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Flight 370 Relatives Demand Truth About Crash; Gale-Force Winds, High Waves Halt Search; How Would A Water Landing Have Happened?; 14 Dead, 178 Unaccounted For After Landslide

Aired March 25, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

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WILLIAM STEVENS, PRESIDENT, EXXON USA: We are all extremely disappointed and outraged that an officer in such a critical position would have jeopardized his ship, crew, and the environment.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Exxon fired him by telegram.

(on camera): If you could rewrite history, would you have had a drink that day?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only thing I would have changed, if I could rewrite the whole script, I wouldn't have left the bridge. That's what I should be faulted for and nothing else.

PHILLIPS: Not the drinking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It had nothing to do with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Just a quick question. We are going to have to get to the next hour. Was he drunk that night?

PHILLIPS: He says absolutely not. The jury made the decision. I hope everybody will tune in for the full hour because there is so much more to this story, Carol, and so many other things that went wrong.

COSTELLO: Fascinating, Kyra Phillips, thanks so much. So be sure to tune in 10:00 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday night. Am I right?

PHILLIPS: It's tonight.

COSTELLO: Tonight, 10 p.m. Eastern. Thanks, Kyra.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

Happening now in the NEWSROOM, breaking new developments in the search for Flight 370.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search and rescue operation in the northern corridor has been called off.

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COSTELLO: To the south, gale force winds, large waves, heavy rains shutting down operations.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not searching for a needle in a haystack. We are still trying to define where the haystack is.

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COSTELLO: Another kind of storm taking over Beijing this morning. The Malaysian embassy overrun.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are holding up signs saying that they want their sons and their daughters back.

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COSTELLO: Frustrated and furious over the country's handling of the accident. They call for the airlines CEO to step down. As families this morning demand proof, evidence of the crash. Special edition of NEWSROOM starts now.

Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me this morning. Grief and anger boil over in China's capital. Family members march on Malaysia's embassy in Beijing, the intended destination of Flight 370. They are demanding answers on the search. They are challenging Malaysia's announcement that the plane crashed killing all on board. Outraged relatives ask how can all hope be lost when not a single piece of debris has been found?

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think that they could handle thus from the beginning they just hide everything and I don't think that this kind of government, a liar and even a murderer, can solve anything. I don't believe they can solve anything.

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COSTELLO: CNN's Saima Mohsin is in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur with more. Good morning.

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, you know, we've seen a mixture of responses here in Kuala Lumpur and, of course, Beijing. A mixture here of denial, unable to accept. That old adage, as you know, you have to see it to believe it. They want proof that they have really lost their loved ones. They want to see proof that the plane has crashed and then others have been angry about Malaysian authorities handling of this. A text message sent out by Malaysia Airlines to notify more than 1,000 family members and loved ones. All passengers on board as they tried to explain today in a press conference here in Kuala Lumpur, that they were simply trying to get to everyone before the rest of the world heard the news that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-370 had likely ended its journey in the Southern Indian Ocean.

That is, of course, how the prime minister put it in his statement late last night. It is now 24 hours on here in Kuala Lumpur. He didn't say that the plane had crashed. He didn't say that everybody on board had died. He used different words. Today in parliament, he said, we shared that information as soon as we got it. We didn't want to be seen as hiding anything even though we didn't don't have debris.

They held a minute silence today in parliament too, Carol. In a press conference held by Malaysia Airlines, great sadness and sorrow and anger reflected there. They called to see if the CEO of Malaysia Airlines would resign. This is what he had to say, Carol.

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AHMAD JAUHARI YAHYA, MALAYSIA AIRLINES CEO: Will I resign? It's a personal basically decision. We'll take it later.

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MOHSIN: You know, there have been at pains to express that they share the nation and the family members' sadness. Right now, their main concern is to find that debris of Flight MH-370, to know exactly what happened on board means finding the flight data recorder.

That's why we have the United States high-tech equipment being shipped in right now heading for Pearce Base to join a ship and be taken out into the ocean, Carol, to hear in the depth of the sea up to 7,000 meters deep in places and to listen for that flight data recorder. So that the family members might get some answers to so many of their unanswered questions. As the CEO ended his speech today, he said, we don't know how. We don't know why. All we can do right now is pray -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Saima Mohsin, reporting live from Kuala Lumpur.

I want to talk more now about these families and where they go from here in their search for answers. Joining me now is Daniel Rose. He is an aviation and maritime attorney. Daniel, welcome back.

