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Park Geun-Hye To Relinquish Power; Brazilian Football Team On a Plane Accident; The War on Aleppo Continues; Trump Again on Twitter; Oakland Fights Human Trafficking. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired November 29, 2016 - 03:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers from all the around the world. I'm Rosemary Church.

Following two breaking news stories this hour. First, there's been a serious accident involving a plane in Colombia carrying 81 people including a Brazilian football team.

And in South Korea, President Park Geun-hye announced she has asked parliament to manage a way for her to relinquish power. A corruption scandal has been threatening to unravel her administration for months.

Let's go back to Colombia. And the first survivor of that plane accident has arrived at a hospital. Local media reports the survivor is a player from the Chapecoense football team.

Officials have not said what happened to the plane, but rescuers are moving the injured at this time.

And CNN's Rafael Romo joins us now with the very latest. So Rafael we are learning that one of those survivors, one of the players of the Brazilian team is in hospital. There are five other survivors we believe, what more are we learning about them and what are we learning this crash site and how difficult it will be for rescuers.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Well, let me start with the last question. It's going to be very difficult because that area there is rugged mountains. It's just southeast of the city of Medellin where the accident happened.

And at about 10 p.m. local time, the pilot called an emergency and it had to do with electrical failure on the plane. Moments later, the accident happened.

Now there are reports that are calling this a crash, but aviation authorities in Colombia are calling it an accident. And the fact that we now have survivors, at least six, can give us an indication in to what kind of accident it might have happened.

Also, there had been foul weather in the area for the 12 hours prior to the accident. Thunderstorms that might have caused the situation of turbulence that could have been a contributing factor to the accident.

And the team Chapecoense was city in southern Brazil was traveling on that plane. And we don't know if it was the entire team. What we know is that there were 72 passengers and nine members of the crew on board that plane.

But what we're looking at images of what the plane looked like. And again, 81 people total on board, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes. And what more can you tell us about the Chapecoense football team and just what they were doing and what is going to happen going forward with this team?

ROMO: It's very tragic news for the football world. Because they were on their way to the city of Medellin where they going to play game one of two in the South American Cup against the Atletico Nacional, that's a team in Medellin, the city, the near where this accident happened.

And so, we are talking something similar to the Champions League in Europe, the South American Cup is the equivalent of that. So as you can imagine all of those countries in South America when they hear the news, definitely there's going to be a lot of concern about the fate of these players.

CHURCH: Yes. And just going back to this accident, talk to us about authorities thinking this is an electrical problem. What more do we know about that?

ROMO: Those are the original report that the pilot made at about 10 p.m., and we don't know if there was an effort to try to land the plane, some sort of emergency landing situation because based on the distance to the Medellin airport where the accident happened, it would have been only a matter of minutes before this flight landed.

And so we are talking about a situation where this happened just prior to landing. And it was on the final leg of the trip. It was a flight that originated in Santa Cruz, a city in Bolivia. And we don't really know at what point the pilot detected that there was a problem, but he reported it at 10 p.m. local time.

CHURCH: Right. And how long will it be, do you think, before we can learn more about the other survivors and what is happening at the crash scene right now?

ROMO: What we know at this time is that the search and rescue efforts is well underway. There are firefighters from several nearby cities. So it should be a matter of hours before we know exactly what happened.

I should also add that CONMEBOL, the regional football association or governing body has suspended all activity related to games, related to the South American Cup until further notice.

CHURCH: And in respect, of course, to the team. Rafael Romo, thank you so much for joining us in the studio. We want to check in with you a little later this hour and talk to you more about this. [03:05:01] ROMO: My pleasure, Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right. Our meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us now with details on weather conditions in the area where this plane went down.

Of course, Pedram, we don't know the whether the weather actually contributed to this. We understand that some sort of electrical fault maybe at the root of this. But maybe weather did play a role. Talk to us about that, what conditions were like.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. you know, when you think about this portion of the world, Rosie, you are talking about an area that is prone to the most thunderstorms of any location on earth.

In fact, the most thunderstorm pulling country in the world has been Venezuela, not too far away and they bring the border there where about 269th per year. They see thunderstorms that persist 10 hours per night. It is par for the course essentially when it comes to the geographic set up across this region that creates this thunderstorms.

