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Malaysian Airlines Possible Crash; More Unrest in the Crimea

Aired March 08, 2014 - 16:00   ET

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

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Sciutto, in today for Don Lemon.

Some oil slicks floating on the water, that's the only clue searchers have right now as they frantically try to find any trace of a commercial airliner that simply disappeared. Here's the best guess as to where the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 was during its last contact with air traffic controllers. About two hours after departing Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, it never arrived at the scheduled destination in China and the crew never radioed any trouble during the flight.

Malaysia flight 370 to Beijing was almost fully booked, 239 people on board. That is passengers and crew. More than half of them Chinese. At least three Americans, one of them an infant. And something rather odd is worrying officials at this early stage in the investigation. Two people whose names were on the passenger manifest were not on the airplane at all. They say their passports were stolen months or years ago. That means that two people were on the plane with passports not issued to them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: If those passports were used to get their boarding passes in the airport in Kuala Lumpur and the Malaysian authorities did not make an inquiry with the database at Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France. Then, they would have no knowledge that those passports had previously been reported stolen.

Now, if they were leaving through the United States, the United States' passport control coming and going, does inquire to that database to determine if a passport or other travel document that's being used has been reported stolen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Well, it's a mystery now. I know that U.S. intelligence officials are following that detail very closely. Right now in Malaysia and in China, the loved ones of the people on that flight are still waiting for confirmation of their worst fears. Every aviation analyst we talked to says the outlook for this flight is not good.

CNN's Andrew Stevens is live with me right now. He is near the international airport in Beijing, the capital of China. Andrew, after 6:00 in the morning where you are, a difficult night for all those family members. I know there was a lot of frustration early on, they weren't getting really any information. What is the airline, Malaysian Airlines, passing on to families now?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What they're saying to families basically is we are here to support you and to do what we can to help you. What they can't say at the moment is what happened because they just don't know. They're saying they can't rule anything out. But by the same token they're being very cautious about what they are saying.

They've told a news conference just about two hours ago that they have got in touch with the next of kin of everybody on that plane. And they're offering to fly them either to Kuala Lumpur or here to Beijing. They've got nearly 100 people up here now from Malaysia looking after the people, 154 Chinese nationals were on that flight. They are in a hotel. They're being looked after by Malaysian Airlines. They've been kept away from the press.

As you can imagine, there's an enormous press pack outside that hotel. There was frustration earlier. Obviously that comes from just the sheer helplessness of not knowing what has happened to their loved ones and the despair that as each our hour ticks on it's less and less likely the result is going to be anything other than desperate for these people.

So at the moment, they are in their hotel. It's just beyond 5:00 in the morning here, Jim. They're waiting for news as is the world is waiting for news. As you point out this is not just Malaysians and Chinese, there were 14 nationalities on that plane.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I was looking through that manifest and it's always heartbreaking to see the details. 12 crew members, I believe five toddlers on board, an American infant, families, a Buddhist travel group. You know, in a situation like this where there is no hope, I think just the one sign you have is that oil slick. How long do airlines wait to call this an air accident in the water? What is the protocol in this situation? I know those families, it is painful, I imagine they want certainty at this point.

STEVENS: Absolutely. They do want to know exactly what has happened. The Vietnamese press and the first reports from - about this came from Vietnam and they were linking it to this flight, Jim. But Malaysian Airlines itself is being much more cautious saying we can't identify that slick and link it directly to MH370. So they are erring on the side of caution.

There will be a team heading out there again today. It's daybreak. The sea search continued overnight for any traces of wreckage. All we've heard so far is there have been reports of rubbish on the water in the area. Now that's a big difference from saying debris or anything which would be linking it to the airline. So there is a team from China.

Incidentally, China has given this top priority, that the president himself Xi Jinping saying that China must go all out to a, help the people, the Chinese nationals and their families and b, find out exactly what happened. So they are sending a diving team and a salvage team into that area where those oil slicks are. The one piece of news which may bring a speedier conclusion is that part of the South China Sea is quite shallow. If you compare that to the 2009 crash of the Air France flight in the Atlantic, I mean, that was in deep, deep water. Here, it's much shallower.

