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Search for Missing Airliner Continues; Security Enhanced for Boston Marathon

Aired March 10, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips, in for Brooke Baldwin today.

We are still talking about that mystery in the skies above Southeast Asia. A huge airliner, a Boeing 707 -- a 777, rather, carrying 239 people vanishing without a trace. And we are asking, was it terrorism or a freak accident? And where on earth is the plane?

CNN is piecing together information we have just learned about the two passengers who boarded that jet with stolen passports. It turns out an Iranian man purchased those tickets for two of his friends. U.S. officials tell CNN a terror act is unlikely. But a group calling itself the China Martyrs Brigade is now claiming responsibility. This group is not believed to be known to the U.S. before this point.

The only other lead that we have is some debris. And that was found near Hong Kong. It's now being examined. And here's the best guess as to where Malaysia Flight 370 was. About two hours after departing Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, it never arrived at the scheduled destination in China and the crew never radioed any trouble in flight.

Well, right now, they are widening the search grid and the U.S. is sending a second warship to aid in the dozens of ships and planes from 10 countries now that so far have turned up nothing.

Joining me now, Steve Wallace, former director of accident investigations at the FAA.

So, Steven, the question that everyone is still asking right now, with all of the information we know to this point, is there any link to terrorism?

STEVEN WALLACE, FORMER FAA DIRECTOR OF ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION: Well, it's the beginning of an investigation.

And there is a massive investigation both on kind of the civil side and on the criminal anti-terrorism side. And I'm more on the civil tactical issues, but certainly they want an investigation and everything is on the table. I defer to the experts who have said we probably shouldn't jump to any conclusions over the stolen passports, because lots of reasons people travel on stolen passports. Perhaps they're all illegitimate, but not many of them involve taking down the aircraft.

PHILLIPS: Well, Mary Schiavo did take it a little step further and it's creating a lot of buzz. She is the former inspector general for the Department of Transportation. And she said it could have been a trial run for something bigger. Take a listen to what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER TRANSPORTATION INSPECTOR GENERAL: People forget something called the Bojinka plot. The Bojinka plot was a plot to take out 12 jetliners over the Pacific Ocean. And they were aiming for U.S. jetliners, but they did a trial run and they did a trial run on a Philippine jetliner and they used fake passports.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trial run.

SCHIAVO: And they didn't take credit because they didn't want anyone to know that they were testing and who it was. There's no indication here that that applies in this case, but there similarities and that would be why no one was taking credit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: That's what disheartening, are the similarities. Steven, what do you say to what Mary Schiavo said?

WALLACE: Just the only thing I agree is the last thing she said. There is no link to this case. This is a bit of rampant speculation.

We can look back at all the reasons that airliners have disappeared in cruise flight and some of them have been acts of terrorism and some of them have been mechanical failures and some of them have been structural failures, and a lot of these things that were mechanical are highly unlikely because this is a very modern fly-by-wire, lots of redundant systems. It's very much a state-of-the-art airplane.

PHILLIPS: What about the tickets linked to stolen passports purchased by an Iranian man that we have been talking about all today so far? How will this impact the direction of the investigation?

WALLACE: I would look back at the TWA 800 accident, terrible accident in 1996, where it was basically there was a simultaneous civil and criminal investigation and until the point that it was concluded that it was simply a mechanical -- it was a fuel tank explosion and not an act of terrorism.

Certainly all of those avenues are being pursued now. But again I defer to the experts in the criminal area that I have seen saying we shouldn't jump to any conclusions about those stolen passports.

PHILLIPS: And of course we are trying not to, but it's obviously -- it's a sensitive time in everything we have dealt with, with regard to terrorism. The question, of course, remains and we want answers, because we are not getting a lot of answers, which brings me to the debris that was found near Hong Kong.

Can you tell us anything about that? Do you know anything about it?

WALLACE: I don't. I just heard about this debris near Hong Kong, which is quite a long ways I think from where the earlier sightings occurred. I guess I would just say this. I'm confident this airplane has state-of-the-art flight data recorders. And they have locating devices that will ping for 30 days.

