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Wreckage from EgyptAir Flight 804 Confirmed. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired May 20, 2016 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:32:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We are following breaking news. Egyptian officials say they have found wreckage from missing EgyptAir flight 804, 32 hours after the plane vanished on its way from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board. Our live team coverage begins now. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Boris Sanchez.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: Nice to have you here this morning, Boris. I'm Christine Romans. It's 32 minutes past the hour. We welcome all of our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. Our breaking news at this hour, brand new developments in this story. Egyptian officials say debris and wreckage from EgyptAir flight 804 has now been located.

The Egyptian jet vanished 32 hours ago with 66 passengers and crew on board. It was on its way from Paris to Cairo, and now it appears parts of this plane, pieces of this plane have been found and there is a recovery underway to find more. We're covering the story only the way that CNN can.

We want to start in Egypt. CNN's Becky Anderson is live at Cairo International Airport, and Becky, the Egyptian president has expressed his condolences. EgyptAir has said it is sorry for this incident. And clearly, families of passengers there are now getting confirmation of their worst fears.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN JOURNALIST: Yes, it's awful for those friends and family of the 66 people on board that flight, EgyptAir 804, en route from Charles de Gaulle in Paris to Egypt when it simply disappeared about 33-odd hours ago. And this, unfortunately, if it proves to be correct, a very significant development.

Do remember, these friends and family members have been going through an awful time over the last 30 hours with information coming out and then being rode back on. At one point late on Thursday the aviation minister announcing that debris had been found, only to say that he stood corrected on that a little later on.

And very frustrating for the friends and family, many of whom gathered here at what was a makeshift crisis center on Thursday. We do know that there are 14 family or friends, French nationals, associated with the passengers who were French nationals aboard. And let's remember, the majority of those on board that flight were Egyptian nationals and French nationals. So, a significant development if it proves to be correct. This is an enormous, or has been an enormous operation -- search and rescue operation, as it was, until this point. We haven't had it confirmed that it now a search and recovery effort but the Egyptians being helped in this by the Greek Navy, by the British, by the French who sent investigators over today by the Cypriots and by the Italians.

[05:35:00] A huge scope, a very big area. It sounds as if, as far the Egyptian military is concerned, and this was from the spokesman, that this debris was found north of Alexandria, the coast here in Egypt. The area where the plane dropped off the radar was about 260- odd kilometers south of the Island of Crete. So it begins to make sense if, indeed, this information can be stood up.

And you rightly point out that EgyptAir, this morning, tweeting their regret and their condolences, and saying they will make every effort to ensure that family and friends are kept in the loop and know exactly what is going on.

President el-Sisi, in the hours after the event, insisting -- demanding that the search intensify for this plane and he pulled in the civil aviation authorities here -- the Navy, the Air Force. And as I say, a combined international effort that clearly now appears to be making some way.

But sadly, the file will move from search and rescue at some point, one assumes soon, to search and recovery. Very, very difficult for friends and family who will, as you rightly point out, just be finding this information out.

ROMANS: I know, it's just terrible. Becky, let me read to you some of those tweets from EgyptAir. This is what the company is saying. "The EgyptAir crisis center is following all developments in the situation and we will pass on details as soon as we have them."

Also, "The airline confirms that it is taking all necessary measures to deal with the situation on all fronts." And then this, "EgyptAir offers its condolences to the families of the victims and expresses its deep regret for this painful event."

I can tell you that the Egyptian president's statement has just aired on state television, Nile T.V., where President el-Sisi said that it was with utmost sadness and regret -- mourns the victims aboard the EgyptAir flight that were killed after the plane crashed into the Mediterranean. So clearly, the worst fears of those family members coming to fruition.

You know, Becky, yesterday there had been some false reporting of sighting of debris but it now looks as though this time they are sure they have it, Becky.

ANDERSON: Yes, much confusion, of course, yesterday and still to a certain extent, many more questions than answers. If the debris and passenger belongings have been located in that area, it is clear that flight went down. Why it went down and how it went down clearly now part of what will be an investigation. And, significantly, late yesterday the Egyptian authorities, who are running this operation, of course -- the search and rescue operation -- had announced that the file on this -- the case -- would move from the chief prosecutor here to the state security prosecutor.

And I think we can assume that, even at that point, perhaps the suggestion in that was that authorities here were beginning to make or draw the conclusion this was possibly not a technical error, but a terrorist-related event, which would mean that were opening a criminal investigation or case at some point.

And you're right to point out, lots of misinformation out yesterday. I think, perhaps, for no other reason possibly than the Egyptians were keen to be as transparent with what they knew about what was going on as possible, and trying to avoid accusations that in the past they've been less transparent with the MetroJet flight, of course. That jet was downed back in November.

So, you know, perhaps a little quick in the past 33 hours to report on information they had to roll back on. But sadly, if these details now stand up it looks as if this will now be a recovery operation.