And I just want to show what was present during the time over the last communication with the aircraft. Because there is a last known spot, there were thunderstorms just to the north, across the Medellin area. Some of these storms rise as high as 48,000 feet.

So the max altitude on this aircraft sits at around 39,000 feet and the plane was far lower than that. So, certainly, if storms were present across this region and the plane interacted with it, it would be well in the path of the storm system.

But the last known point is actually in one area that is generally free of any clouds. And that is what we know as far as any sort of weather activity directly being in the path of this particular storm which it really wasn't much across that region.

But another element that really could play a significant role is just the lay of the land and the geography of this region, Rosemary. You go in for a closer perspective across this region of Jose Maria Cordova Airport. And we know that the aircraft itself at landing at this airport still sits on the ground at over 7,000 feet high or 2100 meters high.

That airport, if it were in North America would be among the tallest or highest airports in North America. So, again it kind of shows the significance of the landscape across this region. And on approach this is what the pilots are seeing with some of these mountain ranges as they are coming in for a landing.

So, of course, elevations even well beyond that. You are talking the northern fringe of the Andes Mountain range. Something really worth noting. Some information we have the flight radar 24 which is really fascinating when you think about the data that's available with this particular aircraft.

And we know that airplane has been in operation since March of 1999. So, 17 years of operation.

Look at this track. The airport is in this general location. It actually approaches and within a few minutes of landing we know that at least two loops that it made around that region before it lost all communication.

So, potentially that was exactly when they were trying to deal with the electrical issue, but again, it's very hard to tell if weather played a direct role in all of this as there weren't storms in the exact path of this storm -- of this plane, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes. Very difficult, I mean, difficult weather conditions, challenging terrain there, and of course, we don't know what the cause is. But Pedram Javaheri bringing us up to date on the weather conditions there at the time. I appreciate that.

We want to turn now to Keir Radnedge with World Soccer magazine, he joins us live via Skype from London. Thank you so much for talking with us. Explain to us the impact this is having on the football world at this time.

KEIR RADNEDGE, FORMER WORLD SOCCER MAGAZINE EDITOR: Well, this is going to have a major impact on football, and particularly in South America, obviously. This because with the increasing number of international competitions all the time, again this raises the issue of, you know, safety of air travel, safety of a number of competitions with such frequent flights.

I mean, since the story of this club from Santa Catarinans, so it's a Cinderella football story. They've only been in the top division in Brazil for the last couple of years and they've reached the Copa Sudamericana final.

This is, to be clear, this is the secondary South American Club competition. People familiar with European football, this is equivalent to the Europa League competition. And what they have achieved in the last couple of years was just amazing.

I think fresh reports suggested that there was a package of 22 people, but wasn't officials from the club on the plane obviously as with all of these figures, you know, these are -- you know, they are available to be updated.

CHURCH: Well, talk to us more about the Chapecoense team, what they've achieved. What they were actually going to be doing and what future lay ahead of them.

RADNEDGE: Well, there's fascinating about the club is that all of the players with the team are Brazilian, which is comparatively unusual in top-level football, South America any way. They are all home players.

The club was only founded in 1973. It's only as I say, in the last I think 2014 that they reach the top level of domestic championship football in Brazil. So, you know, what they represented really was after a pretty tough decade for Brazilian football, they represented a sort of new joy, a new hope really for the Brazilian game.

[03:09:58] CHURCH: And so how will the football world deal with this? At this point we understand that one of possibly six survivors is actually one of the players.

RADNEDGE: Yes. Well, we will wait to see of that. Obviously, initially this particular final match there were two match -- there are two legs of the match to be played. One tomorrow and tonight. And they've been postponed, put off.

I mean, it may well be that the final will not be played at all. I would imagine that there may well also be matches can't solo, postponed across Brazil and maybe throughout South America this coming weekend as a tribute to the people who have died in the crash.

CHURCH: And for Brazil itself, as you say, all of the team members were Brazilian, which is unusual in itself at this level. What could this mean for that team, for the club in finding a way to fill those spots?

RADNEDGE: Well, for the club, obviously, it will take them a period of time to regroup and rebuild. I would imagine there will be a great deal of sympathy amongst the Brazilian football community to try to help them.

