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Boeing Accepts Blame for Crashes; March Jobs Number; Dave Barry Shares Life Lessons. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 05, 2019 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:31:19] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: "The Washington Post" reports that federal regulators are ordering Boeing to fix a second software issue with the flight control system on its grounded 737 Max fleet. Boeing's CEO making a statement that's getting a lot of attention.

CNN's Drew Griffin has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The CEO of Boeing making a rare admission, accepting blame for two of its airliners that crashed.

DENNIS MUILENBURG, CEO, BOEING: It's apparent that in both flights the maneuvering characteristics augmentation system, known as MCAS, activated in response to erroneous angle of attack information.

It's our responsibility to eliminate this risk. We own it and we know how to do it.

GRIFFIN: The video message from Boeing comes after a devastating preliminary report laying out that a software issue apparently caused the crash of an Ethiopian airlines flight last month. The report also suggesting the same issue may have caused a Lion Air flight to go down last year. The preliminary report finds the pilots did everything required to try to bring the plane back safely, but ultimately couldn't control it.

Former Boeing operations analyst Rick Ludtke says during development of the 737 Max, Boeing had a mandate, make sure any changes to the plane would not require additional pilot training in a simulator

RICK LUDTKE, FORMER BOEING FLIGHT CREW OPERATIONS ANALYST: Unprecedented. Never -- never happened in the past, that I'm aware of. We were very uncomfortable with this.

GRIFFIN: Ludtke says Boeing managers told him they even sold the plane to Southwest Airlines with a guarantee, a rebate of a million dollars per plane if simulator training was required. The flight control analyst says the demand to avoid simulator training, known as level d, took over design of the aircraft.

LUDTKE: Throughout the design iteration, all the status meetings with managers, that was something that was always asked, you know, are we threatened? Are we risking level d? And if you are, you've got to change it.

I think, philosophically, it was the wrong thing for the company to do, to mandate such a limitation. To strongly avoid it makes sense, but to prevent it, I think, you can see the line from -- from that to these accidents.

GRIFFIN: Federal investigators are now trying to determine if Boeing's cost-saving moves could somehow lead to criminal charges.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Both Boeing and Southwest Airline refuse to comment on their business deal that was referred to in this piece. But in the meantime, we're learning what is causing the delay in getting Boeing's software fix to the FAA. It was supposed to be sent last week, but CNN has learned there was a glitch in integrating the software with other Boeing programs, which has now caused a delay.

Drew Griffin, CNN, outside Boeing's Renton facility in Renton, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Our thanks to Drew for that report.

Joining me now is Peter Lemme. He's an aviation expert who worked for Boeing. Now, he did not work on the 737, but he recently was subpoenaed by a federal grand jury looking into Boeing's 737 Max certification.

So, Peter, thank you very much for being with us.

First of all, just big picture, I do want your take on the Boeing CEO owning the problems here. That was an interesting statement.

PETER LEMME, AVIATION EXPERT: It was. And I think it's the first time we've seen them actually admit that they have a significant contribution to these accidents.

BERMAN: And you take it as a positive development, yes?

LEMME: I do. Up until now they've basically pointed towards the flight crew and maintenance as major contributors to it, that could have prevented the accident, but now I think they're finally saying that they actually were a meaningful part of this accident.

[08:35:01] BERMAN: So you are now part of this story. You have been subpoenaed. You were visited by federal officials saying they want you to testify for the grand jury, even though you haven't worked for Boeing in 22 years. Do you know why you were subpoenaed and what information do you plan to provide?

LEMME: I can only guess that they would like to know what information I've uncovered in my own personal investigations, who I may have talked to and what they may have told me. Of course I've agreed to submit everything that I have willingly and I have agreed to brief them as well.

BERMAN: What have your investigations in layman's terms found that you think might be of interest to them?

LEMME: I think they're mostly interested in what kind of documents that I've used to perform my own analysis, to help them sort of as a roadmap to see what they themselves should be looking at.

BERMAN: Drew Griffin just reported, I don't know if you heard our report before, about these questions being raised about the mandate that Boeing had during the development of the 737, that they wanted to have these changes, they wanted to sell the plane without having the requirement for pilots to have simulation training. Was that a mistake?

