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Stowaway Teen Survives Flight; Flight 370 Search May Enter New Phase; Not Impossible Labs Helps Others; Broadcast Networks Take on Startup

Aired April 22, 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: Kind of from the technical and security side, how is it possible for a teenager to climb into the wheel well of a 767 and survive a trip like this?

JEFF PRICE, AVIATION SECURITY EXPERT: Well, you've got two issues. The first issue is, how did he get over the fence and into the aircraft? That's a separate security issue. But the real extraordinary story here is that, if he really was in the wheel well, which seems to be the case, is, how did he live?

And by all indications, it seems it was a right combination of a slow climb to altitude, which means it wasn't a rapid loss of oxygen. It was a possible warming inside that wheel well from the tires themselves and from the brake system. And also the freezing temperatures, once the aircraft was at altitude, seemed to have put his body into a state of hibernation.

So it's kind of like when somebody falls into that freezing lake in the middle of wintertime, how they can still be resuscitated long after the fact. So it's an extraordinary story and, if it's true, that he did survive in the wheel well, then he's one very lucky individual, but he's also not one of the first. This has happened a couple other times.

BOLDUAN: No, that's a very good point. I mean from everything we know so far, obviously a lot of questions still. This teenage boy did not have any special training or any special knowledge of a Boeing 767 in the wheel well. How -- can you describe how tight it is in that wheel well? I mean as it's been described to me, he had to be in the right place to protect from being crushed or protect from being dropped out of the plane?

PRICE: Which just adds to his luck factor in this case. There's not a lot of extra space in an airplane, really for anything. And particularly in the wheel well, there's just not a lot of extra space. When the gear tucks into the aircraft, there's just not a lot of extra space. And he had to be in the right place to be able to pull this off.

Additionally, a lot of these stowaways, if they do successfully make it into the wheel well, and they do successfully make the trip, they fall out when the gear deploys when the aircraft is preparing to land. So, again, another miraculous right combination of luck factors at play. BOLDUAN: Should a member -- do you believe should a member of the ground crew discovered him? Is that an area that they check before takeoff? Or was he just hiding in the right place and he got in there without someone detecting him?

PRICE: The pilot will always do a walk-around of the aircraft prior to flight. So it depends on when the pilot did that walk-around, and whether the pilot looked up into that wheel well area in order to try and spot somebody. And this happens so infrequently.

BOLDUAN: Right.

PRICE: It wouldn't be something a pilot would normally check. They would check to see if there was debris or other sort of objects that had been placed in there by a ground crew member or someone like that. So it really depends on when the walk-around occurred and when the person went into the wheel well.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk a little bit more of kind of the security aspect of this and really what it says about airport security. Some of this teenager's journey was caught on security camera, but obviously no one caught him before takeoff and knew about it until he got out of the plane in Hawaii. What does this tell us, tell you, about airport security?

PRICE: Well, it tells me that there's a layer of systems in place that are designed to prevent this type of intrusion. And in this case, they slipped through the layers. I kind of look at it like a quarterback getting burned by a wide receiver. There's layers of protection in place, but still sometimes the wide receiver is going to get free and get open.

There's fencing in place. There were CCTV camera in place, even though that's not always monitored 24/7, it's just not always possible for that to be the case. You've got law enforcement patrols on the airfield, security on the airfield. And every airport employee that wears an ID badge is required to challenge anybody they see without a badge. So you've got multiple layers in place. In this case, the wide receiver just burned the quarterback.

BOLDUAN: Now, Jeff, airport security differs from airport to airport and kind of on the need of that area. Is there some standard, though, that needs to be improved? Is there something that you believe from your perspective can and should be changed to protect from this happening again?

PRICE: I think the system right now works for the level of threat that we're at. The -- we talk about perimeter intrusion (ph) detection systems and those are in place at some airports. Some airports have elected to go with that technology to detect an intruder. But it's not required and it's not required at all airports. And I think we're OK with the level of threat we're at now. I think what this tells us is it's time to practice more. It's time to tighten up the layers of security that are already there.

So I don't see any regulatory changes coming out of this. I don't see sweeping changes throughout our industry. What I see is airport security personnel taking more attention, paying more attention to what's going on, on the airfield.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and, interestingly enough, everyone involved, all the agencies all say at this point they're not going to be pursuing any charges against this teenage boy. He is with child protective services, though, in Hawaii at this point.

Jeff Price, thanks so much for coming in. I really appreciate it.