There have been unfortunately, of course, significant plane crashes involving major cups in the past. And that's usually been the response of the football world, gathers around and to try to help the best they can.

CHURCH: All right. Keir Radnedge, thank you so much for talking with us joining us from London via Skype in such unfortunate circumstances as well. Many thanks, sir.

Well, South Korean President Park Geun-hye says she will step down if parliament wants her to. She has given her fate to the country's top lawmakers asking them to decide if she will serve the rest of her term.

Now it's widely expected that they will side with the millions of protesters who have been calling for her resignation amid a corruption scandal. Miss Park had this to say on Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PARK GEUN-HYE, SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT (TRANSLATED): I'll step down from my position according to the law once a way is performed to pass on the administration in a stable manner that will also minimize political unrest and vacuum after ruling an opposition party's discussion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: So let's get more on all this from our Paula Hancocks who is live in Seoul, South Korea. So, Paula, South Korea's president has said she will step down if parliament asks her to, and that appears to be what will happen. How surprised are analysts by this development and what will happen now?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, there was somewhat of a surprise, what Park Geun-hye has announced. Because she was basically given two options by the opposition parties. She was told either you resign or we will start an impeachment process against you.

And what the president has done is gone for a third option by saying, well, if parliament wants me to, I will resign, but not actually saying she will resign herself. So she's put the ball in the court of a national assembly.

She effectively said to them, you decide, you figure out whether or not I should shorten my term in office and of course, she left the legalities to them, as well, to figure out exactly how that can work within the Constitution. This is highly irregular that a president would effectively give up her power to the parliament and say I will let you decide what the process is and I will abide by that.

Now some experts here are saying that she managed to buy herself some time effectively as the impeachment process was expected to start this week and she has now said that she is happy to step down but it has to be decided by parliament. It's a very interesting development here.

CHURCH: Yes. And of course, as all of this is happening, protesters are increasing the pressure on lawmakers. So if -- and it looks like it's likely that Park Geun-hye will be replaced. If she is indeed removed from power, who is likely to take her place?

HANCOCKS: Well, that's the key question. Because at this point, there's not one leading candidate from the opposition parties that would step in to this role. There could be an awful lot of infighting within parties. There's a number of opposition parties.

They would not have expected this announcement to come today. So, in theory, the opposition parties don't want this to happen immediately. They need time to regroup, they need time to figure out which candidate they would put forward and how this process will go ahead.

The protesters, though, have said they are not happy with this. We've heard from the organizers they said they will continue with this candlelight vigil on a Saturday night. And we have seen hundreds of thousands of people out on the streets of Seoul.

The organizers said that quote was, "Park can't even decide on her own to resign from the presidency. She needs the national assembly to decide that for her."

[03:15:02] So, a very dismissive quote from the organizers themselves. So this doesn't appear to have placated anybody this speech, but as experts says it appears like may have bought President Park Geun-hye some time. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Yes. And we were looking at those pictures of so many people out on the streets there in Seoul, South Korea, increasing that pressure on their president to step down.

Paula Hancocks, joining us live from Seoul, South Korea where it is 5.15 in the early evening. Many thanks.

A plane carrying a Brazilian football team has been involved in an accident in Colombia. Our breaking news coverage continues in a moment. Do stay with us.

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CHURCH: Rescuers in Colombia are transporting passengers who were injured in a serious plane accident. The plane declared an emergency near Medellin with more than 70 passengers on board including members of a Brazilian football team.

Local media reports the first survivor, one of the football players has arrived at a hospital. And we will continue to cover that breaking news story.

But let's turn to U.S. politics for a moment. And President-elect Donald Trump is again claiming without evidence that voter fraud took place in states won by Hillary Clinton. Well now state election officials are punching back saying Trump is wrong and undermining confidence in the system.

We get the latest from CNN's Jeff Zeleny.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump is showing signs tonight of being a sore winner. The president-elect is suggesting with zero evidence to back up his claim that he won the popular vote and he's a victim of widespread election fraud.

In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, Trump wrote on Twitter, "I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally."

After repeatedly railing against the system on the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT-ELECT: It is a rigged system. And be careful with the voting, be careful with everything. You watch everything, folks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: He is now throwing out blatant and baseless allegations on Twitter. "Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire, and California. So why isn't the media reporting on this? Serious bias, big problem."

