Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

NBC's Brian Williams To Be Off Air for Several Days; Bruce Jenner Involved in Deadly Crash; FBI: Kids as Young as 13 Recruited by ISIS; Shocking Video of Transasia Flight; Security for Employees in Airports; Bruce Jenner Involved in Car Accident

Aired February 07, 2015 - 19:00   ET

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

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow, joining you from New York. Seven o'clock Eastern, a lot of news to bring you this hour.

This evening, we are following a ballooning scandal at NBC. So far, it will cost their "Nightly News" anchor at least a few days off the air. We're talking about Brian Williams. He sent a memo to his colleagues at NBC today saying that he is stepping away from the anchor desk temporarily while the network investigates claims that he made several times about his experiences covering the Iraq war.

Williams has admitted not telling the truth about being in a helicopter that was hit by an RPG in 2003. And now, the journalism community raising some questions about accuracy in other major stories that he reported on. Williams in his internal memo saying it has been painful to be presently too much part of the news, saying he is stepping aside for a few days to deal with the situation.

The story was mentioned on NBC News just a short time ago, the weekend edition, hosted by Lester Holt.

Let's bring in Brian Stelter, a senior media correspondent.

So, what struck me about this statement, first the fact that Brian Williams is taking himself off the anchor chair, not told by anyone to do so, but also he said, "When I come back, I will regain your trust."

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: This is all the television news industry is talking about right now, as you can imagine, Poppy. And one thing I keep getting pointed to is that quote, several days, because now a clock has started, and now, people like me and people like the executives at other networks are going to be asking, how many more days, how many more weeks until Brian Williams is back? And it's going to will create more pressure on NBC to get to this quickly because frankly every day Brian Williams is on the air is a better day. Every day he's off the air is a worse day.

I think that's the position the network is in now.

HARLOW: What do you think we might see in terms of an external investigation? Because it's one thing to investigate it internally, but will we see an external body come in here? STELTER: Doesn't seem like NBC has plans for that, although there's a

lot of external investigation going on by other news divisions. You know, it's not just CNN that's interested in covering this story. It's "The New York Times," it's local media in New Orleans, where he did famous reporting about Hurricane Katrina that's now somewhat being questioned.

It's also military newspapers and military beat reporters across the country that are looking into his past claims. There's a lot of that kind of external investigation going on.

Can I just say? On a personal level, this is a hard story to be covering. It's a tough story to be covering. A lot of people in this business, myself include, have admired Brian Williams for a long time. I used to joke because we have the same first name, I used to look up to him when I was watching him on television a decade ago. I remember when he was on television, on MSNBC, in the '90s.

A lot of people are like that. A lot of people have warm, fond memories of Brian Williams.

HARLOW: I think, you have to remember -- I mean, we can't talk about him in the past tense here. This is very early days, and he has decades of credibility behind him and very strong reporting.

STELTER: Yes. That's what I'm trying to get at. He's got a lot of goodwill. He's got a lot of credibility built up over the years. And yet because these claims have come up and because it's soldiers that are contradicting his account and saying they thought he had been telling exaggerations for years and some of them feel his apology wasn't sufficient on Wednesday, that's why this is a serious blow.

HARLOW: Let's play some sound just in to us from NBC's "Nightly News" cast this evening, Lester Holt weekend anchor addressing this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESTER HOLT, NBC NEWS: A word tonight about our colleague Brian Williams who you may know has been under scrutiny this past week over his recollection of certain stories he's covered. This afternoon, Brian issued a statement that says in part, "It has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news due to my actions." He goes on to say, "I have decided to take myself off of my daily broadcast for the next several days."

Brian's full statement can be found on our Web site.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STELTER: There's so little out there to go on right now, Poppy. So, people are reading into that by saying they didn't read the part of the statement where he says he'll be back, and when he comes back, he's going to regain people's trust.

HARLOW: It also said several stories. Lester Holt also said his recollection of several stories. STELTER: Right. So, he's acknowledging these questions about

Hurricane Katrina reporting as well.

HARLOW: Right.

STELTER: We should be clear. We are not saying that Brian Williams made things up about Hurricane Katrina or made things up about Iraq. It's about exaggerations of the truth.

It's clear that he was in both locations. We saw him on television in those locations. But if he took stories and embellished them over time, as he seemed to do with his Iraq war story, then that's a serious offense, not necessarily for a comedian or celebrity or athlete, but for a journalist, it's a serious offense.

