


Aired October 29, 2002 - 09:46   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, some breaking news out of Washington. Transcripts of cockpit conversations are providing some new information about the crash of Flight 587. For that, let's turn to Kathleen Koch who just pulled herself out of the hearing room to share some of this information with us, Kathleen.
Good morning, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Well, what the cockpit voice recorder reveals is just how quickly this plane went from normal flight into very deep trouble.

Basically, according to cockpit voice recorder, it was less than a minute after the plane had lifted up off the ground that the pilot mentioned the wake turbulence, caused by the Japan Airlines jet that had taken off in front of it, he says, "A little wake turbulence, huh." Then the co-pilot, 10 seconds later, calls for "max power." The copilot is at the controls.

The pilot says, "You all right?" Co-pilot says, "Yes, I'm fine." The pilots says, "Hang on to it, hang on to it." Fourteen seconds after they noticed the wake turbulence, there's a sound of a loud bang. Twenty three seconds after they noticed the wake turbulence, you hear the copilot yell, "What the hell are we into? We're stuck in it, stuck in it." And then just 28 seconds after they first noticed that wake turbulence, just barely a minute and a half after they have taken off, there is nothing left on the cockpit voice recorder except for the pilot calling, "Get out of it, get out of it."

So very dramatic, very troubling, obviously, for the families of the pilot and co-pilot. And today, we are here at the NTSB, where we're going to be hearing from experts from Airbus who made the plane, from actually, American Airlines, which was operating it. And also, we'll also be hearing from people with the NTSB, that have been investigating it and experts from NASA, who've been taking a look at the issue of wake turbulence. What causes it, whether that might have been something that precipitated this crash, set into effect a chain of events that brought this plane down on November 12th.

Paula.

ZAHN: But aren't they also looking at some major structural components in the plane and why the tail fin snapped off? And because under normal flight allowances, obviously, the planes are built to sustain wake turbulence, are they not? KOCH: They certainly are, Paula. So they're looking at several things, obviously, this tail is made out of a composite, which is not a metal. It's something similar to fiberglass. So they're looking at the construction of that. And initially, there was concern that there might have been a failure of the composite. They haven't found any issues there, though. They're still looking at that.

But they are going to be looking at the design of the entire tail fin. They're going to be looking at the design of the rudder, and how those are certified and tested and how they're checked on a regular basis to make sure that they're sound. So they're looking at a lot of these structural issues. But at this point, they haven't found any mechanical explanation for what went wrong.

ZAHN: I know you were you on duty on the same day, I was on November 12th, when this plane went down. And there was a lot of speculation about the possibility of terrorism. That's all but been ruled out. What about sabotage, at this point?

KOCH: They have said, pretty much, from the start, Paul, when the investigators were right in there on the ground and they were examining the wreckage, that there is clear pattern that's left from a blast, from an explosion, say, from the luggage compartment or from the passenger compartment. There's also residue of the explosive material, and they found none of that, so they ruled that out early on, just as they ruled out terrorism. So now they're looking at all these different factors, be they design, be they pilot performance, be they pilot training. But we won't hear exactly what their final ruling on this is, probably until late this summer.

ZAHN: It's so, so chilling, of course, to have a look at the pictures of far Rockaway (ph), of course, a community Deeply impacted by September 11th, losing, I think, over half dozen firefighters there. So I think everybody would be relieved, once they finally figure why this plane went down.

Kathleen Koch, thank you for giving us a preliminary view of what these investigators might find. Appreciate it very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Information About Crash of Flight 587>