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New Day

How Could A Plane Land at the Wrong Airport?; Restricting NFL Tickets; Detroit Auto Show Shows Off Concept Cars; Pope Francis On Abortion; Google Buys "Smart" Appliance Maker

Aired January 14, 2014 - 06:30   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now, the NTSB is investigating what went wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They saw the airport. They assumed it was the right airport. It's clear they weren't scanning all of the available instruments to them.

BROWN: Airport officials say air traffic control at Missouri's Branson airport made contact with the pilot shortly before the plane was scheduled to land. Branson air traffic control doesn't have radar, not uncommon at smaller airports. So they couldn't monitor where the plane was.

The pilots had landed at Taney airport, radioing controllers at Branson to alert them of the mistake about seven miles from their intended destination.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The fact that they were only six and a half miles apart and there was just a couple of degrees of difference for the orientation of the runway, that adds to the confusion.

BROWN: The plane landed on a much shorter runway than it was supposed to, nearly half the size. Passengers on board say they could feel the brakes slam, only to find out later their plane stopped around 500 feet short of a steep drop.

No one was hurt, but flight experts say the outcome could have been much worse if they had been on a different, older plane.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If they didn't get the plane stopped and press those brakes as hard as they did, the plane would have gone off the end of the runway, down an embankment, most likely broke apart and burned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As you can see over here, we're about five points nautical (ph) miles away from the airport.

BROWN: To get a firsthand look at the challenges pilots face during visual landings at night, we went inside this flight simulator at the Academy of Aviation. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You would just have to rely on your co-pilot, rely on all the instruments that you have in airplanes to land this airplane.

BROWN: We also saw how a pilot could have trouble picking out the correct runway in the distance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Me being a pilot flying, I'm looking outside to see where is my runway.

BROWN: But you see two blinking lights over here, so how would you know which one's your runway?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So visually, it's hard to tell, but using the system as a backup, we can see which runway we're using. We can use the system to help us to analyze which runway's the correct runway and which -- possibly which airport to -- we're landing at.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: So that's key there. Flight experts say it's important to cross reference with the navigation system if you're doing a visual landing.

Meantime, NTSB has the flight data reporter and cockpit voice recorder from the Southwest plane and will be analyzing that along with interviewing the crew this week.

In a statement, Southwest says the pilots have a combined tenure of 26 years with the company. Southwest says it has reached out to each customer directly to apologize, refund their tickets, and provide future travel credit as a gesture of goodwill.

BOLDUAN: When you say that combined they have 26 years under their belt, I mean, that's -- they're veterans.

BROWN: Fourteen years and 12 years, absolutely.

BOLDUAN: It's scary how close they were to it being a very different situation. We're now learning how close they were to the end of the runway and steep cliff.

BROWN: Yeah, and thank goodness they realized it. Mary Schiavo, who we interviewed in the piece said they probably didn't realize it until as soon as they touched down because it was dark how short the runway was. So it was key that they slammed on those brakes, but also as you heard in the piece, the way the plane was built, it was built to be able to deal with those shorter runways. So they were looking in that regard.

CUOMO: You expect them to slam on the brakes when you realize. They just got lucky that they were in the right plane. Otherwise, their mistake would have been a lot more costly.

BROWN: They had been in an older version of that 737, could be a different outcome we'd be talking about right now. BOLDUAN: Thanks, Pamela.

BROWN: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Let's get back over to John Berman for some of our other top stories this morning.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you so much.

Happening today, a state of the state address, very high stakes for Chris Christie. The embattled New Jersey governor expected to bring up the bridgegate scandal when he speaks at three p.m. Eastern. He's also facing a federal investigation that we told you about in a CNN exclusive for using millions of dollars in hurricane relief money to fund a tourism campaign that he and his family starred in.

New this morning, congressional leaders agreeing on a trillion dollar spending plan that funds the federal government through 2014. The deal rolls back pension cuts for disabled veterans and ends those drastic across-the-board sequester cuts. It also trims government spending agency by agency. House leaders are hoping to vote on this bill tomorrow.

