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Indiana Ob-Gyn Reprimanded for Discussing 10-Year-Old's Abortion; Poll: Abortion Remains Key Issue for Voters; GasBuddy: Americans To Spend $1.6B Less On Gas Than 2022 Holiday; South Korean Plane With 200 On Board Had Door Opened 700 Feet In Air, Man Arrested. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired May 26, 2023 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That is the attorney general responding.

A victory for the state. She was not found in violation of rules about when to report child abuse. Partial victory for the state and a reprimand for Dr. Bernard

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: To be clear, she did not reveal the child's name.

JONES: She did not.

SCIUTTO: Right. Athena Jones, covering the story, thanks so much for us.

Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that abortion remains a key voting issue ahead of the 2024 election.

Take a look at this. Three in 10 voters say they will only vote for a candidate who shares their views on abortion.

That looks to be good news for Democrats with four in 10 preferring that party's stance on the issue compared to just 26 percent preferring Republicans.

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen joins us with more.

Elizabeth, it's interesting to see public sentiment on the issue of abortion nearly a year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. What else does this survey reveal about public sentiment?

DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Boris, still such strong feelings on this issue.

This KFS survey found six in 10 Americans said they did not trust the Supreme Court to make decisions about reproductive issues. We know that this case about Mifepristone, one of the medications used in abortion, that will wind its way to the Supreme Court.

Speaking of which, in this survey, 45 percent of people were unsure about what their state law was about medication abortion. This shows how much confusion there is with court cases going various ways, laws going various ways. More than half of women who have abortions have medication abortions.

The fact that nearly half of the respondents weren't sure what the status was in their state is really telling -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: Yes, still a tremendous amount of confusion varying by state to state.

Elizabeth Cohen, thank you for that reporting.

Jim?

SCIUTTO: Police in Germany have launched a criminal investigation into Pink Floyd co-producer, Roger Waters, after he appeared to be dressed in a Nazi uniform during two concerts in Berlin.

Stay with us. You're watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[14:36:45]

SANCHEZ: If you're hitting the road this holiday weekend, expect to pay a lot less than last year. GasBuddy says Americans are going to spend about $1.6 billion less on gas than they did in 2022. That is significant savings as gas prices have plunged dramatically over the last 12 months.

CNN's Matt Egan joins us live with more.

Matt, cheaper gas, does that mean more traffic ahead?

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMY REPORTER: Hey, Boris. Yes, I think it does. If you're out there on the roads, brace for some more crowded highways.

AAA estimates that more than 37 million Americans are going to hit the roads this Memorial Day weekend. Hopefully, not all of them in New Jersey, where I'll be.

Some context of the 37 million. That's up from 6 percent a year ago. But it's Friday, so let's focus on the bright side here.

Despite the fact that there's a growing number of people on the roads, the cost of road trips, it's actually going down. The national average is now sitting at $3.57 a gallon.

That's not cheap historically, right? It was lower in 2020 during Covid and even 2021, but it is down by more than $1 from a year ago. This is miles away from that record high of $5.02 a gallon last June.

GasBuddy says drivers in all 50 states are seeing lower gas prices. Some of them, a lot lower.

In California, the average is down by $1.31 over the last year. Alaska, $1.30. More than $1.20 in New York, New Jersey and in Florida.

This is all evidence of cooling inflation. The cost-of-living crisis isn't over, but it is getting better.

So, why are gas prices down? Not all of it is for good reasons. Some of it is because supply has improved. But also, it's because of those recession fears, which have lowered the price of oil and kept a lid on gas prices.

Still, GasBuddy says that Americans are expected to spend $1.6 billion less on gasoline this holiday weekend versus last year.

I'm going to leave you with one more piece of encouraging news. GasBuddy says there's a growing chance the national average will not hit $4 a gallon all summer. That, of course, would be great news.

SANCHEZ: That would definitely be great news.

Matt, I'm actually headed up to New Jersey from D.C. myself. I'm going to hit the road. You bring the hot dogs, I bring the beer, what do you say?

EGAN: That sounds like a good deal. See you there.

SANCHEZ: Matt Egan, thank you so much.

Jim?

SCIUTTO: I'm so glad I'm not on the road this weekend.

[14:39:24]

Coming up next, a terrifying moment caught on camera just moments before a plane was going to land. A passenger opened the emergency exit door in flight. It was a dangerous moment for passengers. We'll tell you more. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: A midair scare today over the skies of South Korea. And 200 people on board an Asiana flight forced to fly with the door wide open, like that.

Listen to how loud it got inside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(WIND NOISE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: They were hundreds of feet off the ground. An airline official says a man in his 30s opened an emergency exit

door while the plane was on descent. The Airbus 321 was minutes from landing.

And 700 feet in the air with experts estimating speed about 172 miles per hour at that point. In other words, not particularly fast for an airplane but fast by any other measure. Twelve people on that plane suffered minor injuries.

The man accused of opening the door is now under arrest. This video shows how he had to be carried into a local police station. An officer said he was, quote, "not in a good mental state."

[14:45:00]

Joining me now, CNN transportation analyst, Mary Schiavo. She's a former inspector general at the Department of Transportation.

Mary, I'm trying to figure out, we're trying to figure out how this person was able to open a plane door like that. Because I was always under the impression there were fail-safes for this.

