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Weather Stalls Search for Flight 8501; 7-Year-Old Survives Kentucky Plane Crash; Conservatives want to Oust Boehner; Price of Oil Plunges

Aired January 06, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

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ANA CABRERA: Good Tuesday morning, I'm Ana Cabrera in for Carol Castello. Thanks for joining me. We begin this hour with the mystery of AirAsia Flight 8501. The search area expands yet again. And the challenges have never been greater. This morning, an exclusive new look at the American efforts aboard the USS Sampson. The destroyer is one of two ships the U.S. Navy has now deployed in the Java Sea.

Miserable weather has again prevented divers from entering the water to search for the bulk of the wreckage where the victims are believed to still be buckled into their seats. CNN Senior Producer David Molko is joining us from Surabaya, the Indonesian city where the flight originated, David.

DAVID MOLKO, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: Hey Ana, we're looking at that new video in from the search though in the USS Sampson, the destroyer. Our CNN team taking a helicopter out to the ship giving us a close look at the conditions in the search area. Visibility not great, a choppy service on the Java Sea, just not the conditions they need to do their job well.

You know, we've been talking about this everyday now. The weather, couple days in a row, divers get in the water, zero visibility, pitch- black. Today, things so bad they couldn't even get in the water to begin with.

Other news coming in on it, the other U.S. ship in the region, the USS Fort Worth with its sonar picking up two additional large objects. You'll remember there were five that came in over the weekend. These are two more, number six and seven, the largest one about 55 feet, that's a little bit shorter than a wing of an airbus A320. Ana though, these reports coming in everyday, object sightings until they can get divers or a camera in the water, we have to take every report right now with a grain of salt, Ana.

CABRERA: Exactly. Now, if needed, we know that the flight never should have been allowed to take off because it didn't even have permission for that day even though it did have permission on different days to fly this route. Now, Indonesian authorities are investigating what failed in that protocol, any update in that investigation?

MOLKO: You know Ana, this has to do with the fact as you mentioned that they had a license, the agreement for the route covered four days a week, not Sunday. The head of civil aviation here says, "Look, if they -- if AirAsia had come to me and said, we want to change our routing, it would have been a small paperwork adjustment." What's happened now is that they have reassigned some of the officers in the airport authority. This is a head -- according to the head of the airport authority, his name is Tommy Soetomo, the investigation expect to take another week or two to complete.

Important to note that this is separate from the investigation into 8501, the official transport investigation certainly though the results of that, investigators will also take a look at them moving forward, Ana.

CABRERA: It does make you wonder why AirAsia didn't go to the proper authorities to say, "Can I rearrange our flight schedule for this particular airline." And I know that's part of this ongoing investigation on that side of things.

David Molko, thank you so much.

Now, the search takes on new urgency of course with each passing day, much of the focus now turns to locating the plane's black boxes by chasing down the tiny signals from the so-called "pingers." And because they are battery-powered, those signals are likely to just disappear in fewer than three weeks. Jeff Wise, the CNN Aviation Analyst and Paul Ginsberg is a Forensic Audio Expert who has worked extensively with federal agencies such as the FBI and CIA.

Paul, do you have any concerns that maybe those pingers didn't even activate?

PAUL GINSBERG, FORENSIC AUDIO EXPERT: Well, these pingers are different from the emergency locator transmitters that are designed to activate on impacts. The pinger activates by water, it's a water switch. And I believe this plane has submerged and there shouldn't be any reason why this was not activating and transmitting. I just think that we simply may not be close enough at this point.

CABRERA: And when you say close enough, how close do people have to be to be able to pick up the signal?

GINSBERG: Well, I think we need to be within four, five or six miles of the pinger. We don't have to worry too much about depth because we have relatively shallow water compared to the Indian ocean in the MH370 situation. So it's really left to right, you know, forward and back. And being organized in how we comb (ph) these areas.

CABRERA: Jeff Wise, you told me you believed that searchers probably are now searching in the right area. There's reason to be optimistic, why?

JEFF WISE, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, I believed that -- based on the information that we have about the radar returns, that the last known position of the plane is consistent with what's called a CFIT, a Controlled Flight into Terrain. The plane got -- The pilot got disoriented in the bad weather, perhaps made worse by some kind of mechanical malfunction. This kind of action typically results in the plane spiraling down within very, very well-defined areas.

So probably within just a couple of miles, most lost of control accidents wind up impacting the terrain within 25 miles. And so, you would -- you really should have look first very close to where the plane disappeared from radar. There's I think been some -- perhaps some confusion because the underwater search area that they defined was essentially a rectangle that was downstream, down the current from that area.

Now -- today, we learn that they've defined a new area around that last known radar position.