LEMME: I think it's clear what we've seen now with the Ethiopian accident that the flight crew were put into a situation after they had the cutouts, which is that they didn't know what to do, particularly with the manual trim. Clearly a simulator training exercise would have allowed them to become more familiar with what to expect and perhaps a better idea of what to do in the event that they encountered this situation.

BERMAN: And "The Washington Post" is reporting this morning that there is a problem -- a second software problem beyond the one we just knew. What does that tell you?

LEMME: It's, of course, a bit of a surprise that this has come out so late. It's not apparent to me exactly what this second error is at this point. It hasn't showed up, if you will, in the analysis as far as a deficiency. So this is probably something that's not a significant contributor to the accident, but it's something that needs to be corrected nevertheless.

BERMAN: All right, Peter Lemme, thank you so much for being with us, helping us understand a little bit more. After you testify, please come back and talk to us again.

LEMME: Thank you.

BERMAN: Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right, John, there's a big number in the just released jobs report. Christine Romans has those numbers, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:41:22] CAMEROTA: OK, some breaking economy news. The Labor Department releasing the latest jobs report from March. Chief business correspondent Christine Romans has been scrambled to join us right now with the new number.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hot off the presses.

Look, it was a -- it was a strong number. I'm going to tell you, overall we had a strong number here, 196,000 net new jobs. That's a bounce back. Remember February, it was -- that's been revised now. But February was something happened there with the weather or there was some corporate caution, but overall you're seeing a rebound here and companies are aggressively hiring again.

The unemployment rate steady at 3.8 percent. That's basically a generational low.

As for sectors, strong business information, office jobs. These tend to be higher paying jobs. They did very well.

Healthcare, again, across the spectrum in health care. Years of strong jobs growth.

But this will be troubling to the White House, manufacturing jobs declined again here. We've been watching manufacturing, construction kind of faltered a little bit at the beginning of this year. So that's incredibly important to watch.

Markets have been mixed, but overall you've got futures still up here a little bit.

I think this number, guys, is still a good -- a good performance for the overall economy. And I think that's really important. You had all this talk about a slowing economic growth in the U.S. and around the world, but the job engine still seems to be strong here.

BERMAN: To walk out a little bit here, the president wants, or has been pushing, sometimes subtly, sometimes not subtly at all, for a rate cut. That's not the kind of thing you do with numbers like this.

ROMANS: No, with a strong labor market like that, it does not warrant a rate cut right here. And I think a lot of economists would agree to that.

Also, there's this idea that for those people, like the White House, saying they want to cut interest rates, that would send a very scary signal to investors that maybe there's something weaker, something dangerous around the corner that they're trying to prevent. Why we need to have an independent Fed, right, to make those decisions that are not political decisions.

CAMEROTA: I remember that anomaly from last month, you were stunned by those low numbers and thought perhaps it was indicative of a trend, but it's not, at the moment.

ROMANS: Yes, you need to see a couple or three in a row to really know that there is something more than just a blip. It looks like February was a blip at this point.

Let me tell you some other numbers in here that are incredibly important, 3.2 percent year over year wage growth.

BERMAN: Well, that's good.

ROMANS: It's good. It's a little softer than we had thought. We thought maybe it would be -- it might be 3.3., 3.4, but 3.2 percent is -- is in the right direction still. And 3.8 percent unemployment rate. Again, that's nearly a generational low. Last week we saw jobless claims, a 49-year low in the number of people

filing for jobless benefits. That still tells you that companies in this country are hiring briskly. At some point you might see jobs numbers start to slow a bit, only because there aren't the available workers to match the jobs and the skills we need there. So that could be the slowdown in the future.

This is a strong number in an economy.

BERMAN: Christine Romans, great to have you here.

ROMANS: Nice to see you guys.

BERMAN: All right, bestselling author Dave Barry is learning new tricks from an old dog, and he joins us next.

CAMEROTA: First a programming note, the four-part CNN original series "Tricky Dick" explores President Richard Nixon's rise, fall, incredible comeback and political destruction. It's featuring never been seen footage. And the series continues Sunday night at 9:00.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:48:27] CAMEROTA: A new, heartwarming book gives lessons on how to live a joyous life. And the inspiration for the book comes from man's best friend. It's called "Lessons from Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog." It is written by our friend, nationally syndicated humor columnist Dave Barry, who joins us now.

