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Israeli Aviation Security on High Alert; Data Deleted from Simulator; Southern Search Area; Everyone under Scrutiny; Families Hold Out Hope of Survival

Aired March 19, 2014 - 09:30   ET

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

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The people who are working in aviation security, the thousands who check the planes, the thousands who man the different airports around the world, these -- all these people who come close to aircraft perhaps require a higher level of screening. Something he says Israel does already. He acknowledges it's a small country and it's relatively easy to do. But the pervasive feeling here is that there are issues -- potential security issues that are not being tackled adequately by airlines. And although they don't know what the problem with MH-370 was, this is highlighting some of those potential issues, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Nic Robertson reporting live this morning. Thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the search narrows and the mystery deepens. Why was data deleted from the pilot's flight simulator? CNN's Kate Bolduan is in Malaysia's capital.

Hi, Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, ANCHOR, CNN'S "NEW DAY": Carol, also ahead, maybe possibly a new more southern focus in this search for the plane. All the latest developments coming to you from Kuala Lumpur, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

It is day 12 in the search for Malaysia Airline Flight 370. And the newest lead may be every bit as baffling as those that have already unfolded up to this point. Investigators are trying to recover data that was deleted from the homemade flight simulator inside the pilot's home. CNN's Kate Bolduan is in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur with more on that.

Good morning.

BOLDUAN: I think baffling is a good word for it. Carol, good morning. They don't know what the data is, of course, because it was deleted. They don't know why it was deleted. They don't even know who deleted it. So they don't know if it was the pilot or not. They did know and they did announce in this press conference this morning that it was deleted from the flight simulator in early February. I think it was February 3rd. So we do have that information. But with every new detail that seems to come out it these press conferences, it does seem to raise more questions.

One thing we are learning is that according to U.S. officials and -- as well as Australian officials it seems, they are now focusing more, they believe, they think it's more likely that the plane went along that southern corridor and that is where they're trying to narrow the search right now. A lot of new developments, as always, with fight - the missing Flight 370. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN (voice-over): This morning, Malaysian officials coming forward with new information on search efforts on missing Malaysian Flight 370.

HISHAMMUDDIN BIN HUSSEIN, MALAYSIA'S ACTING MINISTER OF TRANSPORTATION: It's now a truly international effort. We are working on narrowing the search corridor by firstly gathering satellite information, secondly analyzing radar data, thirdly increasing air and surface assets, and fourthly increasing the number of technical experts.

BOLDUAN: New details about the plane's sharp turn west. A law enforcement official telling CNN, the move was almost certainly programmed by someone in the cockpit some 12 minutes before co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid told air traffic control, "all right, good night."

MICHAEL SCHMIDT, REPORTER, "NEW YORK TIMES": That just really just kind of reinforces this whole notion that someone was trying to take it in a different place and take it down.

BOLDUAN: Including examination of the flight simulator taken from the home of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.

But a new clue released by the Thai government on Tuesday suggests investigators could be on the right track. Thai military revealing it spotted an identified plane on their radar heading west toward the Straits of Malacca.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Now also we learned in the press conference today that everyone basically is under review still and they say that that is continuing the investigation in to every single person who was on that plane, that's in the cockpit, that's in the back of the plane, and that is passengers as well as the grounds crew. Anyone who had contact with the plane prior to takeoff.

According to the officials in the press conference also, Carol, they said that they've received information from most countries, almost every country involved, on the backgrounds of the passengers, all except for Ukraine and Russia, maybe not surprisingly, because of the tensions going on in those two countries right now. But, still, we get new details, but they're all pieces of a puzzle that do not fit together quite yet at least, Carol.

COSTELLO: Kate Bolduan reporting live this morning.

I want to bring in John Magaw (ph). He's the former head of the TSA, as well as a former director of the U.S. Secret Service.

Welcome, sir.

JOHN MAGAW, FORMER TSA ADMINISTRATOR: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Malaysian authorities said today all passengers, crew and ground staff are still being investigated. There is surveillance video that was taken at the airport. We have a bit of it. And I want to show it to our viewers now. You can see the pilots going through the scanners, but these pictures don't really tell us much. There's certainly more surveillance video available. What might that show us?

MAGAW: Well, Carol, what you're seeing there is not a good search at all. They could have a lot of different things. When you look at that -- the hand screening, I mean it isn't even close to being a professional screening. So that tells you that you need to look at other things as to how tight the security is.

COSTELLO: Well, let's go back to that screening. You said it wasn't a professional screening. I would suppose those pilots go through security every single day. Maybe they just got used to them going through. Is that possible?

