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Search Intensifies for Airline with 239 Aboard; At Least 2 Passengers Had Stolen Passports; Govt: Ukraine Troops Ready for Combat; S&P 500 Tries to Stretch Out Record Run
Aired March 10, 2014 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Great for Louie. He's getting to do what he wants to do and teaching us all something along the way.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: A couple of other things I hear imagine for only so long these are the thing you can see.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, live in the now.
BALDWIN: Absolutely.
INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The thing is he's experiencing it. Amazing.
BALDWIN: OK.
CUOMO: Let's get to Carol Costello at the NEWSROOM.
Carol Costello, you were one of the beautiful things to see every day.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you. You just made my day, Chris Cuomo.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: NEWSROOM starts now.
CUOMO: Don't hate, appreciate.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): Happening now in the NEWSROOM:
The Malaysia Airlines mystery at sea.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a report today we just received that an aircraft had seen something like an inverted life raft --
COSTELLO: New information just coming in every hour as the families of more than 200 people wait for word.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is pretty fresh and we're procession it and we've just had a little bit of time to be together as a family. COSTELLO: Investigators now trying to figure out how two of the passengers boarded the plane with stolen passports.
REP. MIKE ROGERS (R), MICHIGAN: Stolen passports can be repurposed and used, and they would be doctored up.
COSTELLO: Key questions this morning. Who were they? Did the plane disintegrate at 35,000 feet?
You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me this morning.
Desperation grows by the hour, a potential lead seemed to crumble just as fast. A second U.S. Navy ship joins the massive international effort to search for any signs of a Malaysia Airlines jet that's missing and presumed crash. Dozens of planes and ships are scouring the Gulf of Thailand for debris or any other clue to the flight with 239 passengers aboard, including three Americans. Whatever struck the flight was so violent and so catastrophic neither the pilots nor the electronics issued a distress signal.
Jim Clancy is in a Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY (voice-over): This morning, the search intensifies for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
AZHARUDDIN ABDUL RAHMAN, MALAYSIA CIVIL AVIATION CHIEF: We are equally puzzled as well.
CLANCY: Now, three days into this exhaustive search for clues, multi- national rescue teams are scouring the waters of the South China Sea.
Overnight, Malaysia's civil aviation chief says no wreckage has been found.
ABDUL RAHMAN: We have not found anything that appears to be objects from the aircraft, let alone the aircraft.
CLANCY: Teams from the United States, Thailand and China, all involved in the search effort, with more than 30 aircraft and some 40 ships across at least 50 nautical miles. The missing Boeing 777 took off from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia just before 1:00 a.m. on Saturday.
Less than an hour after take-off, the tower lost the plane's signal. No distress call sent and the weather clear at the time.
The Boeing 777 and its 239 people aboard seemingly vanished.
Despite the lack of clues, officials here say they have some leads. GEN. TAN SRI DATO SRI RODZALI DAUD, ROYAL MALAYSIAN AIR FORCE: We look back at the recording and there is an indication, possible indication that the aircraft may have turned back.
CLANCY: Malaysia and Thailand are investigating the possibility that the flight may have changed course and tried to turn back.
Adding to the mystery, Interpol says two of the passengers used stolen passports. Now, they're examining surveillance videos and additional suspect passports.
This Facebook page has been dedicated to the 239 people who the airline says belong to 14 different nations. Three Americans were on board, including 50-year-old Phillip Wood from North Texas.
Jim Clancy, CNN, Kuala Lumpur.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: One of the disturbing aspects of this tragedy is the fact that two mystery passengers managed to board the plane using stolen passports. They were taken from an Italian and Austrian while in Thailand.
In an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Thailand's prime minister says his country is cooperating.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YUNGLUCK SHINAWATRA, THAI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Initially, we don't know about their nationality yet but we gave orders for the police to investigate the passport user because this very important to Thailand to give full cooperation to Interpol in the investigation about the passport user. We're now following this. At the same time, our royal air force has been assigned together with the navy to search for the disappearing airplane in conjunction with the Malaysian government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown live in Washington with more on this aspect of the story.
Good morning.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Carol. Right now, authorities are working to figure out what the intent of those two passengers who boarded Flight 370 with stolen passports may have been and whether they were associated in any way with a terrorist organization.
