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Don Lemon Tonight

Source: Investigators Have Better Idea Why Flight 370 Turned Away from Designated Path; 270 People Remaining Missing in South Korean Waters; Boston Bombings One Year Later

Aired April 18, 2014 - 21:00   ET

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

BILL WEIR, CNN TONIGHT HOST: Good evening. I'm Bill Weir and this is CNN Tonight. As we head into the weekend here in America, still many remained gripped about what's happening under the waves on the other side of the world and the unexpected turns that spilled doom for a plane and a ship. A source in Malaysia now tells CNN that investigators have a better idea of exactly where Flight 370 made a sharp left turn away from the designated flight path to Beijing.

And just how high the airlines it was flying afterwards. And on the waters of South Korea tonight, 270 people remain missing four days after the ferry took an unexpected turn, capsized and sank. We have new video of what it was like aboard that vessel as frigid water filled the passage ways and the latest in the fate of the captain now in police custody. And one year ago tonight, the nation was on edge and police in Boston were on the hunt for sibling lone wolf bombers. What have learned since? And are American cities any safer with that knowledge gained?

I will ask the new man, atop New York City's Police Department and the deputy who runs one of the most powerful counterterrorism divisions in the world. Of course, we'll have the latest in Flight 370 in just a moment. But first, breaking news and the frantic search for survivors in the sunken ferry on South Korea. The 69-year-old captain of the vessel is now facing charges. The prosecutor say, "He was not at helm of the ship when the disaster unfolded." And we have this new cell phone video taken aboard the ferry as it slowly capsized.

And remember how the crew ordered the passengers to stay where they were as that ship begun to destabilize. And being obedient High School students, that order undoubtedly cost many lives. 29 people confirmed dead right now, but still about 270 others missing.

CNN's Kyung Lah is at the rescue staging area in Jindo, South Korea. Tell us what's happening in the water right now.

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What's happening right now is that the coast guard tells us that they have managed to lay this search lines if you will, underneath the water, around the ferry, around the third floor and the forth floor. And what that allows divers to do is to painstakingly make their way around this ferry and look room by room. They tell us that so far divers have not able to get inside the vessel but that is the goal. They have been able toe glimpse inside, but they can't exactly make out what some floating objects are. So at this point it is still a 24 hour search operation and they are still fervently looking for any survivors, Bill.

WEIR: First, is it still a search and rescue? Is there still hope that air pockets might be keeping some those kids alive? And I see those picture of the giant floating cranes, is there a plant to try to lift the whole back above the surface?

LAH: The cranes are the goal here as far as lifting the whole out of the surface. But this is a long term goal. This is not something that's going to happen right away. The cranes had to be in placed and they'll slowly lift it. But this could take weeks if not months and it's a very large vessel. It is going to take some time.

Is there hope? It's very difficult thing to talk about because the odds, the facts are absolutely against any survivors being pulled out of the water at this point. The possibility of air pockets perhaps, but that's very, very slim Bill.

But no one wants to tell these parents. And remember we're talking about many, many High School Students here. No one to tell these parents that they have given up hope and that this is anything more than a search for survivors.

WEIR: There was another tragedy victim today Kyung that it's just hearth breaking. This is a Vice Principal, they found his body. He got off the ship and then he found his body, apparently he had hung himself. And rough translation of the suicide note. Please hold me responsible for all of this. I pushed for the school excursion. Cremate the body and spread my aches over the sinking site. I may become a teacher again in the after life for the studies whose bodies is yet to be found. That is just devastating. But what's truly sad is to think about the low birth rate in that country.

So, a lot of parents that was their only child. But also tell me about the sort of the cultural expectations of kids to listen to a command even on a sinking ship.

LAH: Well, there's a couple of things happening culturally and the questions that you're asking, first regarding suicide. The OECD ranked South Korea as number one, as far as suicide rate. There is a cultural acceptance of suicide. Part of it is the culture. There is this sense of shame that had carries a lot a weight, carries a huge burden here. And when you talk about survivors skills, it is a huge risk here, that's why there's so many councilors here at this particular dock. That's why they're surrounding the parent. There's also stigma against mental health. So no ones really talking to the councilors right now. So it is a cauldron that is at a boiling point as far as these parents, as far as these survivors.

