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Small Plane Crashes in Southern California; Paying for College

Aired January 24, 2006 - 10:30   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And now to a story you will see only here on CNN. The Ford Motor Company moving ahead with restructuring plans that we told you about yesterday. Meanwhile there are renewed safety concerns about three of its models. The cars have the fuel tanks behind the rear axles. And critics say that has led to fiery rear-end crashes. We first investigated this potentially fatal problem back in 2003. Well now we have an update for you. It aired on CNN's "ANDERSON COOPER" last night. Here's Susan Candiotti.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Now in an award-winning documentary three years ago, CNN's Susan Candiotti reported on dangers that rear- end fuel tank fires posed to the police in such cars. Well after the deaths of a dozen police officers, Ford made changes to the cars but only in the cars used by law enforcement.

For little more than a hundred dollars, it could have done the same to millions of other cars on the road. But Ford decided not to. The question is why? And would lives have been saved if they did? CNN's Susan Candiotti has more on an investigation you'll only see here on CNN.

BRENDA HOWELL, DAUGHTERS KILLED IN CAR FIRE : They had a glow about them. They were beautiful.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Three sisters, all young, two of them new mothers, left in a limousine for a rock concert at Greensboro, North Carolina. They never got home.

Caught in a traffic jam, their limo was rammed from behind by a pickup truck going well over the speed limit.

JAMES CANADY, LIMOUSINE DRIVER: I saw flames shooting past my window, and I said, oh my God, we're on fire.

CANDIOTTI: Limo Driver James Canady had to kick his door open.

CANADY: The whole vehicle was on fire. As soon as I jumped out of the car, I heard one of the ladies scream, oh my God. And that's all I heard. And that was it.

CANDIOTTI: The sisters were trapped in the back. The fire too fierce for anyone to reach them.

CANADY: You could see the fire just like gasoline just keep blowing up. CANDIOTTI: The medical examiner ruled all three sisters burned to death, even though only one was injured by the crash impact. Yet, the fire might have been avoided. Why? Ford, which designed their vehicle, already had made fixes around the gas tanks in its police cars. The stretch limo was a Lincoln Town Car. As in Canady's own Town Car, you can see where the fuel tank sticks up in the trunk.

(on camera): Only three American automobiles, all made by Ford, the Crown Victoria, Lincoln Town Car and Mercury Marquis, still have their gas tanks this far back behind the rear axle, in the trunk area, touching off a safety debate that started long before the sisters died.

(voice-over): Since the early '90s, at least a dozen police officers, among them, this Arizona highway patrolman, were burned to death when the Crown Victoria cruisers were hit from behind and the gas tanks went up in flames.

Three years ago, under pressure by several police departments --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've shielded some components that are mounted on the axle.

CANDIOTTI: Ford made safety changes to put rubber and plastic shields on sharp parts around the tank in the patrol cars. They're now standard equipment when the police cars come off the assembly line.

Watch this. A cop car crash in Chicago. This is a success story. The shields worked. The officer lived. Look again. Since the changes to vehicles like this, no one has burned to death because of a puncture in a police car with the new gas tank shields.

Yet, back in 2002, when Ford was asked if everyday drivers would get the same protection, Ford said their cars were already safe.

This at a news conference announcing the shields for police.

SUSAN CISCHKE, FORD VICE PRESIDENT FOR SAFETY: It's not necessary for the civilians because they don't use their vehicles like the police do.

CANDIOTTI: The explanation. Police cars are stopped alongside the road and thus exposed to onrushing traffic far more often than the rest of us.

CISCHKE: If there's anybody that feels that they use their vehicle like the police, we can make the kit available to them at their cost, but we don't think it's necessary.

CANDIOTTI: So Ford never notified its car owners they could ask for the shields at a cost of only $100 or so if they went to their dealers.

Ricky and Brenda Howell's daughters died one year after that Ford decision. RICKY HOWELL, DAUGHTERS KILLED IN CAR FIRE: They're set in steel, just like a patrol car sitting in traffic.

CANDIOTTI: Under oath this past fall, Ford acknowledged the limo's gas tank was pierced by a bolt that would have been covered if the limo had the rubber shields.

