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The Search for Flight 370; Rescuers Search for Washington Mudslide Victims

Aired March 26, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Now this.

And we roll on, top of the hour. I am Brooke Baldwin.

And take a look at this picture. This is the much-discussed picture today, possibly the best lead we have had so far, new satellite pictures showing a possible debris field in the Southern Indian Ocean. Malaysia says some of the objects appear to be quite large, like perhaps the size of a wing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DATUK SERI HISHAMMUDDIN HUSSEIN, MALAYSIAN TRANSPORT MINISTER: We are able to identify 122 potential objects. Some objects were a meter in length. Others were as much as 23 meters in length. Some of the objects appear to be bright, possibly indicating solid material.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: But I want you to look at what they have to go through in finding these pieces, possible plane debris, violent, chaotic current conditions, this debris field being called a moving target. You have rough seas changing the location of the debris search zone each and every day.

While that search narrows, we still don't know why the plane may have ended up in this remote part of the world, but we have just learned this coming straight from the FBI here, that FBI analysis of the pilot's hard drives, including deleted files from the pilot's flight simulator, should be completed soon. We have a time frame, in the next couple of days. That's from the FBI.

Meantime, a new mysterious ping could be the key to knowing more. This is the last one in a series of pings tracking the plane down the southern corridor. But this one was different. This is why this is significant here, because it wasn't a full ping. It was a partial ping, which some aviation experts say could be triggered by a catastrophic event like the plane hitting the water.

Let's talk more about this debris field in the Indian Ocean.

Let's go straight to Perth, Australia, to Will Ripley, who has been working the story for us for days and days.

Will Ripley here, so, great, they see the satellite imagery. Tell me when they get the planes and the boats out there to find this stuff.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the planes are taking off about three hours from now, Brooke. And you can bet they're going to be heading towards the area they think that the debris field, possible debris field may be located in.

But here is the challenge. Those satellite pictures are three days old, and they were taken when at you mentioned the seas were very rough, huge waves, gale-force winds. This debris has moved since then. And so while pilots are going to have sort of an idea where to look, it is a moving target, as you mentioned, location changing every single day. The satellite imagery is not precise as well. You have kind of a window of area that you need to look through. There are definitely a lot of factors.

But we have 12 different planes from six countries. They divided up the search area into two sectors, the east and west. They fly about four hours out, and they search with all available daylight. These planes can stay up in the air 10 to 12 hours. We also have five ships in this area, and you mentioned those two undersea detection devices which haven't been deployed yet. But the minute they get an indication they might be closer to possible wreckage, they're going to be out there searching as well.

BALDWIN: We talked about the search, but also the new nugget today that we got from the head of the FBI today saying we now know in a couple days, they're going to be looking at the hard drives, not just from the pilot but the co-pilot. We have talked about the pilot's at- home flight simulator. But are they looking at other hard drives as well?

RIPLEY: Absolutely. The FBI had teams working around the clock since these hard drives were seized.

What they're looking for is any evidence of pilot intent. After all the interviews that they conducted, really, they have uncovered nothing about any reason why a pilot would deliberately steer a plane this direction, this remote southern part of the Indian Ocean. What the FBI is doing, they're scanning through these hard drives, they're looking for data that was deleted, and specifically data that may have been scrubbed, because obviously if someone scrubs something from their hard drive, it's because they're trying to take it away and they're trying to hide it.

The big question, if that did happen, what was trying to be hidden and why?

BALDWIN: OK. FBI gets answers in a couple days. Will Ripley in Perth, where it's 3:00 in the morning where you are, thank you, sir, very much.

But back to this picture, back to the best possible lead so far, the 122 possible objects. They may have drifted, might have sunk since the satellite images were captured, as Will mentioned, on Sunday, so search crews are racing against time, a couple of hours, planes heading out there. Here is the thing.

Even if the wreckage turns up, a complete investigation may take weeks, may take months.

Joining me now to discuss, retired pilot Kit Darby and air safety accident investigator Shawn Pruchnicki.

Gentlemen, welcome.

