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Flight 370 Families Outraged; Gale-Force Winds, High Waves Halt Search; 14 Dead, 176 Unaccounted for After Landslide

Aired March 25, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Happening now in the NEWSROOM:

Breaking new developments in the search for Flight 370.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search and rescue operation in the northern corridor has been called off.

COSTELLO: To the south, gale-force winds, large waves, heavy rains shutting down operations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not searching for a needle in a haystack. We're still trying to find where the haystack is.

COSTELLO: Another kind of storm taking over Beijing this morning.

The Malaysian embassy overrun.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are holding signs saying they want their sons and daughters back.

COSTELLO: Frustrated and furious over the country's handling of the accident.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They said no one survived. There's no evidence.

COSTELLO: Calls for the airline CEO to step down.

As families this morning demand proof, evidence of the crash.

Special edition of NEWSROOM starts now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me this morning.

Grief and anger boil over in China's capital.

Family members march on Malaysia's embassy in Beijing, the intended designation of doomed Flight 370. They are demanding answers on the search.

And challenging Malaysian's announcement that the plane crashed killing all on board, outraged relatives ask how can all hope be lost when not a single piece of debris has been found?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing found. If something found, we will go to Australia. If nothing found, we will stay here and we will go to Malaysia to fight for ourselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Pauline Chiou is live in Beijing with more.

Hello, Pauline.

PAULINE CHIOU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These family members are not satisfied with the Malaysian government's explanation about why they had to announce on Monday that the plane has gone down. They say they want hard evidence. They want to see a piece of luggage or a seat cushion, some sort of debris from the plane with 370's markings. And they say, until they see that, they don't want to close the door on the search.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHIOU (voice-over): This morning, outrage and fury as relatives face off with police outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing.

Over 300 Chinese friends and family members of Flight 370 protesting.

STEVE, MOTHER ONBOARD FLIGHT 370: From the beginning, they hide everything. I don't think this kind of government, a liar and even murderer, can solve anything.

CHIOU: Following Monday's dire announcement by Malaysia's prime minister --

NAJIB RAZAK, MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER: Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.

CHIOU: Frustrated by Malaysia's handling of the incident, they descended upon the embassy on foot, marching over two miles after police prevented them from taking buses and blocked the embassy once they arrived.

Furious and skeptical of Malaysia's investigation, some Chinese family members released a statement, reading in part, "The Malaysian government and Malaysian military continue putting off, holding back and covering up the truth of the incident as well as trying to deceive the families of passengers and people of the entire world."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't why. I just want to see some debris off the aircraft and black box to know exactly what happened, because there are too many unanswered questions. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CHIOU: And because of these questions, some Chinese families say they're now willing to go to Kuala Lumpur. Initially, they didn't want to go because they didn't want to go to a foreign country and be away from their families. But now, they say they want to go because they want to confront the officials there at the very highest level -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Pauline Chiou, reporting live from Beijing this morning.

It is day 18 of the search and more critical time is slipping away. In Perth, Australia, search plans never left the ground today because of a storm at sea. And while foul weather remains a threat, many feel the airline and its CEO caused the greatest damage by mishandling the search.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AHMAD JAUHARI YAHYA, MALAYSIAN AIRLINES CEO: Will I resign? It's a personal basically decision, we'll take it later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Andrew Stevens is in Perth, Australia, the hub of the search.

Andrew, what are you hearing about the airline CEO under fire?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's certainly under a huge amount of pressure and has been from day one, Carol.

He was asked at a press conference whether he should resign, whether he will resign. He said that's a personal decision and I will take it day by day.

It's a very, very difficult position for him to be in. If you look at the daily press conference coming out from Kuala Lumpur, it's been led by the Malaysian government. The CEO Yahya is always there, and you can see the stress and pain etched in his face everyday. But he's not leading the information, he's not telling people what's going on, because that's being handled by the Malaysian government.

So, he's sort of got his hands tied somewhat. And the Malaysian government, no doubt about it made serious missteps in the beginning when the first few days after the plane disappeared. But they were told they weren't being transparent enough. Now, they're trying to be transparent. That line from the Malaysian prime minister yesterday that the plane did indeed crash in the southern Indian Ocean. This transparency ensures that they've got the best information they can possibly get. It's been checked and rechecked by satellite experts from several countries. And they made the decision to get the information out. They're damned if they do, they're damned if they don't.

If they don't say anything in this search where I am in Perth could go on for days before we have any concrete evidence. It could go on longer than that. So, there are choices to keep people informed, do we tell them what we're told by expert opinion, or do we say nothing and go back to being accused of hiding things when we're not?

