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Malaysian Prime Minister Confirms Debris Found on Reunion Island Belongs to Flight 370. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired August 05, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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


[14:00:00] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: That is it for me. We will continue to follow this story. If you are viewing internationally, "AMANPOUR" is next. For our North American viewers, "NEWSROOM" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news here on CNN. Thank you for joining me. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

I just want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and all around the world for our breaking news coverage on the disappearance of Malaysian Air Flight 370. This is huge. Just in the last few moments, we have just confirmed, this is from the Malaysian prime minister, that that debris, that wreckage that was washed ashore in the Indian Ocean on Reunion Island does indeed belong to that missing plane, a plane that has been missing for 515 days. Investigators in France have just called a news conference which, by the way, is set to begin any minute now and we'll take you there live momentarily that we expect will officially confirm that the debris is, in fact, part of the plane's wing and the very first discovery in this mysterious disappearance.

Just to go back for a moment, this plane part in question washed up on this island. This is off the coast - you have Africa, off the coast of Africa, Madagascar and then a tiny island off of Madagascar is Reunion Island. It was quickly confirmed as a flaperon belonging to a Boeing 777, that very same model aircraft that was Flight 370. That plane that vanished without a trace nearly 17 months ago now with 239 people on board.

CNN's Saima Mohsin is standing by for us outside of this news conference in France. We will take you there for that prosecutor who will be updating really the world. Also I have CNN's Will Ripley in Beijing on the angle, of course, of all of these families who must be just absolutely devastated. Erin McLaughlin is on Reunion Island, where that debris was first found. Mary Schiavo is also with me, CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation. I also have accident investigator Shawn Pruchnicki. He's with me. And on set with me here in New York, I have Richard Quest, our CNN aviation correspondent who's really been covering this from day one.

But first, in case you missed it, let me just go back to the Malaysian prime minister confirming this news moments ago. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIJIB RAZAK, MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER: On 29th of July, we were informed by the French authorities that part of an aircraft wing had been found on Reunion, the French island in the Indian Ocean. Today, 515 days since the plane disappeared, it is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you that an international team of experts have conclusively confirm that the aircraft debris found on Reunion Island is indeed from MH-370. We now have physical evidence that as I announced on 24th March last year Flight MH-370 tragically ended in a southern Indian Ocean.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Saima, let me just go to you first there in Toulouse. We know we're watching and waiting for this news conference to take place in Paris, given by the Paris deputy prosecutor. Tell me what we should anticipate there.

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, I'd imagine they will give a bit more detail about what happened at this DGA lab today when all the organizations involved in this investigation arrived just a few hours ago. Really they were only there for two and a half, three hours where - and clearly now we know that they were able to conclusively attach that flaperon, which we knew to be from a 777 aircraft, to MH-370.

Now, the organizations that came here today were from the United States, the NTSB, Boeing, that makes the aircraft, Malaysian authorities, the Civil Aviation Authority, Malaysia Airlines, a specialized team for MH-370 from Malaysia as well, and then Chinese officials, Australian officials and, of course, the Paris prosecutor and Malaysian judiciary representative, Brooke, because this is not just an air crash investigation here in France. This is a manslaughter investigation because the families of the four French nationals on board have brought a case for manslaughter should terrorism or hijack have been involved with the disappearance of MH-370. So, of course, the priority though today was to conclusively connect this flaperon to MH-370, which we now know, without a shadow of a doubt, it belongs to that plane that disappeared 17 months ago.

Brooke.

[14:05:01] BALDWIN: That's right. As we just heard from the Malaysian prime minister, with a heavy heart delivering the news to those family. We - by the way, I have - I can confirm family members of the passengers and crew have been informed and from the airline expressing their deepest sympathies to those affected.

We'll stand by and watch for that news conference out of Paris. For now, Saima, thank you so much.

As far as what's happening on this island, where this piece of debris, this piece of a plane called a flaperon washed ashore a week ago and was discovered thanks to a very astute cleanup worker there on the shores, I have Erin McLaughlin standing by live with more on that. And, again, this was just one piece of the now confirmed missing

Malaysian Air Flight 370. Tell me what's happening on Reunion Island right now. Very early in the morning, I know, your time. When will more searching occur?

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think, Brooke, we can certainly expect the search efforts to continue, perhaps even to intensify. In the past few days, people have been scouring the waters surrounding this island. They've been walking the beaches in hopes of finding any other clues that could help to solve the mystery of Flight MH-370.