Can you understand it?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: I -- I hope I can. I hope I can shed light.

Well, it's come down to a lot of things in life. Laws and loopholes. He took advantage of the law of physics at just the right time. And of course, the federal aviation regulations that are very similar to other countries, including Korea.

And at that particular time in flight, the plane was close enough to the ground that it was no longer pressurized.

So, at altitude, you simply can't do it. There are thousands of pounds of pressure on those doors. You cannot open them. You can't open over the over-wing exits.

But when the plane is down that close to ground, and it's depressurized, all that pressure is off the door.

Then you have one other problem. The aviation regulations say that the doors and the emergency exits and the over-wing exits shall not be able to be opened in flight.

So, on older planes, of course, the flight attendants arm them. That's when you fly and you hear, arm, crosscheck. They arm them because, when you open the door, the emergency slide comes out and you can slide out of the plane.

But at this particular place in flight, and so close to the ground, this passenger was able to disarm the door. We know that from looking at the pictures. We don't see that the slide was deployed.

So, it was no longer pressurized. It was low enough and slow enough that he could actually do it.

And, you know, everyone says, well, this has never happened before. Well, actually, it has.

Everybody -- well, us older aviators will remember that the infamous case of D.B. Cooper, the hijacker who jumped out of the plane and into infamy, opened a back door, the very tail cone door in flight.

So, it has been done before.

SCIUTTO: So, let me ask you, does this expose a weakness in the fail- safes, the security measures, if someone knows, hey, once we reach this altitude, I can try this? Presumably, you want to find ways to avoid that.

SCHIAVO: Well, sadly, of course, it does on older planes. The third law, besides the law of physics that this guy got around because the plane was not pressurized,

And the laws of the federal and aviation authorities worldwide, where you can't have these doors being able to be opened in flight, the third one is the law of computers, also called flight law.

On more modern laws, it's actually the computer that will disarm and can open and make the doors able to be opened when the plane is depressurized and on the ground or close to the ground.

But on older planes, there's an indicator in the cockpit when the doors are armed or not armed, but they are able to be disarmed by, in this case, a passenger.

So, I do think the authorities will look into it. They will see if something more is needed because it's so rare. Maybe something is not needed.

But there is a difference among aircraft and there's a difference among aircraft management systems and aircraft flight computers as to which ones are controlled by computer and which ones are not.

It's a good question to look into. Or they will.

SCIUTTO: We'll keep asking as well. I have to feel for those passengers right there extremely close to the door.

Mary Schiavo, thanks so much for taking time out of your holiday weekend for us.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Boris?

[14:48:40]

SANCHEZ: Pink Floyd co-founder, Roger Waters, is defending himself after wearing what appeared to be a Nazi uniform while performing in Berlin. We have details on the performance and the subsequent investigation when we come back.

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[14:53:19]

SANCHEZ: A rock star is under investigation, accused of incitement. Berlin police have confirmed that Roger Waters, the cofounder of the legendary bank, Pink Floyd, is now being investigated after he wore a costume resembling a Nazi uniform at two concerts last week.

CNN's Scott McLean is covering this story for us from London.

Scott, what are German police saying about his appearances?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: First off, this requires a lot of context obviously on both sides. First off, the costume itself is worn as part of a performance of the 1979 album "The Wall" in which the protagonist hallucinates he is a fascist dictator.

Obviously, it looks like a Nazi uniform. It has the red armband and everything. But instead of a swastika, that's two crossed hammers, which is imagery that you'll find associated with that album.

It is meant to be satire. He's actually been doing it for decades. But this is the very first time it's attracted a German criminal investigation.

But the Berlin police have justified it like this, saying, "The context of the clothing worn is being capable of approving, glorifying or justifying the violent and arbitrary rule of the Nazi regime in a manner that violates the dignity of the victims and thereby disrupts public peace."

The performance itself has been controversial for a long time, so much so that city officials in Frankfurt actually tried to force the venue for this coming Sunday's concert to cancel it. It ended up in a German courtroom.

According to "The Guardian," the court ruled that, though the performance uses symbolism manifestly based on that of National Socialism, it did not glorify or relativize the crimes of the Nazis or identify with Nazi racist ideology.

[14:55:02]

After that court ruling earlier this month, Waters spoke to a podcast about the performance and said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER WATERS, CO-FOUNDER, PINK FLOYD: And they said, and so how can he possibly be allowed to do a show if he dresses up as Hitler and yet, blah, blah, blah. I said, well, I can be allowed to do a show because it's theater, darling.

The idea that nobody can dress up in a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Nazi uniform ever to do anything in a theater or anything is ludicrous, obviously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: So Waters is a very, very harsh critic of the Israeli government, calling it a tyrannical racist regime, but he has always consistently denied he is anti-Semitic.

His explanation there hasn't satisfied all of his critics. The Israeli foreign ministry has been critical of the performance. And there's going to be protests in Frankfurt from the Jewish community this Sunday -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: Scott McLean, thanks so much for bringing us that report from London.

Jim?

SCIUTTO: Coming up, a New York man was indicted for murder after allegedly shooting and killing a woman when her friend turned in the wrong driveway. What we're learning about the case, coming up.

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