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New Day

Mystery of Flight 370 Goes Underwater; Boston Marathon Anniversary

Aired April 15, 2014 - 08:30   ET

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


KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We knew all along that this could test the maximum depth of the Bluefin.

DAVID GALLO, CNN ANALYST: Right.

BOLDUAN: We knew it was deep.

GALLO: Sure.

BOLDUAN: What happens to a machine like this and those similar to it when it does go past its depth limit? Does the image - does the sonar stop working? Does it -- what happens?

GALLO: Well, you want to protect the vehicle from imploding because now you're getting close to the crushing depth, which is a total different depth.

BOLDUAN: That's a big problem, obviously.

GALLO: And so you want to protect that vehicle. And it's just being safe by saying, I'm outta here, I'm punching out.

BOLDUAN: And it does it almost automatically.

GALLO: Totally automatic. Yes. And then it comes to the surface. Onboard the ship it's disruptive because that team has been training and getting ready for that vehicle to be down a certain length of time. People have gone to sleep, trying to get some rest, and now the vehicle's on the way back up. So it's frustrating. But I'm sure they're looking at the entire tactical situation. How do we recover from this? Let's get the vehicle back in the water and get a full day in.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. So, when they get back down there -

GALLO: Yes.

BOLDUAN: The topography, there's many options of what it could be coming up against. Let's look at maybe a few of what they could be looking at.

GALLO: Sure.

BOLDUAN: First off, one option of - one kind of topography it could come up against is a landslide.

GALLO: Yes.

BOLDUAN: How -- is it - is that - it sounds treacherous. Is it?

GALLO: Well, it's dangerous for a vehicle if you don't - and it's tougher for the analyst to look at that kind of -- the reflections from a landslide because you've got boulders, everything from fist- sized boulders to car-sized boulders and it can look like bits of wreckage in the -- against the background. So it makes it complicated that way. Also, a steep wall is always trouble for a vehicle as well.

BOLDUAN: Because it needs to get around it, I assume? That's the problem, right?

GALLO: It's got to get around it or over it. And if it can't, then it's got problems.

BOLDUAN: Well, and that leads us to the next kind of challenge that it could be up against.

GALLO: Yes.

BOLDUAN: This seems to be a real problem, a trench or a valley, if you will, some kind of canyon. How deep can these go in the Indian Ocean?

GALLO: Oh, they can very deep and get down over 6,000, 7,000 meters. So they can --

BOLDUAN: Wow.

GALLO: But in this area, they don't. I mean there's pockets in this area that get down over 6,000 meters.

BOLDUAN: And why, again, is that - is this such a problem for the Bluefin to come against?

GALLO: Well, if you get into a trench situation where the vehicle - well, one, it's way below the operating depth. But even shallower water trenches that might only go down to 4,000 meters. When you get sides that the vehicle can't see as it's going forward, those sides close in on the vehicle and then the vehicle's got to figure out, how do I get out of this mess?

BOLDUAN: And do it safely?

GALLO: And do it safely, that's right.

BOLDUAN: So Angus Houston had kind of -- they assumed - their -- one of the assumptions that they're working on is this final kind of topography we're looking at. More of a rolling bottom, rolling hills it kind of looks like.

GALLO: Sure.

BOLDUAN: Is that the preferred kind of ocean bottom you'd be dealing with?

GALLO: Yes, it's ideal. It's great. That's great. But the problem is that, when you get down there, you find out that that map that was maybe made from the surface, there's a lot of features. There's pinnacles, there's valleys, there's steep cliffs, all sorts of obstacles that you don't see.

BOLDUAN: And to remind everyone, we're not dealing with a camera. You're still dealing with sonar.

GALLO: Yes, mapping with sound, yes, trying to get the widest view. Sound is the best way to search a wide area. You've got to have a good team to analyze those images, but this team's very good at that. So I'm sure they're dying to get back in the water and get some (INAUDIBLE).

BOLDUAN: And one thing that the do have no control over is the weather.