Happening now, Secretary of State John Kerry meeting with his Vatican counterpart, a top aide to Pope Francis. They're expected to discuss major foreign policy issues, including Syria and the Mideast peace process. Kerry is the first Catholic U.S. secretary of state in more than 30 years. Later, the secretary will travel to Kuwait for a conference on Syria.

New details on the evacuation of a Texas high school. The FBI and bomb squad were called to the scene Monday following an unspecified threat to the school. More than 3,000 students were evacuated. One student was taken into custody.

The threat was initially identified as a potential explosive device. Now police say they found a home-made weapon known as a zip gun. Charges against the student are pending.

And get ready for smaller servings at the country's biggest pizza chain. Pizza Hut will start offering pizza by the slice. The new offering will start today at two locations in Rhode Island and Nebraska. And the chain says the approach will be expanded. The slices will be thinner than a standard Pizza Hut slice and cost will cost you between $2 and $3. I just had the cheese lovers and meat lovers stuck in my head. I had a hard time getting through that.

BOLDUAN: I'm now hungry. Thank you, John.

We should order pizza.

CUOMO: We should. Let's do it right now. Let's take a break.

Coming up on NEW DAY, pizza and pig skin pettiness. Fans of the 49ers and the Patriots -- which doesn't matter as much because nobody likes them, biased my own. Anyway, the fans are all furious this morning. And here's why. They're trying to see their teams play on the road this Sunday. They're having trouble finding tickets. What's going on?

BOLDUAN: Also ahead, Google spending more than $3 billion to buy a company that makes thermostats. Is this part of the tech giant's plan for their future, eyeing your home?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back. It's money time. Will the Dow be able to snap a four-day losing streak? Who knows? I'll tell you who knows. Chief business correspondent Christine Romans is here, and she has the answers because of all the things that are moving behind her.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly and a little bit of ESP (ph). No, it looks like stock futures are higher this morning, trying to come back from the worst drumming (ph) in three months for the Dow. The Dow down 180 points yesterday. That's a little more than 1 percent. The S&P, the NASDAQ, both down more than 1 percent too. The Dow now down six of eight trading sessions so far this year.

A Time Warner Cable rejecting a takeover that would be one of the biggest since the financial crisis, $61 billion deal. Time Warner Cable COE calling the offer from Charter Communications a non-starter and a low-ball. Time Warner Cable is a separate company from Time Warner, the parent company of CNN. (inaudible)

And the Detroit auto show, guys, unveiling some cool concept cars Monday. Here's the Toyota Ft-1 concept. (inaudible) Here's the Volkswagen Beetle dune concept car, two extra inches of ground clearance for those sandy beaches. And here's a Kia Gt4 Stinger concept. It looks like a two-seater, but it really has two small backseats for cramped passengers. For the record, there's no way Chris Cuomo would fit in the backseat of that car, under no circumstance.

BOLDUAN: He would try. He would try.

ROMANS: We could fold him in there.

BOLDUAN: I don't know if you heard him over here --

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: Christine, I don't know if you heard him over here, but Chris was saying how much he loved the colors of those cars.

CUOMO: No, I didn't like the Stinger's color. I liked that gold on the bug.

BOLDUAN: If you're a concept car, do you have to be a variation of yellow? I guess so.

CUOMO: I don't like you calling me like a vanilla gorilla there, saying I won't fit in the back of the Stinger.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: It's the broad stripes on the suit that make me look bigger.

BOLDUAN: It's that 10 pounds heavier.

CUOMO: I mean, she's only three and a half feet tall. What do you want me to do?

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: All right. Let's talk football please. Yes, please.

Both the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks number two, number one seeds, have earned the right to play the NFL conference championship games this weekend at home. And they've also both decided they are restricting ticket sales, making it more difficult for fans, the visiting Patriots and 49ers, to buy them. Early Start anchor and unfortunate Patriots fan John Berman has been investigating this.

