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Plane Preparing For Emergency Landing; Plane Landed; Snow Machine Cranks Up; Smiling Queen Leaves Hospital; Whitney Houston's FBI File; Original "Miracle" Dead At 73; Casey Anthony Sighting; Obama's First Cabinet Meeting Of Second Term

Aired March 04, 2013 - 14:29   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: We have Dan Gorda on the phone now. Dan is a commercial airline pilot.

And, Dan, full transparency, you have never flown one of these Lear jets, but you have been involved in emergency landings. So tell me, if you are the pilot on board this plane, what are you doing likely right at this moment?

DAN GORDA, AIRLINE PILOT: Hi, Brooke. Well, you know, this has been going on for a short while right now. And really when something goes wrong up there, the first thing that you do is you reference your emergency checklist and you start trying to determine whether the problem is actual, whether it is an indication, whether it is something else.

And obviously the pilot is going to spend a good amount of time trying to do that. But at this point it sounds like they made the decision to go ahead and land at Lambert St. Louis, which has a longer runway than the St. Louis downtown airport that they were looking at. I guess, they made their decision that they're going to land at Lambert, which makes sense.

Because if you have a landing gear issue or expecting possibly to have an issue on touchdown, it makes sense to use the longest available runway in the area. So right now, they're probably either complete some checklists, making some final decisions, and kind of planning out in their mind what they're going to do on that final approach and landing.

BALDWIN: So upon that final approach, Dan, at Lambert St. Louis International Airport, and we know that this pilot has circled a couple of times and ultimately made the call as Miles O'Brien put it, concrete is your friend, right, when you're landing this plane, with longer space in front of you, how do you ultimately say, all right, let's go?

GORDA: Well, you know, he's right. There is no such thing as too long a runway when you have a situation like this. But at some point, and it is usually governed bit amount of fuel and the amount of time that you can continue to fly.

At some point you have to conclude the troubleshooting process and start surfacing on actually landing the aircraft and making that decision of what is going to happen, you know, is sort of upon you. And reality is that, you know, I don't know which of the landing gear, the nose gear or --

BALDWIN: Let me stop you there. We're hearing that it is the nose gear, but then the FAA was also saying landing gear door. Maybe Miles was saying it could be the landing gear door on the nose, but that's what we have.

GORDA: I mean, I -- the landing gear door doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me because there wouldn't be an indication more than likely that have to do with the door. I mean, all of the indications in the cockpit generally speaking are linked to the landing gear being down and locked, in other words, being in the proper position for landing.

So my guess is that this all originated because when they put the landing gear down, one of the indications didn't appear correctly, which led them to doubt whether that nose gear was actually down and locked.

BALDWIN: I see.

GORDA: It is entirely possible.

BALDWIN: So is it possible, Dan, the light could be wrong and that the landing gear on the nose is down?

GORDA: Absolutely. It could be anything from the lightbulb in the actual light has burnt out, it could be the microswitch that triggers that light to come on in the cockpit is broken, it could be worst case scenario, unlikely, but it could be the actual nose gear isn't down and locked. There are probably four or five things it really could be. But more than likely, the simplest answer is probably the right one.

BALDWIN: I can't help it, but think of these people on board this plane, right. We don't even know. I don't who these people are. We just know from the airport. It was a private jet. If you're the pilot on board this plane and you make that decision, when you're heading into Lambert field, to Lambert St. Louis International Airport, what are you telling the people on board other than buckle up?

GORDA: Well, you know, one of the things that I found in aviation that works is the truth. And reality is that, you know, at the point where you're going to make that approach and landing, you're secure in that decision, you're aware of where you are, you are confident in your course of action.

So communicating that to the passengers and explaining to them what you expect the outcome to be is the best course of action. You want to tell them what is going to happen, you want to be honest with them you don't want to sensationalize it. You don't want to make it overly complicated. But at the end of the day, you know, give them the real true story about what is happening and what you envision the outcome is going to be based on your experience.

