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New Day

United Airlines Grounds Boeing 777 Jets after Engine Failure; Passenger Describes Experience as Engine Failed; House to Vote on Biden's $1.9 Trillion Pandemic Relief Bill. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired February 22, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mayday, mayday. We have just experienced an engine failure.

[05:59:53]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The FAA has ordered emergency inspections and United Airlines says it's removing all of its Boeing triple-7 200s with the Pratt Whitney engine from service.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think this aircraft is going to stay on the ground for a while.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Biden will be laser focused on COVID relief this week, as the House is set to vote later in the week on that $1.9 trillion package.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Merrick Garland will likely face intense questions from Republicans, and he'll have to walk a fine line, since he's still technically a sitting judge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very confident that he will look at every case on the merits.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Monday, February 22. It is 6 a.m. here in New York. Alisyn is off. Erica Hill with me this morning.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

BERMAN: Happy Monday.

HILL: And to you.

BERMAN: So we do have breaking news. Boeing telling airlines telling airlines to stop flying 128 triple-7 jets, all aircraft with the same engine that suffered a catastrophic failure over the weekend. Look at this video.

United Airlines has temporarily removed all 24 planes with Pratt Whitney 4000 engines from its fleet. It's a specific type of Boeing plane with a specific type of Pratt Whitney engine. They will be grounded. Japan and South Korea have done the same.

This comes after the engine of the United plane carrying 241 people exploded Saturday shortly after takeoff. The jet landed safely, but not before scattering debris across Colorado. Look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SOUND OF HARD OBJECT HITTING GROUND)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Wow. So what went wrong? This morning, we have new reporting about what investigators are finding, and we will speak live with a passenger who was on that flight.

HILL: Meantime, it is a big week for the Biden administration and Congress. A House committee, of course, voting today to advance President Biden's $1.9 trillion relief bill.

And as you see on the calendar, too, a full House -- full vote in the House is expected this week.

There are also confirmation hearings for attorney general nominee Merrick Garland. Those begin today.

But all of this as the U.S. is on the brink of surpassing 500,000 deaths from coronavirus. A sobering milestone, one President Biden is expected to honor tonight, honoring those lives that have been lost.

Let's begin our coverage this morning with CNN's Dan Simon, who is live at Denver International Airport with the latest on the fallout from United Airlines Flight 328.

Dan, good morning.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Erica.

In the wake of this very frightening, uncontained engine failure, regulators really have two goals here: to figure out exactly how this happened and to prevent it from happening again.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON (voice-over): After United Airlines Flight 328 experienced engine failure shortly after takeoff Saturday, the company is temporarily removing all 24 of its Boeing triple-7 airplanes with Pratt and Whitney PW-4000 engines from service out of an abundance of service.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Denver, departure. United 328 heavy mayday. Aircraft just experienced engine failure. Need to return immediately. SIMON: A United pilot making a mayday call on the flight heading from

Denver to Honolulu, as passengers watch the right engine fire off flames, and pieces of the plane fall off in terror.

BRENDA DOHN, PASSENGER ON UNITED FLIGHT 328: I looked out and I could see some smoke coming, and you just knew. Like, you just know something's wrong, something's not right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of a sudden, there's a big explosion out my window. My wife and I held hands and just wished our kids, we'd see them again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hang on one second. We're getting blown up with 911 calls.

SIMON: And on the ground, the engine malfunction sending a trail of debris raining down into suburban Denver neighborhoods.

TYLER THAL, EYEWITNESS: I looked out and as I'm looking at it, I actually see, you know, fire burst out of the plane. An explosion. So, you know, kind of in shock at first and then you start thinking, oh, my gosh, is this plane going to go down?

SIMON: This gigantic piece of metal landing right into this front yard.

KIRBY KLEMENTS, EYEWITNESS: We heard this big crash, boom, and this big silver piece roll right in front of our -- our picture window there. And I'm going, like, what the heck is that?

SIMON: There were no injuries reported for the passengers and crew on the plane or in the Broomfield, Colorado, neighborhood where most of the debris fell. Boeing now recommending that all 777 airplanes with that engine model should suspend operations, while the National Transportation and Safety Board investigates.

