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U.S. Officials: Investigations Probe Whether Lithium Batteries In Cargo Could Have Brought Down Plane

Aired March 14, 2014 - 14:30   ET

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

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Let's move down to one, in a place called Port Blair (ph). I want you to look very closely at this one because you can see that there is a big, substantial runway

You can see there is a big substantial runway in here. This facility however is largely occupied and used by the Indian Navy. Look at all the houses around here.

Think about what this person was saying. If you have a plane of this size, it needs about 4,000 feet of runway to land. That runway is about 11,000 feet long. It needs about 6,000 to take off. It could take off from a runway that size.

Here's the problem though. Think about what that person just said. It's impossible for it to happen with nobody noticing. You see all those houses and you know that the Navy is operating there. That other air strip, the air force from India is operating there.

How do you take a plane that is 200 feet long and 200 feet wide even if it made it there and put it on the ground with nobody noticing or making a phone call or saying anything? That's one of the reasons that officials in the Andamans are saying look, maybe something headed this way, but if it was this plane, it did not arrive.

It has not been seen by anyone, Don. So that's one of the reasons why I think we still have to keep looking in that first search area so strongly because that's where we know the plane was. Everything else is conjecture.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Tom, listen I spoke to a pilot yesterday who said you do not put a 777 down anywhere without making a lot of noise.

FOREMAN: Sure. They are huge. By the way, I want to address one other thing, Don. A lot of people have been raising the idea of could they land on the water. Landing a plane like this on the water while not impossible is next to impossible in terms of it being done safely. There is a tremendous amount of kinetic energy coming down and hitting water that is not smooth.

If you think about the miracle on the Hudson and Captain Sullenberger, that is the Hudson. That is really flat as a pool table compared to the waters out here and even there it was called a miracle for a reason. It's a hard trick to pull off and you don't pull it off with a plane like this in waters like these. That is the tragedy of the story. LEMON: Yes. That's what I have been thinking all along, the waves. You could not set a plane down on that. It would be virtually impossible. Thank you very much, Tom Foreman. Appreciate that.

Still to come on this special edition of the CNN NEWSROOM, no communication, no transponder. Because of that, we really have no clue where Malaysia Flight 370 is. So how can we track a plane that is not in communication? Our Chad Myers is going to break it down for us.

And if the missing plane were to have crashed into the ocean, the parts and the pieces could be scattered over a very wide area. So how can we find it all? Our next guest helped in the search for Air France Flight 447. He is going to join us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, here's the breaking news here and it's coming from U.S. authorities. Again, this is being recorded, we are trying to get our Evan Perez who is our justice correspondent as well Pamela Brown. Both of them in Washington. They are saying and talking about the role hereof lithium batteries in this Malaysia Airlines investigation.

They are saying they are looking into concerns that lithium batteries in the cargo hold, which had been blamed in previous crashes could have played a role according to U.S. officials briefed on the latest intelligence and law enforcement developments in the Malaysia Airliner probe.

If the batteries being carried on the plane caused a fire, it still doesn't fully explain other anomalies with Flight 370, the official say such as why it may have turned west and then flew towards the Indian Ocean.

Again officials investigating lithium batteries possibly in the cargo hold of this plane, again this information is coming from U.S. authorities being reported by our Evan Perez and our Pamela Brown in Washington.

The U.S. authorities continue to review the passengers manifest, we are being told, but find no terrorism is connected so far. Again this information is just coming in. I will read on here. This is information that we are just getting. So I'm learning about this with you as I read here.

One official said at this point, investigators have no reason to believe that the cargo was illegal or put there in any sort of illegal way. Any malicious way. I want to get now to CNN's Evan Perez who is live in Washington with the details on this. Evan, pick it up from here, will you?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: There so many mysteries to this thing. We do know that there is increasing concern about the lithium batteries in the cargo hold of the aircraft. Now what exactly this did whether there was a fire in the cargo hold that incapacitated the plane, whether this caused the pilots to turn west to try to return to the airport. All of this is still unknown.

We know that the plane continue to send signals that it was in air or that it was operational for another five hours. So what explains that it's still, again, this is very much a mystery, but at this point, there are some concerns among the intelligence and law enforcement officials that the lithium batteries that were in the cargo hold could have been the cause for this plane to disappear.

LEMON: OK, so Evan, talk to me about this. U.S. continue to review passenger manifest, but find no terrorism in connection -- terrorism connection so far. So what's taking so long for a passenger manifest -- shouldn't that be standard information?

PEREZ: Well, yes, it is, but you know, one of the things they are doing is they are going back and rechecking and rechecking. They are checking every single person that was on the passenger manifest. They are still checking out any background information on the pilots and the co-pilots to make sure that, you know, there is nothing that they can find that indicates some link to terrorism, which still needs to be looked at.

