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First Audio Transmissions From Egypt air flight 804 Was Released; Charlie Sykes Received Some Unexpected Mail Friday Morning; Oklahoma Vetoed A Bill Criminalizing Abortion Procedures. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired May 21, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:00:36] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: All right. Hello again, everyone. And thanks so much for joining us. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Breaking news in the search of Egypt air flight 804. We're getting our first audio transmissions from that flight. It's a very small portion of the audio from the pilot to air traffic control out of Zurich, Switzerland. These transmissions happened between a pilot and air traffic control fairly regularly. And in this case, they're talking about changing a frequency.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello. Hello. Egypt Air 804 Flight level 276. Squawk number 7842 (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Egypt Air 804 radar contact.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Egypt Air 804 contact Padova 1-2-0 decimal 7-2-5, good night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Padova Control Egypt sir 704, thank you so much. Good day. Good night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Meanwhile, the Egyptian military releasing the first video of life vests, suitcases, airplane seats and other debris found in the Mediterranean Sea. We now know the plane's communication system known as ACARS set four key signals to the pilots about malfunctions on the airplane. Egyptian officials say the crash was likely a terrorist act, but no one has claimed responsibility from this crash that happened early Thursday morning. Investigators are stressing that right now, every possibility is on the table.

CNN's Max Foster joining me now live from Paris.

So Max, French officials met with the victims' families today. What was said between them?

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm told there are just lots of lots of questions. The media wasn't allowed in, but obviously questions about what happened onboard and quite morbid questions, you know, how -- would the people onboard have suffered? Obviously, questions the officials can't officer at this point. Some frustration, already, with officials as well. We did report to you on that smoke that was reported to be in the aircraft at the time. That came through media reports. And families frustrated that they had to ask officials to confirm those media reports and that the officials didn't come to them first. So, frustration, certainly growing.

Also, questions about security here at Charles de Gaulle. We don't know that it was terror related or that there were any faults here at Charles de Gaulle, whether or not the plane was sabotaged here at all. But these are questions that the families understandably want to have answered. The representatives of the victims' family or the missing families, as they are right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANIE GICQUEL (ph), FRENCH NATIONAL FOUNDATION OF VICTIMS OF ATTACKS AND ACCIDENTS (through translator): The question of security at the airport was raised persistently, two or three times, and provoked an answer from authorities. The airport authority said that all airport personnel are subject to strict controls, but the families have a lot of questions and had very few answers today. The real issue is if it's terrorism, it will definitely raise concerns about security at Paris airport.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: One of the great difficult difficulties, of course, for the families, is they're not going to have any hard and fast facts about this for a very long time. So frustrations are going to grow, pressure is going to be on the authorities. But at the moment, a French victim hasn't been identified. That's what the officials are saying here. And so a formal investigation, an official investigation with official results isn't yet in the offing, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Max Foster, keep us posted. Thank you so much, from Paris.

So as searchers continue to scour the sea for more debris and wreckage, they're now having to contend with another factor, the weather. Conditions around the search site are deteriorating and that will make recovering more debris that much more difficult.

CNN's Nic Robertson has the latest now from the Greek island of Crete.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Fredricka, look, we brought you right down to the water's edge here. Look at the sea, the waves are up, the wind is up. There are white tops out there. Why am I showing this to you? Because a search is going on further out to sea where the waves are bigger and steeper. It's about 100 miles out. The debris found so far has been relatively small. When it was found yesterday, the sea was like a mill pond here. Much calmer and much easier to spot those small pieces of debris, the luggage, the chairs, the material that's come from the aircraft. Today going forward, where the wind is, we are told, that going to pick up in the next couple of days, recovering the debris is going to be much, much harder. Despite that, Greek authorities here, the air force spokesman tells us that they've been able to refine the area of search a little bit. Greek authorities have two military C-130 military transport aircraft on standby to get up and fly. A feasibility has been worst today along with the worsening conditions out at sea. But they're saying that the area of search, because some debris has been found allows them to focus in a little bit. So they believe the area they're looking at now is a circle perhaps 40 miles radius. That is still a large area, 5,000 square miles.

So these conditions, the poorer visibility and the rougher seas with the wind picking up, it's going to make the job are trying to figure out where the plane went down precisely, where the black boxes, the data recorder, the voice recorder might be, it's going to be a tougher jobs in the coming days, Fredricka.

