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At This Hour

New Extraordinary Details on Germanwings Crash; Copilot's "Deliberate Act" to Destroy Aircraft; Interview with White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired March 26, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm John Berman.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, all. I'm Kate Bolduan. We are continuing this breaking news AT THIS HOUR. One extraordinary detail after another this morning in what has been the great mystery surrounding the Germanwings crash in the French Alps.

Here are the most important developments AT THIS HOUR. There is a lot of moving parts here. The French prosecutor in charge of the investigation suggests, he says the crash was not an accident, that the captain was locked out of the cockpit. The copilot activated the plane's descent when he was alone in the cockpit at the controls. The prosecutor called what happened a deliberate act to destroy the aircraft with 149 other people on board. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRICE ROBIN, MARSEILLE PUBLIC PROSECUTOR (through translator): At the moment, I consider it to be deliberate. First of all, refusing entry to the cockpit. Second, maneuvering the lever for loss of altitude. You said it's not so much, but it is 1,000 meters a minute, as if he was landing. We're above the mountains, aren't we? And there's no other airport which could receive an Airbus 320 anywhere near.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: A deliberate act that killed 150 people. The copilot was 28- year-old Andreas Lubitz; he was a German citizen. He had been with the airline since 2013. You can see a picture right there from his Facebook page.

The CEO of Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings, says Lubitz was 100 percent fit to fly. He had perfect flight performance records. But the CEO also added this one crucial detail -- the company does not put its pilots through psychological testing.

Now, French authorities are not calling this a terrorist act but they admit they have no answers right now to the most glaring question: Why. Why would a copilot kill 149 other people?

Want to bring in CNN correspondent Karl Penhaul. He was in the room for the extraordinary press conference this morning when we got the news that prosecutors, Karl, think this was a deliberate act.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it was an absolute bombshell when French prosecutor Brice Robin came out with that. Of course, he was put in this very clear and frank press conference because of those media leaks overnight. In fact, when he was speaking to the press, he said that he'd only seen a full transcript of the conversations and sounds in the voice cockpit reporter a few hours before the press conference, from about midnight local time is when he received that information to look through it, brief it.

But not only was it a bombshell for the press, of course it was a bombshell for the families as well. Just minutes before coming to the press conference, he met with over 200 family members who had flown in from Dusseldorf and flown in from Barcelona, relatives of the Germans and the Spanish victims. And he said, too, it was very difficult to break this news to them. He said that a lot of the relatives just could not believe what they were hearing. They had a lot of questions for him. He also had a lot of answers. Of course, he was very frank. But the bottom line is that he was very -- he minced no words. He came out and said he believes that the copilot crashed the plane deliberately into the mountains.

In terms of was there any consolation for the family members, perhaps all he could say there was that death was instantaneous on impact because of the speed that the plane was flying at. But he did say quite crucially that just moments before impact, that passengers did become aware of what was going on because, on the voice cockpit recording, you can hear some of the passengers beginning to scream. That comes at the same time as the desperate pilot is trying to tear down the cockpit door to get into the cockpit. And then on the recording you hear the plane hit the mountain once. It bounces off part of the mountain and then slams into another part of the mountain. And that is when the plane disintegrates, John.

BERMAN: Gruesome details, Karl. He says the copilot locked the captain out. He says the copilot deliberately steered that plane in its descent that ultimately ended up in the mountain. Did the prosecutor explain how and why he believes that this copilot was conscious the entire time that he was in that cockpit?

PENAHUL: Well, absolutely. That was another key question we were asking. And he said on the voice cockpit recording, you can hear the copilot breathing. In the terms of the prosecutor breathing normally, a normal rhythm. There was no sign, the prosecutor says, of panic. Nothing to indicate that the copilot may have suffered any seizure, any stroke, or any heart attack. And that, he said, was crucial to his decision to come out to the media and say, explain that he believes that this was a deliberate act.

[11:05:00] He even said that if the copilot had collapsed and fallen forward on the controls, that would not account for such a steep descent lasting over eight minutes. He said that if the copilot had collapsed against the controls, the plane may have descended somewhat. But he said that combination of factors -- that the pilot was locked out of the cockpit after he voluntarily got up and left for a brief while, the fact that the copilot took over from autopilot, put it on manual control, and in the words of the prosecutor, took manual controls of the levers and dialed in a descent -- he said all this adds up to the picture that it was the copilot's deliberate intent to crash the plane.

However, he did come out and say that, at this stage, there was nothing to suggestion that there was any link to terrorism. But he also by the same token said he could not describe this as suicide given that 150 people were on board, John.