CABRERA: So closer to what could be the point of impact?

WISE: Right. Because this debris unlike the other floating debris basically will not drift. This should be right where -- right underneath where it hit the water. That's where you're going to find the black boxes. That's where the black box pingers would be if the activated. So you shouldn't have to look very far and I really think that if these things had been working, they would have been detected.

So I suspect that, as in the case of Air France 447 where also the pingers didn't work, we probably need to conclude that they're not working. We just have to look by side scan sonar to find the debris.

CABRERA: Paul, I'll follow to you because you said that there are two potential signals that investigators could be working from, the pingers from the black boxes but also the transponder signal that is activated upon impact. So, theoretically, wouldn't be helping searchers having more to go by?

GINSBERG: Well, actually these -- if you want to locate a transmitter, it needs to be above the water. So I think we can discount their signals right now.

CABRERA: OK.

GINSBERG: Now, we're looking for the pingers and hopefully the batteries will not exhaust by the time they locate, you know, the fuselage here and that -- and specifically toward the tail section.

CABRERA: Do the pingers (inaudible) as each day passes?

GINSBERG: Well, yes but we have, in this case, a number of passengers, we have debris, and so we know we're in the right general area. And I agree with Jeff, we have to go upstream and see where the impact was before the currents took the debris down.

CABRERA: Jeff, if those black boxes simply aren't found, I mean, will we ever have the answers we need.

WISE: That would be incredible. If the black boxes were not found in this crash, that would be astonishing. Now, granted, I would have been astonished if you told me 10 days ago that this plane wouldn't be located by now. It's a little bit surprising but that -- I mean, this is a -- this looks from what we know so far to be a pretty normal -- I mean these things don't happen very often, thank God, but as in as much as they do happen, this is how they happen. And so we should be able to find these things.

I have to be optimistic that before very long and hopefully within a couple of days, at the most, we'll find the black boxes and then we'll start to get some real answers.

GINSBERG: I agree.

CABRERA: All right. I hope so too. Well, I'm glad you agree with that. Thank you to both of you, Jeff Wise and Paul Ginsberg. We appreciate the expertise.

For a 7-year old, Sailor Gutzler, the long road to recovery and the healing is only beginning. She is the lone survivor of a weekend plane crash that claimed the lives of several relatives including her parents and her sister.

Sailor's incredible story involves her nearly one mile track, alone, from the crash site to a nearby home in the cold and through very deep and dense forest.

Now, where she told owner Larry Wilkins the ordeal that she had experienced at the end of that journey, Wilkins describes the area as rough, full of creek, fallen trees, blackberry briars. So that paints the picture for you about how incredible she is and her journey was.

This morning, fortunately she's back home in her home town of Nashville, Illinois with her extended family and that's where we find CNN's George Howell.

George, I can only imagine it's very bitter sweet for folks there.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The people here, you know, Ana, they are preparing to rally around Sailor to try to help her get through all of these, especially over the next several days as she and this community plan for the very painful task of burying her family.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Heartbreaking, it really is.

HOWELL (voice-over): Exactly how 7-year old Sailor Gutzler managed to walk away from this deadly plane crash while four others in her family died in the wreckage. Many are saying it feels like nothing short of a miracle.

Sailor crawled out of the mangled aircraft and then walked nearly a mile through the dark Kentucky woods wearing just a t-shirt and shorts with temperatures hovering in the 30s.

TRAVIS VOLS, GUTZLER FAMILY FRIEND: When I heard it, I was surprised in the sense that anybody could do that under the circumstances but then I thought about it and I said, "Well, Sailor, that'd probably would make sense." She's a scrappy kid. HOWELL: Here in her small hometown of Nashville, a community struggles to cope with such a horrific lost, coming so soon after the holidays.

PASTOR MATTHEW WIETFELDT, TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH: Our community can never, ever prepare for something like this.

HOWELL: At the church that Sailor's father attended it. Pastor Matthew Wietfeldt says the family meant a lot to this community and to this church.

WIETFELDT: This is a blow to us.

HOWELL: Aboard the twin engine plane where Sailor's mother and father, Marty and Kimberly Gutzler, her 9-year old sister Piper and 14-year old cousin Sierra Wilder. Sierra's grieving mother spoke with CNN's Anderson Cooper.

JAMI SMITH LANE, MOTHER OF CRASH VICTIM: Sierra was so kind everybody, thank God that I got a hug her and kiss her before she left.

HOWELL: A family spokesman says Sailor is now being raised by relatives, but that no more details will be released. The spokesman saying, "Our total focus is protecting her."

