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Don Lemon Tonight
Plane Runs Off LaGuardia Runway; Testimony from Boston Marathon Bombing Survivors; Bill Weir Traveling the Globe; Delta Flight Crashes into Embankment
Aired March 05, 2015 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN TONIGHT, I'm Don Lemon.
Breaking news this evening Harrison Ford seriously injured in the crash of a vintage World War II training plane.
I want you to listen to the emergency call from the plane.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRISON FORD, ACTOR: 53178, engine failure. Request immediate return.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Eyewitnesses say Ford, who has been flying private planes since the 1960s and is known as a pilot's pilot, was alert but bleeding profusely when he was taken to the hospital. Ford's son Ben tweeting from the hospital, "Dad is OK. Battered, but OK. He is every bit the man you would think he is. He is an incredibly strong man."
Ford's publicist says the 72-year-old star's injuries are not life threatening. We have the latest on his condition for you tonight.
Plus disaster averted by just inches. Want you to look at how close this Delta flight came to skidding into the frigid waters around LaGuardia Airport. The passengers tell their stories to us tonight.
Also, the Boston marathon bomber on trial. Never before heard stories of what happened in the chaotic moments after twin bombs ripped through the crowd.
It is a big news night but I want to begin with our breaking news. Harrison Ford serious injured in a small plane crash.
CNN's Kyung Lah is at the scene for us this evening.
Kyung, good evening to you. All this happened very close to Santa Monica Airport where Harrison took off. What's the very latest?
KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the NTSB says that so far they believe that it was engine trouble, that he lost power and was trying to turn around to get back safe into the airport, and then this. This extraordinary landing. And I want you to take a look at what makes this so extraordinary.
We can actually see a tree that this plane hit. Some of the branches are broken. The small swath of green that you're looking at, this is a golf course, and the nose, you can see it right there, it's bent into the ground, you can see the propeller is dug into the -- to the grass, but look at the body of the plane itself. It doesn't appear that it's really that affected.
So Harrison Ford wasn't crushed at all, but he was seriously injured. People here did try to help him to get out. But the extraordinary thing is that he managed to land here. Neighbors heard the engine stall. Here is what one told us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAH: What do you think about the way he landed? He landed in the green space.
JENS LUCKING, WITNESSED HARRISON FORD CRASH: I think -- I think it's amazing that he -- that he made it back. I mean, he must be a very good pilot, and I think he's got my -- my neighbor, I guess, knows him, and she was saying that he has a number of planes, and he must be a pretty good pilot, not just acting as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAH: You can see how plane -- how close the plane is to me. It's only about 30 feet from me. I'm about 50 feet from the nearest house. The neighbor who I was speaking with said it's absolutely extraordinary that he managed to land right here and avert all of these homes-- Don.
LEMON: I'll second that, Kyung. What about the extent of Ford's injuries?
LAH: As far as what we know, he is in stable condition. Some of the eyewitnesses here have said that they did see him bleeding profusely from the head. He was taken to a local hospital. He is in stable condition, but they certainly are going to be watching him, because any time you bang up your head, they certainly are very concerned about that.
LEMON: Kyung Lah, very near the wreckage of that plane.
Kyung, thank you very much. Stand by. We'll get back to you if we get new information.
Joining me now is Phil Crumm. He saw the crash as it happened and he was one of the first to tweet the news. He's also a pilot himself and he joins me by telephone now.
Good evening to you, Phil. You were driving to work when you saw the crash. What did you see?
PHIL CRUMM, WITNESSED CRASH: Good evening, Don. I was. I was driving to work and I witnessed a small single-engine aircraft that was evidently Mr. Ford's, crossed the departure -- the runway at the airport there much lower than aircraft typically do, and it proceeded to descend below the tree lines and land on the -- land on the golf course.
LEMON: So you knew something was wrong because it was just -- it was flying way too low?
CRUMM: Right. Precisely. I didn't hear the plane at that point. The engine is probably no longer functional, so there would be nothing to hear, but it was definitely not normal at that point.
LEMON: The plane crashed on a -- at Penmar Golf Course very close to Santa Monica Airport. Did you realize that it was -- that it was headed in the wrong direction or you just saw the plane flying too low?
CRUMM: At that point, the aircraft was -- the golf course is straight off of the end of the runway, so at that point, Mr. Ford was taking off as he normally would be except for his engine was no longer functional so he couldn't keep going.
LEMON: Being a pilot yourself, do you know how common engines like this -- failures for engines like this? Is it very common for planes or engines like this?
CRUMM: Engine failures like this are very unusual before a pilot takes off, whether it'd be a large aircraft that you might take in an airport or a pilot such as myself just doing on our own time, you run a series of checks to try to make sure that everything is correct and nothing like this will happen. Occasionally, it does, and in situations like that, Mr. Ford did everything right.