GALLO: Right.

BOLDUAN: And they - it was kind of a suggestion that if weather permitted they would put it back into the water.

GALLO: Sure.

BOLDUAN: Why does the weather -- the weather on the surface, how does that impact the search below the surface?

GALLO: Yes. It's a heavy vehicle. You've got to get it off the ship, launch it safely to the bottom and you've got to recover it. And any kind of rough weather makes that difficult. It's very dangerous for the vehicle, but even more dangerous for the people onboard the ship.

BOLDUAN: And people on board because it's obviously still -- it's still tethered to the ship?

GALLO: Well, when they pull it in, yes, positively.

BOLDUAN: When they pull it back in, absolutely.

GALLO: Yes.

BOLDUAN: David Gallo, thank you so much.

GALLO: Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Kate, thank you.

Time now for the five things you need to know for you NEW DAY.

At number one, as we just mentioned, the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 may go deep again. The Bluefin-21 underwater drone is expected to dive into the Indian Ocean today, weather permitting. Ukrainian officials tell CNN that 350 National Guard troops are headed to the country's east. Separatist groups in that region are defying Kiev's demands to leave occupied government buildings.

Scathing cross-examination in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial has come to an end now with the Olympian breaking down, saying he's not sure who's responsible for his girlfriend's death.

A somber memorial in Boston today marking the one-year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings that left three dead and shattered hundreds of lives. A tribute to the fallen will be followed by a moment of silence.

A Passover celebration today at the White House. President Obama and the first lady hosting a seder we friends, family and their staff.

We always update those five things to know, so be sure to go to newdaycnn.com for the very latest.

Guys.

BOLDUAN: Coming up next on NEW DAY, our own Sanjay Gupta is tracking a terrifying and invisible killer that's threatening to spread across the world, the Ebola virus. He's live on really the front lines of this outbreak with an exclusive look coming up next.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: And a grandmother teaching what Boston stronger (ph) is all about. Her touching tribute to her granddaughter Krystle Campbell who was killed in the bombing. What we can all learn from Grandma Lillian, when NEW DAY continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: It was a year ago today that two homemade bombs ripped through the finish line of the Boston Marathon killing three, injuring nearly 300 others. One who was taken is 29-year-old Krystle Campbell. Back then we met Krystle's grandmother, Lillian, who told us of this angel in her life. So we sat down with her again on the one-year anniversary and what Grandma Lillian has to say will move your heart and inspire you. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 2013 Boston Marathon champion --

CUOMO (voice-over): April 15, 2013, started as a perfect day for one of Boston's most loved traditions, Marathon Monday. Spectators lining the streets cheering on more than 23,000 runners. But four hours, nine minutes into the race, back-to-back explosions tearing through Copley Square, causing chaos and panic.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Something just blew up at the - run! Go!

CUOMO (on camera): The attacks on the people here have been felt in Boston, in this state, around the country, and the world.

CUOMO (voice-over): The disbelief of what had happened turning to grim reality as the identities of those lost in the attack were revealed.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN: So we found out the name of a second victim who died in the terrorist attack here, Krystle Campbell of Medford, Massachusetts. She was just 29 years old.

CUOMO: But Krystle Campbell was so much more than a name to everyone who loved her.

LILLIAN CAMPBELL, KRYSTLE CAMPBELL'S GRANDMOTHER: There she is now. She's a beautiful girl. How could you not love her?

CUOMO: A love you could clearly see in the face of her grandmother, Lillian, whom we met just days after the bombing.

CUOMO (on camera): How do you make sense of this?

CAMPBELL: I don't. I don't have - make (ph) any sense of it at all. I can't believe it happened. I can't believe it. I won't even accept it now and I'm sitting here with ya. I'm having a hard time. When I see her on the TV, it's killing me inside.

CUOMO (voice-over): Now, almost a year to the day later, we met with Lillian again. Same house, same couch.

CAMPBELL: Yes, that was the last Christmas we all had together.