Now they haven't ruled out any terrorism links at all to this crash or to this disappearance of this plane, but it is something they are still checking out and as long as they haven't found the wreckage, this is something they are going to continue to look at because you don't know what you are missing while you are looking at it.

LEMON: All right, let's talk a bit more. Let's stroll down a bit more on these lithium batteries. Why is this such a concern again?

PEREZ: Well, you know, there have been previous incidents that have been traced to these batteries. In 2010, there was a crash of a UPS plane near Dubai in which there was a fire that started in the cargo. The pilots were not able to get back and they turned back and they were not able to get back to Dubai. So that has been a big concern for aviation safety officials around the world.

Now we looked this up and there have been 141 incidents around the world in recent years. They have been traced to batteries of some type and lithium batteries have been a concern for U.S. officials and officials around the world. I'm not sure what the rules are in Malaysia as to what you have to do to be able to carry this.

And you know going back to what you were saying at the beginning, there is no indication that the lithium batteries are being carried in the cargo here or put their maliciously. It might have been just normal cargo and then something went wrong -- Don.

LEMON: OK, Evan, let's go to you. Answer my question. Is it standard in that part of the world? We don't know. That's something we need to check on. We will read into the reporting that you and Pamela Brown have. Some U.S. law enforcement officials believe that the plane's westward turn and continued flight discount the battery theory. A fire would have been catastrophic and rendered the plane unable to continue to fly, these officials say. PEREZ: Well, that's right. I mean, the mystery here is that the plane diverts from its course that goes over the Gulf of Thailand and then ends up somewhere crossing the peninsula and towards the Indian Ocean. Now there are various things that have been picked up from satellite, from radar and the pings that were being sent from ground stations to the aircraft and being returned occurred one every hour.

So for five hours, there were pings returned from the aircraft that indicated that it was still functional. That there was still -- it was still intact is what the officials we've talked to have said. Our producers spoke to an aviation industry source who said that, you know, it doesn't explain why, you know, the plane was still sending back signals that is was essentially fine.

So that is added to the mystery. So if there was a fire, it's not clear how the plane then could have continued on for perhaps up to five hours.

LEMON: Evan Perez, with the breaking information here on CNN. Investigators are investigating the role if any of lithium batteries that could have been in the cargo hold. Thank you very much. Appreciate you, Evan Perez.

There is also other information developing right now today in the search for that missing plane. China has just announced it is expanding its search to the east and the west for the missing plane. Why? It could be from new reports suggesting that Flight 370 was deliberately and secretly rerouted.

This reporting is coming from Reuters citing unnamed sources and importantly it shows these so-called way points. Way points that you are looking at right there, tracking the plane after its last contact. Traveling towards the Indian Ocean and the Andaman Islands.

To the west of Malaysia and areas soon to be searched by a U.S. Destroyer. But searches are not taking their eyes off the east side of Malaysia. Chinese seismic researchers say they recorded a sea floor event, a reading they say is consistent with an airplane crash.

They are saying it happened about an hour and a half after the plane's last definitive sighting on radar. That would put the jet back on the other side of the Malaysian Peninsula to the east. What a mystery we have on our hands with details breaking at every moment.

Make sure you stay with us. We are working to get more information on the breaking news. U.S. officials telling us lithium batteries may have played a role in the plane's disappearance. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Did lithium batteries play a role in the disappearance of Flight 370? Investigators are checking that out. This reporting coming from our justice correspondent in Washington, Evan Perez and also from Pamela Brown as well, another one of our justice correspondents in Washington. Investigators are looking into concerns that lithium batteries in the cargo hold, which have been blamed in previous crashes could have played a role in this investigation that is according to the U.S. officials briefed on the latest intelligence and law enforcement developments in the Malaysia Airliner probe.

That is the very latest that we are looking at here on CNN. New information is coming in on other parts of the investigation as well. Arthur Rosenberg is a pilot and also an aviation engineer and a lawyer. He joins us here. Lithium batteries have been problematic and it's a possibility here.

ARTHUR ROSENBERG, PILOT, AVIATION ENGINEER AND LAWYER: Lithium batteries are an incredible innovation of the modern age. Pound for pound they provide the most electrical energy that is available, but that being said, they have a long and sorted past to get into airplanes. They are extremely fragile.

LEMON: And volatile.

ROSENBERG: Extremely volatile depending on the mix and the circumstance. They can explode when they start to burn. They can burn in the thousands of degrees. Recently the Boeing 787, which is a wonderful airplane coming into existence, which is largely powered by lithium batteries. Sitting on the ground, a lithium battery burnt through the outer hole of the fuselage and destroyed an airplane.