LEMON: All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate, Phil Crumm joining us.
You know, Harrison Ford hospitalized tonight after crash landing his plane on a golf course. The man who made his name flying the Millennium Falcon in "Star Wars" is known as a pilot's pilot who loves flying at least as much as acting.
So joining us now is Paul Mitton. He is a man who shares his passion for flying and he's on the phone.
Paul, so thank you very much for joining us. Tell us what you -- what you know about this particular plane and about Harrison Ford.
PAUL MITTON, PRODUCER, "HARRISON FORD: JUST ANOTHER PILOT": Hey, Don. Well, about this particular plane, it's a World War II trainer. Trainers are inherently stable, very forgiving aircraft, because you're putting a brand new pilot into a plane and expecting him to fly it, and keep it in the air, avoid other aircraft, talk on the radios, listen to the instructor, and a lot of stuff going on.
So a trainer is going to be a nice docile aircraft and that's probably part of what gave Harrison the ability to get this thing on the ground, and make a fairly safe landing. Thankfully that golf course is pretty much at the end of Santa Monica Airport runway, so -- and thankfully he experienced the engine failure right after takeoff so that he was pretty much presented with that big green runway in front of him, albeit with the trees scattered around it which he did an incredible job of missing.
Had he gone a little further, he would have been over solid suburbia and the outcome could have been a little -- a whole lot different, and not as happy. Thankfully.
LEMON: When you look at this, you look at, you know, the trees around him, in the area, also you heard the neighbor from our correspondent Kyung Lah there saying it was -- it was pretty close to some homes, it looks like it takes a pretty skilled pilot to land in these kinds of conditions when you have engine failure like this? What kind of pilot was he?
MITTON: Harrison is an extremely good pilot, and in fact, a friend of mine did an Idaho back country flying trip with a friend in a Cessna 182 which a four-seat Cessna, and bit more power than the average Cessna, and while he was flying into one of these country strips in the middle of a mountain pass with mountains on either side, trees on either side of the runway and one option to land, he found Harrison's plane parked at the same airport strip.
So -- and Harrison's plane, the Havilland Beaver, a much larger aircraft that seats about six people, that's used all over the northwest to haul cargo, tons of power, and a tail dragger which makes it a bit more challenging to land, meaning the main wheels are in the front, and then a tail wheel at the back of the aircraft once you slow down, that the wheel will touch the ground. So you're basically kind of landing on two wheels and balancing the whole thing while it's on the ground.
So, yes, he's a very skilled pilot. It's not your average pilot that flies that kind of thing.
LEMON: OK.
MITTON: Of course flying the Millennium Falcon obviously takes some skills, too.
LEMON: Yes.
Paul Mitton, thank you very much. 2002 documentary -- the producer of the 2002 documentary, Harrison Ford: Just Another Pilot."
We appreciate you joining us.
I want to join now someone to -- some folks who can help us explain what might have caused the crash of Harrison Ford's plane.
Miles O'Brien, CNN aviation analyst and science correspondent for the PBS News, also David Soucie, CNN safety analyst and former FAA safety inspector and the author of "Malaysia Airlines Flight 370."
Good evening, gentlemen. Harrison Ford was flying a 1940s era military trainer plane. When you look at the crashed plane, the front of the plane almost looks knocked off. What does that reveal to you, Miles?
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, it -- really what I see there, Don, is the end result of a fairly textbook force landing at a golf course, and we should point out to people that when you're flying the plane solo, you're supposed to sit in the backseat which is where he was appropriately and that's probably gave him a little extra measure of safety in this instance, given the fact that the front of the aircraft looks like it's fairly well crumpled.
He clipped a tree coming down, according to the NTSB. Maybe, you know, he was perilously close to coming -- making it back to the runway and maybe just hitting that tree might have made the difference in his decision to land and bring it down to relatively speaking safe landing and the golf course was a good one.
LEMON: You know, I want to -- I want to -- so listen, Miles and David, let's listen to the air traffic control audio and then talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FORD: 53718, engine failure, requesting immediate return.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ryan 178 run A21 clear to land.
FORD: Go to three.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ryan 178 run A3 clear to land.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So you can hear Harrison Ford say, engine failure, immediate return. He's a seasoned pilot.
David, how challenging would it be to land on that golf course?
DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Extremely challenging, except -- Miles, I want to know what textbook it is that has that landing on the golf course in it, though?
(LAUGHTER)
Nonetheless, I'm celebrating that this guy survived.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: That's what my instructor told me. He said always look for golf courses. They're good places if you lose an engine.