PRICE: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: An interesting take on all that.

Next up on NEW DAY, the Bluefin-21 is almost done with its tenth mission. Is ending the search an option if it comes up empty? We have the latest.

And later, is a little tech company going to eat the lunch of the big networks? Will we be able to watch network TV online on the cheap? The Supreme Court takes on a case. We will break down the stakes and the likely outcome.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

More developments this morning in the search for Flight 370. The Bluefin currently on its tenth mission scanning the ocean floor for any wreckage. More than two-thirds of the area has already been searched without any sign of the plane. So, if that mini sub doesn't find anything soon, what happens to the search? Let's bring in David Soucie. He's a CNN safety analyst and the author of "Why Planes Crash," also a former FAA investigators.

Hello, my friend. Good to see you.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Hello.

PEREIRA: So let's say nothing happens with the Bluefin by the end of the week, what do you think the game plan will be?

SOUCIE: Well, at this point, I think that they'll expand down to the other pings that they had before. The one thing that we don't have, Michaela, at this point, is the information about how -- what the intensity or the level of the pings were when they received them. So what they're probably doing right now, I'm guessing, is focusing on those pings that were the loudest or most significant. And that doesn't necessarily mean that it's the two-hour or the 13-minute, or the seven minute. It's just the matter of the fact that - how strong are the pings coming in.

PEREIRA: But it's interesting because the Bluefin underwater search area focused around the second towed ping locator detection, that 13- minute one, and not the first one, which seemed as though it was more sustained, like two -- over two hours.

SOUCIE: Right. And that was confusing to me. But again, going back to the amplitude of how strong the pings are, remember, you've got reefs, you've got -- not reefs but you've got rocks, you've got valleys and silt and everything that's playing with those sounds.

PEREIRA: Sure.

SOUCIE: And then you've also got the thermal layer on top that can play with it, too. So it's a matter of deciding which amplitude is the strongest, indicating that it's a primary ping and not a refracted ping or bouncing off of something else.

PEREIRA: So today we know because of concerns about Cyclone Jack in the area causing high winds and waves in the area, they've called off the air search. We know the underwater search continues. How long do you think feasibly to keep searching the surface? Because we know that those assets are going to be required elsewhere.

SOUCIE: You know, frankly, I'm concerned -- or confused a little bit about how long that air search has gone on already. From an investigative point of view, the clues that we would find on the surface are -- pale in comparison to what you'd find on the ocean floor, as far as finding out why this happened, what actually happened and the events that occurred.

So, you know, this - I think the biggest value of finding something on the top of the -- surface of the ocean is to find something for the families so that they can - they can really, truly say, yes, this is a piece of the aircraft. It really did go down here. So I think that's why that search continues.

PEREIRA: Yes, because there's always that goal of trying to find some solace for the families, right?

SOUCIE: Yes.

PEREIRA: So a U.S. Navy spokesman told CNN that right now there is a current discussion among all the stakeholders about a long-term plan for this search, talking about planning out as far as July. What does that tell you as an investigator?

SOUCIE: Well, you know, I think everyone was hopeful that the pings would lead us directly to the aircraft, and it's just simply -- it's just not that simple, to be honest with you. It's going to take a while. So resource planning is very important. Even -- no matter how much everybody wants to get this done and devote all the resources, it has to be a slow, methodical process. And as painful as that is for the families, it's just the best way to conduct the investigation. And especially for these crews that have been out there already for, you know, well over a month.

PEREIRA: Oh, I know.

SOUCIE: And it's time to rotate and get some fresh eyes in there so they can start seeing things from maybe a new perspective would - it would add some help to the investigation.

PEREIRA: Fresh eyes, new perspective, maybe some new tools, David? Maybe relooking at the data they had from before? What else do you think they can do to sort of reinvigorate this search effort?

SOUCIE: Well, there are some new tools - there are some tools that are better suited possibly for a massive search in case they have to expand to a larger area, but I'm still not giving up on these pings.

PEREIRA: OK.

SOUCIE: I still believe that those pings were from the aircraft. So I think that they've still got to continue to look. The interpretation of the data, I've looked at some of the data coming back from the Bluefin, it's difficult to understand. It's very small specks, it's very small pieces. But we're going to - I would expect to see something larger, particularly because we don't have any surface debris. I'd expect to see something larger and we just might come across that.

PEREIRA: Well, and with this cyclone coming into the area, it makes you wonder what that would to do any debris that's even left on the surface.

