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Passenger Flight Crashes in France; Germanwings CEO Speaks. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 24, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:13]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking news.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We begin with breaking news.

A passenger airplane carrying 150 people has crashed in the French Alps. We are minutes away from a Germanwings news conference. Our team is now monitoring that. You see it there.

Germanwings Airbus Flight 9525 was traveling from Barcelona, Spain, to Dusseldorf, Germany when it crashed.

Here's what we know. 144 passengers, six crew members were on board. The flight took off just after 10:00 a.m. local time. That would be 5:00 a.m. local time here. According to an online flight tracker, the plane descended 14,000 feet in six minutes. Everyone onboard that flight is feared dead. Authorities say because of the mountainous terrain reaching the crash site will be very difficult.

I want to begin with CNN senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann.

Bring us up to date, Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, French officials have established right away after this plane went missing a crisis center and the prime minister as well as a number of other members of the Cabinet are coordinating the efforts from Paris. But down on the scene now there are about 200 searchers and rescuers and there's also (INAUDIBLE) in the area. The area has been sealed off now. It's the first step toward an accident investigation.

The teams from the French crash investigating authority are on their way down there as well. They have double reason to be interested in this plane. Not only did the crash happen on French territory but also it's a French-made aircraft, Airbus 320.

It is believed that President Hollande said from the very beginning this morning that all onboard were killed. This is an extremely mountainous area of the alps. And it's an area with very few residents, very few villages. And the crash happened at about 6,000 feet according to some reports. The scene now has been -- the debris on the scene has been isolated. There have been some eyewitnesses that have seen it among the (INAUDIBLE) and other people that are up there.

They've got seven helicopters flying back and forth. They have established a temporary morgue in a small village in a gymnasium of a school in a small village -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Jim, I'm going to interrupt you because this press conference is about to begin. This is in Colon, Germany. This is the Germanwings CEO, Oliver Wagner. Let's listen.

OLIVER WAGNER, GERMANWINGS CEO (Through Translator): Tragic, very sad day for Germanwings and also for the whole Lufthansa family.

Sadly I have to inform you that we today have been informed by the French department, Haute-Provence in southern France, has been informed that an airliner of Germanwings had an accident. The route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.

The airliner this morning at 6:48 left Dusseldorf and went with 228 passengers to Barcelona and was punctual there. This airliner then left Barcelona at 10:01 with the destination Dusseldorf. Onboard there were 144 passengers, two babies onboard as well, and six crew members. Two were in the cockpit and four as cabin members.

The airliner -- and this is our knowledge at this moment in time did at 10:35 -- actually it was supposed to land at 11:00 but 10:45 it had the height of 10,000 feet so reached that limit at that time. The airliner then left this height after one minute and went straight down. And this is our knowledge at this point in time that the -- coming down lasted eight minutes altogether.

The airliner had contact to the French radar services and French pilots and that was at 10:53 when the airliner had about the height of 6,000 feet when contact stopped. That was then when the accident happened -- the crash happened.

[10:05:19] As mentioned, the airliner had 144 passengers plus six crew members onboard. The airliner was an Airbus A-320, and the flight number was AIPX and the airliner was delivered in 1991 to Lufthansa and from that point in time it flew for Lufthansa and then since January of 2004, it flew on behalf of Germanwings.

The last routine check of this airliner occurred yesterday on 23rd of March in Dusseldorf and that was carried out by technicians and engineers of Lufthansa. The last regular big check -- so it was a big check of the airliner was routinely done as per manual in summer 2013. The captain of the airliner was a captain who had been working for Lufthansa Germanwings for over 10 years. The model Airbus he had actually flown with over 6,000 flight hours.

A team of Germanwings is in Dusseldorf at this moment in time in order to support the relatives of all of those passengers on the flight list. They are going to be informed at this moment in time and please bear in mind that we, of course, have to inform first the relatives of the passengers died before we inform you.