SCIUTTO: No question. That's a good point. It took more than two years to find that Air France flight in the middle of the Atlantic. But this is closer to shore in shallow water. Thanks very much, Andrew Stevens, standing by in Beijing, the destination of that flight.

We're going to continue to bring you updates as we learn more. Meanwhile, the Ukraine crisis is getting more volatile with fresh rounds of bullying from pro Russian forces inside Crimea.

Meanwhile President Obama personally spoke today with six key leaders, all of them agreed that Russia needs to immediately roll back its military advances inside Crimea. The president spoke individually with the British prime minister, David Cameron, France's president Hollande, and Italy's prime minister, Renzi. Plus Obama hosted a conference call with three Baltic leaders, the president of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. Those three countries particularly watchful of this. They border Russia. They are also NATO allies.

Now Secretary of state John Kerry issued a warning as well to his Russian counterpart, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. Kerry made clear that Russia's "continued military escalation in Crimea may soon close any available space for diplomacy." In Crimea, masked troops seized control of a military office in the region's capital of Simperofol. This video shows unmarked military trucks en route to the city, bringing yet more, it is believed more Russian forces inside Crimea. Now CNN is covering every angle of the escalating crisis there. Let's take you to Crimea, the center of it all, where senior international correspondent, Matthew Chance, visited the scene where masked troops took control of a military office.

Matthew, we've been seeing a lot of cases like this where you have troops of uncertain control, some of them uniformed, some not. Russia denying that they're their own, very volatile situations. How did that scene manage to be calmed down?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was over pretty rapidly. It's the military recruitment center in the center of Simperofol, which is the main city here in Crimea. It was taken over by this morning masked men carrying weapons. As they burst into it, they evacuated everybody from it and then they brought in a coach load of other people who are in civilian clothes to essentially take it over while posting armed guards on every floor of that government office.

And so that was over relatively quickly. When we got there, they were already standing guard outside the gates. They had taken the Ukrainian flags down and they were painting Russian flags on the gates. So clearly this is another example of the pro-Russian forces taking control of this province of Ukraine, little bit by little bit. So very disturbing.

SCIUTTO: A stealth military takeover, looks like and we've seen that happen in volatile situations because you got guys with guns in each of those places. I wanted to read you a tweet that I saw earlier this morning from the Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt, because he said something in no uncertain terms that other officials haven't been willing to say so far. First of all he mentioned these military observers from the OSCE were prevented from entering Crimea. Then he goes on to say, "Large Russian troop movements observed, preparations for southern Ukraine, he asks?"

That's an alarming possibility that those troops might be massing in effect to go across the border from Crimea into southern Ukraine. Do you see any signs of that and have you spoken to officials that share that concern?

CHANCE: It's possible, of course. It's always a scenario. Remember, first of all, we are already in southern Ukraine. There is no border between Crimea and the mainland of Ukraine. We have seen lots of troop movement. Carl Bildt talking about that possibility. I think it's more likely personally that as we build up toward the referendum that is going to be held here in Crimea, where the people are being asked whether they want to join Russia or whether they want more autonomy within Crimea, forces loyal to Russia and of course, we can't call them Russian forces because the Kremlin denies these heavily armed troops.

But they're building up slowly but surely in order to assert their control over this entire province if the referendum comes through and says look we want to be part of Russia. I think that's very much the expectation. The idea that they're going to expand into southern Ukraine and possibly into eastern Ukraine as well, it is a possibility. But I think the immediate concern is what happens here in Crimea. Jim.

SCIUTTO: And if they moved out of Crimea, that would be seen as an escalation by western officials. Thanks very much, Matthew Chance in Simperofol in Crimea.

Coming up, we have new information about a pregnant mom accused of trying to drown her children by driving her minivan into the ocean and get this, police had a warning about her behavior.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. The pregnant woman accused of trying to drown her children by driving her van into the ocean appeared in a Florida courtroom today. A judge in Daytona Beach set Ebony Wilkerson's bond at $1.2 million. She faces three counts of attempted first degree murder.

