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Live Interview With Hillary Clinton This Hour; EgyptAir States They Found Wreckage And It Is Now Search And Recovery; Possible Terrorism Involved In Plane Crash; Did Terrorism Play Role in EgyptAir Accident?; Authorities Say Wreckage of Flight Found in Mediterranean. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired May 19, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in New York. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Coming up later this hour, the Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, will join our Chris Cuomo for a live interview. We're going to get her first response to the crash of an Egyptian airliner in the Mediterranean Sea. That's coming up later this hour. Stand by for that.

But let's get to the breaking news. The wreckage has been found, that's what Egypt Air's vice president is now telling CNN. The declaration comes more than 12 hours after Egypt Air Flight 804 disappeared.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AHMED ADEL, VICE PRESIDENT, EGYPTAIR: First of all, our heart goes out for all the family members and friends of all involved in this terrible incident. As I can tell you now, that we have found the wreckage. We confirmed that the wreckage has been found. And the search and rescue teams are now -- it's turning into search and recovery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: It's important to note that he said it's a search and recovery effort, no longer a rescue effort. That usually means there's no belief, right now, that there are any survivors.

The flight was headed from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board. The plane disappeared from radar shortly after entering Egyptian air space. Shortly before that, ground controllers were unable to communicate with the cockpit. Their calls went unanswered.

Right now, officials from the United States believe a bomb is the most likely cause of the crash. Egyptian government also believes it was a terror attack. If it is the work of terrorists this would be the third commercial flight intentionally downed in the past two years.

Moments ago, we heard this from the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, U.S. WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It's too early to definitively say what may have caused this disaster. The investigation is underway to see if opportunity for the United States to support those efforts, then we will do that. And the president asked his team to keep him appraised of the developments as they occur.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Here is what else we know right now. The same Egyptian official said terrorism was the most probable cause, also says there were no red flags raised over the passengers on the plane.

One passenger on the plane has been identified. Ahmed Halal (ph) was the director of a Procter & Gamble production site in France. A second victim from Portugal has also just been identified.

Greek officials made some wild and totally unexpected maneuvers. First turning 90 degrees to the left, then 360 degrees to the right, then dropped 27,000 feet from its 37,000-foot cruising altitude. At 10,000 feet, they lost all contact.

Let's bring in our Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour who's joining us right now. Christiane, you just finished speaking to the vice president of Egypt Air, where he told you that the wreckage has been found. Update our viewers, right now, Christiane. What else did he tell you?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, he told me exactly where it had been found, and it's about 150 nautical miles. I think that's about 170 odd actual miles off the coast of Egypt. And it's around the interface of the Greek Egyptian air traffic control area. So, that's where he said it had happened.

He would not go into any more details, exactly how much is being found, what distinguishing characteristics. But he did say -- or who found it? Was it Greek authorities or Egyptian authorities? He said that news is going to be coming out as soon as we can give it out.

But he said that they would immediately start bringing up whatever they, you know, could in order to determine the cause of this. That he was sure they would find all the voice recorders, all the key elements of a plane that you need in order to find out what caused this disaster.

He said that he knew nothing and would not talk about the notion of what the Greek defense ministry had said, in terms of a 90-degree turn in mid-air, then a 360 degree and then plummeting so many thousand feet before it crashed. He would not talk about that. He also said that he would release -- that the passenger manifest would be released publically just as soon as all next of kin had been informed and notified. He said that would happen, at least all the notifications he predicted would happen by the end of this night. And so, he assumed that the passenger manifest would be released post case.

In all -- regarding the security of the plane. When asked him in detail what are the EgyptAir rules, EgyptAir rules for security checks on all of the flight stops? He said that each and every flight stop, the plane is checked by the cockpit crew, by the cabin crew, by the ground staff, by additional security personnel, as well as their then maintenance crews as well. So, they have a security check and a maintenance check and he insisted that all of those would be done in Paris and, of course, in Cairo, he said, before the flight took off.

Regarding the rest of the leg (ph), Eritrea and Tunis. He said that was not applicable, at least that's what I understand from him, because that happened, you know, 24 hours or more before the Tunis, Paris and then to be Cairo leg had started.

Regarding passengers and the crew on board. I said to him, look, I have to ask you this because we have had instances where plane pilots have been found to have caused the catastrophic disaster of various planes, whether it was German Wings. We don't know what happened to the Malaysian Air flight. Some are blaming, you know, the pilots.