BERMAN: What incredible details. Karl Penhaul for us in Marseille where that news conference was this morning. Karl, thanks so much.

BOLDUAN: So the CEO of Lufthansa who we've been talking about, Lufthansa of course owns Germanwings. The CEO says this morning the copilot's flight performance had been perfect, that there had been no cause for concern. Listen to a little more from him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARSTEN SPOHR, CEO, LUFTHANSA AIRLINES (through translator): There was an interruption with regard to the training. And after, then, the candidate managed to go through, he continued his training. He then also passed all medical tests, all flight examinations, and all checks. He was 100 percent set to fly without restrictions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Let me bring in Mary Schiavo, CNN aviation analyst and former Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Transportation. Also with us, Richard Quest, host of CNN International's "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" and an aviation expert.

There are really two issues here, what happened and how it could be that it was permitted to happen with the rules in place. Let's take the latter half first, Richard. There are questions this morning about how the copilot could have been in the cockpit by himself? Would that have been allowed in the United States? There are also questions about the psychological testing. The CEO of Lufthansa says they don't have psychological testing. How is that allowed in Europe, and what's permitted in the U.S., Richard?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: The copilot became a copilot at Germanwings in 2013. He only had 600-odd hours, so extremely in accord -- well done on the experience scale.

The CEO of Lufthansa basically said they do not have a two-person rule in the cockpit. In other words, when one leaves, they do not have to be replaced by a flight attendant or another member of staff. That is the norm; that is the absolute rule in the United States. He was asked should there be a change of policy in Europe, to which he said that's obviously something that will have to be looked at.

In my opinion, actually, it will be looked at very quickly and I suspect it will happen almost immediately John. And the reason I say that is we had exactly this question in MH370. And after 370, we did see numerous airlines, even though countries don't require it, airlines saying they were now introducing a two-person rule. But what we heard this morning shows a series of events which frankly none of us could have ever anticipated.

BOLDUAN: And talking about just that, one of the series -- pieces of that series of events, Mary, how would, in your opinion, how would -- I'll call it the one-out, one-in rule, the two-person -- two people have to be in the cockpit at the same time. If that policy was in place, how could that have changed things? What would have happened differently?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, many different things. For one, there would be a second pair of eyes. Maybe someone would think twice before undertaking such a horrific act. But then also the pilot in command would have been able to get back in while the copilot was doing whatever the copilot was. So there would be the chance of being locked out would have been eliminated.

However, I should remind folks that Egypt Air was actually crashed intentionally while both pilots were in there. The pilot intent on crashing the plane simply contradicted the efforts of the other pilot, who was trying to save the plane, and turned off the engine. So it may not have prevented someone really intent on crashing the plane, but I think in this case, given it was certainly an opportunity that the person who crashed the plane used when the copilot left. I think it could have prevented it, absolutely.

BERMAN: Richard Quest, remind us why it is that someone, including a captain, can be locked out of the cockpit? So why it can be? And functionally speaking, how it's done and why that person might not be able to get back in.

[11:10:00] QUEST: All right, when the cockpit door is closed, the only way to enter the cockpit is if it's opened from the inside. That's straightforward. The cockpit door is closed and you can only -- note I say closed -- and the only way of entering is by that button on the right that you see on your screen being pushed to unlock.

However, if for some reason the cockpit isn't responding, there is a way for a flight attendant to enter using after override procedure. They enter a code on the keypad that you see a moment ago, and then they have 30 seconds into which the cockpit knows somebody's trying to use the override procedure. Inside the cockpit, they can either do nothing, in which case the door will open in 30 seconds, if they were unconscious or incapacitated. But they also have the ability to push that button to lock. If during the override procedure, they push the button to lock, then nobody can get in for five minutes. Effectively the override stops and you can't enter.

Now, what we heard today from the CEO of Lufthansa -- and it is significant, John -- he said he doesn't know, firstly, if the override procedure was attempted by the captain on the outside or did he just bang on the door. And secondly, we don't know whether or not the -- Lubitz inside actually pushed the lock button. We do not know. He was quite clear about that.

So what we have here is a situation where the door is closed and we don't know the efforts that were made, other than banging on the door to try and get back in again. Is this significant? It may be, it may not be in the sense that we just don't know.

BOLDUAN: Is that a fact we can find out, though, Richard?

QUEST: We will. When the data recorder --

BOLDUAN: With the data recorder.

QUEST: Yes, we should find out from the data recorder.

