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German Police Search Co-Pilot's Home for Clues; Saudi-Led Coalition Strikes Rebels in Yemen. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired March 27, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:31:46] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to bring you the latest at this hour on the crash of Flight 9525. Investigators searching the home of 27-year-old Andreas Lubitz, taking several bags with them, looking for any sign of a motive, for deliberately flying that flight into a mountain. We're learning that he reset the plane's auto pilot to descend to 100 feet.

That disaster leaving families shattered and airline executives stunned. Lufthansa's CEO spoke exclusively to CNN's Fred Pleitgen about the tragedy.

Fred, tell us what he said.

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And, of course, Alisyn, he said that he was absolutely shocked by what happened there, by the fact that one of his pilots did this. He also said that in spite of what happened, he still believes in the screening process. He said it's something that Lufthansa has always prided itself on. However, he also says that in light of these events, that they are going to re-evaluate their entire processes of how they train pilots, how they evaluate pilots. Let's have a look at what he also had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARSTEN SPOHR, CEO, LUFTHANSA: To tell you the truth, we have no explanation at this point. We at Lufthansa have for decades been so proud of selecting the best people to become pilots, training them in the best way, having them qualified in the best way. That's something of this kind would ever happen to us is incomprehensible and I think we just need to understand that it's a single case which every safety system in the world cannot completely rule out. I think that's what we take as an explanation, if you want to call it that.

PLEITGEN: Might there have been signs? Could there have been indications that this person might have been mentally unstable?

SPOHR: No. The pilot has passed all his tests, all his medical exams. We have at Lufthansa, a reporting system where crew can report without being punished, their own problems or they can report about problems of others without any kind of punishment. That hasn't been used either in this case. So all the safety nets, all the safety nets we're so proud of here have not worked in this case.

PLEITGEN: What do you know about what exactly happened?

SPOHR: After the pilot, after the captain has left the cockpit, he tried to regain access, there were knocks on the door, according to the French authorities, and door was either kept locked or not opened in the way it was supposed to be. That for sure is a clear indication that the remaining pilot didn't want the captain to return.

PLEITGEN: So, there's no indication, because we've been talking about there might have been a medical emergency. There might have been some other event that could have caused the pilot to become incapacitated. You believe that the co-pilot deliberately steered the plane into the mountain?

SPOHR: We do have a safety procedure in place in case the remaining pilot gets unconsciousness, there's a way to open door from the outside, unless the person on the inside blocks it. And this apparently has happened here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: And one of the things of course in light of all that, that they are evaluating right now is that two people in the cockpit rule. We do know of course that that's something that Lufthansa did not have. He says that so far, it's never been an issue for Lufthansa before. But, of course, with ha happened there, with the plane going down, they're re-evaluating that as well, also because a lot of other airlines are doing the same thing.

[06:35:07] So, we do expect Lufthansa to make changes to that policy very soon, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Also interesting there, Fred, that's the first time we've heard from someone involved in a position of leadership that the safety procedure to get through the door using the keypad, and then the co-pilot having to lock it. That's what they believe happened here. That the captain did try to get back in using the keypad and didn't happen. We'll keep chasing down that part, Fred. We'll chase you back on that.

All right. In other news, the president of Yemen is taking refuge in Saudi Arabia ahead of this weekend's Arab League summit. But back in his country, chaos. A Saudi-led Arab coalition blasting Iran-backed Houthi rebels with airstrikes and now threatening to send in ground troops. Their action in Yemen, of course, infuriating Iran, destabilizing the region.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: The deadline meanwhile for a nuclear deal with Iran just four days away. The Saudis are warning they may have to build their own nuclear bomb to counterbalance a nuclear Iran. These talks meanwhile continue in Switzerland at this hour, both sides insisting that progress is being made. Iran's president, Hasan Rouhani, now sending a personal letter to President Obama and the leaders of the five other powers. It's unclear exactly what those letters have to say. CAMEROTA: Two cousins from Illinois, including a member of the Army

National Guard, arrested and charged with conspiring to provide material support to ISIS. Federal officials say 22-year-old Hasan Edmonds was taken into custody at O'Hare Airport Wednesday night before he could board a flight to Egypt, allegedly to join the terror group. Twenty-nine-year-old Jonas Edmonds was arrested at his home for allegedly plotting to attack a U.S. military facility in Illinois where his cousin had been training.