I am quite confident they will find those records and they will find the wreckage of the aircraft. We basically -- we almost -- we don't have any unsolved large airplane accidents in recent times. And I'm confident this one will be solved to a very high degree of certainty.

PHILLIPS: That is a point well made. That's a bit encouraging considering what we don't know at this point.

Steven Wallace, appreciate your time. Thank you.

WALLACE: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Let's bring in CNN's David McKenzie. He is live in Beijing.

David, it's been three days now, no news. This has to be agonizing for the family members.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kyra.

It's been hours that turned into days. After that initial shock, then it's the sadness and then honestly the frustration and anger from these family members of the passengers on board that missing flight. They have been expressing their anger at us about mostly the airlines and the Chinese government and the Malaysian government because of those unanswered questions you mentioned. Let's take a listen to two of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I'm not going home until I know what happened. We lost loved ones and they need to answer our questions. When are you going to tell us and what are you going to do? We still don't know if they are alive or dead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Still no information and still waiting. I am not happy with the airline's arrangements so far.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKENZIE: Some of the passengers tonight have been driven off from that hotel, presumably some of them going to Malaysia to be close to where the center of this investigation is happening.

Kyra, in these cases, when planes go down, often, family members are taken to the area closest to the point of a crash or an incident. At this point, they don't know where that is, so many of the family members are left in limbo and not knowing where to go and so many of them say they will stay right here in Beijing.

We are focusing on Beijing because more than 150 of those passengers on board were Chinese nationals flying here to the capital city.

PHILLIPS: And also the piece of debris now found near Hong Kong, we're going to follow that along with you as well. David McKenzie, thank you so much.

Coming up at the bottom of the hour, we will talk about the technology behind the search for this missing flight, why the so-called black box might need a major overhaul. That's a little later in the hour.

The Boston Marathon getting enhanced security this year, no backpacks and double the number of police. We will talk to the man behind those changes. That's up next.

And a pretty incredible medical breakthrough, a new blood test that could predict Alzheimer's disease in patients. The question is, would you even want to know? We have a lot going on. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: It's a potentially huge medical breakthrough in Alzheimer's research, a new blood test that could predict if people will get the debilitating brain disease that affects millions of us.

CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There hasn't been a good way to predict who will get Alzheimer's disease, whose brains will get the plaques and tangles that destroy memory and concentration and who will be spared. In a first of its kind study, a simple blood test was able to predict who would get Alzheimer's.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a wonderful piece of science, the most significant observation we have been able to report in my entire scientific career.

COHEN: The researchers looked at the blood of healthy elderly people checking for 10 fatty molecules, called lipids. Those with lower levels were more likely to develop Alzheimer's. On average, the change from healthy to sick took just two years. The test was over 90 percent accurate. The researchers and the Alzheimer's Association point out that more studies need to be done to check and see if this test really works.

If even all goes well, the test won't be in doctor's offices for several years. So who would want a test to predict Alzheimer's? After all, there is nothing you can do to stop it. Dr. Howard Federoff, a researcher, says he would want to know.

DR. HOWARD FEDEROFF, NEUROLOGIST, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: I would want to plan and work with my family and attend to the issues that are important to us.

COHEN: But some people might not want to know that they are destined for a devastating disease. (END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joining us.

Elizabeth, how does this get us any closer to any sort of treatment for Alzheimer's?

COHEN: Kyra, here's the way that it works.

Doctors want to prevent Alzheimer's. They don't want to just treat it. They really want to prevent it. If you can put together a group of, say, 100 people who you are pretty sure are destined to get Alzheimer's, then you can try out treatments on them see what works.

Right now, we can't do that. If this test can give us a nice group of people to study, it would really advance this research by a long shot.

PHILLIPS: We will keep following it for sure. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.

COHEN: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: You just heard Elizabeth's report, so what do you think now? Would you want to know if Alzheimer's was in your future or not?

