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Search for Missing Titan Sub in Critical Stage; Former FBI Analyst Sentenced for Illegally Retaining Classified Documents; Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's U.S. Visit. Aired 11-11:30a ET
Aired June 22, 2023 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Today might be the make or break day in the search of the missing OceanGate vessel. Planes and ships and ROVs from all over the world are involved and now even a hyperbaric chamber has been brought.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pomp and circumstance at the White House as President Biden welcomes India's prime minister. But Biden is getting pushback from his own party. Why some Democrats may skip the prime minister's speech before Congress.
BOLDUAN (voice-over): A torn rips through north Texas. Thousands now without power.
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BOLDUAN: At least one remote operating vessel has reached the ocean floor, beginning to scan the area of the missing sub.
This Canadian ship has arrived on the scene, carrying a medical team specializing in dive medicine and a hyperbaric chamber has been brought on board.
We are learning that there are several safety concerns, learning of several safety concerns of that diving vehicle were raised previous years around specifically the thickness of the submersible hull and the battery and the materials used to build it.
A former subcontractor who worked with OceanGate says that the low- tech features were by design and claimed they used off the shelf items to cut costs. CEO and pilot Stockton Rush even admitted, "I have broken some rules" to build the submersible. Miguel Marquez is in Newfoundland with the latest on the search.
What are you learning?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The window for that search is closing and the urgency here is certainly picking up in the sense that all of the pieces of this massive puzzle are coming together. It is this ROV, the remote operated vehicle, that is on sea floor now,
searching for that sub. Another ROV is on the way down. It takes about eight hour and it will be there in four hours or so, so it can assist in searching for the sub.
The ship behind me is meant to be taking salvage gear that is sitting in the airports here at St. John's. That can salvage almost anything from depths greater than what they are dealing with out there.
Do keep in mind that all of this takes a lot of time. It is takes about 20-24 hours for the ships to get from here in St. John's to the site of the Titanic wreck.
And the oxygen question and if they are alive, will that oxygen hold out?
We have eclipsed the time that they believe they had down there but PH Nargeolet is a very experienced oceanographer and people who know him say that the first thing he would do is to conserve oxygen and calm people down, having them sleep to use as little oxygen as possible to extend the time to be down there and hope to be rescued in time. Back to you.
BOLDUAN: Miguel Marquez, thank you.
SIDNER: Right now, a new vessel is on the sea floor to search for the sub and joining a team of numerous vessels from around the world. The Canadian ship, the Horizon Arctic is there and deployed a remotely operated vehicle. Others are on the way. Oren Liebermann joins us.
Can you help us to understand the capabilities of these vessels that we are hearing about, one that is now on the ocean floor?
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Of course, Sara. This is a massive upgrade to have an ROV, a remotely operated vehicle, on the ocean floor right now. Instead of searching from above or the surface of the ocean --
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LIEBERMANN: -- using sonobuoys, trying to pick up on audio coming from the submersible, this a vessel on bottom there, unmanned, remotely operated, able to search with different capabilities, that might include photo and video, to put eyes on the bottom.
Perhaps side scan sonar. It depends what it is equipped with. Crucially, it won't be alone for long. These are some of the vessels there at the search site, deploying these. The Horizon Arctic, the one that Miguel mentioned, I will go a little farther, the one on the left there, the "l'Atalante," has launched another ROV.
Another four hours and there could be two ROVs searching. You can see the one on the way now, the Victor 6000 will join the search. It has video and photo and can carry out the 3D reconstruction of the bottom, which is going to greatly improve the ability of the search teams. One of the greatest challenges, what is the best way the search down
there And one of the last points Miguel made, how to salvage something. That would be the flyaway deep ocean salvage system, which the Navy is working with the vessels there to mount onto a ship, a tool to bring it up.
But even that takes time. Officials said it is taking about 24 hours to weld it to a ship. So the timeline is the enormous question right now.
SIDNER: Oren Liebermann, that's the question; you cannot create more time and that is what they need. Thank you so much.
BOLDUAN: For more on this search and what to expect and what we know now, ocean explorer and friends of one of the crew, Tom Dettweiler is coming back.
You have told the producer that you have been able to get some information from the operations control center about how things are going.
What is the sense here about the search right now?
TOM DETTWEILER, OCEAN EXPLORER: I think that the most important thing is the arrival of the Horizon Arctic at the site, because it is carrying the supervisor salvage team. And that is the team who does this routinely that finds things that down in the very deep depths of the ocean and recovers them.
So it is key that they are out there and they have a ROV down to the bottom and are beginning the search. I think that will hopefully produce something today.