SOUCIE: That's true. That's true. But I'm smiling and celebrating the fact that he did survive this. It was an excellent landing, but what I'd like to talk about a little bit, Don, is how the air traffic controller responded because there's a lot going on in the background that people don't even know about. So when he said, I need to return to the runway, what he is assuming is he would coming back around and he's going to land on runway 21 which is the direction he was coming in the other way.
But he had actually made a quick turn, almost maybe a Chandelle or something, a really quick turn back towards the runway, and said no, I need the other runway, and that air traffic controller immediately said, OK, clear to the land, and what that means is that he had to clear every other traffic in the background. He's making sure that there is nothing else in the way because once you've declared an emergency, it's up to the air traffic controller to make sure that there is nothing hampering your return back to the air.
LEMON: Yes.
SOUCIE: And he did a great job of that.
LEMON: It's good to be able to smile considering, you know, what could have happened.
Thank you, gentlemen.
We've got a lot more of our breaking news ahead. Harrison Ford injured in the crash of a small plane.
When we come right back, a man who shares the star's passion for flying, James Lipton, the host of "Inside the Actor's Studio."
Plus the Delta jet that skidded off the runway at LaGuardia today. How it nearly ended up in the water and how the passengers escaped.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Welcome back. Our breaking news on CNN this evening, Harrison Ford hospitalized tonight after crash landing his plane on a golf course. Ford has been flying since the 1960s and is known as a pilot's pilot.
Joining me now on the phone, a man who shares his passion for flying as well, James Lipton. He is the host Bravo's "Inside the Actor's Studio." Being a pilot himself and he joins me by telephone.
Mr. Lipton, thank you so much for joining us. How are you doing?
JAMES LIPTON, HOST, BRAVO'S "INSIDE THE ACTOR'S STUDIO": I'm doing fine. It's my wife's birthday. I was having a birthday dinner, and I got word that this happened and I'm very, very relieved to hear that he's going to be OK.
LEMON: Yes. Considering what we could have been talking about, the kind of tragedy we could have been talking about here.
LIPTON: Of course.
LEMON: He is -- he has described his love of flying to you. What does he say about it? LIPTON: When he was on "Inside the Actor's Studio," we talked about
flying a lot. I've had a number of pilots on the show, Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, and John Travolta, and once we get started, I'm always concerned because I hear 300, 4000 people out in the audience are students, actors in the drama school, (INAUDIBLE) university, there they're sitting.
And here we are on the stage talking not about acting, not about theater, not about a film, but about airplanes. You get two pilots together, and they will talk. And finally, I have to call it off. The night that he was on my show, and we talked about flying to such a degree --
LEMON: No, we have -- we've got a sound bite of that. Let's listen to it, then we can talk about it.
LIPTON: Oh, I'd love to hear it.
LEMON: And this is not -- this is him talking about it. Sorry, this isn't from your show. Do we have that? OK. Let's play it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FORD: Great freedom for me in the air. Great freedom. Great responsibility. I love the training. Actually, I love taking on new challenges. I like to challenge myself. I always make sure that I don't over-challenge myself. I have had a lot of good people look after me and help keep me safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: That was are from the documentary "Just Another Pilot." It wasn't from your show, but as you can see and hear it was his passion along with acting.
LIPTON: Well, you know -- you know what --
LEMON: Or is his passion still, I should say.
LIPTON: Yes, of course. You -- when you are at the yoke, when you're flying the airplane and flying it, one person or whatever, the number of people in the plane, you are what is called PIC. You're a pilot in command. And the pilot in command means that you're responsible for the moment that you rotate, take off until you land. You are responsible for getting that plane and anybody in it up into the air, and back down safely on the ground.
And you know the definition of a good landing among pilots? Do you?
LEMON: No, go ahead.
LIPTON: A good landing is one you walk away from.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: That's -- I think I have heard it, I just didn't want to say the wrong thing on the air. How determined do you think, Mr. Lipton, that Harrison Ford will be to get back into the sky again?
LIPTON: Oh, he'll be determined. He'll fly again. Of course he'll fly again. The night that he was on the show, and we talked about it in such length, I should say that when I do the show, I don't have anything to eat during the day because we are on the stage for three or four, five hours, the guest is on, and they -- that looks like, you know, going 15 round, so obviously I don't eat before the show. And I'm almost always famished at the end about 11:00, 12:00.
And often the guest is, too, and I said to them after the show, how would you like to go up to Elaine's and have some supper with my wife Amy, so let's go. So get a guy on Harrison Ford and I went to Elaine. Elaine fed us. And he sat down on the chair, and he wiped his brow, he sat back with a gasp, I said, what's the matter, and he said, well, I did not sleep for three nights before I was on your show.
I said, what, he said, I was so scared. I said, for God's sakes, you're Indiana Jones.
