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Crash of Germanwings in the French Alps. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 26, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

CARSTEN SPOHR, CEO, LUFTHANSA AIRLINES (through translator): I'm not a lawyer and I do not wish to say something concrete about that. As the CEO of the company, I would say if one person kills himself and also 149 people, another word should be used, not suicide.

QUESTION (through translator): We need to try to get back the trust of passengers. So how can you get back trust of passengers and in what way influences this your thoughts?

SPOHR (through translator): I think now is not the right day to talk about future strategies of Lufthansa. Now we deal with giving support to the relatives. And it is important that we jointly do that, that the public is included, that we all can cope with what happened, and that we then think about the strategic plan at the appropriate time.

QUESTION (through translator): So that could influence your decision maybe?

SPOHR (through translator): No, as I said, I don't want to make any speculations today. This is the wrong time.

QUESTION (through translator): This morning, you reordered a full flight on its way to Tel Aviv. What were the reasons? I've been asking this question for the last three hours.

SPOHR (through translator): If a flight is called back, there are certainly reasons for doing that, and probably the flight -- the captain -- flight captain made that decision. But I'm not -- I don't know the reasons.

We are not aware of the response, but you can give us a call after we know about this.

The aircraft is on its way to Tel Aviv, and we will inform you about the reason for the delay.

QUESTION: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

SPOHR (through translator): Since the crash, the relatives are being looked after, they're taken care Of. Some of them are in Marseilles. Some are in different places in Europe, together with the authorities we made sure that the relatives were not informed via the media.

QUESTION (through translator): A quick question first. The crew members, did they notice that something was wrong? And could they have given a distress call? You mentioned speculations. Old machine or airliner, training, what is your opinion of what you heard?

SPOHR (through translator): To your first question, our cabin members, crew members do know the code if the door is not opened from the inside. That's what I mentioned. Crew members can also do that. Otherwise, crew members are not being trained about this. They are not trained about procedures within the cockpit. This is not legally required.

A distress call must be activated in the cockpit. Only licensed pilots can do that.

I have never responded to statements you've just made. I've always said Lufthansa, Germanwings train their pilots in the same way, so for Lufthansa and Germanwings. Different ages with regard to aircraft does not play a role here. Aircraft are serviced as the technical service requires to do it. Sometimes we have old aircraft and newer ones within Lufthansa as well.

QUESTION (through translator): One more question. A question from France. (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

SPOHR (through translator): Yesterday and the day before we said that we wish to protect personal circumstances and we work together with France and leave the investigation to their authority.

QUESTION (through translator): You said you informed -- or the relatives were informed personally. How did they respond to your news?

SPOHR (through translator): There were personal meetings and also Mr. Winkelmann and I met them directly. After today, we have findings -- we actually wanted to make sure that we wanted to inform relatives ourselves. So it was about the findings today.

My experience is that human beings respond in different ways. Of course, everybody is in grief, in mourning. The news were horrible. We have informed the relatives of the passengers and we had special flights to Barcelona and another destination, and we have then informed them.

QUESTION (through translator): As a relative, as a mother or father, it can be difficult to find out about such an accident. What reactions were there?

SPOHR (through translator): It's a sheer horror, what happened two days ago, and I think this can't be worse. I do not wish to speculate.

COOPER: You're listening to the CEO there of Lufthansa, a series of stunning developments this morning.

I want to bring in our panel, CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest, CNN safety analyst David Soucie, Mary Schiavo, CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes, and retired airline pilot, and airline safety expert, John Ransom. Richard, we've heard a number of things from the CEO. Essentially the

key thing is they do not at this point know of any motive for the copilot to have brought down this plane. No doubt, though, in their minds that that is what has occurred. They were informed by the French prosecutor just as the world was informed earlier today.

The copilot started training in 2008, said that he was 100 percent fit to fly. They had no indication that there was anything wrong with this copilot, and at this point, they say they have firm confidence in all of their pilots. But again, a lot of questions remain about the training of this copilot, about what was going on in his mind and if we will ever be able to know -- fully know.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: The selection of the pilot, he went through how he was selected, where he did his training. The training was interrupted, the CEO said explain why.