This after the Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency order, saying it would step up inspections of Boeing 777 aircraft with the same engine model that failed Saturday.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: The question is, how do you properly inspect these fan blades? They're hollow. They're big. Each of them weighs about 30 pounds. And they cracked from the inside out.

SIMON: Now the NTSB is investigating why the United aircraft experienced what aviation experts are describing as an uncontained engine failure.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: They're going to want to know if this was a flaw that was embedded for years, sort of a smoking time bomb, if you will, or if it was something that happened more recently and was it missed in inspections. So the NTSB has a lot to do.

(END VIDEOTAPE) [06:05:15]

SIMON: Now, it's not clear how long United will keep these planes out of service, but says only a small number of customers should be inconvenienced here. And that's really what's key here, is that we're only talking about planes that impact United Airlines. That's the only airline that has this configuration of this 777 aircraft.

Only two other countries have it. We're talking about North Korea and Japan.

John, back to you.

BERMAN: All right, Dan, thank you very much.

Joining me now, Brenda Dohn. She, her husband, and their three children were passengers on that United flight on Saturday.

Brenda, thank you so much for being with us. We're so glad you're on the ground safely. You reached your destination. Just walk us through what happened. What did you see? What did you hear?

DOHN: You know, it was -- it was a smooth takeoff, and I thought we were in the clear. We were just hitting altitude going into the clouds and I turned over to just talk to my daughter. And all of a sudden, there was just this huge boom. And that's the only way I can describe it. It was -- it was a boom that almost felt like an explosion, and you knew that there was just a big problem.

And initially, there was chaos. I mean, I -- I did scream, and my daughter kind of said, Mom, don't scream. And I got out my rosary. I was -- I was scared. I mean, there were people around kind of yelping and a little bit of, ahh, you know, which is -- to be expected. And then we kind of went calm. Everyone went calm, to hear what the flight attendant was telling us was going on and to remain seated and it was just a difficult time. It's terrifying.

BERMAN: Could you see out the window? What did you see in terms of the engine?

DOHN: Well, I was trying to -- my daughter was -- I was looking over her shoulder out the window to see what I could see, and at that time, I was just seeing black debris kind of flying up toward the window. And I told her, you know, it's probably a good idea to shut the window and not look outside.

So once we landed, my husband did tell me that he see parts and almost what looked to be like fireballs. So I'm glad I didn't see that.

BERMAN: What did you think had happened?

DOHN: Boy, I knew -- you know, honestly, because of the feeling and sound, honestly, my first thought was, that's an engine.

My second thought was, did somebody bring something in their -- their bags that was packed underneath? You know, I just knew that it was an explosion. I thought, how bad is this aircraft hit? I mean, you know, is there a hole down there? What's going on?

But it was -- it was very soon that the flight attendant came on and after the pilots kind of had figured out what's going on, they -- they did say, it is an engine failure, and we will be returning back to the airport.

So at that point, we just kind of held each other tight and held on for the ride. I mean, it was a pretty shaky, shaky ride; and I don't think any of us knew how serious it was until we were on the ground and we could see some of those videos that people were sending in from -- from the ground.

BERMAN: How long was it between when you heard the blast and you touched down? I just can't imagine going through that for that long?

DOHN: You know, time to me, it seems like it was so long -- I just honestly, I don't know. To me it feels like it was probably about another ten minutes before we were on the ground. I do know at one point, the flight attendant came on, and he said it would be another four minutes until we landed.

And so in that -- at that time, I thought, OK, in four minutes -- in my head, I was like, in four minutes, I'll either be on the ground. Or what does four minutes mean for me and my family right now? These four minutes are crucial. And so I held onto that four minutes. And those four minutes felt like the longest four minutes of my life. Absolutely.

BERMAN: And you were sitting next to your daughter. What did you do during that period to keep you and her -- or what did she do to keep you calm, as the case may be?

DOHN: She tells me now that I made her more nervous. I -- like I said, I do fly. I always keep a rosary with me when I fly. I'm a nervous flyer anyway. So I got out that rosary, and I started praying.

