Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

New Poll Shows Americans' Thoughts on Flight 370; Video Shows Teen Climbing Out Of Wheel Well; Kevin Durant Wins NBA MVP Award; Chinese Internet Giant Could Be Biggest IPO Ever

Aired May 07, 2014 - 06:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Let's look at your headlines here at half past the hour. The U.S. is sending a team of military and law enforcement experts to Nigeria now to help find hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped by the al Qaeda affiliate Boko Haram. Suspected gunmen from the group abducted eight more young girls on Sunday, though the Nigerian government claims it is search for them with planes and helicopters and two special battalions.

NATO's chief calls the situation in Ukraine the gravest crisis to European security since the Cold War. Overnight, Ukrainian forces killed five separatists and briefly retook a key city council building before rebels regained control.

Now, Russia's foreign minister is raising eyebrows by calling the timing of the Ukraine's election unusual and dismissing the chance of another peace summit.

Today, top lawmakers could take another step towards restricting the NSA's powers when it comes to your phone calls. The House Judiciary Committee is set to pass a bill that would limit the agency's ability to collect and store massive amounts of call data. The info would stay with the phone companies instead and investigators could get access to it if they needed to. The House Intelligence Committee is working on a similar bill.

Those are your headlines of this hour. Kate, I'll send it over to you.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Michaela, thank you so much.

Now to the hunt for Flight 370. A new expanded search of the Indian Ocean is about to begin as they get assets together and resources under way. Experts from China, Malaysia, and Australia are meeting today to go over information gathered so far and determine what's needed going forward.

Also this morning, a new CNN/ORC poll show what's Americans think about the search so far, what you think? A slight majority think officials will find out what happened to the plane eventually.

Here to walk us through it all are David Soucie, CNN safety analyst, former FAA inspector and the author of "Why Planes Crash" and Mary Schiavo, CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the department of transportation. The gang is back together.

Good morning to both of you.

Let's go through the polls.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Good morning.

BOLDUAN: Good morning, Mary.

First, Mary, let me get your take on that poll that we had, when I was just describing it. Does the general public believe we will ever find out what happened to the plane? A slight majority says yes. But 46 percent of Americans polled said that they don't -- they're not confident we're ever going to find out what happened to the plane.

What do you think?

SCHIAVO: Well, I think we will if we look at this statistics and what usually happens we do, but this is a very rare event in that we don't have the wreckage. But in many crashes in the United States, it has taken years to figure out what has happened even though the plane itself hasn't gone missing.

So, if we look at what usually happens, look at the averages of statistics, we will. But it can take a while.

BOLDUAN: Is your confidence changed? Have you gone back and forth over this extended period of time that we have been searching that they have been searching for this plane, David? I don't know, if they're going to find it or not?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, I think they are going to find it. It's just going to be a long time. The expectations have weaned up and down as to whether we're going to find it this week, next week, whatever. And the pings have gone up and down as well with the frequency not being right. And that's the part that I've kind of been back and forth on.

Other than that, I'm pretty confident -- I'm very confident actually we will find it. It's just, again, it's going to take some time.

BOLDUAN: Just when.

Let's talk about the pings. That leads me to the interesting numbers in this. In the poll that was taken. The question is, do you think Flight 370 is located in the Indian Ocean where the search has been taking place or somewhere else? Fifty-one percent, slight majority, thinks that it is in the Indian -- it is in the Indian Ocean, but still 46 percent believe that it is somewhere else.

I mean, do you, Mary, entertain the idea that the plane is not in the Indian Ocean?

SCHIAVO: Well, sure, everybody thinks about where it could be and there are lots of different theories. I'm sure David gets this, too. But every day, your inbox is flooded. Your e-mails are flooded with different theories.

But in an investigation, you've got to go with the facts and you've got to go with what you have to work with. And you have to, as an investigator, you have to stay focused on that because you can think of a lot of things in your mind.

So, I think that the facts that we have are the best that we have and that we should go with them. We're looking in the area we need to be looking because that's where the facts say to look.

BOLDUAN: That's where the facts lead us. That's where that probability, the Inmarsat data has led us, David.

But why do you think people are still leaving the possibility open then that it could be somewhere else?