MAGAW: Well, it is possible. I guess you would have to look at their pat-down screening of other people as they come through and then you could make a comparison as to how well they are doing it. My guess is they're screening the passengers more than that, I would think. They're not even doing the back side or the front side or the legs or any of that area. And, of course, that's the way we were prior to 9/11. But since 9/11, when you look at the screening, especially the screening they're showing there where they're patting a person down, what we might call patting a person down, that really was patting a person down. That was not a screening.

COSTELLO: Most of the passengers supposedly have been cleared by their countries of any terrorism connections, as have the pilot and the co- pilot. So where do you go from there?

MAGAW: Well, I'm not willing go anywhere from there. I just - everything that - if you remember back when we talked about looking at everything from the time the plane was on the ground and make sure you don't tunnel vision because of the passports, don't tunnel vision now too because something is erased off of his simulator. I mean you erase things all the time on your computer, your telephone and other things. Still you have to look at it.

But it's clear, it's just, as an investigator over 40 years, just it tells me that it's one of the two pilots or both. But it's very unusual it would be both. That would be extremely unusual. One either had to be incapacitated or locked out. And that's one of the concerns we had after 9/11. Don't lock those doors so that you can't get in from the outside if something happens. And it fell on deaf ears. I hope now that we'll re-look at that, along with putting cameras in the cockpit. Now the airline industry is going to jump all over the Pilot Association, but it really -

COSTELLO: No, I know, because -

MAGAW: It really needs to be considered.

COSTELLO: I was just going to ask you that, because you want to keep people out of the cockpit. You don't want people getting in. So that's why they lock the doors, obviously. But you're saying that's not a good idea.

MAGAW: It is a good idea, but you have to have an emergency way to get in there. You -- flying people all over the world, they're putting their hands in - are putting their trust in your hands. There's got to be more visibility. There's got to be more transparency.

Look how many times they've flown past the airport because they were both asleep. You know we - this -- and, again, this is going to raise terrible concerns. Watch what the airline and the pilots tell you. Listen to their explanation and it doesn't hold water. But it -- I think we've got to put cameras both in the cockpit and in the passenger thing. And they'll tell you that when you do that, well, they can be shut off. Well, not if you - not if you set them up right. As long as there's power, they can't shut them off. So as soon as they use power to bring up their instrument panel or bring up their computers, those cameras come on and then they can be reviewed at the end of each flight very quickly. If there's nothing there, then you start them over.

We have to do something along those lines, especially the pilot needs to see if there's somebody banging on the door or trying to get in or there's a fight on the airplane, they need to be able to see it. Look how many disturbances we have on these airplanes commercial in our country and the pilots, if they were able to see that, they would be able to make much better judgments of what they're doing up there.

COSTELLO: John Magaw, interesting stuff this morning. Thank you so much.

MAGAW: My pleasure.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, families grieving as days turn into weeks without any answers as to where that plane is. Well, you can see the grief is boiling over.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It is difficult to imagine just how difficult the past two weeks have been for families with loved ones on board Flight 370. Today one family had enough, broke into a press briefing room before being forcibly removed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please step back. Go back. Step back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Before being removed from that press briefing the family held up a sign claiming Malaysia Airlines was hiding the truth. Still everyone has to wait for answers. They have no other choice, sadly. One woman whose American partner was on board that flight told CNN's Anderson Cooper that rumors of a hijacking actually give her hope.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH BAJC, PARTNER WAS ON FLIGHT 370: Partly it makes me feel like I'm not crazy because that's the scenario that I hypothesized way back, the first day after it happened. So by Sunday already I was starting to think, you know, there's clearly no sign of crash. It was a night time activity. So satellite should have been able to pick up any kind of flame.

And so the only logical answer for a completely silent jet would be that it had been taken. And over the week, of course, all my friends were starting to think that perhaps I was just in denial and I was even starting to doubt myself a little bit and so when all of this new evidence started to come out it gave me confidence that I wasn't so crazy after all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: But the quality of the information coming out of those press briefings in Malaysia, well at least people confused and that sometimes can leave them with false hopes.

Daniel Rose is an aviation attorney he joins us now to talk about this. Good morning.

DANIEL ROSE, AVIATION ATTORNEY: Good morning Carol.

COSTELLO: So our reporters on the scene said there are already attorneys surrounding these families in Kuala Lumpur. My gut reaction is oh ambulance chasers. But is that right?

ROSE: Well I think your initial reaction is right, I think it's despicable. I mean if there are U.S. attorneys over there given the circumstances that we don't even know what's happened yet or where the plane is or what's happened to these loved ones, you just saw the video -- its heart wrenching. it's just disgusting and the very likely potentially against the ethical rules of some of the states that these lawyers practice in or even federal rules.

COSTELLO: Yes from my understanding they have to wait something like 45 days until they can actually talk with some of these families. And they are waiting. You know, on the other hand, these families feel so helpless. No one seems to be standing up for them so some of them may want an attorney.

