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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Locked Out of the Cockpit?; Saudi Arabia Launches Airstrikes in Yemen; Bowe Bergdahl Charged with Desertion. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired March 26, 2015 - 04:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning, new clues into what may have caused Germanwings Flight 9525 to crash into the Alps.

[04:30:00] Reports claim one of the pilots was locked out of the cockpit, heard on the cockpit recorder desperately trying to get back in. What was his copilot doing? Why didn't he open the door?

This as we learn new information about just who was onboard. Team coverage breaking down the very latest starts right now.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. Thirty minutes past the hour. John Berman is in Washington, D.C. this week.

Here is our top story today. Breaking overnight, a blockbuster revelation that puts investigators one big step closer to figuring out just what cause the Germanwings jetliner to crash into the French Alps. Media reports say one of the pilots onboard Flight 9525 was locked out of the cockpit as the plane descended and flew straight into the mountain. And this chilling disclosure: a senior military official telling "The New York Times" the pilot can be heard on the cockpit voice recorder, first, tapping first and then knocking, and then trying to smash the door down.

Turning now to CNN's Erin McLaughlin live at the staging area for the recovery efforts in the French Alps.

And, Erin, what's so chilling here, no word, no sound, no indication what was going on inside the cockpit and why the other captain -- the pilot, did not open the door.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. These media reports, really, Christine, leading to more questions than we have answers at this hour. We don't know why one pilot got up and left the cockpit. And we also don't know why the other pilot did not let him back inside.

And so far, French authorities not commenting on those reports. Publicly the most they said about their analysis of the cockpit voice recorder is that they were listening and they could hear voices and sounds. So, we are still waiting for more information from authorities on that. We are expecting prosecutors to have a press conference later today. Perhaps, we'll hear more then. Meanwhile, you know, a key piece of the puzzle is still missing, the

flight data recorder. Now, we know that they have managed to recover the casing of the recorder, but the recorder itself is missing.

And now, no doubt something that the emergency workers are looking for at the crash site, a very slow, tedious recovery process underway this morning. We saw earlier several helicopters land and take off again for the site and staging area behind me. Also expected today, the family and friends of the victims, they are being flown in from Barcelona and Dusseldorf on special Lufthansa flights. The idea being is to get them as close to their loved ones as possible -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Erin McLaughlin, indeed, such an interesting development overnight. And so much more to learn to put the pieces together. Thanks, Erin.

Now, new details emerging this morning about the victims, the 150 victims of the Germanwings crash. Passengers from all over the world, including, we have learned, three Americans. Officials have not identified one of them. The others were a mother and daughter from the Washington, D.C. area, Yvonne and Emily Selke.

National correspondent Suzanne Malveaux has more this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine.

This is an international story, an international tragedy that is really hitting very close to home for this community in Nokesville, Virginia. Quietly and privately, this family is grieving in the home behind me because of their family members lost.

I want to read you the family statement. I spoke with a relative. They say, "Our entire family is deeply saddened by the losses of Yvonne and Emily Selke, two wonderful, caring, amazing people who meant so much to so many."

They are asking for privacy at this time. We are learning so much about them from the community.

We know that Yvonne Selke, she was an employed at Booz Allen Hamilton for 22 years or so, defense contractor. Her co-workers say that she was absolutely incredible.

Her daughter, Emily Selke, this was somebody who was smart and so popular, a 4.0 grade point average from Woodbridge High School. She went to Drexel University, graduated two years ago with high honors, a music major, somebody who was very popular, very much loved. Her own sorority, the Gamma Sigma Sigma Zeta chapter put out a statement on their Facebook saying, as a person and friend, Emily always put others before herself and cared deeply for all of those in her life.

She also worked for Carr Workplaces in the hospitality field. They, too, released a statement saying how tragic and how much of a loss this really is for this community and for the family.

This is something that these two were extremely close, mother and daughter. Actually ran a marathon last year together. So, these were the kinds of things they loved to do. They loved to go to music festivals and to hike, and were adventurous, a tight-knit family.

We should also let you know that Raymond Selke, he is the man who lost his wife and his daughter.