SOUCIE: It's a matter of confidence of what we're hearing. Again, they haven't been forthcoming with everything that they've known when the preliminary report came out. They've got -- we have a lot more information that we had before but it's still not enough. But maybe it's just not there. We just don't have it. I think that creates this unsurety in this --

BOLDUAN: Uncertainty.

SOUCIE: Uncertainty. That's a great word. Uncertainty of where it is and that makes sense since we don't have a lot of information.

BOLDUAN: And Americans were also asked, people that were polled, Mary, do you think anyone on Flight 370 is still alive? In this one, I always -- I want -- I hesitate to bring up because it's very tough for the families.

But I find the numbers very interesting. Almost 80 percent of the people polled do not believe that anyone is alive on the flight but 20 percent of the people polled still holding out open that folks are alive. Do you -- when it comes to a similar kind of crash mysteries like Air France, do you deal with that same kind of hope that they hold out months later that there still could be alive somewhere, somehow?

SCHIAVO: And I work with so many families over the years. And you know, they say there's a dichotomy -- you know, their head tells them know but in their heart, their heart wants to overrule their brain. The human emotion wants to have, you know, a better ending. They want to find them alive.

So, I think it's just a fact of being human. You see the facts but you wish they weren't so.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And you wait until you have the evidence, the indisputable evidence to show you one way or the other.

We were also asking in the question, David, kind of looking at why. Why did this happen. Really what happened in that cockpit?

A couple of numbers I want to get your take on. They're asked if the disappearance of Flight 370 was due to terrorist or hostile government. You see the numbers there -- 57 percent said it was likely due to terrorists or hostile government.

Do you think there is a possibility still? I mean, we don't know. We're all dealing with the possibility.

SOUCIE: That's right. We're still working on the what, let alone why.

BOLDUAN: Exactly, the why would come much later.

SOUCIE: That's right. It's too early to speculate without any information.

But in my estimation, the way that it went, the point that it was on hand control, there's a lot of -- there's some explanations as to why it would be either one of those two things. And again, either one of those things has holes in every single theory you look at as to why. So I just can't even speculate as to what --

BOLDUAN: And final thought, Mary, because David makes the excellent point, every theory that has been brought up there are big holes in every theory. That's why there is no prevailing theory.

There's also, finally, just jumping off that poll, if it could be due to terrorists or hostile government, two-thirds of those people who -- folks who were polled also thought it was likely because of the actions of the pilot or crew.

SCHIAVO: Well, that's what we're getting from the investigators and many people have said that.

And just to note on the terrorism, I think it's clear that the investigators don't think it's terrorism because, remember, they rounded up terrorists suspected terrorists in Malaysia for questioning just last week.

BOLDUAN: Right.

SCHIAVO: If they thought it was terrorism, that would have happened on day one. So, I think they're looking at some other factor.

BOLDUAN: And again, that's getting to the why things happened. We're still working on the -- what exactly happened and where the plane is? The search continues.

But these are very telling poll numbers. Mary and David, thank you. First time, we're hearing what the American public thinks about this investigation and the search so far as it continues -- Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Interest has been eyed (ph), no question about that.

When we come back on NEW DAY, he somehow survived a five-hour flight in a wheel well. I mean, that's just the fact. It's not supposed to be able to happen but this new video show what's seems to be that teenage stowaway leaving the plane just homes after it landed. Where was he coming from? What does this mean going forward for this kid? We'll tell you straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY. Brand new video this morning of that teenager who stowed away in the wheel well of a Boeing 767 for a five- hour flight and survived. Some people questioned it, but now it's just too real to be fake. Security footage shows the 15-year-old climbing down from the plane walking around in a daze, on the tarmac.

Let's walk through it with Retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. You don't have to be an Air Force colonel to get this video, but just understanding what it takes to survive this. Let's just take a look at the video. Got a bubble on it for you so it makes more sense. Seems to be coming out of that right rear side of the plane, right?

COLONEL CEDRIC LEIGHTON, U.S. AIR FORCE (RETIRED): That's right, Chris. What you see right here is he is clearly walking around very disoriented. This is consistent with what happens when someone has oxygen deprivation. So if you have oxygen deprivation your faculties are not going to be all there. You're going to be walking around. You're going to be unbalanced. You're going to think about almost nothing. You're going to try to get your bearings and you're going to try to figure out exactly where you're at. You can see that's what he's doing right now.