Good to have you here in studio.

DAVE BARRY, AUTHOR, "LESSONS FROM LUCY": Good to be here. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: So you and your dog turned the same age.

BARRY: We both turned 70 last year. Well, I turned 70 people years, he turned 70 in dog years and --

CAMEROTA: Which is 10. She turned 10.

BARRY: She turned 10.

CAMEROTA: But that means 70.

BARRY: Yes, all right, if I said 70, she would turned (INAUDIBLE).

CAMEROTA: Yes, right.

BARRY: She'd be the world's oldest dog.

No, yes, she turned 10, so she's 70, I'm 70. It sucks to be 70. (INAUDIBLE). Bottom line, a lot of your mail is about catheters when you turn 70.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh.

BARRY: Yes. So -- so --

CAMEROTA: But you felt she was handling it better than you were.

BARRY: That's exactly -- well, she doesn't get mail. That's one thing that's in her favor.

But, yes, I -- the idea was, I realized that she was much happier than I was. And I thought, if I could just like maybe do the things she does to be happy, except for drink from the toilet, maybe I could be happy, too. Not that I wouldn't. I mean if it worked. But I'm not recommending it. Not recommending that.

BERMAN: So this is -- this isn't really a book about dogs, per se --

BARRY: It's about what -- the wisdom they have -- in the sense that like they are -- they keep doing things that make them happy. And when we were little, we make friends easily. We play. We pay attention to the environment around us because we're not always -- and then, as we get older, we stop doing all those things, and dogs don't. They just keep doing things that are -- that work, that make you happy, that make you -- that make your life enjoyable.

[08:50:04] So it's a series of lessons that I learned from Lucy. But, yes, you're supposed to be applying these to your own life, not to -- I mean they already know -- the dogs already --

CAMEROTA: But spell out something for us.

BARRY: Dogs don't read is my point.

BERMAN: All right. Some of the lessons actually are terrific here.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Yes. Spell out some of those lessons for us.

BERMAN: Make new friends.

BARRY: Oh, yes. I find that as I got older, I got much worse -- I didn't want to meet anybody, and I got -- I already had friends and I don't even like them, you know what I mean? You get cranky about -- it's easier to just say home than --

BERMAN: One of the things I literally say all the time is, I have enough friends.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BARRY: I have enough friends. And I have like these friends, old friends I've had forever, good friends, and I don't even know if they're all still alive, you know, because I don't -- you know, I'd have to call them up.

CAMEROTA: Right.

BARRY: Ad I don't do that. You know, you don't reach out.

So one of the things I started doing after I wrote this book is, I write a little note to myself, call -- call Rob Stavis (ph) today. You know, call Bob Stern (ph) today.

CAMEROTA: OK. Lesson number two, don't stop having fun.

BARRY: Yes. I mean dogs like -- when my dog Lucy was little, she liked to play ball, which is basically a game where she picks up -- we call it anything she has in her mouth a ball, and she -- you're supposed to try to get it from her. I don't really want it. It's a spit-covered thing. But I pretend, you know -- and she runs away and it's exciting.

And she did that when she was a puppy and she does that now. And I, you know, kind of -- I think when you get older you settle for just being content as opposed to actually actively having fun. So that's one of the reasons I'm in a rock band of authors with, you know, because we have fun. It's stupid fun.

CAMEROTA: No, I've come to see you guys.

BARRY: Yes.

CAMEROTA: You're really having fun.

BARRY: We -- we tried to get this woman to sing on stage with our band.

CAMEROTA: I tried to warn them what a bad idea that would be.

BERMAN: It depends on what kind of fun you're looking for, I think in this case. Fun for whom?

BARRY: We're looking for somebody with less musical talent than we have.

CAMEROTA: Then you've found her.

BARRY: It's a -- it's a --

CAMEROTA: You've come to the right place.

BARRY: Yes.

BERMAN: You know, the keep having fun thing, what I'd like is you talk about -- you know, you see all the ads for drugs and stuff for seniors and they -- they have a content look on their face. That's different than fun.

