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American Morning

Countdown: Discovery; London Searches; Los Angeles to London Flight Diverted to Boston

Aired July 26, 2005 - 9:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The clock ticking down for NASA's historic return to space. Less than two hours now until the planned liftoff of the Shuttle Discovery. Critical moment now as NASA decides, is the shuttle safe to fly?
New developments from London and the massive manhunt for last week's suspected bombers. Police searching an apartment where one of the men lived for the last six years and may have met with another suspect. We're live with special coverage from London and Soledad.

And in the U.S., preparations for another blistering day of heat and humidity. Forecasters bringing new warnings on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: This is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien in London and Miles O'Brien at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

M. O'BRIEN: And good morning on beautiful sunny day here. Not a cloud in the sky at the Kennedy Space Center, and not a glitch to report on the space shuttle countdown.

The astronauts are ready. The shuttle appears to be as well. Liftoff in a little more than an hour and a half.

NASA hoping nothing comes up in between now and then. Of course, things do happen. And that's why you've got to stay tuned with us.

In a minute, I'll talk to one of the astronauts scheduled to go into space next year. And we'll have him walk us through these final tense moments. More on that in a few moments.

But now, let's go to Soledad in London.

Good morning, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you, Miles.

You know, every time you say it's a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, it kind of makes me feel like you're highlighting how cold and windy it is right here where we are in London.

A little bit later this morning, Miles -- and it's 2:00 in the afternoon here in London -- we're going to take a look at the economic impact that the terror attacks have had here in London, and all of Great Britain, and, of course, the impact it could had -- have, rather, in Europe -- Miles. M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Soledad. We'll be back with you in just a little bit.

Countdown to Discovery. The Discovery is on the launch pad, of course, fueled up. The crew is strapped in.

A live picture of the white room, 195 feet off the deck there. And you can see three members, four members now of the closeout crew as they go through the checklist involved in closing the hatch.

You don't just shut the door and walk away. You have to make sure it's all sealed up, of course, because you are, after all, headed to a rather unforgiving environment.

And the person who's been there quite at few times is Jim Reilly. He joins us now and tells us about what's going on in the countdown, as well as what's going on inside the minds of the astronauts right now.

Walk us through what they're thinking now. The door, the hatch has been shut. And that is kind of a milestone to remember. Things suddenly get a little more quiet, don't they?

JIM REILLY, ASTRONAUT: Exactly. In fact, they're about to go through the pressure check as part -- as part as this process. And so the guys in there are pretty quiet right now. They're doing all the com (ph) checks, and really, the next things that happen, coming out of the nine-minute hold.

M. O'BRIEN: This is a return to flight after a terrible accident and loss of people that are a part of your family. At what point during the countdown do thoughts go, do you think, to them? I'm sure everyone here is thinking about the people you lost two-and-a-half years ago.

REILLY: They will be. The crew will be, as well as all of us. And we're hoping to see a perfectly safe launch today.

M. O'BRIEN: How much does that add to the tension, if at all?

REILLY: I think for the most part, for the crew, they won't be at all. I mean, they're focused on their job today, and they'll be concentrating on what they're going to be doing the rest of their long day. They were up at midnight, or a little after midnight. So it's going to be a long day by the time they're finished. So they're focusing on their job.

M. O'BRIEN: For us here on the ground, though, I think it's harder. Don't you?

REILLY: Probably so. I think there's -- you know, we don't have anything we have to do other than we're going to be witnesses to the mission today. So we'll be watching it very closely.

M. O'BRIEN: There are some key steps ahead, including an important other test of those fuel gauges that pose problems. Thus far, in the fueling up, the gassing up, if you will, of the shuttle began a little after 1:00 a.m. local time, and each time they have tested those gauges they came back loud and clear just fine. Which, in a way, kind of stumps the engineers.

They'd almost like to see the problem to understand it better. But nevertheless, it looks as if that problem has been set aside. Or is it too early to say?

REILLY: Well, we're going to do another test of the ecosensors, like we did earlier today at the nine-minute hold, and just to make sure one more time everything's working perfectly. But so far, as you said, everything's been great.

M. O'BRIEN: That nine-minute hold, that's when it goes to automatic. The computers kind of control the countdown. That's a critical time.

Lots of key things, checks, lots of things can happen between now and then. But so far this countdown has been amazingly quiet. Hasn't it?

REILLY: It has. It's been a very quiet morning. Everything is looking very clean. The weather looks great. Our TAL sites are looking good.