ROSE: Well, that's fine. If they want an attorney they can certainly go out and reach out for one and I'm not saying that's a bad idea at all at this point. In fact, there are some, you know, interesting and complicated legal issues in a case where you probably have to bring a claim within two years but on the other hand there are some states that are going to say you have to wait two years if you don't have a definitive ruling on whether there was a death or not involved to bring a lawsuit or to have a verification of death or certification of death.

So that can pose some very complicated legal problems that you probably do need to get a lawyer involved with before, certainly well before the two year involvement. But to be at the scene, you know, within two weeks, is just inexcusable.

COSTELLO: Going back to what you said previously about the filing of lawsuits and you have to wait two years. You are talking as if you know let's say the plane is never found. That would pose that problem for the families because they would want Malaysian authorities to go on looking no matter what. Malaysian authorities might think differently. And in that case, what do you do?

ROSE: Right well you know the legal process a lot of times has to parallel the investigative process. So you need to find some information about what happened in order to know whether this is a claim based on mechanical issues or the airlines conduct. And they trigger very different laws and different time limits and different evidence in proof but clearly, you know, the families are interested, understandably, in knowing what happened, where their loved ones are. And the reality is they are going to be put up against some practical constraints, including who is going to pay for an ongoing search into -- you know, that could go into months, if not years.

So and that's not even getting to the ultimate concern, which is giving these families closure. I mean I can't imagine you know nothing worse than going through an aviation accident disaster like this. The only thing possibly worse is not knowing ultimately what happened.

COSTELLO: Daniel Rose, thanks for your insight. I appreciate it.

ROSE: My pleasure.

COSTELLO: We're back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: One of the more disturbing aspects of this mystery disappearance is the seemingly casual disregard of unknown planes in the sky. Example: Thailand's Air Force tracked Flight 370 until it disappeared from the radar and then it spotted an unknown plane going in the opposite direction. Did it check it out? No.

Malaysia air traffic control lost communication with Flight 370 and seemingly ignored it for hours. It begs the question, how often does this sort of thing happen?

With me now General Spider Marks, CNN's military analyst, and Scott Hamilton managing director of Aviation Consultancy for the Leeham Company. Welcome to both of you.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thanks, Carol.

SCOTT HAMILTON, MANAGING DIRECTOR, LEEHAM COMPANY, AVIATION CONSULTING: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Scott I kind of like how you put, you said maybe Thailand and Malaysia should do joint military exercises in incompetence. Should we all be worried?

HAMILTON: You know that's really just mind-boggling that these two governments their militaries didn't check this out particularly in Kuala Lumpur, where you have one of the tallest buildings in the world. It could be an easy target for a 9/11 type of attack.

COSTELLO: General Marks, does this surprised you that the Thai airport didn't bother to check out an unknown plane because I guess it wasn't technically in its air space because it was flying in the other direction?

MARKS: Carol it's very troubling. The United States has a very long and a very rich I will describe relationship with the Thai military. A number of its leaders have studied in the United States and they've gone through -- their country has gone through a number of challenges, internally, politically. And the military has always handled that extremely professionally.

So it's very surprising. We can't explain it. But it certainly demonstrates where there are incredible gaps in terms of our collective ability to try to fill those gaps in with some very known data points. We are trying to extract not only intentions here but also capabilities. And it's extremely difficult in this kind of dirt -- this black hole of information we have.

COSTELLO: Well Scott, Israel has tightened the security around its airports. It actually fears the plane could have been weaponized. Is that a rational fear?

HAMILTON: Well given the history of what goes on around Israel I certainly don't blame them for doing that.

One of the theories of course is that this plane was taken to some remote undisclosed location for future use. I kind of doubt that theory because of the logistics that you would have to have to refuel something as large as 777, I just have my doubt about that theory, though.

COSTELLO: Yes you have doubts about that theory, but General Marks there are doubts about that theory because nobody checked out these unknown planes in the sky or where they went?

MARKS: Correct, correct. It starts with what we know in this case. And we've gone down multiple cul-de-sacs in terms of you know these intellectual cul-de-sacs that bring us nowhere. A lot of conjecture and I understand all of that. Israel is a state -- I mean to your very point about Israel -- Israel is a state that is under constant stage of conflict strategic and tactical warning. And it's been that way for centuries. So I think frankly for Israel to, quote, "Increase its level of preparedness and readiness", is really an exercise in redundancy. They are already there as a matter of routine. So you go back to where did this aircraft end up? Should they be worried? I would say as a matter of routine they are worried but they also are in a constant state of preparedness.

COSTELLO: General Spider Marks, Scott Hamilton, thanks so much for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.

MARKS: Thanks Carol.

COSTELLO: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)