BARRY: Yes, yes. Yes, the fun that they show in every ad involving people into my age, seniors, is they're not actually doing anything. They're standing around grinning. You know, they're grinning at a resort. They're grinning next to a beach. But they're just grinning, like, where -- this -- I can grin, but I don't know that that's really like fun.

CAMEROTA: You say also pay attention to the people you love.

BARRY: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Like Lucy does.

BARRY: Dogs are really -- this is the best quality dogs have, they are like, when you're in a room with your dog, your dog is not thinking about anything but you. Every move you make, every smell you emit, their -- the dog is right there for you. And not that you -- no.

CAMEROTA: I'm not sure we have changed.

BARRY: And -- but like people don't do that. We just, like, after a while, you see it, we all see it, you're in the same room with people you love and care about and you're all looking at your phones. You shouldn't be looking at your phone, you should be looking at their phone. No, you should be looking at -- you should be looking at them and paying attention to them.

Dogs are really good at that because, you know, when it's over, when -- when you go to a funeral you go, gee, there's that person gone. I'm never going to talk to that person again. Why -- you know, why didn't I talk to that person instead of looking at the stupid screen.

BERMAN: That's some (INAUDIBLE).

CAMEROTA: Dave Barry, great to see you.

BARRY: Thank you. Thanks for having me on.

BERMAN: Thanks so much for coming on.

CAMEROTA: The book again, "Lessons From Lucy."

BERMAN: "Lessons From Lucy."

All right, "Late Night Laughs" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:57:00] BERMAN: All right, when he's not banging his gavel, this week's CNN Hero is pounding the pavement. Judge Craig Mitchell started the Skid Row Running Club for people dealing with addiction and homelessness in Los Angeles. Today the group includes runners from all walks of life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRAIG MITCHELL: Running is a mechanism for the participants to build relationships.

This is the one time I'm at the front of the pack.

Lawyers, social workers, people form all different walks of life running with people who are recovering from addiction and homelessness.

Good job.

We affirm, we listen, we support. It shows what open-minded people who really care about each other, how they can treat one another. And it's a lesson in and of itself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: For more on Judge Mitchell's life changing club and to nominate someone you think should be a CNN Hero, go to CNN heroes.com. Do it right now.

CAMEROTA: Oh, I will.

All right, President Trump claims he's facing the highest level of presidential harassment. Here are your "Late Night Laughs."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH MEYERS, HOST, LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": President Trump claimed in a tweet this morning that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report from the Russia investigation is, quote, the highest level of presidential harassment in U.S. history. I guess he's not counting the time Abraham Lincoln got harassed at that play.

TREVOR NOAH, HOST, "THE DAILY SOW WITH TREVOR NOAH": You know, in fairness to Trump, he probably is under audit. I mean Trump's taxes are so dirty the IRS probably has them in one of those contagion rooms from "Outbreak." And, look, I want to see Trump's taxes as much as anyone, but after the Mueller report, I'm not putting my heart on the line, all right. If you get too emotionally invested in these things, you'll only get hurt in the end. Just like in movies. That's why when I watched "The Notebook," I root for the Alzheimer's. It's just safer that way.

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": President Trump revealed that the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza was his pick for the Federal Reserve. And there's only one thing to say to that.

HERMAN CAIN: Oh, shucky ducky.

COLBERT: But let me remind you, most of Herman Cain's business experience comes from running a pizza chain. Evidently Trump thinks Fed is short fettucine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Or just fed pizza.

BERMAN: You wrote a whole book about Herman Cain.

CAMEROTA: Well, not exactly, but he was an inspiration for one of the main characters in "Amanda Wakes Up." He --

BERMAN: Now available in paperback.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much for being my PR person.

I mean I remember when Herman Cain splashed onto the scene and how much coverage he got on Fox News. And the idea that he's back because President Trump was I guess impressed during that time, it's just very fascinating how paths cross and re-cross.

BERMAN: And he dropped out of that campaign, if memory serves, because of scandal.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I don't think that in the current Me Too moment that Herman Cain might be the right choice. He had all sorts of women coming forward who made accusations against him that sounded plausible that were beyond sexual harassment, to be honest.

[09:00:04] BERMAN: And were you covering them all the time?

CAMEROTA: The funny thing about that.

END