COOPER: Although he said that's quite normal that --

(CROSSTALK)

QUEST: At the expense of -- it frequently happens. He said there was nothing wrong in the captain leaving the cockpit at that point in the flight, but what I found particularly important, Lufthansa -- the Lufthansa Group does not have a two-person cockpit rule. So when one leaves, which of course is the norm in the United States, when one leaves, a flight attendant doesn't go in. She was specifically asked, are you going to revise that, he said we will have to look at that in the wider European context with other airlines.

[10:10:08] COOPER: And David Soucie, apparently there's no regulation in Europe mandating a regulatory -- mandating that somebody else, a cabin crew member has to go in, so there's not just an individual in the cockpit --

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: The regulation actually addresses the access to the cockpit. You have to have access to the cockpit procedure. And there's some parameters that go along with that. What concerns me a great deal about this is if you remember MH-370, when there was suspicion that they had access to the cockpit through that E&E compartment in the floor.

Immediately the airlines changed their procedures. They changed their procedures for access to the cockpit. All of those happened immediately. Now I'm going to grant some -- it's only been 48 hours or 57 hours at this point. So we'll give them that. But I'll tell you, this is going to change. They're going to change the way they do this. It's not the standard in the United States, nor in many other countries.

COOPER: It was interesting that Lufthansa this morning saying that they see no need at this point to change that.

SOUCIE: Right.

COOPER: That it's fine to have a co-pilot alone in the cockpit. But clearly, and Mary Schiavo, I'd like to hear your opinion on this. It does seem that inevitably will change in Europe.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: I think inevitable -- it's inevitable that it will change. And remember, it's not just for suicide, murder, you know, terrorism that you have a second person in the cockpit. There have been situations in the past where there's been a medical emergency, where there's been a problem with oxygen or other things. And so that second person there can serve a variety of functions, just not preventing a captain or copilot from bringing down a plane.

And it's just good policy. And it's stunning that an airline like Lufthansa which is world renowned for its pilots among other things doesn't have this policy. Really kind of inexcusable in the modern world of aviation.

COOPER: Mary, I'm wondering if -- as you heard this press conference-- anything else stands out to you.

SCHIAVO: Well, you know, the one thing that stands out, I guess, is the point in the flight where this was. Yes, it was just after they had entered the cruise. But we still didn't hear anything about -- was it just coincidence? Did the copilot take advantage of the opportunity? This is the one moment when this pilot left to go to the facilities. Yes, he was allowed. This was a short flight.

And, you know, granted, it was a clear day. The similarities to September 11th, 2001 strike me in that on that day it was crucial that the weather was clear. So obviously the pilot could see the mountains, could see the alps. Of course people on the ground could see the plane, too, and sadly we learned about the passengers could see the approaching mountains as well.

But the timing on this and the opportunity is a little bit ironic to say the least. And then we don't know how long this person might have been planning this. But the timing is indeed strange.

COOPER: John Ransom --

SCHIAVO: Unfortunately.

COOPER: John Ransom, retired pilot, safety expert, I'm wondering from you, you're listening to this press conference. What jumped out to you?

JOHN RANSOM, RETIRED AIRLINES PILOT: Good morning, Anderson. One of the things I was considering was that when crew members fly together for any period of time, even only a day or two, you start to pick up on their habits and their preferences. So it's easy to remember that maybe the person I'm flying with likes to go to lav immediately after leveling off, especially if they've consumed a lot of coffee.

There apparently was an air traffic control delay which delayed the engine start procedure. So it's easy to come up with a plan based on what you've seen the other crew member do if, in fact, your plan was to do something like this. COOPER: That's really interesting. We don't know how much these two

had flown together. But you're saying, essentially, if they were familiar with each other, and it seems like in the conversation that they had prior to the pilot leaving, it was a normal conversation, laconic responses, I believe, was one of the terms the prosecutor had used, that it's possible, the copilot, if there were certain patterns that the pilot had in terms of the -- it would have helped the copilot kind of plan this out.

RANSOM: Sure. Based on what he may have seen in the past. Additionally, I have to echo what the Lufthansa personnel said. I've worked with the Lufthansa both engineers and pilots on another fleet. And they are very, very professional, very detail oriented and a very impressive group.

COOPER: John, do you have any doubt, though, that the policy of not having a second person in the cockpit at all times is going to change?

