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Airline Safety: Are You in Danger?; Wall Street Bailout?; McCain's Vice Presidential Short List
Aired April 03, 2008 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning again, everyone. You're with CNN. You're informed.
I'm Tony Harris.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Brianna Keilar, sitting in for Heidi Collins.
HARRIS: And developments keep coming in to the CNN NEWSROOM on Thursday, the third day of April.
Here's what's on the rundown.
KEILAR: Whistleblowers talk live this hour on Capitol Hill. Stunning allegations about your safety in the skies.
HARRIS: For the second time this week, a low-budget airline goes bust. Passengers left hanging.
KEILAR: And a big rig's wrong way journey ends in a fatal fireball. Shock and awe. All of it caught on tape -- in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: Airline safety, it is a developing story with deepening concerns this morning. In fact, it is commanding the attention of lawmakers on Capitol Hill right now.
CNN's Kathleen Koch is watching it all.
Kathleen, good morning. What are you hearing?
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Tony.
Suffice it to say lawmakers are livid. Committee chairman James Oberstar this morning describing the missed fuselage crack inspections at Southwest Airlines as the most "egregious lapse of safety" that he has seen in 20 years. Oberstar blasted what he described as the Federal Aviation Administration's attitude of complacency and what he called a too cozy relationship with airlines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMES OBERSTAR (D), TRANSPORTATION CHAIRMAN: The only customer -- if you are going to use that term -- for the FAA is the air traveling public. Airlines are not customers. The FAA is not providing a service to them. The bedrock responsibility of the FAA is to ensure safety for the traveling public. The FAA needs to clean house from top to bottom, take corrective action, hire more inspectors, and give them a safety mission.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: The highlight so far though has been the testimony of two FAA inspectors, one speaking right now. And they say they have been warning both the FAA and Southwest for years that the necessary inspections weren't being performed. The inspectors charged the FAA basically allowed Southwest to postpone inspections and fly planes that should have been grounded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOBBY BOUTRIS, FAA SAFETY INSPECTOR: I'm not a disgruntled employee. I have personal integrity, and I do believe that we should cooperate and collaborate with the airlines, but not to the point that we go outside our guidance and break the law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: Now, lawmakers say that they believe Southwest deserves a hefty fine, one saying that flying aircraft without proper inspections is simply inexcusable. The committee insists it wants to know who at the FAA knew about Southwest missing the inspections, when they knew, and why it took so long to impose a $10.2 million fine on the airline. FAA managers will be testifying next, Tony, followed by Southwest executives.
HARRIS: Wow. OK. We'll let you get back to those hearings.
Kathleen Koch for us in Washington.
Kathleen, appreciate it. Thanks.
KEILAR: For the second time this week, a U.S. airline shuts down. This time, ATA Airlines canceled all of its flights today after filing for bankruptcy. The Indianapolis-based carrier says it couldn't stay in business after losing a key contract for its military charter operation. The company flew about 50 flights a day. It's asking other carriers to help passengers who may be stranded by the abrupt shutdown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... in a note that says, "Sorry, we are canceling all flights as of today," this morning. Yes, it's very disappointing. Hopefully we can find another airline that will, you know, help us out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: No word on exactly how many ATA passengers are left scrambling this morning. HARRIS: The economy and jobs today. Another disappointing snapshot.
A government report released the last hour shows new filings for unemployment spiking to the highest level in two and a half years. Like so many other recent government reports, the grim numbers came as a surprise to analysts.
KEILAR: Another day, another milestone for gas prices. AAA says prices overnight hit an average of almost $3.29 a gallon. That is 12 cents more than this time last month, 59 cents more than a year ago. It may come, though, as a small consolation, perhaps. 1981 prices still hold the all-time record when you factor in inflation.
HARRIS: Boy, this is a story, Brianna, we have actually been tracking for a number of hours now. And the reporting, let's attribute this to WPXI in Pittsburgh.