BERMAN: I've been watching football for four years, preparing for this moment, investigating every weekend.

Look, football teams look for any edge that they can get. You mess with the opposing coaches, you mess with the opposing players, but messing with the opposing fans? Is that taking things too far.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

BERMAN (voice-over): For football fans searching for face-value tickets for this weekend's NFL playoff games, the hunt is complicated, not by cash, but by zip codes.

The Seattle Seahawks set geographic limits on who can buy tickets to their games, restricting sales to only the pacific northwest; 49ers fans cried foul.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's important to show our support and show our -- you know, how loud we can be up there, as well.

BERMAN: Californians will have to resort to secondary markets like stub hub or the NFL ticket exchange where prices have skyrocketed into the thousands. The Seahawks aren't the only ones executing this scheme.

SPORTS ANNOUNCER: Across the middle and wide open!

BERMAN: The Denver Broncos restricted AFC championship ticket sales to billing addresses in the Rocky Mountain region.

SPORTS ANNOUNCER: And there he goes!

BERMAN: Which means New England Patriots fans are pretty upset.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think it should be allowed, but whatever advantage they can do, they would.

BERMAN: Restricting ticket sales to locals could protect the team's 12th man, of course a reference to the fans whose big noise rattles the stadium and could rattle the opponent.

The Seahawks say the restriction has nothing to do with overzealous fans. Their statement to CNN reads in part, "The reason wasn't to limit residents of California. It was to stop large ticket brokerages from manipulating the on-sale purchases through Ticketmaster and inflating the price on the secondary market."

(on-camera): The bottom line is that these teams are companies. They have obligations to maximize their profit. So whatever went into their decision, it must benefit them in some way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: You know, Thucydides said, "If the strong do as they will, the weak suffer as they must." The Broncos released a statement, which says in part, "After more than 96 percent of our season ticket- holders elected to purchase playoff tickets, we had an extremely limited inventory. We wanted to ensure that our local fans had an opportunity to purchase tickets."

CUOMO: Will you give me the quote again?

BERMAN: Thucydides. "If the strong do as they will, the weak suffer as they must." It's on the Peloponnesian War, of course.

CUOMO: That's badass.

BERMAN: Bill Belocick (ph) knows that.

BOLDUAN: My brain literally just shut off. I'm sorry.

CUOMO: I like when Berman gets badass like that. When he said it, he dropped his voice.

BOLDUAN: I know he's been saving (ph) that quote for days.

CUOMO: That was intimidating. He says it to me all the time.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: He's walking around like in the cafeteria right before he slaps me in the back of the head he says that.

BOLDUAN: Uh-huh. Sure. OK.

CUOMO: That's what happens.

Indra Petersons help me out here. Say something relevant.

INDRA PETERSONS, METEOROLOGIST: I'm going to talk about something --

BOLDUAN: -- not about a philosopher. PETERSONS: I was gonna say, it's definitely not about football if you know me at all.

Let's talk about ice earthquakes. Any one heard of these?

CUOMO: Yes.

PETERSONS: All right, so this is what happened to poor Dennis (ph). He hears this loud noise, can't figure out what's going on till he wakes up the very next day. It's 100-foot long crack on his driveway about eight, if not 10 inches deep. A lot of people are saying what is it?

This is actually going on all across the area, very easy to remember. It was cold last week. Just imagine you have some snow, it warms up, then it refreezes and it expands. So, unfortunately, this is something that's really kind of created a phenomenon all across the area. Maybe easy to understand if you've ever put a water bottle in the freezer and kind of forgotten. Same concept. So that's the deal.

It was definitely very cold last week. If you take a look at the temperatures, they were well below normal. Of course, that is the condition that caused that. It warmed up, and then it refroze. Condition is getting a little bit better. They're actually above normal for a lot of the area today, but that is going to be slowly changing.