[13:05:43] WHITFIELD: All right, Nic Robertson, thank you so much there in Crete.

So I want to bring in Mary Schiavo. She is a CNN aviation analyst and a former inspector general of the U.S. department of transportation. She also represents victims and families after airline disasters. And Eddy Miceli, he is an aviation safety expert.

Good to see both of you. OK, so a lot to talk about. We looked at that, you know, shot where Nic is off the coast of Crete and you see the choppiness of the water.

But Mary, has it been ruled out that weather was not likely a factor in helping to contribute the downing of that plane, based on the debris and audio transmissions we've since heard.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: I think practically we can rule it out, the weather reports. There wasn't any weather reported in the area at all, and certainly the last transmission didn't indicate any weather. There were no requests to change altitudes, so I think that for all practical purposes, we can rule out weather.

WHITFIELD: So we've heard this audio. A pretty short portion. But it seems, you know, pretty routine this conversation between aircraft control and the pilot. They're talking about, you know, changing frequencies and also, you know, exiting from one air traffic control communication and perhaps entering another.

So when, Eddie, when you listen to that and it doesn't appear that anyone is in distress, what does that tell you, at least, about this portion of that flight? And again, we don't even know at this juncture, you know, this audio reps what portion of the flight.

EDDIE MICELI, AIRPORT SAFETY ANALYST: That is correct. Now, (INAUDIBLE), the air space and went into the Egyptian air space. It made initial contact. And we know from the transcripts that it was given a transponder supply, which is a signal that round controller says, turn on your beacon and let me see who you are. That's exactly what they did. They changed frequencies. And just a few minutes after that, this is when we heard the report from the ACARs, that within three minutes, in those three minutes, fire or abnormalities within the aircraft system beyond systematically (INAUDIBLE). And so the questions all communications were perfect, normal, and there were no signs of distress on that aircraft until those few minutes when the ACAR system started reported.

WHITFIELD: And then Mary, the information that the ACARs is reporting, you know, the heat on the windshield. Heat coming from, you know, below the area where pilot is, smoke coming from the lavatory and as Eddie said, you know, within this three-minute span, would those things happen primarily because of mechanical failure? Or could those things be elicited to make it appear as though mechanical, because of some prior tampering on the ground before they even took flight?

SCHIAVO: Well, I think both things are possible. It's possible it's a mechanical and it's possible there were some sort of an incendiary device that didn't blow the plane out of the sky. To me, the hardest thing to reconcile though is the fact that it started with the windshield in the cockpit and it was an overheating of the windshield in the cockpit. That would mean -- now, if is correct, computers on planes can spool down -- this plane literally tries to start saving itself. If it's losing a system, it will shut down whatever systems it has to keep that plane flying. It's a very smart plane. If, indeed, it started with the windshield in the cockpit, that would tend to suggest more mechanical than some sort of incendiary device or sabotage, but it could be either at this point.

WHITFIELD: And then Eddie, if that were the case, are these things that would bring a plane down? For, you know, pilots to correct or does even the aircraft itself, an airbus like this, self-correct when there are problems like these four things that we signaled out based on ACARS communication?

MICELI: Well, there's something that I want to follow up what Mary just said.

WHITFIELD: OK.

MICELI: There is an issue that has not been mentioned here called hidden fires. Hidden fires, for example, electrical arson. Electrical arson is what brought down Swiss Air 111 and Air Canada 797 in Cincinnati, Ohio. These fires are within the aircraft wired bundles. And if two wires are peeled and close to each other, like, for example, somebody removing an avionics, piece of avionics and pulling it back, if the wire is cramped, you can have an arcing within the flight. And that triggers a sequence of system failures, just like it happened on Swiss Air 111, on Air Canada, which started in the aft lavatory, and now here. It's the similarities are very, very close.

And the other one, Fredricka, is the lithium batteries. Lithium batteries are deadly. There have been accidents of lithium batteries exploding from laptop computers inside the baggage of passengers. Remember, we don't know the cargo manifest yet, but there's a strong probability of a hidden fire.

[13:11:03] WHITFIELD: And it sounds like you're also saying that if that were the case, it would be very difficult for a pilot to be able to fix that midair, under those conditions, and that could consequently lead to the downing of this flight.

MICELI: Yes. That is correct. It's very hard for a pilot to control it once the sequence of events start.