(LAUGHTER)
And then we talked until 2:00 in the morning about airplanes and my wife was patient because she had heard this so many times before but she let us get away with it.
LEMON: Yes.
LIPTON: And we had a long, long talk about airplanes. God knows (INAUDIBLE).
LEMON: Well, James Lipton --
LIPTON: He's a great pilot by the way.
LEMON: Thank you. Happy birthday to your wife. And thank you for coming on. We appreciate it.
LIPTON: Thank you very much. I wish him well. I hope that he does every good thing from now on, and flies his tail off.
LEMON: Our sentiments exactly. Thank you very much.
Coming up, another flight goes very wrong. A Delta jet slides off the runway at New York's LaGuardia runway and nearly ends up in the water.
I'm going to talk to a passenger who escaped next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. More breaking news to tell you about. Take a look at these. This is live pictures from New York's LaGuardia airport. You can see an operation under way right now to pull that Delta jet off of an embankment next to the runway.
Again, this is happening live pictures, you can see the cranes that they had set up. They're pulling that jet off the runway. Late this morning, Flight 1086, you're looking at now, is from
Atlanta. It skidded off the runway while landing in a snowstorm, crashing into the embankment. The plane's nose busting through a fence. 132 people got off safely, three people with minor injuries went to hospitals.
Jared Faellaci was on the plane. He joins us tonight.
How are you doing, Jared?
JARED FAELLACI, PASSENGER ON DELTA 1086: Doing great, Don. Thank you.
LEMON: Yes. Yes. Did you think it was over?
FAELLACI: As I told folks earlier today, there was a few seconds when I was sitting up front, bracing the seat in front of me, and literally a few seconds where I thought this was either going to be a repeat of what my buddy Dave Sanderson went through on the Hudson River crash, obviously, a few years ago or it was going to be up, and God was calling me home, and my time had come up.
And there was an array of emotions in the plane during that 20 seconds when we were skidding off of the runway, and literally came to a screeching halt obviously with the nose of the airplane facing the water. And when we looked and it stopped, no one moved, everyone was completely silent. I think people were breathing a big sigh of relief.
And as I looked to the left, some of the photos that I ended up sending to the folks in the media, you can see how close we actually were to the water. And obviously, it made you really grateful for the protection that God had provided for also the amazing job that the pilot did.
LEMON: And for that embankment that --
FAELLACI: Absolutely.
LEMON: That kept you from going into the water.
FAELLACI: Absolutely.
LEMON: I just have to ask you, it may not be anything, but what does -- does the X on your hand represent anything?
FAELLACI: No, this is for End It Movement, and actually you guys did a major piece a couple of weeks ago around human trafficking and raising awareness for that so.
LEMON: I thought maybe somehow they were accounting for all the passengers on board.
(LAUGHTER)
FAELLACI: No. LEMON: You said there was an array of emotion. How did the
passengers handle it? What was the flight crew telling you guys?
FAELLACI: So when we were about to land, at first air traffic control and the pilot got on the intercom, he stated that we were going to actually be delayed because of the snow and the ice on the ground. So we kind of circled the city, the metro city for a period of time, and then he was given the clearance, and he announced that we've been given the clearance from air traffic control to land, so obviously, as we approached, everyone was normal, nothing was obviously abnormal.
But as soon as the wheels touched down, the experienced flyers knew something was up, because you did not feel the wheels take. There was no traction, there was no leverage, and within a matter of split seconds, we were off -- it felt like we were off the runway, and we were obviously going, and as you feel the bumpy ground you start to think, oh, my gosh, holy crap, this is big, this is serious, we could end up in the water.
And folks were praying. Some folks obviously were screaming. There were babies, some young kids on board. There were a couple of pregnant mothers on board. There was a lady up front who was in the media, she was pretty frantic. There was just an array of emotions from the passengers obviously with what we were going through.
LEMON: You have three children, 10, 12, 14.
FAELLACI: Yes, I do.
LEMON: I'm sure they were on your mind and the family as well.
FAELLACI: Yes.
LEMON: What was going through your head?
FAELLACI: Well, as again, when I landed and everyone just stood there and sat in their seats, it made me extremely grateful, grateful for obviously God's protection, grateful for the children that God's given me, but grateful for my extended family, the community that I have. And one of the things that I thought about and I love what my minister Louie Giglio says, you know, God writes the best stories.
And he's not done writing my story or the other 130 the passengers that obviously were on the plane. I want to give the -- obviously the pilot a huge hug. He came out and literally calmed everyone down. Gave us the orders of how are we going to de-plane the plane. I stood up and literally said --
LEMON: Just go to the bathroom, right?