CUOMO: The passing year has done little to temper the loss.

CUOMO (on camera): How often do you think of her?

CAMPBELL: All the time. Every day.

CUOMO: Now as the nana, you're not supposed to have favorites, right?: You're supposed to love them all equally.

CAMPBELL: Oh, yes, but you don't.

CUOMO: But you don't. There was -

CAMPBELL: It's hard to do that.

CUOMO: There was something special about this girl Krystle?

CAMPBELL: Oh, yes. From day - from the day she was alive, you know, because she -- she was born upstairs.

CUOMO: In this house?

CAMPBELL: On the - on the third floor.

CUOMO: And you always had a special bond?

CAMPBELL: Oh, yes. Definitely.

CUOMO: She used to make everything OK? CAMPBELL: Yes. She did. She had that special - I don't know what it is. That special thing about her, you know? And you felt happy around her, because she was always laughing and bubbly. I loved her.

CUOMO (voice-over): Some moments stand out. The tearful statement given by Krystle's mother.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This doesn't make any sense. She was the best.

CUOMO: Krystle's wake attended by thousands. And the gazebo named for her near the restaurant where she used to work.

CUOMO (on camera): How do you keep her memory alive? How do you keep her with you?

CAMPBELL: I've got her out on the dining room on my buffet there. All her pictures are on here.

CUOMO: So you can go there and look and remember?

CAMPBELL: Every day I come through the room, I see her.

CUOMO (voice-over): Wanting revenge against the bombers would be understandable, but not for Grandma Lillian.

CAMPBELL: When they came out with this part about the death sentence, and I says, well, I really don't care what they do with them, because whatever they do, it's not going to bring her back. And it's not going to make it any easier. So I wouldn't wish anybody dead. Anybody has a right to live. I like everybody to have a good life and be happy, if they can.

CUOMO (on camera): Even after what he did?

CAMPBELL: Even after what he did.

CUOMO (voice-over): For Lillian, remembering her granddaughter means remembering the advice she would have given her.

CAMPBELL: Krystle wouldn't want me to shed no tears or nothing. She was that type. Don't -- don't do it, nana, she'd say. Come on. Get up. We got to get going.

CUOMO (on camera): Do you ever go visit Krystle when you guys buried her?

CAMPBELL: No, I haven't.

CUOMO: In your heart, is that where Krystle is, where she's buried, or is she --

CAMPBELL: Oh, no. She's upstairs. She's looking down at us. In fact, Chris, one day we were here in the summer before it got cold and a big rainbow came out right over my house, and my back porch. I said, that's Krystle looking down at us. And I honestly believe that. Every time the rainbow came, that's Krystle looking over us. And I believe that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: I think she's right. And, you know, Lillian is a great example of what the community is about out there. They're tough people in Boston. This situation is what made them strong. It is a situation about Boston being stronger, but dealing with the loss of someone so special, it's been a year but that's just a blink of an eye for these families. A loss that will be felt for the rest of their lives.

BOLDUAN: You're absolutely right. And we saw it with the Dimartino (ph) family, when they were here with us. You see she has no bitterness, no anger, so strong. You see that, really, in everyone who's affected by this. And I think that's the one thing that we can take away from that. I mean it happened right afterward, Boston strong, and it continues still today, and you really can't overstate how great that is.

PEREIRA: She reminded me that love overcomes evil, you know? That her love can replace the evil that was, you know, put into their lives. It's much stronger.

CUOMO: And they had a really special bond.

BOLDUAN: You can tell.

CUOMO: And she's -- she's just a great lady. It was great to be able to be up there and see her and hopefully next week when we're up there to deal with this year's marathon, which is going to be just an amazing event to be at, hopefully we'll get to check in with her again.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

CUOMO: And she'll be there today, even though, you know, it's hard for her to be around -

BOLDUAN: Right.

CUOMO: She's going to be in there with her family today to be at the anniversary and see Krystle be honored.

BOLDUAN: That's wonderful. That's really wonderful.