This is Brockway, Pennsylvania, northeast of Pittsburgh. And look at that scene. And the story is even worse.
At least eight people killed and two are still missing after a fire swept through this home. Brockway is in Jefferson County.
Firefighters, investigators were called to the scene at about 2:30 a.m. this morning. And listen to this account from witnesses and neighbors. They report one young girl jumping out of a second floor window and knocking on doors, screaming for help. Another boy reportedly escaped the flames as well.
This is a scene that we will obviously continue to watch. I would suspect that we would get some kind of details from some kind of a briefing soon.
Again, this taking place in Brockway, Pennsylvania. At least eight people killed. Two still missing from this house fire.
We'll continue to follow developments here -- look at those pictures -- in the NEWSROOM.
KEILAR: NATO agrees to send more troops to Afghanistan. President Bush getting some of what he wants at the summit in Romania, and also welcoming two new members to the alliance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Bucharest -- we're inviting more nations to join us. I'm pleased that the alliance has agreed to invite Albania and Croatia to become members of NATO. Both these nations have demonstrated the ability and the willingness to provide strong and enduring contributions to NATO.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: President Bush also supports membership for Ukraine and Georgia, but NATO leaders decided now isn't the time. Of course, President Bush pushing for that.
HARRIS: Absolutely.
KEILAR: Russia wasn't pushing for that.
HARRIS: Absolutely.
(WEATHER REPORT)
KEILAR: Well, the economy stumbles and you feel the pinch at the gas pump and the grocery store, yet billions of dollars of your tax money could be at risk in what some say is just a bailout of Wall Street. Lawmakers are demanding answers.
And CNN Senior Correspondent Allan Chernoff is on Capitol Hill. He has got some answers for us as well.
Hi there, Allan.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, we have got some major fireworks this morning in front of the Senate Banking Committee at their hearing. We have got some major disapproval of the federal government's action and coming to the rescue of Bear Stearns -- remember, the fifth largest investment bank that nearly collapsed. Some senators just expressing outrage this morning at that $30 billion in taxpayer money that was put on the line to help essentially this shotgun wedding that occurred between Bear Stearns and the giant bank JPMorgan Chase, which agreed to buy Bear Stearns.
Let's have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Where were the regulators? Was someone asleep at the switch? Or is it that our regulatory structure doesn't work?
SEN. JIM BUNNING (R), KENTUCKY: How big do you have to be to be too big to fail? That's the question I ask first. I am very troubled by the failure of Bear Stearns, and I do not like the idea of the Fed getting involved in a bailout of that company.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHERNOFF: Was it a bailout? The chairman of the Federal Reserve says absolutely not. He points out that the shareholders of Bear Stearns took a major haircut in this deal, where JPMorgan actually bought Bear Stearns for only $2 a share. The price though was later raised to $10 a share.
The chairman of the Fed, Ben Bernanke, says he had to take action to protect the entire economy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN BERNANKE, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Given the exception pressures on the global economy and financial system, the damage caused by default by Bear Stearns could have been severe and extremely difficult to contain. Moreover, and very importantly, the adverse impact of the default would not have been confined to the financial system, but would have been felt broadly in the real economy through its effects on asset values and credit availability.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHERNOFF: And another Fed official said at the hearing if this deal had not been done, the average American would have felt it in his or her pocketbook. They would have had a tougher time getting a mortgage. And their investments would have taken major, major hit -- Brianna.
KEILAR: Yes. And what did you call it, a shotgun wedding between Bear Stearns and the company that assumed it. That gets me interested, Allan. That gets me really interested.
All right. Allan Chernoff for us there on the Hill following those fireworks.
HARRIS: The presidential candidates, what are they up to?
Hillary Clinton raising money in California tonight, and out with a new version of her 3:00 a.m. ad in Pennsylvania. This time, the middle of the night crisis is the economy, and her target, John McCain.
Barack Obama is narrowing Clinton's lead in Pennsylvania. The latest polls showing a nine percentage point gap. And Obama is reaching out to Al Gore. He says he wants the former vice president on his team and, if elected, possibly in his administration.
