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Dayton Air Show Crash Claims Life of Stunt Flyer; One Commander Claims Progress in Iraq

Aired July 28, 2007 - 17:00   ET

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it can help save some kids or protect some kids, that's one of the best things for me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, he won't have to worry about these vehicles but my photographer asked :

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is he getting overtime?

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think so.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In West Salem, Britney Moorehouse (ph), Channel 3 News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Pretty inventive.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The next hour of the NEWSROOM with Rick Sanchez begins right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're seeing trends of Iraqi security forces being able to do more operations. If those trends continue, I feel confident we'll be able to do something in the spring.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Those are rare words of optimism coming out of Iraq. Plus, the search for answers in earnest for the mid-air crash of two TV news helicopters in Phoenix. A lot of information.

Also another air crash today, this one in Dayton, Ohio. We are still getting information on that one. We'll let you see much of it, right here.

Hello, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez. We're here in B Control, where we've got news coming in, as a matter of fact.

Tragedy in Ohio is where we're going to begin. It's a vintage biplane that slammed into the tarmac there killing the pilot. The aircraft was performing some aerial stunts at the Dayton Air Show. It was doing a loop-to-loop maneuver as described by some of the witnesses when it stunned some of the spectators. Imagine, it suddenly hit the runway and then just burst into flames. Fire crews are on the scene. Gene Conrad is joining us now. He's a spokesperson for the Dayton International Airport. He's joining us by phone.

Mr. Conrad, thanks so much for being with us, sir.

GENE CONRAD, SPOKESPERSON, DAYTON INTL. AIRPORT: Thank you for having me, I appreciate it.

SANCHEZ: How would you describe what happened, whether you saw it or not?

CONRAD: Actually, I did see it. I would just like to say, first of all, it's a very sad day for us here today. And we'd like to send out our condolences to the Leroy (ph) family and the rest of the air show community. Because they are a tight-knit group and we send out condolences to all of them.

He was performing an maneuver today and he was coming out of it, and heading toward the ground. And he impacted the ground, he slid 300 yards. When he came to a stop he was engulfed in flames. Our crash fire rescue people expedited to the scene. They got there, they put the flames out. And then medivaced him in a Black Hawk helicopter. We do have a large military presence here, this year. So they were on scene. They medivaced him to a hospital and he was pronounced, dead on the way to the hospital.

SANCHEZ: How many people were there who witnessed this?

CONRAD: I couldn't say right now. The air show hasn't come out with the official total for the day. It may come out tomorrow.

SANCHEZ: You know, give me an estimate if you would.

CONRAD: I would say, about 40,000, 50,000 people.

SANCHEZ: This wasn't an actual part of the show? This wasn't something that was going on prior to or afterward? This wasn't a practice run or anything like that?

CONRAD: This was part of the show. It was called Mary's Lamb, was the performance. It's Jim Leroy (ph), Skip Stewart (ph) and the Shockwave Jet Drum (ph).

SANCHEZ: So their attention was focused on this when it happened?

CONRAD: Yes, that's correct.

SANCHEZ: That must have been tough for some of the folks here. What kind of reaction have you heard from them?

CONRAD: Unfortunately his wife and his son were here today. They unfortunately witnessed that. We, again, send out our condolences to them and our heartfelt condolences. SANCHEZ: He's been doing this for a long time has he?

CONRAD: Yes, I believe so. I don't know all the history on him, but I go up to Oshkosh every year. And he's performed up there many years. And it's a tragic loss for us all.

SANCHEZ: Were any of spectators ever in danger as a result of this crash?

CONRAD: No, sir. Not at all. No, sir.

SANCHEZ: Do you wonder or worry sometimes -- I mean, we hear about these from time to time, you heard of the incident not long ago, involving the Blue Angels. That people going to this are putting themselves in a situation where if something like this did happen, they could be obviously very much affected by it?

CONRAD: It's hard to say. I mean, the air show community, it's like NASCAR. You go to NASCAR, a lot of people see wrecks and things like that. It's just different. Flying is different. It has its own personality. It's awe-inspiring to a lot of people.

It just different when people see it and affects people differently when something like that happens. A car wreck, you see it all the time, but you don't often see an accident with a plane so it's very hard.

SANCHEZ: Thanks so much. By the way, for those of you just joining us, there it is. Part of the wreckage that you see of the biplane that went down in the middle of the air show there at Dayton.