Psychologist Erik Fisher here to talk about the emotional and ethical and psychological issues. Right?

I don't know. I would want to be proactive. I would want to change my odds. What are you thoughts?

ERIK FISHER, PSYCHOLOGIST: Right.

I think we have to look at each individual's psychology and how they handle stress, how do they handle knowing things. Some people, for them, ignorance is bliss. They don't want to know what's coming. They don't want to know their future in some ways, because that can bring on stress. I think you're right. Planning is a good thing. You can plan where you want to live. If you know that you have this diagnosis, what do you want to change about your life, what do you want to simplify?

PHILLIPS: How about the drugs though that delay the onset? There have been so many developments that have been made on that scale.

FISHER: Absolutely.

And being able to take those to forestall the onset or slow the onset of Alzheimer's would be good. The others you have to look at is they look at 70-year-olds in the study. They will start to look at middle- aged people potentially in their 60s, 50s. Who knows how old they will start to be able to identify this. As we get to younger and younger years or ages of identifying Alzheimer's or even other debilitating types of illnesses, what is going to be impact on long- term planning of those individuals?

PHILLIPS: But this is not 100 percent. Right? Nothing ever is.

(CROSSTALK)

FISHER: Exactly.

PHILLIPS: We have the issue of false positives.

FISHER: Exactly.

PHILLIPS: Let's talk about the impact of that.

FISHER: That can be devastating, because if I made all these plans that I will develop Alzheimer's, and I never develop it, and I have changed -- the people in my life have changed the way they have treated me because of that. Maybe a relationship ended. Maybe I resigned from a job or made some different investment choices, that can have huge impacts on somebody's present and future of their life.

PHILLIPS: I was reading. This was interesting. I wanted to get the quote right. This is a medical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania who said the people who have the Alzheimer's gene and know it tend to rate their own memories as worse than people who have the gene, but don't know it. Knowing you carry the gene also seems to hurts people's performance on many memory tests.

FISHER: Exactly. And that's a self-fulfilling prophesy. And just by the fact of knowing you may have something, that self-fulfilling prophesy often comes true.

That's where some people would also rather not know because they want to live their best life that they can. For me, like you, like I said, I would rather know and make every day the best day it can be.

PHILLIPS: Amen, brother. I'm with you on that.

Erik Fisher, thank you so much.

FISHER: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Coming up, as the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 gets deeper, the debate surrounding so- called black box technology is growing. Is the black box outdated? We will discuss that.

And in Boston, big changes planned for this year's marathon. We will tell you what new security measures are in store right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Nearly a year after explosions killed three people at the Boston Marathon, new security measures were announced today, imposing new restrictions on what spectators bring with them along with the 26.2-mile course.

According to CNN affiliate WCVB, here's the changes. Spectators are being urged to carry clear plastic bags, absolutely no backpacks, no coolers or blankets, added security, both uniformed and undercover, and also more surveillance cameras along the marathon route.

Let's go ahead and bring in the director of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, Kurt Schwartz.

Kurt, how did you whittle down all the suggestions that were given to you and your team to this specific list?

KURT SCHWARTZ, DIRECTOR, MASSACHUSETTS EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: Well, good afternoon.

We have been -- the public safety community in the greater Boston area has been meeting and planning for seven months. We have partnered with local regional, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.

We have had members of our planning team travel to other cities and other states and even other countries to look at best practices in other events. And out of all of this, through our collaboration, we agreed on these rules and guidelines that will apply along the course that cuts through eight cities and towns.

PHILLIPS: Of course, you hear the rules and it feels and it looks good. Right? But how are you convincing Bostonians and others from around the country to not be afraid and to come out, to be there and to rally?

SCHWARTZ: We are already seeing an incredible show of support for the Boston Marathon and interest in attending this year.

We are expecting a much greater than-usual-show of spectators. I don't think we will have to do a lot to convince people to come out. I think people and the public will have great confidence in our safety and security plan, and people, frankly, want to come out and show what it means to be Boston strong.

