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Satellite Search Spots Many New Objects; First Lawsuit on Flight 370; Legal Steps Under Way for First Lawsuit; As Many as 176 Reported Missing

Aired March 26, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, thanks so much.

NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, new leads emerge.

HISHAMMUDDIN HUSSEIN, MALAYSIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: We were able to identify 122 potential objects.

COSTELLO: A large new debris field discovered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A considerable amount of debris has been sighted in the area where the flight was last recorded.

COSTELLO: More than 100 new objects, some as long as a plane's wing.

HUSSEIN: It's now imperative that we link the debris to MH-370.

COSTELLO: Special equipment from the United States. In Australia now and racing to the search sight.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's called a towed pinger locator. Its mission, find the plane's black box with the important data recordings before the pingers die out.

COSTELLO: All eyes zeroing in on an area the size of Denver, Colorado. Are we any closer to finding Flight 370?

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

Breaking news and a significant headline in the search for Flight 370. A very large possible debris field has been spotted. With clear weather today, more planes and ships are joining the search.

Here's what we know. This latest lead comes from French satellite images taken on Sunday. 122 objects spotted. Some are three feet in length. Some almost 75 feet, about the same size as the wing of a Boeing 777. Now they're scattered across an area the size of Denver, Colorado. Almost 1600 miles off the coast of Australia.

It is a new glimmer of hope on this 19th day of the search but the urgency only grows as the batteries on those flight recorders slowly die. Just over 10 days from now the pings designed to help search crews locate them will start fading away.

For more on where this new debris field was found, let's check in with Tom Foreman.

Take it away, Tom.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Yes, hi, Carol. This really is an exciting moment in this search if it pans out. Look at these images here and think about what's different about this compared to everything we've seen before. You're talking about not only more pieces but a degree of them being together, a continuity here that matters because they're together and because there are small pieces.

One of the concerns all along is that big pieces will tend to sink more, but all the small pieces fit the profile of things like seat cushions, things like that. So they'll have to see if that's what it is. But it also fits the profile of what happens when big planes like this hit the water. Look at the reassembled wreckage of the TWA flight from up in New York from years ago. And look at how many small pieces were involved along with some big pieces.

These are tragic images to look at but instructive to the searchers as they look for that debris field and try to get in close and take a look at it. Now though begins, as you were suggesting there, really a race against time because this area is just all -- the southern end or off the southern tip of the search area they've been looking for. That's where they found this debris.

So now they have to do some reverse engineering here. And this is how it works. Remember, what they've done when they had this image of the plane coming here, this idea that might have come here. They've essentially gridded off the search area. What they must do now is reverse engineer where this debris, if it turns out to be the right thing, where it was a couple of weeks ago because we have to look at drift patterns.

What they're looking for is a clue whether or not this plane had shifted to the left or to the right because if you look at the target zones for where it would have hit, some search areas are more likely than others. We made them red here. If it ran out of fuel early, if it depleted all of its area early, and it had no glide, then you can be talking about the main location for the bulk of things that would have sunk way up in the top end of that big search area.

But if they analyze drift patterns, if this is the right stuff, and I know there are a lot of ifs here, but that's really all the video has to work with right now. If it had a much longer fuel load, one that lasted longer, and a longer glide because a plane like this can glide for more than 200 miles, then you'd be looking under the water with those special pingers and things way down at the southern end of this load. And by the way, we've made this big so you can see it here, but this plane within this overall search area would be nothing but a spec. So, Carol, right now a race is on. First, to get to this debris and figure out if it's the right stuff. And secondly, to do the math to figure out if it is the right stuff, where did it come from because that's where the bulk of the plane would be under the water. And that search has to go on.

COSTELLO: Great. Tom Foreman, many thanks.

Now let's check in with Lieutenant Dave Levy. He's a spokesman for the U.S. Navy Seventh Fleet. Welcome, sir.

LT. DAVID LEVY, SPOKESMAN, U.S. NAVY: Thank you, Carol. Thanks for having me on.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. We appreciate it because we know how involved you are in this search. This new satellite image with 122 pieces of debris, have you seen it yet?

LEVY: Carol, no, I haven't seen it. I'm aware of the reports, but I have not seen the imagery as of yet.

COSTELLO: Well, tell me how that works. Do you guys get images -- satellite images and then look for something in the water that matches it?

LEVY: Well, what it is, is the air crews from, for example, our P.A., we're working with Australian authorities that have the lead for this will be assigned a search area. So based on whatever information the Australian authorities have that are leading the search, they will assign, for example, our unit where to go and search.

COSTELLO: But are you looking -- like let's say tomorrow you get images, these new satellite images of this debris field, will not you in particular because you may be searching in a different part of the ocean for all I know, but do you search for patterns that are depicted in these satellite images?

LEVY: Well, we get assigned a grid. So it will be like a grid system that's laid out. And you know this is a true multi-national effort. You know, we've got aircraft from China, Japan, South Korea, and everybody's assigned certain areas so depending on what area we're assigned, we'll sign -- do our little search pattern in the search box that we have and report back if, in fact, we see anything.