Police stopped Wilkerson earlier that day and suspected she might be mentally ill, that was before she drove the car into the water but they couldn't legally hold her. She had actually checked herself out of the hospital earlier in the day. Her sister urged her to seek help, worried she could be a danger to herself and her children. Wilkerson now faces a maximum of 30 years in prison if convicted. And another police mystery. Police in Pontiac, Michigan are piecing together a haunting story, how could a woman go missing for more than five years and not a single person notice?

In her bank account, hadn't run dry, her mummified body might still be in her home. CNN's Alexandra Field joins me now from New York with more. Alexandra, I have to say this has been a mystery to all of us. I know to you as well. Are we learning anything more about this woman, particularly to understand why no one would notice that she had been gone for five years or disappeared for five years?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is certainly raising so many questions for so many people, Jim, just a really disturbing story in the sense that she was gone for so long and no one noticed it. We do know from the sheriff's office that dental records will need to be used to positively identify the woman who is believed to be (INAUDIBLE) the owner of the home where a body was found in the backseat of the car which was parked in the garage.

So again, how could it be that six years later somebody finally discovered her? Well, the Oakland County sheriff says there were a number of factors here which were helping to mask the fact that she was missing. First of all, she was last seen back in September of 2008, but that was around the time when she also stopped working. So there wasn't an employer that was actually looking for her. Her mail was being delivered directly to the post office, so nobody noticed it piling up. She did have a relative were told on the East Coast, but they had been estranged. So that person wasn't looking for her. And do now know that she had tens of thousands in the bank, and it's that money that really kept people from noticing that she was missing for so long. Here's what the under sheriff said about that.

SCIUTTO: I don't think we have that bite. But if you could go on and explain perhaps paraphrase what he said on that point and also, Alexandra, if you could, if you could add, if there's any signal at this point or any mention at this point of foul play.

FIELD: Sure. Essentially what the under sheriff told us is there was $54,000 in the bank and that most of this woman's accounts were paid through an auto pay account. So the money was just going out of the account. The bills were being paid, no one was coming after this woman until that $54,000 ran dry and it took about six years. That's when the house went into foreclosure. The bank sent a contractor to the house. The contractor then discovered the body.

As far Jim, as signs of foul play, the sheriff is saying there was nothing in the house, nothing in the car or the garage that would immediately indicate the cause of death. So it is actually going to take some time to figure out exactly what it is that happened here.

SCIUTTO: Well, incredible that it would take that long, really just the money was the signal in the end. Thanks very much to our Alexandra Field in New York.

You know the saying a picture says a thousand words. Take a look at this one. This was taken during the C-PAC panel about how the GOP can better reach out to minority communities. The story behind this photo right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

Well, conservative political activists from around the country are wrapping up their annual conference in Washington. But before they leave they're holding a presidential straw poll that always gets a lot of attention in the political world. It is not scientific. It is not binding. But it does tell us how some of the Republican Party's most active supporters are leaning for 2016.

We have Peter Hamby, CNN's national political reporter, standing by for us right in the middle of it. We can hear the speeches in the background. Peter, when are we going to find out who won and who is the money on? What is the handicapping set at?

PETER HAMBY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, Jim, the smart money is definitely on Rand Paul. This is increasingly becoming a libertarian dominated conference with lots and lots of young people. Rand Paul gave perhaps the biggest, most rousing speech here yesterday, rallying against the president, rallying against the national security agency, multiple standing ovations. The libertarians are really good organizers at these things. Ron Paul has won the straw poll before Rand Paul (INAUDIBLE) last year. So that's the smart money.

We are expecting the results, Jim, at the end of the 5:00 hour. So very, very soon they're going to announce it on the stage behind us here.

SCIUTTO: Great. We'll bring that to our viewers once we have it. I was just looking through past winners back in 2012. So Mitt Romney won and back in 2008, he won but only narrowly beating out John McCain who went on to become the nominee. So not a bad predictor of the eventually although we're still a couple of years away from 2016, but not always a bad predictor, is it?

HAMBY: Well, it depends. Those two years you mentioned, you know, we were already in the thick of Mitt Romney's -- in 2012 when Mitt Romney was about to win the nomination. That was sort of the popular consensus in 2008. There was a fracturing between McCain and Romney between the sort of, you know, establishment versus conservatives.

