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German Plane Goes Down in French Alps; Allegations of Israel Spying on U.S./Iran Nuclear Talks. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired March 24, 2015 - 11:30   ET

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

CAPT. KEITH WOLZINGER, COMMERCIAL PILOT: If the airplane was not under their control, like I mentioned earlier, they would have veered off course and the speed would have increased above the structural limits of the airplane if it was in a very steep descent, which it doesn't seem like it was in a completely out of control very steep descent. Seems like it was somewhat controlled to me.

[11:30:17] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: First things first, you have data points and you need to get searchers on the ground to actually look for the crash site and see what they find as families await word in many nations at this point.

Captain Keith Wolzinger, thank you so much for bringing that perspective to us. We appreciate it.

Coming up fours AT THIS HOUR, we'll continue to follow this breaking news out of France. A plane crashes leaving at least 150 people dead in the French Alps. We'll go live then to the airport in Barcelona, Spain, where grieving families of some of the passengers are gathering.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Our breaking news, searchers are in the French Alps trying to reach the remote scene of a German airlines crash. Germanwings is a low-cost airline owned by Lufthansa. Its flight from Barcelona in Spain to Dusseldorf in Germany, it went down earlier this morning in the Alps.

BOLDUAN: At least 150 people were onboard. All of them feared dead. Families now in several European nations await word about the fate of their loved ones. French authorities are telling Reuters news agency that it could take days to recover all of the victims because of the rugged terrain that they are up against.

Karl Penhaul is in Barcelona where the flight took off; and Jim Bittermann is in Paris.

Jim, let's begin with you.

What's the latest on the search? What are you hearing from French authorities?

[11:35:03] JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The French interior minister just arrived in the area in the last hour and he took a flight over the crash area and one of the people onboard his helicopter was a French deputy, a member of parliament. He described the crash scene as covering about four acres of area very mountainous terrain. He said it would be very difficult for the searchers to get in there. They'll have to go in by foot. He said that there was no sign of life at the scene at all and he said that the debris was scattered everywhere. He said it was just small pieces of debris. It's going to be also complicated for the searchers because of the weather down there. There's a front moving through in the next few hours and the temperatures, which are right now below freezing, expected to drop even further. There's rain falling. Could turn into snow and that is going to also complicate things and could cover the remains of the people who were killed in the crash as well as for the investigators who would be looking for black boxes it could make the search for the black boxes more difficult as they try to work in this rather hostile sort of terrain.

BERMAN: Of course, that search, so important to those who have family members onboard that flight. We understand most of the passengers were German, Spanish, Turks also onboard.

Let's go to Barcelona and the airport there. Karl Penhaul, I imagine there are many family members there asking a lot of questions hoping for any new information.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, John. A crisis center has been set up now at Terminal 2 at Barcelona's international airport and as minutes and hours go by, I have seen groups of family members arrive there. The ones I have seen have been Spanish-speaking relatives. They've been hugging one another. Many of them crying as they go through a set of automatic barriers to a private area where that crisis center has been set up.

Now, in addition to aviation authorities and airline representatives, there are also medics and psychologists in that crisis center as well. They'll be looking after the family members as more information has been passed to them. As we know right now from Germanwings, the airline company part of Lufthansa, they say that they believe at least 67 Germans were onboard.

We're also hearing from city hall officials in the German town of Hulton that 16 students from that town have been booked on this flight. We don't know whether they boarded the flight but there is a chance that 16 exchange students from Germany may have boarded that flight as well. We don't know anything about the other passengers in terms of how many other nationalities were onboard. Bear in mind that Barcelona is a cosmopolitan city. Some come for weekend breaks. Barcelona is also an access point to the beach area of Spain. A lot of northern Europeans head here to get some winter sun. But as time goes on, we hope, from the airline authorities, to get more information about the breakdown of the passengers, nationalities and really what they've been doing in this area of Spain -- John?

BERMAN: 150 souls onboard.

Karl Penhaul, Jim Bittermann, thanks so much. BOLDUAN: There's interesting information coming out right there from

Jim Bittermann, John. We want to point out quick first that there are ways you can help when tragedy strikes. Logon to CNN.com/impact. And also right now, there's a hotline for families of passengers to call for information.