John McCain campaigning today in Jacksonville, Florida, and drawing up a list of possible VPs. McCain says he is looking at about 20 names.
KEILAR: Wrong way disaster. Did a big rig driver deliberately crash and burn?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There he goes. Oh, my god! Oh, my god!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Find out when we return.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: In Brazil, a deadly outbreak of Dengue Fever prompts military action. Twelve hundred Brazilian troops being mobilized to handle the outbreak. They are spraying insecticides and setting up emergency care tents.
Now, listen to these figures -- 67 deaths, around 40 of those children; 32,000 confirmed cases in the state of Rio de Janeiro alone. And 80 new cases being reported just about every hour, if you can fathom that. And Dengue Fever, that is a tropical illness spread by mosquitoes. Officials fear that the outbreak may actually worsen.
HARRIS: Another round of voting ahead. That's the word out of Zimbabwe.
President Robert Mugabe's ruling party says a runoff is inevitable. Still, diplomatic sources say that runoff may not take place within the next three weeks as required by law, and that could open the door to voter intimidation and fraud by the ruling party.
Voting took place last week. But so far, the government has not released any results. President Mugabe has been in power since Zimbabwe's independence 28 years ago.
John McCain gets to work on his vice presidential short list, except it's really not that short.
CNN's Dana Bash following the McCain campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): These are the images that were supposed to drive John McCain's message: a reminder of his service with a visit to the Naval Academy he graduated from 50 years ago, until he spilled the beans that he now has a list of names for his running mate. On his bus, he even gave a number.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it's like 20, you know. But I can't talk to you too much about it, obviously.
BASH: But he did. Much to the chagrin of anxious aides who tried to interrupt.
MCCAIN: You put the list together and then you just do a cursory kind of a look at -- I guess you could do on Google, really, when you think about it nowadays.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But it's a very, very early stage in the process.
BASH: McCain said he wanted to start vetting VP contenders now to avoid what he called unintended consequences like in 1988, when George H. W. Bush picked Dan Quayle, who faced questions about his National Guard service that surprised the campaign.
MCCAIN: Dan Quayle had not been briefed, you know, and prepared for, you know, some of the questions.
BASH: But as McCain plans ahead, a reminder of lingering trouble with some conservatives. Prominent conservative James Dobson released a harsh statement saying, "I have seen no evidence that Senator McCain is successfully unifying the Republican Party or drawing conservatives into his fold. To the contrary, he seems intent on driving them away."
McCain responded that polls show conservatives are behind him, but admitted he hasn't talked to Dobson, a frequent critic.
(on camera): Why not, you know, pick up the phone and call him and try to...
MCCAIN: If Dr. Dobson wanted to speak to me, I'd be more than -- I'd be glad to speak to him. I just feel that I -- I'm doing what is necessary to keep our party united and to win in November.
BASH (on camera): Dobson reaches millions of conservative voters through his radio show and multiple publications, a point McCain conceded. But McCain repeated over and over that he now has as much Republican support as George W. Bush did as a candidate. Privately, though, McCain advisers insist this kind of rebuke may actually help them in their search for independent voters for November.
Dana Bash, CNN, Annapolis, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Makes sense here -- make a checklist before your checkup. Be prepared before heading to the doctor's office.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: The doctor is in. Hurry. What can you do to make the most of your time during your office visits?
Let's ask our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen.
Because they do -- they kind of come in. It's chop, chop, chop. They have got maybe their clipboard and...
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. And you better be prepared.
KEILAR: Yes.
COHEN: You better be ready for efficiency, because if you kind of hem and haw and you forget things, you can lose valuable time. Doctors we talked to, they are really adamant about this -- come in prepared.
So we have a list of two things you can do. And if you want the other three things to add up to five, you can go to cnn.com/health and see them. But we'll give you two without going online.