BOLDUAN: All right, Richard Quest, Mary Schiavo, thank you both very much. That's just a piece of some of the details, the astonishing new details coming out in this horrific tragedy that gets more horrific as we learn more. Thank you all so much.

Ahead for us AT THIS HOUR, we're going to continue the conversation about the copilot, who is the single most important focus of the crash investigation now. Why did he, that man you see there smiling in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, why did he deliberately, according to the airline, crash the Germanwings flight? A closer look at what we know so far. That's coming up next.

And White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, he's going to be joining us with the president's reactions to this morning's major developments in an international tragedy.

[11:12:42]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:16:04] BERMAN: News this morning, the investigation of the Germanwings crash in the Alps, the focus now on the co-pilot. The astonishing news that 28-year-old Andreas Lubitz locked the captain out of the cockpit, and deliberately crashed that plane with 149 other people on board. Lufthansa says this man you're looking at right now, had a perfect flight performance record.

He was 100 percent fit to fly, but Lufthansa says its pilots do not undergo psychological testing. Question now, what else do we know about this man? What do we know about his background? We learned a short time ago that the FBI has been called in to assist. Our Pamela Brown has more on that. Good morning, Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning and we're still trying to put the pieces up together of this man's background. Andreas Lubitz, the 28-year-old co-pilot, the German national who the prosecutor said, today, deliberately crashed the plane into the French Alps. And when you look at his background, what we know now, it's almost even more puzzling because there's really nothing glaring here.

We heard from the Lufthansa CEO who said he was 100 percent fit to fly. That he passed all certifications and qualifications. The flight training, as well as the medical screening. He said he had no problems there were aware of. But as you pointed out, John, it doesn't have -- the airline doesn't have psychological testing, which I'm sure would be under -- that policy will be under a lot of scrutiny in the coming days.

What's interesting to note here, the CEO did say, though, for a period of time he interrupted his training. He wouldn't say why. The CEO would not expound on that as far as why he interrupted his training at some point. But he did say that he came back, completed the training, went on to become a pilot. With Germamwings in 2013. He said he had 100 hours of flying experience on the particular aircraft. He was on 630 hours of flight experience in total.

We know just a very little about his youth, but there was a flight club he was a part of that released a statement, John, that said that he wanted to fly and become a pilot ever since he was he was a young boy. He was part of this flying club, which was interesting to note. A no as you point out, FBI has offered assistance. Its still waiting to see exactly what the French need in terms of help, trying to figure out how to proceed in this investigation with behavioral analysis or forensics. It's too early to note ,yet, how the FBI can help.

But I can tell you, investigators on this case, and we know the French are taking the lead here, they're look at his political motivations, his relationships, his finances, his medical history and, of course, his mental health. John?

BERMAN: Literally his happiness and behavior over the last several days and weeks. Global forces around the world now focusing on this one man. Pamela Brown, thanks so much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Ahead AT THIS HOUR, where going to get reaction, from the White House, to the new details about the crash of German - that Germanwings jet. Does the Obama administration call it terrorism? What has changed in light of these horrific details coming up. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest. He going to be joining us live.

[11:19:07]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: They have no idea right now as to a motive of why the co- pilot of the Germanwings flight would deliberately crash the plane. But we are learning many other details that only compound the tragedy. The lead prosecutor on, in the investigation confirms the crash of Flight 9525 was not an accident. In his words, it was a deliberate act. The co-pilot at the controls, the captain locked outside the cockpit.

Audio from the cockpit voice recorder reveals that the captain could be heard trying to break down the cockpit door to get in. And remember 150 people died in this accident. Among them, three Americans were killed. Let's go to White House now. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest is joining us. So Josh, we learned a lot today. The airline, now, says very clearly the aircraft was deliberately crashed by the co-pilot. Was this terrorism?

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well Kate, right now the French authorities are the ones that lead in this investigation and the United States, at a range of levels, have been in touch with their French counterparts to offer any need of assistance as necessary. At this point in the investigation, based on what we know now, there is not a nexus to terrorism. But, obviously this is something they will continue to explore and continue to examine to try to find out what exactly happened. But, there's no doubt these early reports we're hearing are chilling.

BOULDAN: The CEO of the airline, of Lufthansa, Josh said this today. He said, if a person kills himself and also 149 other people, another word should be used, not suicide. So what is that word then? What happened?

EARNEST: Well Kate, I don't want to get ahead of the investigation. To find out what exactly happened, that's what French investigators are pursuing now and we certainly have more evidence and more insight into what may have occurred in the skies over the French Alps. But this is something that continues to be under investigation. The United States has offered assistance to our allies, in France, as they carry out the very difficult work of examining the wreckage, trying to review the information that's contained in the black boxes. So this is work that's under way. At this point, I don't want to get ahead of that on going investigation.