But I do want to draw the attention to our viewers just one more time to some of the information that Jim Bittermann was getting from French authorities. He said French authorities were able to fly over the scene and what they saw according to one person is the crash site covered about four acres. Jim saying the debris was just everywhere. There's no sign of life from what they can see and that because of the difficulty terrain as we've been discussing, investigators, searchers, will have to go in foot complicated by the fact that difficult weather is moving into the area as we speak. It's already at freezing temperatures which is going to complicate things only further. Just want to make sure we bring all of the latest to our viewers. There's a lot of this that's fluid and a lot of information coming in from all of our reporters on the ground right now -- John?

[11:39:31] BERMAN: No doubt. There's a mountain guide on the scene there near the crash site who says he heard the plane go down. He describes the sound he heard and he also described the incredibly difficult conditions Kate was just talking about. No way to get there via ground. You need helicopters you're look at right now. We'll hear from that mountain guide next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Search crews are flying over the French Alps as we speak looking for debris from that downed German airliner. A Germanwings airbus crashed with at least 150 people onboard. Authorities say at this point it is very unlikely that anyone has survived. Most of the passengers, we're told, were from Spain, Germany and Turkey. Trying to get updates on that front. The flight crashed 45 minutes after takeoff going from Barcelona on its way to Dusseldorf, Germany.

Anchor of CNN International's "The World Right Now," Hola Gorani is joining us.

And, Holly, you had a really fascinating interview with someone who knows that area so well where it's believed this plane went down. A local mountain guide in the French Alps. What did he tell you?

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: He basically described the terrain. He said the reported crash site would be inaccessible to emergency vehicles and the only way to get there would be to chopper rescue officials and rescue workers in. This complicates the situation quite a bit because he said that low cloud formation is sort of enveloping that mountainous area where we believe the plane went down. He has eyes on choppers. He was telling me a few minutes ago that are military helicopters, police helicopters, fire department helicopters as well. He said he witnessed at least a dozen of them.

He said that shortly before the reported time of the crash that you heard a plane fly at very low altitude and this was unusual in the part of France that he operates in. He's a mountain guide. He's very familiar with this terrain. He was telling me that it's not very far from Nice. People familiar with the geography of France, Nice is in the south of France and this is about 80 kilometers. This is the first mountainous plateau in France. This is an area that, although it's not very far from a highly populated big city like Nice, it's very difficult to access on foot and it is virtually impossible to get there with any kind of ground vehicle. You would have to fly in.

[11:45:15] BOLDUAN: It's so interesting. There's no suggestion at this point, of course, this early on that weather was a factor in what happened with the crash. What more did the guide say about whether -- was it bad at the time or just about to become challenging weather conditions from the searchers?

GORANI: From everything we're hearing, it wasn't bad at the time, but it was getting worse, and it was complicating the rescue efforts when it comes to choppers and helicopter search teams to fly in. Because it's that high altitude and because this cloud formation was making it very difficult to have good visibility in order to access the site and not put any of those flying the helicopters and their crew and the rescue workers in danger.

Also he added, Kate, that tomorrow's weather forecast is bad. You can imagine that just today and in a few hours it will get dark and, tomorrow, if weather conditions aren't favorable, it will make it all the more complicated to reach the crash site and retrieve any bodies. Because from high-level officials to the president of France, it seems as though they are indicating that there are no survivors.

But I also wanted to add that the president of the region where the plane went down was quoted as saying, "No piece of debris of this plane is larger than a car." The plane disintegrated. He's on his way to the site. We're trying to get in touch with him as well.

BOLDUAN: We heard from Jim Bittermann from Paris. He said that French authorities had flown over the site, saying that debris was everywhere and covered an area of some four acres, but with all of that information that you can see from the air, it's getting there on foot that seems as though it will be slowed down with the weather conditions that this mountain guide described to you.

Hala, thank you for bringing that to us. Great to see you.

John?

BERMAN: There are a lot of questions about the aircraft that went down. How old was it? When was it last serviced? What about the pilots? We'll have answers for you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:50:23] BERMAN: Our breaking news, the crash of a German passenger plane in the French Alps. At least 150 people were on board that flight, all are believed to be lost.

I want to bring in CNN aviation correspondent, Rene Marsh. Rene, questions about the aircraft, about the pilot, what now do we

know?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Let's do a quick fact check. At this point, John, we know there were 144 passengers on board, six crew. We also know now that the airliner was delivered to Lufthansa, which owns this aircraft, in 1991. That makes it about 24 years old. It's an older aircraft. But the age, at this point, not raising any red flags.

We also know that the last routine maintenance check happened just yesterday. The last big check, which is routinely done, that happened in the summer of 2013.