DANIEL ROSE, AVIATION AND MARITIME ATTORNEY: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Some of these families insist Malaysia continues to hide information from them. Is there any way to force the government's hand if, indeed, that is true?

ROSE: I really don't think so. You know, the families in Malaysia, unfortunately comparable to families in the U.S., really don't have a say in the investigation. I think that's a big pet peeve of mine, anyway, that there is a lack of transparency and there is a lack of family involvement in the investigation process. So unfortunately, it is even a more difficult situation in Malaysia for those families. They are really dealing with this for the first time around.

At least here in the U.S., we have the family assistance act that provides some kind of structure and responsibility for the airline and the investigators in how to conduct and how to keep the families informed. But they really don't have anything comparable there in Malaysia.

COSTELLO: I think the Malaysian authorities were not transparent at all when this plane initially disappeared. They are trying to be transparent now. But is there any way for the families really to believe them since they got off to such a poor start?

ROSE: Yes, you know, they are kind of damned if they do and damned if they don't. As you said, they have really come out of the block in an unprofessional manner. Understandably, to some extent, because this is their first time around at this. We have had a lot of experience in how to deal with it and how to get the information out. You don't break the ultimate news to the family members via text. It is just unconscionable. It is really tragic for these families.

COSTELLO: The other part of this that is really tragic, these families want proof, some kind of debris, hard evidence that this plane has actually crashed. It is possible they will never get that. What then?

ROSE: It is possible. I think it is more likely than not that eventually they will get that. It is understandable that that's what they want and that's what they need. It's just human nature. It is going to take time, but I think eventually they will get it. If they don't, it is not an unprecedented situation. It just leaves an open wound for a long time, if not forever. It is something that's very difficult to deal with psychologically, of course. It creates some legal issues to the extent they need to go down that road in the future.

COSTELLO: Well, they are calling for the resignation of Malaysia Airlines CEO. Maybe he will resign. Maybe he won't. Isn't it difficult to determine whether the airline is, indeed, responsible for this, when they can't find any debris or figure out what went wrong?

ROSE: No, not really. The way the law deals with this issue is that there is an international treaty in place that governs this flight. The families have certain rights based on that treaty. The airline is presumed to be responsible. If they are a for profit carrier, an airline, that doesn't get you from point "a" to "b," then the presumption is that something went wrong. Legally, it is their burden to prove that they did everything right. There will be a subset of particular families that may have the right to exercise their rights under this treaty in the U.S.

But it is kind of a narrow group, residents of the U.S., people that bought their tickets here, which probably aren't too many. People that work here that aren't U.S. Residents that were coming back to the U.S. so it will be a small group of passenger families that will actually have the right to avail themselves of our courts.

COSTELLO: Daniel Rose, thanks for your insight as usual. Thanks so much.

ROSE: My pleasure, Carol.

COSTELLO: It is day 18 of the search. More critical time is slipping away. In Perth, Australia, search planes never left the ground today because of a storm at sea. In the meantime, officials are narrowing the search area, eliminating the northern arc and focusing instead on an area surrounding the last data transmissions from that jetliner. Adding to the urgency the dying batteries of those flight recorders. Just over 11 days from now, the pings designed to help search crews locate them will slowly start fading away. CNN's Andrew Stevens has more for you from Perth.

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ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Expectations were high when Australian defense chief, David Johnston, called an unscheduled press conference at Pierce Air Force Base Tuesday. But as so often in this perplexing mystery, expectations are built up only to be knocked down again. The best the defense minister has was his confidence that they were looking in the right area.

DAVID JOHNSTON, AUSTRALIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: I am confident because that's the best we have at this point in time.

STEVENS: He left it to his deputy armed forces chief to announce the bad news.

VICE CHIEF MARK BINSKIN, AUSTRALIAN DEFENSE FORCE: We are not searching for a needle in the haystack, but still trying to find out where the haystack is.

STEVENS: The key to finding the haystack, a piece of breakage that confirms beyond doubt that 370 came down somewhere in the vast southern ocean. Right now, though, the search is stalled. This empty search aircraft testament to the strength of the storm, 2.5 kilometers away.

JOHNSTON: They have had to deploy 120 kilometers to the south to avoid for those of you that understand sea, horrendous weather conditions.

STEVENS: Success was said to be close to an object seen by an Australian Air Force flight on Monday, but close in these far southern latitudes is a relative term.