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HOWELL (on camera): You know the thing about this town, you know, it's a small town where people really take pride, you know, in knowing each other. So, you know, the loss of this family is a lost for everyone here as they prepare for funeral services. For Sierra Wilder, services are set tomorrow. And for Sailor's mother, father and sister, those services are set at Trinity Lutheran Church here in Nashville, Ana?

CABRERA: All right, George Howell, thank you.

One of Sailor Gutzler's cousins, 14-year old Sierra Wilder who George mentioned, died along with Sailor's parent and her sister, and her mother -- Sierra's mother -- spoke with my colleague Anderson Cooper about this tragedy. And how her daughter's memory will live on.

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ANDERSON COOPER, AC360 HOST: Jami, I'm so sorry for your lost I can't imagine what this time is like for you. First of all, how are you -- how your other kids holding up?

LANE: Not very good. We're very close family so, we're all pulling together and we're helping each other out and leaning on each other but we have a lot of kids in the family, and we're very close, so, it's very difficult. And the children are doing as well I think can be expected.

COOPER: I know Sierra had her birthday coming up, you guys obviously just had have Christmas. What do you want people to know about Sierra?

LANE: My goodness. Sierra was so kind to everybody and she look to the positive and everything and I've taught she were (inaudible). And I want somebody to take away something good from this and just think, you know, we don't have another tomorrow. You know, you don't know who you're going to not see. You don't know if somebody is going to walk out that door and never going to see them again. And I thought all her friends are saying at school, they thought they had so much time with her, just like we did, we thought we had so much more time and I can just, thank God that I got to hug her and kiss her before she left.

COOPER: Well, I know there's a term some of her friends have been using when they talk to you saying that when they talk about her, their coming flying -- fly high.

LANE: Yeah, I think they're saying that with the whole family. A lot of the kids around here, this town is a very small community and very happy about that everybody is opening their arm and sending well wishes and all of them are telling everyone to fly high.

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CABRERA: Still to come, a new Congress and a new majority wrestling with an old problem. Can lawmakers win back the trust of disenfranchised public? We'll have a latest from Capitol Hill where lawmakers convene today.

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CABRERA: Welcome back this morning on Capitol Hill, a snowy Capitol Hill at that, Republicans seizing on their most dominant majority in Decades. The GOP now controls both Houses, swept into office by voters general discussed with Washington.

Just two months in fact before the midterm elections, Congress languished with a very low approval ratings, just 14 percent, fairly above the all-time low many blaming the bickering, the infighting which seemed to be a do-nothing Congress.

The outgoing class enacted just 296 laws. That is the second fewest in modern history. And that current low mark of 284 laws was enacted by the previous Congress. So it's been a long road. All of these had some Republicans calling for a change in leadership.

Let's go to Capitol Hill and Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash. Dana, House Speaker John Boehner facing now his small but very vocal group of conservatives who want to oust him. What are the chances that could happen today?

DANA BASH, CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: At this point, the chances are very slim but on a coverage, House Republicans long enough to know to expect the expected.

Having said that, John Boehner and his allies are telling me and others that they feel pretty confident that they'll be able to beat back this rebellion and this is an actual vote on the House floor, the House Speaker is a constitutional role. So the entire House has to elect the House Speaker.

So 218 members will have to do so, because the House Republican majority is so large, 246, he can afford to lose 28, 29 depending on how many are here, Republicans instill likely be elected House Speaker.

But -- So it doesn't look like he's going to be deposed but this is certainly not the story line Republicans wanted as they're finally are going to take control of both Houses of Congress to the story line being insurrection and division among Republicans.

CABRERA: The freshmen class probably they have they have fresh energy being there, they're going to create jobs, how do they plan to do that?

BASH: Well, the first things that Republicans planned to do starting in the Senate is pass the beginning of the construction of the Keystone Pipeline.

Now, Republicans argue if that creates jobs, I should say that Democrats state that they have their own data that shows that that is simply not the case, that it won't create that many jobs.

But regardless, that is going to -- that has been a Republican mantra for years that they wanted to do this. At the end of the last Congress last month, the Democrats and Republicans, that is bipartisan to create the Keystone Pipeline. They were just one vote short of breaking a filibuster.

So expect that to happen and expect this to likely be the first thing that the President may veto. He has not said explicitly that he would veto the beginning of the construction of the Keystone Pipeline.

By the way, it is a pipeline that would go north to south that would help with oil production. But it is pretty clear just from the not so subtle hints that he has made that this could be his first veto.

CABRERA: Speaking of energy, gas prices plunging as oil plummets. I know there's been some discussion there on Capitol Hill about increasing the gas tax. What can you tell me about that?

BASH: That there is now going to be a Republican majority in both houses and the word tax and Republican don't go hand in hand. I don't think I would hold my breath for any kind of tax increase any time soon.