That is a huge problem here. There's another cultural thing that you touched on. These students who sat on the ship as it was sinking, they stayed in place as it was tilting, why? Because children are thought here in South Korea to be obedient above all else, to listen to your elders, that is truly priced here in South Korea. And so it's for us in the U.S., it's very different to understand, how is it that they could stay put? But here it's an expectation that you would listen to a loud speaker warning from a captain of ship to stay in place.

WEIR: I want to ask you about the fate of the captain now in custody, if you hang out with us for just a moment. We also want to bring in James T. Shirley. He is a Marine Accident Investigator. James thanks for being with us. We're still trying to figure out. I think everyone is trying to figure out what happened to cause this calamity? You hear some of the survivors report a loud bang and then they begun to hear bits of cargo fall in the hold below. Based in the size of this ship and do you have any hunch as to what happen it tipped it on its side that way?

JAMES T. SHIRLEY, MARINE ACCIDENT INVESTIGATOR: Sorry Bill, but I do not. The noise that it made could be have been striking a rock which could have caused flooding from outside into the vessel. I don't have information on the configuration of the vessel unfortunately. Also there are other things that could have caused flooding, there could have been an internal breakage of pipe or explosion or otherwise depending on the nature of that noise there.

But certainly water got into the ship. Free surface water going to the low side, took over and caused the ship to capsize.

WEIR: Now are there -- do you have any sense, I know you are, we are all struggling to figure out what the configuration is. But airtight compartments in the bottom that somehow could hold out hope that some kids got themselves in there and sealed themselves in some semblance of safety. Is that wishful thinking?

SHIRLEY: Well I think the -- I would hope that the airtight compartments that they've got themselves in to are in what would have been the top of the ship, now the bottom because of she's laying upside down. Because there's a large auto deck and there's tanks underneath that. That they probably would not get into. And it would be far more difficult for them to get out of the ship unless they are near the top of the super structure.

WEIR: Kyung Lah, what kind of charges is the captain facing? 69- year-old Lee Jong Seok, if I'm pronouncing that properly. Not a hardly a novice on the sea. What is he up against?

LAH: He's hardly a novice and your pronunciation is quite good, it's pretty spot on. He is facing some very serious criminal charges. A total of five criminal charges, they range from negligence to bodily injury leading harm to abandoning ship. These are criminal charges that carry anything from five years to life. It is something that these parents, the people you see on this dock, it is something that they wanted, they want someone to pay. But it's not helping them as far as bringing their children home.

And he is not a novice, you're right. He has been a captain. He has been on the seas for many, many years. We should point out that though that he was at the helm, that the person who was at the helm was a much less experienced junior officer, the third officer on the ship.

WEIR: But still reminiscent to the Costa Concordia Italy, that Captain Francesco Schettino still under trial from mass manslaughter, claiming it was crew's fault. James Shirley thanks to you and Kyung Lah in South Korea as well. Much obliged. When we come back the latest on the search for Flight 370. New information about where that jetliner was when it flew off course.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WEIR: Well, at the search day 43, the coast of Australia looking for missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. CNN's Michael Holmes is live from Perth and Nic Robertson in Kuala Lumpur once again tonight. Let's begin with Michael, good morning to you down under. What is the latest on the Bluefin mission? Ongoing again?

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. It is ongoing. We're waiting to get the latest update from the search organizers. It should have been in by now, but it is the weekend, they're a little bit slow this morning. The, you know, if you think about it now, Bill it's three out of five missions had some sort of trouble. The fifth mission was aborted shortly after launch due to some problems with the navigation system, we are told. That's according to U.S. Navy. Since the Bluefin did not go to the ocean floor, of course there was no side scan sonar data to review on that mission.

The problem though was fixed Bluefin-21 was re launched and at this moment we've been told that it is still on its 6th mission. Haven't heard of any problems with this one during the first five missions, of course. Bluefin-21 have not identified any wreckage. But had when it was working, it performed pretty well in terms of a detail of that 3D side scan sonar images of the ocean floor. Bill.

WEIR: OK. You know, for a week, we were under that impression Nic Robertson that the pilots for whatever reason turned off the transponder and made that sharp left turn before they got into Vietnamese Airspace to avoid detection. But you've got some new information that counters that, please tell us.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know what? There are source familiar with the investigation is tell us, is that the aircraft actually passed into Vietnamese Airspace. We remember the last communication at 1:19 in the morning over the air traffic control to the cockpit was as the plane was passing out of Malaysian Airspace. What we're being is that it has actually end at Vietnamese Airspace when it made that left hand turn, quite a gentle left hand turn.