HARLOW: Yes, absolutely. I want to get some more voices on this. I believe we have Robert Thompson and Frank Sesno joining us on the phone. Robert heading the Center for Media Studies at Syracuse University. Frank Sesno from the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University.

Gentlemen, thanks for being with me.

Frank, first of all, your assessment of Brian Williams taking himself out-the anchor chair saying, look, I'm going to focus on the issue at hand, I will be back and I will regain your trust.

FRANK SESNO, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY (via telephone): Well, this might be up there with somebody who's been booted out of a job saying I'm going to step down and spend more time with my family. It's not like he had a choice and this is a good way to put a spin on it.

I actually think it's somewhat gracious, in its own way, whether it came from him or anybody else. It's a smart thing to do to take a few days out, to let everybody catch their breath. This investigation has to take shape and they need to see if there were any other shoes they're going to drop here.

It's really sad because as Brian said, Brian Williams has a very good track record. I, too, have admired his work. I think he's done very solid work.

Unlike Dan Rather when Dan Rather was anchoring for CBS News, Brian Williams did not have an army of critics out there screaming at him because they thought he was biased. It was a rather biased Dan Rather website. There was no such thing for Brian.

So, his embellishment, because he became too much of a personality even in his own mind? Did he really forget any of this stuff? Nobody is even talking about whether his memory may have been muddied, not that I'm sure that matters because you're not supposed to do that when you're a reporter and you're not supposed to talk object yourself so much.

So, this is deserved. And everybody needs to take a breath. But I think it's going to be hard for him to come back unsullied and undamaged in any case.

HARLOW: But does he -- does he come back?

SESNO: Does he come back? Too soon to say. I mean, I -- you know, we talked earlier, you know, too big to fail, he's not too big to fail. This can very much happen. And this is a really damaging thing to his credibility.

I do think it's important, though, as we're all talking about this, to point out that what went wrong here, his offense nobody has accused him of making that offense in his reporting. It's in his talking act himself, embellishing his own personal record, you know, turning the Ernest Hemingway from the Brian Williams. But it still sullies his credibility.

And so, you know, it's taking on a life of its own, that's what happens in scandals like this.

HARLOW: Robert, you have said that this announcement should have come a few days ago. Do you think that his apology on air Wednesday was the appropriate way to address it? Do you think he should have waited until they knew more? Do you think on Wednesday, he should have had said, and because of this, I'm stepping down until we can figure it out?

ROBERT THOMPSON, DIR., CENTER FOR MEDIA STUDIES, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: Well, that's what I think would have been the best way to handle this, so you didn't have those uncomfortable two days, Thursday and Friday, where he kept doing his thing.

I mean, I'll join the other two guests and say, this is very alarming. I also -- I remember Brian Williams when our center here at Syracuse first opened in 1997 and Brian Williams was doing "The News with Brian Williams" on CNBC, he did a wonderful report on that.

I think he's done a lot of really good work and that legacy shouldn't. But nevertheless, I (AUDIO GAP) in which whatever this investigation finds I think could only be worse, could only find more things that we don't know about. We already know what Brian Williams has already told us on Wednesday night and I don't see (AUDIO GAP) denied that. And I don't know how NBC could put him back in that chair again even if the investigation does nothing but confirm what we heard on Wednesday night and nothing more.

STELTER: Let me, one thing that came to my mind right away, gentlemen, was: should Brian Williams do an interview? Should he allow himself to be interviewed by members of the media about this?

Brian Stelter, you just got an interesting tweet. Someone suggesting he should go on "Meet the Press."

STELTER: I don't want to prove (ph) it, I think it speaks for itself. Brian Bolter was an anchor for years on Fox 5 on D.C. He said, "Have Brian Williams on 'Meet the Press' this Sunday for an entire hour." It's NBC's famous Sunday morning hosted by Chuck Todd. He says, "Invite reporters from every network and let those reporters question, interrogate Brian Williams and get to the bottom of it."

It would be interesting to see how he fared if asked all these questions. He may come out very well. He may -- he may convince us all that he made some terribly innocent mistakes, and that he should be write back in his anchor chair.

HARLOW: Here's the other thing. When we're talking if members of the journalism community talk too much about themselves these days, do you want to spend an hour of "Meet the Press," a news program where Americans tune in to learn about things like ISIS and the battle against ISIS, just to talk about this?

STELTER: That's a very fair point. By the way, I've been asking NBC why isn't NBC coming out and saying anything about this today? Why is it Brian Williams on his own speaking?