The first one is, bring in a list of medications. That is so crucial. Don't sit there and go, "I take a pink pill I think twice a day, 50 milligrams, 60, not sure." You're going to waste a lot of time. Write it all down.
Also, bring in a list of your top three concerns. In other words, why are you there? And you might be thinking, oh, god, of course I know why I'm there. I made the appointment.
Well, you know what? You get into that room, you have got that little gown that kind of opens in strange places, and you know what? You could forget. People get flustered. Even doctors I know get flustered when they are patients.
So, do those two things. The second one, again, you're thinking, what am I doing here? Write it down so you can look at it.
KEILAR: That is good advice. Very efficient.
So, a lot of people, they are seeing multiple specialists. How do you make sure everyone's on board and they're communicating?
COHEN: Right. This is a huge problem, because these days people see a lot of specialists, and they don't always talk to each other.
So, to get your team to work together, what you want to do is when you are finished with Dr. Brianna, you say, "Dr. Brianna, can you take the notes from this meeting and can you send them to me, and then I take those notes and I bring them my next doctor's appointment?"
So, get the notes, bring them to the next appointment.
KEILAR: And you mentioned listing your top three concerns. But what if you have 15 concerns? I mean, what if you are someone who -- maybe you don't go to the doctor a lot? So, when you finally go, you need to get a whole lot of things out there and taken care of.
What do you do?
COHEN: You know what you might need to do? You might need to make more than one appointment. Because these days, doctors schedule for 10 or 15 minutes. And so, unless it's an emergency, pick your top three, go see the doctor, and then schedule additional appointments, and you might end up getting more done.
KEILAR: Could you say ahead of time, I have 15 concerns, is it possible that I could get more time than is generally allotted?
COHEN: You can do that. You can ask for two appointments back- to-back. That's another option.
KEILAR: OK. All right.
COHEN: And you can read about all these options on cnn.com/health. It is the "Empowered Patient" column today. And there it is -- five ways to help your doctor help you. Because in the end, you're the one who's gong to profit from all this.
KEILAR: And you know this is one of my favorite columns.
COHEN: Thank you.
KEILAR: I think this is so great.
Elizabeth Cohen, I appreciate it.
COHEN: Thanks.
KEILAR: Tony, sorry about that.
HARRIS: No worries. No worries.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, his assassination, 40 years ago tomorrow, shocked the nation and sparked riots across the country. Martin Luther King Jr.'s fatal moments. Eyewitness to murder.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Heidi Collins.
HARRIS: Hi, Brianna.
KEILAR: Hi, Tony. Good to be with you.
HARRIS: Good to be with you.
Good morning, everyone.
I'm Tony Harris.
For the second time this week, a U.S. airlines shuts down. ATA Airlines canceled all of its flights today after filing for bankruptcy.
CNN's Susan Roesgen is at Chicago's Midway Airport.
Susan, great to see you.
My understanding is this announcement came with very little or no advanced notice.
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very little advanced notice. We are talking a couple of hours, Tony.
ATA has been in business for 35 years, but with really only a few hours' notice early this morning, the entire operation nationally shut down. That left as many as 10,000 passengers that generally fly ATA each day simply stranded.
The company has more than 2,000 employees. Again, some 10,000 passengers a day fly on about 30 different flights.
This is a discount carrier that normally goes to Hawaii and to Cancun, Mexico, as well as Oakland and Dallas. But today, as you can see, the ATA counters here at Midway were absolutely empty.
We talked to one guy who was going to Guadalajara, Mexico. He was up late, he checked the Web site, the ATA Web site, at 3:00 this morning, saw that his plane was scheduled to depart on time. Then about 7:00 this morning, he says he got a call from ATA saying simply, "Your flight is canceled." He got here to Midway anyway. And then there was no one around to greet him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JORGE AGUIRRE, ATA PASSENGER: No one is around to talk to. No one is around to give any answers or anything. So, I -- I'm not sure, you know, what to do. I'm not sure what happened or why, you know -- they didn't even have the courtesy to send somebody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROESGEN: Now, you may know, Tony, that Southwest Airlines has a code-share agreement, shares flights with ATA. If you purchased a ticket on ATA through Southwest, a Southwest Airlines rep here told me that they will try to either refund the ticket or get you on another flight.