A Lufthansa team, Airbus, Germanwings and also a team of the engineers, technicians are on their way to the crash site. In order to support the investigation of the crash. In order to help as much as possible and in order to find out as quickly as possible why our Airbus crashed. At the moment the most important matter is that we wish to inform you that we have of course our deepest sympathy toward the relatives of the passengers killed and also the crew members killed.

We think about the victims at this moment in time. But at the same time -- at the same time, we, of course, will do as much as possible with the authorities in order to find out about the reason of this crash and carry out a proper investigation.

The expert teams I just mentioned are on their way there and of course those engineers and officials who we all will support.

Many thanks. I would like to ask you to ask questions now.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER (Through Translator): Was there any information about the pilots?

WAGNER (Through Translator): All of the specialists with regard to security and flights are here. For example Mr. Scheib, but of course we need to find out exactly where the information and details come from.

[10:10:11] It's very important for us that we investigate as quickly as possible. With regard to the distress call, we can't give you more information because some contradicting information from the radar services as well so we need to find out if there was a distress call or not.

Now your question to the crash that the flight or airliner really went down quickly without being able to inform the air traffic control we actually do not have any fact information exactly about that, why the airliner crashed just coming down like this like a rocket.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (Speaking in foreign language)

WAGNER (Through Translator): There are no special matters with regard to the airliner but of course we will look at all the documentation off the airliner with regard to the last weeks and months. We should not speculate. It has just happened a couple of minutes ago and primarily we need to take care of the relatives of the victims and we need to have clarity.

And with regard to Lufthansa group, we need to get all of our experts together, together with the authorities in order to find out exactly and quickly what has happened.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (Speaking in Foreign Language)

WAGNER (Through Translator): With regard to your first question, I can say that at the moment we assume that 67 German nationals were onboard. This figure may change because when there is a check in and booking, we cannot check it in each individual case. We have a passenger list and at the moment in Dusseldorf, they look at it together with the relatives and this is being done in a confidential way.

To the other question, the problem you mentioned with regard to computers, there I can say that these computers that had a defect were exchanged. This is the newest version of Airbus so this kind of error could not have occurred.

COSTELLO: All right. We're going to step away from this news conference to sort of digest what we've just heard.

I want to bring in Chad Myers, he's standing by in Atlanta to talk more about the flight path and this mountainous terrain. But I want to go first, Chad, to Les Abend because some of the information that came out of this news conference was quite disturbing.

We heard that, you know, 144 passengers, two babies were onboard, two crew members were in the cockpit. There were also four -- flight attendants in the plane. Also we understand that at 10:45 local time at a height of 10,000 feet, there started to be this rapid descent. It got as high as 10,000 feet and then it left that height after one minute and it went straight down.

One of the people in that news conference said it went straight down like a rocket. It lasted eight minutes all together. What does that tell you?

LES ABEND, BOEING 777 PILOT: Well, I'm getting this information like you are, Carol. I -- if that data is indeed correct, something catastrophic did occur. I find it hard -- and 10,000 feet is not a high altitude especially in mountainous terrain. What they could have meant was that it impacted the terrain at that point. That's the last point of data that they have.

COSTELLO: Because at one point it was 38,000 feet. Then it went down to 24,000 feet.

ABEND: At a rate that I calculate a little less than 2500 feet a minute, which is not very fast. That's very typical of a descent that we have. So obviously they had a problem that was enunciated on their panel and they were reacting to that probably through a checklist situation.

[10:15:14] They declared -- they did the exact professional thing they should have done and declared an emergency by saying mayday, mayday, which is the international sign.

COSTELLO: And that did indeed happen, although there's conflicting information about that and that came out of this news conference right now. The pilot very experienced. He had over 10 years of experience with this particular airline. 6,000 flight hours in all. Over his career. So he knew what he was doing presumably.

ABEND: Absolutely. I mean, both crew members, I'm sure, had -- were very qualified on that airplane. It's just disturbing to me that if there was an emergency situation why it overtook them to the point that -- it appears, we don't know for sure, but it appears that they impacted terrain with a situation that may have been handable. COSTELLO: Right. And we also understand that the plane had one

completed flight previously to this flight that crashed and everything appeared to be fine.