I'm told they are supportive of this decision. They didn't try to talk him into staying at the anchor chair, but for now, they're saying nothing.

HARLOW: We'll stay on top of it. Brian Stelter, thank you for the reporting. Appreciate it.

Robert Thompson, Frank Sesno, thank you both for joining me as well.

STELTER: Thanks.

HARLOW: Also this story just in to CNN. We've been tracking this evening, Olympic-champion-turned-celebrity Bruce Jenner involved in a deadly car crash in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County sheriff's office saying one person is dead in this three-car accident, five others are hospitalized with injuries.

Apparently, actually, a four-car incident we're learning now happened in Malibu, California. The person killed was driving one of the cars pronounced dead at the scene. We don't have that person's identity yet.

Photos of the crash show medics and fire crew at the scene. You see it right there on the Pacific Coast Highway shut down for a number of hours over this. No word on whether Bruce Jenner has been injured in this or not. The cause of the accident still of course being investigated is early going here. Today's crash happened around noon right there on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

Joining me on the phone, Deputy Ryan Rouzan. He is a deputy with the L.A. County sheriff's office.

Thank you for being with me, sir. What can you tell us?

RYAN ROUZAN, L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE (via telephone): Today on February 7th, 2015, at 12:12:00 p.m., L.A. County Sheriff's Department Malibu deputies responded to a report of a four-car vehicle traffic collision on Pacific Coast Highway, just east of Coral Canyon Road in Malibu. When the deputies arrived on scene, they saw that there was four cars and that they also determined that there was one person dead from the collision. There were also five others that were involved in the collision that were taken to a local hospital for their injuries.

HARLOW: And as we're speaking with you, we're showing our viewers these are the fist photos that I have seen of the crash, really just a tragic situation all around.

Do we know if Bruce Jenner was driving one of the vehicles?

ROUZAN: Yes, we have confirmed that Mr. Jenner was driving one of the vehicles. As far as what his role in the collision was, we -- our investigators are still looking into that, so we haven't determined that. We also don't know if he sustained any injuries in the collision.

HARLOW: So, he was driving one of the vehicles. We don't know if he was injured.

(CROSSTALK)

ROUZAN: Well, he was in one of the vehicles. I can't confirm at this time if he was driving. But I know he was in one of the vehicles.

HARLOW: Thank you for correcting me on that.

Are you at this point looking at any potential charges against anyone involved in this accident at this point in time or is it just too early to say?

ROUZAN: It's too early to say at this point and that will be something that our traffic collision investigators as well as deputies at Malibu's station will determine.

HARLOW: Finally, there's obviously been some people wondering could paparazzi have been involved at all. Obviously, we don't want to jump to any conclusions but you're talking about a celebrity here that it's been a problem in the past. Do we know?

ROUZAN: We haven't had any confirmation of that either if there was paparazzi involved.

HARLOW: All right. Deputy Ryan Rouzan, joining me now. Thank you and the best of luck to all of your teams there on the ground trying to help these people involved in this four-car accident in Malibu. I appreciate it.

Well, after ISIS killed a Jordanian pilot, Jordan vowed revenge and is taking its anger out on those terrorists. Did ISIS underestimate this reaction? We'll talk about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: The mother and father of an American aid worker, Kayla Mueller, have a message for ISIS militants overseas -- get in touch with us and do it privately. Kayla Mueller's parents are not letting go of hope their daughter is still alive despite the extremist group's claims that she died in an air strike. Here's part of the statement the family issued. "You told us that you

treated Kayla as your guest. As your guest, her safety and well-being remains your responsibility."

ISIS insists that Kayla was in a building hit by a Jordanian air strike this week and that that killed her, but they haven't produced any evidence to prove that. The Jordanian government says it is merely a PR stunt. Te U.S. government also says there is no evident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMAD AL-MOMANI, JORDANIAN MINISTER OF STATE FOR MEDIA AFFAIRS: To my knowledge we have targeted storage of ammunition and training camps for terrorists so that would tell you that it would be difficult for us to believe or accept the fact that an American lady hostage was there. What we know about this terrorist organization is that they are liars when it comes to these things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Meantime, Jordanian fighter jets were back in the air over Syria today, striking ISIS targets. According to Jordanian television, all of the jets returned safely and in a new development our Atika Shubert reports F-16s from the UAE will be rejoining the fight with Jordan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the United Arab Emirates is sending a squadron of F-16 fighter jets to be based out of Jordan. They will now continue flying missions to hit ISIS targets alongside Jordanian fighter jets. Now, you might remember in December, the UAE actually suspended flying with the coalition. That was around the same time that the Jordanian air pilot was actually shot down over enemy lines.