But Southwest does not fly directly to Hawaii or to Mexico. And many people who booked their flights to those places through ATA will simply have to file now a claim with the ATA's chapter 11 bankruptcy unless they bought the ticket, as many people do on credit cards. Then, they got to go to their credit card company and basically ask to get a refund.
HARRIS: Amazing.
ROESGEN: So, without warning today, employees told to stay home, don't come here to Midway. And I presume to other airports across the nation.
HARRIS: Didn't you know yesterday you were going to file for bankruptcy today? Couldn't you have at least informed your passengers? Just amazing.
Susan Roesgen for us ...
ROESGEN: Well, you know, Tony ...
HARRIS: Yes, go ahead, Susan.
ROESGEN: Tony, got to tell you that the company says through its press release that it was a cancellation, a sudden cancellation, the unpredictable, unexpected cancellation according to the company of a couple of military contracts ...
HARRIS: Oh.
ROESGEN: ...that led to this today. Now, you wonder why wouldn't they have had some advanced warnings from the military on contracts.
HARRIS: Yes.
ROESGEN: Apparently, this airline does a lot of charter business for the military. But according to the airline in their press release, they did not get word of that in time to let anybody know.
HARRIS: Susan Roesgen for us at Chicago's Midway Airport. Susan, great to see you, thanks.
KEILAR: That's what you call living paycheck to paycheck, right?
HARRIS: There you go.
KEILAR: Well, it's back to court for Kevin Brown, he's the man arrested in Orlando this week for allegedly trying to bring bomb making materials on to a flight. Brown's arrest Tuesday called a TSA success story.
CNN's Sean Callebs explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kevin Brown's arrest unfolded in very public fashion at Orlando's airport. But federal authorities say it was keen instinct and training that tipped off TSA officers that something was up.
Behavioral detection officer Cleveland Laycock first noticed Brown was acting suspicious.
(on camera): Was there one thing that stands out that he was doing that brought you concern? Was it a tip? Was it a slip (ph)? Was it -- I mean, could you just give us some feeling for what he was doing?
CLEVELAND LAYCOCK, TSA BEHAVIORAL DETECTION MGR.: Well, once again, it's that behavior outside of the normalcy. It's that slight elevation in stress and fear and deception.
CALLEBS (voice-over): TSA officers say they watched Brown as he made his way to the ticket counter of Air Jamaica.
LAYCOCK: So, he dropped his checked baggage off and we began to go through his bags and that's when the suspect items came up.
CALLEBS: The criminal complaint against Brown, who was born in Jamaica, says authorities found galvanized pipes, end caps, bottles containing Nitro-Methane, other bottles filled with BB's and a model rocket igniter, as well as manuals on how to build a bomb.
JOSE ZENGOTITA, TSA BEHAVIORAL DETECTION OFFICER: Reflecting on what happened, today it's more of a wow. That was in the bag. But at that moment, no. It was more let's move along, let's make sure we got this guy under surveillance and make sure that we don't drop the ball here.
CALLEBS: Brown's been charged with attempting to carry an incendiary device on an aircraft. His legs shackled, wearing a white prison jump suit, Brown was silent during his first federal court appearance Wednesday. Prosecutors said they needed more time to make a mental health evaluation of the suspect before discussing the possibility of bond. Brown's public defender left court refusing to comment.
But investigators say that he told them that he was going to show friends how to make explosive devices like he saw in Iraq. Brown served in the U.S. army, but didn't serve in Iraq. However, after being discharged, he reportedly worked in Iraq as a contractor doing military support.
Authorities are trying to determine if Brown is more terrorist or troubled. Regardless, Jose Zengotita, a former New York cop, says it was a good day for the TSA.