WHITFIELD: All right, Eddy Miceli and Mary Schiavo, thanks so much to both of you. Appreciate it. We'll chat again.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

MICELI: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. It's not something you would expect from Donald Trump, especially when it comes to a big member of the never- Trump movement. Radio host Charlie Sykes received a handwritten note from the Republican candidate and he will talk to us about it, next.

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[13:15:25] WHITFIELD: All right. Radio talk show host and proud member of the hashtag never Trump movement, Charlie Sykes, received some unexpected mail Friday morning. A handwritten note from Donald just after Sykes tweeted quote "charm offensive. Just got a handwritten note from @realDonaldTrump. Seriously." And then, safe to say, that @realDonaldTrump note is unusual but I appreciate the outreach. But still #neverTrump.

Charlie Sykes joining us now by phone.

So Charlie, you know it's the real deal and why do you suppose you received this note from the Republican presidential nominee?

CHARLIE SYKES, HOST, MIDDAY WITH CHARLIE SYKES, WTMJ (on the phone): Well, apparently, Donald Trump is deciding that he wants to actually reach out to conservatives and that he recognizes that he's going to have to do a little bit of damage control if he's going to unify the Republican Party.

And as I said, I was surprised, given the things I've said about Donald Trump. I think probably by now, he's realized that I've said some things that are going to be, you know, kind of hard for us to reconcile. But again, I want to make it clear that I appreciated the fact that he made the effort to send me that newspaper and didn't have a dead fish wrapped on it or anything. And at least was suggesting he might want come back on the show.

WHITFIELD: OK. So what did it say? Do you have it handy? Can you read it to me?

SYKES: Actually, I don't have it handy with me. But it basically said, Charlie, hope you change your mind, you know, looking forward to coming signed Donald j. Trump. And it says, I will win. And then on the front page of "The New York Times," he basically had drawn a line to point at an article that talked about other conservatives who had been opposed to him, who are coming around, sort of suggesting, look, if they can come round, you can come around, as well.

WHITFIELD: All right. So he's been on your show before and he's saying, hope you'll have him again. So what was the tone, what was it like when he was on the show before? Could -- was it a duel between the two of you on positions?

SYKES: It was somewhat brutal. This was the week before the Wisconsin primary, you'll recall, and he was not aware at that time that I was never Trump. Halfway through, I asked him, did you know when you called in this morning that I was never Trump, and he didn't know that. And I pressed him pretty hard on the way he -- you know, the insults to the wives of other candidates and the things he'd said about women, of a variety of other things.

So I would say that it was, we were cordial. He was a good sport about it, but it was a tough interview. And it got a lot of attention at time, you'll recall. And so, the fact that he would write back and say, I'll come back on your show again, I thought it was interesting. That's why I decided to at least put it out there, to make it clear that Trump is at least apparently making this effort.

WHITFIELD: So at what point did you get on the never Trump bandwagon? What was it for you that put you in that place?

SYKES: I was there right from the beginning. The moment he came down the gold escalator, and like a lot of other people, I certainly underestimated him. I thought the candidate -- he was a joke, and then I found it alarming, and I still have some really deep concerns about his character, his behavior, and his policies, whether or not he's going to run as an adult and as a conservative, and I'm not yet persuaded of those things. So I'm concerned about whether or not, you know, he's really fit to be the president of the United States. So I was -- I would say I was a charter member of the never-Trump movement.

WHITFIELD: So am I hearing that you are persuadable?

SYKES: I think that's highly unlikely. Let me put it -- the reality is that it is hard for a 69-year-old man to suddenly change his character and his personality and this is not simply a matter of policy decisions. It is the way that he treats people. The insults, the slurs, the erratic, authoritarianism that I find very, very troubling. And, you know, along with a number of other conservatives. And but I want to also make it clear that I am also never Hillary. So this has been a really tough --

WHITFIELD: So what are you going to do? Don't tell me you are never going to vote?

SYKES: No, I will definitely vote. I'm still holing out possibly there will definitely vote. And I'm still holding out the possibility that there might be a third candidate, a third party candidate. But also, I'm holding out hope that I'll get a unicorn for my birthday.

WHITFIELD: So does that mean that you're voting -- wait a minute, are you just voting in protest of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, so you're not really voting to get someone in the White House, or you do feel strongly that an alternative stands a better chance of getting in the White House and that's why you would throw your vote towards that person?

