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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Reports: Germanwings Pilot Locked Out Of Cockpit; Saudi Arabia Launches Airstrikes In Yemen; Bowe Bergdahl Charged With Desertion; Stocks Tumble On Growth Worries; What's Holding The Middle Class Back? Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired March 26, 2015 - 05:30   ET

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


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[05:31:41]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning, a blockbuster report claiming one of the pilots on Germanwings 9525 was locked out of the cockpit. Heard on the cockpit voice recorder desperately trying to get back in, what was his co- pilot doing? This as we learn new information about who was on board that flight.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. It's 31 minutes past the hour. John Berman is in Washington, D.C. all week. Breaking overnight, this revelation that puts investigators one big step closer to figuring out what caused that jetliner to crash into the French Alps.

Media reports say that one of the pilots on board 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 first tapping and knocking and then trying to smash down the door. He never got in. No word from the pilot inside the cockpit.

Turning now to CNN's Erin McLaughlin, she is live at the staging area for recovery efforts in the French Alps. Erin, we should caution there is still so much more information to retrieve including the technical data from the data recorder and what was happening technically and operationally on this flight.

But certainly the voice recorder and what the "New York Times" and others are now reporting this morning sending just a chilling new development into this investigation.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right --

ROMANS: We have lost Erin. She is about six miles from the recovery efforts on that flight. We will go back to her as soon as we can. I want to bring in Les Abend. He is going to help us shed some light on what just might have been happening inside that cockpit.

He is CNN's aviation analyst. He is also a 777 captain. Good morning, Les. Looking at the flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, after reaching cruising altitude, the "New York Times" reports, one of the pilots walks out of the cockpit into the cabin of the aircraft, right?

Then he calls to try to get back in, first taps then knocks and then spends the rest of the flight, some 8 or 10 minutes, desperately trying to break down the door to get back into the cockpit.

That plane crashed according to the voice cockpit recorder. The cockpit voice recorder according to the "New York Times," military officials telling the "New York Times," that plane crashed with only one pilot at the controls. What do you make of that?

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST (via telephone): Yes, Christine, as we spoke over the last half hour that this is very perplexing to me. Number one from the standpoint, where did this information come from, my understanding was that the head of the BEA, the equivalent of the NSTB here in the states.

There was a lot involved with transcribing the cockpit voice recorder. So where do this come from. Did it come from air traffic control perhaps somebody was (inaudible) that is perplexing in of itself.

What is perplexing to me is if indeed this occurred, you know, what pilot got locked out? At what point did this happen? Why did this happen? Was it a result of a simple mechanical failure because of the door? I would love to believe that. Is it serious and a suicidal pilot that was sitting in that cockpit, which really doesn't do a lot for the industry?

[05:35:12] This is -- a pilot coming out of the cockpit is routine of somebody who wants to go to the lavatory or get a cup of coffee. This is something that happens thousands of times all across the globe.

ROMANS: Talk to me about what this pilot, if these reports are true, a military official telling "The New York Times" that on the voice recorder, you can hear the pilot tapping and knocking and desperately trying to break back into the cockpit. There is a key pad on the outside of the door.

He would have keyed in a code on the inside of the door, there is a latch that the other pilot could have prevented him from using the key pad. Explain to me how that works without going into security details please.

ABEND: Exactly. I'm familiar with Boeing products. I'm sure it is similar with the airbus. There is a mechanical latch inside the cockpit. If anybody was trying to get in on a nefarious basis, you could simply mechanically lock that door and deny that person entry.

There is an electronic way as well of denying into the cockpit. Outside of the door, more than likely, the airbus has a key pad or some code or key to get into. It is probably electronic knowing how airbus is built. So this is highly unlikely.

The way it generally works with most airlines, that pilot goes out, goes to the lavatory, gets the cup of coffee and gets on the intercom and identifies himself to the cockpit. There is more involved that I cannot get into.

Then says he is that individual and that person on the other side of the cockpit door looks out to make sure that that is who it is. Opens up the door and allows the person entry. Something deliberately had to happen to deny access to the pilot if this is true and remained outside the cockpit door.

ROMANS: Les, if there is a health emergency in the cockpit, one pilot goes out and gets the coffee and gets back and he is on the intercom and the other person can to the hear because he is ill and incapacitated. Would that prevent the pilot from flying into the mountain?