FAELLACI: I said, I have to go to the bathroom, he smiled, he smiled and said, sir, I don't think this is a good time right now, and I said I'm sorry, but again, I just -- accolades and I take my hat to him for what he did and how he handled it as -- cool as a cucumber, and it showed his leadership so.
LEMON: You fly a lot for work.
FAELLACI: I do.
LEMON: And because of that, you get an upgrade, right, where you sit in first class.
FAELLACI: Absolutely.
LEMON: Often we think we were happy to sit up there.
FAELLACI: Yes.
LEMON: But you're -- you're safer in the back. Was there any hesitation, you know, to get on the next flight and maybe you'll sit in the back this time and not take the upgrade?
FAELLACI: No, I know whose hands I sit in, and I'm fine getting on a plane. I'm fine sitting up front if that's where I get, so, yes, no fears or quells on my part. So.
LEMON: What do you say to your family when you see them?
FAELLACI: I give my kids a big hug. I tell them how much I love them and I tell them how much I appreciate them and for the gift that I have of being their dad.
LEMON: Well, that's very nice.
Jared Faellaci, we're glad that you're OK and all the passengers on board. We appreciate it.
FAELLACI: Thank you, thank you.
LEMON: Thank you. Best of luck to you.
FAELLACI: Absolutely.
LEMON: Back again with me now, Miles O'Brien, and David Soucie.
Boy, what a story he tells us, huh, guys?
O'BRIEN: I should say.
LEMON: Yeah. You know it gets real where you're in those situations, and Miles, you know better than anyone else. Your whole kind of goes, you know, passes through you and you realize what's really important.
O'BRIEN: Yeah, yeah. It is -- not the best way to learn a lesson, but it is a good lesson, isn't it? If you walk away from a day like today at LaGuardia and say, you know what? Every day is worth living, and I want to make the most of it, that's all right.
LEMON: Yeah. You know, passengers say everything seemed normal until the plane touched down and started to skid. So take us through what a pilot is facing on the runway especially, in such the bad weather. Do you want to do it, David or you want Miles to do it? SOUCIE: Let's have Miles do that one.
LEMON: Go ahead, Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right. Well, let's start out with LaGuardia airport at about 7,000 feet of runway, it's a varsity airport landing site for sure, on a good day for airliners. The MD-88 needs about 5,000 feet of runway no matter what. On this day, it was bad weather. The visibility was low and the ceiling is low. And this particular runway has a type of navigation system which allows you to land this in worse weather, and so it chosen as the place the runway to land on, even though the wind did not favor it. So this particular airplane had a tailwind. Actually but --they called it quartering tailwind, meaning there was a crosswind component. So, two things were happening, you had very close to the minimums for weather, and you had a plane that was going faster over the ground because of a tailwind, and they were battling a crosswind at the same time. Add to that, freezing rain situation, frozen fog was on the forecast at that moment, and so you have what we call it contaminated runway, slick runway. So, there were a lot of things conspiring to make this a very difficult landing. And --
LEMON: Yeah.
O'BRIEN: What happened, we don't know yet, was there some sort of mechanical failure, did they just not get traction -- we don't know.
LEMON: DO you guys remember this? I think we have the picture -- as I looked at this pictures today, I thought back to 1994, very similar incident, and it almost looks like the very same picture where the plane -- you know, skids off of the runway and goes right to that embankment. The embankment saves it from going all the way into the water. What is it about LaGuardia, David? Is it the short runway? Is there something special about this particular airport that this happens?
SOUCIE: Not necessarily. If you look at these two different accidents, there is, a lot of differences in that one of the aircraft was trying to -- the first one in 1994, was trying to take off and aborted landing and trying the get back on the ground. But what is common about is the idea that they are trying to get on the ground. Now, there's this little switches on the landing gear, and those switches, unless they are closed, in other words unless you make a good solid landing, then the thrust reversers which come out of the back of the engines, and kind of serve as the air brakes for the aircraft and the spoilers that come up to spoil the lift on top of the wing, those don't deploy until you've got a good solid landing, and they call them squat switches. When those squat switches deploy, until that happens, you're not going to any reverse thrust from the engines which you really rely on when you have a slick runway, because your braking effectiveness may not be as good as you would on a dry runway, obviously. So if you expected those to happen, and as Miles said, you got a quartering, you're doing a downwind leg, your landing with a little bit of tailwind so, everything is relative in the air. So you're going -- you're rate normal speed, plus the speed of the wind behind you. So, to get the aircraft down in the solid manner, when you are already hesitant about dropping it on to the slick runway, sometimes those landing squat switches don't go together, and some of the witnesses even said that, those landing gear that it kind of bounced a little bit, it could tell right up front that it was not a good solid hit on the ground.