[13:20:13] SYKES: I'm very realistic about this. And at this point, I can't control the outcome of this election, obviously. The candidates would have preferred have been defeated and Donald Trump has won. But if I can't control the election, what I can control is my conscious. And quite seriously, I just cannot in good conscience vote for either Hillary or Donald Trump at this point.

WHITFIELD: All right. Charlie Sykes, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

SYKES: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. $6 million. That's how much Donald Trump claimed he raised for veterans groups earlier this year. Now, his own campaign says that's not accurate.

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[13:24:38] WHITFIELD: All right, $6 million. That's how much Donald Trump claimed he raised for veterans groups back in January, but now, the campaign is backing away from that number calling inaccurate. "The Washington Post" put the amount raised closer to 4.5 million. Trump's team tells CNN the shortfall emerged when people pledged donations, but never paid up. A CNN investigation from March found only $2.9 million had been dispersed to groups so far. The Trump campaign has declined to name all the groups receiving donations. And that's far from the first of several contradictions we have heard from the Trump campaign. Take a listen to the presumptive Republican nominee on MSNBC earlier this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[13:25:23] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Libya's a disaster. We knock out Libya and you knock out Gadhafi and she thinks we did a great job, and it's just more destabilization.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you have not gone into --?

TRUMP: And ISIS has the oil.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you have stayed out of Libya?

TRUMP: I would have stayed out of Libya, yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Contrast that with what he said back in 2002.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I can't believe what our country is doing. Gadhafi, in Libya, is killing thousands of people, nobody knows how bad it is and we're sitting around. We have soldiers all over the Middle East. And we're not bringing them in to stop this horrible carnage. We should go in. We should stop this guy, which would be very easy and very quick. We could do it surgically. Stop him from doing it and save these lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Then there is his position on the invasion in Iraq. Here is Trump at the CNN debate in Simi Valley last year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I am the only person on this day is, the only person who fought very, very hard against us, and I wasn't a sitting politician, going into Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And now listen to him back in 2002, speaking with Howard Stern.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you for invading Iraq?

TRUMP: Yes. I guess so, you know, I wish it was - I wish the first time it was done correctly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's talk about this with CNN political commentator, Doug Heye. He is also a Republican strategist and former communications director for the Republican National Committee.

All right, Doug, good to see you.

DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good to see you, thank you.

WHITFIELD: OK. So you just heard the shift in the positions the presumptive nominee has taken on important issues. How might this impact his race?

HEYE: Well, I think it speaks to a lot of the concern that Charlie Sykes talked about just couple of minutes ago with you. It is almost every issue that you point out Donald Trump is one place one day, and another place another day. It's why so many people like myself have serious concerns about Trump as our nominee and what that means in the fall. And I can tell you just operationally, and I remember back in 2004, when my friends at the Republican National Committee under the Bush-Cheney campaign created flip-flops for John Kerry. Obviously, we saw the ad about, I was for it before I was against it. There's practically no issue in politics that Donald Trump hasn't been on both sides of. And that creates a real issue for him in the fall.

WHITFIELD: But does it really? Because now, you have much of Republican leadership which are now saying, at first we weren't so sure about him, but now we see this is who the voters want, so we need to accept him. We need to embrace him.

WHITFIELD: Well, I think you're seeing some acceptance. You're not seeing a whole lot of embracing yet. Cathy McMorris Rodgers who is a fantastic house Republican conference chair, this week said, I voted for Ronald Trump, but I sure didn't want to. I think you're hearing more and more Republicans who are coming to terms and coming to grips and acceptance of this. It's like a 12-step process to get to where so many of them are going or will end up going, to accept him as the nominee. But it's not with enthusiasm. They are concerned about house and Senate seats, first and foremost, their own elections certainly. And as we look at troubled Senate candidates throughout the country, a lot of Republicans are going to focus their efforts on those Senate seats and not the presidential race.