COSTELLO: So we know two American planes up in the air, a P-8 and also the Navy P-3. They've covered an amazing area, 220,000 nautical square miles. How much more ground do you have to cover?

LEVY: Well, it depends on where we get assigned for the -- with the air tasking order from the Australians who are leading the search. It's just -- it's just where we get assigned and if the boxes move and the boxes shift, we just take the sector that we're given and we conduct our search pattern accordingly. You know, it's a long flight. It's a 10-hour flight from takeoff to landing and, you know, we make our way out there, we do the search, and hopefully we find something and report it and make our way back.

COSTELLO: Lieutenant David Levy, thank you so much.

John Goglia is the former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, he joins me now.

Welcome.

JOHN GOGLIA, FORMER NTSB MEMBER: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning, Let's talk about these new satellite images a bit more. They show 122 potential objects in one area. Some are bright and they look like solid objects. How hopeful should we be?

GOGLIA: Well, there is a lot of debris in the ocean. So you always have to look at it with a little bit of caution, but it is encouraging that they have so many pieces concentrated in a small area so that if -- I think all of us are hopeful that this is debris from the airplane.

COSTELLO: I hope so. Would wreckage from the plane float together even after the storms after so mean days for example. These images were taken on March 23rd.

GOGLIA: Sometimes they will stay together and, actually, we have no guarantee that they've been floating around that long. The airplane may have broken up and these objects may still be in the airplane and the storm may have actually broken them loose so, you know, it's -- it's yet to be seen exactly why they ended up where they are but let's hope it is pieces from the airplane.

COSTELLO: Over the past several days we've reported similar stories, that satellite images showed some debris and everybody was hopeful and then nothing was found. How optimistic are you that one day soon someone will manage to spot something in the ocean and be able to retrieve it?

GOGLIA: Well, if we are unsuccessful with this effort and we don't locate the boxes, you know, we will get reports months, even years later when people, fisher men are out there and they pull up their nets and there are pieces in their nets and that will be a clue.

So it's the highlighting of the area and it's keeping the item fresh in everybody's mind in the area, the local people in the area that may use those waters that can help us in the future.

COSTELLO: There is an Australian ship that will soon be on the way to that general area where these satellite images are picking up this debris. That ship will be equipped with a ping detection.

Do you think it will get there in time?

GOGLIA: Well, you know what, 30 days is what the law says that the pinger has to continue to work. It could be 33, it could be 35 days, so we could get lucky with a little cushion to help us have a bigger window to search for this recorders, but we'll have to wait and see.

COSTELLO: John Goglia, many thanks.

GOGLIA: Thank you for having me.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, as the search for Flight 370 heats up in the Indian Ocean, the search for information is just getting started in the American court room because of one passenger's family. We'll tell you about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The search for Flight 370 is nearing the end of its 19th day. And with no sign of the plane or its passengers, the first legal steps are now underway toward a lawsuit against the airline and the plane's manufacturer. It comes on behalf of the father of one of those passengers. Januari Siregar, his son Furman, that's him right there, he's a young man, he's 24 years old. He worked for an American oil company in China. He was a passenger aboard Flight 370.

Mr. Siregar, his father, has hired a Chicago-based attorney. He wants an Illinois judge to force Malaysian Airlines and Boeing to provide information about the plane's batteries, fire and oxygen systems and fuselage records.

Jim Clancy is in Kuala Lumpur with more.

Good morning.

JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol.

You know, this is the first case like this that we have seen. Malaysian authorities, Malaysian airlines, no comment about this thus far. Many would regard it as premature, but, remember, it's these kinds of cases often that can turn up evidence later on if some parts of the debris, the fuselage is recovered.

This is what we're talking about. After all, these are the first steps being taken and really this is on behalf of the family of a passenger on board that flight. They want evidence of corrosion and fractures in the fuselage. Now, that, of course, could lead to depressurization. That could cause the plane to crash.

They also want details on the plane's construction. They want to know about the batteries used and as you noted, fire and oxygen systems on board the 777. They also want to identify the trainers -- the crew trainers and the evaluators of pilots on Malaysian Airlines. Not clear how that's going to work out.

In addition to that, they want to ensure that they get some U.S. investigators in there. They don't want to depend on Malaysian investigators or the investigators of any other country to get in here. It's unclear to me, I'm not an expert on international law, how that will work.

Finally, they note that they want access to the raw evidence should it be forthcoming from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute that has joined the search. It would be helping to track, to trace some of the debris in the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean in all of this.

So, significant. We're seeing the first legal action. What will be the reaction here? Well, some people will see it as a positive step that's going to force the airlines and Boeing to open up.

Really, Boeing hasn't said anything publicly on this case. That's frustrated some people. Boeing says, well, there may be a lawsuit later on. We're not required to make any comment.