Davis Soucie, we appreciate it. We like that you're keeping hope alive. That's certainly what the families need to do as well.

All right, Chris, over to you.

CUOMO: All right, thanks, Mick.

We want to introduce you to a California man who is living proof that anything is possible. His name is Mick Ebeling and he was so convinced of that simple concept he started a foundation to make it so. Here is this week's "Impact Your World."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO (voice-over): Mick Ebeling started Not Impossible Labs for one simple reason.

MICK EBELING, FOUNDER, NOT IMPOSSIBLE LABS: I can't stand the concept of no.

CUOMO: Where they identify a need, Not Impossible Labs will crowd source an affordable solution, gathering a team to create or adapt a technology. One of their first projects helped paralyzed graffiti artist Tempt one (ph).

EBELING: He was struck with ALS. So he has been laying in the same bed for 10, 12 years. We created an ocular (ph) recognition device called the Eyewriter. It allowed him to draw with his eyes and he's doing incredible work. So that kind of really gave him his expression and his love and his art back.

CUOMO: More recently, Not Impossible found an affordable way to print 3-D limbs for a boy in the Sudan. Project Daniel has gone on to help many more.

EBELING: Yes!

Our device, you're looking at around $100. The really crucial part of what we did over there was to actually show Daniel, as well as the community, how to build them themselves.

CUOMO: In fact, Not Impossible wants to share their challenges and their solutions with anyone and everyone.

EBELING: Ultimately, everything we make will be online and open source. Our mantra is, "help one, help many."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Help one, help many.

CUOMO: Right.

And you can help yourself to helping everybody else by going to the Impact site on cnn.com.

We're going to take a little break here, give you a chances to do that.

Coming up on NEW DAY, is it a threat to broadcasters or just another way to watch television? Well, now it's a legal question because there's a battle at the Supreme Court over this. It could change the way you watch your favorite shows. We'll take you through it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back. A relatively simple technology is making things really complicated for the entertainment industry. The start-up Aereo -- what it does is it grabs free TV out of the air just like we did in the old days with rabbit ears, and many still do it that way, by the way. Then Aereo streams this signal on to the Internet for a fee. That last part has media companies up in arms including we should mention our own Time Warner.

Now the Supreme Court will decide who's right. Brian Stelter, host of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES" joins us now. He's down at SCOTUS covering the situation for us.

So Brian, do I have it right? Basically what they do is grab the free signal that technically belongs to the people of the United States, and then they stream it online and you can pay a fee to watch whatever you want there. Fair?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST: That's fair. They are basically taking antennas, connecting them to a very long wire, called the Internet in this case, and then letting you watch that television programming from any device you want -- a laptop, a cell phone, a tablet. All of the broadcasters in the United States say that's illegal. They say it's a public performance of their copyrighted material, but Aereo says they're just taking an old-fashioned technology, in this case, antennas and updating it for the Internet.

CUOMO: What's their best bet here?

STELTER: This could not be more of a David versus Goliath story. Every major media company in the United States is opposed to Aereo, which is a start-up that's only two years old.

Legal experts are very divided about how this comes down, but there's no doubt that Aereo's the underdog and if they win, it says a lot about innovation in the country going forward.

CUOMO: So I did a little research on it because the public performance thing threw me a little. And the case history on it where the Supreme Court's involved -- federal case -- it goes to me taking your CBS TV show and using it as a broadcast to my own audience where I make them pay me for something I got from you for free.

Do you think that this will be viewed that way by the court? What are the insiders saying?

STELTER: Yes, you can imagine, you know, a living room full of people paying to come and watch the program.

CUOMO: That's right.

STELTER: This is a very different case, of course. This is an individual person with an individual antenna watching via the Internet. It may be a case of old law having to catch up to brand new technology. When the copyright laws were written the Internet could not be dreamed about the way it exists today.

Aereo says it's on the side of the future, it's on the side of innovation, but the broadcasters say they're depriving us of a very important revenue stream -- subscriber fees from cable TV. They're saying they are simply stealing copyrighted material, and we will hear what the Supreme Court justices have to say sometime this summer.

CUOMO: So is this one of the weird situations where you have the alphabet soup networks actually on the same page with the cable operators? Because they're both -- I guess like Time Warner is on their side?