[04:35:00] He has spoken to CNN and he says he appreciates the support. He appreciates the love. He clearly not ready in any way, as you can imagine, to express that on camera or any kind of public way. They are hunkering down. He asked for us to respect his family's privacy. He wants people to know how special his family was -- Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: So sad. Thank you so much for that, Suzanne. And we do wish him the best.

We are also learning more this morning about other passengers presumed dead in that crash. The numbers are still in flux. Germanwings and officials in at least 18 countries keep updating them.

But we know they came from the Middle East, Asia, North and South America. All across Europe. We just saw two pictures of two German opera singers. By far, the largest numbers from Spain, the origin of Flight 9525 and Germany, its destination.

Joining us now from Haltern, Germany, home of 16 students and two teachers who are on that flight, CNN's Diana Magnay.

Diana, the principal of the school where those students went, those teachers went, said the school has been changed forever.

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He did. He said that he sent 16 happy students off last week and now this tragedy, 16 students, all of whom were around 16 years old. They were in tenth grade, 14 of them girls, went off to Spain on a language exchange. The Spanish students had been here in the town of Haltern last December, never to come back.

And you see the tributes that their friends and school mates have been laying on the ground. This memorial behind me has been growing the past few days. And there will be a moment of silence in a couple of hours time, 10:53 local time, which was the time that Flight 9525 crashed, held across schools in this region of North Rhine-Westphalia, to remember those who lost their lives, the 150 from 18 different countries as we know so far who lost their lives.

The mayor of Haltern, this town where I am, gave a distraught press conference. Let's have a listen to what he told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BODO KLIMPEL, MAYOR OF HALTERN, GERMANY: I'm here and I can talk with people and with the parents and the brothers and sisters. The only thing that I can do is to be here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MAGNAY: And, Christine, Lufthansa has organized flights for relatives of those killed from both Dusseldorf and Barcelona to go to a special crisis center in Marseille and to be taken as close to the crash site as they possibly can get to help in their grieving process while investigators try and piece together the clues too why Flight 9525 went down -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Thanks for that, Diana Magnay, in Germany.

Breaking overnight, Yemen erupting. Saudi Arabia, backed by a 10- nation Arab coalition, launching airstrikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The U.S. on the sidelines providing intelligence support, we're told. The fight to stabilize Yemen, a key U.S. ally, threatening to escalate into an all-out war.

Senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh monitoring this offensive, live from Kabul, Afghanistan, this morning.

A really tense, tough situation there -- Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And this really was a nation that is already in chaos and anarchy now headed potentially into a regional based conflict. Saudi jets have been cleared, according to the press agency. That they have taken out Houthi air defenses, that's the weaponry which the Houthi tribesmen have taken off, the Yemeni military. They said that includes war planes, surface-to-air missiles and air base as well.

So, the Saudis claim this being decisive.

The Egyptians are saying they're militarily in support, very positive noises from the Jordanian, and a large coalition, including Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait also voicing support for this. Now, that's all very vital, because these are predominantly Sunni nations. There is a rift where often Sunni groups are fighting Shia, groups the Houthi, backed by Iran, are predominately Shia.

Now, this is key, because that extends this fight inside Yemen where the president backed by the United States, kicked out of the capital Sana'a, fled to the southern port city of Aden. Now, we don't know where he is. He may have fled the country altogether. It's simply unclear.

That pits these two sides, the Saudis and Houthis against each other in the volatile home of Yemen. The U.S., they're off the fence in this quite clearly, stating they support the Saudi move. They are adding logistically intelligence support. That puts them on one key side of this.

And Iranians, everyone says they are the ones backing the Houthis, they just said they condemn the Saudi intervention and they don't want the Saudis not to push it too far.

[04:40:01] We're into a very new dangerous episode here, not just for Yemen, that's the home of al Qaeda, who said their real goal is to attack the United States, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, I should say. We're into a broader issue here that could significantly add to turmoil and volatility if not warfare frankly across the Middle East -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Nick Paton Walsh, a grim assessment. We thank you for bringing it to us. Thanks, Nick, in Kabul.