ABEND: You know, it's hard to say like in your car, you know, your tire is fine when you drive to work one day and then the next day something occurs with that tire and you're off on the side of the road changing it. You know, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. It could have meant there was a problem developing. This is a sophisticated airplane. It has sensors all over it and gives you warnings for all types of issues.

COSTELLO: The other thing we learned is that it was last inspected -- and this is following the letter of the law according to the people at this news conference. It was last inspected thoroughly in 2013. It was a 24-year-old plane.

ABEND: In aviation dog years, that's really not a lot of time. We do at the airlines progressive maintenance schedule where it progressively looked at certain areas of the airplane for every big inspection that it has and then during the course of its regular route structure it's inspected also. And it's inspected by the pilots just on a what we call a walk-around inspection.

COSTELLO: OK. Back to you, Chad, talk about the terrain. And, you know, there couldn't have been much room to maneuver where this plane went down.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The terrain was going up as the plane was going down. And eventually, Carol, there was the impact. We looked at the flight path this morning and saw how it kind of didn't go in a straight line and planes don't go in straight lines. Yes, there are highways but this is the normal route for this plane. This is where it went yesterday. So nothing unusual here.

Now we'll take a look at some of the data that we're talking about just there about what happened to this plane. And I'm thinking -- just in my head as I was listening to the news conference that maybe it was 10,000 meters and not 10,000 feet. And maybe it got mistranslated or just misspoke because the plane was here about 38,000 feet high and this is the eight minutes that he talked about how it was down.

It doesn't take eight minute if it's dropping like a rocket from 10,000 feet to 6,000 so maybe there was a slight translation problem.

I noticed a couple other things, Les, and maybe you can help me out with this because you're better at this than me. This plane went up to about 30,000 feet and leveled off for about three minutes. Maybe it didn't like that air right there and asked to go up higher to 38,000 feet. Lost a little speed here but I don't think that's that important. And up here at 38,000 feet right at this point is where it flew over land.

All of the way through here. This was all water. So nothing to worry about. We don't have turbulence over the water. We know where the plane is right now because the French Air Force are out flying around. There's Marseilles, there's Toulon, and there is where the plane is somewhere there. Marseilles has an 11,000-foot runway. Had the pilot known that he was in trouble here, he was only 32 miles from the Marseilles runway.

This flew about another 102 miles before it eventually came down. Here's what the topography looks like. Right through here, right through Toulon, here's Marseilles, there is the location of the plane. So for most of the flight it was over nice level ground. Then we get up here into some terrain about 1,000 to 3,000 feet. But as the plane was descending down, eventually that plane got to the point where it was at 6,000 feet and the terrain as it was coming up was at 6,000 feet.

The highest of alps still far away from it and they can go 10,000 feet higher, 14,000 feet. The plane never even got there. Somewhere probably along this ridge not far from this lake that we see here on Google Earth.

COSTELLO: So, Les, can you discern anything from that?

ABEND: It's really hard to say. But to Chad's point about the meters versus the feet, you know, that certainly could be a true statement. Maybe we are misconstruing the data. And we don't have confirmation on all the data.

COSTELLO: Yes. The plane crashed at 6800 feet so I don't know.

[10:20:01] ABEND: If it's 6800 feet or 6800 meters, you know, it's hard to say. But there is an important distinction when we get to that point. Were they working on a problem and got so distracted that they ended up in the terrain? That's pure speculation. Or the problem just overcame them and that's something that the digital flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorder will determine.

COSTELLO: So tragic. It really is. I just want to -- before we go to break -- show you the Germanwings logo. Usually it's red and today it's black.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right. You're looking at grieving family members from Barcelona and also from the staging area that rescue helicopters are taking off from to try to locate any possible survivors to this plane crash or collect debris. We'll keep you posted on that. But in case you're just joining us, Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed earlier this morning. It was an Airbus A-320 aircraft. It crashed on the way from Barcelona, Spain, to Dusseldorf, Germany. 144 passengers on board including two babies.