SANCHEZ: Right, and Becky, that transparency certainly appreciated by the families. You kind of have to expect discrepancies though with so many countries working on this, so many different agencies, and the fact that it's such a fluid situation.

At least now the families have confirmation that their loved ones have actually been found. But now that the families of passengers have received that news that debris and wreckage has been discovered, this changes the investigation.

I want to bring in CNN international correspondent Max Foster. He's live at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Now Max, the fact that this wreckage has been discovered, potentially, once French citizens are found this could change the investigation. This expedites the process, right?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. At the moment, they're missing. When you find a body, of course, it ramps up the whole investigation to a different level. At the moment, we're not really getting many official announcements because we don't have a big official investigation, certainly not a terror investigation at this point. It's just one of the lines of inquiry.

[05:40:00] And the way our sources describe it is that they're verifying information, which we assume is checking everything that they can about the circumstances around the aircraft as it stood on the tarmac at Charles de Gaulle before it left on the way to Cairo.

So, for example, finding out who had contact with that aircraft. Ground crew, in particular, but also aircrew, passengers, doing background checks. We know that the French intelligence agencies are liaising with the U.S. intelligence agencies and the with the Egyptian intelligence agencies, so that sort of work is being done. Also, a bit of context for you, as well, Boris, which we've been speaking to the airport security department and they've given us some interesting statistics which could potentially play into this if it is, indeed, transpired to be a bomb or a terror investigation of some sort.

And that is since January 2015, 85 employees working here have been investigated. They've had their security badges taken away, allowing them not to go as far as the secure areas -- the runway side, effectively. Eighty-five employees have had their security badges taken away because of alleged radicalization or for potential vulnerability.

And we've also been told that there are 86,000 of these red badges, as they're called, out there. So, 86,000 people actually have access to the secured areas here just describes the scale of the problem in keeping these places secure.

But if any airport in the world is secure you could probably argue this is it because after this string of attacks, both in Paris and Brussels around Europe, every time something's happened security's been ramped up to another level, so it's extremely secure here. And local security experts saying they find it inconceivable, really, that a device could have got on board an aircraft sitting on the runway.

Even this morning we've had security, not just in the secure area, but at the doorway to the terminal as well. So, it would be extraordinary if a device did get on board but it's certainly something that they're considering behind the scenes at the moment.

SANCHEZ: Yes, all possibilities have to be put under the microscope.

ROMANS: Wow.

SANCHEZ: Max Foster reporting from Paris. Thank you for that.

ROMANS: Eighty-six thousand red badges.

SANCHEZ: It's an immense operation.

ROMANS: Eighty-six thousand. It really is. All right, the big development unfolding right now, though, the first pieces of debris from EgyptAir flight 804. They've been spotted in the Mediterranean. Search teams are making the discovery 180 miles north of Alexandria on the Egyptian coast.

I want to bring in journalist Elinda Labropoulou. She is standing by live for us in Parga, Greece. Linda, when you hear what Egyptian military officials are saying about where they say they've spotted passenger belongings and part of this aircraft it is in the vicinity, from what you've been hearing, as well -- from what we've been talking about, southeast of Karpathos Island.

ELINDA LABROPOULOU, CNN JOURNALIST: Yes, that's right. That is within the area that the search operations have been taking place. And we spoke to the Greek Army as well, the Greek Air Force, to see if they have any confirmation about the debris being found.

They are saying they've heard the news but they're waiting for the Egyptians to inform them further about this. So they're being cautious. They're not confirming the information yet but they have told us that they are aware of the information that has come out of Egypt.

And I think this is quite typical of how the Greeks have been handling this investigation so far. They've been very cautious about going into any of the motives, any of the reasons of why this happened or what actually happened. They've been just giving us the facts until now from their side.

They've been telling us about the conversation they've had with the pilots. The Greek air traffic controllers were the last people to talk to the pilot while he was in Greek airspace when he said that everything was fine. They even said, you know, he thanked them. Seemed to be in a good mood. Nothing sort of giving any indication of what was likely to happen next.

And then trying to get in touch with the plane again as it was leaving Greek airspace and entering Egyptian airspace, and not being able to get anything -- any kind of response from the plane. The Greeks were the first to then alert the Egyptian authorities of not being able to get any signal.

And then we have the Greek defense minister saying well, actually, the Greek radars saw the plane swerve mid-air and then plunge until the Greek radars lost signal about two minutes after it entered Egyptian airspace. So this is most of the information that they've been giving us.

When there was talk of debris yesterday, again, the Greek authorities were very cautious about how to approach this. They said they were waiting to find out more and then they were the first ones to say well, actually, no, it wasn't debris from the plane itself.

[05:45:00] So, once again, we're waiting to see, to hear from Egyptians first. See before we get any response from the Greeks, it seems.