As far as who was at the controls, we know that the captain of this aircraft, he flew with Lufthansa and Germanwings for over ten years. So this was an experienced pilot.

As far as the path, here's what we know today as it relates to this aircraft. We know that it went down without the pilot's communicating with air traffic control.

So this aircraft, it took off, it climbed to 38,000 feet. This is all based on flight tracking websites. And it was at about 38,000 feet, which is cruising altitude, usually, the safest portion of flight, for roughly a minute. And that is when this plane started this descent, but it wasn't a dramatic descent. We say that roughly 45 minutes into the flight, it appears that something went wrong. We know the distress call did not come from the pilots, however, aircraft traffic control aren't able to reach the pilots on the radio. They are the ones that sounded the alarm that something was wrong.

I just got off the phone, John, with the French equivalent of the NTSB. They are leading this investigation. And I'm told that investigators will be at the crash site tonight. As far as the NTSB goes here in the United States, they are watching this very closely. They will help if they're asked. But at this point, no indication that the NTSB has been asked for assistance -- John?

BERMAN: And at this point, we are told the crash area is about four acres in the French Alps. And Hala Gorani just reported she heard from a witness that no piece of debris is bigger than about the size of a car. So when the searchers get there this evening, that is what they will face.

Rene Marsh, thanks so much for being with us.

Kate?

[11:53:00] BOLDUAN: Ahead for us AT THIS HOUR, we'll be keeping a close eye on this breaking news, the Germanwings flight crashing in the French Alps. All 150 on board feared dead. And big challenges, as John's laying out, for emergency crews to even get to the crash site.

But also this is ahead for us AT THIS HOUR, friends spying on friends. A new report that Israel spied on closed-door Iran nuclear talks and accusations as officials shared inside information with members of Congress. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: New details on explosive allegations that Israel spied on U.S. nuclear talks with Iran and then shared some inside information with members of Congress. That's all according to the "Wall Street Journal."

BERMAN: Yeah, "The Journal" quotes an unnamed senior White House official saying, "It is one thing for the U.S. and Israel to spy on each other, it's another thing for Israel to steal U.S. secrets and play them back to U.S. legislators to undermine U.S. diplomacy."

They're angry. Israel is denying these allegations.

Oren Liebermann is with us live now in Jerusalem -- Oren?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate and John, very strong words from the prime minister's office here denying these allegations saying their patently, categorically untrue.

There are two parts to these allegations. The first is that the "Wall Street Journal" said Israel spies or found intel on the negotiations and then that Israel used that intel against the White House, fed it to members of Congress to try to have them sort of get in the way or stand against the negotiations. Israel again denying the first part of that, the allegation that Israel ever spies on its allies.

Now, at the same time, we know that Benjamin Netanyahu, whose office believes he has inside information on what's being said inside these negotiations. We've heard members of his administration say a number of times, "from our understanding of these negotiations." That understanding isn't guesswork. They certainly believe they had inside intel. What we've also seen is a shift in how the administration here, the prime minister's office is dealing with these negotiations. It used to be that their effort was focused on the White House. Now we're seeing Netanyahu focus his efforts more on Congress, the speech before Congress would be the culmination of that, but he's also appealing to his Republican friends, especially House Speaker John Boehner.

The lasting impact of this may be the strain on relations, and that's the big question here, how bad have relations gotten and how much worse will they get with these latest allegations? Kate and John, we've heard the relations are at an all-time low -- the relations are at an all-time low between the U.S. and Israel. Still, they have found a way apparently to get worse.

BOLDUAN: An official is quoted in the "Wall Street Journal" as saying, "These things leave scars," Oren. Also I thought interesting to point out that the United States, according to the "Wall Street Journal," learned about this operation, if you will, by spying itself on Israel. LIEBERMANN: The administration here at the prime minister's office

here won't say anything about the spying aspect of that. But we know Israel believes it has intelligence. Certainly, the U.S. has information, and there have been reports of sharing information. But at you said, it's all the strain on the relations here between these two leaders. And it's not getting any better. House Speaker Boehner here would be another volley essentially against the White House.

[12:00:00] BERMAN: Uncomfortable, to say the least.

Oren Liebermann, thanks so much.

And thanks so much for joining us AT THIS HOUR.

BOLDUAN: Great to see you all.

John, I miss you.

"LEGAL VIEW" with Ashleigh Banfield starts right now.