(LAUGHTER)

PETERSONS: Temperatures -- about two degrees above normal around Green Bay today, but that cold air we'll start to see then we'll start to see temperatures a good 10, 12 degrees below normal by tomorrow and then just keep in mind we're actually going to start to see some showers along the east coast out towards the west coast today, fire danger with typical Santa Ana winds. So, that's kind of like notes (ph) for what's going on.

BOLDUAN: All I saw was 50 degrees in New York, and that is OK --

PETERSONS: That's all I need to see. That's all I need to see.

(LAUGHTER)

PETERSONS: I don't even look at the west coast anymore because it's depressing.

BOLDUAN: What are they call -- ice earthquake?

PETERSONS: Ice earthquake.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: I'm from Midwest. I've never heard of that.

PETERSONS: --expecting you to bring --

BOLDUAN: I also don't know any philosophers.

All right. We're going to take a break. Coming up next on NEW DAY, you already trust Google with pretty much everything, your e-mail, your phone, your calendar. So, how about all of your home appliances? How the tech giant is getting more involved in your daily life? We're going to tell you about it.

CUOMO: And Mitt Romney letting lose. Where was this? On the campaign trail, he's going to bust out a move that you just must see.

BOLDUAN: Oh my goodness!

CUOMO: It's a "Must-See Moment." That's what I'm talking about. Old school.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back. Let's go around the world. Blunt words from Pope Francis on abortion. Conservative Catholics have complained the new pontiff isn't -- hasn't been tough enough on the issue until now. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen has that.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, the pope called abortions horrific and said that unborn children are being discarded as, quote, "unnecessary." He also criticized a throwaway society that he said was foster in this kind of behavior. Now, this is one of the strongest statements that this pope has made on abortion, and it comes after he was criticized by some conservatives in the Catholic Church for not taking a forceful enough position -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Frederik, thank you so much.

To China now where a life-sized replica of the Titanic will be the center piece of a theme park there complete with the simulated shipwreck. CNN's David McKenzie has more.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Remember those terrifying scenes in James Cameron's "Titanic", of the ship sinking? Well, soon, you could be reliving that in China. An obscure company has announced plans to build a theme part where they rebuild a Titanic replica with U.S. designers so you can relive the sinking experience.

At $165 million, it might seem an idea that will sink. But this film is extremely popular in China. So, perhaps, it's worth floating (ph). Kate, back to you.

BOLDUAN: David, thank you so much.

So, in a surprising move, Google is getting into the home appliance business. The internet company announced Monday that they're buying Nest Labs for more than $3 billion. Nest is known for re-inventing home products like high-tech thermostats and smoke detectors. This is Google's second largest acquisition to date and it's all part of its expansion into your home.

So, let's talk about this. Let's obviously bring back in chief business correspondent, Christine Romans. Surprising? Do you think it's a surprising move?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know, I think this is Google wants to be a part of this home appliance interconnected world. But look, what Nest does, it's this really cool device that it knows -- it starts to learn your behavior and changes the temperature of your home based on what you're doing. It also has this really cool smoke detectors that are not annoying.

There's actually a woman's voice that says "There is smoke detected," and it's not like screaming at you. You can wave your hand and it will go off. So, it's very user friendly stuff. It's interesting. The guy who runs the company, used to be at Apple, helped design the iPod. You know, changed the clunky Walkman into something that's cool and user friendly. Now, doing the same thing with home appliances. I think it's a total natural fit for Google to get into this.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: What's so cool about Nest is Nest getting to know about you. Nest discovers you. Google obviously does the same thing. Is that the synergy here? Is this just a way for Google to get more places and find out more stuff about you?

ROMANS: I mean, Google will now know what the temperature is in your bedroom, John Berman. If they --

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: The heat never has to go on --

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: No, but that's the whole point. The privacy concerns people have like, OK, Google knows everything about me, knows what I think. It targets ads to everything I do and now knows all the stuff about my home. There is a Nest privacy policy, and the Nest guy said Google has said that they will abide by that privacy policy.

