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Report: Japan Satellites Spot 10 New Objects; Thai Satellite Spots 300 "Floating Objects"; Airlines Founder Defends Flight's Captain; Malaysia Air Offers "Deepest Condolences"

Aired March 27, 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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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, breaking overnight, new satellite images and new hope for the families.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those satellite images could be valuable.

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COSTELLO: Three hundred new objects found floating in the ocean.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hard to say until they actually pick up a piece.

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COSTELLO: This morning, defense for the plane's pilot growing louder.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You knew Captain Shah. Some point a finger at him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's an excellent pilot.

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COSTELLO: For the first time the captain's youngest son speaking out addressing those who call his father a political fanatic or a hijacker. This morning's search called off. The wicked weather.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: May not be able to see the wing tips of the aircraft.

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COSTELLO: Grounding all flights as Malaysia Airlines speaks to families. The full page ad from Malaysia Airlines, words of support, deeply saddened, sincerest condolences, will never be forgotten. A special edition of NEWSROOM starts now.

Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me. We begin with yet another sighting of possible debris in the Indian Ocean as the search for that missing flight continues. A new report from Japan's Kyoto news agency says its government satellite spotted 10 square shaped objects. The satellite images were apparently taken yesterday, but we don't have them to show you just yet.

We do know the objects were spotted in the same general vicinity as the other recent debris sightings. So let's talk about that. The largest from Japan is 26 feet long. This discovery comes the same day that Thai authorities released new satellite images. This was taken on March 24th. It shows a debris field with 300 objects. Couple this picture with the next two images. They were taken by Australia on March 16th.

The fourth image was taken on the 18th, a Chinese satellite snapped an unknown object. This past Sunday a French satellite spotted another large debris field. Common denominator, all of this pictures were taken roughly in the same area about 1600 miles off the coast of Perth, Australia. The big problem today, very limited search time. Nothing was found.

The planes were called back because of nasty weather. However several ships do remain in the area in the water. Now those objects found are only 125 miles from where a French satellite spotted its debris on Sunday. Tom Foreman is in Washington to map it out for us. Good morning.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. You mentioned the limited search time. That remains a huge problem here. Yes, we are looking at all these new images. Here's what's good about them. This all looks like aircraft debris. In terms of the search, that looks good about them. It looks like the right kind of thing. The fact that it's all together may be a positive thing.

Let's look at difficulty in getting their hands on this, why this is hard to confirm these satellite images. Here's Perth over here. These planes are flying 1,600 miles to reach the search zone. It's so far by the time they make it out here, some of them only have two hours of searching time before they have to fly back and fly back. They get nine or ten hours of flying for two hours of searching in very difficult seas. That's one of the challenges.

The other challenge continues to be always that it's always moving. Let's look up the map if we bring in a global picture from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration about the currents out there because bear in mind these targets keep shifting about hour by hour. What you see now, you may not see later. Look at the clustering of these fines over the past eight days. As you see, they're all in the same area. We keep adding to the same general area.

That could be very positive, but this is still a big spot. This is going to be from one side of the circle to the other, around 240 miles. It's going to encompass some 47,000 square miles, something like that. All those currents out there constantly make things move this way or that way, up and down in the water, literally seconds can pass between something on the top where you can see it and when it's pushed under a couple of feet and you can't see it.

So this is the challenge, Carol. It remains a challenge. They have to get their hands on something out here. At some point they have to have a ship pick up one of these pieces and say, this could be or could not be part of this plane. This could all be a false lead. It could be trash in the ocean that happened to be spotted here and happened to be corralled by competing currents. Maybe it's what they're after. Until they get it in their hands, we're not going to know.

COSTELLO: All right, Tom Foreman, many thanks.

Also for the first time this morning we're hearing from the immediate family of Flight 370's Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah. With no physical evidence to explain the flight's presumed crash, some have speculated the captain may have hijacked his own plane. But his son, 26-year-old Ahmad Sef (ph) Zaharie, tells the newspaper the "New Straits Times" that his father was neither suicidal nor a political extremist. He tells the paper, "I've read everything online, but I've ignored all the speculation. I know my father better."