WHITFIELD: And then you've got, you know, he was just at the NRA convention, and he said, you know what, he's going to do away with gun-free zones and ABC News reporting this morning that Mar-a-Lago is a gun-free zone. Trying to, you know, draw some correlation here between what he's saying and what he's doing. There's some hypocrisy. You look at today's "Washington Post" yesterday, "the Washington Post," the same article was running, talking about in a 1981 report by New Jersey gambling regulators. It was revealed, and I'm quoting now, "the Washington Post," that the wealthy Manhattan investor had for at least two years in the late 1970s, taken advantage of a tax code provision popular with developers that loud him to report negative income. Yet on the campaign trail, he says some of these developers, some of the people doing this and taking advantage of this are getting away with murder. And this report is indicating that he took advantage of this so what are voters to make of this? What is the Republican leadership to make of this? When there is some support being thrown behind him, and also this other movement of, no way, not Trump.

HEYE: Yes. I think that speaks to exactly the concern that folks have. You mentioned the NRA convention. That's another issue where he was one position one day, another side, another day.

WHITFIELD: And we did reach out to the Trump campaign and we got a no comment today after that ABC report. So that's the latest no response or response.

[13:30:04] HEYE: I think that's probably a good strategy for the Trump campaign, actually. But if you look at the tax returns, obviously, he's not releasing it because there's something in there that he doesn't want us to see. What we saw from just two years of returns, while entirely legal, while certainly a smart tax strategy for him personally, that speaks to the average American and what they go through in filing and paying their taxes and why they may be further troubled, it's why he's not releasing these.

WHITFIELD: So Doug, what will the convention look like in your view? You know, for a while, there as all this express concern that it was going to be contentious, that it may be, you know, that it's going to be an open convention, and now it looks like he's the presumptive nominee. Will be a Kumbaya moment? Will there be harmony? Will there be concessions made? What are you envisioning?

HEYE: I think right now anybody who makes a firm prediction on that is probably making a fool's errand. I don't think we'll see the kind of rancor and division we've seen just last weekend in Nevada with the Democratic convention there. Certainly, the Democrats are as divided as Republicans have been. But obviously, we know that Donald Trump is going to bring, as he says, some kind of a showbiz package to the convention. That may be a good idea or a bad idea. The one thing I can tell you is it won't be boring.

WHITFIELD: Nothing's been boring so far. It's all been quite fascinating.

All right, Doug Heye, good to see you. Thanks so much.

HEYE: Take care. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, the crash of Egypt Air flight 804. Well, it has shoved airline security measures back into the spotlight. That's coming up next.

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[13:34:37] WHITFIELD: All right. We're continuing to see breaking news in the search for Egypt air flight 804. The first audio transmissions from that flight have been released. It's a very small portion of the audio from the pilot to air traffic control out of Zurich, Switzerland, mostly talking about a changing frequency and moving on to another air traffic control, potentially. It should be noted, however, that this is not the last transmission from the cockpit. This new audio comes as the first pictures of debris from the airplane were released. Seats, life vests, and suitcases have been found in the Mediterranean Sea.

So the crash of Egypt air flight 804 is raising new questions about airport security. Just this morning, former CIA director James Woolsey outlined his concerns about flying his family in and out of Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[13:35:31] JAMES WOOLSEY, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: I think I would think twice about it. But -- and especially during the forthcoming soccer championships, I think I would be worried about it. I might still decide to do it. I just got back from flying to Europe not long ago. But it's something that people should start thinking about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And here in the United States, the TSA is taking heat for long security lines, but the TSA says they have a, quote, robust plan to address the wait times at the nation's busiest airports.

Our Rachel Crane is at La Guardia airport - Rachel.

RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, the TSA is taking steps to provide some relief for passengers waiting in these crazy long lines. They'll be adding new officers soon. They are also testing out new automated technologies. And we spoke with somebody at the airport today who missed his flight because he was stuck in these lines. And he said while he was frustrated, he understood that these security protocols were necessary to keeping us safe.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CRANE (voice-over): The crash of Egypt air flight 804 is raising questions not just for investigators overseas, but also amongst security officials here in the United States.

PETER NEFFENGER, ADMINISTRATOR, TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION: We still don't know what happened there. We're following the investigation closely. Our hearts go out to the families and friends of the people who were lost, but most importantly, it's a stark reminder that what we do is really important and we need to do it well, and we need to do it efficiently.

CRANE: In more recent weeks, the TSA has been plagued by consumer complaints of long line hour-long waits, and in some cases, missed flights. Sixty to 90 minutes is the average wait time across the country, according to an industry group. But some passengers in Chicago said they waited nearly three hours and ended up missing their flights.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were just in security for almost two hours and ran to our gate and it was three minutes shy of the door closing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got here about three, to two and a half hours early and it still wasn't enough time.