Now, since then, the UAE hasn't been flying missions but does now seem it is resuming, and this is very important, to the coalition, to see another Arab ally participating in these strikes, and Jordan has said that since the murder of that Jordanian air pilot, it sees itself as the spearhead in the war against ISIS, and with the UAE basing its fighter jets out of here it very much seems to support Jordan in that role.

Atika Shubert, CNN, Amman, Jordan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Atika, thank you for that report.

Joining me now to talk more about it, Michael Weiss, co-author of the new book, "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror."

First, your take on how significant it is that the UAE has jumped back in because in December, they pulled back and didn't do any more strikes saying we feel like the search-and-rescue abilities over Syria especially are not strong enough right now. We're not going to risk it. And now, they're back in.

MICHAEL WEISS, CO-AUTHOR, "ISIS: INSIDE THE ARMY OF TERROR": Yes, well, they had a series of complaints. They feel the U.S. strategy is doing too much to empower Iran in both Syria and Iraq, and they feel as do many other Arab countries in the coalition that without Sunni support, you can't defeat a Sunni terrorist organization like ISIS.

HARLOW: So, what does that say that they're back in now?

WEISS: It's good news certainly for the president of the United States who is worrying this whole coalition might crumble. I mean, indeed, ISIS' core goal with the horrific immolation of Muath al- Kaseasbeh was to do that, to drive a wedge between the United States and its Arab allies. The first two-thirds of that they exhibited was completely just anti-Jordanian state propaganda.

HARLOW: Do you think that ISIS miscalculated when they decided to videotape burning alive the Jordanian pilot, something clearly against all tenets of Islam?

WEISS: Look, I think it's too soon to tell. There's a lot of indications that the emotional response to this has been overwhelming. You had al Azhar in Cairo, which is sort of the hub of Islamic theology, the grand imam came out and said that ISIS should be exterminated, they should be crucified, speaking in tones that even moderate Muslims were sort of shock to hear.

I think, right now, there's a kind of high-level emotional response to this atrocity. The question is in the long term: does, (a), the coalition have what it takes to really do the job, and (b), we still haven't seen the payoff, if you like? I hate to use that expression, but ISIS put this video out with a clear purpose. They wanted to fire, they wanted to intoxicate jihadists, to bring them into the fold, to bring them into Syria and Iraq to join the cause.

Every time they do something like this, their ranks swell. So, again, we're talking weeks down the line. We'll be able to determine if --

(CROSSTALK)

WEISS: Yes.

HARLOW: Michael Weiss, thank you. Stand by. We're going to talk a lot more about this throughout the program.

Still ahead after a quick break, young Americans, the next really recruiting targets for ISIS. They're already doing it. We're talking about kids as young as 13. We'll get a look at how the terror network is using social media to fill its ranks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: U.S. officials have arrested and charged six people with providing and equipment to ISIS in Syria and Iraq. All six defendants emigrated to the U.S. from Bosnia, three are naturalized citizens. Five of them were arrested right here in the U.S., one was arrested overseas in this coordinated effort. And officials say two suspects did plan to actually go to the region to join the battle with ISIS terrorists.

Our Pamela Brown spoke with the FBI's head of counterterrorism about how it tracks down Americans who are in touch with ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: We got a rare chance to sit down and talk with a man who was leading the FBI's counterterrorism efforts, Michael Steinbach, and he shared some disturbing insight into how ISIS is reaching into American homes to find their newest recruits and their next victims.

(voice-over): Of all the weapons used by terrorists, one of the most dangerous is social media.

MICHAEL STEINBACH, AST. DIRECTOR, FBI COUNTERTERRORISM DIVISION: They're using it successfully to spot, assess, identify, target folks outside of war zones. They're using it in Europe and they're using it in the United States.

BROWN (on camera): When you say target folks, how young are we talking?

STEINBACH: We've seen across the globe kids as young as 13 recruited by ISIL.

BROWN: Thirteen?

STEINBACH: Thirteen.

BROWN: Are they actually in direct contact in some of these cases with ISIS militants who are overseas in Syria that are reaching out to them directly?