Captain, since I have you here in the studio, I'm just begin with you. I know you're not an oceanographer. But when we see this picture, I woke up this morning, was watching our morning show, and heard our experts saying, whoa, because this is the first time we're seeing not just one piece or another piece, but what appears to be a field, no?

KIT DARBY, RETIRED COMMERCIAL PILOT: It does look like a debris field. It is a large airplane, you would expect a lot of debris.

It does look like certainly far better than one or two pieces we have had before. Having said that, though, there's a lot of debris in this area and the currents can collect debris, it could be a collection of someone else's debris from shipping and so forth, may not be ours. I am going to be a lot happier when we have a piece in our hands and can identify it with the aircraft.

BALDWIN: Everybody is waiting, and it is a remote part of the world, I know everyone is wondering why it takes so long, but it just takes that long to get there.

Sean, the obvious question -- we can't jump to the conclusion this is pieces of the plane or not, but I know once you really can examine the debris, you can really figure out if this is the plane, how it hit the water, sort of backtracking that way. Can you just walk me through as an accident investigator how one would approach even examining debris?

SHAWN PRUCHNICKI, ACCIDENT INVESTIGATOR: Well, there's, you know, items on the macro scale or that large scale that we would be looking at, but also things on the micro scale.

So they would be looking at how the metal was deformed, what part of the airplane, the way it is bent, the angles, and then also for some of the items, they're going to want to look at some of the smaller cracks and some of the smaller lesions and so forth that that might be telling also. The bottom line is you have to get wreckage in your hand and then decide what level you feel like or they feel like they're going to need to look at it.

BALDWIN: Let's say -- we know this isn't going to happen, but for the sake of conversation, they go out there and they find the debris, and have this in their hand tomorrow. So that's three weeks it has been sitting and floating, you know, with marine life and seawater. Would that damage it at all?

PRUCHNICKI: Well, absolutely. There certainly will be some damage. And it depends what type of metal we're talking about, steel vs. aluminum vs. some of the plastic material that might be out there. But one of the things they're going to be looking at and one of the things that's a significant part of this investigation that needs to be ruled out eventually is looking for fire and soot and other evidence of a pre-impact fire very well still may be on the wreckage, so it doesn't rule out the ability to see those type of evidence or clue.

BALDWIN: Kit Darby, we know they're looking ultimately -- we're talking about the debris field, that they want to trace it back to the plane to finally find the black box to figure out what exactly happened.

Is it possible if you're flying a plane, though, and you're in the cockpit, and I'm not saying -- we don't know if anything nefarious happened, but could you mess with the black box or is it perfectly intact safe, no one can...

(CROSSTALK)

DARBY: No, there's no access from the cockpit. At the most, a circuit breaker which could turn it off, but it is way in the back of the plane, it is back there for a reason, to protect it from crash impact forces.

BALDWIN: In the tail section.

DARBY: Yes, so it is going to be attached to -- some people worry about it sinking to the bottom and being lost in the ooze or attenuating its signal. It is going to typically be attached to a large piece of airplane which would even in the gooiest bottom sit on the top of it at least for awhile and give us a fair chance to find it.

BALDWIN: What about the cockpit voice recorder?

DARBY: Same location, same rules.

BALDWIN: OK. OK. What about the other nugget today, we're learning about the partial handshake, the ping, ping, ping, partial ping -- why is that significant?

DARBY: Well, still in the air, although I think the significance has to be moderated by the fact the airplane is going 560 miles an hour. If it narrows it down to an hour, you really have not narrowed it down to a very tight area.

If it is the ping that occurs at impact, now we are getting closer to a smaller area. But if it is just within an hour or an half-hour on either side, the airplane still covers a tremendous distance.

BALDWIN: Shawn, you're looking at all of this, you know accidents. What's the one piece of the puzzle you really want answered?

PRUCHNICKI: I want to look at how the airplane hit the water, controlled or not controlled, and, bottom line, Brooke, is we have to get the boxes. That's really where we're going to be able to piecing it together.

But, even after we have that, I still caution everyone, as Kit very well knows, we're still looking at probably a yearlong investigation if not longer to really answer both the hows and the whys.

BALDWIN: Those families, that is a long time to have to wait, if and when they find it.

Shawn Pruchnicki and Kit Darby, thank you both truly very much here.

