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American Morning

Investigation into Fatal Southwest Plane Skid; Snow Hits Northeast

Aired December 09, 2005 - 08:00   ET

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


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
I'm Miles O'Brien.

New pictures coming out of Chicago as we speak. Investigators trying to find out what sent this plane skidding off a runway and into traffic, killing a young boy. We'll take you live to the scene.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Costello in for Soledad today.

Winter weather moves across the East Coast. Travelers in for a very tough time this morning. Yes, what you got in the Midwest, it's here now. We've got all your forecasts coming up.

O'BRIEN: And police officers in trouble over controversial videos. But are they anything more than just really a joke that kind of missed the mark? we'll go live to San Francisco on this AMERICAN MORNING.

COSTELLO: Oh, happy Friday.

Even though it's snowing, it's still Friday. Look at it that way.

O'BRIEN: Yes. No, and I've got some happy kids in my household, so it just depends on how you interpret these things. A snow day for the O'Brien family anyhow. They're probably sledding as we speak.

COSTELLO: Is that not a beautiful shot of Central Park?

O'BRIEN: That is.

COSTELLO: That makes you want to go out and build a snowman, doesn't it?

O'BRIEN: It sure does.

COSTELLO: Liar.

O'BRIEN: Sure it does.

Not a bit. No, let's -- hey, you'd better get out there and shovel because it's illegal if you don't. So get out there, if you have something to shovel, shovel it because New York City...

COSTELLO: Off your sidewalks in New York City.

O'BRIEN: ... or we'll rat you out right here.

Let's talk about the weather. We know it's bad. And investigators have to decide if conditions were OK for a safe landing in Chicago last night. A 737-700 Series slid off of a runway, heavy snow conditions, low visibility, low ceiling, Chicago's Midway Airport last night, and a slick runway. And a short one, as well.

It crashed into two cars and a little boy was killed.

Sean Callebs live from the scene now with more -- good morning, Sean.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

Behind me you can see -- it's only about 300 yards from where we're standing -- the tail section of that Southwest Airlines jet. It's all -- the aircraft is still in one piece. It happened about 7:00 local time last night. This jet was coming in from Baltimore.

Now upon landing, it skidded off the runway, it went through a small grassy area then through a fence and right into the middle of Ctrl Avenue. At that point it slammed into two vehicles, the wing section coming down on one area, injuring four people; the nose section coming down on a car, a family of five, killing a 6-year-old boy.

All told, 11 people were taken to the hospital for injuries, some of those considered serious, as well.

The conditions right now out clear and cold. However, dramatically different last night at the time of the accident. It was snowing heavily. We know the runway had snow on it despite the best efforts by Midway Airport to keep that runway clear. Here's what it looked like, according to eyewitnesses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA VELASQUEZ, WITNESS: The snow was horrible. If you stand even by the corner of our house, you could not see the scene that you see now. I mean you can probably see the bright lights, but there was so much snow everywhere. It was just ridiculous. I mean something like this was probably unavoidable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CALLEBS: Now, Midway Airport is located right smack dab in the middle of a residential area. It'll be interesting to see if there is somewhat of an outcry from the local residents in this area.

FAA, NTSB are on the scene. They're going to be poring over all the evidence they have. And, Miles, you talked about the runway, one of the shortest in the nation, only 6,500 feet. Under the best of conditions, an aircraft like a 737 needs at least 4,500 feet to land safely -- 4,900 feet. And coming in at night like that under conditions, it could have very easily had a long landing, touched down somewhat farther down the runway. And given those slick conditions, that could very well have played a part on this.

We hope to know more. We hope to hear from investigators a little bit later in the morning -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Yes, a slick runway, low visibility, a bit of a tail wind, a lot stacking up against that flight crew -- Sean.

CALLEBS: Exactly. You talked about that tail wind. It wasn't hideously bad, about seven knots, given the conditions in the Chicago area, which are typically windy.

However, it was interesting to hear because airline officials said the visibility was good last night. But you found some different information this morning doing your research, that apparently the visibility was only about 3,000 feet and pilots really need about 4,000 feet coming in, in the conditions that it was last night.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Actually, we've gotten some more modified things. I think the runway visual range was about 4,500 feet down the runway, which would put it right on the bubble there. It's only a quarter of mile of visibility through the air.

So it was definitely a rough night and the kind of approach that just has to be smack dab accurate.

So, in any case, there you see the results...

CALLEBS: In fact, it's the kind of thing that...

O'BRIEN: Go ahead.

CALLEBS: It's the kind of thing that you'd think would give anybody knots in their stomach coming into conditions like that. It has to be almost perfect. They're right on the edge of just about everything.