The situation is now that they have cleared it. Unfortunately the pilot is deceased. It happened, as you heard, in the middle of the air show itself. That's Gene Conrad, a spokesperson for the Dayton airport. He's good enough to join us. We'll keep tabs on the story.

If we hear anything else, we're bring it to you. I do understand, we thank our affiliates for following that story and bringing us whatever tape you have. But I've just been handed a note there may be some more tape coming in on this story, possibly from WKEF, another affiliate out there.

As soon as we get that video we'll turn it around to let you see it as well. Well, be sharing it with you. Obviously, we'll try and look at it first to make sure it's not something that might be too dramatic especially if there's youngsters watching the newscast. We'll get on that right away, though.

Stay with us. We'll turn that around as soon as we can get it.

Meanwhile, federal investigators literally putting the pieces together to figure out why two news helicopters collided yesterday, killing four people. The NTSB is on the scene, there in Phoenix. They're going to be trying now to reconstruct this accident involving the helicopters, as best they can from the wreckage. They are also going to try to interview as many witnesses as they can possibly find. Now, we understand there were a bevy of them. Because the accident happened on live television, they also have a lot of footage to go through; footage to sift through to see if they can learn anything from it. An NTSB official, the National Transportation Safety Board, that's federal agency that investigates crashes, has told reporters the crash was tragic, but things could have been, his words, much worse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The scene is actually very confined. We just came from a tour of the scene. We walked around it quite a bit. It's very confined, in the park area itself. There is scattered debris in some areas. We're very fortunate that none of the debris injured anyone. There were no injuries outside of the four fatalities.

There was one close call where a piece of the rotor blade came off one of the helicopters and it hit a truck. It was a delivery truck and it hit the front windshield of the truck, just in front of the driver. But then imbedded itself in the asphalt and missed the driver and he was not injured.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Part of the reason this story has had such an effect on people is the drama of it. This crash happened right as the two helicopters were following in almost a parallel pattern in the sky. They were following a news story, police chase that was going on at the time right through the streets of Phoenix.

You know, five news helicopters and one police helicopter were in the air, in the same general area, making for, as you might imagine, a crowded sky. CNN's Carol Costello has more on how this crash went down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not sure which helicopters they were.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Thick black smoke in a Phoenix park as horrified witnesses watch two TV helicopters crash in mid air and fall into flames on the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was standing right inside the park when I've seen two helicopters, what looked like -- they were in mid air, they crashed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard like a loud gunshot. And then about two seconds after that, there was a loud, like a huge bang. Then just two helicopters coming straight down. Falling into about three different areas, bursting into flame, and debris all over the place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was devastated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's coming up to Third Street and Osborn. COSTELLO: According to local TV affiliates they news choppers were following a police chase on a Phoenix highway. Police say a suspect had stolen a city vehicle, and at one point jumped out of that car, and on to another car on the highway. Police say that it was at that point the helicopters collided. Our affiliate, ABC 15 is reporting it's pilot Craig Smith and its photographer, Rick Krolak are dead. KTVK is reporting Pilot Scott Bowerbank and Jim Cox were killed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: More now on the high speed chase that we were telling you about, that set this whole thing up, as a news story. Christopher Jones, is his name. You see him there? Arrested in that high speed chase.

Police say he may be held responsible, as well, for causing the deaths of the helicopter news crews. He's already facing charges for vehicle theft and for resisting arrest as well.

Both local news stations are letting viewers leaving their condolences for the victims' families. KTVK.com has a special look at their crew, Scott Bowerbank and Jim Cox. There's also a similar tribute that is being set up for Craig Smith and Rick Krolak. For that, you can go to KNXV.com.

Signs of progress now in Iraq. A top U.S. commander there is expressing some cautious optimism. This is a CNN exclusive. Our Arwa Damon reports now on this, from Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTL. CORRESPONDENT: The No. 2, U.S. commander in Iraq Lieutenant General Ray Odierno said that based on initial signs of success on the U.S. surge and of ongoing combat operations, that U.S. troops in Iraq could begin drawing down as early as this spring.

LT. GEN. RAYMOND ODIERNO, U.S. ARMY: We're seeing some clear trends. What I have to understand, are those trends going to continue? We're seeing trends of IEDs going down. We're seeing trends of less violence. We're seeing trends of casualties going down. We're seeing trends of Iraqi security forces being able to do more operations. If those trends continue, I feel confident that we'll be able to do something in the spring.