JOHNSTON: It is very easy to speculate about being close. Close in this part of the world could be several hundred kilometers.

STEVENS: The search is likely to resume Wednesday and this uncharacteristically quiet air base just outside the state capital is expected to be back at full operational strength.

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STEVENS: The multinational air force operating here, Carol, continues to grow. The Koreans are the latest country. Six countries sending airplanes down to Western Australia to assist in this search. We have now got vessels converging on the area as well, which is crucial for that eyes on, that identity of any wreckage. They are telling us, don't get your hopes up. This still could be quite a long process to find and identify any debris.

COSTELLO: Andrew Stevens reporting live from Perth, Australia, this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, what if Flight 370's pilots had attempted a water landing. Martin Savidge is in that 777 flight simulator to tell us more about that. Hi, Martin. Hi, Mitchell.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Yes, we are working on that right now to give you an idea of just what would it take to make a jumbo jet like this land in the water. We'll have some answers in a moment.

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COSTELLO: Stormy weather ended search operations for Flight 370 today. When the search does resume tomorrow, searchers face another challenge. They don't know what kind of wreckage to look for because they can't determine exactly how that plane crashed.

Let's bring in CNN's Martin Savidge and pilot, Mitchell Casado. You know, a lot of people want to believe that this plane made a water landing. You were going to take us through that. But first of all, tell us how plausible that is.

SAVIDGE: Well, I mean, there is some plausibility to it. Of course, we have to understand, this plane flew a long distance on, we think, autopilot and then would have run out of fuel. But as we talked about before, even as this plane ran out of fuel, it doesn't just sort of pitch over and suddenly nose dive into the water. The aircraft, thanks to the great engineering of Boeing, is designed to fly level even without the engines operating. It is going to descend naturally. It is still going to try to fly straight, level, and slow as it descends.

The reason you are hearing the alarms right now is the fact that what we are showing you hear is that we made an approach toward the water. Mitchell, we are 240 feet above the water. Our speed is about 235 miles an hour. That would be disastrous if we touched down. This is the kind of approach. You are coming in low over the water and tell us, Mitchell, what do you want to do if you are thinking of setting this in the water?

MITCHELL CASADO, PILOT TRAINER: You want to be sure that your airplane is level. You want to touch nose high. According to the books, you want to land on the crest of any waves. It depends. This is just a rough, general description. The sea state, the winds, this is a very big part. We don't know that. SAVIDGE: It does. Clearly, if it is a flat call motion, that's terrific. If you are dealing with 18-foot waves, that is a real problem. If you are going down, you have no choice. The weather is what the weather is. We should point out the miracles on the Hudson, the text book example. But that was an airbus --

CASADO: Eight 320.

SAVIDGE: Which is a much smaller plane. This is a jumbo jet compared to that. You are going to try and set it down close to stall speed.

CASADO: Yes, the minimum control speed that you can. Absolutely.

SAVIDGE: And as you set it down, it is going to have a very jarring impact. It is going to be the same as hitting concrete. What you want to make sure is that you don't catch a wing tip. You don't have an engine that grabs it. Miracle on the Hudson is the perfect example. The hijacked Ethiopian Flight 961 is what you don't want to do. That one caught a wing, cart wheeled and there whether fatalities. It is possible to set it down. All of this, Carol, is assuming there was somebody conscious in the cockpit to do that and we don't know.

COSTELLO: No, we don't. Martin Savidge, Mitchell Casado, thanks as usual.

Let's turn to the challenges in recovering parts of that plane especially the flight recorders. Christine Dennison is an ocean explorer and runs a company that leads expeditions. Welcome.

CHRISTINE DENNISON, OCEAN EXPLORER AND EXPEDITION LOGISTICS EXPERT: Hi. Good morning, Carol. Thank you for having me.

COSTELLO: So I remember yesterday morning. It seems such a long time ago. They had spotted debris from the air. They were very excited. They send a ship out that way. They thought it would recover that wreckage or that debris today. Of course, that didn't happen because stormy weather moved in. How difficult will it be for them to determine where that debris went?

DENNISON: Well, unfortunately, they are battling the elements. What we do know is that we have a deep ocean location for wreckage. They haven't released exactly the area that they are looking for, but we do know that this particular area where the South Indian Ocean is very deep. In areas, it goes down to 25,000, 26,000 feet depth, which is extraordinary. You also have the terrain. It's going to be mountainous, ridges, valleys. We are not sure exactly where they are going to find this debris.