And, of course, in 1999, there was an EgyptAir that crashed off the coast of the United States. And he said, I understand what you're asking me but our crew, he said, was entirely professional. I am a former captain, he told me. This vice president, himself, was a former captain who had flown before with the captain of this plane. He said he had flown this captain before. He was his co-pilot in the past and that he was incredibly professional, incredibly experienced. And that he was not prepared to even entertain the idea that this pilot might have been involved in any foul play.

Regarding foul play. He said that he was not prepared to say that that was something that had happened. He said all cards are on the table. All possibilities are on the table. But wouldn't go there, when I said that the aviation minister in a press conference had suggested that the analysis, so far, suggest a greater likelihood of a terror attack than a technical attack. And on the -- than a technical fault.

And on the issue of technical fault, he said that this is a new plane for us. It's new and in terms of the lifetime of a plane which can fly some 20 odd years. This one was delivered, I believe, was made anyway, in 2003. And he said that it was in good flight health and safety -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Did he say anything, Christiane, about the three security personnel who were on board that plane? What we would call here, were they air marshals, in effect?

AMANPOUR: He didn't say. But when I asked him, broadly, about all the crew and would there be any possibility of any aspersions or any suspicions? He ruled that out totally.

We know, from flying planes in the Middle East, whether it's in Jordan, whether it's in Egypt, whether in other places, I've certainly flown on planes, all plane that I've flown on, have had security personnel on board. And, as I said, they are going to be releasing the manifest.

BLITZER: I'm sure they will. All right, thank you very much. Christiane Amanpour doing some exclusive reporting for us. Appreciate it.

Our Justice Reporter Evan Perez is in Washington. He also is getting new details on the U.S. intelligence assessments, as far as Flight 804 is concerned. Evan, is there anything specific leading officials to believe there might have been a bomb on board?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: There really isn't, at this point, Wolf. But we do know we have some new information, our Jim Sciutto was told by a security official, that they've checked the names of the people on this plane, the manifest, and they've come up empty, as far as checking on -- against a watch list, terror watch list, which all -- very -- many countries, including in Europe and here in the United States, have access to. So far, no one has turned up any suspicions to links to terrorists, based on the checks of those watch lists.

We're also told, by officials, that they've found -- they've gone back and they've checked. No threats, no known threats, at this time, towards this aircraft. We do know, however, that there is a heightened security concern, not only in Egypt with the rise of ISIS and the Sanai, but also in western Europe, where we've seen multiple terrorist attacks in recent months. And the very real concern of Jihadi extremists who are trying to figure out ways to strike at what aviation and against western society.

We've -- we're talk -- we've talked to officials, Wolf, who -- again, based on the circumstances that they're looking at, believe that the most likely explanation for what happened to this flight is a terrorist attack and, perhaps, most likely a bombing, because of the circumstances we're talking out.

As Christiane just mentioned, this is a fairly new aircraft. It's a very modern aircraft. It's even difficult -- it's got a lot of redundancies. It's very difficult for you to purposely ditch this aircraft. You've got a couple of flight crew in there who, presumably, would have been able to radio for help if there was somebody to break in. Perhaps if there was a was hijacking attempt or if someone went and tried to ditch this plane on purpose which is why officials are focusing -- at least initially, their going theory, Wolf, is that this is most likely a terrorist attack, a possible bombing that would have brought down the aircraft.

[13:10:12] And the immediate suspicion then lies in who could have done that? The ground crew perhaps in Paris, somebody who had access to this aircraft could have slipped something in there and would not have been maybe caught by security or someone on this aircraft. Again, these are very much the mysteries that investigators are going to have to resolve, including furthermore checks on the people who are on this aircraft -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Specifically, what is the U.S. doing? What's the U.S. role in trying to help aid this investigation?

PEREZ: Well, we know, Wolf, that the engines on this aircraft are U.S. made. So, we expect, at some point, that the NTSB is going to seek to join this investigation. They will likely be given that permission that will allow U.S. representatives to join this investigation. This is still going to be an Egyptian investigation. It's their aircraft. It crashed in their air space. So, we expect that they'll be the leaders of this investigation.

