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Inside a Boeing 777; Pilots Draw Scrutiny; USS Kidd Head to Indian Ocean; Flight 370: The Investigation

Aired March 14, 2014 - 09:30   ET

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

MITCHELL CASADO, PILOT TRAINER, 777 COCKPIT SIMULATOR: And it was flying for four hours after last contact, someone's flying that airplane. Someone turned it off. Of course, someone was flying that airplane. If it was the pilots, if the pilots were flying it the way they were supposed to be, they would have been communicating with air traffic control. It's not unheard of for a plane to go off course, there's weather, volcanoes erupt and we have to go around it, things like that, but you're always talking to somebody. OK, we have that saying, aviate, navigate, communicate. You fly the plane first, you navigate if you have to, but then you communicate with air traffic control. Always - you're always communicating. The fact that they didn't communicate, that's the big red flag. That's the compelling fact here. Why didn't they do that?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Pilot Mitchell Casado, Martin Savidge, thank you. That was fascinating. We really appreciate that. It made so many things so much more understandable. Hopefully we'll do it again at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. I hope so.

Well, the mystery deepens into what happened to Malaysian Flight 370. New revelations that the plane's data recording system and transponder were turned off separately. And Reuters citing unnamed sources and military radar reporting new evidence that someone deliberately and secretly rerouted that plane toward the Indian Ocean and flew for hours after the last contact. So, who was that someone? Was it the pilot, the co-pilot or was it someone else? CNN's justice correspondent Pamela Brown is investigating who these men are.

Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, good morning to you, Carol. Fascinating looking at that flight simulator. And like he said, why didn't the pilots communicate? There are so many unanswered questions about what happened to Flight 370, why it possibly changed course. That has put the two pilots and their previous behavior squarely into focus. We still have a lot to learn about them, but what we do know is what was said in the cockpit right before the plane vanished gives few clues.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): "All right, good night." Those are the last words heard from the cockpit of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. What we don't know is who in the cockpit said them. Was it 53-year-old pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, or 27-year-old First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, or someone else. Like everything with Flight 370, the meaning of the words and the pilots themselves are a mystery.

Just weeks ago, our CNN's Richard Quest was granted legal access into the cockpit with First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, seen in this exclusive video. It wasn't the first time Hamid had a guest in the cockpit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An air hostess came to us and asked us if we would like to move into the cockpit, after which we did and that's where we spent the fight.

BROWN: Johnte Ross (ph) told CNN's Piers Morgan that while on vacation she and a friend flew from Thailand to Malaysia on a plane piloted by Hamid and another pilot, taking these photos and smoking cigarettes in the cockpit. After hearing Ross' story, Malaysian Airlines said, "we are shocked by these allegations."

CAPTAIN ZAHARIE AHMAD SHAH: Hi, everyone.

BROWN: We don't know as much about the pilot, Captain Zaharie. In this YouTube video, he shows an interest in home improvement. A source has told CNN that police have been outside Zaharie's home every day since Flight 370 vanished. They have not yet entered or searched the home according to Malaysian officials.

With new information from U.S. officials saying Flight 370 may have flown up to five hours after the last contact with the pilots, there are more theories and questions about what happened. Was there mechanical and communication failure? Could it have been a suicide crash by one of the pilots or did someone enter the cockpit and take over the plane?

MARK WEISS, FORMER AMERICAN AIRLINES PILOT: There seems to be a real trail that leads to something taking that aircraft. That doesn't just happen by accident.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Officials say they are looking at every possible scenario, including whether the pilots had any psychological issues. So, Carol, many people are wondering why Malaysian officials haven't searched their homes like they say. Back to you.

COSTELLO: Well, that is curious. And we're going to talk about that in just a little bit. Pamela Brown, thanks so much.

Because I want to bring back in our experts. Tom Fuentes is our law enforcement analyst. Bob Francis, a former vice chairman of the NTSB.

So, Bob, you heard in Pamela's report, the last words heard from the cockpit was, "all right, good night." We don't know who said this. Is there a way to determine who said it and is it important?

BOB FRANCIS, FORMER VICE CHAIRMAN, NTSB: I don't - I wouldn't consider that to be surprising. I mean, if you're going off as a pilot and you're being transferred from one sector to another, you're talking to a new controller, saying that would seem to me normal. Now, it might be interesting to ask the families of the pilots if they recognize the voice. But I would think, again, that it would be one of the two pilots.