They are at the moment still doing the visuals. They have deployed or they will be deploying incredible resources to the site. No matter what you have available to you, you really can't fight Mother Nature. That is the situation they are in at the moment.

COSTELLO: At what point do search and recovery crews say it is not worth looking for debris floating on the surface of the water any longer? Let's just concentrate our efforts under water.

DENNISON: I don't believe they will do that, having worked on teams like this. You still have to make visual contact. They know they have seen it. They have been trying to track it. They have been battling weather. They are still going to go out and try and make a visual identification of the debris they have spotted. Once they do that, they will identify it and then they will map out a grid pattern.

They will start searching in a particular area where they will be able to deploy this pinger locator, the TPL-25, which can reach a maximum depth of 25,000 feet. Hopefully, when everything does come together, and I personally believe it will. They will be able to deploy the hydrophone and start listening with acoustics for this pinger within the next 11 days, as we're counting down.

COSTELLO: So you're optimistic because they are able to narrow this search area down. It is still the size of Alaska, right? I'm not even talking about the depth of the ocean. So perhaps they will be able to narrow it further. Is that possible?

DENNISON: I believe we are looking at really the most expert teams in the world that do this. They do this professionally. They are a very tight team. They work like clockwork. It is a very important thing to have a group of resources that are coming together that are working around the clock on everything. I think what we've been hearing, they are prepared to do that. I really believe that we have the technology and we certainly have the resources available to us at this point that they will continue and be successful, certainly in identifying the debris and moving further with this.

COSTELLO: I hope so. Christine Dennison, many thanks to you.

DENNISON: Thank you very much.

We'll have more on missing Flight 370. But first, not a stick left standing. That's how the governor of Washington described the aftermath of that deadly landslide. The latest for you on the desperate search for survivors next.

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COSTELLO: Search crews in Washington State are desperately trying to find survivors after the deadly landslide northeast of Seattle. Officials have now confirmed at least 14 people died, 176 are still missing. One of the most powerful images, rescue team saving this 4- year-old boy. There he is. Pulling him out of the debris. This one, searchers scouring debris for any sign of life. Some piles of rubble are more than 30 feet high. Adding to the devastation, roads completely devoured by muds, trees, and piles of land. Officials are warning more landslides are possible.

CNN's Ana Cabrera live in Arlington, Washington with more. Good morning.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The sun really just came up here. The rain is now starting to fall. As you just described it, it is still a very dangerous situation that rescuers are having to deal with. Just a few miles up the road where this landslide took place, we are talking of mud that's several feet deep and debris that is so vast. They are not letting us anywhere close to it. For those loved ones who have people who are missing, it's a tough situation as they anxiously await answers.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: None of us feel like he's gone.

CABRERA: Brenda Neal's 52-year-old husband, Steven, is among those still missing after a massive landslide on Saturday in Snohomish County. This hill gave way swallowing a square mile of land and everything in its path.

BRENDA NEAL, STEVEN NEAL'S WIFE: I've been at the fire hall at midnight looking for anything. I've seen the rescuers covering in mud and the despair on their faces is very evident, that they want to help.

CABRERA: Steven, a local plumber, was on a service call when the landslide hit. His daughter, Sara, describes him as a survivor.

SARA NEAL, STEVEN NEAL'S DAUGHTER: I think if anyone had a chance it would be him. I think if he was there with other people, he would keep them alive too.

CABRERA: Officials say the outlook is grim.

FIRE CHIEF TRAVIS HOTS, SNOHOMISH COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: I'm very disappointed to tell you that we did not find any sign of any survivors.

CABRERA: But volunteers taking tremendous risk combing through the mud and rubble aren't giving up hope.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just heard this morning that another dog got rescued. If we're still finding dogs alive, why can't we be finding people?

CABRERA: Three days ago, first responders saved this 4-year-old boy taking this photo moments after pulling him from the mud.

ROBIN YOUNGBLOOD, SURVIVED LANDSLIDE: So they brought him to us in the ambulance. I took all his clothes off, because he was freezing, wrapped him up and held him and told him I was a grandma and couldn't find the rest of his family.

CABRERA: Cory Kuntz lost his aunt and his home to the slurry, but his uncle survived.

COREY KUNTZ, LOST AUNT IN LANDSLIDE: They heard him pounding on that roof.