We expect French authorities. But very much, as you would imagine, when you have something like this happen, the U.S. intelligence community, the law enforcement community is very much interested in knowing what could have happened. If there are any lessons that we should learn. If there are any concerns perhaps about Charles De Gaulle Airport that need to be addressed. All of those things are on the minds of officials as they meet today -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Very quickly, Evan. There was some U.S. concern expressed about security at Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris last year. Just remind our viewers what that concern was all about.

PEREZ: There were a number of personnel, people who worked at the airport who had their security credentials revoked because in checking up on them, they found -- the officials there found that they had perhaps links to Islamist groups or extremists. And so, they -- their security credentials were revoked and they were no longer able to access sensitive areas of the airport or they were -- or they were dismissed from their jobs there -- Wolf.

BLITZER: I remember that. That was a source of serious concern to U.S. officials.

PEREZ: Absolutely.

BLITZER: All right, Evan, I want you to stand by as well. I want to dissect all of this a little bit more with an eye towards the determination that it was most likely a terror attack that brought down EgyptAir Flight 804. Joining us here in New York, a Boeing 777 captain and contributing editor for "Flying Magazine," Les Abend. Peter Goelz is joining us. He's a former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board. And CNN Terrorism Analyst Paul Cruikshank is with us as well.

Peter, as they recover debris in the wreckage, and we just heard the vice president of EgyptAir saying they've found some of the wreckage, what are the initial indicators that they will be looking for that would give them early clues what happened? Obviously, they want those so-called black boxes.

PETER GOELZ, FORMER MANAGING DIRECTOR, NTSB: Right. The black boxes are most important. They'll need to get vessels into the area quickly to be able to try and pick up the pingers that are attached to the boxes that'll give their locations. But in terms of the wreckage on the surface that they'll be able to pick up, I mean, what you look for to see is, is there sooting? Was there fire? How did the pieces separate? Was it under stress? Was it tearing?

If they're very lucky -- now, this plane is probably, and literally, thousands of pieces by now, having come down from 37,000 feet. They look for the tell-tale signs of an explosion, outward facing holes, gas washing, pitting. These are all indications that a explosive -- an explosive device went off inside that aircraft. But they may not get anything in the first round of floating wreckage. This will be a longer term effort.

BLITZER: If they prove the plane, Peter, was intentionally downed by a bomb or some other method, it would be, what, in the fourth such event in two years. That seems like a pretty serious number right now. Does it surprise you?

GOELZ: No, it does not. I mean, the Islamic terrorists have had a fascination and a focus on international aviation. It has been unyielding. And this is a struggle and the battle that the industry and government is going to have to face for the foreseeable future.

BLITZER: Paul, the plane was, what, on its fifth leg, it's fifth flight of the day. Earlier stops in Eritrea, Tunisia, Cairo then Paris. Do any of these destinations stick out as potential warning?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, possibly, Wolf. There is zero hard evidence, at this moment, though, at least that's been publicly articulated that this was terrorism. This is just a theory right now. We have to remind all of our viewers this. But there are some concerns about some of the countries that this plane came through on its way to Paris, Tunisia, Eritrea and, of course, also Egypt, Cairo, all of these places in the developing world.

[13:15:12] And the biggest vulnerability of the global aviation system has been that airports in the developing world have lagged behind in deploying state-of-the-art technology, in training people in airport security and also they don't have as rigorous protocols when it comes to workers at the airport. So there's been significant concern over the past year or so about threats in the developing world that somebody might be able to get a device on a plane in part of the developing world and then that plane, perhaps with a timer, would then go down in the developed world.

We saw in February of this year the al Qaeda affiliate, al-Shabaab, actually managed to get a sophisticated laptop bomb onto a Somali airliner, Daallo Airlines Flight 159, departing from Mogadishu, actually blew up and blew the bomber out of the plane. Fortunately, it hadn't climbed to sufficient altitude to destroy the entire aircraft and everybody on board, apart from the bomber, was not killed. But grave concern really about these vulnerabilities in the developing world when it comes to airport security, Wolf.

BLITZER: That's the developing world. The developed world, Les, the plane originated on this last leg at Charles de Gaulle Airport. How many people routinely would have had access to that plane when it was on the ground picking up all those passengers to fly to Cairo? How many people on the ground crew and others might have had access to potentially smuggle a bomb on board?