We're told once that it completed that left hand turn sending it back towards the Malaysian peninsula, that's when it climbs to 39,000 feet, were told. It holds that altitude for about 20 minutes before beginning what appears to be a descend taking it all the way out across the Malacca Strait until it's well off the coast of Malaysia down to about 4,000 feet. Flies at that altitude for about another 100 or so nautical miles before climbing back in altitude. So what we're learning from this source is the turn happens in Vietnamese Airspace then there's climbing altitude that seems to be a controlled climbing altitude. Yet again, it's another piece of information that really doesn't solve this in anyway. It perhaps provides useful clues for investigators. But really it is just another piece of information that really doesn't take hugely further forward as far as investigators are concern here Bill.

WEIR: And this one doesn't either. It involves the Emergency Locations Transmitter, the ELT. Your source said something on that as well?

ROBERTSON: Yeah, he told us there are four of these automatic Emergency Locator Transmitters on board the aircraft. One in the rear door, one in the forward door, one in the cockpit, one in the fuselage. The once in the door are associate with those -- with the emergency evacuations chutes, which become a sort of inflatable thing is if you will, a way to keep people afloat on the water. He said it was all that these hadn't transmitted or hadn't transmitted on their frequencies or loss frequencies hadn't been picked upon by satellite or by nearby ships or aircraft in the area. These devices are designed to be triggered to come on, on impact or on immersion in water.

I discussed with him, "Well, did that mean therefore -- can you take influence from this?" But it means perhaps they didn't come in contact with water. We remember how the 737 landed on the Hudson River. I suggested that the aircraft come down like that and then sort off tipped down, go beneath the waves. Before the water could get inside the aircraft, trigger these beacons to come on, perhaps they come on when it was sinking. This source couldn't say that, but he did say, you know, this is one of the (inaudible). Potentially that could be the case. But again this is just another piece of information.

WEIR: Right.

ROBERTSON: That at the moment investigators say it's odd. They can't take it further forward on the Bill.

WEIR: OK Nic. Why don't we bring in some experts on this and ask and follow up on that. David Soucie the author of "Why Planes Crash", former investigator. And Geoffrey Thomas, Editor-in-Chief of Airlineratings.com and Hakeem Oluseyi, a professor of physics at the Florida Institute of Technology. I'm sure I butchered your last name, my apologies Hakeem. But ...

HAKEEM OLUSEYI, PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS, FLORIDA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: No problem.

WEIR: ... thank you all for being here. Geoffrey let me ask about the ELTs, I saw something today that when the Former Commerce Secretary Ron Brown's plane crash in the Croatia I believe. That on land they didn't go of then, that these are not the most dependable devices in the world. But what does it say to you that four them wouldn't go of?

GEOFFREY THOMAS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF AIRLINERATINGS.COM: Yes Bill that's very interesting. It's -- When ELTs were first developed back in the 1970s the reliability rate actually was very low. Only about 25 percent of a time that they go of. This has improved overtime. However the latest number we have is about an 80 percent activation rate. So there's a 20 percent factors there says they won't go off. But all four, this is again one of the many strange elements of this disappearance of which we're in the 7th or so week of now, 42 days -- 43 days.

So another question marked to add to the growing number of questions we have about MH 370.

WEIR: Yes. David Soucie, what do you know about these ELTs? Is it something that you could shut off? Are they built into those rafts slides, the emergency exit slides?

DAVID SOUCIE, AUTHOR, "WHY PLANES CRASH": Well, there's two or three different kinds here that we're talking about. The one on the nose is only anti or a deceleration ELT. So it will only go of if there's a rapid deceleration. So like the flight on the Hudson it did not arm, it did not go off. The other two that they talk about near the doors, those are activated by water. So those won't be expected to go off in anti-deceleration they would be triggered by water and those are actually called EPIRB, Emergency Position Indicator Radio Beacons.

The one the back is activated, it's an ELT by anti-deceleration or deceleration sensor and salt water. But remember the two in the front and the back once they're in water they can't transmit because they're not sonar, they're not sounds, they're radio frequencies. So once they're on the water they can transmit.