BOLDUAN: Those banging sounds we spoke about, you said it brought you some amount of hope.
How are you feeling about it today, considering the estimates of the oxygen levels and how depleted they could be, if not already depleted?
DETTWEILER: Well, I think that the point is that whatever happened, it happened early on in the dive and with PH on board, they would have conserved early on in the dive. So we are not paying attention to those limits, because that is an estimate made on standards sorts of behavior in the sub and normal activity.
If you start conserving early, you should have much longer than that. So it is not going to be a comfortable atmosphere down there but it will be survivable potentially. So this is definitely a still search and rescue mission.
BOLDUAN: I have to tell you, Tom, we have been hearing that from experts like yourself, that you have to charge ahead and you don't look at these estimates and you have to keep moving like they are still alive and still down there. And that sense of urgency must be driving everybody around this. DETTWEILER: Absolutely and it is a tremendous effort on everybody's
part to get this very heavy equipment from around the world and get ships located and mobilized and be out to the site. It reminds me of the original Titanic sinking, with ships from all over racing to get there. So it is a repeat in a mini sense.
BOLDUAN: I don't know if we have thought about that.
What do you think about the safety of the vessel itself?
Concerns have come to light in the days since they have gone missing.
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BOLDUAN: My colleague, Gabe Cohen, spoke to a member of the industry group who had warned the OceanGate CEO in the past years about the company's decision to not submit the Titan vessel to a voluntary safety review. Let me play a little bit of what he told my colleague.
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WILL KOHNEN, MARINE TECHNOLOGY SOCIETY: There are 10 submarines that can go 12,000 feet and deeper. Out of those 10, all of them are certified except for the OceanGate submersible.
GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You believed this expedition would be too dangerous without being certified?
KOHNEN: Yes.
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BOLDUAN: Tom, what do you think of these safety concerns?
DETTWEILER: Well, if you are looking at the submersible programs that have operated under the standard rules of certification, they have operated for decades without incident. I think that is saying something about what and how important it is to follow the certification requirements.
The fact that this submarine didn't do that is a little disturbing. They may have felt that their technology, you know, using a carbon fiber hull was so new that it would have been nearly impossible to get the certification in a timeframe that they were looking for.
So you know, as long as there was good engineering and design behind it and they felt it was safe, I can see why they might have thought that it was not worth going after at this point. And maybe they considered going through the certification process down the road. So I think that what we need to focus on --
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BOLDUAN: Well -- go ahead.
DETTWEILER: Yes, what we need to really focus on here is finding that submersible and getting it up.
And then after we find it and can examine it and figure out exactly what happened, there will be a large forensic examination of not only the vehicle itself and the design of the vehicle but also the operations program behind it and whether rules were violated or not.
And that is going to trickle down to impact all of the other programs as well. Lessons learned will be implemented into the other programs.
BOLDUAN: That is exactly right. And not only are you one of the experts in the field and one of your friends, PH Nargeolet, is on the vessel. And Tom, we have talked about PH's expertise and the knowledge and the years in the water and how important and critical that could be to their survival if they are alive down there.
DETTWEILER: That's right. PH has more submersible dives than just about anybody on the planet. And it is in a wide range of submersibles. He has been in a number of programs so his experience is incredible. It is going to be far more ranging than anybody else down there at this point.
BOLDUAN: Tom, thank you for coming back in to speak with me today and let's hope for some good news today. And we will check back in with you.
DETTWEILER: Absolutely, Kate. Thank you.
BOLDUAN: Sara.
SIDNER: Great conversation, Kate.
The missing submersible is cramped and likely filled up with carbon dioxide. What the conditions could be inside of the sub, four days after losing communications.
Plus diplomacy on display. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi arriving at the White House. How the United States and India might strengthen ties in a time of fraught tensions with China.
And nearly five months after a train derailment, the NTSB is still trying to figure out what caused it. A public hearing could shed more light on that.
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BOLDUAN: On the radar this hour, the NTSB is holding a hearing on the toxic train derailment and spill in East Palestine, Ohio. They are going to interview multiple witness as they are trying to determine how that happened and how to handle the disaster of that derailment in February. A report found that a wheel bearing failed moments before the 38 cars
derailed, including 11 tanker cars that were carrying hazardous material that ignited into a toxic plume.
A former FBI analyst in Kansas City, Missouri, has been sentenced to four years for keeping classified documents. The DOJ said Kendra Kingsbury had a top clearance. She removed 386 records and kept them at her home. Some of them contained highly sensitive information relating to national defense.