But that has frustrated some people as they have tried to discover what it might have been that brought down this plane if, indeed, that is what happened -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, these kinds of lawsuits have been filed in previous catastrophes. In essence what this lawsuit seeks to do is open up an independent investigation, right?

CLANCY: Exactly. It wants to open up an independent investigation, but it will be viewed differently by others who say this does nothing to help us locate the plane. This is only a group of lawyers in Chicago that have located the money, the source of the money, Boeing, and they are suing them.

But as you just said, it does open up the investigation. It would put U.S. eyeballs on the ground.

Now, the FBI is already here. The FAA is already here. The NTSB is already here, and all of them are said to be sharing data learning from one another with the Malaysian authorities, Carol.

COSTELLO: That's true, but we don't know how much information Malaysian authorities are handing over to U.S. investigators and, of course, part of this lawsuit they want all of that information so they can conduct an investigation independent of Malaysian authorities. But we're going to get much more into this in the 10:00 a.m. Eastern hour of NEWSROOM.

Jim Clancy, reporting live for us this morning -- thank you.

More on Flight 370 in just a minute. But, first, dramatic helicopter rescue in Washington. Crews lift a 4-year-old boy to safety after he was trapped by Saturday's devastating mudslide.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We'll have more on the investigation with Flight 370 in just a minute, but first incredible video to show you. This is just coming in to us. It's a harrowing scene as rescuers pull a 4-year-old boy out of the mud from Saturday's landslide in Washington. Look at that. This little boy was stuck in -- he was stuck in the mud. It was past his knees. You can see his rescue workers pull this little guy out. The mud gripped him so tightly his pants came off when he was finally freed.

The little boy's mother came to get him after he was taken to the hospital and unfortunately his father and three siblings are among those still missing.

Now, making this rescue effort so difficult -- the sheer amount of mud and debris that came crashing down. The image on the left before the landslide, and on the right, after. The entire hillside now gone taking an entire town with it. And for the families hoping for news of their missing loved ones, the wait is devastating.

George Howell has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICHOLE WEBB RIVERA: If you've seen the maps and you've seen the extent of the devastation and the consistency of the mud, I can tell you with great soundness they're not going to find my parents, or daughter or her fiancee. I really feel that they're gone.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's almost like planning a funeral for loved ones without any knowledge that they're gone. Nichole Webb-Rivera is beyond the hope that her parents Tom and Marcy Southerly (ph), along with her daughter Delaney and fiance Alan are still alive.

WEBB-RIVERA: It might be weeks or ever if they find our people so today is the first day that we're getting there. We're going to go and just be with our people and grieve together.

HOWELL: Their only focus now is to come together as a family. For Nichole, that means getting as close to her parents and her daughter as possible, their home undoubtedly demolished in the disaster zone.

So they allowed us to follow them to the place where Nichole grew up in Darrington arriving at a community shelter. This family finds some comfort.

WEBB-RIVERA: It's fabulous to be with people from the community and see how they're supporting each other, to hold people that knew my daughter. She was a cheerleader at Darrington High School in 2010. It's just good. It's healing.

HOWELL: They came here to see these volunteers offering help to other families who have been affected and to ask simple but now complicated questions. Nicole's aunt wants to know how to close her brother's affairs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do I do now? What if they don't recover my brother's body? What do I do?

HOWELL: Amongst all the uncertainty, the decisions and wondering, they reflect on a bit of solace.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It would be great seeing his body, but I understand if we can't. If we can't, they're in the right spot. They actually had plans to have a family funeral plot on their place. My brother and sister love that place so if they had to go and stay, that's where they'd be.

HOWELL: George Howell, CNN, Darrington, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: A heart-stopping rescue by Houston firefighters caught on video. A construction worker was left on the upper balcony of a burning apartment complex. Take a look at this. You can see him there dangling. He jumped to the balcony below. He was trying to escape the flames as firefighters raced to get a ladder close enough to get him down. Nervous onlookers recorded it all from another building.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hell, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, thank Jesus. Thank you, God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: I think we all echo that. The man was rescued with seconds to spare. Officials believe the fire was accidentally started by welders working on the roof and moments after that rescue took place you can see the entire building, the top half of it collapses. Unbelievable.

The Secret Service once again at the center of controversy this morning. Three agents have been sent home after one of them actually passed out drunk in an Amsterdam hotel following a night of drinking. They were part of the group preparing for President Obama's visit there this week. An agency spokesman tells CNN an investigation is underway.

We're learning about their actions on the same day the president heads to Belgium, actually he's there, where officials say a suspicious package found near a bus stop turned out to be a forgotten suitcase. It was not on the president's route.

In the meantime, President Obama began his day with a replaying at a memorial honoring Americans who died liberating Belgium in World War I. The president also expected to make remarks after a summit with European Union leaders this morning. CNN will bring you his comments live when they happen.

Still to come on the NEWSROOM: new images and new hope in the search for Malaysian Flight 370. CNN's Andrew Stevens following the latest developments.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol. Two promising leads both from the satellite and from spotter planes. The weather is holding up as well. We've got the latest in just a moment.

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