COSTELLO: And as far as we know, and you know Malaysia is not exactly releasing lots and lots of information, there could have been other voices in the cockpit, too, right?

FRANCIS: Could have been. Sure. I mean they've showed themselves -- in a U.S. carrier or European carrier, you wouldn't find extra people in the cockpit unless they were qualified and probably either FAA employees or employees of the airline.

COSTELLO: And, Tom, Malaysian authorities, they've been camped outside of this pilot's house for quite some time, but they haven't gone inside. Why do you suppose that is?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: That's a great question, Carol. I don't know. I mean it's just a great question. Normally you would expect in an investigation like this that they would have not only searched the captain's house and his computers and his e-mails and his phone records and he has a flight simulator in that house, look at that, if it has any indications of practicing to put in way points to go in a different direction than they normally fly on that airline. You know, that would be critical information. Also about his psychological stability and information like that, his home life. You know, any other personal problems that might come to play. And actually for the co-pilot, as well.

I also think that a key to this would be interviewing present and former flight attendants to ask them about what they think of the stability of these pilots, of the frequency they allow guests into cockpit. Are they lax in cockpit security when they come out to use a restroom or to come out to get food? You know, those are key people to be interviewed. Even past employees. So, there are a lot of, you know, expectations that I would have for the way the investigation would go in terms of personnel of the aircraft, the passengers, the cargo, the checked luggage, the caterers, the maintenance people, the housekeeping people. You know, hundreds and hundreds of people have access to an airplane on the ground before it even takes off and could introduce, you know, something harmful.

We just had a guy fall out of the wheel well dead on a plane landing at Dulles Airport here in Washington about a month ago. How did he get in the wheel well and ride on that aircraft as it flew across the ocean? So, you have many questions about the airport security, the ground security and then the personnel and people security in the plane.

COSTELLO: Bob, back to this pilot for just a second. By all accounts, he was dedicated. He had lots and lots of experience. He was 53 years old. Been flying for, what, 30 years? He built this flight simulator inside of his house. And although, you know, maybe it was just because he was passionate about his job, but I just wondered if you knew any other pilots who did such a thing?

FRANCIS: I'm sure there are pilots, knowing pilots, I suspect that that is not at all a rare event. Pilots love, love to fly. They love their airplanes. They love their cockpits and all the toys that they have to play with.

COSTELLO: You know, and we haven't really heard anything about the flight crew onboard, as in the flight attendants. Why do you think that is?

FRANCIS: I don't know the answer to that. And it really comes back to, I mean, the flight attendants don't ordinarily have access to the cockpit of the airplane unless they're going in to be there when one of the pilots leaves. So, I just - I think that there are so many things that should be doing -- happening during this investigation. I think that you've got to kind of prioritize where the - and particularly under the leadership of the Malaysian government, you've got to prioritize and hope that their prioritizing on the really important things because their performance is - it ain't terrific.

COSTELLO: Yes. Bob Francis, Tom Fuentes, thanks to both of you. I appreciate it.

FUENTES: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a U.S. Navy destroyer on its way to help as the search for that missing plane expands to the Indian Ocean. We'll head to the Pentagon for more on the U.S. involvement in this unprecedented search.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: As the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 expands west to the Indian Ocean, a Navy destroyer, the USS Kidd, is heading to the region at the request of the Malaysian government. The vessel will join dozens of ships and planes scouring the area for any sign of the plane, which, as you know now, vanished seven days ago. Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins me with that side of the story.

Good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

The ship now is at the northern end of the Strait of Malacca, essentially the entrance to the Indian Ocean. It will use its helicopters to conduct aerial searches for any evidence of a debris field, any evidence of the plane.

But earlier today, actually, a U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft conducted its first air sweep of the region, flying about 1,000 miles out into the Indian Ocean. Didn't find anything and came back. But (INAUDIBLE). And so it's worth thinking about why they're looking in this specific area and that's because about 48 hours ago, U.S. and Malaysian officials came to understand that they had a number of pings from an aircraft flying out over the Indian Ocean about four to five hours from the flight path of the airliner. That ping that they got did not have a transponder associated with it. It matched the kind of airplane that the Malaysian aircraft is, but no transponder, which was another clue because, of course, we know the transponder wasn't working.