B. HOWELL: They could fix the cars. They just didn't see why it needed to be done. I mean, and in our case it proves it did need to be done.

CANDIOTTI: Last fall, Ford offered limousine makers the shields without charge. No such offer, though, was made for the regular car models. Ford says its cars, some three million of these Crown Vic, Town Car and Mercury Marquis models already meet all the highest federal safety standards in 50 mile an hour crash tests like this.

In 2002 the Federal Highway Safety Agency did find in fatal crashes from all angles these Ford vehicles did have a lower rate of fire than other sedans in general. But in fires in rear-end crashes only, it said Ford did not fare as well as similar sized GM models.

Ford blamed the sisters deaths in North Carolina on the pickup driver who was drunk and is now in prison. Even so, Ford did decide to settle with the victims' families last week before trial. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Ford went to trial last spring in another Town Car crash and lost in a big way. This fire killed an elderly man whose regular Lincoln sedan was hit from behind at 60 miles an hour in a traffic backup on a bypass east of St. Louis.

Lawyer Brad Lakin cut a Town Car open to show the jury what happened.

BRADLEY LAKIN, VICTIM'S LAWYER: Right here is the fuel tank, which is right here behind what they call the deep well trunk.

CANDIOTTI: Lakin said the crash hurled a large wrench in that trunk trough the gas tank.

LAKIN: There's a very thin, as you can see, back wall to the trunk and this padding and that's the only protection in terms of any items coming through and actually puncturing the fuel tank itself.

CANDIOTTI: The driver, John Jablonski (ph), died from burns in a hospital the next night. His widow, Dora, survived the fire at a terrible price. The jury was shown this video of her, now in a nursing home.

EDWARD FRIEDEL, JURY FOREMAN: Her ears were pretty well gone, her nose, and it took a lot of courage for her to come into the courtroom, because the first words out of her mouth was that she knows she looks hideous.

CANDIOTTI: Back when Ford offered police the shields, it also came up with a special trunk pack to store objects that could puncture a gas tank. As for everyday drivers, again Ford sent them no information.

FRIEDEL: I felt that Ford could have prevented most all of this with a 37-cent stamp.

CANDIOTTI: As in the North Carolina fire, Ford said the other driver was at fault. She was ticketed for failure to slow down before the crash.

Edward Friedel, a delivery driver, became the jury foreman. He said when the jury went out, at first it was slow going. Then --

FRIEDEL: One juror just blurted out, does anybody feel that Ford did something wrong? And that's when unanimously everybody said, yes, they withheld the truth.

CANDIOTTI: The verdict against Ford, almost $44 million in damages for Mrs. Jablonski. Ford is appealing, arguing it did not get a fair trial. The company declined to be interviewed on camera for this story.

But last fall, again under oath, Ford's top safety official did say nothing has changed in her thinking. She still does not recommend the police car safety fixes for the everyday driver.

R. HOWELL: She don't know the pain we feel right now. This could have been prevented and we know that.

CANDIOTTI (on camera): We asked the Federal Highway Safety Agency what it's doing in this matter. A spokesman says they're keeping an eye on it, but have no plans to open any investigation. The government spokesman calls the question of shields for everyday drivers, "a consumer issue" between the car owner and the manufacturer." If you have a Town Car, Crown Victoria, or Mercury Marquis, this covers all model years going back as far as 1992. Ford says you can order the shields if you want, through your local dealer ship. Anderson?

COOPER: An amazing report. For a little more than $150, parts and labor, your car can have the protection Ford offers to police. You can get the part at your Ford dealer. The issue Ford hasn't told you about it. We called a half-dozen Ford and Mercury dealers in major metropolitan areas to find out if we could purchase the fuel tank shield kit.

Only three of the six dealers we called even knew the shield existed or what we were talking about. We did buy a kit from a dealer on Long Island. This is what it looks like right here. It costs $117.50. That plus the cost of about an hour's labor to install it. And these are two large pieces, these are placed on either side of the gas tank to protect it from anything sharp and then there is this small horseshoe rubber piece right here which would have covered the bolt that punctured the gas tank in the limo fire that killed three sisters. CNN's Susan Candiotti joins me again. Susan, I understand that many of these rear end crashes do happen at high speeds, well over the limit. And Ford says that any car's fuel tank might fail in some of the high-force impacts, regardless of where the tank is located, is that true?