People here say they want to help. They want to help give the families closure and they recognize that each piece of potential debris that they find would - would possibly aid in that effort. And they're not just searching here on Reunion Island, but they're also searching in nearby marishas (ph), as well as the Seychelles Islands, which is over 1200 miles from here because experts say that the currents could have carried the debris from the plane to any number of areas. So what you're seeing is authorities throughout this region searching by land, by sea, even by air, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Erin McLaughlin, stand by for me. Thank you so much.

But, Richard Quest, to you, and I have so many questions.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Right.

BALDWIN: And as we even heard the news again, just our hearts and thoughts, obviously, go out to all these families. But when we now hear definitively from this Malaysian P.M., before this news conference in Paris, the obvious question is, how did they figure it out?

QUEST: Well, that's - that's fascinating. That is the question -

BALDWIN: Yes.

QUEST: Because the fear had been throughout that there would be no identifiable part number.

BALDWIN: Right.

QUEST: There may be part numbers inside that would tell it was from a 777, but no serial number. But if you look at what the prime minister actually says, he says, I - experts have conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris found on Reunion Island is indeed from MH-370. We now have physical evidence.

Now that conclusively means that somewhere in this piece, maybe when they cut it open, maybe on the inside of the honeycombing, somewhere in there, there is a number, there is a unique identifying mark that they can say - they're not saying we've deduced it. They're not saying, we've not come to a conclusion that it might be as a result of process of elimination. He's saying, we have conclusively confirmed and that's significant. BALDWIN: That's significant, a, and that was the real question, how

could they figure out it was indeed 370.

QUEST: There will be something in there.

BALDWIN: What about, though, beyond that? The other main question is, what happened, right? We learned last week - and you and I discussed this, this was from the U.S. intel assessment, saying the pilots deliberately steered the plane off course. We had discussion over what deliberate really meant and we still don't know. It's still fairly nebulous. But when will they be able to tell from this piece and hopefully other pieces of debris that will wash ashore?

QUEST: They won't. That is the heaviest heart of all, Brooke. That is the heaviest part. For the families, this gives just a scintilla of closure. They can now say, we know for a fact that the plane went down. There will be some in the families who will refuse to accept that until the whole fuselage with human remains is located. But for most people they will be able to say, this is the sort of evidence. But does it tell us what happened unless a bomb went off, which we don't believe happened? It really doesn't. And it certainly - it isn't - it's not a breadcrumb that we can follow back.

BALDWIN: Can you not look at this closer and determine, based upon burn marks, et cetera, that the plane came apart mid-air versus upon impact of the water? None of that?

QUEST: Yes, you can learn all of that. You can learn all of that.

BALDWIN: But what happened initially to lead to that is a mystery.

QUEST: Exactly. Oh, yes, you can learn to - did something - for example, did it run out of fuel and therefore it fluttered down to the ground? Did that fall off in air or -- yes, you can find all that out, but it doesn't take you that -- it doesn't take you back seven hours.

BALDWIN: To the genesis.

QUEST: 1:19 and 1:21 in the morning over the South China Sea at that point between Malaysian and Vietnam airspace when the event happened. And even if you follow the breadcrumbs by reverse drifting, it doesn't take you much further than a rough area in the ocean. And that's why he says here, he says again and again and again, and they all say they believe they're in the right place. This doesn't change the search location. They're pretty certain they know where it happened.

[14:10:07] BALDWIN: Mary Schiavo, let me bring you in. You've investigated many a - many an incident, though I feel like this seems a bit unprecedented in so many ways. As far as the what happened, how then will they ever be able to know? Will they have to find those black boxes?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, they're going to have to find the black boxes or additional parts of the aircraft. Remember, this is one piece and it had to float there. I think the important thing is that the theory that it is in the Indian Ocean over closer to Australia means that this part floated on that giant South Indian Ocean gyer, the big whirlpool, if you will, full of trash. And so as the people and, you know, thank heavens for them. But as they're scouring the shores of the various islands, you know, heavy - heavy metals, you know, pieces of, you know, like the things that they thought was part of a door but was really part of a domestic ladder, things like that are not going to float in the ocean gyer, and so they need to look for things that float, sealed cargo containers, pieces of the wing, tennis shoes are amazingly good floating objects, pieces of suitcases, galley items. Those kinds of things would further confirm that it is where they are searching, but there is no chance, absolutely no chance, that the black boxes can float. They do not and so - I agree completely with Richard, they can learn an awful lot.