CUOMO: He's staggering. He doesn't know where he is. Seems like he was coming from the right rear of the aircraft. The wheel well in the back, is it any more sustainable, is it any better temperature wise, is there any variable that made it more advantageous for him to be there than in the front?

LEIGHTON: Normally the only thing that's going to keep him in a higher temperature is the fact that he's getting possibly some warmth from the engines.

CUOMO: Right.

LEIGHTON: He's pretty close to the engines. You see him right here, the engines are right at this point on the wings and the wheel well is not too far from there. So he's probably in that balanced area between too little temperature and too much temperature so that makes it almost -- not quite just right. Certainly don't try this at home. But it is one of those things where in this particular case he was able to survive because he had just the right atmospheric conditions in order to do that. But he definitely did this, in my view.

CUOMO: He got lucky, there's no question about that. You're not supposed to survive this and that's why any variable that makes it more plausible. Clearly, if you do this you will die in all likelihood unless you get incredibly lucky like this kid did. Later on, we see him and he interfaces with the -- a worker there who has a vest on. Imagine being that worker and this guy saying I just hopped out of this plane?

LEIGHTON: Unbelievable situation. When you have in an airport situation you have a certain routine. You're going to be handling cargo, making sure the plane is taxiing to the right place. This is totally out of the ordinary and had he not approached that worker, chances are he could have potentially walked off the tarmac into some other area in the airport and that could have created a whole other sort of problems.

CUOMO: Now we know he's with child welfare now trying to figure out what's going on with him. In your experience, just because you survive something doesn't mean you're OK. Right? Especially when we're dealing with altitude and temperature. What's the concern?

LEIGHTON: The concern is well, there are a lot of concerns, but one of the things that could happen is there is a possible shutdown of the organs that -- it could affect his kidneys, his lungs, the whole respiratory system is potentially at risk in this case. For example, with the F-22 one of the big concerns for Air Force pilots is that they're not getting enough oxygen so they had to redesign the entire oxygen system for the aircraft.

What this kid did was he experienced something very similar to that. Of course, with fewer Gs than you would pull in a fighter jet, but because of that he had a really lucky break in this particular situation. Could have really adversely affected everything that -- as far as his body was concerned, all of his physiological functioning. And it could have been a disaster for him.

CUOMO: Of course, what did it do to his head and the psychological issues that made him get in the plane in the first place. But to be clear, the only way he's popping out of that wheel well is if he was in there to start with. No way in there from the cargo hold or anywhere else. This video substantiates the story. Now we wait to the next chapter. Colonel, thank you very much.

LEIGHTON: Thank you

CUOMO: Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up next on NEW DAY, the kidnappings that horrified the world. Now for the first time we're hearing exclusively from family members of some of the missing Nigerian schoolgirls. What they told CNN coming up.

Plus, the announcement rocking Wall Street. The biggest online shopping company you've probably never heard of and it's about to change the way you shop. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back. I don't know about you, but these NBA playoffs are making the nights get longer and longer. They are so good already. The Heat and the Nets now. This is the big match-up. Many people think that the Nets could end the Heats quest for a three feat. It didn't look like that last night though.

Let's bring in Andy Scholes with this morning's "Bleacher Report." I'll tell you didn't look good for the Nets last night. Looked like just an old-fashioned mismatch.

ANDY SCHOLES, "BLEACHER REPORT": Brooklyn beat Miami all four times when they played in the regular season, but last night, much different story, LeBron and Paul Pierce said hello before the game. They've had some epic playoff battles in the past. In game one it was all King James. LeBron led all scores with 22 points. The Heat remain perfect in the playoffs with the 107-86 win.

Number one in lineup section of bleacherreport.com is Kevin Durant beating out LeBron for his first NBA MVP award. His acceptance speech was just absolutely amazing. Durant thanked all of his teammates one by one, but it was his message to his mom that stole the show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN DURANT, NBA MVP: We weren't supposed to be here. You made us believe. You kept us off the street. You put clothes on our backs, food on the table. When you didn't eat, you made sure we ate. You went to sleep hungry. You sacrificed for us. You are the real MVP.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: And Durant and the Thunder will be back on the court tonight taking on the Clippers in game two of their series. Of course, the Clippers have become the sentimental favorite after the whole Donald Sterling controversy. Michaela, after hearing Durant in that speech, you know, a lot of people are going to be cheering for the Thunder now.