So, a very, very difficult position for the Malaysia Airlines CEO, and at this stage, we don't know whether he will resign. He's doing what he can from what we hear to help the passengers. Again, they were slow off the mark but they are now offering so many services to the passengers.

You can understand the pain of the passengers. You put yourself in their position. You don't want to admit that your loved one is lost until you see the hard evidence. It's totally understandable.

The other side of that, though, is we want to get the information out there. We want to show you we're being transparent.

COSTELLO: Andrew Stevens, reporting live from Australia this morning -- thank you.

Another important development to tell you about: the search area has narrowed. Forget about the northern corridor. That are has now been eliminated as a possible crash site.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HISHAMMUDDIN BIN HUSSEIN, MALAYSIA MINISTER OF TRANSPORTATION: As result of this new data analysis, the search and rescue operation in the northern corridor has been called off. We have also stopped the search and rescue operation in the northern part of the southern corridor close to Indonesia. All search efforts are now focused in the southern part of the southern corridor, in an area covering some 469,407 square nautical miles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That's the size of Alaska.

While the search has narrowed, the focus of those flight data recordings is intensifying. With less than two weeks until the batteries die, a herculean effort now underway to send out pings even without a more defined search area. Tomorrow, U.S. equipment that will help locate pings from the recorders is set to arrive in Perth, Australia.

With me now, Mary Schiavo, CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general at the Department of Transportation, and Tom Fuentes, CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director.

Welcome to both of you.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

Mary, the focus is narrowed to 469,000 square nautical miles, about the size of Alaska. Is it possible to narrow that search area further?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, the Inmarsat gentleman that we heard from throughout this horrible ordeal said they've been working on narrowing it further. And while he did say they provided all the information they had to date, the authorities did say they were going to try to narrow it.

But even if they don't, they do have the last known reporting of the plane with the fuel calculations perhaps they can calculate where they think the flight actually on a more precise point did end and certainly deploy the listening devices there.

COSTELLO: Mary, Malaysian authorities also said the challenge now is managing resources. Those are the words they used. We know at least six countries are involved in this search.

How would it be difficult to manage those resources? I thought Australia was in charge of this operation?

SCHIAVO: They are in the water search, but, of course, Malaysia is conducting their investigation, their criminal investigation, because they're still looking into criminal possibilities. And then, there's also the support investigation that goes into the civil crash site, you know, the looking at the records, the maintenance, the flight logs, the plane logs. All of that has to go on too.

So, it sounds as though they're feeling strapped for resources. But all they have to do is reach out. There have been cases and instances in the past where countries have given the control of an investigation to another country to manage, so if they get truly strapped all they have to do is ask. And many nations including the United States are capable of doing that.

COSTELLO: Do you think they would reach out to the United States and say, hey, take the lead?

SCHIAVO: No. They wouldn't do that probably for one reason. Egypt did that after the crash of Egypt Air 990. And folks might recall that was the one the NTSB concluded, it was pilot suicide, one of the only two major ones we have.

Egypt disagreed and said it was a problem with the 767. Like here though, a problem that was never defined.

So, there was a huge disagreement. That resulted in a diplomatic scuffle. In the end the NTSB did not issue an official report because of that. So, while it has been done in the past, the result was not necessarily acceptable to the country who relinquished control.

COSTELLO: Got you.

Tom, we know the captain's -- the flight simulator is still being searched. Investigators question 100 people associated with these pilots.

As far as you know, have they found anything? FUENTES: Carol, not yet. That's still worked on. When they do find something, that's going to be provided to the Malaysians. You know, the U.S. is assisting Malaysia in their investigation. It's not a U.S. led investigation or led by other countries. It's their case.

And as you've seen with all aspects whether aviation side of the investigation or the criminal side of the investigation, they're in charge. It's their system. They do things differently than we do.

They haven't had the experiences of running a major crisis like we have. We've refined our techniques of command post management, crisis management, media management. And that's a big difference here. They're not used to being challenged by the media.

And, you know, what's happened, the problem for them really especially in China is that once a government on a particular issue loses its credibility, it's pretty much gone. And that's what they're facing now no matter what they say or no matter who they're quoting. In this case, Inmarsat technicians are telling them the plane went south and had to of gone down in the Indian Ocean.

But at this point, when that comes out of mouths of Malaysian leaders, other people don't believe it in Malaysia or in China.

COSTELLO: I understand that. Another question about the criminal side of this investigation -- is it unusual to find nothing suspicious about any passenger or crew member after 18 days?