WEIR: Hakeem, let me ask you about the physics of this plane sinking as the theory is now, as the Bluefin look for them. What is the depth and the pressure of the Ocean on a plane like that due to the wreckage itself.

OLUSEYI: Well, it depends on what happens when the plane actually comes down in the water. If the plane comes down relatively intact, it lands on the water and then sinks. If there is a large air pocket in the plane if it's fill partly with water then as the plane descends when it gets to a sufficient pressure then there's going to be pressure differential. It's going to be atmospheric pressure inside and much greater than that outside, so it will implode.

However, if it's fills quickly, then the pressure is going to be equal on the inside and on the outside. And the plane will remain intact. And so, at the depth of this plane at about 15,000 feet, which a depth of the Ocean there, we're looking in about 455 times atmospheric pressure.

WEIR: Wow, it's hard to fathom that it's still down there. Professor Hakeem Oluseyi, I appreciate it. David Soucie, Jeffrey Thomas, also appreciate your input. And coming up, two men sworn to protect the biggest terrorist target in the world, New York City. You know, it was Russia that tip the FBI that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a threat before the Boston bombing. Can we still count on the Russians for similar health given the politics of the day? I'll ask that and much more, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WEIR: On this night, one year ago, the Boston Police Department released this picture and asked for the public help in identifying two suspects in the Marathon Bombing. Later that night, the Tsarnaev brothers murdered MIT Officer Sean Collier, hijack a Mercedes, took the driver hostage and then hatch a plot to drive to New York and set off another bomb in Time Square. Instead, one ended up dead, the other is in a cell awaiting trial in November. And cops around the world are still studying this case for lessons learned.

This includes Bill Bratton back for his second run in top the NYPD. And John Miller the reporter-turned cop, the man who interviewed Osama bin Laden and now runs New York vast counterterrorism unit with officers around the world. Bratton was dining with his wife in London just over a year ago when he checked her Blackberry and saw the two explosions that ripped through finish line crowd in Bratton's beloved home town.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL BRATTON, POLICE COMMISSIONER, NYPD: It was a disbelief initially that I said, "What are you talking about a bombing at the marathon?" And so, it was a disbelief.

WEIR: You have a history of that town. You were a street cop on that route.

BRATTON: Ironically, the reason we were at that event at the finish was the fact that we're in London.

WEIR: What did you think in terms of motive, in terms of suspects? Did you make any assumptions right after that?

BRATTON: Actually, I did not initial reaction of, you know, really this can't be happening. But then quickly, moving into the idea of potential terrorism that obvious, that's the world we now live in.

JOHN MILLER, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF INTELLIGENCE, NYPD: The first that I have is, well, this could be anything. These aren't the biggest or most sophisticated devices. This could be home grown extremism. This could be Right-wing, you know, kind of Timothy Mcveigh, Oklahoma City vein. And my first thought is, "Don't get too far out ahead of this." In terms of thinking about who's behind it. Let the event works itself forward a little before we come to judgment.

WEIR: And when that happens we all were suddenly schooled on Dagestan, Chechnya, pressure cooker bomber, a whole new strain of terrorism after 9/11. The Inspector General report found, I guess it was Russia that gave the FBI the initial tip. They send a field officer there. He interviewed Tsarnaev and his parents. They did drive by his by the house and then close the case. Lessons learned.

MILLER: In this case, you know, the FBI had in the Boston Office alone, 775 of those threat assessments that they went through that year. So Tamerlan Tsarnaev was one of them, by the information came in from the Russians. So that's a foreign Government. So it's puts up a notch that this is coming from another intelligence service. But it also suggested that he was calling in with Chechnya and radical groups that are rebels fighting the Russian Government.

So the threat suggested he might be more of a threat to the Russian Government then to the United States.

WEIR: Given that initial tip on the Tsarnaev came from the Russians and given our most daily degradation of our relationship between the United States and Russia, does that affect counter terrorism efforts? Does that worry you that they won't tip us to the next Tsarnaevs?

MILLER: I mean, certainly could. And Bill, you're right, it will add and flow with the level of comfort between the two nations in their intelligence services, which some are driven by politics. On the other hand I think when you look this current model which is this lone wolf model. One of the real problems is if they're communicating with another terrorist group, if they're not in touch with Al Qaeda, if they're not meeting with a local radicalizer.