Turning to Iraq now, where U.S. war planes are now launching airstrikes on ISIS positions in Tikrit. Iraqi forces join Iranian- backed militias, have been fighting to retake the city for weeks. But ISIS fighters have been holding their own. The Pentagon seizing the opportunity to resume a leading role in the offensive.

In the Iraqi city of Mosul, U.S. planes dropping leaflets, urging citizens of Mosul to cooperate with an impending operation to force ISIS out.

Stocks tumbling. I want to bring in CNN Money correspondent Alison Kosik.

That was an ugly day yesterday. Twenty-four hours ago, we were saying it looks blah. And suddenly, a big fell off. What happened?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: And get ready for another ugly day today. At least right now, it looks like it will be that way. U.S. stock futures, they are sitting lower at the moment.

Yesterday wasn't a good day for stocks. The Dow dropping 292 points, erasing all of the gains for the year. The S&P fell about 1.5 percent. And it's actually tech stocks that were hit especially hard, and that wound up sending the NASDAQ down more than 2 percent, far away from the 5,000 level we have been watching for a couple of days.

ROMANS: So, suddenly, the market participants believe the weak economic news means weak economic news.

KOSIK: Yes, because what's been happening for weeks is that the markets rallied through any economic speed bump that may keep the Fed, the Federal Reserve, from raising interest rates, but Wall Street is no longer cheering that bad news that the Fed indicated it could raise rates. The latest trigger, the government said orders of big ticket items like refrigerators and cars unexpectedly fell last month. Now, this comes on the heels of other disappointing indications in the economy. So, that fuels a lot of concerns about where the momentum is going in the economy. Is it starting to slow down and to petering out?

ROMANS: Some of the big players on Wall Street actually lowering slightly their forecast for growth.

KOSIK: Exactly.

ROMANS: So, that means they are concerned.

KOSIK: Yes.

ROMANS: All right. Thanks, Alison Kosik. We'll watch the futures again this morning.

Forty-two minutes past the hour.

Rescued from the Taliban after five years of captivity, but now, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl charged with desertion. The punishment he could face, next.

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[04:45:59] ROMANS: After investigating the circumstances surrounding his captivity at the hands of the Taliban, the Army has charged Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl with desertion. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

CNN's Martin Savidge is following developments from San Antonio, Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine.

Despite the charges against him, it is expected, at least according to the U.S. military, that this is another typical day for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. In other words, he's not been taken into custody. He is not being held.

You will remember that he came to San Antonio last May, shortly after he was released from captivity for two purposes. One to get him medically fit again. And then the other one was to put him through what's called a reintegration program. It's a program that they specialized on down here, and it helps POWs, former POWs, sort of come back to normal life.

Once he completed that program, then he was given a desk job at Fort Sam Houston, in fact, working in the building directly behind us here. And that's pretty much been his life. The U.S. military will say that he is treated no differently than any other soldier. He has the same freedoms, the same privileges with maybe one exception, and that they say is whenever he leaves post, he is escorted by two soldiers, the military maintains that that is for his own protection.

As to what's come next, that will be the Article 32 hearing that will also take place here in San Antonio. And it will be then that it's determined whether or not the evidence is sufficient enough to move forward with an actual court martial. No date has yet been announced for that -- Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: Thanks, Martin. That prisoner exchange so remarkable. Martin also reports that Bowe Bergdahl has not spoken in person to his parents. He has not seen his parents in person. He has spoken to them through an intermediary.

Forty-seven minutes past the hour.

New questions this morning on why Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed into the mountains. We are comparing the plane's path to other crashes to figure out what might have been happening inside that locked cockpit, next.

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[04:51:39] ROMANS: This morning, investigators trying to piece together the final seconds of Germanwings Flight 9525. Overnight, we learned from media reports that cockpit voice recorder shows one of the pilots was locked out of the cockpit as that plane was descending and slammed into the mountainside. Investigators already of evidence besides the voice and data recorders, for example, radar tracking of course and altitude that can be compared with other crashes for hints of just what might have happened.

CNN's Tom Foreman has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Investigators are looking at the final minutes of the flight in the Germanwings plane, and comparing to it to other cases that they may know about and where they may know the cause.