Lawyers for E. Jean Carroll said that a judge should deny Donald Trump's motion for a new trial. They argue the jury found the former president sexually abused her, which is enough under the law. Trump's attorneys asked for another trial and asked to lower the damages.
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BOLDUAN: They found that Trump had sexually abused Carroll but did not rape her in 1996 as she had claimed. Carroll's lawyers agreed that the jury did find that Trump did not rape but they did find that she was sexually abused. Sara.
SIDNER: Happening now, the two world's largest democracies are meeting in the Oval Office. President Biden has welcomed Narendra Modi for his first official state visit. The goal is to strengthen the ties between the two largest democracies in the world.
They are expected to make a slew of announcements on defense deals, space exploration and supply chain manufacturing.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Together, India and the United States are working closely on everything from ending poverty and expanding access to health care, to addressing climate change, to tackling food and energy insecurity stoked by Russia's unprovoked war in Ukraine.
NARENDRA MODI, INDIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): In the post COVID era, the world order is taking a new shape. In this time period, the friendship between India and the U.S. will be instrumental in enhancing the strength of the whole world.
The two countries are committed to work together for the global good and for global peace, stability and prosperity.
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SIDNER: But, of course, this visit is not without controversy, because Modi's record on human rights and press freedoms is sure to loom large. Three congressional Democrats are urging the president to take up human rights concerns with Modi, saying they will boycott Modi's address to Congress.
Joining us is the White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby. I want to ask you about this visit. The president called it a defining
relationship for the 21st century for the United States.
Does this have a lot to do with countering China?
ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: This visit today is not about China and it is not about countering China.
Clearly, China is going to be coming up on the agenda, Sara, no question about it, because the Indians share many of our same concerns about the influenced activities that the PRC is exerting in the Indo Pacific and in the world.
And they are feeling that, too, in India. But this is going to be one of the most consequential bilateral relationships for the next 10-20 years, maybe beyond. Two very large democracies, two powerful countries with strong economies and shared values, goals and interests around the world.
India is part of the Quad that President Biden revitalized and they're part of the I2U2 partners in the Middle East. So they are a global player and working to export security. We want to explore possibilities to deepen that.
SIDNER: Certainly, the number one country that trades with India. But for the people of India, it is the world's most populous democracy but there is a crackdown on dissent; people have been arrested for political protests.
And we have seen people being arrested as journalists because they have been critical of the BJP, which is a party that Modi is part of.
We've seen raiding of news organizations in Kashmir.
Will the president address this with the prime minister?
KIRBY: Certainly. The president's foreign policy is rooted in protecting and advancing human and civil rights around the world. That is a real cornerstone of how the United States acts on the world stage. And President Biden never shies away from discussing our concerns wherever he is around the world.
SIDNER: Certainly China is going to be watching this, especially with the comments that President Biden said that Xi Jinping was a dictator.
Is he standing by that description of the Chinese president?
KIRBY: Look, the president has never been anything but candid when he talks about concerns, whether it is over human rights or over leadership around the world. And he is going to continue to do that. He believes it is important to manage this competition with China in a responsible way. And he was glad for Secretary Blinken's visit.
[11:25:00] KIRBY: Hopefully we have improved the relationship and can get these lines of communication open. But in addition to having free and open lines of communication, you also have to be able to speak candidly and forthrightly and President Biden does not shy away from doing that.
SIDNER: So it sounds like a yes, he stands by the comments.
So I want to get to the war in Ukraine. American "The Wall Street Journal" reporter Evan Gershkovich was in court this morning and he is not going to be let out of jail. He was accused of espionage, which he and "The Journal" called outrageous. He was just doing his job.
And have you or anyone from the White House been able to talk to him or anyone from the diplomatic corps has been able to talk to him?
And what is the president's message to Mr. Gershkovich?
KIRBY: We have had very few consular access opportunities with him and we are raising that directly with the Russian officials. We want to have more contact with him and can continue to check in with him to make sure that he has what he needs.
This ruling today, while outrageous, was not a surprise, given the so- called judicial process in Moscow. We expected they would react this way.
This is why we continue to push for access to him, to keep the family informed as much as we can about what we are doing to get him home, as well as Paul Whelan, who has been in jail on trumped up charges.
And we are working as much as we can to get these two gentlemen back home as fast as possible.
SIDNER: John Kirby, thank you, for joining us with that latest.
BOLDUAN: The trip to view to look at the Titanic wreckage on the OceanGate vessel was supposed to last 10 hours. Now searching is in the fourth day. Ahead, the difficult conditions for those on board.
Concertgoers at Red Rocks theater suffered injuries when a severe storm blew through suddenly and pelted them with hail. We will have the details next.
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