But the fact that this could happen, that they could board this flight with those stolen passports, is raising questions about security on international flights around the world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BROWN (voice-over): It's one of the biggest mysteries in the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. How in a post-9/11 world did two passengers board an international flight with stolen passports?
Even more surprising, they were in plane site, among the names listed in Interpol's lost and stolen travel documents database.
One since last year, the other since 2012, both stolen in Thailand and it appears the two passengers who used the passports of an Italian and an Austrian citizen bought their tickets together.
TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: When you book your ticket, the airline is not able to make an inquiry with Interpol or even the local police about whether you're wanted or whether the passport has been reported stolen. The country -- the government does.
BROWN: And according to Interpol, last year alone, passengers were able to board planes without having their passports screened against Interpol databases more than 1 billion times. The database at Interpol headquarters in France contains an astounding 40 million records of stolen travel documents.
FUENTES: You know, the member countries, the 190 members that belong to Interpol, are not charged a fee for accessing any of those databases. So, if the country has sufficient resources and technical capability to wire into Interpol's virtual private network that's running 24 hours a day, and they certainly would be able to access that database and check it. It's up to the will of the country to set it up and do it.
BROWN: Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said, "Now we have a real case where the world is speculating whether the stolen passport holders were terrorists, while Interpol is asking why only a handful of countries worldwide are taking care to make sure that persons possessing stolen passports are not boarding international flights."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And officials say people use stolen passports for a variety of reasons, such as drug smuggling and human trafficking. And at this point, there's no credible link to terrorism, though it hasn't been ruled out -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Pamela Brown reporting live from Washington.
It was supposed to be one of the safest airplanes in the class. Experts say the Boeing 777 has a near perfect record and is one of the most sophisticated jets on the market.
So, how could flight 370 disappear without any communication whatsoever?
Let's bring in CNN aviation and government regulation correspondent Rene Marsh. She's also in Washington.
Good morning.
RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
You know, it is still considered one of the safest jets. Consider this -- in its 19-year history, the first fatal crash happened just last summer.
Now, considering Boeing 777 stellar safety record and technological capabilities, even the most experienced aviators cannot understand how this plane could simply disappear.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARSH (voice-over): The Boeing 777 is one of the most high-tech planes in the sky and a workhorse of international travel.
MARK WEISS, FORMER BOEING 777 PILOT: The 777, I have to say, was probably the nicest, most sophisticated but also one of the easier airplanes to fly.
MARSH: It's so sophisticated it beams messages to the ground to identify maintenance problems before it even lands.
STEVE WALLACE, FORMER ACCIDENT INVESTIGATOR: There are systems to can't with the company. There are systems sometimes that monitor the health of the engines, automated reports.
MARSH: 777-200 extended range models like Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 are capable of flying from New York to almost anywhere in the world nonstop.
WALLACE: It really has an excellent, excellent safety record.
MARSH: That's why the mystery behind how this flight vanished has stumped the world, even pilots like Mark Weiss, who flew 777.
WEISS: This was way out of the ordinary. This is something that happened instantaneously or relatively quickly, and overcame the crew and overcame the aircraft.
MARSH: Since the first 777 rolled off the assembly line in 1994, the planes have made about 5 million flights, yet its first fatal crash came last July when this Asiana Airlines 777 crashed in San Francisco. Three people died. The cause is still under investigation.
But in this crash, finding the plane itself is still the first priority.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARSH: Well, we know this plane is equipped with a transmitter that sends off a distress signal in the event of an accident. And many have been asking if that is the case, why can't they find this plane? Well, according to one expert I spoke with, if this plane is in the water that would drastically reduce the radius of the signal. If researchers are nowhere close to being within that radius, they wouldn't detect it -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rene Marsh, reporting live.
Now we want to turn to someone who has a unique familiarity. He's both a former Malaysian Airlines pilot and a captain of a Boeing 777. Captain Lim Khoy joins me now by phone from Malaysia.
Welcome, sir.
LIM KHOY HING, FORMER MALAYSIA AIRLINES PILOT (via telephone): Hello.
COSTELLO: Thank you so much for talking with us.
I just wondered, you were a long time captain of a 777 in Malaysia. Did you know the pilot of this doomed plane?