BALDWIN: OK, forgive me, Dan. I was getting information in my ear. We have confirmed this plane has landed. Eric, jump back in. Do we have anything more than the fact that it has -- OK. OK, now, maybe my eyes aren't as great, Dan, I don't know if you're in front of the television, I have mike brooks squinting with me.

Apparently, we are looking at the plane that is somewhere inside that spotlight. So we can't really deduce much. I don't want to say I don't see flames, therefore it is OK. We don't know. Clearly, there is a presence of emergency personnel on the tarmac. Mike Brooks, jump in.

MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST (via telephone): It looks like it is surrounded by emergency vehicles. The aircraft rescue firefighting vehicles from the St. Louis -- the Lambert St. Louis International Airport Fire Department. They have their own fire department there. That's what we're seeing in and around there. That's normal procedure. Go ahead and make sure everyone is safe, make sure there is no fire, no smoke visible and they'll try to get the passengers off as quickly as possible.

BALDWIN: Yes, we just can't tell from here. Eric, do we have anything more from the airport beyond -- that's all we have. OK, so we now have, Dan, we know this plane has landed, according to the spokesperson at the airport. It is tough to tell what exactly we're looking at beyond some yellow fire trucks here. Dan, are you in front of a TV?

GORDA: Yes, I'm looking at it now. It is customary in a situation like this to stop the aircraft on the runway and let the airport fire rescue team assess the situation. It looks like there is a little bit -- now it is moving, but it looks like the aircraft is sitting fairly normally.

It is tough to see. You can't really see the nose of the aircraft now, but it is very common for aircraft to have this sort of situation, stop on the runway and get evaluated rather than try to taxi and clear the runway.

BALDWIN: OK. I would like to breathe a sigh of relief that -- and tell everyone that everyone is a-OK. We cannot do that yet, but Dan makes a great point, they need to assess this plane, get everyone off, and check them out.

Mike Brooks is staring a little closer to a monitor here in the studio. We're trying to see if we can tell. Can you see anything more, Mike?

BROOKS: It looks like they have got fire and rescue vehicles around it. It looks like it is sitting fairly normally. It doesn't look like it was sitting down off the nose gear, just from the shaky picture we can see. But it looks like it is a normal landing, from what I can see from here, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I would love to be able to sit here and say it is normal. Looking at my e-mail, I have one line, per Lambert Airport, the plane has landed. They do not have specifics on the conditions of the jet or its passengers. Dan, if you could talk to the pilot right now, what would you want to ask?

GORDA: I mean, just curious as to what the situation was, and how it -- what their first indication was and just sort of more of a shop talk thing. But the situation ended well. The landing looks like it was fairly normal and I would imagine that from what I can see there is, you know, the situation is over at this point. But that's just my assessment.

BALDWIN: Yes. We hope everyone is a-OK now as we have been on this for 40 minutes or so. Dan Gorda, we appreciate you so much calling in and walking us through a commercial airline pilot who has been through this before.

Dan, thank you. I want to thank Tory Dunnen, our CNN aviation analyst, Miles O'Brien, thank you. And Mike Brooks, hopefully we'll be able to report in a matter of minutes as soon as we hear from the airport that truly everyone is a-OK. Now, other news today, watch this.

After weeks of tears, admissions, and aggression --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you crying when you were stabbing him?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Jodi Arias back on the stand right now. We'll break down what she just revealed.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Willing to help this lady and not let her die?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not at this time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Backlash after a nurse refuses to give a woman CPR. Is this normal protocol across the U.S.?

And crews demolishing a home where a man disappeared into the ground, the news is now.

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BALDWIN: Just so we can find out for sure what happened as we're looking at these closer pictures now of a plane, safe and sound on the ground this is that Learjet 45. We have been watching for the last hour or so.

Jeff Leigh is on the phone with me now from this airport. And, Jeff, do we know what happened? Do we know what the problem was?