So they put all that together and that's why they believe this is now an area that they want to look at. It's a very large piece of water, but they're beginning to understand, based on the intelligence data they have, where it might be best to look, and that's why we're going to see the focus on this area for the next few days.

Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Barbara Starr reporting live from the Pentagon. Thanks so much.

We'll be back with much more on this missing flight. We're going to talk to a former undersecretary from homeland security to get his perspective, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The search area has widened considerably for that missing plane, thanks in part to information gathered by U.S. investigators.

I want to bring in Michael Brown, former undersecretary for homeland security. Welcome.

MICHAEL BROWN, FORMER UNDERSECRETARY FOR DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Hi, Carol, how are you?

COSTELLO: Nice to have you here, thanks for being here, Michael. I know homeland service is involved.

BROWN: You bet.

COSTELLO: Tell us how.

BROWN: Well, primarily, for example, in the '04 tsunami in Southeast Asia we were there just kind of help coordinate and it seems to me what ought to be going on here and from the reports I've seen, we are actually doing is helping them set up an incident command system so that we can help coordinate things like -- I'll give you an example. NASA has the EO1 satellite and we have the iServe camera on the International Space Station. Those can all be used.

Obviously, we have military assets moving in to help with the search, but I think the most important thing because there was another story that I read in one of the Malaysian newspapers that said "Malaysia is probably treating this more like a domestic incident as opposed to an international incident."

And so what we really need to do is figure out a way that we can come in and help make certain that that incident command structure is strong enough that, one, we know what assets are out there, that all of these countries are using and that we can pull in all that information.

And here's the reason why. Because if this is something other than just a plane wreck, if this is an incident of terrorism, if it's a hijacking, sabotage of some sort, then we need to help coordinate that with our intelligence communities so they can really understand and find out what took place.

COSTELLO: Understand. I know Homeland Security in the United States wants to help, but it is delicate. I mean they just can't go in there and do what they want, right?

BROWN: That's right. And that's why before these incidents occur, what we try, we've always tried to do and I spent numerous months in Russia negotiating a cooperative agreement with Russian authorities, so when something happened in a third world -- in a third place that perhaps we could work with the Russians to try to do that.

Now, you tie that in with our relationship with Russia today, you see how important it is to have a cooperative agreement that says in these things that are outside military issues or combat issues or anything else, why is it important to have these agreements that say, here is how we will work together in these kinds of incidents.

COSTELLO: So I'll ask you this because nothing has been ruled out. It could be terrorism right but the curious thing was --

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Well if it's -- right.

COSTELLO: Well go ahead what were you going to say?

BROWN: I want to say it could be any of those things. I mean I've heard -- if we want to put our tin foil hats on I've heard everything other than space aliens. Let's rule that out. I think everything I have heard is it is truly just an accident. That China has you know these new rules for the South China Sea. And that you know we've had planes shot down in that area of the world before. This could have been a plane that has been shot down because it was violating some Chinese air space rule.

It could have been hijacked and it's been landed in Pakistan. I mean I've have heard all of these different kinds of theories.

That's why you really need to, one, not rule anything out. And at the same time make certain that the search efforts are being coordinated with our intelligence communities and vice versa so that we can find out what really took place. It is a huge coordination effort. And on top of that, you have the Malaysian government that is being kind of fickle to put it kindly at this point.

COSTELLO: Yes. Michael Brown, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

BROWN: You bet Carol.

COSTELLO: We're back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Checking other "Top Stories" this morning at 55 minutes past the hour.

Major scare at the Philadelphia Airport after a U.S. Airways Flight headed to Ft. Lauderdale blew a tire as it was trying to take off. Witnesses reported seeing the plane quote "bounce" before it screeched to a halt on nose gear that had collapsed. All 154 people on the flight were evacuated safely. No serious injuries reported.

If you are in the Northeast, you should enjoy this mild weather while it lasts. Temperatures today will be in the 40s from New York to Boston before a potential storm threatens the region Sunday and Monday. That system could bring snow, sleet, and freezing rain.

The Dow may be in for a fifth straight day of losses taking a slight dip right at the open. Investors are worried about the situation in Ukraine and a slowdown in the Chinese economy.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)