FUENTES: Well, 18 days in that type of investigation really isn't a long time. I mean, the searches initially are cursory, you're looking at databases, have they ever come up, have they been arrested, have they come up on intelligence report or no fly list in the U.S. database system, the various terror screening watch list that we have.

But in terms of doing thorough backgrounds, you know, a figure like 100 is minuscule in my mind. This case would have already had or should already have about a thousand interviews because you would have everybody that -- every family members of the people on that aircraft, you would have family members and people that worked on it, the caterers, people that come on and clean the aircraft, to refuel it, put luggage on the aircraft, airport security personnel, reviewing all of the videos of the perimeters of the airport. Did anyone scale a fence and stowaway on that aircraft or do something to it that other people didn't notice?

So, there's investigation like that should be expanding in a huge way and all over the world on top of it.

COSTELLO: Tom Fuentes and Mary Schiavo, many thanks to both of you.

We'll have more --

FUENTES: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: You're welcome. We'll have more on Flight 370 ahead. But, first, it's a race against the clock for rescue teams trying to find survivors after a deadly landslide, a mudslide in Seattle.

CNN's Ana Cabrera is live.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

We are on our west side of that landslide, as close as we can get. It's day four of the search and rescue operation. Fourteen people confirmed dead, 176 people still missing.

Ahead, why family members of those missing are still holding out hope.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We'll continue our coverage of Flight 370 in just a minute. But, first, back here at home.

More than 176 people still missing after that devastating landslide in Washington state. And hopes of finding more survivors are diminishing. Rescuers are using sonar equipment and search dogs are on stand by. Officials have confirmed at least 14 are dead and as I said, 176 are still missing.

Emergency response teams haven't pulled out anyone a live from the rubble since Saturday.

CNN's Ana Cabrera has more for you from Arlington, Washington.

Good morning.

CABRERA: Good morning.

We've been talking to family members of those missing, Carol, who are desperate for answers this morning. And yet, they can't get anywhere close to where this landslide happened. We're about three miles away, as close as we can. But it's just too dangerous any closer with this slurry-like debris described as quicksand-like for rescuers who are going in, even some of them have had to be rescued.

It's a really a helpless feeling for their families, these loved ones of those missing who are anxiously a waiting answers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENDA NEAL, STEVEN NEAL'S WIFE: None of us feel like he's gone.

CABRERA (voice-over): Brenda Neal's 52-year-old husband, Steven, is among those still missing after a massive landslide on Saturday in Snohomish County. This hill gave way swallowing a square mile of land and everything in its path.

BRENDA NEAL: I've been at the fire hall at midnight looking for anything. I've seen the rescuers covered in mud and the despair on their faces is very evident, that they want to help. CABRERA: Steven, a local plumber, was on a service call when the landslide hit. His daughter, Sara, describes him as a survivor.

SARA NEAL, STEVEN NEAL'S DAUGHTER: I think if anyone had a chance it would be him. I think if he was there with other people, he would keep them alive too.

CABRERA: Officials say the outlook is grim.

FIRE CHIEF TRAVIS HOTS, SNOHOMISH COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: I'm very disappointed to tell you that we didn't find any sign of any survivors.

CABRERA: But volunteers taking tremendous risk combing through the mud and rubble aren't giving up hope.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just heard this morning that another dog got rescued. If we're still finding dogs alive, why can't we be finding people?

CABRERA: Three days ago, first responders saved this 4-year-old boy taking this photo moments after pulling him from the mud.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE So, they brought him to us in the ambulance. I took all his clothes off because he was freezing. Wrapped him up and held him and told him I was a grandma and couldn't find the rest of his family.

CABRERA: Cory Kuntz lost his aunt and his home to the slurry but his uncle survived.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They heard him pounding on that roof. He had a little air pocket. My neighbors and friends came and started digging him out.

CABRERA: He and neighbors have formed their own search crew in the hopes that more will be found alive.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: And there's more help on the way. We're expecting search and rescue teams from California to arrive and help in the search at day break. You can see a this Snohomish County fire rescue truck just leaving the scene, coming from the landslide. So, certainly, things have been ongoing overnight.

And federal resources will also be helping today. It's really a race against time as you can see.

Carol, it's just starting to rain yet again.

COSTELLO: It's so hard to wrap your hand around, Ana. I was struck by something the governor said about the devastation. He said there's not a stick standing anywhere in that square mile.