(on camera): Did 9/11 go through your mind yesterday?
ZENGOTITA: Actually, no, because I knew that we had stopped it actually before he even got on to the plane.
CALLEBS (voice-over): Sean Callebs, CNN, Orlando.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Breaking news in to the CNN NEWSROOM. These are pictures from Aventura, Florida, coming to us from our affiliate WSVN. A crane collapsed there, a partial crane collapse according to Miami- Dade Fire Department. It has stranded several workers on a building that's under construction. Caused only minor injuries to two workers is what we understand from Miami-Dade fire. They're in the process of rescuing these workers. It's not clear exactly what caused this accident.
But of course, crane collapses getting a whole lot of attention lately, especially with that recent one in New York that killed several people. And actually, another one last week that killed two workers in Miami, not far from here.
So, again, this is a partial crane collapse. We're hearing from -- this is a partial crane collapse in Aventura, Florida, and we're hearing from Miami-Dade Fire Department that at this point, there are minor injuries to two workers and several workers are stranded, being rescued by the fire and rescue as we speak.
We're going to continue to follow this for developments.
HARRIS: Just an amazing story we brought you throughout the morning here. A fiery big rig accident as it happens. Take a look and listen. OK, you hear the baby crying in the backseat. Mom is in the passenger seat and shooting the pictures of this big rig on the other side of the road going the wrong way. And the collision there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERESA, VIDEOTAPED TRUCK ACCIDENT: Oh, my God!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: This is in Canada, Edmonton, Alberta. Listen for a second here. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERESA: Oh, my God!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: OK, you hear this? The truck went over ...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERESA: There he goes, oh my God!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: ...the cement barrier on to an overpass.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERESA: Kevin (ph), pull over. Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Boy, OK, bottom line. Let me bottom line this for you. The driver was killed. The woman who videotaped the incident talked about just how scary it was.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERESA: We were a family driving on the highway. And I was just thinking some other family's going to come up and you know, what's going to happen. We just had no idea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: And no reports on any other people injured in this. The truck driver's family says he may have suffered a diabetic reaction which led to his erratic driving.
KEILAR: The Martin Luther King Jr. assassination 40 years ago tomorrow, and still, questions and more questions.
CNN's special correspondent Soledad O'Brien looks at the fatal moment in Memphis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Martin Luther King was getting ready to leave for supper at Reverend Billy Kyles' house.
REV. BILLY KYLES, CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER: I said, cousin (ph), we got to go. We have a rally tonight and we got to go to dinner.
O'BRIEN: Kyles walked away. King leaned over the balcony railing, talking to others on the ground below. In the boarding house, someone locked that bathroom door. VOICE OF BEVERLY ROBERTSON, NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM: He stood on the tub, cracked the window, and had a clear view of the people who were standing on the balcony in front of Room 306.
O'BRIEN: Police were spying from a peephole at the back window of the fire station. Fireman George Loenneke asked to take a look and became the only living witness we found who saw King at the very moment he was shot: a sudden clap like two boards slammed together.
LT. GEORGE LOENNEKE, MEMPHIS FIRE DEPARTMENT: And I looked through the peepholes and I was looking there and by the time it sound like one board (ph) -- two of them just, bam, went together.
KYLES: And then, I got maybe about here. And the shot rang out.
LOENNEKE: And he come up off that grating there, about a foot.
KYLES: Pow (ph)!
ANDREW YOUNG, FORMER KING AIDE: I thought there was a firecracker. And then, I saw his shoes sticking out from under the railing.
KYLES: And when I turned, I could see him lying on the balcony. One of his feet was sticking through the railing. And there was this huge hole in his face.
YOUNG: The bullet hit the tip of his chin. And tore half of his neck off.
KYLES: The police were coming. And I hollered to them, call an ambulance on your police radio. Dr. King has been shot. And they said, where did the shot come from? Everybody was pointing in that direction.
O'BRIEN: Toward the back of the rooming house, upstairs across the street. Fireman George Loenneke reached the fallen King.