If you have two brothers who the only one's they're communicating too about this plot are each other, that gives a model. So that's a real challenge for any intelligence gathering organization, because if the discussion doesn't go beyond those two it's pretty difficult to have it pop-up on your radar, right?

WEIR: Do you still employ NYPD officers in hot spots around the world?

BRATTON: What you're referring to is the department's (ph) liaison program. We do, but, actually, John is in the process of evaluating that. Do we need them where we have them, do we need them as the threat changes from country to country, do we need to put people else with.

WEIR: So, you must have taken key interest in this new video. Looks like an Al-Qaeda jamboree happening with the number two man in charge. What do you make of that and how does that heighten our stands here in the states?

MILLER: I looked at that two ways. One, its Al-Qaeda central, its central command, striving for the -- if not relevance, at least the appearance of relevance by putting things out that say, "We're alive. We're still operating." They've been degraded to an extraordinary degree through the elimination of key operational commanders almost in rapid succession over a period of a decade.

So, I think in some measure, it's a propaganda piece. In another measure, Al-Qaeda central has also had a habit over the past decade of foreshadowing events with some kind of symbolic communication. So you always have to look at that.

WEIR: The public appetite is certainly changed when it comes to counterterrorism methods. For example, in this city for years, there was a dedicated unit that would survey a mosque that would go into the Muslim community, coffee shops, sometimes right down the licensed plates of every car in the mosque parking lot. You just dissolved that unit. I wonder why.

BRATTON: Well, we appointed coming back into the NYPD. We're looking at every unit in the department not just in the (inaudible) battalions (ph) in Syria. They were not breaking any laws. They were not violating any of that current policies and procedures. But as we looked at it, is it any longer necessary? We do not believe it is that, if I understand it correctly in the years of existent, there was not a single actionable case that came out of all that time energy and effort.

MILLER: If you boil it down to its simple list (ph) between a good community outreach officer to say here's who's who in the community. And maybe, as I gets guide (ph), to tell you where the same restaurants and stores were, and it become more of a destruction than it would work (ph). I think if you look at the period of time moving forward from September 11 to say, up to the Boston Marathon bombing, you see 500 prosecutions or investigations that led to arrest involving terrorism.

We'd also see out of those 500 cases about 50 of them involved plot. Plot to shoot something up, blow something up, or kill someone. If you look at those 50 plots, 16 of them were targeted against New York City. Some of them, we were lucky, some of them, we were good. If you look at Faisal Shahzad, he drives a truck van in the Time Square and bought for the fact that he had a technical error in his execution of the chemical makeup of the bomb. We'd be having a very different conversation today. It would be about, since 9/11, there was the big truck bomb in Time Square, and also, the Boston Marathon bombing.

The flip side of that point is that you risk becoming a victim of your own success. If you go on a decade without a 9/11 type attack, you've had a Boston Marathon bombing, you've had Fort Hood, you've had a couple of closed calls along the way, people say, "Well, do it really need all of this?" You know, "Do we need all of this protection?" And that is where we struggle for a balance everyday because Al-Qaeda just published the magazines saying attack New York City. By the way, here's the recipe for a truck bomb.

Tehrik-i-Taliban or the Pakistani Taliban published a magazine just last month saying, you know, we're fighting over here in foreign lands. But those in New York should rise up and do what they can there in terms of violent actions. So, you know, we will have everyday as a threat assessment.

BRATTON: Reality is, they're going to keep coming. It's to put the world a change. This is not a threat that's going to do -- and with the Peace Treaty that that's the reality of our world and so be the reality of our children's world, and their children. This is a -- it's a new era, if you will, and we're constantly seeking to evolve to protect against those threats as evolve and multiply and diffuse. Administration change, leaders change, but, in this area, it's always going to be one of primary focus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEIR: And tonight, just new reports by Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al- Zawahiri, former Osama bin Laden's number two, of course. On that audio message on a radical web site, it claims a terror group is stronger than ever and that President Obama knows it. And then a related note, a new video on the terror group Al-Shabaab, issued a threat, "We will blow you up until we finish you off."