[11:24:52]

BOULDAN: That's understandable. When you say there's no indication, none of nexus to terrorism at this time, does that leave the window open? You know why folks care about the idea. The concept of saying whether or not this was a terrorist act?

EARNEST: Sure. This is one of the - obviously one of the questions that investigators want to get to the bottom of ant they collect evidence to determine a wide range of things. But in terms -- also evidence trying to determine the cause or the motive of this action. And this is something still under investigation, but what I can tell you now is that right now, as it stands, that there is not a nexus to terrorism. But it does leave the window open because there's an ongoing investigation., but what we know now is that there is not a nexus to terrorism.

BOULDAN: 150 people died, three of those people were Americans, Josh. What support is the White House, is the administration, offering those families? Has the president spoken to those families?

EARNEST: I don't have any telephone calls from the President to talk about at this point, but, obviously, the thoughts and prayers of everybody, of the families, of all of those who were killed in this terrible disaster, you know everybody here at the White House is thinking about them today and that certainly includes the three American citizens that we know were on board the aircraft.

BOLDUAN: Josh, if I can change our focus to another very important issue facing you guys and everyone, Yemen. Right now Saudi Arabia has launched the military operation against the Houthi rebels. These are Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The United States is offering logistical and intelligence support. That's the most we know. This all comes, thought, in a very important context. Just days away

from the deadline where the U.S. is negotiating with Iran on its nuclear program. On one front, we are negotiating with Iran. On another front, we are in direct conflict with Iran in a very dangerous way. How does the situation and the support the U.S. is offering in Yemen impact the Iranian negotiations?

EARNEST: Well, Kate, what we have been very clear about in the context of the on going negotiations, over Iran's nuclear program, is that the United States and the international community has a long list of concerns about Iran's behavior and about Iranian activity around the globe. That those list of concerns includes some of the terrible threats they've made against our closest ally in the region, Israel.

We continue to have concern about support for terrorism activities around the globe. We do have concerns about the way Iran has taken steps and supported actions that are destabilizing to the broader region. We also know Iran, alright, is unjustly detaining at least two or three Americans inside Iran. So, we have a long of concerns --

BOULDEN: Absolutely, but this is happening right now.

EARNEST: -- And that's right.

BOULDEN: The U.S. is just getting involved and stepping off the sidelines in terms of a very dangerous situation in Yemen, a key ally. And this ultimate critical time -

EARNEST: I don't think it's fair to describe the situation as the United States as the being on the sideline. United States has been deeply engaged in Yemen, and there have been U.S. personnel on the ground in Yemen taking strikes against extremists that are trying to establish a safe Yemen to keep the American people safe.

And what we have done, as of last night, is the Saudi Arabia, was a close partner of the United States, has understandably decided to take military action because they share a long border in the South with Yemen and they're concerned about that destabilizing activity on their border. And the United States, at the request of the Saudis and their partners in this effort, has stepped in to offer some military support, including some intelligence. But, there is no doubt -

BOULDEN: So, You don't think this impacts the negotiations at all?

EARNEST: It shouldn't, and the reason is that even if we can take the important steps, and doing the important work of reaching an agreement to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and that's an effort we're engaged in with the broader international community, that won't eliminate the other long list of concerns that we have about Iranian behavior.

In fact, Kate, I think what id does, it actually makes it more important that we prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, given all the other things that they do that cause significant concern in this country. So that only makes this subjective of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon even more important and that what were focused on. But it' not -- even if we are able to reach an agreement, we'll going to still have a long list of grievances that are going to have a significant impact on our ability to deal with Iran, both bilaterally, but also and in the world.

BOULDEN: Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, Josh, has been charged with misbehavior before the enemy and desertion. Was it a mistake to initiate and to go through with that prisoner swap for five Taliban Gitmo detainees?

[11:29:29]

EARNEST: Well, Kate, you started at the right place, which is that Sergeant Bergdahl has been charged, but he has not been convicted and there's an ongoing military justice process that's under way. And I don't want to say anything that might interfere with that investigation or even leave anybody with the appearance of some sort of interference.

But that is a process that will run its course, as it should. But foundational to this decision, in the mind of the president, was the commitment that every commander in chief makes, with every single member of our armed forces, which is that we will not leave them behind, and we will not leave a member of the United States armed forces in the hands of the enemy.

And the president seized an opportunity that the United States had, a near term opportunity, to secure the release of Sergeant Bergdahl