And my guess is, by the way, how they got the serial numbers is they do use remote sensing cameras, you know, the little cameras on the fiber optics and they could have put that in any hole that was available to see if there were any numbers on the inside. That's probably my best guess as to how they got the numbers, the serial numbers. But I agree completely with Richard, it's going to be very hard to determine why even if they can tell how it went down.

BALDWIN: OK, just quickly, again, if you're just joining us, you're looking at these live pictures here of this podium in Paris where we're waiting to hear from the Paris deputy prosecutor specifically on this missing Malaysian Air Flight 370. We just heard from the Malaysian P.M. just a little while ago announcing essentially to the world with a heavy heart that they have conclusively determined that the piece of debris that washed ashore last week on Reunion Island is indeed a piece of that missing plane.

Shawn Pruchnicki, let me bring you in, as we wait for this news conference here. You investigated the crash of Comair Flight 5191. Richard Quest making great points, Mary Schiavo making great points as well here. I mean now that you've learned that this is a piece of this missing piece, this one single piece that has washed ashore, what are you thinking? Now what?

SHAWN PRUCHNICKI, AIR SAFETY EXPERT, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: Well, you know, if I were part of the investigative team, and I'm sure what they're looking at is, there is some evidence that - that can help us in step one of 3,000 steps. And that is the condition of the piece itself. So by looking at this, from an investigative perspective, I think it's very interesting that the front edge of this piece does not appear to be significantly damaged. In other words, that might tell us something about the impact angle.

But I have to caution the viewers that you need more pieces to help confirm that. But there's some interesting things that I see in the photos of this. In other words, the lack of damage to the leading edge of this piece, telling me that it did not impact -

BALDWIN: What does that tell you?

PRUCHNICKI: Well, it tells me that - that when it finally hit the water, if it was still attached to the wing, it did not impact the wing in front of it. In other words, if there's a high angle of impact, what we see is crumpling. We see pieces, because of inertia hitting other pieces, so they crunch together.

A piece like this doesn't have that damage, which tends to tell us that it's a low angle of impact. A way that you can - another small step that you can confirm this is - or - or support this notion is looking at the underside of it. You know, where is the damage on this piece? In other words, where's the impact damage? I would want to see the underside and I'm willing to beat on the trailing edge of the underside might help us - might help indicate that. That tells us possibly, and I caution the listener, possibly about the impact angle.

We find some more pieces that look similar, then we can really start feeling comfortable with that impact angle. But we have a long way to go.

BALDWIN: Yes.

PRUCHNICKI: This is like - you know, Brooke - you know, Brooke, this is like finding - you know, having a 1,000-piece puzzle, putting one piece on the table and saying, what's the picture? Much more to do.

BALDWIN: No, it's exactly like you said, this is step one of 3,000 steps.

Shawn, stay with me.

Richard Quest, back to you. You know, I keep going back to, this is one piece.

QUEST: Right.

BALDWIN: I mean you - I look at you and I also think of when Air France went into the ocean off of South America and I'm wondering, you know, initially, and that was totally different, but in that first week they found pieces of debris. Where's the debris field? Where are the other pieces?

QUEST: There wasn't one, maybe. There was never one perhaps. And it took 12 days before they got to that part of the ocean. For understandable and difficult reasons. But it took 12 days before they got to that part of the ocean. And - in the South Indian Ocean. And much of it will have sunk by that point.

The issue, of course - or the difficulties, where do you now search for further debris.

BALDWIN: Right.

[14:15:01] QUEST: There are plenty of people who say, put up planes and look in the ocean. But as the Malaysian head of the department of civil aviation said, I mean, look, if I may -

BALDWIN: Yes.

QUEST: If I may, you know, you're now talking about searching a vast area for potential debris. Not just a small area, a vast area. So putting up planes to look for single, rare spots of debris is not going to do much. But what you need to be doing and what they are doing is searching the beaches. And Reunion, the Seychelles, Maldives, Madagascar.

BALDWIN: Because, by the way, we don't even know, that piece of - that flaperon could have been sitting on that shore for weeks.

QUEST: Weeks.

BALDWIN: For weeks.

QUEST: It could have been drifting in and drifting out.

BALDWIN: Right.

QUEST: This idea that it was found last week but when was it -

BALDWIN: Just because it's new to us doesn't mean it was new to the shore.

QUEST: Exactly. Exactly.

BALDWIN: Yes.