Election officials in all three sates say Trump's charges are flat out wrong. Trump transition officials have not offered any hard evidence to back up his staggering claims of fraud.

Hillary Clinton's lead in the popular vote has climbed to over two million. Despite charging at millions of fraudulent votes were cast nationwide, Trump is actually crying foul over the recount getting underway in Wisconsin. [03:19:58] The Wisconsin elections commission said today it would

start counting nearly three million ballots again at the request of Green Party candidate Jill Stein. She's pledging to put the tab in Wisconsin even if she pushes for recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Trump swept the three rust belt states turning them red for the first time in more than two decades. A recount is highly unlikely to change the outcome.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is certainly not Bush v. Gore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Trump who won Wisconsin by 22,000 votes called the Wisconsin recount a scam. Mark Thompson, leader of the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission blasted Trump for peddling what he called a conspiracy theory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK THOMPSON, WISCONSIN ELECTIONS COMMISSION CHAIRMAN: To say that it's not being fair or it's not that people are counting illegal votes from my vantage point is an insult to the people that run our elections.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: The Clinton campaign says there's no evidence of wrongdoing but still plans to observe the Wisconsin recount. Marc Elias, Clinton top lawyer responded on Twitter. "We are getting attacked for participating in a recount that we didn't ask for by the man who won the election, but thinks there was massive fraud."

Now Hillary Clinton has not commented on this allegations of fraud from Donald Trump. But her running mate, Senator Tim Kaine has. He's from Virginia -- one of those dates Trump said had said had serious voter fraud.

Kaine called Trump's comments shameful and an insult to voters. Now as for the recount in Wisconsin the state election board said it would cost $3.5, more than three times the original estimate. Jill Stein has until Tuesday evening to write that check.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.

CHURCH: So let's talk more about this with Greg Bluestein, he's political reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. He joins me here in the studio. And before we get on to some of the main elements of the day, it's worth pointing out that Jeff Zeleny's story has got under the skin of Donald Trump. He has been tweeting about this continually. Talk to us about what we can read in to that? What is going on? GREG BLUESTEIN, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION POLITICAL REPORTER:

Yes. Well, Donald Trump re-tweeted a series of tweets attacking Jeff's story just now and then tweeted at the very of that CNN has 100 unabashedly supported Hillary Clinton and it's sad, which means that he still, this gets under his skin.

The fact that reporters are calling out his claims of illegal votes as baseless in following some evidences. And that's what it is. There's no evidence that there's millions of illegal votes, let alone hundreds of illegal votes.

And it's really putting republicans also in a tricky position because many of these states are run by republican governors and republican secretary of state who oversee these elections and they are being called to question about whether or not their elections were safe and valid.

CHURCH: And this is what's confusing because he won the election. He is saying he is the victim of widespread voter fraud. He is saying he would have won the popular vote if you deduct those who voted illegally. There's no evidence of that as you point out.

It's very confusing for a lot of people. We are seeing this man who's going to be in charge of the country come January. And he's out there on Twitter some people say losing it.

BLUESTEIN: Remarkable is an overused term this election season but it's remarkable. He is questioning the validity of an election that he won by a sizable Electoral College margin.

So, right now we are really in unchartered, more unchartered territories with a president-elect who is making baseless claims repeatedly online on social media and having thousands, hundreds of thousands of his supporters pick it up, re-tweet it and perpetuate it.

CHURCH: All right. I want to just listen for a moment to Jill Stein. She of course is the Green Party candidate who has led this recount. And of course, even the Clinton campaign admits this will probably change nothing. But just want to hear what she had to say about the possible outcome of this for a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JILL STEIN, FORMER GREEN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What the people who watch dog the voting machine equipment, what they will be very quick to tell you is that, this is something you cannot see unless you actually count the ballots. There's otherwise no standard against which to measure it. So unless we actually look, we will never know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Al right. Some questioning her motive here. Because afterall a lot of people would say that she's the reason why Donald Trump was elected or a part of that. So what do you make of her reasoning, her motive behind this? BLUESTEIN: Well, she's getting a lot of extra national attention

right now and she's also getting hundreds, if not thousands of additional e-mails and possible donors for the future for the Green Party.

