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CNN Live Today

Interview With Craig Knight

Aired December 29, 2003 - 11:09   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You saw our guest briefly in that report. From KTVX, Craig Knight is a friend of two of the missing men's families, and he joins us live from Salt Lake City this morning. Good morning.
CRAIG KNIGHT, FAMILY FRIEND: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks for joining us. I know this must be tough.

KNIGHT: It's been an intense couple of days.

COSTELLO: I can't even imagine. Tell me about one of the young men who is still missing. Adam Merz.

KNIGHT: Adam and Mike Hebert are both friends of ours, neighbors. We live in the neighborhood with them. Adam, a good young kid. All of these, the five plus probably another five, a group of ten guys are very close friends. And very active. Like to get outside. Hunt, fish, camp together.

And they kind of like the adrenaline. So this was the kind of thing they did a lot.

COSTELLO: And just to make it clear for our audience. Adam Merz is still missing. Mike Hebert, they did find his body. Is that right?

KNIGHT: Right. Mike's body was located last -- yesterday afternoon. And Adam Merz's, along with Rod, his body is still not found.

COSTELLO: Such young men, just 18 and 19-years-old. This Provo Canyon, which is just north of the Suntan (sic) Ski Resort, is known as a dangerous place to snowboard. Did they know that?

KNIGHT: Yes, they've been there before. I've been up in that area before. There's some pretty dangerous places up there for winter snowboarding.

But it's an exciting place, and it's a place where you can go, and you don't have to pay a price, pay the lift price. And that's why they were up there.

COSTELLO: We had word that these boys were -- these young men, I should say, were not well equipped for snow emergencies. Were they experienced at handling a dangerous situation like an avalanche? KNIGHT: They knew the situation. They knew a little bit about avalanche control and avalanche danger. And talking to a couple of these guys, they had considered that although that day they hadn't called avalanche control. The avalanche danger on that day was very extreme.

COSTELLO: Are the families up there, up on the mountain helping in the search?

KNIGHT: Saturday, the three families were there with extended family. Sunday, two of the families were up there. One chose not to go up. But two families plus a lot of extended family and friends.

There is a BYU University facility up there, alumni facility, where we were set up. And the media and the sheriffs and those people, search and rescue people were headquartered in one lodge, and the families were headquartered in another lodge. The families pretty much were kept from most of the media, which is what they wanted. But tough.

COSTELLO: Oh, you're not kidding. I want to talk about the rescue efforts just a bit because it's very difficult. The snow is packed very hard. In fact, they're sticking steel poles into the snow just to see if they can feel anything down there. But the snow is packed so hard that steel shovels are actually breaking, aren't they?

KNIGHT: We -- they took the parents and myself and some members of the media -- those shots that you just showed were shots that were taken when we walked up to the foot of the avalanche. We got to walk out a little bit further than some of the media people, and they showed us one of the pits they had dug, which was probably 15, 20 feet in diameter. It was about 10 or 11 feet deep.

And they were just down there digging, taking out chunks of this hardened snow, almost like ice. And then probing with 15 foot probes and still not hitting the bottom.

When they found Mike's body, they found him on a probe line, where they had about 25 men who were standing just a little bit more than shoulder to shoulder, and they were probing in front of them, probing to the side, and then taking a step up. They were just walking up the mountain. And that's how they found him.

COSTELLO: So difficult to talk about. We certainly appreciate it. Craig Knight joining us live from Salt Lake City.

KNIGHT: Thank you.

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







Aired December 29, 2003 - 11:09   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You saw our guest briefly in that report. From KTVX, Craig Knight is a friend of two of the missing men's families, and he joins us live from Salt Lake City this morning. Good morning.
CRAIG KNIGHT, FAMILY FRIEND: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks for joining us. I know this must be tough.

KNIGHT: It's been an intense couple of days.

COSTELLO: I can't even imagine. Tell me about one of the young men who is still missing. Adam Merz.

KNIGHT: Adam and Mike Hebert are both friends of ours, neighbors. We live in the neighborhood with them. Adam, a good young kid. All of these, the five plus probably another five, a group of ten guys are very close friends. And very active. Like to get outside. Hunt, fish, camp together.

And they kind of like the adrenaline. So this was the kind of thing they did a lot.

COSTELLO: And just to make it clear for our audience. Adam Merz is still missing. Mike Hebert, they did find his body. Is that right?

KNIGHT: Right. Mike's body was located last -- yesterday afternoon. And Adam Merz's, along with Rod, his body is still not found.

COSTELLO: Such young men, just 18 and 19-years-old. This Provo Canyon, which is just north of the Suntan (sic) Ski Resort, is known as a dangerous place to snowboard. Did they know that?

KNIGHT: Yes, they've been there before. I've been up in that area before. There's some pretty dangerous places up there for winter snowboarding.

But it's an exciting place, and it's a place where you can go, and you don't have to pay a price, pay the lift price. And that's why they were up there.

COSTELLO: We had word that these boys were -- these young men, I should say, were not well equipped for snow emergencies. Were they experienced at handling a dangerous situation like an avalanche? KNIGHT: They knew the situation. They knew a little bit about avalanche control and avalanche danger. And talking to a couple of these guys, they had considered that although that day they hadn't called avalanche control. The avalanche danger on that day was very extreme.

COSTELLO: Are the families up there, up on the mountain helping in the search?

KNIGHT: Saturday, the three families were there with extended family. Sunday, two of the families were up there. One chose not to go up. But two families plus a lot of extended family and friends.

There is a BYU University facility up there, alumni facility, where we were set up. And the media and the sheriffs and those people, search and rescue people were headquartered in one lodge, and the families were headquartered in another lodge. The families pretty much were kept from most of the media, which is what they wanted. But tough.

COSTELLO: Oh, you're not kidding. I want to talk about the rescue efforts just a bit because it's very difficult. The snow is packed very hard. In fact, they're sticking steel poles into the snow just to see if they can feel anything down there. But the snow is packed so hard that steel shovels are actually breaking, aren't they?

KNIGHT: We -- they took the parents and myself and some members of the media -- those shots that you just showed were shots that were taken when we walked up to the foot of the avalanche. We got to walk out a little bit further than some of the media people, and they showed us one of the pits they had dug, which was probably 15, 20 feet in diameter. It was about 10 or 11 feet deep.

And they were just down there digging, taking out chunks of this hardened snow, almost like ice. And then probing with 15 foot probes and still not hitting the bottom.

When they found Mike's body, they found him on a probe line, where they had about 25 men who were standing just a little bit more than shoulder to shoulder, and they were probing in front of them, probing to the side, and then taking a step up. They were just walking up the mountain. And that's how they found him.

COSTELLO: So difficult to talk about. We certainly appreciate it. Craig Knight joining us live from Salt Lake City.

KNIGHT: Thank you.

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