In this particular case with Malaysia 370, I'm just taking the latest news that is literally if lithium batteries were in the cargo hold of that airplane and assuming that they overheated and weren't properly cooled and something happened, they have the capability to wreak havoc and destruction in that airplane and could singly account for what happened. But that being said we don't know.

LEMON: That still doesn't explain then the information that they picked up. They picked up a ping and it went to the points if there was -- if a lithium battery was at fault or a contributing factor, most likely that would be a fire or an explosion?

ROSENBERG: Well, a lithium battery, they start to overheat. They get hotter and hotter. They start to burn through their casing.

LEMON: Burn through the electrical system?

ROSENBERG: They burn through anything that they are near. They have the capability to burn right through the aluminum. They burn composite and cause damage. Depending on where the lithium battery was in the cargo bay of that airplane would directly affect certain systems and electrical systems and could really tell you what happened.

The flight crew and we are speculating, where the lithium batteries, we don't know how many there were, but if they started to overheat and burn, the cockpit crew would start to get alarms. Those areas are well-sensored for heat and disturbances and they would start to see that something is going wrong in the cargo bay. The next thing they may get is a fire alarm. They could start to see electrical anomalies in the cockpit. Systems may go off line. It wouldn't account when you correlate that information with the information that we have with the primary and secondary radar and the pings we get from the system. This plane we know was in the air for a long time.

LEMON: It would explain though the systems and the communication failures not being able to reach air traffic control. They may not have the communication something burned through the wires.

ROSENBERG: It's possible. My gut feeling and again we are speculating --

LEMON: I prefer scenarios. We are providing certain scenarios that could have happened, the possibilities.

ROSENBERG: Well, we know, the facts are voice communication stopped when the pilot essentially said good night to the controller. We know a short time after that the transponder signal was lost. We know after that that the airplane with the primary paint turned around and started to head in a south westerly direction. We know that the system at least pinged satellites and we could figure out the position of the airplane at that point in time.

So the idea that perhaps a lithium battery burned through was playing in the background, it's a scenario that we should consider on the list of scenarios on the totem pole, I would put it down in the lower realm right now.

LEMON: Thank you very much, Arthur Rosenberg. We appreciate that. Again, we are investigating the role if any lithium batteries may have played in the disappearance of this plane. More on our breaking news right after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Breaking news here on CNN is coming from our folks in Washington who said that U.S. officials who have been briefed on the latest intelligence on this missing plane are looking into the role if any that lithium batteries may have played into the disappearance of the plane. U.S. officials who have been briefed on the latest intelligence are wondering if lithium batteries may have played a role in the disappearance of this plane. They are checking that up.

We are working our sources. We will get you new information as we get it. We also want to talk about tracking this plane. I want to bring in our meteorologist, Chad Myers. Chad joins us now from Atlanta.

Chad, Malaysian authorities believe they have several pings from the airliner's service data system known as ACAR. Explain to me and to viewers what that is.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I think people are just shaking their head, Don, and saying I know exactly where my car is. The GPS knows how fast I'm going, how can we not know where a giant jetliner was? Well, you know what, there is GPS in the airliner right there, but only for the captain. The GPS location doesn't get pinged back down to the ground for the most part.

The other thing is radar. Radar is a big thing and always has been a big thing for airlines. The primary radar, you see a blip. It doesn't what it is but it shows you a blip. The secondary radar waits for that ping, waits for a squawk from the airplane.

The secondary sends a signal and the plane sends it back and says I am Malaysia Airline systems, 370. I am 39,000 feet. I am traveling to the northeast and about 025 was the heading. I'm at 39,000 doing about 450 knots. That's all we know. This is how good we are right now. That goes back to the air traffic control.

We would love to see GPS kind of take over and that technology is there. It hasn't been implemented yet. Here's the rub I will leave that. This is the map of where we are talking about. The plane is trying to go all the way to here. There is so much fuel in the plane. It can go to these islands, but they are saying no place to land.

It could have gone to India or Asia. There is so much fuel still to go on this plane. Why doesn't the radar work that good. Even the local radar it won't go in a straight line. Columbus found out that the world was not flat. It doesn't even see it. The other plane doesn't even see it. It's blind because there is not enough radars out there.

The radar when you get out here is so much empty land and water. There is not enough to see where we could be going. This here is a black hole in some spots for where there is not enough coverage. We go to this ACAR system that seemed to have been turned off and operating on a primary channel somewhere. That's what the pings are coming off.

Everyone is looking at them especially those Rolls Royce ping who said the engineers were running. Did that happen or not. These may go if the information is still running. All that means is that this was turned on for four to five hours. There are so many questions, so much speculation. I hate it. I have been trying to figure this out for days -- Don.

LEMON: We all have, Chad, thank you. More on the breaking news right after this.

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