STEINBACH: What we've seen is individuals in Syria reaching directly into the United States starting in public chats on different social media platforms and then moving to private chat where is they continue to recruit, inspire, and then coerce individuals to either travel overseas or even worse to conduct an attack here in the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kill them, and spit in their faces, and run over them with your cars.

BROWN (voice-over): Michael Steinbach, the head of the FBI's counterterrorism division, says ISIS is also using Facebook and Twitter to identify potential American victims.

(on camera): I'm wondering is it an assumption or is there actually intelligence to back it up?

STEINBACH: There certainly is intelligence indicating that foreign terrorist organizations are using social media not only to spot and assess but select targets -- targeting the military, targeting law enforcement, targeting government officials. BROWN (voice-over): That threat led the FBI to issue a string of

warnings urging U.S. government employees to scrub their social media profiles of any information terrorists could use to find them.

(on camera): Everyone is on social media these days, though. How do you get through the noise of someone who's just mouthing off versus someone who is a legitimate threat?

STEINBACH: That's the trick of law enforcement and that's the trick of the U.S. intelligence community, to work through that using data, using strong analytical skills. But it's a full-time job and it's a challenge.

BROWN: And something else that Steinbach said that really struck me, he says there's been a deliberate focus by ISIS leadership to use social media to recruit people with sophisticated and specific skills like engineers and accountants, people to run the business and the caliphate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Wow, it's pretty shocking.

Joining me now to talk about it, Michael Weiss, co-author of "ISIS: Inside the Jihad." I'm sorry. I got your book title wrong.

WEISS: I get it wrong sometimes too.

HARLOW: But you just tell us the title.

WEISS: Yes, "Inside the Army of Terror." Yes.

HARLOW: So, let me ask you this, when you hear that, targeting people as young as 13 years old and they say they it's being done pretty effectively. Many have said the U.S. has not been able to counter it effectively with online, with our own message online. Would you agree with that?

WEISS: One hundred percent. The State Department has a Twitter account, I think it's called think again, look away, or turn away.

HARLOW: Right.

WEISS: Essentially, the U.S. government is trolling is and its legions of followers and fellow travelers and trying to throw in their face the fact that this is a barbarous totalitarian organization. The problem I have with that is ISIS wants to broadcast the atrocities and all the things you and I would be horrified about.

Look, there are also programs that people don't even know about. There's one we document in the book, I think we were the first so figure it out. It's called Zelo (ph). What it does is allow young recruit, people who aren't even in Syria and Iraq, they could if be in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, whatever, they can listen in real time to is sermons. ISIS clerics getting up a in the mosque and delivering their Friday prayer sermons and you can stream this on your phone. Imagine like a Christian revival that was sort of live, this is what

they're doing. So, they're brainwashing and proselytizing this way.

HARLOW: I want you to listen to part of an interview that our Christiane Amanpour did wit a man named Didier Francois, formerly held by ISIS, he was released, returned back, and he talked about the fact that religion, Islam, was not part of this at all when he was in captivity. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIDIER FRANCOIS, ISIS PRISONER FOR 10 MONTHS: It was more hammering what they were believing than teaching us about the Koran, because it has nothing to do with the Koran. We didn't even have the Koran. They didn't want even to give us a Koran. So, it has nothing to do with Koran.

CHRISTIANA AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, these are not religious fanatics.

FRANCOIS: No. It is -- what they believe and think and try to hammer it to you because that's what they trust. I mean, it has nothing do with Koran.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: And we have seen first of all the atrocious murder of many, many fellow Muslims by ISIS, and the Muslim community around the world increasingly turning against ISIS, so many of which oppose them anyway, and even more and more now.

WEISS: Yes. But still people are drawn to it. I mean, look, does this have to do with Islam? Well, I mean, you know, in the book, we quote an anthropologist who said read George Orwell's 1940 review of "Mein Kampf." How come is it that, you know, liberal democracy offers all these things, the emancipation of women, economic redistribution, and here's this guy in Germany who offers death and people prostrate themselves to celebrate it?

It doesn't surprise ne in the least to hear the former captive say these guys didn't have a Koran. We talk to people including Free Syrian Army guys --

HARLOW: Right.

WEISS: -- who were arguing with ISIS, and young recruits, as young as 14, 16 years old would say oh well, we're the real Muslims, who are you?, and they said you're real Muslim, can you recite some hadith to me? And they couldn't. They didn't even know a single passage from the Koran.

HARLOW: The burning of the Jordanian pilot going against that.