COUMO: All right. Let's get a little check heading into the weekend. We've got meteorologist Jennifer Gray taking a look at the world's weather for us.

What do you see? Sixty and sunny everywhere? I like it.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I wish I could tell you that. It's going to be much colder in the east. We have a ridge in the west, a trough in the east. It's bringing much warmer than normal temperatures in the West and much cooler than normal temperatures in the east. Temperatures will run 10-20 degrees below normal throughout the weekend for the eastern half of the U.S. as we go through the next couple of days. Morning low temperatures will be in the teens in Chicago on Saturday morning, 26 on Sunday morning. Even in the northeast, 35 degrees, your morning temperature on Saturday morning in New York. In the 20s on Sunday.

What you factor in the wind chill, it will feel like 25 degrees in Boston. This is Saturday morning in Buffalo, it will feel like six and so temperatures will feel like the teens and 20s and we could possibly even be looking at snow across portions of New England, including Boston on Saturday, even portions of long island. We'll keep an eye on that.

Today's high temperatures, though, 59 degrees in Atlanta, 52 in Nashville, 30 in Chicago. 48 degrees in New York City -- guys.

PEREIRA: Less blue on there which I'm liking.

CAMEROTA: The trend line --

PEREIRA: The trend is good.

CAMEROTA: -- is going in the right direction.

Jennifer, thanks so much.

So, of course, we're tracking all the latest developments for you in the crash of Flight 9525. Is it time to reexamine cockpit safety? Should cameras be rolling inside the flight deck? We'll take a closer look at current airline protocols and how effective they really are.

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[06:42:31] PEREIRA: The apparent crash of a commercial airliner into the French Alps has reignited debate over just how to improve airline safety. What changes could now come from the airline industry? I want to turn to CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien, conversations we

seem to always have after a crash.

So, Miles, let's talk about the protocols. And I think one of the things we need to talk about -- first off, thank you for joining us from Japan -- is the idea of the experience of the pilot.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: You're welcome.

PEREIRA: Understand this pilot, this co-pilot had 630 hours of flying time. To a non-aviator like myself, I'm not sure what to make of that. How much is that in relation? Give us some context there.

O'BRIEN: That is an infant of a pilot, so raw he doesn't even know what he doesn't know, and 100 hours at the controls of the Airbus.

This is a person who doesn't have a lot of experience. And on the face of it, that's not a great idea to leave somebody like that alone in a cockpit. Things can happen quickly. And things can go bad quickly in aviation and it's very unforgiving.

But the other thing to think about here, Michaela, is that the mental health of pilots is sort of a peer-reviewed process, which goes over the course of many years. This is a pilot who was brand new, with very low time. In the U.S., he would have double the amount of time and there would be more opportunity to vet a person like this.

PEREIRA: Interesting point. And that leads me to the next conversation about mental health screening. Some reports are emerging that there was a depression issue with this co-pilot. "Wall Street Journal" is going as far to say he had some sort of medical condition.

We talk about the self-reporting with David Soucie a moment ago and with Justin Green. Self-reporting seems questionable if you're relying on the person themself to say, hey, I've got an issue, or even the other pilot or a peer to say this guy's got a problem -- that seems questionable.

O'BRIEN: Yes. You're not going to raise your hand and say hey, I've got this problem and potentially ground yourself and derail your career. There's a lot of stigma associated with mental health issues to this day. We all know that. And I think the airlines need to lean forward a little more and encourage their people they can come forward confidentially and address these issues.

PEREIRA: We heard the CEO of Lufthansa just say last block that they have a policy that they can report without consequence.

Let's move to the door incursion or the lack thereof. It struck some of our producers here, do we need to protect ourselves from rogue pilots? Yet, the stat, and I can pull up this graphic -- pilot suicide represents less than 1 percent of crashes.

[06:45:06] So, we can probably rest assured. But do you believe changes need to be made? O'BRIEN: Well, I think that the thing about aviation is you always

should learn from every accident. And if you're not learning from those accidents, it wouldn't be as safe as it is today.

How do you make a door, though, that works equally well on both sides? If the bad guy is on either side? That's a real problem. And there's probably technology that can address this. And I think the airlines need to start looking at this, as well as the regulators.

