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The Lead with Jake Tapper

What Went Wrong with Flight 235?; Jordan Steps Up Airstrikes in Syria; New Cases of Measles Confirmed at Daycare

Aired February 05, 2015 - 16:30   ET

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: I want to bring in Jeff Wise, the science writer and author of the book "Extreme Fear." I also have here in studio Miles O'Brien, a pilot and CNN aviation analyst whom you know well.

Jeff, let me start with you. One rescuer said he saw a lot of passengers tangled in their seat belts and upside down. Obviously, seat belts are a force for good. You should wear your seat belts. But it does make you wonder if in some instances seat belts could trap you.

JEFF WISE, AUTHOR, "EXTREME FEAR": It's possible but you know, you have to look at the statistical probability.

TAPPER: Right.

WISE: You know, we saw Mary Schiavo earlier talking about how you can survive if you happen to be in a part of the plane that's near an exit, an exit is accessible then that's good. If you are in a part that sustains the brunt of the damage, you are out of luck.

You know, it's such a roll of the dice that it's hard to say do this, don't do that. The thing that people should really remember is that even after the spate of accidents that we have been having in the last year, which is remarkable and horrifying.

It's still a very safe way to travel. I don't think you should get on a plane with the attitude of where am I going to sit so when this plane crashes, I'm going to be OK.

TAPPER: One would hope not. Miles, the pilot, people are speculating, calling him a hero. Assuming that he turned and tried to hit the river on purpose for the softest landing he could.

But he's now dead, he was killed in the crash so we will never know, I guess that makes the flight data recording extra important when it comes to figuring out what happened and whether this was purposeful.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Yes. The flight data recorder, the cockpit voice recorder will tell all. I think it's a little early to declare them heroes or goats, for that matter. We don't know yet. We do know they reported a flameout, loss of an engine. What caused that is a whole separate kind of thing.

How they responded to that is the issue. What you're supposed to do is stop that propeller from windmilling. It's tantamount to a garbage can lid, if you don't feather the props, put the edge on. If you don't do that, it's almost impossible to recover.

Hard to say whether the pilot was in control and trying to get it in the river or that was just the beginning of a stall spin.

TAPPER: Lot of speculation. Jeff, investigators plan to release the findings of the flight data recordings tomorrow. Tomorrow seems really quick. If you look at the Airasia crash back in December, those recordings were recovered weeks ago, still have not been released. How is it that investigators are going to be able to release these tomorrow and not in the case of Airasia?

WISE: It really just goes to show what investigators can do, how open they can be if they want to be. Clearly in this day and age of information and technology, you can download this data, you can process it. You can get it out to the world instantaneously if you want to. It goes to show how Indonesia and Malaysia have not been so great about getting information out.

TAPPER: Miles, the dash cam video, horrific but also incredible. You don't normally get to see what happened. I imagine investigators are poring over every frame of this video. What are they especially focusing on?

O'BRIEN: They are looking very carefully at that left engine. Is it windmilling, is it feathered, is it somewhere in between? They are looking at where the ailerons are. Were they trying to bank very hard to the right to compensate for that left turn?

What was the rudder setting? Was there damage near the back of the tail? There is speculation that it might have grazed some object prior to the scene with the dash cam. There's a series of things you can glean from that.

Of course, as useful as that is, it's much more useful to have the data which they have, the flight data recorder, and the cockpit voice recorder. I should point out to amplify on what Jeff said, if there is a mechanical problem, the world needs to know this right away.

This goes back to what we have seen in contrast in Indonesia and Malaysia. If there are problems with these planes, people need to know about it.

TAPPER: That's the point, why we keep covering them and why the investigations are so important, to prevent future deaths from these problems. Miles O'Brien, Jeff Wise, thank you both so much.

Back to our World Lead, in Jordan's retribution for ISIS terrorists killing one of their own, Jordanian fighter pilots took to the skies over Syria dropping bombs scribbled with persona messages for the brutal ISIS killers as King Abdullah promises this is just the beginning. Stay with us. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. In other world news today, Jordan is firing back against the terrorists of ISIS. Coalition fighter jets pounding ISIS targets in Syria today, part of the earth-shaking retaliation promised by Jordan's King Abdullah after video was released showing a kidnapped pilot, a Jordanian pilot, being burned alive.

Abdullah vowed the ISIS bombardment will continue until the country runs out of quote, "fuel and bullets." CNN's Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon with the latest. Barbara, what type of targets were hit?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, the Jordanians were going after ISIS weapons sites, personnel, but the question always remains the same. Will it make a difference?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STARR (voice-over): Jordanian F-16s took to the skies over Syria, striking nearly 20 ISIS targets in an ISIS stronghold deep in Eastern Syria. It came as King Abdullah paid a condolence call on Moaz Al- Kassasbeh's family.