Another focus of the ongoing investigation, the computer hard drives taken from the homes of both pilots. The FBI says analysis should be finished within a few days. "USA Today" is reporting now that Malaysian authorities are now focusing on the flight's captain, but U.S investigators say there is no such evidence jumping out of them.

Jim Clancy is tracking the investigation from Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur. Good morning.

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening from Kuala Lumpur, Carol. You know, these stories tend to cycle. Some of these reports about Captain Shah have really been cycled before through the media. The accusations, some have even called them smears. The pilots are legitimate subjects for the investigation. When we look at all of this, the real question is are they being treated fairly? Take a look.

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CLANCY (voice-over): In a vacuum of evidence, media reports persistently point to the pilots as those likely responsible for the disappearance of Flight 370. They had the skill. They were the last ones in control. Government officials refuse to comment. But the former head and founder of Malaysia Airlines said he personally knew Senior Captain Zaharie Shah from the time he was a cadet 30 years ago.

(on camera): You knew Captain Shah. Some people point a finger at him.

DR. ABDUL AZIZ ABDBUL RAHMAN, FORMER CEO, MALAYSIA AIRLINES: He's an excellent pilot. I think they're going to wrong way if they are pointing finger at him. CLANCY: You also knew the co-pilot. What can you say about him?

RAHMAN: His father learned Koran by heart. He also learned the Koran by heart. He's a good Muslim. I know that captain is good Muslim.

CLANCY: At times accusations against Captain Shah have been colored with politics. He was a life long supporter of the opposition political party and its leader, Anwar Ibrahim.

JAMES CHIN, MONASH UNIVERSITY, MALAYSIA: Some people in the government saw this opportunity to link him to the pilot. That's the reason it became a controversy.

CLANCY (voice-over): It's been reported Captain Shah was in the courtroom hours before the flight when Ibrahim was sentenced to five years in prison on sodomy charges, charges the opposition insist are designed to eliminate Anwar Ibrahim from politics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm quite clear about it. Zaharie wasn't there that Friday afternoon when the sentencing took place.

CLANCY: As a multinational search effort closes this on the suspected resting site of Flight 370, Dr. Aziz hopes the flight data recorder will be located and with it the evidence to clear the pilots.

RAHMAN: Must get the black box. Once we get the black box, we can have the answers. If we can't find all those then it will start pointing fingers. They will say all sorts of things that's difficult for us to defend.

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CLANCY: Carol, tonight Captain Shah's family is inclusion trying to avoid the media glare. You point out what his son said. I've read it all. It has not changed my heart. I know my father. He said we understood one another. Back to you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Jim Clancy reporting live from Kuala Lumpur. Let's talk more about the investigation now. We are joined by Mary Schiavo. She is a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation. She is also an aviation attorney who represents victims and families after airline disasters. Welcome.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Thank you. Good to be with you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Nice to have you here once again. Mary, now we have five satellite images that show some kind of debris in the same general area in the Indian Ocean. Analyze that for us. Does that make you more hopeful that we'll find something eventually?

SCHIAVO: It does. The kind of debris is hard to see. They're distant and fuzzy pictures. It is starting to look more like an aviation crash debris field. The sizes are of varying pieces. They would be widely dispersed unless there's a possibility there's a lot of wiring, thousands of miles of wiring on a plane that can act like a net. The wreckage gets strewn over large areas. There's a lot of debris usually. The more numbers they site, the better, more promising.

COSTELLO: Of course, the frustration is they're spotting satellite images, but we can't find them by ship, right?

SCHIAVO: Right. Then you think about the satellite gets it one day. Human eyes analyze the next. Then they get it out to the planes. Then the planes fly the next day. Then the ships go. We have such a delay between the satellite picking it up and the ships. It's to be expected it would be moved.