DAMON: General Odierno did caution, though, that for the drawdown to be successful it would have to be done very deliberately.

ODIERNO: It depends on how fast we draw down. I think if we do it in a deliberate way, I think we'll be able to maintain what we have gained and turn it over to the Iraqi security forces in a very meaningful way.

If we have to do it in a big hurry, I think there's some potential pratfall with that, and that was that. That has to do with Al Qaeda trying to come back in. Some sectarian violence, because we don't have the right forces, so that's I think it's important to do it deliberately. It's our role to tell everyone how we think we should do that.

DAMON: That, based on lessons learned by the U.S. military in the past where the trend has been that once they've withdrew from a certain location the insurgency simply moved back in.

A large part of the current perceived success of the surge is largely due to the fact that the U.S. military now is working with Sunni tribal sheiks. U.S. military calls them tribal sheiks. Iraqi government calls them Sunni militias. And there are concerns amongst the Iraqi government and amongst some member of the U.S. military, that the Americans might just be potentially arming the Sunni side for a future civil war. The Shia is largely being armed by Iran. Arwa Damon, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: By the way, I want to let you know we told you a little while ago that we would be getting some tape from WKEF, that's that station that said they had video of the actual crash. We've got something coming in now. Can we put it up? Yeah, let's go ahead and go to that. I'm going to watch it with you. We haven't seen this yet. It's coming up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crash and rescue trucks out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: I tell you what -- rather than trying to rewrap that. Stay with us folks, were going to come back and show you that again.

Let's go ahead and get off it Ron (ph), if we can. We'll come back. We'll rewrap it. We'll look at it ourselves and bring it to you. Stay with us. We'll go to a break. Should be about three or four minutes, we'll show you that video.

And these stories, too. Windmills cranking out power and cranking out controversy. What? We'll see some green, others see red. That's coming up. We'll parse it. Also, so-called terrorist dry runs at the nation's airports. We heard about them last week. They sounded scary. But were they real or false alarms? A closer look from the NEWSROOM.

Then divas taking a dive. Oh, no. You're watching CNN. Ouch!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. We're following what is a breaking news story. That's another air crash, at one of these air shows that take place from time to time. This in Dayton, Ohio. Let's go ahead, Roger. Let's show the video that just came in a while ago.

There's the plane that seems to be doing a free dive, or a free fall maneuver. Suddenly it goes down. Now, you don't see it between the smoke and the glare coming from the photographer. But you do see the reaction.

See if we can rewrap this. I want to see it one more time. Look at the reaction from the people who were there at the air show. They obviously know something has happened. You can tell by their body language, as they see what seems to be an impact there, and then it continues.

By the way this is coming in from WKEF. Do we have it, yeah, our producers are saying that the photographer who shot this video is going to be joining us on the line in a couple minutes. We're getting a microphone clipped on to him and making sure we can get him either by phone or whatever.

Obviously, he was an eye witness to this thing. We'll have him on in just a little bit. We'll let him describe what he saw, what he thinks may have gone on and what the reaction is from those people there who obviously were impacted by it.

We'll have all that in a couple minutes. Stay with us.

Meanwhile, other stories we're following right now, more and more Americans going green these days, looking for cleaner energy alternatives. A New Jersey man has found a way to do just that. He powers his home with wind, but as Jim Acosta reports, his backyard windmill is also generating a lot of controversy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In this breezy town on the New Jersey shore, when the wind is blowing, Michael Mercurio is thinking about saving money on energy.

MICHAEL MERCURIO, WINDMILL OWNER: My bill was running, for gas and electric, about $340 to $370 a month. Now I have a $9.50 bill a month.

ACOSTA: He built this 35-foot windmill in his backyard last year. Along with the solar panels on his roof, Mercurio has not only cut his energy costs, he sent power back to the local grid, especially when it's running at full speed seen here in this home video.

MERCURIO: The more power we can generate in our homes, the more free energy we have. It there for this country to use; it declares energy independence for this country.

ACOSTA: He had hopes of turning this trail blazing idea into a business. Building backyard windmills for homeowners across the country.

MERCURIO: I guess I'm a pioneer and I got a lot of hours in my back from it.

ACOSTA (on camera): Not long after wind power came to Long Beach Island, did a storm start brewing. It was the forces of nature versus the forces of -- not in my backyard.