O'BRIEN: Yes, exactly. A good way to put it.

Sean Callebs in Chicago.

Thank you -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I was just looking at those cars.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

COSTELLO: Yes, it was terrible.

O'BRIEN: Can you imagine driving down the road and seeing that?

COSTELLO: Yes. Awful.

That bad weather that blew through the Midwest, of course, is now on the East Coast. Up to a foot of snow could be coming in some areas.

Chris Huntington along the New Jersey Turnpike near Secaucus. And, you know, I just got an e-mail from Theresa (ph) in Lansing, Michigan. She says we're always complaining, we're complaining it's 26 degrees here. She says that's nothing. It's more frigid...

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that...

COSTELLO: ... that's like wussy talk.

HUNTINGTON: Yes, 26 degrees in Lansing, Michigan is t-shirt weather. Here along the New Jersey turnpike, conditions have improved a little bit, Carol, from what they were an hour or so ago. It's definitely gotten warmer. That means the snow is wetter. Definitely slushy conditions all along the roadway.

I have to say, though, that traffic, all things considered, is moving quite well. This is a very, very heavily congested section of the New Jersey Turnpike. We're only a few miles from the turnoff here to the Lincoln Tunnel, one of the main routes into New York City.

An indication, though, of just how serious this storm is. If are at all nautically experienced, you know what it means when you see a flock of sea gulls land inland. That means trouble out to sea. We're not too far from the coast here and as, of course, is the situation with this storm, it is moving a bit offshore.

Overall, though, Carol, I have to say that this is something that is not probably as big a problem on the roads as people might have feared.

Talking, though, about visibility, it is still limited visibility here and we know that there are major delays at the major New York City airports here.

And, Miles, you and Sean were talking earlier about landing and takeoff conditions out in Chicago. They've got to be similarly dicey here in the New York area...

O'BRIEN: Yes.

HUNTINGTON: Carol and Miles, back to you.

COSTELLO: And also with Midway Airport still shut down. I'm sure that's causing all sorts of headaches for travelers this morning.

Chris Huntington live in Secaucus.

Thank you.

Let's head to Atlanta now to check in with Bonnie Schneider to get the forecast for the rest of the country -- hey, Bonnie.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, ATS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Carol.

Chris was just mentioning airport delays, well, we have them at LaGuardia Airport. Take a look, there's ground delays over an hour at LaGuardia Airport. And in Philadelphia, there's a ground delay of 15 minutes, maybe a little bit more than that, so check with your air carrier if you're going to be heading out this morning anywhere in the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic or Great Lakes Region, where snow has already fallen.

What we're looking at now is our radar picture. And it's very interesting to note that changeover already occurring.

Philadelphia reports ice pellets at this hour because they've lost the snow and now are starting to get that warmer air coming in. So it's changing over, eventually, to rain.

It's raining on most of Long Island right now, even though it looks like it's getting freezing rain, much of what we're seeing out toward Shirley and the Hamptons is rain at this time, especially along the South Shore.

But New York City, there's snow certainly still in the forecast. We still have snow there right now and we are expecting several inches.

Let's show you a live picture. It's actually gorgeous out there if you look at Central Park and Columbus Circle. What a picture. I guess it's snowing all over the world, right?

We're looking at this now, live pictures. The snow is heavy. And what you're seeing with this particular storm are really large snowflakes. They look beautiful outside. But let me tell you, they are heavy. It's going to be very heavy to shovel this snow. So if you're not in good physical shape, this is not the time to test yourself, because we're looking at very weighty snow on the ground. I guess it's good for snowballs, but it will be slushy as a lot of this moisture changes over to rain in the forecast.

Coming back to the map now, what we're looking at is eventually high pressure building in. This is a fast moving storm. By 4:00 today, if this low continues to push offshore, we'll get some colder air behind it and some snow coming into areas in Upstate New York.

But much of the country will be influenced by this dome of high pressure. A lot of sunshine coming in. So a nice changeover. And even after these chilly conditions, what we're looking at, with temperatures right now still very cold, later on today, some areas, not everybody, but a lot of folks, will start to get a little bit milder.

And see this milder air to the south? A lot of this will work its way to the Northeast for the weekend.

So, Miles, even though it's snowing right now, a lot of places will get into the 40s by Sunday.

O'BRIEN: Bonnie Schneider, thank you very much.

An American hostage in Iraq in the news this morning. Kelly has more on that -- good morning, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

We are following that. And the family of that American hostage held in Iraq is begging his captors to spare his life. Ronald Schulz appears in a videotape aired earlier this week. He was apparently working in Iraq as an electrician.