PEREIRA: A couple of points, might as well hang it in there because that is the best pre-Mother's Day speech ever. How beautiful, how beautiful and then, also, no sentiment here, just passion for the Clippers. Come on, Andy, you know the difference.

SCHOLES: Yes.

PEREIRA: Don't you?

SCHOLES: Either way, a lot of people cheering for him.

PEREIRA: All right, we'll be watching. Thanks so much, Andy.

We're going to talk now about one of the biggest initial public offerings ever. Don't worry if you haven't heard the word Alibaba before in terms of a company. Many Americans have heard of this Chinese e-commerce giant, a juggernaut really, but that's all about to change. It has filed paperwork to begin offering shares of stock in the U.S. Analysts are expecting it, in fact, to raise more than $16 billion eclipsing Facebook's haul when it went public.

Poppy Harlow is here to break it all down. Alibaba, I'm not the only one who hasn't heard about it.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a Chinese company. We've got these names you know around it, Paypal, Amazon, Google, eBay. Not because they're part of the company. This is seen by experts as an amalgamation of all of these companies, Cloud computing, online payments, anything you want online. That's what it is. Fascinating thing about this company, started by a guy, English teacher, tried to get a job as a manager at KFC, didn't get hired. I'm going start a company that might rule the world one day. That is the back story.

PEREIRA: Fifteen years ago on a one-bedroom apartment. Now it's valued at what?

HARLOW: We're going to see. Billion dollar public offering, most expected to go way above that.

PEREIRA: Now a lot of big questions are about how big is this going to effect the United States and what it's going to mean here. Is it going to change the way we shop.

HARLOW: It may. Looking at how big it is, 231 million active users. They process 11 billion orders a year. Some perspective.

PEREIRA: I'm sorry?

HARLOW: That's about two times the amount Amazon processes.

PEREIRA: Eleven billion a year.

HARLOW: Exactly. About 20,000, 21,000 employees versus 7,000 at Facebook. This number really gave me some pause. Four out of every $5 spent online in China is spent on this web site. If you do the math, 49 orders per year average for an active user.

PEREIRA: Yahoo! is a stakeholder in the company.

HARLOW: Yahoo! owns 24 percent of this company. Yahoo! investors, you want to invest in Yahoo! Listen up because this could be a cash windfall for Yahoo! Let's take a look at the final slide in terms of looking at what this means for American companies.

PEREIRA: Is it going to change the way we shop?

HARLOW: It very well may. They are opening a web site called 11main.com. Compete with Amazon in the U.S. A lot of big U.S. companies, global companies, Nike, Apple, Gap, et cetera, sell on this web site globally. When you look at this they're going to have billions of dollars of cash on hand after this IPO if it goes well. They've invested in a lot of start-ups in Silicon Valley like Lift.

PEREIRA: They're the ones with the mustache.

HARLOW: Exactly. Yes, I think you are going to see this affects American business and I think it's interesting that they listed here and not in Hong Kong. There are some stricter regulatory rules in Hong Kong. Opted to list here. PEREIRA: Yes. Bottom line, take away for us, this bigger than Visa, bigger than Facebook.

HARLOW: Maybe. Visa was the biggest IPO, $19.7 billion. In this surface passes it, wouldn't it be interesting that a Chinese company could be the biggest company ever to IPO in the United States?

PEREIRA: A lot of folks are going to be watching. Now you know Alibaba if you didn't. Poppy Harlow, thank you.

HARLOW: Good to be with you.

PEREIRA: Chris.

CUOMO: Alibaba is a great tale. Alibaba and the 40 thieves gave birth to the phrase open sesame. Go Google it. You'll see.

Another big news starting your NEW DAY. The U.S. is getting ready to go in as more Nigerian girls are kidnapped. Fresh violence in Ukraine. Can that situation be turned around at all? As a Denver pilot speaks out after crashing into his own old house. What? Let's get after it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boko Haram's reign of terror may be intensifying in Nigeria with news of another vicious abduction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our daughters have been abducted or captured as slaves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is obviously affected by 5-1/2 hours well above 35,000 feet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Celebrities now bowing to boycott the iconic hotel and the entire chain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe people just become aware.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a huge human rights issue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I watched it the whole way going into the house. Everything stopped.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome back to NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, May 7th. Now 7:00 in the east. The United States is sending a team including military to help find more than 200 young girls who have been kidnapped in Nigeria.