WEISS: Sure.

HARLOW: Going against the tenets of Islam. It is shocking to me how horrific it gets episode after episode after episode.

WEISS: They're tapping into well springs of Islamic history, Islamic theology for sure. I mean they're trying to make these ex post facto justifications for emulating a fellow Muslim. But, look, it's important to understand, ISIS is not just a religious fundamentalist group. They're also a mafia.

I keep banging on about this, the upper echelons of the organization are outfitted with who? Former Saddamists, people in the Iraqi military, secular baptism. These guys , this is a power projection project. Also, again, they present themselves as Sunni (INAUDIBLE) , we are going to restore the lost Sunni glories which have been robbed from us in the last 10 years. You've knocked out Saddam in Iraq, we want to get rid of Assad in Syria and empower the Sunni majority there. So it's a political project.

HARLOW: Absolutely. Michael Weiss, thank you for the expertise.

WEISS: Sure.

HARLOW: We appreciate you joining us.

He is also the co-author of the book "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror."

Coming up next, the heart-stopping video of a plane crash this week in Taiwan. It seems unsurvivable, yet 15 people did survive. We speak with Richard Quest about how, our conversation next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Shocking video of the deadly Taiwanese plane crash that really left all of us with our jaws dropped. You have likely seen this clip showing the plane as it crashed into a river in Taipei. The new video shows the aftermath.

A trapped passenger banging on the window minutes after Transasia flight 235 plunged into the water. The person is believed to have survived. As for the investigation, we are now hearing that instead of shutting down the failed engine, the crew may, may have shut down the working engine. Forty people died in this crash. Three others are still missing. 15 people, though, survived, which begs the question, is there anything you can do to survive a plane crash? We asked CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (on camera): There is always the first question in any aviation incident , was this a survivable accident? If you take something like Lockerbie or you take Airasia 8501, then almost certainly your first answer is no, so you're not even bothering to talk about where you're sitting the plane, what might have happened.

If you're blown out of the sky, that is not survivable. Most accidents are survivable for a certain number of people. Crash landings, for example, the Air France in Canada case where an entire plane went into flames but everybody got off. And that's what you're looking at here. Is it a survivable accident and if it is, what were the factors that enabled them to survive?

HARLOW: So a lot of people have been talking about the seat belts and in these first days after the crash some first responders said that they even saw some people hanging from their seat belts when they were trying to rescue them. Some died in that position. Listen to what one survivor said he did just moments before.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Shortly after takeoff, I felt something wasn't right, something was wrong with the engine because I always take this flight. I told the girl beside me to quickly release her seat belt, hold onto the chair in front and cover her head with clothes. Not long after the plane went down.

HARLOW: Are there cases where it is better to unbuckable your seat belt?

QUEST: Oh, yes, of course there are those cases.

HARLOW: But how do you know?

QUEST: Exactly. That's the point. You don't know whether this is going to be one of those situations where you would be better buckled in or not. You talked about the passengers being upside down in the seat belts. That is normal in a plane crash, you know, or an emergency landing.

The answer is not to have your seat belt fastened or not fastened. It's to be ready. So in this situation you've got your hands ready to unfasten your seat belt. You know where the emergency exits are. That's the answer. It's not trying to work , look, the story of the family with the baby that moved seats because he didn't like the noise ,

HARLOW: Let's talk about that. This family with the toddler said that they heard a noise, felt uncomfortable, quickly switched seats. Is that what people should be doing, trusting their gut?

QUEST: Trusting, but he couldn't have known. He couldn't have known if there was an accident where the plane was going to break up. If you're not wearing your seat belt, you risk becoming a projectile. That can be projected out of the aircraft. Asiana, that's the classic -

HARLOW: On the runway in California.

QUEST: Right. The NTSB has pretty much said if they had their seat belts they'd have still been on the plane, they wouldn't have been ejected from the aircraft, and therefore the chance of it being run over by the fire truck would have been nonexistent.

HARLOW: Some have said that it is slightly safer to sit at the back of an aircraft. Is that true? Is there any credit that we should give to that? QUEST: Look, the plane is flying that way. Therefore, it's more likely than not if it hits something that's going to be the first bit that's going to get hit. What happens if the plane comes down like that?

HARLOW: Exactly.

I know that we are in the early stages of this investigation into what went wrong. However, there has been a lot of talk about the engines.