CANDIOTTI: Sure, let me get to that in just a second here.

First, I want to give you a quick look at the trunk itself. We took out the padding so you could get a better look at it. It's behind the rear axle, as you pointed out. This is the fuel tank right there, and it's right behind the back seat.

Now, Anderson, asked about those high-speed crashes. And I do want to correctly point out to you, that you have to remember two or three things about it. First of all, for years, the Federal Highway Safety Agency only required a car's gas tank to hold up under a 35- mile-an-hour impact. Now that standard has gone up to 50 miles an hour.

But when Ford designed these shields for police cars, Ford tested them at 75 miles an hour. And the company says the tanks remained intact. So the shield do work for the cop cars, even in some of the worst crash scenarios, all the more reason one would think to share with the rest of us.

COOPER: So for whoever might want to get one of these kits, does Ford have a Web site? is There a 1-800 number? How do you get them?

CANDIOTTI: Well, Ford does have one site, www.customeraskford.com, where you can type in any kind of troubleshooting question, and that is manned by real people 24 hours a day.

Now if your dealer doesn't know about this, then I would suggest that you start there.

COOPER: As I said, we called six dealers, three of them didn't know what we're talking about.

Susan Candiotti, thanks very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Thank you to Susan and to Anderson for that clip from his show last night.

If you'd like to see more investigative journalism on the level of Susan's report on Ford, be sure to watch "ANDERSON COOPER 360." It airs weeknights at 10:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

And let's get the latest on this plane crash in Carlsbad, California, the northern part of San Diego County. A report just in from one of our affiliates KUSI and reporter Brigette Naso.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no other public official.

BRIGETTE NASO, KUSI REPORTER (on camera): We know a small plane crashed into a storage unit here. I know you've been talking to some witnesses on the phone. And this is the scene right now. They're keeping us back from the area, but we just had one of the firefighters come out. He's very traumatized. He said that he responded to the scene, saw the plane smoking and going down about 200 feet west of the runway and slamming into this building. He responded and he saw cars on fire, the plane on fire, and he said several victims there at the scene, Probably About three. And so that's a firsthand report. We haven't confirmed that report, but that's what we're hearing on the ground. And this person was a fire official. Bill Clayton, division chief. Very traumatized. He just left here. Wasn't able to go on and talk to us live.

But here is the scene right now, police and fire keeping us back from the storage facility off of Dryden Place and Palomar Oaks Way. We are near the Palomar Airport.

We're hearing that this was a commuter plane, a small possibly Cessna, and that's what we have from the scene right now.

But as you can see, we're back behind. They're keeping us behind as they investigate. I did talk to one of the fire officials here. He said the fire is out. And you see there are paramedics standing by here. We have a couple of paramedics. But we have not seen anyone or any transportation at all at this point.

So that's the scene from here. Very grave here from Palomar Airport. A small plane crashes into a storage facility just west of the airport, and we know we have possibly at least a few fatalities.

Reporting live. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: There's actually a news conference going on right now. Let's listen in from Carlsbad, California.

QUESTION: Go ahead and give me your name one more time.

TOM ZOLL: My name is Tom Zoll, Z-O-L-L. I'm the police chief for the city of Carlsbad.

And we'll -- as soon as we get more information, we'll come down and brief you again.

KAGAN: It looks like we just got the very end of that. But what we're hearing is a small plane in Carlsbad, California, the Palomar Airport, which is in the northern part of San Diego County. A small plane running off the runway and crashing into a storage facility. It looks like as many as three people might have died in that crash. More on that as it becomes available.

Also, out of Southern California fire, is a big danger there once again today. Strong winds expected to fan brush fires. Red flag warnings are posted. We'll get the forecast for the area just ahead.

Also have you heard about this? Now this is the strangest story of the day. Guy jumps off of a plane on a runway in Southern Florida after fighting with passengers and crew members. Hear from one man who tried to stop him, when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

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KAGAN: As long as we're talking money, let's talk about a lot of young people coming out of college really deep in debt. They tell us their number-one concern is how to pay off their college loans.

