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CNN Live At Daybreak
Four Americans Among 148 Killed in Egypt Plane Crash
Aired January 06, 2004 - 05:01 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: Turning now to that Egyptian plane crash, the State Department now says four Americans were among the 148 people killed in that crash.
CNN's Chris Burns joins us live from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
And why did this information take so long to come out -- Chris.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, that is an extremely good question. We're asking that ourselves. And what officials are saying up to now is they've just been busy notifying next of kin. So up to now, they're not giving any more information. But there is, there are reports that they may have had dual nationality, dual Egyptian-American, dual French-American. But none of that is being confirmed yet.
All we do know is that the State Department is saying four Americans were among those 148 who were killed. We're not even sure whether they were passengers or some of the crew. The crew as identified as all Egyptian.
Now, another interesting development that we've gotten just early this morning, or, actually, overnight, the French say that they detected some kind of a signal out there in the deep, dark waters over my shoulder. That signal is very key. They believe that could be the black box flight recorder that could give them information on what the conversation was in the cockpit, what the mechanical situation was in the plane in those last few moments before it plunged down into the Red Sea with all those people aboard.
Now, that is the big mystery right now. What caused it to happen, there was no conversation with the cockpit. There is no indication of an explosion, although there was a claim yesterday of responsibility by some unknown group based in Yemen, an Islamic group. But the Egyptians are not taking that seriously and neither are the French.
So up to now, what the focus is on is a mechanical failure of some kind, and that's what they're trying to look into. But they've got to get the black box to be able to confirm that -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Chris Burns reporting live from Sharm el- Sheikh, Egypt this morning.
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 January 6, 2004 - 05:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to that Egyptian plane crash, the State Department now says four Americans were among the 148 people killed in that crash.
CNN's Chris Burns joins us live from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
And why did this information take so long to come out -- Chris.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, that is an extremely good question. We're asking that ourselves. And what officials are saying up to now is they've just been busy notifying next of kin. So up to now, they're not giving any more information. But there is, there are reports that they may have had dual nationality, dual Egyptian-American, dual French-American. But none of that is being confirmed yet.
All we do know is that the State Department is saying four Americans were among those 148 who were killed. We're not even sure whether they were passengers or some of the crew. The crew as identified as all Egyptian.
Now, another interesting development that we've gotten just early this morning, or, actually, overnight, the French say that they detected some kind of a signal out there in the deep, dark waters over my shoulder. That signal is very key. They believe that could be the black box flight recorder that could give them information on what the conversation was in the cockpit, what the mechanical situation was in the plane in those last few moments before it plunged down into the Red Sea with all those people aboard.
Now, that is the big mystery right now. What caused it to happen, there was no conversation with the cockpit. There is no indication of an explosion, although there was a claim yesterday of responsibility by some unknown group based in Yemen, an Islamic group. But the Egyptians are not taking that seriously and neither are the French.
So up to now, what the focus is on is a mechanical failure of some kind, and that's what they're trying to look into. But they've got to get the black box to be able to confirm that -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Chris Burns reporting live from Sharm el- Sheikh, Egypt this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