Hopefully they can work on shortening that time so they can actually get out there. What they have to do is get pieces on board a ship so they can look at it, test it for explosion, fire, residue et cetera. See what the pieces look like. Does it look like it had in-flight breakup explosion or broke apart in the water. They can tell that from the wreckage.

COSTELLO: Well, I think I heard you say before it only takes one small piece of debris to figure out something.

SCHIAVO: Well, right. If there happened to be -- for example, if there was an explosion or bomb on board, the wreckage will have pitting. They'll be able to tell what kind of explosive it was. If it exploded from what part of the plane. They can get residue of anything like that. Like a battery fire if there was a battery fire explosion that put out residue or a terrorist bomb. That will have evidence on pieces of debris. It would also leave it on the victims.

COSTELLO: So the search has now gone on for three weeks. The Australian prime minister hinted this cannot go on forever. At some point there's going to be fewer resources available. In your mind, when do we reach that point?

SCHIAVO: Well, certainly not yet. If Air France 447 is any indication, that went on a couple years. TW 800 took four years to finish that investigation. They put hit back together. Cases red heart over, between four to seven years. I don't think the investigators will give up any time soon.

If they run out of clues on wreckage, I think the next place to send sonar side scanners, trailing fish, if you will, the navy's listening devices for the black boxes, and looking devices, submersibles. You can look. I would send those to the place they had the half hand shake ping. The very last sound which they are now theorizing might have been the last sound of the plane.

COSTELLO: Mary Schiavo, many thanks as usual.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Malaysia Airlines offering words of support to families who has lost love ones, but can deep condolences really make any difference? We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: After getting slammed for sending text messages to the families of Flight 370, passengers informing them their loved ones were likely dead, Malaysia Airlines is trying a new tactic, this time is publishing a full page message in the Malaysian newspaper, the "News Straits Times." It's entitled, "Our Deepest Condolences."

It reads in part, "Our sincerest condolences go out to loved ones of 239 passenger's friends and colleagues. Words alone cannot express our enormous sorrow and pain. They have left us too soon, but they will never be forgotten.

I'm joined now by Jim Brokaw who lost his father and stepmother when Egypt Flight 990 crashed into the waters off Nantucket, and aviation attorney, Mark Dombroff is here as well. Good morning to both of you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Jim, I want to start with you. Malaysia Airlines seems a tad more sensitive. Are they doing what they should now?

JIM BROKAW, FATHER, STEPMOTHER DIED IN EGYPTAIR CRASH: Well, it strikes me as breathtakingly tone deaf. My question is what else is going on? As an airline flying in the United States, they need to have a crisis management plan in place under the Family Assistance Act of 1996.

That legislation doesn't govern crashes not on American soil, but it does stipulate that a family assistance center be set up with adequate previsions for fully informing family members of developments in the investigation and also calls for the organization of measures to recover human remains and personal effects. Further the establishment later on of a memorial. All of those things are crucial. It's not clear. I have no information whatsoever at if any of those things are in process.

COSTELLO: I know that Malaysia Airlines have sent people to have private press conferences with these families. They're trying to inform them as much as they can right now. Frankly at the beginning they didn't at all. It's difficult -- go ahead, Jim.

BROKAW: Yes, let me just say about the briefings. I was stunned and a palled to see the way family members were about assaulted by the press trying to make their way into those briefings. I did not attend the initial gathering after the crash of EgyptAir 990. I have communications from friends that said families were fully sequestered. Press was unable to reach the families at all at a private hotel on a small island, 25 yards off the main shore, accessible only -- any time anyone became incapacitated, overcome, there were doctors, nurse, counselors all around to offer compassion and support. That seems to be missing here.

COSTELLO: I totally, completely agree with you Jim. I do. Mark, a question for you --

BROKAW: So what I want to say -- forgive me --

COSTELLO: Go ahead.

BROKAW: Hello?

COSTELLO: Go ahead, Jim.