LIM KHOY HING: Can you say again?
COSTELLO: Did you know the pilot of the downed plane?
LIM KHOY HING: Yes, I know, I know. He was my co-pilot when I was flying on the 777 about 20 years ago.
COSTELLO: From what I know of this captain, he was -- he was dedicated to being a pilot. He even had a simulator in his home. Describe him for us.
LIM KHOY HING: Well, it was about 20 years ago, he was a good pilot, good co-pilot. He was with me for about three years. And thereafter, he became a captain and he left the 777.
I was flying it for about nine years. After that I have no contact with him until the ill fated incident two years ago.
COSTELLO: From all accounts, though, he was an excellent experienced pilot, is that correct?
LIM KHOY HING: Yes. I believe he's an examiner on the Boeing 777.
COSTELLO: Investigators say these are preliminary finding, that the plane may have turned around. If the plane did turn around, why do you think there was no distress call?
LIM KHOY HING: Well, I'm quite uncertain because as a pilot our golden rule is, first, what we call the aviation jargon -- to aviate, communicate -- aviate, navigate and communicate.
So, if you follow that golden rule first of all he would, in an accident, he would have controlled aircraft, that is aviate and then navigate it, point his nose to the nearest airfield like in our modern aircraft, we have this feature when you select closest airport four airports would appear and gives you the distance as well as time to go the alternate airport.
And, thirdly, the third golden rule is to communicate. We have to inform all around us. In this case, it would be a mayday call. When he makes a mayday call priority would be given to him.
Unfortunately, as we all know there was no mayday call. So I'm not sure how it all happened.
In an ideal situation, there should be a distress call but unfortunately there were none.
COSTELLO: So, you were a long time pilot. You also teach. You teach people how to fly 777s.
There was no distress call. Preliminary findings say the plane may or may not have turned around, and then the plane simply disappeared. In your mind what scenario -- I mean, how can that happen?
LIM KHOY HING: I don't -- it's not very clear. Can you please repeat your question?
COSTELLO: I know that you teach people to fly the 777. Is there any scenario that you can think of similar to what happened to this plane?
LIM KHOY HING: Oh, I cannot really speculate. There could be a lot of speculation. Many things could have happened because many people are trying to ask me what could have happened. There are many scenarios.
For example, Airline 470, there was speculation it was a lightning strike, but somehow, two years later, it was found it was not true. So, I would not want to say what actually happened, what actually could happen.
But someone put this question to me this morning whether the ill-fated Boeing 777 MH-370 could have lost pressurization similar to the Boeing 737 at Cyprus in year 2005. I don't know if you remember. That is known as Helios incident.
I told her it was not possible because the cabin warning system of the Boeing 777 is so good that such event was extremely unlikely. Because in the year around 2002, I flew the Boeing 777 from Stockholm to Kuala Lumpur.
After I got airborne, I had a warning that indicated a door was not properly closed. So, I had to turn back and land. However, I had to dump 80 tons of fuel into the Baltic Sea. I don't know whether you can imagine how much fuel 80 tons. It's about the width of about 30 cars. Imagine, that's a lot of fuel.
On the ground, after I landed safely at Stockholm, an engineer found it was a false warning. So, we just clean up the sensor and then flew back about three hours later.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: We're glad that flight turned out OK.
LIM KHOY HING: So it's one of the safest aircraft so far. I've flown aircraft for around nine years. And I was so fascinated with this aircraft, I don't know. I started Web site by the name of flying safely on the Boeing 777 and I do have a lot of following in America. So --
COSTELLO: Thank you, Captain. Thank you, Captain, for your insight. We really appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, before we can know what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 we need to know where it is, and Richard Quest warns finding clues in the massive South China Sea is an extraordinarily difficult task one that could take months if not years.
Good morning.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN AIRLINE AND AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It is a vast area. (INAUDIBLE)
It was a vast area that needs to be searched. The question is, where do you begin?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: With no witnesses and no signs of wreckage, friends and family of the 239 people aboard that missing Malaysia Airlines flight may have to wait months if not years to know what happened, despite a massive around the clock multinational search finding a jet in the deep Southeast Asian waters, it's a slow and agonizing task.