Texts, e-mails, attempted phone calls to loved ones, this information, did you know, could still be on passenger cell phones on board the plane and provide a lot of information as far as what happened. If the plane is ever found, would the data be retrievable on the phones? CNN actually spoke to a forensic computer scientist to find out. That's ahead.

Also, our other huge story for you. Thick mud just consuming this entire neighborhood, searchers trying to dig out at least eight bodies they found that they can't even reach. And through all the heartache and the chaos, this dramatic video here, a 4-year-old boy pulled from the sludge. More on his amazing rescue coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: With so many questions about what happened to the 239 people on board this missing airplane, one certainty, many of them had their cell phones with them in the cabin, so the question is: Did these passengers, all these faces you see here, try to send farewell texts, goodbye voice -mails to their loved ones?

With the best lead yet in finding this possible debris field, what information, if any, could a cell phone under miles and miles of water actually be able to give?

CNN's Ted Rowlands got some answers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Paul Weeks left his wife and two sons home in Australia to start a new job, and boarded Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Now his family and others are left wondering if their loved ones tried to use their cell phones to send a message before the plane went missing.

With so many questions still unanswered, texts and e-mails could provide crucial details about what happened to Flight 370, and all of that information could possibly still be retrieved.

CHAD GOUGH, 4DISCOVERY: Absolutely. I'm sure there's text messages. I'm sure there's drafts of e-mails. I'm sure there's video testimonials that people made.

ROWLANDS: Chad Gough is a partner at 4Discovery, a computer forensics company in Chicago. He says even after several weeks or even months in the ocean, unsent texts, e-mails and videos can still be retrieved from electronic devices.

GOUGH: It is a matter of finding the devices to determine what kind of damage was associated with them, and handling them properly.

ROWLANDS: Handling them properly is the key. Just like retrieving a flight data recorder, a cell phone or computer would have to be kept in water until it's ready to be analyzed. Even if a device has been smashed, as long as the data cards are intact, the information is still there.

GOUGH: It is getting them out of the saltwater, but actually keeping them wet, and putting them in special solution that would dissolve the minerals that are in there, dissolve the salt and clean off the components.

ROWLANDS: Finding the devices will likely be the most difficult part of the equation. It took two years to locate the flight recorders off the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean from Air France Flight 447, which crashed in 2009. No cell phones were recovered.

But if Flight 370 wreckage is found over the next few months, passenger texts, e-mails and videos could possibly help solve the mystery of what happened on board, while also providing some grieving families a final message from a loved one.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Coming up next, take a look at these images here. Do you see anything? Some experts say this could really hold the key in finding the missing plane. We will talk live to a satellite analyst who will explain what exactly this could mean.

Also ahead, as you hear the heartbreaking stories of victims in the deadly Washington State landslide, we now have this video. Look at this, 4 years old, this little boy pulled from the mud and the muck. Bill Weir is live once again today with more incredible survival stories.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Hopes of finding more survivors from Saturday's deadly landslide in Washington State are fading fast. Two more bodies were pulled from the mud and the muck bringing the official death toll to 16 now. And search-and-rescue teams spotted eight more bodies, but the debris is blocking a path to go in and recover them.

As the hours tick by, volunteers and family members say they will stay on it, they will keep searching. And earlier today, the emergency management director became overwhelmed with gratitude.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOHN PENNINGTON, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR, SNOHOMISH COUNTY, WASHINGTON: A brief pause to thank all the local community support and volunteers. We are humbled beyond belief in this county. We have received -- it is very humbling. It is very humbling and we're respectfully very grateful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Wow.

Let's go to Bill Weir. He's back there live in Darrington, Washington.

Bill, just to this director, not often you see someone like this in this official capacity breaking down in tears in this news conference. How are people who you're talking to able to stay positive?

BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, well, it is the tightness of this community that allows them to, you know, cry on each others' shoulders.

Positivity is hard to come by, to be honest, Brooke. You can imagine it has been over 100 hours, it's been a long time, many -- four long days since they found any signs of life on that huge pile of debris there. So, yes, it is the little things. It is guys talking about I found a wedding dress in that mud and brought it out or I found a diploma, or a yearbook, or a pile of toys.