For example, if you look at what happened with Alaska Air Flight 261 some years ago, they had a massive mechanical problem on this plane. So, let's bring in a timeline of the last 15 minutes of that flight and look at what happened. They lost the ability to pitch the plane, whether it went up or down.

If you look at the flight pattern of the end of that flight, you can see what happened. It was pitching around. They were trying to do something with it, but they reached a cataclysmic spot where they can longer do anything and the plane plummeted some 18,000 feet, in about 81 seconds and it crashed with all lives lost, very distinctive pattern.

Now, let's look at another one here. How about this flight by Swiss Air near Nova Scotia. They noticed some smoke in the cabin, then it broke into a full fire. They kept trying to deal with that as they continue trying to head the plane toward to what eventually be an attempt of an emergency landing. It did not work.

But if you look at the flight pattern if this plane, you could see basically that they are trying to wrestle with the plane that doesn't want to do what they want it to do. And eventually, they can't do anything about it, they crash also. All lives lost there.

And now, let's look at one more here. This was a Greek airline called Helios Flight 522. In this case, the crew did suffer from hypoxia. Basically, they lost pressure in the cabin. They had not enough oxygen. They passed out. The plane flew for a long time on auto pilot.

There was one attempt at the end by a flight attendant who was able to rise enough to try to fly the plane, did not succeeded. So, it essentially sort of coasted and went in on auto pilot to the ground. Look at that flight pattern, very different than the others, very smooth and regular.

Now, let's add the Germanwings flight pattern and you can see that it, too, has that same smooth pattern. Does that mean that this was a case of hypoxia? That the crew simply could not operate the plane? We don't really know that.

But investigators have to look at these patterns, along with the voice recorders and everything else, to come up with their hypothesis about what happened.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Tom Foreman.

Again, the big news this morning, reports that that cockpit was locked. One pilot desperately trying to get in as that plane crashed into the mountain.

Fifty-four minutes past the hour.

Here's a stunning statistic for you. More than half of middle class kids do not graduate from college. What's holding them back? That's next.

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[04:58:09] ROMANS: I want to bring in CNN Money correspondent Alison Kosik with an early start on your money this morning.

Alison, what's the futures, an ugly day yesterday.

KOSIK: Ugly day yesterday, seeing more red arrows, now in the free market, U.S. stock futures are down quite a bit this morning. That follows yesterday's tumble when the Dow dropped 290 points. So, that effectively erased all of the gains that we've seen so far for 2015. With the Dow and S&P 500, that fell about 1.5 percent.

We saw tech stocks hit hard. That sent the NASDAQ down even more, more than 2 percent. So, it's getting farther and farther away from that 5,000 level that we were watching closely for a couple of days.

ROMANS: The expectation for growth. How strongly the U.S. economy is growing? There are worries about that now.

KOSIK: Right. There are worries about momentum, about overall growth for the economy, because we see the labor market showing growth, but the thing is, other concerns have concerned investors, because they're concerned about how the rest of the economy is doing.

Now, the latest salvo came yesterday. Durable goods orders, that's order for big ticket items like refrigerators, cars and computers, also fell. Not a good sign. Wall Street is winding to scale back predictions on how they think growth in the first quarter is going to look like.

ROMANS: And then there's this alarming, I just tweeted it, terrifying statistics for any family sending a kid to college.

KOSIK: Yes, this is really stunning. More than half of the middle class kids who actually begin college don't finish. So, for families earning between $46,000 and $99,000, only 40 percent of kids who begin college had a bachelor's degrees eight years later.

ROMANS: Wow.

KOSIK: So, the big question, why aren't they graduating? Well, it turns out a lot who dropped out are blaming financial issues. They say they're not prepared academically for what a college brings. So, some wind up leaving with those associate degrees or certificates. You see the middle class really get lost in the shuffle here.

ROMANS: When you hear so much about the student loan problem. That is the number one problem. Not finishing -- a lot of the families in the income bracket, they're taking out loans to go to college. If you don't degree, you still have to pay even if you didn't get the degree.

KOSIK: That turns out to be a bad investment.

ROMANS: Bad investment.

All right. Thank you so much, Alison Kosik. Nice to see you.

EARLY START continues right now.