LEMON: Runway length has nothing to do with it, because when I find it when I landed at LaGuardia, almost immediately, it's like -- you know they put on the brakes and if you are not holding...
SOUCIE: With chose. (ph)
LEMON: Everything is flying forward.
SOUCIE: Yeah, and that's what those stress reversers. If you don't -- if you can't get the...
LEMON: Yeah.
SOUCIE: Thrust reversers out in time, the short runway is definite an issue.
LEMON: Yeah. Let's listen to -- what the port authority say. What the officials said. Is it the conditions on the runway before the accident, were acceptable, and they also said the runway was plowed and in good condition. Let's take a listen real quick.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICK FOYE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE PORT AUTHORITY IN NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY: Shortly, before the incident of approximately 11:05 two planes landed and reported quote, "good braking action on the runways." The runway -- this particular runway had been plowed shortly before the incident, and the pilots on other planes reported good braking action.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: So Miles, what does that tell you? What does it say?
O'BRIEN: Well, you know, it's important for the port authority to keep the runway good to land, even in spite of this bad weather. And if it isn't, they need to make sure that's very clear so pilots understand what's going on. What you have to remember is this was a very dynamic situation. The weather was changing from rain to freezing rain, shifting over to snow at that time. And one of the things that the airports do is to send a truck out there with a gadget trailing behind it, which measures the friction of the runway, so that to make some clear determination, is the braking action good, medium or nil. The other things they need to rely on are pilot reports too. There were plane -- every time a plane lands in those in the situations, the controllers will ask them for a report. If the pilot says nil or no braking action, they going to shut down that runway to try to clean it off, and sometimes the pilots are really reluctant to do that.
LEMON: Yeah. Miles, David, always appreciated. Thank you.
O'BRIEN: You're welcome, Don. LEMON: Coming up, never before heard, powerful testimony from victims of the Boston marathon bombing. But first, CNN's new original series, "FINDING JESUS", airs Sunday nights at 9:00. Here's the preview of the next episode.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NARRATOR: An unprecedented CNN event. He didn't vanish, without leaving a trace.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the first time in history, we are able to place these relics.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And grasp something that changed the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is really the moment of truth.
NARRATOR: This is the story of Jesus.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the rock upon which the church is built.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The icon of scientific obsession.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is extraordinary defiant and archaeological piece.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do we really have here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did Judas betray Jesus?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That somebody chose to write this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sign does matter. Is this the shroud of Jesus?
NARRATOR: What are the clues they left behind? Faith. Fact. Forgery. "FINDING JESUS" Sunday night at 9:00 on CNN.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Powerful words in a Boston courtroom today, "I knew my legs were gone" Testimony from one of the survivors of the Boston marathon bombing who took the witness stand on day two of the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trial. One by one witnesses recounted in horrifying detail, what happen when two bombs exploded in the crowd.
Here's CNN Alexandra Field.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aftermath, defining silence, viewed in chaos, a witness calls it. Seen publicly for the first time, this picture of the crowd outside the Forum restaurant before Dzokhar Tsarnaev places the second bomb. And then, what's left moments later, smells of sulfur, burning hair, fireworks, the fourth of July, witnesses say, filling the air. The same spot where William Richard's family was all together for the last time. His 6-years-old daughter Jane loses her leg in the explosion. His 8-year-old son, Martin loses his life.
On the witness stand, Richard testifies that after the first blast, closer to the finish line, time slowed down. "I recall thinking, we should probably go." The second bomb explodes as they try to. His wife Denise and another son, Henry, also injured in that blast. Outside of the Forum restaurant, Roseann Sdoia is bleeding out, waiting for help, she gives police her sister's phone number, because she says, "I couldn't have somebody call my parents and tell them I died on Boylston Street."
Officer Thomas Barrett plucks a 3-year-old boy, Leo, out of the chaos, but nearby, medics could do no more for Lingzhi Lu. Boston Police Officer Lauren Woods stays with her until the end. Her whole body was shaking, quivering. Krystle Campbell couldn't be saved, Officer Frank Chiola fought for her life. "Smoke was coming out of her mouth. She was in a lot of pain." It was like being under water, Allan Hern tells the courtroom. Describing how he found his 11-year-old son outside the Forum. On his outer left thigh, there was a crater about as big as my hand. "It was about that big mangled flesh, full of blood. Looked like something you'd see in a war movie, like he was hit by a hand grenade."
On the second day of the Dzhokhar's Tsarnaev trial, the jury hears from the first time how police try to find suspect. A myth to confusion, combing through surveillance videos, then getting a key clue from Jeff Bauman, who remembers being at the finish line, near Tamerlan Tsarnaev, before the first blast. "This guy, he was about my age, kind of bumped me." "He looked very suspicious. He didn't look like anybody that was there." "He didn't look like he was watching the race, I just thought it was odd."