Jordanian bombs carrying scribbled messages, Islam has nothing to do with your actions, and verses from the Koran, drop upon them stones of fire and they will turn their back and run.

King Abdullah with his own message posted this on social media, a wartime commander delivering Jordan's vow of retribution.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in coordination with our American friends as well as other allies in the coalition in order to make sure that we go after the targets of DASH and that we hit them and hit them hard.

STARR: The Jordanians and the U.S. have been secretly working for days to develop a list of ISIS targets even as ISIS tried to hide from the bombs.

LT. GENERAL MARK HERTLING (RETIRED), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: They are dispersing. They are not as bold as they once were. They are not traveling in large, what might be even described as conventional masses.

STARR: U.S. war planes including F-22s and F-16s flew alongside, providing targeting assistance, intelligence and reconnaissance, jamming ISIS communications. It may be just the beginning of Jordan's response.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RETIRED), FORMER AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE OFFICER: What needs to happen is an integrated effort where U.S. advisors are with them every step of the way, helping them plan missions, helping them direct forces in theater, and helping them do things that they are not used to doing on their own.

STARR: The U.N. commissioner for human rights and King Abdullah's cousin saying bombing is not enough to defeat ISIS. PRINCE ZAID RA'AD AL-HUSSEIN, U.N. HIGHT COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: what is needed is the addition of a different sort of battle line, one which principally by Muslim leaders and Muslim countries and based on ideas, on a reassertion of traditional Islam and the everyday narrative of Muslims.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: But tonight, there is every reason to believe that Jordanian military and King Abdullah are not done and there will be more air strikes against is -- Jake.

TAPPER: Barbara Starr, thank you so much.

Coming up, a terrifying moment for parents of a suburban Chicago day care, five babies, all of them too young to be vaccinated, have been diagnosed or suspected of having the measles. Local health officials do not know the source of the illness. What can parents of babies do to keep their children safe? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. As the national debate rages about parents choosing whether to vaccinate their children and let me just say, you should vaccinate your children, more cases of measles have been confirmed, this time at a day care in Illinois.

Two babies testing positive for the highly contagious disease, three others are believed to have it. Test results are still pending. They are all under a year old. That is too young for the measles vaccine. This brings the overall count to at least 110 cases of measles in 15 states.

CNN's Ryan Young joins us now live from that day care center outside Chicago. When do we expect to hear results on the testing of the other potential cases?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's something we are still working on. They say it could be in the next few days. I can tell you more kids are arriving here to this day care. They did a deep clean overnight to make sure the center was able to be open.

We are told the five kids are being watched. Of course, they're not here. We are told other kids who haven't been vaccinated have been sent home and told to stay away for some 21 days.

If you look at the front of this day care, those kids are on that bus right now. We watched them be escorted in and out of the building. We are trying to make sure we don't get close enough to ask any questions.

We have obviously tried to talk to parents who are coming to this day care. We are told they cleaned it thoroughly overnight to make sure this center could be open for the kids who are still remaining here. But those five kids obviously are being watched at this point. Three other kids, of course, have measles-like symptoms.

TAPPER: Ryan, is there any word of any possible link between these cases in Illinois and the outbreak in California?

YOUNG: Of course, that is the big question right now. That's something they are working on trying to discover. A lot of questions right now, especially since they feel like more kids here could end up having measles-like symptoms. That's something they just can't answer right now.

TAPPER: All right, Ryan Young live for us in Illinois. Thank you so much. Parents of course understandably shaken by this new measles cluster given the ages of those who were exposed, let's bring in CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Good to see you again.

Measles, a lot of people don't know this or take it seriously, but it is a very serious disease and can be really dangerous for infants.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it can be particularly dangerous for the youngest among us for a couple reasons. One, obviously they are more likely to be able to get the infection because the vaccine is not given until after one year of age. Just as a baseline, they are more likely to become infected.

If you look at all the various potential complications, deafness being one of them, other neurological problems, people having significant problems with breathing, in fact, severe pneumonia is usually the most common cause of death in someone with measles.

I do want to say, the death rate is still relatively low depending on your perspective, one out of 1,000 or so children will succumb to this type of infection. But this is obviously concerning. We don't know why this particular day care has been affected like this.

TAPPER: I get asked this all the time. I know the answer, but I'm going to ask you anyway. Explain for people why even if their kids have been vaccinated, there should be concern about people who are not vaccinated. The question I get on Twitter all the time is if my kids are vaccinated, who cares, they are not going to get measles.

GUPTA: So what we are talking about is something known as herd immunity. What that means is once you increase the overall vaccination rate above a certain percentage. They say above 90 percent at least for measles in a community, the virus has a harder time circulating. The virus may be out there but it can't catch hold anywhere.