At the time in 2008, Mitt Romney was actually the conservative favorite. That role has flipped obviously in 2012. But I think you really nailed it just a minute ago, Jim. This is just a snapshot of how the die-hard conservatives are evaluating the 2016 field. There are 25 names on this ballot, everyone from Donald Trump to Sarah Palin, to Dr. Ben Carson to Marco Rubio and Chris Christie and some of the familiar names. But you know, this year, is not a really good predictor.

If you look at the history of non-incumbent midterm years, go back to 2006, George Allen, the former Virginia governor won the straw poll. In 1998, Steve Forbes won the straw poll. In 2010, Ron Paul won the straw poll. Obviously, none of these people became the nominees. But if someone does outperform expectations here, we're going to get some good buzz for a few days, that's for sure.

SCIUTTO: We don't have much time. But I just want to show a picture that we teed up for our viewers before the break here. It is by (INAUDIBLE) it shows a CPAC session on minority outreach. Huge room, looks, as we can tell in that photo there, totally empty. It gives the impression no one bothered to show up. Just very quickly, Peter, is that the story behind this photo?

HAMBY: I don't think so. Certainly, Democrats tried to make hay of this when it happened. I was actually in the room when that happened. It was during a lunch break, frankly. And really the room here is really big, kind of cavernous. It hasn't been full throughout the whole event a few days here.

But there are big speeches here. People flood the rooms for the big speeches and they tend to leave during these sort of panels. They are (INAUDIBLE). So I think it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that this was an example of the party not caring about minority outreach. We just saw a presentation behind me from a Republican pollster (INAUDIBLE) urging Republicans to reach out to Hispanic voters. This is a priority for the Republican National Committee, Republican panel itself. Yes, they do have a brand problem with minorities, but I'm not sure this was an example of that.

SCIUTTO: All right. Great. Well, thank you for debunking that political myth this early in the campaign. That's valuable. Thanks very much, Peter Hamby at the conference.

Coming up, new information about those two people whose names were on the passenger manifest of the Malaysia flight to Beijing but were not on the plane at all.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

Right now, hundreds of families are waiting to hear any word about a commercial jet that just disappeared more than 24 hours ago now. Most of the 239 people on board the plane are Chinese. The flight was headed for Beijing, originating in Malaysia.

I want to bring in our Tom Fuentes here, our law enforcement analyst. Tom, while we wait for word from the airline or the governments of Malaysia and China, there's something about this passenger manifest. We now know that two of the passengers on that plane were apparently traveling on stolen passports when they went to the Austrian and Italian governments, it turns out those two passengers the manifest show that were on the plane were not. Can you tell us about that? And just one major curiosity for us, how could they get on the plane with stolen passports? I imagine Interpol would have a list to prevent this from happening.

FUENTES: OK. First of all, Jim, you're right. Of the two passports, only one was actually reported in Interpol's database. The Italian passport was listed as a stolen passport at Interpol headquarters in Lyon, but no inquiry was made by the Malaysian authorities or by the airlines. But it's not the job of the airlines to do it. No inquiry was made to determine that any passports for passengers getting on that flight were stolen.

Now Interpol's database has 39 million records of stolen travel documents. At the present time, one billion passengers per year board international flights where there's no inquiry made of that database.

SCIUTTO: I see so it leaves an opening. Just very quickly here, I've been told by a U.S. official that no nexus to terrorism at this point, but too early, certainly to eliminate that possibility and they are tracking this passport detail. When you look at this is that a warning sign to you?

FUENTES: Well, certainly it's a warning when you're allowing passengers, you know, one billion passengers to board annually for international flights where no inquiry is made. In the U.S. systems and several countries, the inquiry is made. Interpol now has a pilot project to have it so that the airlines can directly make an inquiry to that database, it's called I-check it, is the name of that project. Right now two airlines are in the pilot study -

SCIUTTO: Tom, hold that thought. We're going to come back to this at the top of 5:00 Eastern.

I'm Jim Sciutto. CNN NEWSROOM continues at the top of the hour. Coming up right after this, our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta right now, here on CNN.