Bauman testifies. Bauman's rescue is captured missed iconic photo with the man on the cowboy hat. In the early aftermath of the marathon bombings, the world already knew his face. When he woke up in the hospital missing both legs, he remembered this face. "At that point, it was pretty clear in my mind what happened." "I said I know what happened."
Alexander Field, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Oh, man. Joined now by Mel Robbins, CNN commentator and legal analyst, and also Dr. Vivek Shah, an orthopedic surgeon who was running the marathon on that fateful day and was near to finish line when the bombs exploded. You know, Dr. Shah, it -- it's so hard to believe it's been almost two years. When you look at that, and you hear the testimonies and you see the photographs, it really brings it back like it was yesterday.
DR. VIVEK SHAH, ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON: It does. It does. And you know, I think living here in Boston since that time, it's not something that goes away any time. So, we are sort of living it year-round. And like the marathon itself, sort -- of exemplifies, you know, awakening for Boston every year. So, we are trying to remember the good things, but now it's the -- you know, the trial going on, I think we are all hoping for maybe a little bit of closure.
LEMON: Yeah. You know, Mel, this was the second day of the extremely graphic and emotional testimony, 260 people injured, three killed that day, that has to impact the jury.
MEL ROBBINS, CNN COMMENTATOR AND LEGAL ANALYST: Oh, there is no question, Don. In particular, you know, while we don't have the video feed out of the courtroom, you can read some of the details, in particular, you know, from Martin Richard's father, and it is possibly one of the most heart wrenching things that you will ever read in your life. When you hear that fact that he is a father had to make a decision to leave his son dying, Don, because Jane's leg, his 6-year- old was blown off, and they knew they had to get her to the hospital to save her, and Richard was already -- I mean, Martin was already dying. I mean, this is testimony that if you are ever going to sways a jury that is on the fence about the death penalty, this is the kind that would.
LEMON: Yeah. Dr. Shah, you were one of the heroes that day, where you about to cross the finish line, I know that you helped out and you witness some heroic things. But what I'm interested in learning from you is, is that you have mixed feelings about the death penalty when it comes to Tsarnaev, why is that?
SHAH: I just think it's something that I have never really had to think much about -- in my personal life, and topics that interest me. And I think from my standpoint, whether it is life in prison or the death penalty, I think the most important thing for people who are injured at the marathon, affected by the marathon, people who are concerned for the -- those of us here is that justice is served, and I think, however the verdict comes out, justice will be served. And I think that we can now look forward to the marathon as something to celebrate the city of Boston, rather than something that brings sadness to everybody here, so.
LEMON: Mel in the short time we have left, you know, he mentions closure and he talks about the amount of sadness. Do you think that there is a particular verdict that will help more, the death penalty or anything like that?
ROBBINS: You know, I don't -- the research shows that the death penalty doesn't provide victims, the sense of closure that they are seeking, because it does not bring your families back. And here's the bottom line, whether he gets the death penalty or he is sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, he is dying in prison. It's just a matter of whether or not, we are killing him or he is going to be rotting away in some cell and hopefully be forgotten, Don.
LEMON: Dr. Shah, Mel Robinson, thank you very much.
SHAH: Thank you.
ROBBINS: Thank you, Don. LEMON: Coming up, Bill Weir is traveling the globe on his new show,
"THE WONDER LIST", visiting some of the world's most remote places. He got to tell us where he is headed to, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: My next guest says he has the best job in news -- all right, maybe the second best. In his new series Bill Weir take us every place from the Taj Mahal, to the Galapagos, the Greek (inaudible) of -- in Korea and experience the place and creatures that might not be here for much longer. Here he is Mr. Bill Weir. He's the host of "THE WONDER LIST".
BILL WEIR, HOST OF THE WONDER LIST: Hey, Don.
LEMON: How do you like that?
WEIR: I love that. It's very symmetrical. That's the volcano in Vanuatu.
LEMON: Yeah. View -- you are admiring, we are admiring that before. The last time you were here, you were sitting here and now you are there, you got this new gig. How --
(CROSSTALK) LEMON: How do you liking it?
WEIR: Oh, it's amazing, none of the best time.
LEMON: You are?
WEIR: This is fun too. This is fun. But you know there are certain limitations of time and space when you got to be live every day. And you know I like to get off of the planes in new countries and talking to all different kinds of people.
LEMON: Where to this time? Because we watched you last week, spearfish with the (inaudible) Vanuatu and you find the volcano. This week you are going to exotic animals in the Galapagos.