CRANE: In a press conference Friday, the agency's administrator apologized to passengers and reiterated the focus on security.

NEFFENGER: That is the most important job of TSA. And events over the past eight months have reinforced and reminded us that individuals and groups do remain intent on attacking the aviation system. Our officers understand that and they work very hard to protect you. Please, please thank them for the work that they do. The long lines are not their fault. The long lines are caused by lots of other things.

CRANE: Tougher security protocols, an increase in passengers ahead of summer travel season, and baggage fees driving people to carry on more luggage are always factors leading to security line congestion. And the solution might not be more agents, according to one former official.

WOOLSEY: The whole focus seems to have been, from avoiding terrorist attacks on TSA. And let's add more TSA people, standing around, as we walk through the magnetic detectors. That strikes me as perhaps not front and center of the things one needs to do.

CRANE: Despite that, the TSA is adding more than 750 officials this June, hoping that it will bring down wait times and increase security. SEN. DICK DURION (D), ILLINOIS: Each country is different. What I

want to make sure of is we do everything humanly possible to make airline travel safe, for passengers and the families that get on the airplanes. I wish we didn't have to face this madness, but we do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CRANE: And just yesterday, the head of the TSA urged Americans to sign up for TSA pre-check. He says that around 2.5 million Americans are currently signed up for the program. They are hoping that number will go to 25 million to help speed up security at airports - Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Rachel Crane at La Guardia, thank you so much.

And we'll be right back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:43:07] WHITFIELD: Today's weather conditions may be taking a toll on the search efforts for the Egypt airplane.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar has more.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Fred, weather conditions are already starting to deteriorate for much of the search and rescue effort. And it's only going to get worse as more systems begin to make their way into the area.

So let's take a look at what we are dealing with here. Below me, you can see the actual spot where some of the debris has already begun to show up. And where the crash site likely took place. Notice here, the next couple of systems that will be making their way into the area over the next 24 to 48 hours. This will impact a lot of the high-end searches, such as the one of helicopters obscuring any of the visibility they may have down through the showers and thunderstorms.

But it's not just aloft. We also have to be concerned about the underwater portion of the search and rescue efforts. And as you can notice here, a lot of the winds are also going to pick back up throughout the area. That means a lot of the white caps you typically see on top of the sea, those will also obscure visibility, looking down, under what would normally be relatively clear water.

So for a lot of the ships that are going to be out there, taking a look at the average depth, which in this particular area, happens to be about 8,000 to 11,000 feet deep. Now, one perk is that the pinger locator will still work at depths up to 20,000 feet. But it's still going to be difficult, with all of the elements of weather that will be hindering a lot of this, and especially the winds, the showers and thunderstorms that will be out there, all of that is going to play a factor. Because the seas themselves will get quite choppy over the next couple of days as those winds begin to pick up. And again, unfortunately, this isn't just a one-day event. We are going to be dealing with very bad weather conditions in this area, Fred, for at least the next several days.

[13:45:02] WHITFIELD: All right, Allison Chinchar, thank you so much for that.

All right, Oklahoma vetoed it. A bill criminalizing abortion procedures. But other states are very much contemplating it. That story, straight ahead.

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[13:48:56] WHITFIELD: A bill that would have criminalized doctors performing abortions in Oklahoma has been vetoed by that state's governor who would calling the measure vague and unconstitutional. According to the bill, anyone performing an abortion, except in instances to save the life of the mother, would be found guilty of a felony and could receive up to three years in prison. But Oklahoma isn't the only state attempting to take big steps to try to make it more difficult for a woman to get on abortion.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher is joining me now.

So Dianne, Governor Fallon is actually opposed to abortion, but tell us why she decided to veto this bill?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Fredricka, she is a strong opponent of abortion. She said, though, this is something she struggled with internally. But the decision came down to the fact that quote "the bill is so ambiguous and so vague that doctors cannot be certain what medical circumstances would be considered necessary to preserve the life of the mother. Again, this would have banned those in the case that the life of the mother was at risk.

Fallon also said he had to consider that there would be hundreds of thousands of dollars of her state which is already facing a budget crisis may have to pay to fight off likely legal action that would have followed if she'd signed it.

[13:50:13] WHITFIELD: And Dianne, what other states are considering this type of bill?