JEFF LEIGH, SPOKESMAN, LAMBERT-ST.LOUIS AIRPORT (via telephone): No. It was -- good afternoon, by the way. This is Jeff. It was reported as some type of issue with their landing gear, about 1:30, after circling the St. Louis region and then most recently the Lambert Airport that landed without an incident about 1:30.

What you're seeing now are our firefighting crews that were on standby that responded to the situation. We understand that the passengers have deplaned. You might see a bus out there. We're getting ready to assist them.

BALDWIN: Are they OK?

LEIGH: We don't have any reports of any issues with the passengers, no.

BALDWIN: OK. Just to be clear, we heard eight people on board. Was that seven passengers or six?

LEIGH: I don't have the specifics on that.

BALDWIN: OK.

LEIGH: But I can tell you that they're assessing the plane now, and we'll get the passengers off the air field and work to get equipment to tow the plane off the active runway. Until then, that runway is closed and we're just moving traffic on other runways right now.

BALDWIN: OK. Hopefully those on board on this private jet are OK here on this Monday afternoon. Jeff Leigh, thank you so much, spokesman, Lambert-St. Louis Airport for me.

And now some of the hottest stories in a flash, rapid fire, roll it. Those harmless streaks you see here, they could spell big trouble. First full week of March, old man winter hit his stride.

Pretty quiet this hour in Minneapolis, do not let that deceive you because things are about to change. And then this big snowstorm moves eastward, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., get ready.

Also today, the health scare appears to be over for Britain's Queen Elizabeth. She was walking out of this hospital, just a couple of hours ago. She was admitted yesterday with symptoms of a stomach bug. The 86-year-old smiled as she walked to a waiting limousine. Buckingham palace says the hospitalization was simply a precautionary measure.

The FBI has now released its 128-page file into the troubled life of late singer Whitney Houston. It reveals rantings, sometimes chilling letters from her fans, two of whom had threatened her. One tried to extort money from Whitney Houston. She had turned over the letter to authorities before her accidental overdose last February.

And he helped make Smokey Robinson and the "Miracles" a Motown powerhouse, now his Bobby Rogers voice has been silenced. Smokey Robinson says his lifelong friend and fellow band member Bobby Rogers died at the age of 73. You can see him in this clip. He's the one wearing the glasses.

"Shop Around," "Tracks Of My Tears," Tears Of A Clown," we all know the songs by heart here. Smokey says Bobby Rogers was like a brother to him. They were born on the same day in the same hospital in Detroit, Michigan.

Now our first glimpse of Casey Anthony since 2011, here she is today, arriving at her bankruptcy court hearing. This is in Tampa. Last time we saw Anthony she was being acquitted of murdering her 2- year-old daughter Caylee.

According to our affiliate Central Florida News 13, she is claiming about $1,000 in assets in nearly 800,000 liabilities. Court papers list Anthony as unemployed, with no recent income.

A little while ago, we got an inside look at the president's new cabinet. A moment he also used to talk about the impact of the forced spending cuts that he signed into action just last week.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: This is my 17th meeting with my cabinet, the first one in a second term. And obviously we have got some familiar faces, we have some new faces, we have some familiar faces in new positions.

Obviously, we're going to be spending some time talking about the potential impact of "The Sequester" on all of the agencies and missions across the board. It is an area of deep concern. I think everybody knows where I stand on this issue.

We are going to manage it as best we can to try to minimize the impacts on American families, but it is not the right way for us to go about deficit reduction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Among some of the faces around that table there, you had Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel who is sitting right there, next to the president.

And coming up here, I'm going to bring in our hot topics panel, one issue to talk about, have you heard about this out of California, this nursing home, a nurse refuses to give a dying woman CPR, even when the 911 dispatcher is saying find someone to help save this woman. We're going to talk to my panel about what went wrong next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: I'm Brooke Baldwin. This is the part of the show where we like to take a minute, tackle some of the stories we think you'll be talking about around the dinner table tonight.