QUEST: So if you're going to start putting up planes, just think of the distance between Reunion and Madagascar and how you would have to search that area. The only way, the experts tell me, the only way without a massive operation is to do it by the beaches, to actually go along and comb the beaches near the shoreline and hope that you'll find something. But that debris that you talked about it, most of it went down there.

BALDWIN: I have our entire team standing by. We are standing by and watching and waiting for this news conference to take place in Paris on this piece of this plane that has definitively, conclusively, to use the word from the Malaysian prime minister, indeed a piece of Malaysian Air Flight 370 that's been missing for 515 days.

A quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Here we go. We're back. We're going to go straight to Paris where, here he is, this is the Paris deputy prosecutor on the plane.

Where's the audio?

SERGE MACKOWIAK, PARIS DEPUTY PROSECUTOR (through translator): And at a second stage, I will look at the results of the expert assessment.

On the 11th of March, 2014, the public prosecutor's office opened a case as a result of the disappearance of Flight MH-370 on board of which 239 people were present, of which four French nationals. The fact that there were French nationals aboard implies the competencies (ph) of the French justice ministry. The board of transport - of aviation transport was apprised of this and then a judicial inquiry was open. And it was enlarged. Subsequently, under the suspicion that could have been hijacked, and the death of some of the passengers was suspected because of some terrorist attack. The only aim here is to get to the truth and to make sure that all the hypothesis are checked out.

The three tribunes (ph) in Paris have been nominated to lead this inquiry. The investigate magistrate for terrorism or counterterrorism and also to others, the examining magistrates on the 29th of July of this year (INAUDIBLE) that the flaperon, which was discovered, was brought from the Island of Reunion to the directorate general for ordinance at (INAUDIBLE) Toulouse for assessment.

On the Monday, the 3rd of August, the Malaysian authorities, aeronautic authorities and also representatives of the Chinese and Australian authorities for air transport were also present, as well as representatives from (INAUDIBLE).

[14:20:09] This afternoon at 1500 hours, the analysis was begun in Palmar (ph) under the control of the three examining magistrate who were apprised of the case. The - in Palmar (ph) there were also representatives of the public prosecutors from Paris and the analysis was conducted by an aeronautic specialist who was on the list of those specialists who were designated by the examining magistrate and it is under his guidance and leadership that the analysis was carried out. These experts were also accompanied by the office of aeronautics and also the design era of Boeing.

The whole operation was also coordinated by Malaysian authorities and the ECOW (ph) representatives. The director of civil aviation, as well as representatives of the airline involving also Singapore, China, Australia, and France set up a - an analysis into the debris. The team looked at the case containing the flaperon of the plane's wing and I think we can say that as of today there is a very strong supposition that the flaperon found on the beach of the island of Reunion on the 29th of July actually does belong to the Boeing 777 of Flight MH-370 which disappeared on the 8th of March 2014 for two reasons. The design, the Boeing design experts confirmed that this flaperon was for technical reasons quite obviously a Boeing 777 flaperon and, secondly, the representatives of the company of the Malaysian airlines company informed us of elements with regard to the specifications, the technical specifications of the MH-370 flight and we were able, as a result of this, to compare this information with the flaperon of MH- 370 in line with the common characteristics.

These very strong suppositions will be confirmed by analysis which will begin as of tomorrow under the (INAUDIBLE) of the DGA, the director general for ordinance, and I cannot here undertake to say when the results of that analysis will be ready. But the experts will work as quickly as possible in order to provide complete and reliable information as quickly as possible to the families of the victims whom we are thinking of this evening.

When it comes to the remnants of the case of the suitcase which was found nearby and which was contained in the same case as the flaperon, this was also looked at and examined by the criminal research institution of the national (INAUDIBLE), and, of course, we will be keeping you informed of the evaluation and the investigation.

I thank you.

BALDWIN: All right, so, we've just been listening to a pretty brief news conference. This was this Paris deputy prosecutor essentially talking about all the different professionals and experts and people representing the key countries involved here, all looking through - looking at this - this flaperon. And so the words that really jump out at me, Richard Quest, let's go to a two shot because Quest and I sort of looked up at each other at the same time and this perhaps was lost in translation and we have someone who was French, because we want to be precise in the language here, because it's - we heard one thing from the Malaysian prime minister saying conclusively MH-370. Here he said very strong supposition that the flaperon belonged to this plane. Your - your - what do you think?