It's a no shortage of threat up there. Coming up, late developments in the search for Flight 370, I will check back with our team in South Korea where there is breaking news, divers inside the sunken ferry. And then coming up next, a news anchor has a panic attack in front of millions of viewers on Good Morning America and bought his career was sunk. But I'd like to discover that tamed the voice in his head and could tame yours.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WEIR: If you fear public speaking in the least, you can probably relate to the horror (ph) show I'm about to show you. This is what a panic attack in front of five million people looks like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN HARRIS, CO-ANCHOR, "NIGHTLINE": Providing a big bonus, researchers report people who take cholesterol lowering drugs called statins for at least five years may also lower their risk for cancer. But it's too early to prescribe statins slowly for cancer correction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEIR: It's even harder watching considering he is paid to be a public speaker. That young man is Dan Harris, anchor of ABC's "Nightline" in the weekend edition of Good Morning America. And that mortifying meltdown turned out to be a key turning point in a life journey that includes doses of war and adrenaline, cocaine and ecstasy, relentless ambition and inner peace, all described in Dan's new book "10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works--A True Story."

And because we have been friends and colleagues for over a decade, it is a treat to welcome you ...

HARRIS: Absolutely.

WEIR: ... to the set. I missed you brother.

HARRIS: I'm sorry for that long subtitles. It's like a Fiona Apple record title. It's very, very long.

WEIR: But, I love it. But, what I love more is that you originally wanted to call this book "The Voice in My Head is (inaudible)."

HARRIS: Can you say that on cable television? Oh, you blipped it.

WEIR: We blipped it. Yeah, yeah.

HARRIS: OK, OK.

WEIR: And I've never -- I've been told you this. I don't think ever. But until I really got to know you, I used to think the voice on the outside of your (inaudible).

HARRIS: Why? It's just for watching me on television or watching me around the office?

WEIR: Well, you know, when we arrived and you got to ...

HARRIS: Yeah.

WEIR: ... ABC before I did.

HARRIS: Yes.

WEIR: And I had no idea what a gladiator school it was in terms of hyper competitive sort of very ambitious (inaudible).

HARRIS: Nothing like a pillow fight of CNN.

WEIR: Right. But you got to networking, what? 28?

HARRIS: 28, yeah.

WEIR: And covering wars?

HARRIS: Covering wars after 9/11.

WEIR: And it takes a special (inaudible) want to do this, to crave the spotlight, but to go to wars and go to disaster areas, and what was your mind space back in those days?

HARRIS: I really wanted to get ahead and I also I think I was grin (ph) and insecure about it. You know, I was working -- I came to ABC at 28 and I was working with these giants like Peter Jennings, Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, and my way of compensating was to become a workaholic.

WEIR: Right. And it's a high-high and a low-low.

HARRIS: Oh yes.

WEIR: Once you come back ...

HARRIS: Sometimes in the same minute.

WEIR: Right, right. So, what led to the moment would you show that?

HARRIS: So, I went and spent about three years on the front lines in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, the Middle East, Israel, Gaza, Palestine, and when I came home, I did something really stupid. I got depressed and I was not self-aware enough to know. I was depressed with having trouble getting out of bed. I had a -- sort of felt like I had a low level of fever all the time. And instead of handling it like a grown up, I self-medicated with cocaine and ecstasy.

And I went to a doctor. After the panic attack, he asked me a series of questions including "do you do drugs?" And when I said yes, he gave me this look. "OK, idiot ...

WEIR: Of course.

HARRIS: ... in these results." And -- so, I knew then that I had to make some change.

WEIR: So, your Damascus road of experience was, you know, melting down on GMA.

HARRIS: Yeah.

WEIR: And did you start on a journey, a search for some sort of inner peace or was it accidental?

HARRIS: I think a lot of it was accidental and unplanned. I, you know, after the doctor said, you know, hey, you've been an idiot, you need to, you know, stop using drugs and your personal decisions almost destroyed your career. I knew I needed to go see that doctor for a while. So I did that. And that faith thing was kind of a curiosity for a while and then I stumbled upon a book by self-help guru by the name of Eckhart Tolle.

And that is when things start to get serious because he had this diagnosis of the human condition that I never heard before which is that we have this voice in our heads which is casing us out of bed in the morning, counsel like commenting (ph), judging, wanting not wanting, casting forward into the future, thinking about the past instead of focusing on what's going on right now. And when I read that, I realized, oh, that's the voice that drove me to do all the dumb things that led to the panic attack.

WEIR: So it becomes to tame that voice.

HARRIS: Yeah.

WEIR: And you found meditation.