How hard has it been for rescue crews to comb through the thick mud? CABRERA: Tremendously hard. There are so many obstacles and so many dangers. The ground is not stable. So, there are those risks involved in fact, search and rescue teams had to retreat yesterday for a few hours which is, of course, precious time lost because it was too dangerous for them to get in there.

We've also heard that they're encountering these mud packed homes and cars so thick it's like picking through concrete in some areas, and yet other areas where the mud or loose debris is so porous that they sink into it. Some fire crews or searchers had to be pulled out of the muddy debris using ropes because they were stuck up to their armpits.

So, it's extremely challenging. That's why they're using helicopters, they're using hovercraft with infrared and thermal imaging and sonar. And yet unfortunately as of the latest press conference, they aren't seeing any new sign of life -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Ana Cabrera, reporting live in Arlington, Washington, this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: more on the mystery surrounding Flight 370. Could something mechanical be the reason we can't find the plane or could it be the reason it disappeared in the first place? What kind of checks are done before a Boeing 777 takes to the skies?

We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The search for Flight 370 has now been called off in the northern corridor. Search and recovery crews are now focusing their attention on the southern Indian Ocean.

As for why the plane went down, that remains a mystery. Although some experts say it had to be mechanical.

With me now, David Funk, a former airline captain and engineer.

Good morning, sir.

DAVID FUNK, FORMER AIRLINE CAPTAIN: Good morning.

COSTELLO: I'm sure Boeing turned over many documents to Malaysian investigators. It would be fascinating to what those say. Any guesses?

FUNK: It's all the certification stuff on the airplane, how you operate it. Things that the Malaysian Airlines already knew. Boeing knows, most Boeing aircraft operators around the world would know. So, nothing in there would be surprising to me.

You know, things like we know the airplane was built in 2002 at 55,000 hours on it, a little over 7,500 takeoffs and landings, kind of normal wear and tear for an airplane of that vantage. COSTELLO: Everyone keep saying, the Boeing 777 is one of the safest planes in the sky. But what if Boeing and Malaysia aren't telling us something?

FUNK: I think that would be unlikely. The liability to Boeing would be so great it would totally damage their franchise. So, it would be hard for me to believe that Boeing would not be as forthcoming as possible.

And if there's something that no one knows about this airplane and that caused the crash, we want to know it, including Boeing, because that will allow us to fix whatever caused it and prevent it in the future.

You know, we used to -- airline crashes were routine in 50's and '60s. They're so unheard of today, particularly airplanes that go missing. But this is a major news story because our system has been so good and so reliable.

We almost forget that there are tens of thousands of departures and ocean crossings everyday.

COSTELLO: But still, we hope not one happens, right?

FUNK: Bingo.

COSTELLO: Let's go back to pre-takeoff. What kind of checks would mechanics make before that took off?

FUNK: Well, it really starts when it arrives at the gate from the previous flight. The mechanics check the entire exterior of the aircraft. They look at landing gear, inspect engines briefly for any -- you look over the whole aircraft from a bird strike or from a foreign object sucked up into the engines, for example, or cut in the tire. They'll look at the cabin.

The cockpit crew, probably the co-pilot makes a walk around of the exterior of aircraft. Both pilots will preflight the interior and make sure every single system is operating. We do that every flight. If you've been flying all day long, you can -- you don't have to refute all of the checks. But if you're starting to fly that airline for that leg segment of your day, of your trip, you're going to check every single system on the airline, from the oxygen masks operating properly, to radios work, the HF radios, are they transmitting properly if you're going out over water and along oceanic leg.

So, everything will be checked and tested by the pilots prior to departure. We have checklist that we run prior to takeoff to make sure that everything is working and we haven't missed one bit.

COSTELLO: I'm sure investigators have the checklists too, right?

FUNK: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: With all your experience, do you have a guess at what happened? Was it mechanical? FUNK: It looks to me to be some sort of mechanical or electrical cascading event not just the loss of communications with the airplane. We don't know if it was shut off or if it failed. We don't know if the ACARS were shut or just failed. We don't know about the com radios, communication radios, because they never tried to answer radio calls.

So, that kind of leaves me to believe we had a problem in the center area between the pilot's hips in the airplane that maybe knocked those out and in the process incapacitated the pilots. But the only thing would be an electrical fire in the cockpit. Yet, the ACARS would continue to transmit because it's actually downstairs. It's just the control head that's on the flight deck.

COSTELLO: See, every theory, there's something that disproves it, right?

David Funk, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Still to come: could Flight 370's pilots have attempted a water landing? How exactly would they go about that? We'll take you to our 777 flight simulator, next.

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