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Flames, Smoke Pour from Engine on American Airlines Plane in Denver; Senate Faces Midnight Deadline to Avoid Government Shutdown; Two Judges Order Trump Admin to Reinstate Fired Probationary Workers. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 14, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: A passenger jet erupts in flames after landing in Denver. Some passengers even forced to escape onto the wing of the plane to get out. The FAA clearly now investigating as we learn more about these scary moments.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Boos, cussing, and scathing questions. Anger erupts at a Republican congressman's town hall over President Trump's dramatic government downsizing, tariff threats, and Ukraine policy.

Outside to the inside, there was a lot of drama there. We'll hear from a CNN reporter who was inside that room.

And we're watching the markets closely this morning after stocks plunged again Thursday as investors grow more and more uneasy over Trump's escalating trade war, although Futures up just a bit this morning.

John Berman out this morning. I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: Some really terrifying moments on a Denver runway. A Dallas- bound American Airlines flight burst into flames seconds after making an emergency landing there in Denver. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mayday, mayday, mayday, Charlie 48, engine fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Charlie 48, engine, copy.

And then Charlie 48, fire personnel is responding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: So the flight was from Colorado Springs. It landed in Denver after the crew diverted reporting, quote, engine vibrations to air traffic control. All 172 passengers on board, they were forced to evacuate via slides onto -- even onto the wing as smoke billowed out of the aircraft. You can see -- we're going to show, you can see right here some of the moments. I mean, look, this is right at Denver's International Airport, people going out on the wing and crews coming to help, thankfully, as you can see, smoke around them, rushing in crews right there to help put out the flames.

This morning, the FAA investigating and the aviation industry is just facing yet another unsettling close call scenario for air travelers.

Joining me right now is CNN Transportation Analyst, former Inspector General for Department of Transportation Mary Schiavo. Mary, thank you so much for jumping up so early for us.

I mean, the video is -- we have seen over and over again, you and I have been talking the last few weeks of terrifying close calls or just absolute disasters that we've been having to report on. I want to play for you the call between the flight crew and air traffic control just before their emergency landing, Mary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 10,006 -- 1006 just to verify not an emergency still correct?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, we just have a high engine calibration so we are cruising slower than normal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: It seems that things progressed and seemed to change really quickly. Because it seemed from what I hear their untrained obviously here, how do you go from not an emergency to what we looked at upon landing so quickly?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Well, again, you go quickly into that situation, depending on what's going on with that engine.

Now, this is an engine, there are over 7,000 of them out there, but it's a similar plane in a similar engine, uf you recall, in 2018, they had an uncontained engine failure and a woman was partially sucked out of a Southwest Airlines flight.

So, if the engine was experiencing vibration, we already know there's something wrong with an engine. This particular engine does have some what's called air where this directives on it to inspect the seals, the combustion liners and some other parts of that engine, the turbine blades. It's possible that the -- what was just a vibration turned into an engine failure, possibly even an uncontained engine failure. And that's where parts of the engine spew out of the containment housing of the engine can break oil lines, other parts. It does appear that it was oil that was on fire rather than the fuel based on color and that it was leaking from what appears to be the right engine as you're facing the forward part of the plane. If you're in back of plane facing forward, it would be the right engine.

And so there are a lot of clues here, and that the passengers had to stand on the wing is because they couldn't see the ground, and you can see in pictures there's fire on the ground, so they couldn't descend into a burning tarmac.

[07:05:07]

So, while it's dangerous to stand on the wing, particularly if it was a fuel leak, rather than an oil leak, or some other fluid, such as hydraulic fluid, et cetera, but they couldn't descend into fire and smoke, so they really had no choice but to stand on the wing, kind of a makeshift measure, that's not how you're supposed to evacuate, but it saved them and helped them in this case.

BOLDUAN: Yes, the best of bad options is kind of what they probably were presented with and having to just make those decisions. You know, I say clearly investigating, and we'll get to the bottom of what happened here. It sounds to me, though, like, thank God for that crew, they saw and they heard, saw, felt engine vibrations, and they got to the ground before absolute disaster struck.

Mary, thank you so much for jumping on with me this morning. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Here we are again talking about the potential of a government shutdown. There are just hours to go on Capitol Hill until the midnight deadline to avert a shutdown. The Senate under pressure to pass a GOP stopgap bill that would fund the government through September and Democrats signaling they won't fight it now after saying 24 hours earlier that Democrats had the votes to block the bill, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said yesterday he would support it, writing an op-ed for The New York Times titled, President Trump and Elon Musk would love a shutdown, we must not give them one. And he says the risk of allowing the president to take even more power via a government shutdown is a much worse path.