And those e-mails and donors are incredibly valuable for a political campaign so she is doing that. But also you now have Hillary Clinton's campaign joining the recount in an official capacity. So, there is a more solid grounding to that now that Hillary Clinton's campaign has signed on.

[03:25:01] CHURCH: All right. I want to turn now and look at Donald Trump's effort to find a U.S. secretary of state. It's interesting, because first Mitt Romney was in his sights. Now, of course retired Army General David Petraeus has left Trump Towers after having this we're hearing, successful discussions.

So, but how people are going to respond to him as a choice, considering he pled guilty to the way he used classified information and divulged it to others and that was something that Trump accused Hillary Clinton of doing. So, what are people to make of that?

BLUESTEIN: You know, it shows how torn the Trump administration is still over this very important position. You had the Rudy Giuliani backers. You had the Mitt Romney backers and now you are seeing the Petraeus, and maybe he is becoming a consensus choice for the people who are so divided in the Trump administration.

It is not an easy choice for him. And you are seeing open warfare which is really another remarkable, you know, issue here. You are seeing different parts of his administration, you know, feud on Twitter and on TV about who would be the best secretary of state. And really opposing Mitt Romney.

And so maybe Petraeus is someone they can see as middle ground but he of course brings his own host of questions.

CHURCH: So, can we assume Mitt Romney is off the list?

BLUESTEIN: I don't -- I don't know if you can ever assume anything until we actually find out who the secretary of state nominee will be, which could be as early as today.

CHURCH: All right. Greg Bluestein, thanks so much for coming in. I appreciate it.

BLUESTEIN: Thanks you for having me.

CHURCH: We'll take a very short break here. But rescue operations are underway after a plane carrying a Brazilian football team was involved in a serious accident in Colombia. Our breaking news coverage continues next.

[03:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back to our viewers from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. I want to update you on the main stories we are following this hour.

A plane carrying a Brazilian football team has been involved in a serious accident in Colombia. It happened in the northwestern region of the country. Officials have not said yet what happened to the plane, but Colombian airport operators say there are several survivors.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye is asking parliament to decide her fate. In a national address she asked lawmakers to find the proper way for her to relinquish her powers.

Millions of protesters have been calling on President Park to resign for her alleged part in a massive corruption scandal.

Thailand parliament will invite the crown prince to become the new king in the next few days. The prince must accept the invitation before he can be formally crowned after his father's cremation next year. The popular King Bhumibol died last month.

Investigators are digging into social media posts to determine whether an attack at Ohio State University was an act of terror. They say Abdul Razak Ali Artan drove his car in to a crowd Monday, then slashed several people with a knife. A campus police officer shot and killed him.

Well, more now on the plane accident in Colombia. The mayor of Medellin is said to be on his way to the accident site and he spoke just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FEDERICO GUTIERREZ, MEDELLIN MAYOR (TRANSLATED): It is a regrettable situation and we can confirm the accident of the plane that was carrying the players. We are accompanying the teams necessary for Medellin, the firefighters and ambulance crews.

The important thing here, seeing that there might be survivors is saving lives. That's first and foremost. So we are here supporting them on this very, very sad story. They have our solidarity. So, do our family and friends, their countries, it's sad and regretful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: All right. I want to bring back CNN's Rafael Romo with the latest now on the Colombia plane accident. And Rafael, we know, of course and we talked about these six survivors, possibly six, there may be more. We don't know at this time. But one of those survivors, the football player, one of the football players has been taken to the hospital. What more are you learning.

ROMO: For the very first time the football club itself is speaking publicly about this. They just issued a statement a few minutes ago and say that there's a lot of conflicting reports out there.

And so, at this point they are not going to say exactly what happened because they don't know that themselves. But the only thing they say is God be with our athletes, officials, journalists and other guests who are with the delegation.

Meaning, in addition to the players there were other people related to the team who were traveling in this flight. We are talking about 72 passengers on board, in addition to nine crew members. So, 81 people total on the airplane.

Now it happened at about 10 p.m. local time. At that hour, there was an emergency declaration from the pilot saying that there was some sort of electrical failure on the plane. And then the accident happened a few moments later.

Just to give you an idea, they were only a few minutes away from landing at the Medellin International Airport, the city where they were going to play a match on Wednesday, part of the South American Cup, Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right. Rafael Romo, thank you so much for keeping us abreast of the situation. We appreciate that.