And, you know, we just -- I held it in my hand and held her hand in my hand with the rosary and just prayed. And it calmed me, but I think it made her more scared. So I hope it never happens again, but if it does, I think I'm going to have to keep my prayers in my -- in my head, because it made her scared.

BERMAN: So a lifetime of bringing the rosary with you, you got a chance to use it on this flight.

DOHN: Absolutely.

BERMAN: How bumpy was it, once the engine went? How bumpy was the rest of the flight?

DOHN: It was pretty bumpy. You know, I'm -- I'm nervous in flights anyway, and any shake kind of jolts me, but I will never complain of turbulence again, because I know -- I know what real turbulence is now. It was pretty shaky, yes. And no matter where you looked, it seemed like the ceiling of the plane was just jerking back and forth, too, and we were just holding on until we got down, absolutely.

BERMAN: Now, you -- You're in Hawaii now. You made it to your destination. And you got on a flight not long after to head there.

DOHN: Yes.

BERMAN: How were you going to -- I mean, what I think about now is, how I would get on a plane differently. What I would look at every time I get on a plane from now on. Are you going to look at every engine out the window as you get onboard?

DOHN: It kind of felt like that. It was -- you know, you get in, you kind of take a deep breath and you look around, and that takeoff now is a little bit different feeling than it's ever been. That's for sure. Hopefully, with time, that apprehension will go away. But it is -- it is scary now. So, absolutely.

BERMAN: Brenda Dohn, you deserve a Hawaii vacation. We're so glad you and your family are safe. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. Really appreciate it.

DOHN: I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

BERMAN: Erica.

HILL: Wow. Well, joining us now, CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien. He's a science correspondent for PBS "Newshour."

Miles, good to see you this morning. You know, I can't get out of my head. I just was paying such close attention to Brenda Dohn there. She was talking about what she saw. And one of the things that really stood out was when she said, "I saw debris flying up toward the window."

I think that's what's been so remarkable to a number of people, is that the debris was actually coming off of this engine. Just how rare is that?

O'BRIEN: Well, it's textbook definition of an uncontained engine failure. And the engines are supposed to be designed to protect against that. They're reinforced around the nacelle with Kevlar and other materials which are supposed to capture the shrapnel if it failed.

These engines have been at such high pressures and temperatures. And there's so much stress on those blades. But you can't imagine them working perfectly forever.

So they do build them with this in mind. When you look at the picture of the aircraft on the ground, the most troubling shot I saw was the puncture in the fuselage itself. This takes us back to a few years ago, you remember, a Southwest Airlines 737, an uncontained failure at altitude on that one. You had a piece of shrapnel hit a window and sucked a woman out to her death.

So there is that potential risk. That's obviously extremely rare. And in this case, everybody walked away. But when I look at that picture, I see a close call.

HILL: A very close call. And also, just looking at this video, which I think, you know, so many of us really can't stop looking at, that a passenger shot out of the window. Seeing -- seeing that exposed -- you know, exposed parts of the engine there. We talk about what happened.

You mentioned the part that you saw. You believe it hit -- punctured -- potentially punctured the fuselage there. You know, in other folks I've been speaking with in the last couple of days, too, one thing that keeps coming up is the inspection and the repair process.

Right now that we're told that the investigation shows some issues with two fan blades. Is that process where it needs to be on a regular basis? Because this isn't the first time we've seen an issue.

It's a problem, particularly as the fleet ages, of course, and there are more cycles on these engines.

But you have to go back to 2018. United Airlines flight out of San Francisco, to landing in Honolulu. Same engine, almost a carbon copy scenario.

Subsequent to that, the National Transportation Safety Board determined that Pratt & Whitney, the manufacturer of the engine, was not inspecting those fan blades properly.

They have a technique using thermal, infrared capabilities to detect minute cracks which happen from the inside-out in these hollow blades. And that wasn't done properly.

This past summer, the NTSB offered up some new rules for that. And it's -- we don't know how far along in the process they've gotten on inspecting all of these fan blades and all these engines. It's a huge task, which kind of swamps the system. And it's not a simple thing to identify these minute cracks, which can lead to these catastrophic failures.