BILL KELLY, WINDMILL OPPONENT: It's an eyesore. I think more importantly it's the noise that it makes.

MERCURIO: I believe that's false because it's no more noisy than an air conditioner.

ACOSTA: One of Mercurio's next door neighbors sued the local township, claiming the windmill exceeds height and noise ordinances.

GEORGE CAFARELLI, NEIGHBORS' ATTORNEY: Our claim against the township, they are not, or were not enforcing their own ordinances, allowing this thing to be built.

ACOSTA: The town ordered Mercurio to turn off his windmill until the matter is settled in court. A decision that environmentalists say blew them away.

SUSAN LITA LIOU, ENVIRONMENT NEW JERSEY: We want to see tests like this all over the country. We should be testing what our potential is for clean energy. Knowing Mike, I don't think he'll be deterred.

ACOSTA: They see Michael Mercurio as a modern-day Don Quixote.

MERCURIO: My answer to, not in my backyard, is, it's in my backyard and I want to keep it there.

ACOSTA: Instead of tilting at windmills, he trying to save one. Jim Acosta, CNN, Beach Haven Terrace, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Obviously, we're going to have a lot more on that situation we told you about out of Dayton, Ohio, and that plane crash. I told you moments ago we'll be talking to the photographer who shot that video. We'll have that for you, stand by.

One other thing we should probably address at this point, because we've gotten a lot of calls on this one. The television station that had one of its photographers and it's pilot die, in that chopper crash? That was ABC 15. They're also known as KNXV. Just want to make it clear, that their website, if you want to go to it, and leave your condolences, for the deceased, photographer and pilot, you want to go to ABC15.com, if you like to leave your condolences for these two gentlemen.

I just want to be able to help them out as much as we can during these most difficult times.

Also we have a lot more to come, including an update from the weather center with Jacqui.

I understand it's hail out there, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, we've got hail and severe storms in the East. We've got flooding in the West. And we've got travel headaches for a whole heck of a lot of people. The weather forecast is coming up. SANCHEZ: Did you say heck?

JERAS: Yes, a heck of a lot --

SANCHEZ: OK.

JERAS: It's a "hail" of a storm.

SANCHEZ: Also ahead, we know their faces, we know their names, and we know their rap sheets. Young Hollywood, gone wild. We'll have a look at drug problem there and nationwide.

And tonight at 11:00, Britney Spears is back in the news as well. You won't believe what she did this time. We'll have it for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Let's take a look at that video once again, that we got in a couple of minutes ago. You see the plane, a biplane going down. You see from looking at their body language, that they know that something is wrong.

Next shot, you see the rescue official there's on the ground. This is a harrowing situation there at Dayton Airport. We understand we have Matt Lawrence, one of the photographers who was shooting this. In fact, that's his video you're looking at right there.

Hey, Matt. Are you there?

MATT LAWRENCE, NEWS VIDEOGRAPHER: Yes, I'm here.

SANCHEZ: What was it like, man?

LAWRENCE: Pardon?

SANCHEZ: Was what was it like?

LAWRENCE: It was very surreal. First of all, my heart, and thoughts, and prayers go out to the family of Jim Leroy (ph), the deceased pilot.

SANCHEZ: I can imagine.

LAWRENCE: We were there covering the air show. It's a big deal here in Dayton. This is where the Wright brothers are from. The air show is a big deal. It's was a good fun loving day with family. I was just doing a good job, and all of a sudden the plane cork screwed down, and did not pull up. At first I thought, that was a good stunt, then I realized, that he did not make it.

SANCHEZ: As we're looking at this, you probably shot a million of these. You probably know a little bit about aviation yourself. Most photographers usually do. At what point do you know that the stunt isn't a stunt any more, and this guy is really in peril?

LAWRENCE: Well, when you're shooting air video, it's sometimes hard to follow the plane. And he went out of my screen. At first, I thought everything was a-OK. Then you feel in the crowd, something is not right. Like people start talking and people have this worried voice in their chatter, and when I zoomed out, I knew something wasn't right.

SANCHEZ: We're looking at this, and we're not experts. Part of what we're looking at is what he meant to do, right?

LAWRENCE: Yes.

SANCHEZ: That dead spin is part of the stunt.

LAWRENCE: Yeah, the stunt is called Mary's Lamb. He's cork screwing down and he's supposed to pull up. He's supposed to get low to the ground and pull up, and just have his belly get low. But he couldn't pull up and he just -- apparently he just misjudged it and couldn't pull up in time.