LOENNEKE: And the whole side of his right jaw was gone.
KYLES: I took a crushed cigarette out of his hand. He didn't want kids to see him smoke. And I took the package out of his pocket. I have them in my possession somewhere now. I have a handkerchief where I wiped much blood off of my hand.
LOENNEKE: I couldn't feel a pulse (INAUDIBLE. And I knew that he was gone.
YOUNG: So, he probably never even heard the shot.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: And do not forget, CNN's primetime event "Eyewitness To Murder: the King Assassination." The whole story tonight at 9:00 Eastern only here on CNN. HARRIS: Thirty billion taxpayer dollars, a lifeline for a Wall Street powerhouse, the Fed chairman defending the unusual intervention.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: Airline safety. Only an inch separated tragedy from a trouble-free flight. New concerns today about cockpit windows shattering in flight. It's something that's happened more than once. And some pilots say the problem is being ignored.
We get the story from Drew Griffin of our Special Investigations Unit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By the time it made an emergency landing here in Palm Beach, Florida, just last January, the windshield on the jetliner's cockpit had shattered.
The pilot and copilot already wearing masks and goggles because the cockpit filled with smoke at cruising altitude. A half-dozen people had to be treated for smoke inhalation.
What caused the terrifying incident? The National Transportation Safety Board investigators are focusing on this windshield heater on the American Airlines 757, which apparently overheated. A one-time fluke accident? Not at all. It also happened to this pilot on another American Airlines 757.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My entire windscreen was shattered like a spiderweb. We donned our smoke goggles and oxygen masks for fear that the second pane on the window was going to fail. Between the airspeed and the force on the windscreen, I would probably have gotten a face full of glass, and then we would have had a catastrophic depressurization of the airplane.
GRIFFIN: This pilot wants us to protect his identity, because he says he fears retaliation.
But what he describes matches the emergency that took place this past January. But listen to this. His near catastrophe happened more than two years ago, and the NTSB says it's happened at least 10 times now, four times on American Airlines 757s.
Todd Wissing, a safety officer with the Allied Pilots Association, says both the American and the FAA have known about the problem for four years and, he says, have done little to fix it.
TODD WISSING, ALLIED PILOTS ASSOCIATION: In 2004, there were two 757 incidents that occurred. The NTSB investigated and made safety recommendations to the FAA.
GRIFFIN: The FAA has only now issued this. It's called a proposed airworthiness directive for inspections and fixes to windshield heaters not just on 757s, but also on Boeing 767s and 777s. And the FAA told us, "We will work with the manufacturer to provide a solution for operators if the existing solution is not adequate."
The FAA didn't answer our question, what took so long, but critics in Congress worry the FAA, the agency that oversees airlines, has become too cozy with the industry and too confrontational with the NTSB, which is supposed to investigate aircraft incidents. Case in point, Southwest Airlines, where an FAA inspections supervisor allowed the company to postpone required safety inspections.
REP. JAMES OBERSTAR (D), MINNESOTA: It reflects an attitude of complacency at the highest levels of FAA management.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We depend on the FAA to have oversight of our companies' operation. That is a role that they -- that we feel they take or they should take seriously. And we're disappointed when we see evidence that they haven't.
GRIFFIN: And there appears to be good reason for those fears.
CNN obtained an e-mail from an American Airlines executive sent just after the most recent cockpit windshield failure. "This is the only internal window pane failure that I'm aware of," he writes. "We should gather the facts of how many failures we had in how many flights very quickly to counter the NTSB give us and the FAA some ammo to counter this."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His statement there seems to indicate that he's counting on the FAA to be a close ally with him.
GRIFFIN: But American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner says that is not what the e-mail means at all. He says it means: "Let's get our facts telling. We, American, believe this way, and it appears the FAA believes this way, too."
Boeing, which makes the aircraft, says it's looking into the matter. It sounds like a maintenance item, a spokeswoman said.