ABEND: If the other pilot was incapacitated, whatever altitude the auto pilot was on, it would maintain the altitude heading on navigation mode. As far as going into terrain, the only thing that's going to occur is the system that will activate called the ground proximity warning system. It will do a lot of screaming at you.

It will tell you could pull up. It is all calculate based on closure rates and altitude. The airplane itself will not. It is not a military airplane designed for ground type situations. It will not pull itself up above the terrain.

ROMANS: All right, Les Abend, thank you so much for joining us. So that is still a mystery, but new developments trying to piece it together and just figure out what happened here.

It's 38 minutes after the hour. Escalation in Yemen as Saudi Arabia sends in troops to battle anti-government rebels, the latest on the battle next.

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[05:42:03]

ROMANS: All right, breaking news this morning, new details of the experience of those pilots operating Germanwings Flight 9525. Here is what we know this morning, the captain logging more than 6,000 hours of flight time with that airline since May of last year.

And the co- pilot who had been with the company since September of 2013, he had 630 hours of flight time since then. Getting new details from Lufthansa about the experience of those pilots.

It's 42 minutes past the hour, breaking overnight, Yemen erupting, Saudi Arabia backed by a ten-nation coalition launching air strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The U.S. is on the sidelines providing logistical and intelligence support. The fight to stabilize Yemen, a key U.S. ally, is threatening to escalate into an all-out war with regional implications.

Senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, is monitoring the offensive. He is live from Kabul, Afghanistan this morning. He can explain better than anybody all of the different players here and why this is so important -- Nick. NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it matters to the United States because primarily Yemen has been in callous for so many years, but it is home of the al Qaeda and Arabian Peninsula, who sworn to attack the U.S and it seems also potentially ISIS militants as well.

But it has been in collapse for years. The Houthis are the ones in the ascendant it seems in the past weeks or so. They are a group of tribal, political alliances backed by Iran, many say and they've swept the current internationally recognized government out of power. He fled to the south from the capital to aid in the port city where it's widely reported he may have fled.

His whereabouts are unknown at this stage. Suggestions he may have left in a boat. That is really unclear. The big game changer has clearly been overnight Saudi Arabia's Air Force has hit a number of targets across Yemen. They say they've wiped out the Houthi air defense system that is the parts of the Yemeni Air Force, which the Houthis have overrun and taken control of.

They claimed also of talking to (inaudible), a Saudi adviser to have hit the Houthi Command and Control Center and they also say that taking in part in these airstrikes are 30 fighter planes from the Emirates, 15 from Bahrain, 15 from Kuwait and 10 from Qatar.

So suggesting that they are not confirmed by their separate nation states, but they are leading a substantial coalition here. That is important because these are predominately Sunni nations. In fact, and the leadership all Sunni, that replicates the rift across the Middle East now where Sunnis are fighting Shia.

The Houthis predominantly Shia, they are now on the receiving end of these air strikes claiming civilian casualties, and reports of explosions across the capital of Sana'a, a lot of anger on the ground there. And the real sense that we are lurching very quickly towards a new chapter in sectarian conflict potentially replicated in Yemen.

The U.S. is off the bench here quite clearly offering logistical and intelligent support to their long term ally, the Saudi Arabian government here. That is significantly changes their dynamics potentially in the region as well. We are in the early days here, but it's a deeply troubling departure at this stage in Yemen.

ROMANS: Deeply troubling, Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much for that, Nick.

[05:45:11] All right, stocks tumbling. I want to bring in CNN Money correspondent, Alison Kosik. Alison, it looked ugly yesterday. Futures are really down hard today.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: They really are. Expect red arrows. Dow could open as much 1 percent lower. That's after a rough day yesterday. The Dow tumbling 292 points erasing all the gains it's made for the year.

You look at the S&P 500, it fell about 1.5 percent. We saw technology stocks get hit especially hard. That wound up sending the Nasdaq down more than 2 percent. Far away from that 5,000 level we had been watching for a couple days.

ROMANS: They are worried about slower growth in the U.S.

KOSIK: Yes, that is the big worry. You know, for weeks, the market rallied through any economic feed bump that may keep the Federal Reserve from raising rates, but the thing is Wall Street is no longer cheering that bad news. Now that the fed has indicated it could raise rates.

The latest trigger came yesterday when the government said orders for big ticket items like refrigerators and computers unexpectedly fell last month actually for the fifth month in a row. This comes on the heels of other disappointing indicators.

With that, it's fueling a lot of concern about the slowing momentum in the economy. So we are seeing firms their lower growth forecast for the first three months of this year.