Well, Geoffrey Thomas is the editor in chief and managing director at airlineratings.com, he joins us now from Perth, Australia. Thank you so much for talking with us. You've heard what authorities have been saying about this electrical failure and then a very short time after that the plane hit the ground.

We don't know the circumstances surrounding that, but we are hearing about the possibility here of six or so survivors. What do you make of this? What are you able to piece together here?

GEOFFREY THOMAS, AIRLINERATINGS.COM EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Yes, there was a report that the pilots had contacted air traffic control and they had reported electrical problems. The aircraft then went into a holding pattern at about 20,000 feet and did approximately three orbits in a holding pattern with a very slow descent.

And then there was a very rapid descent from 20,000 down to about 15,000 feet before the plane impacted into the mountains. There's also a very rapid drop in speed, as well. So it seemed as though there may have been the possibility of engine failure.

[03:34:59] And also, there was a report that the plane had run out of fuel. So there are still conflicting information, of course. And we do know there was no fire when the plane impacted the ground, which maybe one of the reasons why there are survivors from this terrible tragedy.

But other than those few scanned details at this stage there's nothing much more that we do know or can pin down on why this tragedy has occurred.

CHURCH: And Geoffrey, I wonder if you could explain something to us and to our viewers throughout the world. This reluctance to call this a crash, to go rather with the terminology of a plane accident. What was that mean?

THOMAS: Look, I think that might possible be a local cultural thing. This was a crash. And there's no question about that and a very severe crash from the first pictures that we are seeing. This plane has been torn to pieces.

It is simply a crash. And this flight was on -- this aircraft was on a flight from Santa Cruz to this airport in Colombia. It actually originated in (Technical Difficulty)...

CHURCH: All right. I'm not sure whether we still got you. Have we still got Geoffrey? All right. Geoffrey, I think we still have you. But it was interesting when you mentioned the possibility of there not being sufficient fuel. How would that happen?

THOMAS: Well, this electrical failure that we may have, may have related to -- look, it may be a number of things. That the report of running out of fuel did come from a source at the crash, in the crash area.

The fact there was no explosion when the plane impacted the mountains indicates that that may possibly be true, that it had run out of fuel. Why it ran out of fuel, very hard to say. It shouldn't have. But there might have been an error in loading the fuel on to the aircraft. You know, that has happened before.

So, there's a possibility that may be the case. And certainly the fact that there was a lack of any explosion or fire would sort of reinforce that fact, possibility.

CHURCH: All right. Geoffrey Thomas, thank you so much for joining us from Perth, Australia and clarifying that point.

(CROSSTALK)

THOMAS: My pleasure.

CHURCH: This was indeed a plane crash, a reluctance there on the part of Colombian authorities to call it that but it could be related to terminology there, local terminology perhaps. Many thanks to you.

Well, a little more background on the team, the football team, the Brazilian football team on board the flight that went down there in Medellin, Colombia on Monday night.

Now the club was founded in 1973 in the city of Chapecoense in the south of Brazil. It is currently sitting ninth in Brazil series A league, the top tier of professional soccer in the country.

But it has been punching above its weight on the international stage this season qualifying for the final of the Copa Sudamericana, that is the South American equivalent of the Europa League in Europe where the team had been expected to play Colombia's Atletico Nacional in Wednesday's first league.

Well, Syrian forces appeared to be on the brink of crushing the rebellion in Aleppo. The army and its allies broke through rebel lines and took control of a large area of eastern Aleppo on Monday. There has been fierce fighting for Syria's second largest city for the past two weeks. It's the rebels' last urban stronghold. Activists say about 10,000

people have fled the area in the past few days. And estimated 250,000 people have been trapped in eastern Aleppo since July.

Our Nick Paton Walsh joins us now live from London with more on this. So, Nick, what more are you learning about Syrian regime forces retaking large areas of eastern Aleppo?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's unclear exactly how much territory they hold and how clear that control of that territory is. So, Russian media, of course, battling the Assad regime, he's suggesting perhaps 40 percent of that east of Aleppo maybe in regime hands.

Twenty percent I think are more reliable less possibly. They seem to have pushed through and cut the area in half. A pretty well-known military tactic on that, concentrating on controlling the northern part of that city.