WEIR: Yeah. We're going to talk about mass extinction. You know we're living through the sixth grade extinction and unlike the other five, we can't blame this on an asteroids or an ice age, this isn't our faults. And the -- it's stunning if you think about the fact that the earth is -- the best science tells us it's about 4.6 billion years old, which is too big a number to comprehend. So if we put in our age terms...
LEMON: Yes.
WEIR: Let's say...
LEMON: And we are journalist, I'm not that good in math.
WEIR: Yeah, yeah. So let's pretend the earth is my age, 46. Human beings showed up four months ago, and the industrial revolution was 60 seconds ago, and in that time, we've cut down half the forest, we eaten half the fish, we dammed most of the rivers and so a lot of the species are going away, but in the Galapagos they are trying to stop it.
LEMON: So Darwin's old stomping grounds --
WEIR: Yes.
LEMON: You could have see -- you're going to take the footsteps, you're going to go face to face with endangered species that very few humans ever see up close. I think that you are nuts sometimes.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: But let's watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am headed to a deserted island with a cold- blooded killer. All right. Oh, this is cool.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People don't get to step on this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no, people don't get to come here, Champion Island.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His name is Karl Campbell, big hearted in his love for animals, but cold blooded of what he is willing to do to save them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hear the cheap -- the chirp.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. And there's one just appear. We got a little bit further.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, look, he's right here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And he has brought me to this tiny haven, to look for the one creature that inspired Darwin's idea more than any other.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, what's up, buddy? I have come a long way to see you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Floreana mockingbird.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My goodness. Look at that. He truly is. He found us being here. He doesn't even seem to mind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. When Darwin came here, he collected these guys with a stick.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just whacked them with a stick?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just whacked them with a stick. That is how naive they are.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They didn't know how the fear man yet?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't know how to fear anything. Yeah. That I'm really having any predators out here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And there is -- maybe 90 left in the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the world, total. This is one of the world's rarest birds.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: One of the world's rarest birds. Why and why so important?
WEIR: Well, it is one of Darwin's most important species and influenced these ideas on more than any other birds as well. But, a lot of the attitude is, we broke it, we should fix it. And the reason that bird is endangered is three reasons. Human beings who brought rats and cats to the -- to their home island, they've eaten the eggs, it also going after giant tortoise eggs as well. But that guy Karl Campbell, he helped save a giant tortoise species that was endangered by invasive of goats.
LEMON: Why do you call him the cold blooded killer?
WEIR: Because -- they he got into a helicopter, and with a sniper rifle, spend five years and shot 200,000 goats from the air. So we reached the point in sort of human evolution where we are forced to play God, deciding which animals have to die so these few, endangered ones can live.
LEMON: Yeah. You were mentioning tortoise, because you encountered tortoises there as well.
WEIR: Yes, yeah, as the size of this desk.
LEMON: Really? They are amazing.
WEIR: Yeah. And what happened was, you know, back in a way when the whalers and the pirates were sailing, they would come out on this islands and it's the easiest protein, anybody has ever hunted. They put in -- holder or ship, you flip them upside down, where they can live would food or water for a year. So they eat this tortoise stew, and they leave goats on this island so that they would have them a different meat when they sail home...
LEMON: Yeah.
WEIR: Which they ate all of it. So it was a fascinating study about unintended consequences and how fast something can go. Darwin know -- knew that they were being overhunted, but they still brought a few dozen back on a beagle and ate them back to England.
LEMON: So where else? WEIR: Next week, we're going to go to Evia, this island in Greece, where people live to be 100 at a staggering rate, but now they are getting Facebook and junk food and people are worried that they're going to turned into us.
LEMON: Right.
WEIR: And then we'll do India, look for tiger after that, and we have a bunch of good ones.
LEMON: OK. So there's a reason for this globe.
WEIR: OK. Yeah.
LEMON: Because I'm going to spin...
WEIR: OK.
LEMON: And you're going to close your eyes and point.
WEIR: All right.
LEMON: And then that is where you are going to go.
WEIR: All right. OK.
LEMON: OK. Where does it say?
WEIR: San Diego.
LEMON: No. A whale snow (ph)
WEIR: Actually, no, you got me down here in Cabo San Lucas.
LEMON: Oh, really?
WEIR: But there are some great stories down here. You know, there's the Monarch butterfly migration that comes across North America and down in the Mexico, that's on my wonderful list hopefully for season two.
LEMON: I would go the Cabo.
WEIR: Yeah. We could go --
LEMON: I just stay in the hotel, and you could go out and look for -- endangered species.
WEIR: Endangered margaritas.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: Thank you. Congratulations. Good to see you.
WEIR: Thanks man.
LEMON: We'll be right back.
(LAUGHTER)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: That's it for us tonight. I'm Don Lemon. Thanks for watching.
"AC360" starts right now.