After 10 potentially catastrophic cockpit windshield failures in midflight, the pilots wonder why no one has done anything about it.
Drew Griffin, CNN, Fort Worth, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
And there is an airline safety hearing going on Capitol Hill as we speak. We're keeping a close eye on it, and you can also watch the hearing live on our Web site at CNN.com.
Autism rates before and after a vaccine was pulled.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: "Our study shows there's an increase in autism without MMRs," says Dr. Honda (ph). "So the results show MMR is not a direct cause of autism.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COLLINS: A Japanese study that could have significance for autism cases everywhere.
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HARRIS: We are helping search for answer in this week's series autism, unraveling the mystery. The debate over the possible role of vaccines and autism drags on. Now a Japanese researcher may be able to shed new light. Here is CNN's Kyung Lah.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In this humble little pudding shop in Yokohama Japan, 19-year-old Miyuki (ph) Nojiri helps make the day's pudding. An achievement for her, says her family, because Miyuki has autism. Today it is one of her good days. But there are days like this one. When Miyuki won't respond to her mother. She's the only one of her mother's three children to exhibit the symptoms of autism.
My daughter got the vaccine, says Mika Nojiri. I wondered if it could have caused her autism. Measles, mumps, rubella vaccine, one of standard set of inoculations given to virtually all children in developed countries around the world. A number of major studies have looked for a connection between autism and childhood vaccines, all agree there is no connection.
But still the idea persists, despite being knocked down by leading researchers like Japan's Dr. Hideo Honda. He co-authored a major studying following 31,000 children in the Tokyo suburb of Yokohama. Japan withdrew the MRR vaccine in 1993 after children contracted meningitis from the vaccine.
Dr. Honda looked at children born before and after Japan pulled the vaccine. Autism didn't go down after infants stopped getting vaccine. They went up. In fact, they doubled. Our study shows there is an increase in you a without MMR, says Dr. Honda. So, the results show MMR is not a direct cause of autism.
Here is the frustration for parents. Researchers can't say what causes autism, and Japanese researchers can't completely rule out the role of vaccines in some few cases. But Dr. Honda believes the very debate over vaccines derails autism research and further confuses parents.
Miyuki's medical records, says her mother, shows she got the MMR vaccine in 1990. Her mother says she doesn't regret giving it to her since science cant tell her what caused the autism. It is challenging enough, she says trying to draw out her daughter from isolation, so she and her family can experience more good days like this. Kyung Lah, CNN Yokohama, Japan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: And for more on how families are dealing with autism check out our Web site. We have special page on CNN.com/autism. There, you will find stories, blogs, i-reports, and links to other resources. Remember, you can send your videos and pictures about how autism has touched you. Those diaries are so emotional. There is a link to upload right on the autism page.
KEILAR: Just in to the CNN NEWSROOM, a very cool space story to tell you about according to the Associated Press.
HARRIS: You love this story.
KEILAR: I do. I am as excited about this as maybe Miles O'Brien would be. A new European cargo ship. It is unmanned and it has flown to the International Space Station. It is docked. This is the first time it has done this, bringing food, water, and clothes. And it is called, get this, the Jules Verne, named after the Father of Science Fiction.
So you have got NASA looking at this, you've got -- Russia's control center outside of Moscow keeping an eye on this. Who would have thunk it, right? An unmanned cargo ship.
HARRIS: Yes, that's terrific.
KEILAR: Very cool.
HARRIS: And you love NASA TV. Don't you?
KEILAR: I sure do.
HARRIS: They just give us such a great view of what's going on. Outstanding. What happened here?
KEILAR: The CNN NEWSROOM continuing one hour from now.
HARRIS: So, the power sources are better at the space station? No, no, no. Issue # 1 is next with Ali Velshi and Gerri Willis. I'm Tony Harris.
KEILAR: And I'm Brianna Keilar.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And hello, everyone, I'm Tony Harris in the CNN Center in Atlanta. "ISSUE #1" begins in 90 seconds.
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