[14:25:07] QUEST: I'm - and I think it's - at one level it's semantics because I don't think anybody who -- who has looked at this for a moment doesn't believe this is from MH-370, both on supposition grounds, by process of deduction and elimination, but the families want certainty.

BALDWIN: That's -

QUEST: And -

BALDWIN: Families are so forefront for me as I'm listening to them.

QUEST: And the families are not going to be content with a very strong supposition.

BALDWIN: Of course they're not. Of course they're not.

QUEST: You and I may be, and most of our viewers may be, because common sense tells us.

BALDWIN: No, but you would hang on to that little thread that there is this -

QUEST: Exactly.

BALDWIN: You know, scintilla, of a possibility, to use your word.

QUEST: And the prime minister of Malaysia, who I've met several times, for him to use the word conclusively, I'm just wondering if something, you know, translators do the best they can in difficult circumstances.

BALDWIN: Yes.

QUEST: Something - or maybe there isn't something and he's just being very strong, the P.M., in saying it's conclusive.

BALDWIN: Guys, do we have Mary Schiavo?

SCHIAVO: You do. BALDWIN: Yes, Mary Schiavo, let me just bring you in. Your

interpretation. Did that jump out at you whatsoever? I mean this could just be semantics to Richard Quest's point. How did that read for you?

SCHIAVO: Well, it read less - certainly less certain than the Malaysia official's statement and, you know, given that they - he - he indicated to me that they were just simply looking at it, if - I think if they would have found any kind of, you know, more expansive identification number, serial numbers, any kind of markings that were absolutely MH-370, they certainly shouldn't have said so.

So I guess that what it suggests to me is they're going to do the full analysis, they're going to do paint analysis and the, you know, the various sonographic, ultrasonic, you know, electron partial analysis. They're going to go through all of that before they give us much more information and really we didn't get too much more than Boeing already told us from looking at the pictures. So I was actually a little disappointed thinking what the families must think on hearing that and -

BALDWIN: Yes.

SCHIAVO: And that suggests to me they don't have a serial number.

BALDWIN: Let me come back to you on the families because we know that the families, obviously, have been notified. I'm just curious the way in which they would be notified.

But, Richard Quest, I'm going to pivot back to you because I saw our French producer hop back on the set. What did she just whisper to you?

QUEST: The phrase that he used can be - it was "strong indication."

BALDWIN: "Strong indication."

QUEST: Now - now that's slightly different because - from our original translation, because a supposition means you've come to your own conclusion based on other events. I suppose, a supposition.

BALDWIN: Right.

QUEST: Strong indication means there's evidence there and it's pointing in a general direction. I'm being semantic here.

BALDWIN: I just think words are really important in this story, especially if you are a family member of someone who was on this plane.

Let me - actually, Will Ripley, let's go to Beijing. Will Ripley, I want to come to you, where I know 150 of these family members are there where you are in China and we know that these family members were notified before the whole world was notified. Do you know how they were notified? Do you know how this was explained to them, that this piece of the flaperon as part of that MH-370?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's what we're trying to figure out right now and we are on Chinese social media. There are a number of different groups that family members have established where they're communicating and sharing information. And it does appear that at least some of these groups are actually silent right now which indicates they did not get a call and perhaps they have not been told this news as of yet.

Now, we are checking because there's more than 150 family members here. We know some of them are aware and have been bracing for this - for this moment. We also know that there is a meeting scheduled here on Friday we believe with Malaysian Airlines and the families. This was a pre-scheduled meeting. This was not called as a result of this announcement. But if this is the case that some family members didn't get the call, they may not know yet what we are now learning, which means that as they wake up, it's in the middle of the night here, but as they wake up tomorrow morning, they may learn again from watching media reports, which is the way that they learned about the flaperon discovery in the first place.

They've been getting limited information from officials and from the airline and a lot of information from the news and it's simply unacceptable and they actually went to the ministry of transport here in Beijing on Monday to complain about the lack of information and it got very heated. People are - people are devastated, and this is going to be a very difficult time for these families here, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes, I was handed - handed a piece of paper a little while ago. It was essentially a statement from Malaysian Airlines that at least did confirm that, you know, family members of crew members and of loved ones on board were notified, though the - precisely how they were notified and the language that - that is still unclear. Let us know what you learn. Will Ripley, thank you so much.

Did you want to jump in?

QUEST: Only on this point - so, when you (INAUDIBLE) on this point again of what he actually said, if I may.

[14:30:01] BALDWIN: Yes, please. Please.