QUEST: The first thing is there was clearly a loss of power by one engine and it would appear at this very early stage that that wasn't the engine that was then subsequently switched off. So has it happened where pilots have switched off the good engine? Yes. Could it have happened here? We don't know. We will know. But I'll tell you this, the moment that plane lost both engines this was never going to end well.

There have been two cases recently where planes have lost both engines. They were OK. Miracle on the Hudson and a British Airways flight going into Heathrow from Beijing.

HARLOW: Right. Pretty incredible seeing this video that 15 people actually managed to survive.

QUEST: Having seen the Asiana video where the plane lands and completely cartwheels down the runway in San Francisco and you bear in mind that nobody on board that aircraft died, you start to understand the concept of survivability exists. It's the practice of passengers to be ready that's crucial.

HARLOW: Richard Quest, thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Richard Quest, thank you for that.

Now to the issue of airport security. In an exclusive CNN investigation revealing that a serious gap in airport security procedures exists across the country. Our Drew Griffin investigates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Miami International Airport, this is the security you don't see standing in line. CNN got exclusive access to the screening that takes place for what they call the back of the airport employees.

These are the baggage handlers, the mechanics, the cleaners, anyone you don't see going through screening with passengers. It's the same screening no matter what kind of security badge or security clearance the employee holds.

LAUREN STOVER, MIAMI AIRPORT SECURITY DIRECTOR: I.D.s are not enough to stop malicious intent. I mean, you can vet employees for basic information on their backgrounds, but it doesn't , it's not going to necessarily prevent them from carrying out some kind of malicious activity against an airport.

GRIFFIN: What may surprise you is what's happening at Miami's International Airport, the full screening of every airport employee is the exception, not the rule.

CNN contacted 20 of the major airports across the country and found screening of employees is random and partial at best and no national standard exists. The only other major airport that does full screening is Orlando. Many airports like Seattle's Sea-Tac telling us an extensive background check and an airport security badge is all that's needed for employees to get on the tarmac and gain access to airplanes.

It's a similar story we heard from Dallas, San Francisco, McCarren Airport in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, even JFK in New York.

Pass a background check, get a badge, and you have access to the inner workings of America's airports without going through the same screening passengers face up top. Airport officials have told CNN the cost of screening all employees is simply too much for their budgets. Security expert Wayne Black says relying on badges for security is stupid.

WAYNE BLACK, SECURITY EXPERT: You don't have to be a security expert. I mean, a fifth-grader can tell you if you're checking security at the top end, at the front end of the airport, you ought to be checking it at the back end of the airport. We have a saying in our business and that is budget-driven security will always fail.

GRIFFIN: The TSA, which sets standards for airport security, says in the wake of the gun-smuggling case in Atlanta, it is implementing or considering a range of measures including additional requirements for airport and airline employee screening. But so far no national changes. Restaurant employees and flight crews that go through terminals do pass through a checkpoint. Those that work below do not.

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: In the terminal we got to be careful with the bags.

GRIFFIN: In Miami, airport security director Lauren Stover says checking some but not all airport employees just isn't enough. The threats at her airport are the same across the country, smuggling, guns, drugs and the potential of terror.

STOVER: One of the greatest vulnerabilities for this airport and probably any other major airport like M.I.A. is the insider threat. Basically, people that are going to obtain credentials and use their access to exploit the system.

GRIFFIN: Miami International has been screening like this ever since a drug-smuggling scandal in the late '90s. Every employee with access to airplanes goes through metal detectors and screening. Going to work, coming back from break, every time, every one.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: In this day and age we have to deal with terrorism. GRIFFIN: Miami is an example for how security should be done. The airport also has proof of why. Last year alone 209 employee I.D. badges were confiscated due to security violations caught by screening.

STOVER: We have intercepted guns, drugs, large sums of money, weapons, knives.

GRIFFIN: Employee screening is under new scrutiny after the arrest of a Delta baggage handler in Atlanta. The employee worked with a passenger to smuggle guns to New York. The baggage handler unscreened was able to take backpacks of guns into the airport where he passed them on to a passenger already cleared through security. Atlanta is now evaluating the cost of full employee screening.

STOVER: Put it this way , this is , you know, it's a costly program, it's really not that costly when you compare the cost versus the consequences of not having a program like this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Drew Griffin reporting there with that exclusive investigation.