SANCHEZ: Wow. What was the reaction? You could tell -- I was telling viewers and some of the guys here in the control room a little while ago. You can almost tell from the body language, just in that quick shot from the folk there's, that they were affected by it. They almost look uncomfortable. See? They are all looking over shoulders and kind of hiding.

What did you see? What kind of reaction did you see and hear, what was it like for those folks -- and for you?

LAWRENCE: It was -- like, again, very surreal. You don't think this could happen to you. I mean, you see these videos every day, like when good times go bad. But my reaction was, just like, wow, I couldn't believe it. Like I didn't want to believe it. It was very tragic.

Everyone -- there's a sense of urgency, like amongst the media and amongst the fans, like, what do we do? The P.A. guy was very calm, told everyone to just look away and be calm. From that point on, the security got involved and rushed the crowd and media out of there.

SANCHEZ: Matt Lawrence is with WKEF.

Matt, thanks so much for coming on and sharing the very personal perspective with us.

LAWRENCE: Thank you very much, Mr. Sanchez.

SANCHEZ: All right. Take care now.

Water, water everywhere and look at this thing. This is off south Florida's Atlantic coast. CNN Affiliate WPTV got ahold of this footage. It's a water spout. There are four of them, we're told. They were swirling around at about pretty much the same time. There's two of them right there. Can't get wide enough to see the rest of them.

To the West, Texas now, there's more flooding making things soggy and miserable. There are flood alerts in effect pretty much all over the state and rain dominating the extended forecast as well. Let's go further west.

What do you say, Roger? Eddie, you cool with that?

Let's go to Arizona. Some lucky siblings are pulled from their truck, after floodwaters flip it over. This has got to be one of the stories of the day. Two air force sergeants happen to be in the area. They were among -- stay with this, stay with this picture. Because you are going to see them getting out. See they get one kid out. Now, they go over to the other side. And there they get the other one out. These guys are stuck in the back seat, these are children. Boy, isn't that wonderful. God bless them. Good thing. (WEATHER REPORT)

SANCHEZ: Speaking of airports. We thank you for reminding me of something. If you happen to have an iReport from one of the incidents that we're covering today, for example that Dayton air show. And that video we're showing you, if you're in the crowd, and you want to send us something, please go to CNN.com. You'll find the link there, click it, and send us whatever video you have, or give us a call there.

We can show different perspectives of what happened as we continue to stay on top of the breaking news story, as we found out before going on the air. It's still somewhat unfolding.

Also, our search for CNN heroes is taking us to some pretty dangerous places. Today we're going to head to El Salvador. A former gang member is there to try to create a life after gangs, not only for himself but for others as well. His name is Luis Ernesto Romero. He is our CNN hero.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUIS ROMERO: I thought I was going to die at the age of 20 because somebody is going to shoot me. I was living as a gang member. In El Salvador kids get into the gangs because they don't have no other opportunities.

UNIDENTIFIFIED MALE: When you're on the street, every moment you live you live as if it were your last, because you never know how that day will end.

ROMERO: Something powerful came up when my daughter born. So I started like checking, hey, what am I doing? What I'm going to offer to my daughter. But then I founded Homies Unidos in 1997, so I started educating myself and now you know I help others. We teach them how to empower themselves, not in smoking weed, not in violence, not doing what they do. In El Salvador, the kids are much discriminated. If you have tattoos, if he's bald headed, but when he starts looking for a job, they don't give opportunities for him. We teach them how to do things in other ways.

[ Speaking foreign language ]

ROMERO: They never thought they would have a bakery of their own. Now they have a bakery and they're doing their own business. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We think different. We don't think going into environments and doing killings, we do other things. Homies is saving a lot of lives.

ROMERO: We come from gangs and now we are part of the solution, so it doesn't matter how much I got to spend, how much time I got to be on it, but I need to do it for my kids and for the other kids of San Salvador.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: If you would like to make a contribution to Luis Romero's work or nominate your hero for special recognition, later this year you will find more information on our website at cnn.com/heroes. You know, a lot of anchor people would have said Luis Romero. But I would rather say Romero anyway. Was it much ado about nothing? Supposed terror practice at U.S. airports. Remember that story from last week? Now we're finding out there might be less to that story than we thought. That's important, we'll tell you more about it. We'll have a closer look.