CUOMO: Yes.

And, you know, as we've been telling you all morning, and you already know, it is one year later and so many of the marathon victims are still trying to put the pieces back together. And you can help them do that. Find out how at our Impact Your World page, cnn.com/impact.

BOLDUAN: Go there. Help out.

Coming up next on NEW DAY, much more on the search for Flight 370. We're going to look at the challenges facing the Bluefin-21 submersible when it scans the ocean floor. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

The Bluefin 21 underwater drone is going back into the Indian Ocean today, it's set to do that, to look again for Flight 370. Let's bring in CNN safety analyst and former FAA inspector David Soucie to talk about the search. We've talked a lot about David, today the challenges under the water but even the search area is a real challenge. First we've got, to me it seems these two search areas are really far apart. This is the visual search area -- right?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Correct -- the surface search.

BOLDUAN: The surface search.

SOUCIE: Right.

BOLDUAN: This is --

SOUCIE: The underwater search.

BOLDUAN: -- where the Ocean Shield is. Why do you think is there such a difference in the location?

SOUCIE: Well, it's just because of the fact that it's moving on the top, everything that's floating. We have wind. We have -- remember, there's been a hurricane through here during this time. There's been a lot of movement.

BOLDUAN: So these are a whole bunch of assumptions for all of the currents and the wind that we've been talking about so much?

SOUCIE: Where it might have gone. But it's predicated on this idea that this was where it impacted. This is what they call the scatter point.

BOLDUAN: And that scatter point is based on the pings that we've detected -- right?

SOUCIE: Correct, yes.

BOLDUAN: So talk me through -- we have the four pings. Talk me through where they're basing the underwater search off of these pings? How do they calculate them?

SOUCIE: Now what they said, what Angus Houston said is that they're focusing on what information they have and that's what the commander said earlier, that they're focusing on what they have. Their best focus of where the pings were and the intensity of those pings.

BOLDUAN: And the intensity of the pings that translates to the uninitiated as the longer the duration that they detected it?

SOUCIE: Well, there's two things. Duration is one but that's every second -- so you're getting that every second. What they're talking about intensity is how loud it is. How loud it was when it was received by the microphone, by the underwater microphone. So now they're starting to search not exactly on this point. I wasn't clear on that at first.

Remember, this is where the handshakes went on, and so they're not starting there exactly. They're starting I believe a little bit south of where that is, which I thought, why are they doing that? What Dave Gallo had pointed out is that as they get closer to where this solid long ping was, it's getting deeper and deeper and deeper.

BOLDUAN: And that's a huge concern.

SOUCIE: A huge concern, because we're already at the fringe of what that machine can do.

BOLDUAN: And we know that yesterday they hit, went too far. The Bluefin 21 hit its depth limit and had to come back up.

SOUCIE: And it was recalibrated today, yes. Right.

BOLDUAN: So then talk me through, how do they, just like where you were going, how do they calculate the range of the pinger broadcast, which also mean the range where they're going to base their search day-to-day?

SOUCIE: Right. OK. So remember this sound is above human hearing so I just want to frame that a little bit. So it's a dog whistle basically, but it's at 160 decibels which is ten times louder than it requires ear protection for. So it's very loud signals, just that we can't hear it. And remember, sound doesn't travel like this. It doesn't travel in a straight line. It propagates -- what do we have there --

BOLDUAN: You get yellow today.

SOUCIE: Here we go -- I'll get yellow, that will work. We have the sound that comes out in waves. And it's pushing against the previous waves. So these are low pressure, high pressure kind of areas as it radiates. When they say three-mile range, it's saying from the pinger it's got to reach at least this far. That's a regulation by the FAA. It says it has to reach at least a certain amount. If it's on the bottom, we're three miles deep it would make sense that three miles goes all the way to the surface here.

BOLDUAN: OK.