CNN airline and aviation correspondent Richard Quest joins me now with more from New York.
Good morning.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN AIRLINE AND AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. The difficulty of finding this debris in the water is really quite extraordinary because you are looking for a needle in a haystack where this needle may have been broken into a thousand different pieces.
And, Carol, if you just look at that video you were showing a second ago from out of the plane, the one where you could see the water that was there, you get an idea of how difficult it is, the trickiness of spotting something out on the water's edge and then working out whether it is debris from the aircraft, something left behind from a ship importantly just -- I'll give you and example. We already know oil they thought they found was bunker oil not jet aviation fuel.
And in the last hour, we've heard from the investigating authority the Malaysians, looking at this map, that they are widening the area of search right through a new block of water between Malaysia and Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand, which is what you're looking at the moment.
They, also, of course, have been searching off the west coast of Malaysia, towards the Andaman Sea. They are searching around the South China Sea off the east coast of Vietnam. If you look at this picture here, just imagine scourge the water, looking for anything that might have come down and being aware that the waves in a flash could move it out of your eyesight or could obscure it or it could become more difficult.
COSTELLO: Richard Quest, live in New York -- thanks so much.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a critical vote is just days away for citizens of Crimea as Ukrainian troops say they are ready for combat should diplomatic efforts fail.
CNN's Phil Black is tracking all the developments in Moscow -- Phil.
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol, the world's largest country looks set to get even bigger, as Vladimir Putin defends Crimea's right to join the Russian Federation. More after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: In Ukraine, signs this morning that the nation's armed forces are ready for combat. New video from the Ukrainian ministry of defense shows troops taking part in training exercises. The government says troops have been brought to full readiness, but the army is not calling for full mobilization, at least not yet.
Phil Black is in Moscow covering this for us.
Good morning, Phil.
BLACK: Good morning, Carol.
Yes, they have to mobilize their army to some degree in the military because the Ukrainian government believes it has been invaded by Russia. But Ukraine's leadership also believes to use that military as an option would be to invite further disaster upon their country, because they believe that Moscow, Russia, is trying to provoke them into responding militarily a move that would then invite Russia to come back even stronger, harder, do enormous damage to the Ukrainian military which cannot fight against Russia. And the end result quite likely would be Russia occupying a larger slice of Ukraine than it does now.
So, therefore, their only option on the table is the diplomatic one to invite the international community to apply as much pressure as possible to Russia. But what reality is in the short term that sort of pressure does not look like it's going to force Russia out of Crimea any time soon, Carol.
COSTELLO: Phil Black reporting live from Moscow, thank you.
We're just moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. The S&P 500 could hit another record high today and that's good news for retirement accounts which closely track the index, and especially good news for a few top stocks.
CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans is in New York.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Carol.
Two and a half minutes to the opening bell. And right now, futures look a little bit soft. So, maybe as our money -- as our CNN Money headline stocks are the bulls hung over.
Why would they hung over? Because yesterday was a five-year anniversary of the bull rally, Carol. It's been five years and it's been amazing. That's the S&P 500, up almost 180 percent. The Dow this year now just 1 percent, about 125 points, away from a record high there. We had a really rough January and things had really come back.
But let's look at the stocks that have really just exploded, Carol. Some of these stocks, imagine $600 investment, just 10 shares of Amazon.com five years ago, you bought 10 years, today, it's worth $3,700.
Carol, what about Apple? You bought ten shares of Apple five years ago, 800 bucks. It's worth $5,300.
Priceline, this had some I think 1,600 percent gain -- $780 for 10 shares five years ago, $13,500 it was worth today.
Starbucks, Whole Foods, Netflix, Chipotle, I mean, there's a whole list of consumer stocks that have done very well over the past five years.
Now, no one can tell you what will happen tomorrow, Carol, or what's going to happen going forward, but that's just a really good look at for half of Americans that do have some investments in 401(k) or retirement account in the stock market, those are the kind of stocks that help push you up to 30 percent last year in some stock averages. So, it's been a very, very good year.
Looks soft this morning when the opening bell rings, Carol, but a lot of people saying there's still more room to go eventually.
COSTELLO: That's a good thing. Christine Romans, thanks so much.
ROMANS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: We're back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