CUOMO: I'll tell you, that issue, the NSA scandal, right, the spying scandal going on in the government, companies like Google have been the unintended beneficiary of that, because all the focus right now is on what the government's doing with its information. When companies like Google and these internet companies are collecting data, we all get weird e-mails while we're online that just happened to go along with our conversation, that's a big one.

ROMANS: The day that your smoke detector says, would you like to buy something --

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: Then you know that you really --

CUOMO: Your house is on fire.

ROMANS: Your life has been hacked. But look, this is a natural, I think, for Google, really, because they are getting -- it's all about the convenience of technology in your life, right?

BOLDUAN: I was surprised when I saw that one analyst saying that only one to two percent of people actually have these common connected devices right now. So, not a lot of people are in this market at home.

ROMANS: But that means there's huge growth, right? And people -- I think, 90 percent of people say they can put this Nest thing in on their own like you don't even need to have an electrician really do it. Although, maybe in some states, you're supposed to have an electrician do it. But anyway, you know, it's easy to use.

Super -- and what's interesting to me is the same kind of -- it's the Apple guys at the core of it. you know, it's this idea that things should be easy to use. I mean, your house is full of stuff that's not easy to use. There's a lot of growth there, I think.

CUOMO: Everybody wants to own the future.

ROMANS: Yes. Stock is up a little bit. Google stock is up a little bit this morning. So, people like it.

BERMAN: All right, guys. Thank you so much, Romans.

It is time now for our "Must-See Moment." Who is the star? You'll never guess. Former presidential candidate, Mitt Romney. Over the weekend, he showed us he's got some serious, serious moves. I'm not talking about political moves. I'm talking about dance moves. Look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN (voice-over): Romney was attending a Mormon youth conference at Arizona State University. He was invited on stage, and then this. Watch just happened there. The artist, Alex --

BOLDUAN (voice-over): The artist looked like shocked.

BERMAN: Yes. He was shocked. He had Romney doing sort of a "Gangnam Style" dance there. And I got to say that former government, very impressive. That's a man wearing a suit, folks, and I can tell you it's not easy to do that in a suit.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN (on-camera): And yes, before you ask yourselves at home, we did ask John Berman to try and he refused.

CUOMO: Vicinities (ph) told him not to do --

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: Philosophical saying.

BERMAN (on-camera): I don't look like Mitt Romney. I can't do what Romney can do. BOLDUAN: It's a very tough move. Anyone who's tried it and we know we've all tried the move, Christine. We've all tried the move.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: It's very difficult to do.

BERMAN: He was spry. I think the word I would use is spry.

CUOMO: Athletic.

BERMAN: Yes.

CUOMO: He looks good.

BERMAN: He looked great.

CUOMO: Good for him. Hair didn't move at all either.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: Never has, never will.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: Coming up --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Projecting.

CUOMO: JB's got a good hair also. Truth be told.

Coming up on NEW DAY, a retired police officer, listen to this story, Florida theater, police officer allegedly opens fire on a young father there. The reason why is baffling. We are live in Florida. We spoke to witnesses. Details ahead. You want to hear this.

BOLDUAN: Also this, this hasn't happened (ph) since the cold war. An American journalist sent packing from Russia with little explanation. We're going to talk with David Satter live why he thinks he got kicked out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's an abuse of power. It's a cover-up of the abuse of power.

CUOMO: Head on. Chris Christie expected to address bridge allegations in a major speech today while new evidence surfaces that another mayor was bullied after not endorsing him. A look at what he may say today.

BOLDUAN: Movie theater horror. A man shoots and kills another all because of a fight over texting at the movies. We hear from those inside the theater during those terrifying moments.

CUOMO: Banned. The cold war heating up again. An American Journalist expelled from Russia for the first time in decades. Why was he booted? What does this say just weeks before the Olympics? He joins us live.

Your NEW DAY starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: What you need to know --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're finally at a point where the do-not-use order has been lifted in certain areas.

ANNOUNCER: What you just have to see --

This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, January 14th, seven o'clock in the east.