STELTER: That's right. It shows that all of these major media companies tend to have -- they're all going in the same direction. They exist in a pretty closed system. They want us, everybody, you know, like people watching CNN right now to keep paying for cable. And most of the country does. But there are still a minority of people that watch via antenna and some other people who might want to pay for a thing like Aereo to bring them just a few channels but on their own terms, on their phones, on their tablets.

You know, this is a case of trying to come up with a new, better way to watch TV. Now, of course, there's not a proven market for Aereo. It doesn't have a lot of customers. This is more about a legal case than it is about a business today, but if it does pass the Supreme Court test, then this company, this tiny start-up, can expand. It can try to reach out to the whole country and sign up lots more subscribers.

CUOMO: It's about past versus present. It's about free versus pay, at the end of the day, it could be about money. It's great to have you down there at the Supreme Court mixing what you'll learn about the law with what you understand about the media. This will be great for CNN viewers. Thanks for coming on, Brian. Appreciate it.

STELTER: Thanks.

CUOMO: All right. So as I'm saying, it's going to be great because Brian has his own show as you know, "RELIABLE SOURCE" every Sunday at 11:00 a.m. Eastern. It is really going to be able to make good sense of this situation for you -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Ahead on NEW DAY, how smoke detectors could you buy with the money it takes to buy one Playstation 4? Consider that question, one very devoted young man found out and that has earned him "The Good Stuff". His story, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: I'm excited, and you're about to be. It is time for "The Good Stuff". Nine-year-old Hector Montoya really wanted a Playstation 4. He saved up for months with his own money. Now, we're talking about a kid saving his own money for something -- that's already "The Good Stuff". But it gets gooder.

Hector saw a sad story on the news, a mother and daughter in a nearby town killed in a fire. Turned out their home didn't have a smoke detector.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HECTOR MONTOYA: I was saving the $300 for a PS4, but I thought saving a life was more important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: So Hector takes all of his precious Playstation cash and buys smoke detectors. Almost 100 of them --

BOLDUAN: How about that?

CUOMO: -- and then with the help of his local fire department he installs them for seniors and those in need.

BOLDUAN: Check him out.

CUOMO: His parents are behind this precocious, preciousness, right? Wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MONTY MONTOYA, MOTHER OF HECTOR: Hector is passionate about things and when he gets it in his mind to do something then he's going to do it. H. MONTOYA: It really hurts my heart to see people die in a fire. It really does.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN HOST: To hear him say "it really hurts my heart".

CUOMO: Right. We love you, and then we love you even more because it gets even better. People see Hector's story on the local news, buy him the Playstation anyway, and donate $150 on top of it to buy more smoke detectors.

PEREIRA: See?

CUOMO: That's what I'm talking about.

BOLDUAN: You see this over and over again, the kind of -- the ripple effect of one small action of one very small boy.

PEREIRA: It gives you hope because we always talk about the negative stuff, and how it seems to grow and get energy.

BOLDUAN: It is everywhere, but yes.

PEREIRA: You know what; the good stuff really does. One kid making a difference and all of these other people go along.

CUOMO: People are good. Sometimes they need to be reminded. No more powerful reminder than a child -- nine years old. I've got one of those at home. You some day will be just this good.

PEREIRA: He's been doing this a lot lately. A little weird.

CUOMO: Uncle Mo is teaching you early, and he is very handsome.

BOLDUAN: I mean do not -- do not push it on that.

CUOMO: The belly likes me.

PEREIRA: This is going to be very --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: I thought we went an entire show.

CUOMO: I can't. I'm too excited. I'm too happy for you.

PEREIRA: He really is.

BOLDUAN: I love you so much. Can we focus on Hector?

PEREIRA: Yay, Hector. Proud of you kiddo.

CUOMO: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Now -- Carol.

CUOMO: You'll see. One day.

BOLDUAN: And now and Carol.

CUOMO: A lot of news this morning. We get you to Carol Costello.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I think, I too, have been scarred by that.

BOLDUAN: Right.

CUOMO: Where's the love? Where's the love, Costello? Don't be a little hard --

COSTELLO: It will come tomorrow. Tomorrow. Thank you all. Have a great day.

CUOMO: You're hard.

BOLDUAN: Bye.

COSTELLO: "NEWSROOM" starts now.

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

A California boy's death-defying feat is casting a critical eye on security at San Jose's Airport this morning. Investigators still wondering why no one noticed 16-year-old boy scaling a six foot-high fence around the parameter of the airport and then managed to climb into a plane's wheel well.