ROMANS: Yes, still growth, but lowering their growth forecast. OK, Alison Kosik, thank you for that.

Let's take a look at what is coming up on NEW DAY. Chris Cuomo joins us now. Hi, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Hi, Christine. How are you? Breaking news obviously, but the headline is only the beginning of the story. You have been doing very well this morning echoing the reporting that one pilot was apparently locked out of the cockpit on Flight 9525 that went down Tuesday.

So what this mean? Well, the first thing it means is that for investigators, the idea that this could only have been an accident is now being extremely questioned. What do we know about the protocols there? Are they like the U.S.?

Is there supposed to be someone else in the cockpit? What does the voice recorder revealed? There are lots of questions about how things could have been done that all wind up leading you into one place. Who were these men? What do we know? What do investigators know? So we are going to take you through all of that.

Another big story is the Saudis. They are now becoming more and more engaged in Yemen. People had doubted. They still doubt the resolve of the Saudis at least on the ground. We will take you through how big a deal this Yemen conflict is.

And I will tell you it cannot be exaggerated in its significance to American safety. So we will take you through those big headlines, Christine, but there is a lot of news this morning.

ROMANS: There really is. Nick Paton Walsh was just telling us how important it is for the region and for U.S. interest in the region. I mean, that Yemen situation is really troubling. Chris Cuomo, we'll watch your show, thank you. Rescued from the Taliban after five years of captivity, but now Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl charged with desertion. The punishment he could now face next.

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[05:51:26]

ROMANS: After investigating the circumstances surrounding his captivity at the hand 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.

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 going to be another typical day for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. In other words, he has not been taken into custody. He is not being held.

You'll 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 the reintegration program.

It's a program that they specialize 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 here at Fort Sam Houston. In fact, he is working in the building directly behind us here.

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 and the same privileges with one exception. 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 comes next, that will be an Article 32 hearing that will also take place here in San Antonio. 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.

ROMANS: Martin Savidge, thank you for that, Martin.

Here is a stunning statistic for you. More than half of middle class kids who go to college don't graduate. What's holding them back and how do they pay off those student loans? That's next.

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[05:56:41]

ROMANS: I want to bring in CNN Money correspondent, Alison Kosik, for an early look at your money this morning, futures down hard right now.

KOSIK: Yes, it's going to be another rough one. Put on your seatbelt for this one, yesterday was a big tumble as well. The Dow is dropping 292 points so that round will be erasing all the gains that we saw for the Dow for 2015.

The S&P 500 yesterday falling about 1.5 percent. Now did see tech stocks hit hard. That sent the Nasdaq down even more, actually more than 2 percent farther and farther away from that milestone we were watching.

ROMANS: Growth is the problem here. Suddenly people are concerned the first quarter is not as strong as they thought.

KOSIK: Right because what investors are looking at is overall growth in the economy. The labor market that's been showing strength, but the thing is other reports have concerned investors about, you know, how the rest of the economy is doing.

So the latest salvo coming yesterday when we got that durable goods orders report. That is about orders of big ticket items like refrigerators and computers and furniture, that report falling for the fifth month in a row.

It's not a good sign. Wall Street though in light of all this is scaling back its predictions on how they see the U.S. economic growth looking in the first three months of this year -- Christine.

ROMANS: Tell me about some of this new information that's getting harder to buy a home.

KOSIK: Yes, it turns out potential home buyers are seeing sticker shock. A new report out this morning from Realty Track shows that home prices are rising 13 times faster than wages nationwide. In the last two years, home prices have climbed 17 percent while wages rose 1.3 percent.

So what that is doing is pricing out some first-time home buyers, but it's not all bad news. We do see mortgage rates still very low. Lending standards are loosening, which could wind up helping first- time buyers jump in and make that purchase.

So let's talk about this alarming new statistic on CNN Money this morning that about half of middle class kids who go to college don't finish.

KOSIK: Yes, this is very disconcerting, as you said, more than half of middle class kids who begin college don't finish school for families earnings between $46,000 and $99,000. It turns out only 40 percent of kids who began college had a bachelor's degree eight years later.

So why aren't they graduating? A lot who dropped out are blaming financial issues or said they just were not prepared academically for what college had in store for them.

ROMANS: If you borrowed money to do that, you still have the student loan bills. That is one big driver of the student loan crisis, not finishing. Thanks, Alison Kosik. It's 58 minutes past the hour, locked out of the cockpit. New clues on why Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed. NEW DAY starts now.