SOUCIE: So this is where the towed ping locator comes across, here. And we had that for two hours. That signal for two hours. Now you can see it would be louder here than it would be here because as these waves propagate, they get a little bit weaker. So as you're picking up the volume here, it's less than the volume would be here.

BOLDUAN: Does that also then inform how they narrow where the Bluefin -- where the Bluefin narrows its search --

SOUCIE: Exactly. BOLDUAN: -- because the towed ping locator travels so much faster than the Bluefin?

SOUCIE: Right. Yes, it does.

BOLDUAN: And so you need to narrow that down?

SOUCIE: Absolutely. And the towed ping locator is coming across -- it's not a lot -- not a lot faster, but it covers more area.

BOLDUAN: Right.

SOUCIE: Yes. So that's what the key is here, because as you look at a broadcast, the lower you go, the wider it gets. Like a cone shape. And so as you put the Bluefin in the water, it's just going exactly against the bottom, whereas this is going across the top.

So you're going to get variances in depth and what else is going on here, but the Bluefin remember, is following the map of the earth, following the terrain. So it's going to be down here as opposed to coming up here where you're looking at everything.

BOLDUAN: Then David, with the little that we know, we know that it hit, it went too deep.

SOUCIE: Correct.

BOLDUAN: And they needed to recalibrate before they could go back in. Do you have any sense of where too deep is in relation to where they are reading the search and where they had to recalibrate?

SOUCIE: I really don't on this map.

BOLDUAN: OK. We just don't -- and the reason we don't know -- and they don't either is because we don't have a good map of the ocean floor in this area.

SOUCIE: That's right. We're about to. I mean that's the idea now --

BOLDUAN: That's true.

SOUCIE: Everybody says we don't know anything about the ocean floor, after this, we'll know a lot about what's going on there because it's all got to be mapped -- very painstaking and a detailed process.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

SOUCIE: So we're in for the long haul here.

BOLDUAN: We're learning right along with them. David Soucie, thank you very, very much.

SOUCIE: That's right. All right, thanks Kate.

BOLDUAN: Chris. CUOMO: Let's go from the tough stuff of mapping the bottom of the ocean to "The Good Stuff". Coming up a 3D printer and three very determined high-schoolers just changed the life of one special little boy. Find out how in "The Good Stuff".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: A lot of tough stuff in the news. So how about a little good stuff? In today's edition, a two-year-old gets a hand from three high-schoolers -- literally. Two-year-old Zackston (ph) was born with only two fingers on his left hand. So his big brother asked his former high school robotics teacher about 3D printing and existing design for an adult. That wasn't good enough for the teacher who put three of his students on the job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEXI WILSON, STUDENT: We wanted to fit him correctly and be what he wants. And something he wouldn't be ashamed to wear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Listen to this. The team works practically around the clock designing a custom hand while going to school without getting class credit for doing any of this. After months and multiple prototypes they had just the thing for Zackston.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACOB OSTRANDER, STUDENT: The feelings you get whenever Zackston puts on the new hand and he's like I love this. It's just so much fun.

JAMES BELL, STUDENT: Knowing that I can help Zackston have a better, happier life is really, really important to me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say, thank you.

ZACKSTON: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Now, they didn't do it for credit, as I said, and yet the team wound up winning the state title in the Skills USA Competition. They compete in the national championships in June.

Now, if you'd like to help fund their trip and, of course, you would, you can look them up on gofundme.com.

BOLDUAN: Let's be honest. That is a better education than anything you are going to learn in a schoolbook.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You talk about how smart the next generation is, by the way? 3D printing -- making a hand? I mean --

BOLDUAN: I know.

PETERSONS: -- seriously, I wouldn't know where to start. Amazing.

PEREIRA: And just guarantee those guys a lifetime of doing great work too because they got the bug, right.

CUOMO: They have their brain but also their hearts -- very important education there indeed.

A lot of news for you this morning -- let's send you over to the "NEWSROOM" with Miss Carol Costello.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much. Have a great day. "NEWSROOM" starts now.

Happening now in the "NEWSROOM" -- surface.