M. O'BRIEN: TAL sites, meaning Trans-Atlantic Landing in case there was some sort of abort scenario, something that's never happened. But if they lost an engine, that would be the case.

And we've been talking a lot about that with that fuel sensor being an issue. Because if you lost an engine early, you might have to do just that.

Final thought here, just big picture. Two-and-a-half years later, the work and the emotions and the roller coaster ride that NASA has been through to get to this point?

REILLY: It's been a lot of work. And fortunately, we've got some of the best people in the world working for us. And so when we go back to flight, it's going to be the safest flight that we've flown in a long, long time.

M. O'BRIEN: Jim Reilly, astronaut who will be with us as we continue our coverage this morning all through the launch and as they make they're way towards space, assuming it all goes off without a hitch. Once again, inside 90 minutes now before the intended launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery.

And Chad, we are happy to report not a cloud in the sky. I don't know if you arranged it for us, but if you did, I do appreciate it.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, you know, the rest of the country is suffering. Maybe we'll give Florida a break for a change.

(WEATHER REPORT) S. O'BRIEN: Here in London, Chad, this morning, the hunt is continuing for those four suspects, maybe five suspects, behind last week's failed bombings. British police raided an apartment building, they say, was a meeting place for at least two of the suspects.

It brings us right to Jim Boulden. He's live outside of Scotland Yard in London.

Hey, Jim, what's the very latest in this investigation?

JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Soledad.

Well, you're absolutely right. The investigation is definitely concentrated in north London.

We've just been told by Scotland Yard that they have seized a vehicle in the Finchley area of north London, and they say that vehicle is connected to the last Thursday's failed bombings. That's not too far away from where the police continue to search through that building, an apartment building, in north London. They've been concentrating on the ninth floor of this high-rise, this power block, and they said that it's possible that they have found material that could have been used for explosives.

Now, the police have raided that building early Monday morning. One of the neighbors has told CNN that he was awoken about 1:50 a.m. London time. And he said the bangs and the shouts were so loud that he nearly fell out of his bed. And we know that several of the apartment buildings -- several of the apartments were also evacuated.

Now, local housing authority people have confirmed to CNN that the flat that police raided was rented by Yasin Hassan Omar. Now, he's the 24-year-old suspect that the police say was on the Warren Street tube. And they believe that he might be connected to the failed bombings last Thursday. They're very keen obviously on trying to find him.

We know that he lived in that flat, that apartment, since February of 1999. And he had subsidized housing. He was actually paid money by the government, about $550 a month to live there since February of 1999.

Now, neighbors also tell us they saw the second man that the police have named as one of the would-be suspected failed bombers of last Thursday, and that's Muktar Said Ibrahim. He's 27 years old. He's believed to have been the man who left the bomb on the number 26 bus in north London last Thursday after it failed to go off.

Now, neighbors tell us these two men, they said, were friendly. They were very young, easy going, they loved the national obsession here, they loved soccer. And they believe, the neighbors say, that they were Somali men.

Now, the police did name those two individuals on Monday at a press briefing not far from here in central London. And they gave us pictures of course of all four of these men. But Soledad, I must stress, all four men are still on the run.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, that's certainly, Jim, information that is unsettling to many of the folks who are commuting not only through Paddington Station, where we are, but all over London.

Jim Boulden, with an update on the investigation for us.

Thanks.

Let's throw it back to Carol now. She's in New York with a look at some of the other stories that are making headlines today.

Hey, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Soledad. And good morning to you.

"Now in the News," a security scare during a Trans-Atlantic flight. A plane heading to London from Los Angeles was diverted to Boston's Logan Airport after some passengers apparently began acting suspiciously.

Kathleen Koch is following this story -- Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, I just got off the phone a short time ago with a spokesman with United Airlines, Robin Urbansky (ph). And the way she explains it was that, yes, indeed, it was the airline itself that made the decision to divert this plane instead of going straight on to London, divert it to Boston's Logan Airport.

Basically, what Urbansky (ph) said was that at some point after this flight left LAX Airport, someone -- she wouldn't say whether it was a passenger or a flight attendant -- noticed three passengers exhibiting some potentially suspicious activity, is the way she put it. So she said the plane was diverted as a precautionary security measure.

There were 14 crew on board, some 226 passengers. They landed at Boston's Logan Airport, where, again, these three passengers were, she said, turned over to local authorities. We're told that they were questioned and then released.