HARRIS: Yes. The last thing I ever thought.

WEIR: This is what you write about it. "Meditation struck me as the distillation of everything that sucked hardest about the granola lifestyle."

HARRIS: Don't say that.

WEIR: "I pictured myself in an unbearable cross-legged position in a room that smelled like feet, with a group of smug "practitioners" ringing bells, ogling crystals, intoning om, attempting to float off into some sort of cosmic goo."

I couldn't agree more when I hear that word meditation.

HARRIS: Yeah.

WEIR: But what did you discover instead of that?

HARRIS: It's simple brain exercise. You don't have to join a group, believe in anything, wear special outfit, pay any fees, it is brain exercise and there is enormous amount of science that says it can boost your blood pressure, actually boost your immune system, lower your blood pressures ...

WEIR: Lower your blood pressures, yeah.

HARRIS: ... and rewire key parts of your brain. Study in Harvard shows it grows gray mater in the areas of (inaudible) with compassion and self-awareness and reduces it in areas that was stressed (ph).

WEIR: Give me a ...

HARRIS: When I heard that ...

WEIR: Yes.

HARRIS: All right. Three steps ...

WEIR: Right.

HARRIS: Sit with your spine straight ...

WEIR: OK.

HARRIS: ... and your eyes closed.

WEIR: So you can do it lying in bed?

HARRIS: You can.

WEIR: You can, really? OK.

HARRIS: You do it like -- there are many ways to do it, but I'm going to give you the basic.

WEIR: OK.

HARRIS: Spine is straight, eyes closed ...

WEIR: OK, eyes closed.

HARRIS: ... focus on the part of your body where you feel your breath most prominently. So your belly, your chest, your nose, your smirking, that's fine. That's not -- the Buddha has some fake (ph) smiles. And so ...

WEIR: I'm holding back to wisest (ph) comments.

HARRIS: So there you go. That's fine.

WEIR: Yeah. HARRIS: So you're feeling your breath. And the third step is the big one which is when your mind wonders, which it will a million times too, why do I agreed to do this, I miss Dan Harris so much from ABC News et cetera, et cetera ...

WEIR: Where's the missing plane, right.

HARRIS: Where's MH370, et cetera. All that stuff, when your mind wonders, you got to catch it and bring your attention back to the breath.

WEIR: Great.

HARRIS: And that is the bicep (ph) growth of the brain because every time you do that, you're breaking a lifetime of habit of walking around in this day dream of the future and the past.

WEIR: It's hard.

HARRIS: Oh yes, really hard.

WEIR: And how long does it take before you feel the result?

HARRIS: I think you feel the result if you do start doing five minutes a day as I did. You will feel the results almost immediately.

WEIR: How do you think when you watch that tape, that meltdown?

HARRIS: It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. I've numb to it just a little bit because I've seen it now a bunch of times, but it's embarrassing when I see it. And I, you know, I -- the only regret I have now is kind of a counter intuitive one which is I don't want people to think that meditation is something only for somebody who's had a crisis. There's a reason why executives like two of the three founders of Twitter, that have four (ph) road motor company, the army, the marines, scientists, doctors, lawyers, (inaudible), skeptical news man are doing this now because it's a super power. It helps you not get into run by your emotions and focus on what you're actually doing.

WEIR: It's great to see you brother.

HARRIS: Thank you very much.

WEIR: Congratulations. Number one the New York Times best seller nonfictionless, "10% Happier" Dan Harris.

And coming up, we will bring you the latest on that South Korean ferry disaster when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WEIR: Now, with the breaking news, divers in South Korea are entering the sunken ferry and discovering bodies. CNN's Pauline Chiou is in Jindo, South Korea. And back with us, Hakeem Oluseyi who is a professor of physics at Florida Institute of Technology, host of the Science Channel's "Outrageous Acts of Science." Pauline, bring us the latest on the recovery effort. It sounds -- well, it sounds like what we've been fearing.

PAULINE CHIOU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We're fearing that the death toll will certainly go up Bill. And the coast guard is holding a news conference right now. They did come out with that information that divers have made it inside the ship. And at the third level, they spotted three floating bodies. Now, the third level is where several bedrooms are.