Also, do you want your daughter looking up to these women? Lifestyles of the rich and infamous as opposed to famous. Coming up, a police blotter near you. That story is coming up in just a little bit. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We welcome you back to the CNN NEWSROOM, that guy to my right is Josh Levs, he's going to be joining us in just a little bit by the way. Remember those dire reports a couple of days ago suggesting that terrorists may be testing U.S. airport security with items that mimic real bomb parts. The reports were based on four different incidents. But this is a big one, as CNN's Brian Todd reports, all four may have been nothing but false alarms.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): July 5th, San Diego, Transportation Security Administration screeners find a bag with two ice packs covered in tape, with clay inside them rather than blue gel. It's included in a TSA bulletin mentioning three other similar incidents, warning of dry runs for terrorist attacks. This is the woman who carried those ice packs.

SARA WEISS, AIRPORT PASSENGER: I'm not a terrorist, I'm a 66- year-old woman with a bad back. I was on vacation going to visit my son in San Diego.

TODD: Sara Weiss says the ice packs made like these had clay inside them because they were old and that's the way they were made. Weiss was held for three hours, questioned by San Diego Harbor Police and two men who said were in plain clothes and didn't identify themselves. She says one question from a San Diego Harbor policeman shocked her. WEISS: Do you know Osama bin Laden. And my response was, first of all, I thought it was a very ridiculous and strange question, because, if I did -- if I really did know Osama bin Laden and if I were a real terrorist, do you think I would answer that question?

TODD: Contacted by CNN, the San Diego Harbor police chief said his officers are not briefed to ask that question. Weiss says she also raised suspicion because she carried a report on a survey about Muslim Americans.

WEISS: I work for a faith-based organization, part of their responsibility is to provide interfaith cooperation and understanding.

TODD: Is she angry about the experience?

WEISS: No, I'm not bitter. I understand that they had to do their job. I think they totally overreacted.

TODD: In fact a U.S. government official familiar with the investigation now says there were valid explanations for all four incidents in that bulletin and no charges will be brought in any of these cases.

(On camera): TSA officials first told us the incident with Sara Weiss got put on that bulletin because of a systems error. But they also say they were right to put all four of these incidents on that alert, because whenever they find suspicious objects, they have to run them to ground and tell law enforcement officials to look out for items like that. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Let's go now from bogus threats to what looks like a real cause for alarm. Hollywood's finest caught under the influence. Tuesday, it was Lindsay Lohan busted for DUI and cocaine possession just days after her latest release from a rehab center. Unbelievable. Then Friday, the 25-year-old daughter of musician Lionel Richie pled guilty to a December DUI charge. Nicole Richie is going to spend 90 hours in jail, get a $2,000 fine plus three years of probation. Then there is the queen, hotel heiress Paris Hilton's well publicized 22 days in the slammer, plus house arrest, for her alcohol related arrest. Does the celebrities lack of sobriety in these cases, these young ladies, does it influence their fans? People who are -- I have a daughter and she talks about Britney Spears and all of these, she's only six.

JOSHUA LEVS: Is she a fan?

SANCHEZ: Yeah sure, you know they like fame and stuff like that. But does it really affect those kids? Does it affect my daughter in one way or another? This is a reality check.

LEVS: I know, I hear you. There's this new era right now with all of these stars right now who are really going through that. That's something that federal officials are looking forward to looking into, especially over the next few years, the result of that. What we wanted to do today, given that these people are in the news, that you keep hearing so much about young people and drugs in the same story, even though we should point out Lindsay Lohan says the cocaine was not hers, you keep hearing about these links. So we wanted to take a look at how widespread this problem actually is. How many kids out there are doing drugs. And you're going to find some of the numbers are probably higher than you suspect.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEVS (voice-over): Lindsay Lohan says the cocaine authorities found in her possession did not belong to her. Whether that's true or not, it is a reminder of young people's access to drugs, which experts on drug abuse call one of the nation's most important challenges. A federal study in 2005 found the number of kids using drugs grows through the teen years. Among 16 and 17-year-olds, 17 percent said they are current users of illegal drugs. 18 to 20-year-olds reported the highest rate of any age group, 22 percent. By far, the most used drug, marijuana, followed by prescription drug abuse, including methamphetamine, inhalants, hallucinogens and cocaine. Around one percent of teens and two percent of young adults said they had used cocaine in the past month. The number of teens who have experimented with drugs is much higher. Last year the National Institute of Health found 42 percent of high school seniors have tried marijuana. 8.5 percent have tried cocaine. Federal statistics also break down drug use among teens of different races, and have found the highest rate among American Indians at 19 percent, followed by 11 percent of blacks, 10 percent of whites, 9 percent of Latinos, and 3 percent of Asians. Overall the rate of drug use among youths has dropped a bit since 2002.