Now, at this point, as far as we know, the plane is still sitting on the ground. There was some concern that it could not continue on to its destination, though everyone had been searched. The bags searched, the plane offloaded, because the crew simply couldn't stay on the clock any longer. We were told that they were waiting for another crew to arrive -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. So I'm just so curious to know what those passengers were doing suspiciously. Were they let back on board the plane?

KOCH: We don't know. The airline would not say, nor would federal transportation officials. So right now, we simply know that the passengers are waiting to eventually continue on to their destination.

COSTELLO: And, of course, Kathleen, you're also following another story for us this morning. You're at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia, where four Boy Scout leaders were killed in an electrical accident. Tell us more about this.

KOCH: It's a very tragic accident, Carol, that happened yesterday between 4:30 and 5:00. They have not yet released the names of the four victims.

What we do know is that they were Boy Scout leaders, longtime Boy Scout leaders from the Anchorage, Alaska, area. And what we're told happened was that they were trying between 4:30 and 5:00 to set up basically a very, very large dining tent for the 80 Boy Scouts that they had with them, and at some point the central pole touched an existing utility line and the four men were electrocuted.

The county sheriff, Caroline County sheriff, Tony Lippa, says that this is just a devastating blow to those here who've been working to put on this jamboree every four years since 1981.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF TONY, LIPPA, CAROLINE COUNTY, VIRGINIA: Everyone is kind of at awe with it. I mean, you don't expect something like this to happen. It's an unfortunate accident that appears. And again, that's what it looks like on the preliminary part. But the criminal investigation division I believe has completed their investigation. They're turning all that over to the Boy Scouts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: The good news here, Carol, if there is any, is that there were no Boy Scouts injured in this accident. And the U.S. Army criminal investigation division is also probing what happened.

Back to you.

COSTELLO: Kathleen Koch reporting live from Caroline County, Virginia, this morning.

Let's head back to London now and Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Carol. Thanks.

Still to come on our split edition of AMERICAN MORNING, a question. Is Britain's Muslim community doing enough to help police in the terror probe? The first-ever British-borne Muslim elected to parliament, we'll talk about that just ahead -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Soledad.

I'm going to talk live to an American hero. Former astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, reflects on today's critical launch. You know, he a little ride in the shuttle a few years ago. Remember that one? That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A scary moment for an American diver at the World Aquatic Championships in Montreal. Seventeen-year-old Chelsea Davis was attempting one of best dives during a preliminary round on Friday when she accidentally hit her face on the board. Chelsea's OK this morning. In fact, she joins us now live from Columbus, Ohio, along with her coach, Drew Johansen.

Welcome to you both.

CHELSEA DAVIS, INJURED DIVER: Thanks.

DREW JOHANSEN, CHELSEA'S COACH: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Chelsea, I have to ask how you're feeling?

DAVIS: I'm feeling a lot better today. The swelling in my face has gone down a lot, and my nose just hurts a little bit. But besides that I'm doing really well.

COSTELLO: That is truly amazing, because you really hit that board.

DAVIS: Yes, I did.

COSTELLO: Do you remember it at all?

DAVIS: Yes. I was conscious through the whole thing, and I remember being up on the board. And I was really excited to dive and do my next two dives, because they were my best two dives. And I was doing really well.

So I remember the hole thing as it happened. And I hit the board and I fell in the water, and I saw all the blood around me. It was really shocking.

COSTELLO: Yes, I bet.

So -- and Drew, you were in the water almost immediately. What was going through your mind when you saw her hit the board?

JOHANSEN: Well, initially I was in shock. I mean, it was, as everybody has seen over and over, it was quite an image.

The team was doing so well that whole week with Laura winning the gold and the Dumay (ph) brothers getting silver and bronze. And Chelsea was in position to battle for a medal in two events. And it just -- it shocked us all.

COSTELLO: Oh, you know, I just saw it again and it makes me wince. Chelsea has requested we turn the monitors away from her so she won't see it.

Why don't want to look at that, Chelsea?

DAVIS: I don't want that image replaying in my mind when I get up on the board and try the dive again sometime in the near future. So...

COSTELLO: Yes. You were going to compete again because there were more rounds on Sunday.

But Drew, you said, no way. Why?

JOHANSEN: Well, the emotion of the injury. She physically, with the nasals -- the nose being broken and going underwater, the pressure that's created down there, we didn't want to risk anymore injury, even though the spirit was willing to do this, but the body wasn't.