If the vaccination rate starts to drop below 90 percent, the virus can start to catch hold. The vaccine's not perfect so somebody may still get the infection despite having been vaccinated and they can start to spread it to other people, and that's when you start to see many outbreaks.

Having herd immunity is really important. The other reason it's important is because of this story right here. Someone who is below the age of 1 as these kids are, they have not yet been vaccinated. They get some protection from the herd.

The herd protects those kids. The herd protects people who can't be vaccinated because they are too young or because of some medical problem. That's why vaccination rates are so important for everybody else.

TAPPER: Sanjay, parents of kids too young to be vaccinated or kids who have compromised immune systems and can't be vaccinated such a kids with leukemia, what do you do? You just keep them home from day care?

GUPTA: Well, you see what's happening at this particular day care, they say they will deep clean it and allow it to remain open. Anyone who may have been exposed will be quarantined. It's a question that people ask all the time.

Before a kid can be vaccinated, how safe is it for them to go about their lives and to do anything. I think there's probably no reason to say they have to be kept home from day care necessarily. You got to make sure the people around them, the adults who can be vaccinated, the older children, are vaccinated again because of that herd protection.

Keep in mind as well we are talking about measles a lot this year. Last year there were over 640 cases or so as well in this country. It does happen. We may not have been talking about this particular day care center last year, because it wasn't a story but this measles still circulates in the United States.

TAPPER: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much.

Turning to some other world news today, terror at the hands of Boko Haram continuing across parts of Northwest Africa, nearly 100 innocent civilians slaughtered in Cameroon along the border with Nigeria. Some found with their throats cut. Several homes and the town's mosques were set ablaze.

Today's attack comes days after regional forces launched a regional offensive against the al Qaeda inspired group, killing hundreds of Boko Haram terrorists. More than 13,000 people have been killed over the last six years by Boko Haram, the Islamic extremists and more than a million people have been displaced.

TAPPER: When we come back, a senior aide to a Republican congressman is now out of a job after his racist comments comparing African- Americans to zoo animals are exposed. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. In other national news today, federal investigators are minutes away from possibly learning what caused that deadly metro north train crash in New York.

Why did Ellen Brody stop her SUV on the tracks of a railroad crossing? A driver who was behind her said she had plenty of room to reverse before the crash. Brody is now among the six people killed in that crash.

The commuter rail was about 20 miles north of New York City when it slammed into that SUV. That triggered a fire that killed five people on the train including the conductor. A team from the National Transportation Safety Board spent the day at the scene trying to figure out exactly what happened.

Ellen Brody was 49 years old, a mother of three. The driver who was behind her described the tense moment right before Tuesday night's crash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK HOPE, WHITE PLAINS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS: She looks at me, I gestured to come back, I back up again further to even indicate that there's plenty of room to back up, and she turns, walks and gets back in the car, slight hesitation, and then moves forward and at that instant the train came.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: The NTSB plans to release more information in a news conference at the top of the hour.

We have some breaking news in our politics lead, a top aide for congressman for Congressman Aaron Shah, a Republican of Illinois out of a job after racist remarks posted on Facebook.

Senior adviser, Benjamin Cole called for a mosque on the White House lawn so President Obama could attend it and complained of quote, "black miscreants in his neighborhood."

CNN correspondent, Athena Jones, joins me now with more of the comments. Athena, not a great week.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, not a good week. That black miscreants comment came on Facebook just a few days ago. Talking about Benjamin Cole, a senior advisor for Congressman Shah and he made a serious of host Think progress, the liberal website first reported on this.

One of the quotes I want to read from a Facebook post in October of 2013. This is during the government shutdown. He talks about his black neighbors and says so apparently the closing of the National Zoo has forced the animals to conduct their mating rituals on my street. Hash tag gentrify today part one.

In another tweet in 2010, he talked about the need that maybe they should build a mosque on white house grounds. He explained that on Facebook saying I just think it would be nice for the president to have his own house of worship since he's not been able to find one suitable in D.C. since moving here in 2004 so not very nice comments, racially charged comments so he had to step down.

TAPPER: Offensive and stupid. Rather stupid to post things like that in social media. Let's turn to our Buried Lead. Athena Jones, thank you so much.

Today, we learned Pope Francis will make history during his upcoming trip to the United States. He's agreed to be the first pope to speak before a joint meeting of Congress.

House Speaker John Boehner, who is Catholic, announced that the pope accepted his invitation to make a stop at the capitol during his September visit to Washington, D.C. It will be an action-packed trip to America for the Catholic Church, one that includes stops in Philadelphia and New York.

The pope will also meet with President Obama, of course, at the White House. Make sure to follow me on Twitter. Check out our show page at CNN.com/thelead for videos and blogs and extras. Subscribe to our magazine.

That's it for THE LEAD, I'm Jake Tapper. I now turn you over to Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM" -- Wolf.