JOHN WALTERS, DIR., OFFICE OF DRUG CONTROL POLICY: Rejecting a life of drug abuse has now become a nationwide movement among young people, just as unhealthy behavior with regard to substance abuse became a kind of movement almost three decades ago.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

LEVS: But even so, a close look at the figures actually shows that there are some involving young adults that go up, such as cocaine use among young adults. And you know now Rick, authorities are saying that the rise of the internet is actually helping some kids get more drugs than they might have otherwise.

SANCHEZ: But you know what's interesting, I think we make a bigger deal out of this whole role model thing than really exists out there. I mean these are people who are famous and make mistakes. If you have good parents, you're not necessarily going to think, oh, that's who I want to be like. You might want to sing like her but you're not necessarily going to want to do drugs because she does drugs.

LEVS: It's true. I mean you see arguments on both sides. You do see a lot of people saying that. You also see that a lot of the efforts that exist right now to get parents to make sure they talk to their kids exist in part because of the media concerns. You have major groups out there, including government-backed groups that are saying the media is really powerful, let's make sure that you talk to your own kids.

SANCHEZ: So that's a good thing. We talk about Lindsay Lohan, we end up telling our kids, don't be like that.

LEVS: Yeah and this is a case in which we can really use a story like that, that you know some people roll their eyes about. But you can use a story like that as a jumping off point say look, this is what happened, you know in this case to this famous person. Let's make sure we have this discussion with our own kids, bring it up, talk about it. It becomes a natural part of the conversation.

SANCHEZ: Right. Josh Levs, isn't he good? Great stuff, appreciate it.

It's been a rough year at NASA even before those allegations of drunk astronauts surfaced. What's going on at the space agency? That's ahead in the NEWSROOM.

Also, taking a dive from a diva. Beyonce, you know those two words, so similar, dive, diva. Beyonce has done it in spectacular fashion. Oh, you almost hurt for her. But she's far alone from being in the cold ground whatever that means and the colder internet. CNN's Jeanne Moos fell hard for this story. She's going to bring it to you in just a little bit. Other falls is what we're trying to say. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We welcome you back to the CNN NEWSROOM. Boy, what is going on at NASA? First, the case of the affair between the astronauts and the famous diaper scandal. And now, talk of drunk astronauts. Joining us now former shuttle astronaut Jim Pawelczyk, he's good enough to join us by phone to talk about what's going on. I guess, you know, where better to start the conversation, Jim, than what's going on at NASA, people would wonder?

JIM PAWELCZYK: Well good afternoon, Rick and thank you very much for inviting me. I think you're seeing the results of a series of investigations and studies that have been commissioned by the NASA administrator Mike Griffin and the chief medical officer Dr. Rich Williams in response to some of the unfortunate incidents that we saw earlier this year with Lisa Nowak.

SANCHEZ: Well, as I'm reading the report, what I get from this is that some of the folks there at NASA were looking at these incidents, especially the incidents involving alcohol and saying, guys are going to be guys and maybe we should just brush this under the rug. After all, it's really not a big deal. Almost harking back to the good old right stuff days. Was there a part of that that was explained away as a result of that thinking?

PAWELCZYK: I'm not sure I'd characterize it that way, Rick. I think what we had here was a series of interviews with flight surgeons where they did note a number of concerns. You're correct in stating that those flight surgeons felt in some cases those concerns were unheeded. But these were very, very rare instances. Two out of something on the order of many hundreds to perhaps several thousand flight incidents.

SANCHEZ: Yeah and by the way, when we say flight incidents, this was not a trip to outer space, right. We're talking about some test runs that they did. In fact, you tell us, what were the flights or the test runs that we're talking about in this case?

PAWELCZYK: That information is actually not clear in the report. What the report speaks to is the immediate preflight period which could include the hours just before actual space flight but it also includes the week or so before a space flight when astronauts are in quarantine and are routinely doing test flights in the t-38 jets.