CABRERA: All right. Dana Bash, thank you. And be sure to tune in at noon Eastern for special coverage of the start of the 114th Congress.

We're back after this.

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CABRERA: All eyes on Wall Street at this hour, investors hoping to bounce back from Monday's ugly start to 2015. Right now it's looking good. The DOW is up about 75 points, but a very different story ending the day yesterday when the DOW plunged to 331 points after a huge sell off. And the S&P also fell about 2 percent.

The main reason, crude oil. It fell below $50 a barrel for the first time in five years. Cheap oil should be a good thing, right? That's good news for American drivers who continue to be greeted by those lower and lower gas prices.

In fact, the national average today is now 219 a gallon according to Triple A but low prices can come with a double edge sword.

CNN's Rachel Crane has more on why cheap oil and global market don't always mix well.

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RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENTS: The price of oil has plunged following to the lowest levels since the 2009 economic crisis, but this isn't just about money lost in trading pits or save to the gas stamp. Oil is a signal for the global economy. It powers the planet, supplying a third of all energy consumed.

So, in a sense the economic activity of billions of people is reflected in the price of the single barrel of crude.

Let's break down the global game of supply and demand that's driving the drop. The world is producing more oil especially in America. New technologies allow companies to extract oil from shell rock boosting U.S production at nearly 98 percent since 2008.

Meanwhile, OPEC, the international cartel that represents many of the biggest oil-producing nations, isn't turning off its spigot, keeping production levels stable.

While new oil floods the market, demand is falling. Economic stumbles in Europe and China have curbed the world's thirst and oil consumption will grow by less than 1 percent this year. Low demand, high supply, a perfect recipe for falling prices, which helps one part of the economy and hurts another.

Who's benefiting? Consumers. The Energy Department expects prices to average $2.60 a gallon next year, the lowest in five years. That gives U.S. consumers an extra $60 billion to spend.

Getting hurt? The American energy industry. U.S. production costs are high, and if companies scale back, that could threaten jobs, especially in states like North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

Local jobs, international demand, American production and Chinese consumption, all that activity is summed up in a drop of oil. So watch out when oil drops.

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CABRERA: Joining me now for more, CNN's Maggie Lake. OK, Maggie, she just talked about supply and demand being a big factor here. Why is supply so much higher than the demand? I know there are a lot of international players involved.

MAGGIE LAKE, CNN BUSINESS CORESPONDENT: There are. A good way to think of this, Ana, is this is a war of attrition right now between producers. We've got a lot more supply because you had U.S., as you saw Rachel explained, came out as a major producer now. And you've got Russia, you've got OPEC.

So, OPEC is saying, OK, there's all of these suppliers now, we're going to see who can hold out. We're not going to cut production. We're not going to get that price down. It's causing a lot of pain for some countries. Who can withstand that pain is going to be the person or the country that can grab more of the supply.

We're going to see some people drop out. So Saudi Arabia, some people speculate, are trying to put pressure on those U.S. producers who have come up as a strength in the oil industry by letting the price drop and hoping some of them go out of business.

It's causing pain for Russia as well and Venezuela as well. So, it's sort of a political game to see who can afford to produce as oil prices drop. Some people need it to be a lot higher. So it's kind of a game political chicken going on. That's why you have this dynamic we see it falling so quickly that makes sense.

CABRERA: There's this trickle-down effect. We talked about gas prices. Obviously, car dealerships, car manufacturers may be seeing this as a win. More SUVs, more jeeps are being sold. In fact, just in the month of December, Silverado pickup trucks.

LAKE: Right.

CABRERA: Their sales were up more than 35 percent. Jeep sales also soaring some 40 percent.

LAKE: So if the dropping oil price is hurting producers like countries and U.S. energy companies, the good news is its helping consumers and it's really helping car companies. That cheap oil, that cheap gas price, extra money and the public consumers are feeling better. They're going out and they're buying. They feel confident enough to finally buy cars. It was a very good year last year.

Not only they're buying autos, they're buying trucks, again, big trucks. Those were the big winners. And people expect that to continue. A lot of people had to shy away as those gas prices got so expensive. You also have low financing and that's helping as well.

So, 2014, a very good year. December ended best auto sales in eight years and a lot of people think 2015 may be not as good but it's going to look like a good year. Not a record year, but a good year as well as those oil prices continue to stay low and there are forecasts to continue to stay low.

CABRERA: It serves as balancing act, it sounds like.

LAKE: It is. Winners and losers.

CABRERA: All right, Maggie Lake, thank you.

LAKE: You're welcome.

CABRERA: And still to come, here on CNN Newsroom, a member of the Ferguson grand jury, now suing to be able to speak. Who's backing the juror and who's trying to keep that member silent?

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