PEREIRA: Some concern about how much technology versus human brain power. And at a time like this, we do look to technology. I'm wondering what you think about some of the technology that is available. For example, in my vehicle or a vehicle that any passenger would drive, there's OnStar capabilities, there's anti-braking or braking technology, et cetera.

Why couldn't the planes have that? Of course, we understand it costs money.

O'BRIEN: It does, think about it, Michaela, this is the eighth aviation accident we've talked about over the course of a year. Add up the cost of doing all this searching for these black boxes, just for starters, not to mention the risk of people in the Alps trying to find these cards which have the flight data recorder information.

It's technically possible. It's feasible to have streaming data from these aircraft when something goes awry and conceivably two-way capability ala OnStar, to open up a door for example or perhaps take some level of control over an aircraft. It's something to consider.

PEREIRA: One thing we've seen change is the procedure, the U.S. we know mandates two crew members at all times in the cockpit. Other airlines have followed suit. Some, in fact, as soon as yesterday changing that rule.

Shouldn't it be standard worldwide?

O'BRIEN: Absolutely. I mean, this is a simple one, or it should be. Having somebody in there alone, obviously having somebody in there to check out the other person. In case something, there is a malicious intent is a good idea.

This again is kind of a cost issue. You've got a short-haul airline, very busy flight attendants, the pilot has to step out. It stops the service and so forth. But it should be mandatory.

PEREIRA: All right. Great running through this laundry list of issues and factors and protocols with you, Miles. Thanks so much. We'll be talking with you again.

Join of conversation. You can you tweet us @NewDay, or you can join the conversation on Facebook.com/NewDay.

Chris?

CUOMO: All right. We're going to have more on flight 9525. We are learning more and we're going to give you the developments ahead.

But we also have to tell you about what's going on in the fight to control Yemen. This may be the trickiest and most dangerous situation in the world for the United States and for you. We'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: A tangled mess in one of the most volatile places on earth. Saudi launching airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen, and the ripple effect of that action spreads much further than the Middle East.

Let's bring in CNN global affairs analyst and retired U.S. Delta Force commander, Lieutenant Colonel James Reese, and Hilary Mann Leverett. She's a former State Department Middle East expert under President Clinton and George W. Bush, and the co-author of "Going to Tehran: Why America Must Accept the Islamic Republic of Iran."

It's great to have both of your expertise with us this morning. It could not be more complicated there, the sort of shifting geopolitical sands.

Hilary, help us understand what this means for the U.S. and that region.

HILARY MANN LEVERETT, CO-AUTHOR, "GOING TO TEHRAN": Well, we're talking first and foremost about an internal conflict in Yemen, which is important, and not because it's wealthy and has a tremendous amount of oil and gas, but really because of its geostrategic location.

And inserting into the conflict, we have potentially a regional war, we have Saudi Arabia that has now essentially invaded Yemen and threatens to bring with it some of the largest Sunni-led countries like Egypt, Sudan, which is under the leadership of an indicted war criminal. And Turkey, which is a NATO ally.

This could be, this could seriously impact U.S. interests across the board as we have potential for a real regional conflagration.

The only real silver lining is that something potentially we may be able to realign our relations with Iran and bring the region more into a balance, a balance of power that brings all of the relevant countries to a negotiating table, rather than to yet another war.

CUOMO: Colonel, that's the part I don't get. You know, Hilary just used the word realign. If you look at Yemen, you have us supporting the Saudis in their fight against the Houthis, who are Shia rebels that are funded by Iran, and then you look at where you just came back from in Iraq and we are fighting against the Sunnis there, who are being fought by Iran, and the Shia rebels.

So, we're helping them on one side and we're fighting against them on the other side. What kind of alignment is that?

LT. COL. JAMES REESE, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yes, Chris, you know, alignment I don't think is the right way to put this. That is such a complex task in the Middle East. We have to break these down the smaller simpler tasks. We can't just group these all in together.

You know, in Iraq, everyone is fighting a common enemy, and for the last three weeks up in Tikrit and seeing it, it was great to see. We saw the Quds forces out there.

But in Yemen right now, I think one thing we have to be able to do is take the Sunni and Shia piece away for a minute. Let's just talk about the Houthis -- literally, they attacked a president and his parliament and a country that was freely elected. They went through an election. Hadi was -- he was elected, he was put into power by the people. They came in.