A live look at the Capitol for you this morning, and CNN's Arlette Saenz joins me now. Arlette, Schumer is taking some heat for supporting this bill, I would imagine, especially after just 24 hours ago, there were several Democrats, including himself, that said, no, we're not going to support this.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had initially said that all Democrats were united in opposing this government funding bill, only to reverse his own position a little over 24 hours later. And that move has really left many Democrats privately and publicly fuming as they felt that this debate over a government shutdown was really their first leverage point that they could really challenge Trump's actions.

The entire episode illustrates the very deep fissures and divisions within the Democratic Party as they are facing a lot of pressure to try to do more to stand up to Trump's agenda. And what's remarkable in this scenario is you have the Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate on opposite sides. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and his leadership team released a statement yesterday saying that this government funding bill from Republicans would wreak havoc on the country and they would not be complicit. You have others, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, saying that Senate Democrats have completely rolled over and taken it.

But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is very fervently defending his decision, writing that editorial in The New York Times, going on T.V. to do interviews to say that he believed that not averting a government shutdown, allowing that to happen, would simply empower Donald Trump and Elon Musk to do more to dismantle the government. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): It's not that the CR is good. It's horrible. And all things being equal, we should have opposed it. But the alternative being a shutdown makes things worse.

I knew I'd get criticized, but I felt obligated for the country, for my Democratic caucus, to the people, to explain how bad a shutdown would be. And if we had -- if we went into a shutdown and everything bad happened, I had to give people this warning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, Republicans will need eight Senate Democrats to support a procedural vote to clear that hurdle in order to get to the final confirmation vote. Just yesterday, Chuck Schumer said that he doesn't know just yet if there will be enough Democrats to get that across the finish line and there will be a major test as we're expecting that vote to come up this afternoon as that midnight deadline for a shutdown is looming.

SIDNER: Shocker, the Democrats having a messaging issue.

Arlette Saenz, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Breaking overnight, a second federal judge says thousands of federal employees who were fired and sweeping mass layoffs must now be reinstated, but for how long.

And Vladimir Putin speaks up for the first time about President Trump's peace plan. The reservations that Putin is raising, just as there is new CNN polling out this morning, Americans are skeptical that Donald Trump's approach here will work.

And, here's a quote, do your job. This is just some of the anger that erupted at a Republican congressman's town hall yesterday. Some people were forcibly removed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHUCK EDWARDS (R-NC): I was proud to vote recently for the House Budget Resolution, which provides the framework --

[07:10:02]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Hire them back immediately. That is the message now from two federal judges to the Trump administration over DOGE's mass layoffs. First, it was a ruling out of California, and then a ruling out of Maryland where that judge said the government's arguments for -- the government's arguments that the firings were for cause, quote, borders on the frivolous, ordering the Trump administration to put thousands of fired workers now back on the job immediately.

[07:15:08]

Let's go over to Alayna Treene right now for much more on this clearly that judge highly critical. What are you hearing from the White House about this?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, we haven't heard much in response from the White House, but I can tell you just in following how many other legal challenges they have had thus far, they are likely going to try to appeal this and try to work against this to move forward with what they've been doing.

But, really, Kate, this was a very significant one-two punch we saw yesterday from these two federal judges, essentially really challenging the authority that the Trump administration and DOGE as well have to conduct these mass firings, particularly of these probationary employees, employees we know who have only been in the government for about a year, maybe two, but have less protections than other federal workers who have been in their jobs for much longer.

But, look, I want to get into some of the meat of this. So, the judges, as you mentioned, there's two separate judges, two separate rulings. The first was senior judge James Brader, an Obama appointee. He was the one in Maryland. And then also a California Judge William also, again, both overseeing two separate cases argued that the thousands of probationary employees who were laid off must be temporarily reinstated to their jobs.

And this touches several agencies. I just want to walk you through the agencies that are being directed to now immediately rehire the people that they had laid off. These are agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Energy, Interior, Treasury, Health and Human Services, the EPA and USAID, all to say these are rulings that are touching so many different parts of the federal government.

But in one of these cases, one of the judges, the judge from California, Judge William, also had some very spicy language for the Trump administration. I want to read for you what he said in this ruling. He said, quote, it is a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that's a lie. That should not have been done in our country. It was a sham in order to try to avoid statuary requirements. This is the order and it counts.