Now obviously here we are talking about the fate for what the U.N. has long said is 200,000 civilians.

[03:40:00] They've long been trapped in that area, they face deep food shortages, food stocks running low, hospitals now bombed out of existence. Yes, in the midst there are a lot of fighters, there are rebel fighters. Some moderate, some Jihadist links, too.

But it's clear at this stage that tens of thousands of civilians are trying to flee, 10,000 potentially to the north to a Kurdish held area. Maybe there are tens of thousands to other directions as well.

But you have to bear in mind the history of this conflict here. These are holdouts in rebel areas. Civilians who will be perceive by advancing regime forces that may have Iraqi or Iranians, according to different reports in their ranks.

They will be considered to be allied to what the regime considered terrorists, a very stark fate potentially awaiting them if they end up in detention in regime hands. And Rosemary, I can't really overstate the symbolism of this moment in the Syrian war.

Eastern Aleppo has been, as you said, the key urban holdout of the rebels. It's long been besieged, it's long resisted that siege and the intense bombardment you've seen daily play out on social media here pretty (Inaudible) that's now slowing down as communication becomes harder with that part of eastern Aleppo.

If it falls to the regime that is a huge blow to anything that could have been considered to being a future for the rebel movement there and it will cause impact the fate of the group that's most persecuted inside Syria throughout this conflict and that is Sunnis -- Sunnis in Syria. Rosemary?

CHURCH: All right. Our Nick Paton Walsh keeping us up to date on what is happening there on the ground in Aleppo. I appreciate that. Joining us live from London. Well, U.S. investigators are trying to figure out if an attack at Ohio

State University was an act of terrorism. Eleven people were wounded in the rampage that sent the campus into lockdown.

Authorities say 18-year-old Abdul Razak Ali Artan posted to Facebook before it happened. And I'm quoting here directly, he said, "My brothers and sisters, I am sick and tired of seeing my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters being killed and tortured everywhere, seeing my fellow Muslims being tortured, raped and killed in Burma led to a boiling point.

I can't take it anymore. America, stop interfering with other countries, especially the Muslim Ummah. We are not weak. We are weak, remember that." End of quote there.

And officials also say Artan encouraged people to listen to radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

CNN's Pamela Brown has more now on the attack.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Around 9.52 a.m., chaos erupts in the heart of the campus near buildings for the science and engineering program. A car jumped and at curb plowing into pedestrians. Then the suspect identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan jumps out and continues to attack with a knife slashing people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRAIG STONE, OHIO STATE POLICE CHIEF: He exits the vehicle and uses a butcher knife to start cutting pedestrians. Our officer was on the scene in less than a minute and he ended the situation in less than a minute. He engaged the suspect. And he eliminated the threat. The suspect is DOA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Artan was an Ohio state student of Somali descent and a permanent resident of the United States. Officials say he came to the United States in June of 2014. His mother told the community members that he had been complaining recently about grades at OSU.

He was interviewed at the beginning of the school year by the student newspaper and spoke of being uncomfortable openly praying and projecting his Muslim faith on campus. Law enforcement officials say that on Facebook he complained about attacks on Muslims.

Investigators say it could be the motive but are continuing to investigate as Artan unleashed chaos on campus, a text message from the university went out to all students telling them to shelter in place. A tweet from the university emergency management department told them to run, hide, fight.

(BEGIN VOICE CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did hear like three or four things that would sound like gunshots and then we heard sirens come. So we assume they were gunshots.

(END VOICE CLIP)

BROWN: The students barricade their classroom doors in an effort to keep the attacker at bay. One class piled up chairs at the door as law enforcement are on scene to try and contain the situation as quickly as possible.

Authorities here in Columbus, Ohio say that the university has an expansive camera system and investigators who are able to pore through that video and determine that the attacker acted alone that there was no one else in that car with him.

However, investigators want to rule out that anyone else may have helped him.

Pamela Brown, CNN, Columbus, Ohio.

CHURCH: Well, coming up next on CNN NEWSROOM, a California city is turning to music to raise awareness about human trafficking. We're back with that in just a moment.

[03:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: The first survivors of a serious plane accident in Colombia have arrived at a hospital. The plane took off from Bolivia and declared an emergency as it neared Medellin late Monday night. More than 70 passengers were on board including members of a Brazilian football team.