Another American, Tom Fox, is also being held captive. He was abducted with three other Christian aide workers and their deadline is set to expire tomorrow.

Meanwhile, in other grim news, an American contractor has been killed near the Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Officials are trying to identify the person. No other details were released.

Some new and potentially devastating charges about Merck and its drug Vioxx. Editors at the "New England Journal of Medicine" claim a study funded by Merck left out critical information about Vioxx's health effects. Specifically, the study did not disclose heart attacks suffered by three patients. Merck says it has always been honest with the public at the risks from Vioxx.

A new twist in the case of that Florida teacher who admitted having sex with a student. Twenty-five-year-old Debra Lafave thought she had a deal that would keep her out of prison. But a judge said no way. The judge rejected it. He says the agreement went below sentencing guidelines. Trial is now set for April. Lafave's lawyers were able to get a plea deal in another county, where she was also charged.

And the newest cop on Miami Beach won't be hard to find. He's 7'1" and weighs more than 300 pounds. That's right, we're talking about Shaq. Shaquille O'Neal will be working as an investigator with the child pornography unit. Shaq says he has wanted to be on the force since he was a kid, but then started playing ball and put that dream on hold. His pay as a reserve officer, by the way, $1. Now that is a story I would like to do -- follow Shaq on the beat...

COSTELLO: On the beat...

WALLACE: ... as he's talking the streets of Miami Beach.

COSTELLO: That would be so cool.

WALLACE: How fun would that be?

COSTELLO: Can you imagine the intimidation factor as he's questioning like suspects?

O'BRIEN: He sure doesn't need a gun, does he?

COSTELLO: No.

O'BRIEN: No. Wow! COSTELLO: Good for him, though. That's awesome.

O'BRIEN: Yes, sir, officer, sir.

WALLACE: Exactly.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

WALLACE: We'll have to follow that one. That'll be fun to see.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

COSTELLO: Ooh, Kelly wants to do that one.

Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, more on that controversial police tape we first told you about. We told you about it yesterday, actually. Some people are calling it racist and sexist. But the maker, he says it's art. It was just a joke.

O'BRIEN: Interesting defense.

COSTELLO: It was art.

O'BRIEN: It's -- I am an artiste. First amendment stuff and all that. We're going to see how that goes.

COSTELLO: Yes, we will.

O'BRIEN: Also, the road to recovery in New Orleans. The city's biggest university says it is ready to reopen for business at last. But what exactly will students be coming back to?

COSTELLO: Also, more on the deadly plane crash in Congress. We're going to talk to a former airline pilot. We're going to ask him what he thinks happened. That's also ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Live pictures now, Midway Airport. The National Transportation Safety Board is on the scene. Actually, these are taped pictures, a little while ago, maybe last night. I don't know.

OK, last night pictures from WFLD, Midway Airport, Chicago. A Southwest Airlines 737 sliding off the end of the runway there. Not much margin of error there. About 280 feet from the end of the runway overrun, concrete to the road itself. Lots of snow on the ground, obviously. Visibility not good. A little bit of a tail wind. A lot of factors against the flight crew in this case.

Former airline pilot John Wiley on the phone with us now to talk to us.

He's had an opportunity to look at the data, the radar data that is out there and available from one of the flight tracking software.

And, John, you're -- you were able basically to get a sense of the speed and altitude on approach for this.

And what's your general sense of whether this approach was being flown properly?

JOHN WILEY, FORMER AIRLINE CAPTAIN: The approach is an aisle left to the runway to the northwest that's an instrument approach that allows you low visibility landings. And the data that I saw showed that the airplane was moving at about 146 knots at 1,700 feet. That is the intercept altitude for the instrument approach and that would indicate to me that the pilot was stabilized and that this was a good approach.

O'BRIEN: All right, but the last -- unfortunately I wasn't able to get a graphic together for folks, but the last item on that flight tracker indicates 180 knots, a little faster.

What do we make of that one?

WILEY: I don't know if that's an anomaly, Miles, or if that's actual data. But if it's 180 knots and that's accurate, that's definitely an unstabilized approach.

O'BRIEN: Because it...

WILEY: But we have to look at that and try to figure out an explanation for that item.

O'BRIEN: Yes, I hate to walk viewers through something I don't have a graphic for. But basically he was at about 204 knots. That's a little -- 220 miles an hour, or thereabouts, at 2,500 feet. Then he was 146 knots at 1,700 feet. Then the last one, cryptically, says 180 knots and 1,700 feet.