LES ABEND, BOEING 777 CAPTAIN: Well, I mean, you know, as we can see all those destinations, there were hundreds of people that would have had access to the airplane. The ground crew, the cockpit crew, and going through all those places just, you know, if they were not screened people, that could be an issue. But once again, Wolf, I'm not ready to jump to conclusions just yet. I don't want to rule out mechanical. There are some aspects that you can throw into the -- into the works here. And this is what an investigation is all about. But at the end of the day, you know, how do you -- if somebody wanted to do something nefarious with an explosive device, all those countries that it stopped in, how -- you must have knowledge of where this airplane is going to eventually end up. And how do you obtain that knowledge? Do you know it through EgyptAir? That's a question I think people will be going to ask if indeed this is a terrorist act.

BLITZER: But if, in fact, they found that wreckage floating in the Mediterranean, as we just heard from the vice president of EgyptAir, who told that to our Christiane Amanpour, that -- presumably that won't take very long to determine what caused this plane to simply collapse into the sea.

ABEND: As Peter said, you know, it's going to take -- I mean there's going to be a lot -- you're going to have to find the floating debris, of course. And there will be -- and then the passengers also were -- are going to be able to tell you something with -- relative to, was this an explosive device? Was it a depressurization system --

BLITZER: You mean the remains?

ABEND: The remains, correct.

BLITZER: OK, I just want to be precise on that.

ABEND: Yes.

BLITZER: All right, everyone stand by. We're going to continue to stay on top of the breaking news. EgyptAir says the wreckage of the flight, Flight 804, has been found on the top of the Mediterranean, floating on the Mediterranean. We're going live to Cairo. That's coming up.

Also, an exclusive interview this hour with Hillary Clinton. She'll join our own Chris Cuomo live this hour. Her thoughts on EgyptAir and the contentious race for the White House.

Much more. Stay with us.

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[13:23:05] BLITZER: Let's return to the breaking news, our top story, the crash of an EgyptAir plane over the Mediterranean. Our senior international correspondent Arwa Damon is joining us now live from Cairo.

Arwa, EgyptAir says the wreckage, or at least some of the wreckage has been found floating in the Mediterranean. We've just learned that there are lifejackets in the wreckage that has been found as well. The Egyptian government says it's most likely, most probably a terror attack. What evidence, if any, did they offer?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they haven't really offered concrete evidence at this stage as to why they're leaning towards calling this a terrorist attack rather than a technical failure. What is leading to that assumption, perhaps, is given that there was no distress call made by the pilots, that it's highly unlikely at the height that the plane was at before it began plummeting, that height of 37,000 feet, that any sort of technical failure would happen. Plus, these two pilots are fairly experienced. Thousands of flight hours logged in between the two of them.

Now, posted on EgyptAir's site also is that the wreckage was found near a Greek island. And they are saying that they're still launching a search and recovery operation to try to find presumably other parts of the plane, which leads one to also assume that something at least caused it to come apart.

Now, the manifest lists are always very carefully scrutinized, passengers' names are cross-checked. EgyptAir is saying that they conduct very thorough checks, especially of their own personnel. And in this particular case, they had three security individuals on board as well. Egypt, like a lot of other countries, given the realities that we face in this day and age as a country on high alert, that has put extra security measures into place, or so the authorities say.

[13:25:16] Now, Wolf, very briefly, the area that we're at, this is where earlier in the day the families had come to try to get some sort of information. Some of them had been holding on to a slight glimmer of hope that perhaps their loved ones would have somehow survive or that this plane would miraculously reappear. That information that it has, in fact, most definitely at this stage gone from being an aircraft that was missing to one that has crashed is going to be phenomenally difficult for them as they try to come to grips with this tremendous loss, Wolf. But a lot of questions at this stage.

Also, prior to this airplane taking off from Paris in the last 24 hours, that it also made stops in Eretria (ph) and Tunisia. What we do understand from EgyptAir authorities is that at every stage along the way, these planes are routinely checked. And we do also know from the authorities that the plane itself was swept prior to taking off from Paris. So there's going to be -- if it was, in fact, an act of terrorism, a lot of scrutiny at a lot of people as to how this may have actually happened.

BLITZER: Yes, 66 people were on board Flight 804, including two infants. The EgyptAir statement, Arwa, also says family members of passengers and crew have been already informed and we extend our deepest sympathies to those affected.

Arwa, I need you to stand by in Cairo as well. Coming up, we're staying on top of the breaking news. If it was, in

fact, a terror bomb that brought down EgyptAir Flight 804, how did it get on board? We're going to go live to Paris for the latest on the investigation there. Much more coming up.

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