BROKAW: Yes, what I want to say most emphatically here is that the Malaysian government needs to understand that the process of recovery for families does not end with finding the black boxes. That's simply the beginning of a long and difficult process and the Malaysians will be judged by the way they treat their families at every step of that process.

COSTELLO: Mark, there is a law firm out there that announced plans to sue. They're trying to build a case against Boeing and the airline. They seem to be taking advantage of families though.

MARK DOMBROFF, AVIATION ATTORNEY: Well, I think you raise a good point, Carol. I've read the same accounts. We don't have a single piece of information, fact or otherwise that in any way suggests this Boeing built airplane had a single problem. We've heard all sorts of speculation and guest work. We've gone off in all different directions speculating about it. There's not a single fact suggesting there was anything wrong with this aircraft at all. To suggest through the filing of a lawsuit that there's something wrong with the airplane is quite frankly outrageous.

With respect to suing Malaysia Airline, I simply fail to understand what the rush is. We're still looking for the airplane. We're looking for debris. That isn't even really, doesn't get us to the airplane itself ass we've all heard. The idea of this rush to the court, the race of the courthouse to be the first to file makes no sense whatsoever.

Under the international agreements that Malaysia, Malaysia Airlines is operating pursuant to, there's a liability running between passengers and the airline. There will be compensation. The statute of limitations, the time frame in which the families have the ability to sue, if they have to sue -- I strongly suspect and know having done this for 25 years on behalf of airlines and the insurers that the airline and insurers are going to step up and do the right thing.

That the need to file a lawsuit now to me is just beyond belief. Yes, you get publicity and perhaps the hope is you get more clients out of it. In terms of advancing the investigation or getting something done that isn't otherwise being done, it simply isn't happening.

COSTELLO: An ethical attorney. If one of the family members called you. What would you tell them?

DOMBROFF: Well, first of all, I represent the airlines as opposed to families of the victims. I could be accused of being biased. I have been involved in a matter in which families did call me in connection with an accident involving the air force. One of the families called me, and my answer to them was there's no need to rush. Let the investigation move forward. There's plenty of time to present a claim. Indeed I had confidence in the situation the right thing would be done, and in fact the right thing was done. The matter was resolved without litigation at all. I know the airline, Malaysia Airlines is a sophisticated organization. Quite frankly one of the problems I see happening is that the airline, the Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysian government seem to be used interchangeably.

The fact is they are not interchangeable here. The government is running the investigation. The airline is not. The government seems to be the body that is releasing the information and in many instances misinformation. The airline is not. We can all criticize some aspect of any investigation, but what's happening here to the airline and what's happening to the flight crew is quite frankly though the context of speculation. There's no need for anybody to be rushing to a courthouse. None whatsoever.

COSTELLO: Let me bring Jim back into the conversation. These families are quite vulnerable now. From your perspective, is it OK to consult an attorney at the time if you're one of the family members?

BROKAW: Well, if the families feel they want to speak to an attorney, who am I to tell them it's inappropriate? Carol, the best piece of news I could possibly hear at this moment would be about the formation of a family association. That would give the families the chance to not simply support one another but to speak to one another to decide what their goals are, independent of attorneys, of government officials, of airline officials. In our case, that was enormously helpful. I think it brought us all along way.

COSTELLO: Mark, you can certainly understand that because these families feel they have no control over anything. There's no one standing up --

BROKAW: That's just it. Carol, that's just it.

COSTELLO: Go ahead, Jim.

BROKAW: That's just it. A family association gives someone for the -- provides a spokesperson for the families. Responsible leadership goes a long way facilitating all kinds of positive things about this horrific situation.

COSTELLO: Jim Brokaw and Mark Dombroff, thanks for an interesting conversation. I appreciate it.

DOMBROFF: Thank you, Carol. You're entirely welcome.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the scope of Washington State's deadly landslide almost unimaginable. Up next, a look at the enormous rescue and recovery efforts now underway.

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