So let me begin with this story of this elderly woman, she was basically left to die when help was inches away. She was 87 years old. She was living at this place, Glenwood Gardens, a California retirement home in Bakersfield.

She collapsed in the dining room. The nurse on the scene, picks up the phone, calls 911, but when the dispatcher on the phone told her to give the woman CPR until an ambulance could get there, she refused.

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UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: Is there anybody that works there that is willing to do it? Are we just going to let this lady die?

GLENWOOD GARDENS: That's why we're calling 911.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: We can't wait. She can't wait right now. She is stopping breathing. She can't wait for them to get there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Sadly the woman died a short time later. Of course, it didn't have to end that way. A retirement home, though, is standing by the nurse's refusal to help. We've heard from this executive director of Glenwood Gardens, his name is Jeffrey Toomer. This is what he had said in the statement.

Quote, "Our practice is to immediately call emergency medical personnel for assistance and to wait with the individual needing attention until such personnel arrives. That's the protocol we followed.

So they say the nurse was just doing her job, but at what point does being a medical professional stop being a job and start being a moral obligation to do whatever it takes to keep a patient alive?

Let me bring in my hot topics panel on this Monday. We have on deck, deputy editor of "Essence" magazine, Teresa Wiltz, radio and television personality, Rolonda Watts, entertainment blogger, Micah Jesse and comedian, Dean Obeidallah.

Welcome, welcome, welcome to all of you. Rolonda, let me just begin with you. Do you -- if putting yourself in the position of this nurse, do you save a life or do you do your job per protocol?

ROLONDA WATTS, RADIO AND TELEVISION PERSONALITY: I think your job as a human being is to be concerned about another human being. And if it came down to saving this woman's life, the sad thing about it was listening to the full 911 call. The EMS -- the 911 operator is consistently saying, is there someone else there, is there a human being, a stranger, a passerby -- BALDWIN: A gardener?

WATTS: The lackadaisical attitude of this lady saying, no, there is nobody else. It is one thing if she won't give CPR to save this woman's life, but what about somebody else to save this woman's life. I don't know if this is a fear of being sued. We are in California, the sue-me state, but it comes down to basic humanity.

BALDWIN: Dean, do you agree?

DEAN OBEIDALLAH, POLITICAL COMEDIAN: I do. I used to be a lawyer before I became a comedian. Frankly, that protocol is because of liability. They would rather EMT suffer any kind of a lawsuit for not caring for the woman properly and watch a woman die.

Imagine having your mother or father in a retirement community and they collapse. And the nurse watches them die? I hope this community gets sued. Even if it is not in the contract, any problem whatsoever, to care for this woman, they'll have a lawsuit.

BALDWIN: Apparently the protocol, if you choose to move into this community, you know that this is the policy and that they will follow the policy. And you have to sign off on that. At the same time, you know, if you're a member of the medical profession, doctor, nurse what have you, you're signing the highest code there is, the Hippocratic Oath, right?

TERESA WILTZ, DEPUTY EDITOR, ESSENCE: I don't think nurses do. I don't think so.

OBEIDALLAH: This is humanity.

BALDWIN: Go ahead.

WATTS: I just lost my 80 something-year-old father. I would own that facility if I found out my father was treated that way.

WILTZ: I agree.

WATTS: The scary thing about it is this could happen to any of us or anyone who we care about. So I think this is a citizen issue. We should really, you know, take a look at this. Who is in those positions when a life is at hand?

BALDWIN: I know. Who doesn't know anyone who has been in a home? Let me move on and I want to hear from Theresa and Mike on this one. The next topic is this, he's the only American ever to meet North Korea's secretive leader Kim Jong-Un. I'm not talking about some ambassador, not talking about the secretary of state.

We're talking about a tatted up, likes to, you know, wear wedding gowns, known as "The Worm," Dennis Rodman, probably the most eccentric guy to ever slam dunk a basketball in the NBA is now the reigning American expert, I use this term expert very loosely and facetiously here. You know, on the leader of the country who has openly threatened to destroy the United States. This is what Rodman had to say about his new friend, Kim Jong-Un.