RANSOM: Well, it's pretty wide spread outside the U.S. to actually not have the second person in the cockpit. And I agree that within a matter of days, I would not be surprised if Lufthansa and most other carriers change that immediately.

COOPER: We have to take a short break. We are going to continue obviously the coverage of this when we return. We'll be right back.

[10:14:58]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: And welcome back. If you are just joining us, we've seen a mesmerizing, blunt news conference from officials of Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings. The CEO says that he is speechless that the flight voice recorder appears to show the copilot intentionally slamming the airliner into the French Alps. And the company says it does not have any clues why the 28-year-old copilot would kill all those on board.

The CEO also said that while pilots receive medical testing, there is no psychological screening, no interview with friends and the like.

Joining me now is CNN international correspondent Nic Robertson, he is in Vernay, France.

Nic, explain what is happening there this morning.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, this is where there's going to be a memorial service, or sort of remembrance service, a moment for reflection for the families who have been brought to France, to the alps, by Lufthansa.

We are at the closest location. This is the closest location to the crash site that the families will be brought to. There is a memorial park in the field behind me. There are emergency services there, there are medical professionals on hand to help with psychological issues with the families. [10:20:00] But this will be a place -- this is the place that the

French authorities are preparing to help bring the families closer to the crash site. This is being done in conjunction with Lufthansa. What they will see here, they will see bouquets of flowers. There are flags that are being put out here, flags representing the different nations of all the victim aboard this flight.

What we also know today is from the prosecutor that these families of the victims on board this plane are now aware of all the details that we now know about the intentional nature of the crash and about the screams in the last moments. So these families are going to arrive here to the closest place to the crash site, but there's going to be perhaps an immense amount more sorrow in their hearts than perhaps was anticipated when this was all planned yesterday -- Anderson.

COOPER: Perhaps anger as well. It's impossible to know how this changes the grief for the family members, if it does change the grief. Do we know how family members were notified? Because this story really broke -- "The New York Times" broke this story last night. Last night Lufthansa, their comments said essentially we have no information about "The New York Times" reporting.

But do we know at what point family members were actually informed or did they learn as the public learned?

ROBERTSON: We don't know precisely. What we do know is that late this morning, France time, perhaps three hours ago or so now, perhaps a little less, the prosecutor spoke in Marseille, in France, and briefed the world on what had happened.

Now these families arrived by plane organized by Lufthansa into Marseille a few hours before that. We don't know how they have this information, but of course the families arrived into the same place that the prosecutor was speaking, the same city. Perhaps that provides a little information there.

We also know that not only is Lufthansa arranging the flights for the families to come from Barcelona and from Dusseldorf, but there are some families who traveled here by themselves, private transport. Three of those families are already here at the memorial site here. There are firefighters here, there are rescue and recovery personnel on site here. But what's significant, we've seen quite a lot of medical personnel arriving as well -- Anderson.

COOPER: And Nic, how far is that -- are you from the crash site, and how difficult is it for authorities to get from that staging ground to the crash site?

ROBERTSON: As far as we understand, there are a couple of miles from the crash site. The helicopters take off from a staging area perhaps about five miles away from us. They fly up one of the main mountain valleys and then they turn high into the mountains behind us here. So the helicopters that we've seen that are flying into the crash site itself are literally into the mountains right behind me.

They go up over the trees and then higher into the mountains. And local people here we've talked to are familiar with the terrain. One of them who heard the crash itself believe that it's just -- the crash site is just in the ridge lines in one of the valleys up behind us here. But access up there from this location would be treacherous, treacherous and torturous by foot is what we understand. And helicopter is the only way in.

All events today, we understand, regarding the families coming here, the time frame is slipping. So officials are a little concerned at this time that the families will be getting here very much as it gets close to dark. Obviously for them to be able to see this in daylight is going to be very important -- Anderson.

COOPER: And I'm assuming families will not be flown over by helicopter, over the crash site if they request.

ROBERTSON: It's not clear at the moment precisely what will be made available beyond this, beyond the -- beyond this service, beyond the accommodation, beyond the help, emotional financial help and support that Lufthansa and the French authorities are providing.

The helicopter transport at the moment does seem to be at a premium because the investigation and the search for the data recorder, but also to try to get in to recover the bodies. Because it's so time consuming and difficult, because the ravine, the valley that the crash took place in is so steep, we continue to see and be told that the recovery workers have to go in and then be winched down by road from the helicopter on to the ground.