WILEY: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Now, if that is accurate, 180 knots is awfully fast, isn't it?

WILEY: It is. And so we have to figure out where the anomaly is and where that 180 knots came from.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

WILEY: I mean that's a difficult one to explain. We don't know if the data was accurate or not.

O'BRIEN: Right.

WILEY: That's one of the ones that as pulled off of the Net, a tracking device which certain people have access to.

O'BRIEN: Right. Right. All right, so that, that could lead us to believe, one way or another -- this is just, as we walk through this, we want to make it very clear, we're just kind of running through the factors.

WILEY: Exactly.

O'BRIEN: This is the kind of thing that the NTSB would do.

As we look at live pictures now from our affiliate there, WFLD, looking down the end of the runway, you can sort of see the runway and what happened there.

John, in these situations, low visibility, a slick runway, how does a pilot make a good decision? Because you just don't know what kind of braking action you're going to get, what sort of friction there is in the runway.

What is the data that a pilot has on that prior to landing?

WILEY: I would have been asking for braking action reports. Pilots that have landed in front of you will issue braking reports or the tower will ask the pilots about braking reports. And they come in -- they're termed as either good, fair, poor or nil.

I can't imagine anybody making an approach to that runway with conditions less than good braking action.

O'BRIEN: I...

WILEY: So it'll be interesting to find out what the braking action reports are.

O'BRIEN: Talk more about this. I have...

WILEY: There was...

O'BRIEN: I have heard that pilots sometimes are reluctant to report nil because that means you've got to shut down the runway, plow the runway and that causes a whole ripple effect of delays.

Is there pressure like that?

WILEY: No, not really. Not in today's environment. You've just got too much on the line, Miles. I mean here you are, the guy that's coming down the -- coming down the approach behind you is putting his life and his passenger's life -- lives at risk with a bad report. So I would have to say that that's a remote possibility, a very remote possibility. You're talking about guys who've got their lives on the line. They're very professional about this. There is no competition among various carriers when it comes to safety.

O'BRIEN: John Wiley, a former airline pilot, taking some time out from some training he's taking.

Thank you for your time, John.

WILEY: Thanks, Miles.

Talk to you later

O'BRIEN: All right -- Carol. COSTELLO: Coming up, New Orleans' Tulane University says it's ready for students to come back to school. But will it be a much different school when they do come back and will they come back? That story is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Pete Fountain is now officially your theme music, Dannielle Romano.

It's Daily Candy time and...

DANNIELLE ROMANO, DAILYCANDY.COM: We've always been looking for a theme song. Hasn't everyone?

O'BRIEN: I think you have one, you know?

ROMANO: It's that time of year.

O'BRIEN: Johnny Carson had that thing and now you've got -- you've got Pete Fountain with "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town." Of course, it'll be kind of weird using it in July, but we'll...

ROMANO: It's going to work, Miles.

O'BRIEN: We'll work on something -- we'll work on a sequel...

ROMANO: Oh, it's going to work.

O'BRIEN: Make it work.

All right, let's talk today. We're going to surf the Web again. And we should tell you folks that we're going to give you the addresses afterward in case you missed them.

So, first of all, let's go -- this is -- the theme today is gifts for people you just never see. They are workaholics. They're at work right now.

ROMANO: They're workaholics.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

ROMANO: They're a mini mogul. So you know these people are on your list...

O'BRIEN: Sure.

ROMANO: ... when they are always talking about board meetings, mysterious advisers. You might be invited to a white boarding session. These people are mini moguls.

O'BRIEN: Wow!

ROMANO: They're a tycoon. They're always on the go and there's a lot of pressure, not like mom and dad, like yesterday. Whoa. That was pressure.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

ROMANO: There's a lot of pressure because they need something that's useful. These people are just go, go, go, go, go.

O'BRIEN: Right.

ROMANO: So I figure...

O'BRIEN: And how would you know what they like, because all they do is work?

ROMANO: And you only hear about...

O'BRIEN: So it's got to be a work gift.

ROMANO: ... their stupid startup. But...

O'BRIEN: There you go.

ROMANO: No offense.

O'BRIEN: All right, Illy. This is for the...

ROMANO: Illy...

O'BRIEN: ... because they love caffeine, of course. We know that, right?

ROMANO: Every good start up and enterprise is fueled by coffee.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

ROMANO: So Illy is the famous coffeemaker. They make coffee itself. They also make the, you know, accompanying gear.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

ROMANO: So what a beautiful espresso machine. They do a really good job incorporating good design into their very useful products. So this is something -- with the entrepreneur, you need something they can use but you're like, you know, come out of the dark ages. Jazz it up a little bit. Work isn't everything.