COSTELLO: Chelsea, you are something else. How many times does this sort of accident happen? Because we all remember when Greg Louganis hit his head on the board before he went into the water.

JOHANSEN: It is -- it's quite rare. I mean, our sport is very safe. And it's unfortunate that it does happen, but that's part of sport.

But diving on a whole is quite a safe sport. And Louganis -- it was almost 20 years ago, and this is the first time anything like this has happened on this stage since.

COSTELLO: So, Chelsea, you do plan on being back out there in two weeks for another competition. How are you getting yourself ready for that?

DAVIS: Well, I haven't gotten back in the gym yet, but I am planning on getting back in the gym and starting training again really soon within the next few days. And I will work on that dive in the water box (ph) up until that point where I do it by myself again.

And it really shouldn't sake that long, because Drew will help me get through it. And my first one I'm sure will be really far out in the middle of the pool, but I'm pretty -- I'm ready to get back in the water and start training again.

COSTELLO: Yes, I can see, though, how easy it would to relive that. That's your best dive, too, isn't it?

DAVIS: It's one of my best dives. I've been doing it the longest out of the five dives I was competing in the pre-lims. And I'm just ready to go back up and do it again.

COSTELLO: Oh, Chelsea, you're my hero this morning. Thank you so much for joining us.

Chelsea Davis, and her coach, Drew Johansen.

Thanks so much.

JOHANSEN: Thank you. DAVIS: Thanks.

COSTELLO: Let's head back to London now and check in with Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Carol. Thanks.

Well, our split edition of AMERICAN MORNING continues in just a moment. Coming up, we're taking a look at the economic impact the bombings have had here in London, why it seems everything is still business as usual.

Stay with us. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Here in London, subway ridership has dropped off a fair amount since the attacks. But to the surprise of many businesses, tourism is more or less holding strong.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN (voice-over): London's tourist sites, like the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, and St. Paul's Cathedral, helps bring in around $28 billion to the economy every year. But in the aftermath of two terrorist attacks, will people still come?

Natasha Wolld, the spokeswoman for the Tower of London, says early indications are they will.

NATASHA WOLLD, TOWER OF LONDON SPOKESWOMAN: The tour operators that we work with all the time were actually going to their customers and saying, "We're canceling our tours of London." And what we understand is the customers turn around and say, "No, we don't want to cancel. We want to come to London. We've still got our holidays, we've still got our lives to live."

Business as usual.

S. O'BRIEN: Harriet Beard, an American grandmother traveling with her family, says she won't be deterred.

HARRIET BEARD, AMERICAN TOURIST: We've planned this for two years, and we're not going to let somebody tell us, we can't do that, we're not going to do that. We're going to come. We're coming. And here we are.

S. O'BRIEN (on camera): And spending money?

BEARD: And spending money.

S. O'BRIEN (voice-over): One of the biggest tourist attractions, the Tower of London and the nearby London Bridge. Tourism here took a big hit after the first round of bombers struck on July 7, down 25 percent. But within a week, they'd virtually fully recovered. Oxford Street, with its some 300 stores and an estimated nine million shoppers a year, is down about 20 percent from last year, analysts say.

TOM JENKINS, EURO TOUR OPERATORS ASSOC.: Had I been told a month ago there's going to be an attack, what would the tourism reaction be, I would have said the tourism reaction would be bad. To my astonishment, it's been remarkably good. We've had another fright a week ago. It's still been good.

S. O'BRIEN: But the truth is, no one really knows the long-term impact. Tom Jenkins, a tourism expert, says today's travelers are realists about the threat of global terrorism.

JENKINS: Terrorism has now become a worldwide phenomenon. We've seen the attacks in Turkey, we've seen the attacks in Spain, we've seen the attacks in Egypt, we've seen the attacks in London. I think it's now becoming almost routine. The question is, how do people contain that threat within their imaginations?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Maybe not a big surprise here, bicycle shops are also doing very well in the aftermath of these attacks.

We've got much more coming up ahead from London and also from the Kennedy Space Center. That's just ahead as we continue on a special edition of a split show of AMERICAN MORNING.

We're back in a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: And welcome back, everybody. It is just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING, as we bring you special split coverage from both sides of the Atlantic.

I'm here in London. I'm actually at the Paddington train station. It's a huge station, more than 150 years old. A hundred thousand people, more, really, come through here every single day. And if you keep in mind that here in London it's 2:30 in the afternoon, it has been busy all the way through even though we are well after and well before the rush hour.

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