Now, as you mentioned as well, Kate, they had similar justifications to what for these rulings. They argued that, one, they were falsely or using false allegations of, quote/unquote, performance to carry out these layoffs. But they also argue that they did not follow the proper procedural steps. All to say this is likely not the end of this fight, because, as we know, the Trump administration is very committed to reshaping the federal workforce in Donald Trump's image, essentially gutting it in the way that DOGE has been laying out. So, this is not going to be the end of this, but definitely a significant loss here yesterday on one of these rulings.

BOLDUAN: Yes, it just really comes down to how, when, and how fast they get to reshape the government like they're planning to.

Alayna, thank you so much for being on top of that this morning. Much more to come today, I'm sure.

This also had for us an incredible rescue caught on camera. A man pulled to safety from raging California floods. The severe weather -- that severe weather that caused this now heading east, and with that could, what that now could mean for millions of people this weekend. We've got that for you.

And a very big turn, Steph Curry makes NBA history, 4,000 three- pointers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

SIDNER: Steph Curry going where no basketball player has gone before last night, becoming the first player ever to make 4,000 three- pointers. He's so amazing.

CNN Sports Andy Scholes is with us now. It was an incredible night. Look at that picture. Look at that guy. That's how I want to feel every day, Steph Curry, just mind blowing.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Always amazing. That's right, Sara. And, you know, he had 3,998 threes going into last night's game against the Kings. He only needed two to get to 4,000, pretty easy for Steph, right? Well, he actually only made two threes all night, but in the third quarter, he would make that historic three. Here, he's going to get the ball and off the pump fake, knocks it down. The home crowd there in San Fran going wild. They knew that was the milestone three.

Steph finished with just 11 points as the Warriors got their sixth win in a row, beating the Kings 130-104. So, the two-time MVP has now created the 4,000 three point club and going to be a while before he has any more members. James Harden, second on that list, more than 800 behind Steph. And, hey, today's Steph's birthday, happy 37th birthday to Steph Curry.

All right, college hoops, meanwhile, conference tournaments riding us some buzzer beaters yesterday, Louisville, Stanford, they were tied at 73 in the closing seconds of the ACC tournament. Terrence Edwards Jr. here going to miss the three. Stanford gets the rebound, but then they turn it over right to Chucky Hepburn, who makes the shot at the buzzer. What a wild sequence that was. Heartbreak for the Cardinals, Louisville moves on to the semis with the two-point win.

Oklahoma and Kentucky, meanwhile, playing a wild one as well. As soon as we're down 11 with under two minutes to go, but they came storming back. They actually take the lead on this. Jeremiah Fears layup with six seconds left, but Otega Oweh rescues Kentucky, goes on with the length of the floor here, lays it in with 0.5 on the clock.

And this hurts extra bad for Oklahoma because, oh, wait, transferred from the Sooners to the Wildcats.

[07:25:04]

And this is actually the second time he's beat them in the final seconds this season.

All right, so Kentucky moves on, as did Duke. But Blue Devils fans getting a huge scare, their freshman star, Cooper Flagg, rolling his ankle as he was coming down with that rebound there. Flagg, he had to be helped back to the locker room. X-rays were negative and he actually did return to the bench in the second half and obviously did not play anymore. Duke Head Coach John Shire said Flagg a long shot to play today. Obviously, it's now about getting him ready to play an NCAA tournament.

But, you know, Sara, Duke, they're going to be a one seed and you were all looking so much forward to watching Flagg in this NCAA tournament. Here's hoping he can get healthy over the next week.

SIDNER: I got a bone to pick with you, Andy Scholes. I cannot stand to watch someone get hurt and I hate it when they do the slow mo of it after it happened. What is this? This is awful. I can't stand it. Never again, never again.

SCHOLES: Maybe there's some doctors. Maybe there's some doctors watching who could help diagnose what's going on there.

SIDNER: No. I say no to that.

Andy Scholes, thank you so much. Have a great weekend.

All right, we're keeping a close eye on markets this morning after stocks plunged yet again. They plunged yesterday with the S&P 500 actually closing in correction territory.

And chaos erupting at a town hall hosted by a Republican congressman over the sweeping cuts made by DOGE.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's nothing to say but lie. You're lying. I'm a veteran. You don't give a (BLEEP) about me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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