Coming up next, Bruce Jenner involved in a deadly car crash that leaves one person dead. It just happened a few hours ago. We'll have a live report next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. Olympic champion turned celebrity Bruce Jenner involved in a deadly car crash this afternoon. His publicist telling us here on CNN he was not injured. The Los Angeles County sheriff's office says one person though is dead, five others are hospitalized with injuries after this four-car accident. The person killed was driving one of the vehicles and was no pronounced dead at the scene. This all happened on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

Our Paul Vercammen is live in Los Angeles. Paul, any idea what caused this?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are a couple theories now being floated around. Let me see what I can tell you in terms of cobbling this together.

Apparently there was a domino or chain reaction. As you look at those photos of the cars you can tell that Mr. Jenner was in the black Escalade. By one account, he was rear-ended, his car hit a white Lexus with an elderly female driver in it, and authorities say that that Lexus went into the opposite lane and was struck head on by some sort of a Humvee or Hummer in this accident. Mr. Jenner took a field sobriety test right there on the scene and also a voluntary drug test.

As you pointed out, his publicist (INAUDIBLE) telling us that Mr. Jenner is OK right now. Obviously he would be in a very different state mentally because this was indeed just a horrific crash. Both lanes still closed down. We understand now from a source close to this that this will be a felony manslaughter investigation because someone was killed.

We also learned from the watch commander that the five people who were injured in this crash were minors and they have been taken to a local hospital. Four cars in all involved in this crash including the vehicle that was driven by Bruce Jenner, that was the black Escalade. In the pictures, it was said to towing some sort of trailer in the accident. Again, the theory is that he was part of a chain reaction of three cars that collided and one car ricocheted into the oncoming traffic. Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes, I know we don't know if Bruce Jenner was driving any of the cars or if he was just a passenger. Also obviously his face is getting all the attention here, but, correct me if I'm wrong, it is unclear who this vehicular manslaughter investigation is looking at. We don't know if they're looking at Jenner or one of the other people in the cars driving one of the other cars, correct?

VERCAMMEN: Absolutely. It would be common practice to open an investigation to any sort of accident, and also we should note that emphatically, the sources I'm talking to says so far they do not suspect that paparazzi were in any way involved in this crash.

HARLOW: So everyone is being looked at right now. Before you go, any status on the five people being treated in the hospital?

VERCAMMEN: No news on that.

HARLOW: All right. Paul Vercammen on top of the story for us in Los Angeles. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Steve Jobs, the ultimate innovator, his journey to tech super stardom included tripping on LSD. How some of the billionaires in Silicon Valley seek creative brilliance. That report from our Laurie Segall next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right, you have probably heard of performance enhancing drugs. Stuff like steroids, well some tech entrepreneurs are doing the same thing but with different drugs trying to bulk up their brain instead of their muscles. CNN's Laurie Segall spoke with people in the middle of this, not afraid to meddle at all with their brain chemistry in the name of creativity. So they believe these really work?

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN TECH REPORTER: 100 percent. And I will say they have smart drugs and they can be natural or anything like prescription. What they do is they take a stack and try different ones. I spoke to someone who really believes this. His name is Dave Aspray who did a little bit of a demo for me. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVE ASPRAY, CEO, BULLETPROOF: (INAUDIBLE) I'll warn you, it doesn't taste great, but it is worth it. SEGALL (on camera): You take all of these, put them in your hand, and then you just take them, and is it safe to do?

ASPRAY: It's totally safe to do that. I look back to my college days when we had beer bongs; it's exactly the same technique.

I have some of the most expensive (INAUDIBLE) on the planet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SEGALL: Pretty unbelievable when you him talk about it. And we don't know the long term effects but he says a lot of entrepreneurs are really trying this out.

HARLOW: What are doctors saying though about the safety, side effects?

SEGALL: We have no long-term studies right now. If you look right now online, there are all these groups of entrepreneurs, people on Reddit talking about oh, hey this might work, these are my side effects.

So I spoke with one entrepreneur who said it is up to everyone to be very careful when experimenting with this kind of thing but he showed me his stack, and he put 15 and he tried to show me what kind of stack I could have, and he said this could make you at your best.

HARLOW: Did you try them?

SEGALL: I didn't. I thought about it but I didn't, Poppy.

HARLOW: I know. I think I'd be on your camp. Laurie, thank you so much.

It was all part of a fascinating special coming up right here on CNN, by our one and only Laurie Segall reporting on Silicon Valley's complicated interesting relationship with sex and drugs. How the world of tech is using and some would say abusing drugs. We're going to talk LSD a whole a lot more of that, coming up right here at 8:30 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)