CNN financial adviser Valerie Morris has this step-by step advice on how to get those bills paid and leave the debt behind.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm 20, and right now my biggest financial concern is just getting through school and paying for it.

VALERIE MORRIS, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR (on camera): And with a typical undergrad college student nearly $19,000 in debt, school debt at this stage is a serious and intimidating situation. So how can you get a little peace of mind for that debt you incurred for that piece of paper called a diploma?

The senior financial planner at bankrate.com suggests, first and foremost, focus on paying off the highest interest rate debt, namely credit cards. The average college student has more than $2,000 in unpaid charges and pays a double digit annual rate, from 13 to 16 percent.

While hammering away at your credit card debt, don't neglect making regular payments on your lower-interest rate student loan. Being consistent with always-on-time payment may qualify you for reduced interest rates.

And finally, after tossing your cap in the air on graduation day, consider consolidating your college loan debt. Consolidation could ease the burden and even reduce the amount of your monthly payments.

And something to be aware of, in July, the College Loan Consolidation Program could change from a fixed to a variable rate. Depending on interest rates, the change could either lighten or increase your payments.

Answering your questions "At This Age," I'm Valerie Morris in New York.

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KAGAN: A passenger, police say, was out of control on a flight yesterday out of Ft. Lauderdale. The man fights, bites then jumps off the plane while the plane is moving. Hard to believe, but you're going to hear from a witness when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

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KAGAN: Let's get the latest on the plane crash in Southern California. Kathleen Koch has been working her sources. Kathleen, what do you know is?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The news from the FAA is that four people have died in the crash of the small plane. The plane was flying into Carlsbad, California, from Sun Valley, Idaho, early this morning. And it was -- as it was landing at about 6:39 that the plane landed, skidded off the end of the runway, burst into flames.

And according to FAA spokesman Laura Brown it crashed into an equipment shed that is used to store aircraft navigational equipment at the end of the runway. And this is at McClellan-Palomar Airport. So, again, four people dead in that crash. It's a citation aircraft. Unclear who owned it, whether it was being used as a business jet or a commuter. But we're working to find that out. And we'll get that to you as soon as we do.

KAGAN: All right thank you, Susan -- Kathleen Koch with the latest from Palomar Airport, thank you. Now here's another story for you. A story to file under bizarre plane behavior. Police in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, say a passenger is facing multiple charges after he bit another passenger and jumped off the plane while it was still taxing. Police say that they zapped him with a stun gun when he resisted arrest. The bitten passenger spoke on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING" about the ordeal. He says the flight was delayed and sitting on the runway when the man complained of claustrophobia and said he needed to get off the plane.

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PAUL SIGLER, BITTEN BY AIRPLANE PASSENGER: Well I guess the captain depressurized the plane, then the man went nuts. He was kicking all the doors. He beat the flight attendant up pretty well. I had grabbed him by the shoulder and by his shirt. His shirt ripped. A couple other passengers were holding his arm. I grabbed his head and I grabbed his neck. And he started snapping at me with his teeth. He just said he wanted to get off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: We said the man faces a number of charges today in Florida. Returning to port, skipping stops, passengers on the Queen Mary II, they are steaming mad. They might be on the verge of mutiny ahead. The president of the Cunard Line joins us with the company's side of the story.

Plus magically melting away those extra pounds could get a whole lot easier if a popular diet pill becomes available over the counter. I'll speak with a dietitian about how well it really works and if it's safe. The second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins after a quick break.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KELLY CALLAHAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The FDA is expected to approve two drugs to fight obesity within the next month. The drug Accomplia is a prescription appetite suppressant pills that blocks the brain receptors that make you hungry. The drug's ally has been sold as the prescription drug Xenical for seven years. It prevents the body from absorbing fat. Pending approval, it would be available over the counter.

If you've ever felt like a pin cushion while giving blood or during a hospital stay, meet the vein finder. Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed an inexpensive handheld device that uses doppler ultrasound to find veins quickly. The vein finder's accuracy will make treating trauma patients more those who need ongoing I.V.'s or blood work much easier. Kelly Callahan, CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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