HILL: How do you even inspect that? I mean, you know, for the layperson, me, if you're looking at those blades in that engine, did they -- they have to open it up and physically take each blade to try to spot these tiny little cracks?

O'BRIEN: They use -- there's three big techniques. There's an ultrasound technique, you know, not unlike what happens when you're trying to see inside your body. Sound waves back and forth. And any sort of minor imperfection can be detected that way.

You can also pass electrical current through the blade and the current doesn't return in the same speed as it's sent out, the possibility there of a defect.

[06:15:05]

And then the question at the center of this whole issue is a thermal technique that is used. Infrared, which also is based on the assumption that heat is -- emanates from these blades differently if there's a defect in them.

So, but all of these are very challenging, subtle, require a lot of skill and practice, and the number of people and capability to do these inspections is in question.

HILL: Miles O'Brien, appreciate it. Thank you.

O'BRIEN: You're welcome.

HILL: House Democrats hoping to pass President Biden's massive coronavirus relief bill by the end of the week. But will any Republicans sign on? We're live on Capitol Hill, next.

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HILL: Today kicks off a critical week for President Biden on several fronts, starting today, of course, with a vote in the House Budget Committee to advance his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill.

[06:20:05]

CNN's Lauren Fox is live on Capitol Hill with the very latest.

Lauren, good morning.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Erica.

That's right. The House Budget Committee expected today to try and pass that massive $1.9 COVID relief bill. It, of course, includes those $1,400 direct stimulus checks to Americans making $75,000 or less.

It also includes an expansion of the child tax credit. And a rise in the $15 minimum wage.

Now, we expect that this is going to sail through the House of Representatives by the end of the week. Then it will be up to the U.S. Senate to pass this bill.

Now, Republicans have criticized this package as too large and unwieldly, unnecessary right now at a time when they argue that there's still money that has not gone out the door from the last COVID relief package that they passed.

Here's what President Joe Biden said to that criticism.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Critics say my plan is too big, that it costs $1.9 trillion; say that's too much.

Let me ask them, what would they have me cut? What would they have me leave out? Should we not invest $20 billion to vaccinate the nation? Should we not invest $290 million to extend unemployment insurance for the 11 million Americans who are unemployed, so they can get by?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And the biggest sticking point in the U.S. Senate is over that $15 minimum wage. You already have two Senate moderates, both Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema signaling that they would not be able to support that package with the $15 minimum wage in it.

Now, it is possible that the Senate parliamentarian could pull that provision from the bill, because it may not comply with the strict Senate rules needed to use this budget reconciliation process.

But we will be watching very closely to see what happens if the parliamentarian allows it to remain in the bill. Then it will be up to Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, as to whether or not he can hold his caucus together with the president's very first major legislative push -- Erica.

HILL: A lot riding on that. Lauren, stay with us.

Also joining us now, CNN political analyst Rachael Bade, who's also, of course, a reporter for "Politico." And Rachael, I just want to start with something I just saw in "Playbook" this morning.

So we're learning more about this -- as we learn more about the COVID relief bill, and as Lauren just pointed out, trying to keep the caucus together. As we look at this, that is really the big hurdle, right? Because this is the first big, potentially, move for this administration, for this Congress in terms of getting something done. And if it doesn't happen, the big concern is what does that spell for the next couple of years?

RACHAEL BADE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, for Democrats, clearly, failure is not an option, not only because we just hit a half million deaths here in the United States from coronavirus, but also because if they fail on this first measure, this is going to be terrible in terms of looking at the future and what Democrats can accomplish in a unified -- a Democratic unified Washington.

So failure is not an option here. I think the big sticking point to watch this week will obviously be the minimum wage fight. There's going to be a ruling as early as tomorrow, more likely Wednesday, from the Senate parliamentarian about whether or not they can include the sort of progressive policy priority to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Now this, depending on how she rules, could sort of set off this jockeying between progressives and moderate Democrats in the House and the Senate. But ultimately, Democrats are going to have to come together, no matter what that ruling is, because failure, again, is just not an option this early in the Biden agenda or would be a big problem for Democrats going forward.