But if you remember two months ago when we spoke, when the Houthis came through this whole thing, you know, back in January, and Hadi stepped down with some of his members of parliament, we said right on the show with you, Hadi will be back because the Houthis are not prepared to run the country.

[06:55:06] So, I think we need to keep in mind the Houthis, Sunni, Shia, even though they're Shia, let's keep in mind, they did this internally and they attacked a freely-elected government.

CAMEROTA: But, Hilary, to Chris's premise, what about that, that the U.S. supports the Sunnis in one country and the Shia in another country. Is that OK? And do we need to pick a side?

LEVERETT: Well, I think is dramatizes that U.S. policy is really in free fall. We have chaos in Iraq, in Syria, in Libya, in Yemen. We really have a complete dysfunction and freefall characterizing U.S. policy.

What we need to do is have a fundamental rethink and possibly that may be the process we're going through in terms of trying to strike a deal with Iran -- a fundamental rethink that has us looking at more of a balance of power in the region, not the United States being the so- called firefighter, putting out each of these fires, but in the process stoking regional conflicts and making the situation much more threatening to the United States.

CUOMO: Why does the situation clearly state's Iran's intentions of being as disruptive as possible and in many different positions of the world as they can find?

LEVERETT: You know, I think the perception in more places in the Middle East, and I think even around the world is that it's our erstwhile allies with Saudis, that have -- I would take issue with my colleague, that Hadi in Yemen was not exactly freely elected. He was really Saudi-installed and American-funded to carry out a drone program that was enormously unpopular in Yemen.

And we have the Saudis, whether they're arming, funding or training groups that became ISIS or groups that became al Qaeda, starting with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. That's the real problem.

And the problem is not that we should dump the Saudis as allies, but we need balance and that's what's so important about bringing Iran into the picture to a negotiating table, rather than working with the Saudis to somehow counter the Iranians.

CAMEROTA: Colonel Reese, your response? How do you see that?

REESE: A minute ago, Hilary said the U.S. has got to stop being the fireman, we are. I mean, the Saudis, Egyptians, the regional powers have decided to step in here, all right? They have done this, in Iraq. You have this whole coalition of folks, and we're sitting in the background a little bit. You know, up in Iraq, the Badr core commander said it's better than the 200 U.S. advisers sitting in the Green Zone.

So, maybe we need to sit back and let the forces do it I don't think we're being the firemen right now. I think we're aligning with some of our allies, we see some atrocities happen in some places, we're giving some support.

But I don't think we should sit here and push the American projection and let these Arab countries do what they think they need to do in the region. Let's see what shakes out.

CUOMO: Complex situation, but you can't do better than having Colonel Reese, who has his eyes on the ground and understands it, and Hilary, who knows the policy implications are going to the decisions. Thanks to both of you very much. We'll stay on that story.

But we're following a lot of news for you this morning. Let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: The co-pilot, who authorities say, deliberately crashed the plane into the mountains.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That door was designed for a purpose.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need -- before you accuse someone, you need to have all the evidence in place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two people in the cockpit every time. We've also prevented any pilot suicide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is really a war to defend the legitimate government of Yemen and protect the Yemeni people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't currently know the specific goals and objectives of the Saudi campaign.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Is there going to be a deal with the Iranians on the nuclear program?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the Iranians are prepared to make that leap, to meet our red lines, we can get a deal done.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. You're watching NEW DAY.

At this hour, investigators are furiously digging into why Andreas Lubitz, decided to fly a plane packed with 150 people into the side of a mountain. Items have been removed from his home in hopes of establishing any motive for why this seemingly normal young man who loved to fly chose to die in such an unthinkable fashion.

CUOMO: We've now learned this co-pilot did reprogram the plane's auto pilot to 100 feet. There's no good reason for that. Several airlines already changing policy because of what we've learned here.

We've got every angle of the story covered for you this morning, starting with CNN's Rosie Tomkins. Now, she's live outside the co- pilot's home in Montabaur, Germany.

Rosie, the key there obviously is to understand what was going on in this guy's head. The latest?

ROSIE TOMKINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Chris.

Yes, well, here in Montabaur as you can see a large gathering of people and media gathering with the focus now on this man who grew up in this town with an apparently normal family. How on earth he could have come to be somebody motivated to do something so horrific?

Police yesterday were searching his family home here, and his apartment in Dusseldorf.