So make their coffee experience a more stylish one.

O'BRIEN: And it has a home delivery program, which I'm interested in. That's kind of interesting. So you can actually get the espresso just kind of sent off to you.

ROMANO: Exactly.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Cool.

ROMANO: Which makes it easy. They don't have time to pick it up at the local market.

O'BRIEN: No, no.

ROMANO: So make it easier.

Now what about...

O'BRIEN: I wonder how they keep it in the little cups, though, when they deliver it? That's going to be really hard...

ROMANO: They hold it very, very still.

O'BRIEN: Yes, that's going to be tough.

ROMANO: But that's their concern, not ours.

O'BRIEN: But that's -- Federal Express can handle that, right?

ROMANO: And so the lady entrepreneur is jet setting around. She has this laptop bag. She's so busy, she hasn't been able to update. She has one that she got for free at a conference that has some...

O'BRIEN: Yes, and they look like...

ROMANO: ... some creepy logo and it's in tatters.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

ROMANO: So you need to help her.

O'BRIEN: Now, that's nice. That's very stylish.

ROMANO: This is a designer called Bird In Hands. And the URL is Getbirdinhand.com. This is stylish. It's also -- it's kind of faux leather, so it's really sturdy. It's good for even the vegan entrepreneur. And they're a growing population, Miles.

O'BRIEN: They really are.

ROMANO: And it's just -- she can -- it's still very professional, but it definitely sort of adds a little panache.

O'BRIEN: So we used to call it pleather. Now it's faux leather? Is it -- it's been upgraded, hasn't it?

ROMANO: Well, we can still call it pleather. But I -- we want to have the right connotation, right?

O'BRIEN: All right. Now, it's funny, the new, this one skin, what is it?

ROMANO: Skinit.com.

O'BRIEN: Every time I go to Skinit.com it pushes me over to Xbox.

ROMANO: What?

O'BRIEN: And I don't know -- I've got a virus, I guess, from here...

ROMANO: I think something crazy is going on.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Isn't that weird?

ROMANO: So...

O'BRIEN: Yes, why do I -- Skinit. This is cool.

ROMANO: This is really cool. This -- of course these people are men and women of distinction. They don't want what other people have because they're single-minded on their focus, their business, their cause.

O'BRIEN: Right.

ROMANO: Skinit makes their boring old electronic devices their own. They're very distinct.

O'BRIEN: Right.

ROMANO: So you can either buy their ready made skins with like dollar sign prints or like cheetah and jazz up their PDA, their iPod, their laptop, all that gear they carry around.

O'BRIEN: Right.

ROMANO: Or you can upload a file so they can get their big old mug or your big old mug on their PDA.

O'BRIEN: Ooh! Yes.

ROMANO: So they want everybody, you know, all of these entrepreneurs have a Blackberry. It'll look totally different with a custom skin.

O'BRIEN: So the AMERICAN MORNING Skinit could happen.

And we've got to do this very quickly...

ROMANO: We are so going there.

OK, the last one...

O'BRIEN: All right, real quick. The final item. This is from Gadgetuniverse.com, my favorite site ever.

ROMANO: The Orbiter electronic listening device...

O'BRIEN: Yes, listen to this.

ROMANO: ... because just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you. You've got to worry about the competition. This is going to give them a leg up. They're always like what are their -- what are they doing?

O'BRIEN: There it is.

ROMANO: They need competitive intelligence. So they can just sort of wear this outside the competitor's office and not get arrested but it amplifies...

O'BRIEN: It wouldn't be inconspicuous at all to be going around with that parabolic microphone. Not a bit.

ROMANO: Totally not. That's...

O'BRIEN: Dannielle...

ROMANO: It's -- this is what they're going to want.

O'BRIEN: All right, Dannielle Romano...

ROMANO: You heard it here first.

O'BRIEN: ... we'll put those addresses up some time, somewhere.

All right, thank you very much.

Dailycandy.com, our daily segment.

We'll see you next week.

ROMANO: Always a pleasure.

O'BRIEN: All right.

ROMANO: More shopping to do. Always more shopping to do.

COSTELLO: I love that pleather laptop case.

O'BRIEN: No, no, no, faux leather.

COSTELLO: Oh, sorry.

ROMANO: We agreed we can say it either way.

O'BRIEN: OK. All right.

COSTELLO: I love the lavender one.

Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, a look at this weekend's big movies, "The Chronicles of Narnia" -- is it a simple fantasy flick or does this tale run much deeper? We'll take a look as AMERICAN MORNING continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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