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DENNIS RODMAN, FORMER NBA STAR: His country likes him, not like him, love him. Love him. Guess what, yes, yes, I love him. I love him. The guy is awesome.

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BALDWIN: Yes. He said it, the guy is awesome. That's not all. Rodman says even though Kim Jong-Un may hate America, he loves basketball. He's over there with the Harlem Globetrotters. Rodman thinks a little basketball diplomacy could fix the rocky relationship between the two countries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RODMAN: The one thing I said, we talked about -- you see the clips or whatever, he loves basketball. Obama loves basketball. Let's start there. Let's start there. If you see the quotes in the papers, he says that. He says that, about sports. Both of you guys love basketball so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I want to open this up to all of you. Beginning with you, Micah, is there any way we can look at this other than being some huge joke?

MICAH JESSE, ENTERTAINMENT BLOGGER AND PRODUCER: You know, honestly, that's what I was going to say. This is a huge joke. And you know, Dennis Rodman certainly knows how to get himself some good press. He's kind of known for those quick little 5 minutes of fame.

I think this is just that. It comes at a very terrible time for him to be in North Korea. As we all know, America is not in the best place with North Korea. And for him to be making these kinds of comments is not only un-American, but also kind of startling.

BALDWIN: North Korea is not in the best place with many places in the world here. I mean, they starve their people, atrocious that the human rights violations, we could go on. Theresa, do you -- one thing I was wondering, we had ping-pong diplomacy with china in 1971. Is it possible to have basketball diplomacy in 2013? This is the beginning of a conversation between the two nations.

WILTZ: Possibly. I mean, I'm all for, you know, foreign relations and easing the thaw between the two countries.

BALDWIN: No matter who it is?

WILTZ: But not with Dennis Rodman. He's not the one. I remember from his days with the Bulls. He was fabulous on the court. He's not the most articulate one, and you know, he was right about one thing. He's no diplomat because he isn't.

He just, in his justification, if he wanted to go over there, we can argue that the debates and merits on that, but to talk about the guy and say he's awesome and he loves him is just really tone deaf.

BALDWIN: Dean, you're shaking your head.

OBEIDALLAH: I think it has the makings of a great reality show, hanging with Kim Jong-Un, next Gary Busey go over, Snooki, maybe Trump. They keep Donald Trump maybe. How great would that be?

JESSE: I would tune in for that.

BALDWIN: Let me jump in. Here is my other question. I remember when we were covering so much with Libya, the year before last, there were a number of a-list celebrities who met with, you know, Moammar Gadhafi. You had Usher, Beyonce, Nellie Furtado, Lionel Richie, why is this different?

WATTS: Brooke, I think anytime there is an opportunity for some kind of communication, let's face it you can say it facetiously if you want, but Dennis Rodman knows more about Kim than a lot of our government officials right now.

And basketball starts a conversation that could maybe bring -- I think as long as he's having a conversation, maybe he can impress to this guy another way of thinking. He's 28 years old, he's a young guy, he's impressionable. Yes, he loves power.

Yes, he loves leadership. He's following in his father's dictatorial footsteps, but he may learn about humanity by talking to somebody he admires. We have all been able to touch somebody's life by having a good conversation.

Beyond politics, human to human, man to man, there may be something that happens in this parlay, you might say.

BALDWIN: I have to leave it there. I have to thank all of you, Teresa Wiltz, Rolonda Watts, Micah Jesse, Dean Obeidallah, who would have think we would be talking Kim Jong-Un and Dennis Rodman but there we go. Thank you all, so much. Have a good rest of your day.

Coming up, it is a researcher's dream come true. Doctors announce they have cured. They're using the cure word, a 2-year-old who was born with HIV. Coming up next, we'll find out what this breakthrough means for others with HIV.

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