GALLAGHER: No. Fredricka, Oklahoma is by far the most aggressive attempt in recent history when it comes to prohibiting abortion. But definitely not alone. There's been an uptick in all sorts of states trying to ban it in some fashion, at least make it tougher to get one. South Carolina lawmakers actually recently passed a bill that out lawed abortions after 19 weeks. But Governor Nikki Haley has indicated that she would sign it once she reads the details of it. She hasn't quite sign that yet. But there are 16 other states that have moved to do the same.

So for our court judges have blocked Arizona, Georgia and Idaho from enacting those similar laws. But many states are choosing to do in a different way by either decreasing funding for organizations or increasing the wait times or requirements for abortions.

Now backers of these changes, Fred, say that they are simply looking out for the health of a woman. That's what Texas lawmakers said about the 2013 bill that was cast there. They required abortion clinics to have hospital like standards. Abortion right advocates obviously said it was simply a law that would reduce access. Whether or not it's legal is the question that's made it all the way to the Supreme Court. We should be getting a ruling on that sometime about the end of next month.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dianne Gallagher, Thanks so much.

All right. Coming up, feds in Chicago police teaming up to help stop gang violence in the city. The risky operation and what they were able to pull off, next.

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[13:55:16] WHITFIELD: All right. Just moments ago, President Obama departed Andrews air force base. He is leaving for a week-long visit to Asia beginning in Vietnam. The president's trip includes a historic stop at Hiroshima, Japan, the site of the world's first nuclear attack.

And a man is in custody after ambushing a Maricopa county's sheriff's department Friday. The suspect drove to a sheriff's station and fired multiple shots at the deputy as he walked into the building. Sheriff Joe Arpaio responded to the disturbance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO, MARICOPA COUNTY, SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: People shooting at my deputies, this is the second time. This is an ambush.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The deputy was not injured after shielding himself behind a bullet proof door and firing back.

And nearly two dozen firearms are off the streets and 140 people are in custody after a historic anti-gang sweep in Chicago. The strategic operation confiscated 45,000 worth of drugs. City police and federal agents took part in the two-day long mission which targeted known gang territory in Chicago.

And an enormous wildfire in central Canada is moving east Saskatchewan, and officials warn it could keep burning for months. A mandatory evacuation has been lifted for multiple areas, including parts of Fort McMurray. The fire began May first near that city and has charge more than one million acres.

San Francisco's police chief is out of a job today. He resigned just hours after the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black woman. The mayor called for the chief's resignation after months of scandal and controversy within the department.

Our Dan Simon has more on what led up to the chief's sudden resignation and who will take his place for now.

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DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, from racist Texas messages to questionable officer involved shootings, the San Francisco police department has been embroiled in controversy and now under enormous pressure. The chief of the department has stepped down. Chief Greg is resigning at the request of the city's mayor, Ed Lee. And it comes after a 27-year-old African-American woman was shot and killed Thursday by a San Francisco police sergeant in what was described as a stormed vehicle. Now, there was no indication that the woman was armed or posed a deadly threat to officers. And it marked the third time that a suspect had been shot and killed by San Francisco officers in just the past six months.

One of those shootings involved Mario Woods, that infamous incident captured on cell phone video in December. Woods was armed with a knife but critics say he was too far away from officers to pose a deadly threat. Mayor Ed Lee explaining the challenges facing the department.

The men and women of the San Francisco police department put themselves in harm's way literally every day. We owe to them z restore the community's trust in their department in their work. As we embark on a new chapter for the police, we aim to restore this trust.

SIMON: Now, the mayor has appointed 26-year AS PD veteran Tony Chaplin as acting chief. No word if it will be a permanent post. Chaplin said his main priority will be to implement reforms already underway including de-escalation techniques

Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And the next hour of the NEWSROOM starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WHITFIELD: All right. We continue to follow breaking news in the search for Egypt Air flight 804. CNN has just obtained new audio transmissions from air traffic controller as well as other pilots trying to reach that missing Egypt air flight after it stops communicating with the ground.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand by. Egypt Air 804. Egypt air 804. This is Turkish 141.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Egypt Air 804 from Egypt air 995. Egypt air 804 from Egypt air 995 on 124.7. Egypt air 804. Egypt air. (SPEAKING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 804 this is Turkish 814. Egypt 804.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Egypt 804. How do you need me?

(END VIDEO CLIP)