PHILLIPS: Boston strong, indeed.

Well, the new security members -- or measures, rather -- would impact the military members as well who march the entire rout wearing their gear. Right? Are there going to be any exceptions to these new rules?

SCHWARTZ: Well, there are no exceptions to the rules about people on the course with backpacks.

There will be no backpacks or rucksacks on the course. We have always had military march marchers in the Boston Marathon, and they -- we will have 130 National Guard soldiers marching again this year. But they will not be carrying rucksacks.

PHILLIPS: Have you received any pushback with that?

SCHWARTZ: Well, we have received -- we didn't receive pushback about the no-rucksack rule.

We received some disappointment from the more than 1,000 soldiers who expressed an interest in marching in the race in this year, but we have increased from 27,000 to 36,000 because of the interest, and the course simply can't accommodate 36,000 runners, plus 1,000 marching soldiers. So, we limited to the military marchers to the 130 National Guard soldiers.

PHILLIPS: I'll tell you what. There will be a lot folks here attending and experiencing that Boston strong. Kurt Schwartz, appreciate you. Thanks so much.

SCHWARTZ: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, coming up, the Ukraine rallies have turned violent and thousands of protesters gather across Crimea, so what's next? We will take you there live.

Is the technology behind the so-called black box outdated? Critics say it takes too long to find out what went wrong in those plane crashes and the technology needs a major upgrade. We will discuss that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: In Ukraine, troubling signs this afternoon that the nation's armed forces are getting ready for combat, as tension on the street rises.

Pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian protesters hurled insults at each other and then started throwing punches. The Russian Foreign Ministry is condemning what it calls lawlessness and the U.N. secretary-general says he is increasingly alarmed by the crisis.

This new video from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense actually shows the military taking part in training exercises. The government says troops have been brought to full readiness and volunteers are actually signing up for service, but the army is not mobilizing, not just yet.

What about the U.S. role? Right now, less than half of Americans approve of President Obama's handling of the Ukraine situation. That's according to a CNN/ORC poll. And former Vice President Dick Cheney says holding Vladimir Putin in check, well, it's not going to be easy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK CHENEY, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have got a much bigger problem if he decides to go further and if he decides to take part of Eastern Ukraine. We are in a situation where it's not just about Crimea and Russia, Ukraine and Russia, the U.S. even. On a worldwide basis, potential adversaries and friends are watching how the administration handles this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Our Nick Paton Walsh is in Crimea.

Nick, I understand that you saw what looks like the takeover of a Ukrainian military base by pro-Russian forces. Can you tell us what you have seen and what's happening?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely.

A complex today picture at one base here in the Crimea Bakhchisarai area. It was very interesting to see. We went there earlier on in the day. We spoke to the deputy of the base, who said his commander had been kidnapped the day before, they claim by pro-Russian forces here.

We spoke to his wife. She was deeply worried, had tried to reach it, eventually been rung back by him. He said he was fine, he was healthy, but he was being held by pro-Russian forces. Later in the day, he went back to the base to discover that, in fact, pro-Russian, it seemed, forces had entered the base. They were masked gunmen, about 15 of them, we were told by the deputy.

They had come back with the commander who had been abducted earlier and were then preparing the trucks inside the base and much equipment to take it out, so a deeply troubling scene there, perhaps a new tactic of how to intimidate Ukrainian soldiers here. There are thousands of them refusing to give up to the pro-Russian forces, increasingly large numbers here inside Crimea.

There are also suggestions from some close to the Kiev administration that perhaps there is an issue of defection here, questioning the loyalty of this base commander, although most people we spoke to on the ground here simply seem to say he had in fact been intimidated to letting these pro-Russian gunmen on to the base -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, Nick, we mentioned that we are now less than a week away from the referendum on whether Crimea will remain part of the Ukraine, both pro- and anti-Russia rallies taking place over the weekend.