Most of the bedrooms are on the fourth level where the high school students were. But the diver said they tried to break into the window this morning where they saw the bodies but they were unsuccessful. So they're going to try again. Now, the coast guard is also saying that they've got a plan for today. They're going to make 40 attempts with the divers. They have more than 600 divers on standby. This is civilian and government divers. But the conditions are really difficult. There are strong currents, visibility is really low.

We do know that yesterday when the divers went in, they were trying to set up that search line from the rescue vessel down into the ship. And two divers were able to get to a certain distance towards the framed (ph) area but then that search line actually got cut-off. So that just gives you an idea of how strong the currents are and how difficult the challenges are. We also know that there are four cranes on standby at the site.

Now, these cranes are supposed to stabilize the ship. But right now, they're not doing anything because they want the divers to get in just in case there are survivors as we're going to three-day of this rescue operation.

My colleague Paula Hancocks is out there at the site, Bill. She's on a ship there. She'd just e-mailed saying that there are more than 100 vessels ready to help out. There are two helicopters. And she also is smelling a very strong odor of oil and seeing an oil slick out there.

I want to draw your attention to a press conference going on behind me. You can see this big crowd. They are down by the harbor. This is where officials are giving the latest information to families. You see the media there. Parents are yelling at the officials right now. One mother said, how are we supposed to live? So you're seeing a lot of emotion.

This is what we have been seeing for the past three days or so Bill because the parents have a sense that they feel that precious time was wasted. They feel that there was too much waffling in the beginning, wondering what has happened to their children. Also, the death toll now is at 29. The central government in Seoul has sent over dozens of ambulances on standby because that death toll is expected to rise.

WEIR: Oh, so sad. Pauline Chiou, thank you for the update as well.

And then we're going to turn from tragedy at sea now to tragedy on the roof of the world. Mount Everest, a place synonymous with limits, the upper limits of earth and rocky, intolerable limits of oxygen temperature and thus deploys (ph) to test the limits of guts and grit. It's amazing you think that the world had television before man can even reach the top of that mountain.

"I Love Lucy" was in primetime when Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first to summit. They can crude wool (ph) and crampons. But in May, 61 years later, a man would jump from Everest in primetime in a wing suit in a helmet cam because that is the new limit, because what was once unreachable is now overrun. You see that line that looks like ants? Those are climbers, bumper to bumper. Better equipment, more guides means thousands upon thousands of attempts since the first one.

Last year, over 500 people reached the top. And so, the mountain is now terribly polluted and crowded. And after a brawl at 22,000 feet, there are Nepalese policemen up there to keep the peace. But just when we think man has completely overcome earth's limits, comes a grim reminder of whose boss.

Early this morning, an avalanche took the lives of at least 12 Sherpas. This is one of the lucky survivors. These are of course the local guides whose livelihoods depend on crowds of rich westerners with lofty bucket list and some have resisted calls to issue fewer climbing permits. But after the deadliest day on Everest, they may have to reconsider the value of limits on Everest.

We come back, an update on the Bluefin search for Flight 370 and also latest from South Korea in the sunken ferry. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WEIR: It is just about 10:00 a.m., Australian Time off the coast of Western Australia and there's another development in the search for Flight 370, the Bluefin's seventh mission underway. Why don't we go back to Michael Holmes in Perth for an update. Michael.

HOLMES: Yeah Bill. I just got word in the last few minutes really that the sixth mission is completed by the Bluefin-21. They're scouring the ocean floor and looking for any sign of Malaysia Flight 370. The sixth mission over normally takes about four hours to download the data, recharge the batteries, and get the seventh mission underway. The fifth mission was aborted shortly after its launch yesterday due to problems with the navigation system that's according to the U.S. Navy.

Since it didn't get to the ocean floor, there was no side-scan sonar from that mission. We're told that about 133 square kilometers, that's about 50 square miles, has now being covered of this newly focused search area. Probably less than a week and they'll have the whole lot looked at that and of course everyone waiting to see if they're going to find any sign of the aircraft.

I will tell you very briefly though that talking to people involved in the search Bill, there's still is a high level of confidence they're in the right spot, but, of course nothing yet. Back to you.

WEIR: OK. Michael Holmes, I appreciate it.

Good evening. I'm Bill Weir. It is 10:00 here in the east. Late morning Saturday, in South Korea, and breaking news tonight, divers have entered the sunken ferry and discovered bodies. As of right now, 29 people who are onboard are confirmed dead, 270 remain missing and unaccounted for.