[10:25:02] Six crewmembers, two in the cockpit. The rest in the body of the plane. We understand that the plane suffered some sort of maybe catastrophic incident. It fell very quickly. In fact one of the experts at this press conference that we were just listening to said the plane fell like a rocket in the French Alps and we don't know why.

Want to bring in our aviation experts, Mary Schiavo, she's a former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation. Also Les Abend is here. He is a CNN aviation expert as well.

And, Mary, Les and I were just talking about this distress call. Supposedly according to the experts in this news conference, there was no distress call. It shays a spokesperson for the French Civil Aviation Authority confirms to CNN that the crew of Germanwings airline or airplane did not issue a distress call. A distress signal was sent out by air traffic control after controllers became concerned at the loss of radio contact with the plane and the speed of the plane's descent.

What do you make of that, Mary?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, the fact that there is no or there may be no distress call and I know overnight in London they're getting inflicting reports. There's one story out of Paris and a different story out of Barcelona. But if there was no mayday, mayday call, first they said it's an emergency which is not standard phraseology but that's not hijack code either.

And then they said it was mayday, mayday, mayday, which made sense, that was what you should say but now with no distress call that would certainly explain the mysteries that people were wondering about as to why the pilot didn't turn back to other available airports, why didn't veer from the course which is headed straight into the mountains after this eight-minute drop in altitude.

With no distress call, o course, we don't know what the pilot knew what was going on, we don't know what the plane was doing and we don't know the emergency. You know, for example in the Payne Stewart situation where there rapid decompression, there was no emergency call. They didn't know it was happening. It happened to them and it overtook them so there are a lot of different scenarios with no distress call and that would also explain of course why they continue to descend into the alps, very high, mountainous region.

COSTELLO: Mary, what do you make of this very rapid descent? The plane supposedly fell like a rocket.

SCHIAVO: Well, that's not exactly right. If the radar tracings are right. Now, you know, you can get false radar tracings, too. So we don't necessarily have confirmed facts that it took eight minutes for it to descend. You know, the rate of descent that we were hearing from 14,000 feet of descent in six minutes, that's not a rocket. I mean, I've worked many accidents where the plane fell from 35,000 feet and hit the ground in three minutes or less. It was falling not even like a rocket, more like a leaf.

And so here it was a very rapid descent. But now -- I wouldn't describe it as literally just falling from the sky at maximum velocity or terminal velocity. I wouldn't describe it that way. I think maybe he just had, you know, an interesting translation of words.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Translation problem. Right.

SCHIAVO: It was very rapid -- yes. Very rapid descent but not a rocket.

COSTELLO: Les, what do you make of this lack of a distress call? They were focused on the emergency at hand and sometimes -- you know, and it's pure speculation on my part but you get to a point when you have an emergency you get very focused on it and this could be indicative of a possible smoke and fire situation where they become -- they have oxygen masks on. Goggles on. And they're running a checklist in trying to get this airplane under control and were dealing with high terrain.

This may be indicative of that kind of issue. But a distress call as we've been talking about throughout the day you aviate, you navigate and you communicate. And that communication aspect, that end of it, may not have been possible if they were trying to control their aircraft.

COSTELLO: Gotcha. I want to bring in CNN's Karl Penhaul right now. He's at the Barcelona airport where the families are starting to gather.

Hi, Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Yes, I'm outside Terminal 2 and this is the terminal from which that airline departed. And minute by minute more family members are starting to arrive. At the end of the terminal that is where a crisis center has been set up. Now involved in that, the Spanish aviation authorities, representatives of the airline and also members of Spain's emergency services.

We've seen psychologists go in there, for example. They are of course on hand to receive some of the relatives who are starting to arrive. I've seen at least six or seven groups of people arriving, speaking Spanish as they come through a set of automatic barriers and some of them hugging one another, others crying. None of them so far offering any comment and of course for respect of the families right now, we're not pushing anybody for comments.

[10:20:04] In terms of anything new from the airline representatives, well, of course, it's being handled very thoroughly from the German and here in Spain at the Terminal 2 in Barcelona.