So it does seem that the helicopters at least are very much in a premium and that phase of the process. But will the families get the possibility of an overflight? We haven't heard it ruled out. We don't know if it's going to happen, though, Anderson.

COOPER: So the recovery workers -- the helicopters are not even able to land near the crash site to deliver recovery workers. You're saying they actually have to be winched down by cable from a hovering helicopter.

[10:25:09] ROBERTSON: That's right. And what people here tell us, this mountain area is quite famous for the skiing -- for skiing and for hiking. So that the air -- you know, the air recovery workers are very familiar with this sort of operation here. They're very familiar with winching people in, winching them out again. They're very familiar with responding quickly, very familiar with working in the quickly changing mountain weather conditions, the wind, the rain, the snow.

But what they're not familiar with, obviously, is trying to cope with such a -- such a large site and so many people on that site. Normally it's just the recovery of one or two people that have gotten into distress and trouble in the mountain, Anderson.

COOPER: And Nic, it's a difficult question to ask, but have they said anything about the recovery of the passengers? Do we know -- obviously that process has begun. But do we know where that stands? ROBERTSON: What we know from the prosecutor, as -- and from his most

recent press conference is that the release of bodies won't be for a couple of weeks. And we don't have a precise time frame, but a couple of weeks. And the reason that was given for that is because they need to do DNA analysis.

Again, the details of what happened on the mountain are very horrific. The dispersion and destruction to the aircraft is likely to be mirrored by the victims of the crash themselves. And part of that recovery effort is really to locate where the victims are. And that also slows it down, too. So actually the bodies being able to be released to the relatives is absolutely out of the question. Not going to happen today and a matter of weeks away -- Anderson.

COOPER: Just an incredibly difficult task for rescue, for recovery workers.

Nic Robertson, appreciate the update. We'll continue to check in with you.

We're just learning that the French government has now formally requested the FBI assist in the investigation into the Germanwings air crash and the copilot.

I want to go back to CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes formerly with the FBI.

Tom, so how does that work now?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Anderson, the way that it works is that they would have already been assisting in this case from day one. This happens in every international air crash, that the host country immediately asks the FBI to start looking at the passenger manifests, the crew, anybody that came close to that airplane when it was on the ground, if they think there are sabotage involved.

So the fact that finally have gotten around to a formal request, to make it, you know, politically correct or whatever, really doesn't matter. And this also, I'd like to correct the notion that this suddenly has become a criminal investigation. Every air crash where it's not obvious what happened, like the plane sliding off the runway at LaGuardia a couple of weeks ago in the ice, but every other crash immediately is a criminal investigation simultaneously conducted with the mechanical or engineering investigation, as to whether the plane had mechanical issues.

They don't wait and sit around for somebody to tell them that they think this is a crime because often they don't know that for weeks or months. Or in the case of MH-370, they don't know it for sure even now. So normally, a normal procedure is to immediately start zeroing in on the human factor and whether it's a crime, whether it's terrorism, any of those issues, and the focal point immediately is always going to be the pilot and copilot.

That's going to be the very first priority because they're the ones that have their hands on the control stick and can do bad things as we see in this particular case.

COOPER: And now that there's the voice data evidence that authorities already have and they're still looking for the flight data recorder, in terms of the investigation of the copilot, how does that -- how does that work? And also how many personnel does the FBI actually use in a situation like this? I assume they're using just FBI personnel who are based overseas, or are they also using assets in the United States?

FUENTES: No, assets all over including the United States. The analysts in the U.S. conducting searches in the databases along with personnel. The FBI has a large office in Paris, Berlin, Madrid. So they would have been involved and most of the countries I think where passengers came from, so they would immediately be involved in this.

France, and Germany and Spain would immediately be using Interpol channels as well to send communications to other police agencies around the world. That would be something that was already going on. But in terms of the pilot or the copilot in this particular case, they're going to be -- and would have already been scouring personal social media, if he has Facebook or Twitter, e-mails, phone calls, friends, neighbors, relatives for some sign of whether the individual had mental problems, whether the individual had financial or marital troubles or girlfriend problems. Something along those lines, or joined a group.

[10:30:08] And that extremist group can be, you know, among many different groups that operate all over the world and particularly in Europe.

(END)