BERMAN: And Rachael, breaking news, and you guys broke it on "Playbook" and that it was released from her office, Susan Collins, Republican from Maine, just came out against Neera Tanden, the nominee to run the Office of Management and Budget. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, had earlier said he was a "no" vote. But

Rachael, what this means if Susan Collins and maybe other moderate Republican senators come out as a "no." She doesn't have the votes. She ain't got the votes, as they say, right?

BADE: Yes. Yes, it's a big problem. This might be the final blow on Neera Tanden that ultimately kills her -- her nomination.

Look, the White House was looking at Collins as a person who could potentially save her after Joe -- Joe Manchin came out against her last week. Obviously, in a 50/50 divided Senate -- Congressmen Biden [SIC] -- President Biden can't afford to lose a single Senate Democrat on any confirmation; or if he does, they've got to find somebody to make up that vote on the Republican side.

And so Susan Collins being a moderate from Maine, they thought perhaps they could get her to fill that void that Joe Manchin created, but this morning, Collins told us, basically, that Neera Tanden doesn't have neither the experience nor the temperament. And she talked about these tweets, these Twitter attacks on lawmakers, and said that that is going to be problematic in her role in OMB, so she cannot do the job.

[06:25:10]

She also referenced the fact that Neera Tanden actually deleted more than a thousand tweets before her nomination was announced, and she sort of questioned whether she actually has that commitment to transparency, because she went back and tried to hide these missives.

So obviously, this is a big problem for the White House. This is a big problem for Neera Tanden.

HILL: There's been a lot of attempts, obviously, to make sure this doesn't happen, but here we are this morning. We know that Neera Tanden has met with nearly three dozen senators on both sides of the aisle. We're not hearing a lot publicly in terms of how Democrats are preparing for what could be the end of this nomination.

But what are you hearing behind the scenes? What is the messaging going to be?

FOX: Well, they've worked, obviously, very hard to maintain unity. And that has been a priority for the Biden administration. They don't want to see the distractions that the Trump administration went through every other day, when you had Republican members maybe attacking the president for something he had said or having to come out and do cleanup for something that the president had said.

Clearly, they are upset that they are having to work overtime to try to pass a nominee that they were hoping was going to sail through the process.

Now, look, we saw a lot of national security nominations move very quickly in the beginning and opening days of Biden's presidency. This is a different slew of nominees. You also have a hearing this week on Becerra to lead HHS. That is

another nominee that Republicans are very opposed to. So if Democrats are going to pass this nominee both out of committee and on the floor, they are going to need to make to make sure that they are unified.

The next set of nominees is just a bit more controversial. It's harder to pass some of these nominees. National security nominees traditionally just tend to garner more bipartisan support. So that is what Democrats are working through right now.

But I will tell you, this was unexpected. And even though Manchin went to Schumer a few minutes -- or a few hours, excuse me -- before he made his announcement, it certainly was shocking for a lot of Democrats, who were hoping to avoid this kind of standoff this early on in the nomination process.

BERMAN: You talk about nominations. Merrick Garland, Judge Merrick Garland, who has been nominated to be attorney general, that hearing begins today. That will get bipartisan support, but it's still a major confirmation hearing, and we do expect some news from it.

FOX: Well, that's exactly right. I mean, look, when you're talking about the attorney general nominee, this is a moment that Merrick Garland had been nominated for the Supreme Court. Republicans never held that nomination hearing. They never voted on him. And obviously, that legacy is going to be something that is part of the U.S. Senate.

Now, we expect that Dick Durbin this morning is going to come out in strong support of Merrick Garland. We also, of course, expect that this nomination process is one that is going to attract some bipartisan support.

But again, these nominees, this nomination process, specifically, when you're talking about the attorney general, this is something that is going to be must-watch television, given the fact that Merrick Garland is going to be, or we expect to be, the next attorney general.

Lauren Fox and Rachael Bade, thank you both very much.

HILL: Lauren Fox, Rachael Bade, thank you very much.

We are also still following these headlines out of Texas where millions are still without safe drinking water. Some now facing astronomical electric bills, as well. All those details in a live report, next.

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