And for lack of a human being to mourn and to lie in state, you know, that's all they have to cling to. The clergy here, you know, they like to point things to the afterlife, and say there's hope beyond this life. And so those folks who are people of faith are clinging to that, really.

BALDWIN: I was talking to a geologist, geomorphologist, earlier who was just really talking about the terrain and the hazards, you know, how rescue crews are just sinking in, as you described the mud, the muck.

It is even difficult. As we pointed out, there are bodies family members would like to recover and they can't get to them.

WEIR: Right, right. You know, we have been talking a lot about the missing plane and those family members looking at a million square miles of ocean and wondering where their loved one is.

The sentiment is not nay different here, even though it is a square mile that they feel they're so cut off from and they can't get to that mother, that father, that spouse in many cases. What we just saw, we're starting to see sort of evolution of the parade of equipment that goes down Highway 530 here.

We just saw a massive bulldozer. This has gone from hovercraft trying to search the surface. You had helicopters in the early days and then it became shovels and bare hands to dig through. Now they're really getting in there with the heavy equipment. We expect as a result that the current death toll of 24 to go up.

There's hope it doesn't go into triple digits. There's still 170 people unaccounted for. A lot of detectives who have worked missing person cases over the years are trying to see if they knock that list down by finding some of these people that may just be out of town and not actually lost.

But it looks like this could surpass the Mount Saint Helens disaster, which took over 50 lives, considering how many folks lived in that slide zone.

BALDWIN: Thoughts and prayers with the folks, the family members, the rescue teams there in Washington State. Bill Weir, thank you so much for your coverage for us. We appreciate it.

Coming up, it is the image that some experts are calling the most credible lead in finding this missing Malaysia Airlines plane, the satellite picture showing 122 objects floating somewhere in the Southern Indian Ocean. Next, we will give you a virtual view of where these items have been found, and how crews are working to recover them.

Plus, a senior Malaysian official, government official, has just given CNN an update on their investigation into these two men, the pilot on the left-hand side, the co-pilot on the right-hand side of the screen here. We will tell you what they have found after almost three weeks of investigating their backgrounds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Want to get straight to some breaking news here out of Boston. This is right along the Charles River here. This Beacon Street, nine-alarm fire. This neighborhood, beautiful, beautiful brownstones right along the river.

Here is what we know. There are firefighters actually trapped, you see some of them working the scene from the still pictures on the right side of your screen. Some firefighters are actually trapped trying to fight this thing in the basement of the building, four-story building. This is the Back Bay area of Boston again on Beacon Street, just a couple blocks from one of the main thoroughfares, Com Ave, Commonwealth Avenue, and again, we're hearing this is an apartment fire, four-story apartment building.

So as soon as we get more information here from Boston Fire, we will pass it along to you. But not often do you hear about a nine-alarm fire. But there you have it, Beacon Street in Back Bay at Boston.

The disappearance of Flight 370 was either accident or sabotage, and today we heard from the U.S. secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel, refusing to rule out terrorism. The FBI soon wrapping up its analysis on the pilot's flight simulator and those deleted files.

As for the search, look at this picture, because this is being called by some experts potentially a game changer here in finding the plane, the satellite image showing 122 objects floating in the Southern Indian Ocean. This debris field spans this massive area, though. We keep talking about this remote area of the world here. This is some 150 square miles. We have just learned the search area has been divided actually into two sections here.

You see the east and the west, the U.S. P-8 Poseidon taking over the search in the west zone.

For the specifics of this new debris field, let's go to Tom Foreman, who has mapped this whole thing out for us.

And so, Tom, show me what we are talking about.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know what? Brooke, what we are talking about is something that I think anybody can get at this point.

Sometimes, it is really pretty direct. This stuff matters right now. The stuff we're looking at now matters, most of all because it looks like the debris of a plane crash. It may not be, but all these individual pieces we have been talking about have not looked so strong.

The idea of a debris field, though, is very consistent with a plane crash, and it's in the right location. It's near where other debris was spotted. And they're trying to get there to find this up close, so they can look at it and see. That's why people are so excited about that.