ROMANS: And again, those animations we've been showing you of the movements of the plane -- that comes from Greek radar and is really the only information -- the last information we have about that plane until now, when they're starting to find these pieces, according to the Egyptian military.

Thank you so much for that, Elinda, for us in Parga, Greece.

SANCHEZ: We are still following this breaking news. Egyptian officials confirming they have found wreckage from the missing Egyptian air flight 804. Our conversation of what this means continues after the break.

[05:45:45]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:49:55] SANCHEZ: We are still following the breaking news this morning regarding the disappearance of EgyptAir flight 804. Here's where things stand right now. Egyptian military officials confirm they have found passenger belongings and wreckage floating in the sea 180 miles north of the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria.

[05:50:00] To help us break down these developments let's bring in CNN aviation analyst Les Abend. Les, before we get to you I just want to read this statement from Egyptian President el-Sisi. He writes, "The presidency with utmost sadness and regret mourns the victims aboard the EgyptAir flight who were killed after the plane crashed in the Mediterranean on its way back to Cairo from Paris."

This development, the discovery of the wreckage obviously confirms the worst fears. How does the investigation move forward now? What are people looking for on the ground there?

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, it's the good news, bad news story, you know. The good news is now we've found the debris. The investigation can really begin in earnest. The bad news is that the families have to deal with these details and the gruesome aspect of the recovery.

The investigation can move forward. The pieces of whatever's found floating is going to be recovered, put on ships, I can only assume, and then examined. And then all the debris field, itself, will be traced back to where the potential crash site is going to be. At that point, if they can pinpoint it the best they can, then the job of recovering the black boxes will begin.

ROMANS: And that will be important data from the black boxes. We know the Egyptian military said they're sweeping the area for that right now. From the debris, they will be able to do what? They're going to look to see if there are any signs of an explosion. They're going to see if the plane was intact when it hit. I mean, those are the kinds of things that will help them piece together what happened here.

ABEND: And, unfortunately, in addition to the gruesome task of recovery bodies that will lead to that kind of evidence, too. Were lungs full with some type of explosive device that occurred, or were they not? So, at least they can begin to piece this all together.

Remember, we have to remind ourselves what accident investigation is about. Regardless of what the cause, let's never let it happen again.

ROMANS: Right.

ABEND: So if this, indeed, becomes a terrorist event where an explosive device was put on, how did that happen? How did we allow that to get to that situation? If it's a mechanical situation, what caused that and was it a defect on the aircraft? Was it something that the pilots did, or did not respond correctly to? How do we correct procedures, how do we correct designs of aircraft? SANCHEZ: Sure. I want to get back to this seemingly weird piece of data that we're getting from Greek officials that the plane made several 90-degree turns and then a 360-degree turn -- something that the pilot isn't supposed to be able to do on that kind of Airbus. What do you make of that information?

ABEND: Well, as I've been saying, my gut reaction is something catastrophic happened because it's very uncharacteristic of an A-320, let alone an Airbus or any type of airliner. So what it says to me is that the aircraft was not under control -- the crew. But there are mechanisms in an A-320 or Airbus products to begin with, and Boeing products, that prevent pilots from exceeding limitations.

And one of the examples is the bank angle limitation where it stops the airplane from banking more than 35 degrees in one direction or the other, or it prevents the pilots from entering an aerodynamic stall. So, you know, all those erratic movements give you a little pause for concern. How did we get to that point that those erratic movements occurred?

ROMANS: Les, great to have you with us here this morning. Thank you for your contact and again, just a really sad development. Confirmation of the worst fears for those families this morning. The breaking news, Egyptian officials say now wreckage from missing EgyptAir flight 804 has been found. "NEW DAY" picks up these details next.

[05:54:10]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:58:20] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: All right, we want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY and we begin with major breaking news. A development in the search for the missing EgyptAir flight 804.

The Egyptian military confirming moments ago that they have found wreckage and passengers' belongings in the Mediterranean Sea. The discovery comes more than 30 hours after the plane vanished from radar on its way from Paris to Cairo.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: What brought down the passenger plane remains a mystery. U.S. officials are operating under the theory that a bomb downed that plane, but there's been no claim of responsibility from any terrorist group.

We have this story covered the way only CNN can, so let's begin with Becky Anderson. She's live at Cairo International Airport with all of the breaking details. Good morning, Becky.

ANDERSON: That's right. Good morning, Alisyn, and we just heard that the French ambassador to Egypt apparently meeting, as we speak, with the relatives of the French nationals on flight 804 who had traveled here, one assumes, in the hope of hearing that their relatives had survived this.

But things moving very rapidly over the past couple of hours and now news from the spokesman for the Egyptian military that, indeed, debris and personal belongings have been found in the area they have been searching for the past 30 hours or so since news that this plane dropped off the radar in the middle of the night Thursday morning at around, we believe, between 2:29 and 2:37.

So, relatives here, it will be an awful morning for them -- an absolutely awful morning. This is what we know.