The local man near the accident site says at least five people have survived.

The city of Oakland, California, is turning to hip hop to bring attention to human trafficking.

Sara Sidner has today's CNN Freedom Project report.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A hip hop concert with a noble purpose. The city of Oakland closing down a busy section of downtown to send a strong message. Human trafficking has no place in this city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we are very excited to be announcing the launch of reportjohn.org.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: The site aims to crackdown on demand for the sexually exploited by encouraging people to photograph the license plate numbers of vehicles belonging to suspected sex buyers. Once uploaded to reportjohn.org police send a warning letter to the address where the vehicle is registered.

The concern, though, is whether the site itself could be exploited with license plate numbers being sent in anonymously by people simply looking to cause problems for the owner of that vehicle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIBBY SCHAAF, OAKLAND MAYOR: This is an innovative approach. Every innovation has its risks but we have already sent out 200 letters and we have not gotten a single complaint.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: The city, like many others around the country, is hoping to fight back against the commercial sexual exploitation of children. It's an issue front and center in Oakland and the entire San Francisco Bay area.

[03:50:02] In September, four OPD officers were fired as part of a department-wide sex scandal that began last fall. One has pled not guilty. An 18-year-old former prostitute alleged she had sex with police officers starting when she was just 17 in exchange for money or tipoffs about upcoming raids.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHAAF: It's shameful that the city of Oakland is one of the biggest hot spots for human trafficking but it would be more shameful to be silent about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And while the scandal continues to rage, the city's concert, festival organizers and performers are resolute saying this is a chance to write a new chapter for the future of the city.

Sara Sidner, CNN, Oakland.

CHURCH: And on Wednesday, a teenager refugee in Athens tells us how he and other young refugees like him become tangled up in the sex trade just to survive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's shocking, really it's shocking. You know, they are desperate. There is no way out unless they find money.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (TRANSLATED): I am not doing this because I like it. If I wanted to do something nice, I would date a girl. I was forced to do it because I had no money. Otherwise, I would stay with a girl instead of going with an old man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And that is the next part of the CNN Freedom Project special series this week Tackling Demand.

And just updating you on our breaking news, a plane carrying a Brazilian football team declared an emergency over Colombia. We will have the latest on possible survivors. That's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: The mayor of Rio Negro in Colombia says at least five people have survived a serious plane accident near his city. The first survivors arrived at a hospital just a short time ago.

More than 70 passengers, including members of a Brazilian football team, were on board the plane when it declared an emergency as it neared Medellin late Monday night. Rescue teams are moving the injured right now. The accident site can only be accessed by land because of weather conditions there.

And Moroccan state TV show has provoked outrage after it aired a segment advising women how to conceal the marks of domestic violence with makeup. At the same time, the United Nations is sending out the opposite message, using an eerily similar video.

[03:54:59] Speaking out about domestic violence is still a rarity in parts of the world. But when this Moroccan lifestyle show chose to address the topic, it did so in a way that outraged viewers far beyond North Africa.

As she points to the artificial bruises on this model's face, the makeup artist warns after the beating this part is still sensitive so don't press. In an effort to reassure women watching that physical abuse neither proved a hindrance she completes the tutorial by saying, "we hope these beauty tips will help you carry on with your daily life."

Social media reaction has been scathing with one Twitter user commenting, "Host spends more time talking about the best brand of makeup to cover domestic violence bruises than the actual issue of domestic violence."

Another suggests, "Instead of giving women makeup tips to hide evidence of hash tag domestic abuse, please teach men how not to abuse women."

The channel responsible for the clip 2M has since removed it from its web site and apologized for airing the segment, calling it completely inappropriate. And yet, some see this as too little too late with the broadcast appearing just two days ahead of the United Nations international day for the elimination of violence against women.

The U.N. addressing the scourge of domestic violence in a video of their own titled reversing the trend. It features a Palestinian makeup artist who uses concealer in reverse motion video to symbolize turning back the trend of abuse.

The U.N.'s campaign runs until December 10th, Human Rights Day.

We want to thank you all for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. Our breaking news of a serious plane accident in Colombia continues next with Ivan Watson in Hong Kong.

[04:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)