SANCHEZ: That's important. So it may have had more to do with the jets than the actual shuttle launch which obviously would be a big difference for some people. Still, somewhat inexcusable, nonetheless. Mr. Pawelczyk we thank you sir for taking time for being with us.

PAWELCZYK: You're very welcome.

SANCHEZ: Heckling Hillary? Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON: This renewable clean alternative energy -- (BOOS)

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: What's going on here? Do it as your own risk as this woman found out. That story is coming up in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: $50 billion to do this renewable clean alternative energy. And then let's make sure that we put it to work --

(CROWD BOOS)

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Politics now, Senator Hillary Clinton got a heckler, but she's got quite a few defenders as well as you can hear in the audience. There you go, boy, that set them off, didn't it? As the presidential hopeful addressed college Democrats today in South Carolina, a woman began yelling at Mrs. Clinton and waving a sign that said, she doesn't care, all she wants is power. But the crowd shouted her down and got her out of there pretty quick.

At a campaign stop of his own in South Carolina Senator John McCain reiterated his opposition to any timeline for a troop withdrawal from Iraq. And he insisted that he won't bend on that stance even if it ends the White House hopes that he's had. The senator said, quote, "I would much rather lose a campaign than lose a war." All right, let's bring you up to date now on this story that we've been following for you out of Dayton, Ohio. It's a plane crash there at an air show. It was a biplane that went down. I asked you just moments ago if you were there and had some pictures that you would like to share with us, we'll take them. Well, you responded in kind. Here are some of the i-Reports that we have been receiving already. There is the first one. This one apparently coming in just as it was happening. You see the plane there on the ground, you see the spectators over their shoulder reacting to it just moments after it happened. Do we have any more? That looks to be the same one there. We have a couple more coming in. We'll just go ahead and patiently go through these if we can. That looks to be the same one, folks. Let's try it again. All right, there you go, oh my God. Look at the guy, just as he's got his hand over his head as if reacting after just watching this biplane after it had gone down. Let's go ahead to the third one now and see if we can get it. We're doing this with you, by the way. Ok, there's another one from a little further back. This just is rescue officials had gotten to the scene and had started to deal with the blaze. There you have it, three i-Reports sent in to us from this plane crash that killed the pilot there at the air show in Dayton, Ohio.

Well, the bigger they come the harder they fall. You can usually cash a falling star on Youtube. High profile stumble. It's Jeanne Moos with the most on other famous falls. And we're not talking about waterfalls. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Catch a falling star and post it online. Beyonce's concert slip is just the latest Youtube tumble. Our Jeanne Moos takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When is the last time you fell on your face. Or on your butt or off a stage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, good Lord.

MOOS: It's bad enough when you're Kelsey Grammar, but imagine when a diva takes a dive in front of thousands of fans, many armed with cameras. That's what happened to Beyonce. A spokesperson said her hem got caught in her shoe and the moment was caught on Youtube, even though fans shooting home video of the Orlando, Florida concert reported that Beyonce asked good naturedly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If any of you got video of that, please don't put it on Youtube.

MOOS: Fat chance, and from Youtube it spread. Next thing you know, Beyonce is the number one video on CNN.com, knocking giant tumor out of the top spot. And it takes a lot to dislodge a 33 pound tumor. Much was made of the fact that Beyonce bounced back. Her hair bounced even more. Fans posted phrases like, takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'. Must you think we're reveling in Beyonce's misery, we're kind compared to the news anchor who couldn't stop laughing over a model who fell.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You try walking in those shoes.

MOOS: But hey, plenty of falling news people get plastered on Youtube, covering storms or stomping grapes. But don't believe every journalistic misstep you see on the web.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last night there was a robbery at about 3:30 in the morning. Now police have --

CHUCK STORM: Apparently Chuck Storm is just a character dreamed up by the creator of this website. But Chuck Storm isn't so far from the reality of Al Roker. Al is featured on a website called peoplefallingover.com. You have to love their logo. And as if falling weren't bad enough. There are all those slow motion replays. Cheer up Beyonce at least you didn't end up like Kerry Bradshaw. It's not how far you fall it's how fast you recover. And who says gallantry is dead. To the rescue. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Always leaves them laughing, doesn't she? Oh my goodness and there, but by the grace of God go any one of us. Especially those of us on this side of the camera. Much more ahead on CNN. Up next, Lou is going to be joining you. A federal judge delivers a gut wrenching verdict against communities battling illegal immigration.

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