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Ninety Missing in Washington Landslide; Flight 370's Effect on Air Travel; Remembering the Passengers of Flight 370
Aired March 27, 2014 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We'll have more on the investigation into Flight 370 in just a minute. But first, 90 people are now missing after Saturday's deadly landslide in Washington State. That's actually down from the 176 reported yesterday. But at least 24 people were killed. And we know that for sure when a massive chunk of earth tore through two towns.
CNN's George Howell has more for you.
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GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's a slow laborious process moving through the mud and debris searching for victims. This video, the very latest taken from the disaster zone as the recovery operation continues. Even the mayor of nearby Darrington admits --
MAYOR DAN RANKIN, DARRINGTON, WASHINGTON: This project is so big, we -- you know we can't do this ourselves. The magnitude of it and the severity and the distance the material traveled and energy that it took to get there is something that you can't wrap your head around.
HOWELL: Locals began digging right away trying to help each other. But now more regional and state resources are in place to cover the one square mile of land.
Officials tell us there are seven excavators on the ground to help sift through mud, five gravel trucks, to load and remove debris one bulldozer on site, 16 timber cutters and 85 urban search and rescue crews along with dozens of volunteers. Two Black Hawk helicopters are also en route to search from above.
(on camera): With so many teams and crews on the ground you find tent cities like this where search and rescue teams are setting up for the long haul. And now we know that more federal help is also on the way.
REP. SUZAN DELBENE (D), WASHINGTON: The emergency declaration was focused on making sure there were resources right away in terms of emergency response. Right now they're looking at expanding that to help with debris removal and ongoing efforts as we look to recovery in that area.
HOWELL: It's help that Congresswoman Suzan DelBene knows will make a big difference in the days and weeks ahead. And although it's welcomed in these parts --
RANKIN: We pride ourselves on resiliency and our self-reliance.
HOWELL: Help isn't something this community is used to asking for.
George Howell, CNN, Darrington, Washington.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM investigators searching for answers to the mystery of Flight 370 but the aviation industry is already feeling the fallout. Here's CNN's Stephanie Elam.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, commercial airlines cannot afford to lose a plane that huge, let alone hundreds of passengers. So how will air travel change? We'll discuss that coming up.
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COSTELLO: Valuable clues could be emerging in the search for Flight 370. Japan's Kyoto News agency says government satellites spotted 10 new square-shaped objects in the same region as several other recent discoveries. We don't have those images as of yet, but this is now the fifth sighting of possible debris in recent days.
For more were joined by CNN safety analyst and author of "Why Planes Crash" David Soucie. Welcome back -- David.
DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Hi Carol. Thanks.
COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. So now we have these satellite images and they show debris of roughly the same area in the Indian Ocean. Does that give us cause for more hope?
SOUCIE: Well, we're kind of putting together some -- some -- some theories or possibilities as to why this goes. We were talking with Columbia University specialist there. And He has a theory that all pieces of these pieces of debris that we're having is a logical dispersion from a singular point.
So that gives me a lot of hope that this may very well be some -- all of these sightings that we're getting are can -- all be debris from a singular point and that was really great information to get today. I'm very encouraged by it.
COSTELLO: I hope -- I hope you're right. You know it's just -- it's difficult to wrap your head around the fact that that debris from this plane which has been there for such a long time could still be floating along in a big pile so to speak.
SOUCIE: It doesn't surprise me at all knowing the construction of this airplane. There's a lot of honey comb structure in this and what that mean is that it's got a piece of layer of skin, of aluminum on the outside aluminum on the inside and between that to add structure so that it doesn't twist is a honey comb structure that goes this way so we got little pockets of air inside sealed within that. So even if this piece of metal was twisted, torn or pulled, there are still pockets of air that will be suspending it. So I'm not surprised at all that there's that much debris if this is indeed the plane.
COSTELLO: Of course -- of course this is the most difficult part is finding this debris, you know, on a ship out there in the big ocean. And it's not like the ship you know the ships speeds by a pieces of debris, it can't immediately stop, turn around and get it. So that's going to be a difficult process. How -- how much do they need to come up with a theory of how this plane could have gone down?
SOUCIE: Well, there's a lot of information on even just the smallest piece of debris on an accident site like this. For example, if there was an explosion on board, there would be -- there would be evidence of that on nearly every interior panel. The way that the plastics or that the interior of the aircraft would burn is different whether it's a flash type of burn or whether it's a sustained burn. There's a lot of good information that could be achieved, that could be retrieved just from singular pieces of metal.
COSTELLO: You know I'm just -- I'm just thinking back on all the theories that are out there and have been out there. Is there one theory that we can truly discount now?
SOUCIE: There really isn't. And I -- I commend the Malaysian government and the people running this investigation for not doing that. Because as soon as you start picking out conclusions and suspicions, unless it's just part of the investigation to help determine where the aircraft would have gone, you start casting the investigation in a specific area. So I really think that it's smart not to have those conclusions now and not rule anything out.
COSTELLO: David Soucie, many thanks as always.
SOUCIE: You bet. Thank you for having me.
COSTELLO: Any time.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM searching for answers: what happened to that plane? And what's the legacy that may already be taking shape?
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COSTELLO: As investigators search for the cause of flight 370's disappearance, one conclusion is emerging -- the apparently doomed flight could have a much larger effect on air travel.
CNN's Stephanie Elam is in Los Angeles with a closer look. Good morning.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Carol. After other major airplane disasters like 9/11, we've seen changes that have been implemented. The question is how long before we see them?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARRY SCHIFF, RETIRED COMMERCIAL AIRLINE CAPTAIN: Every accident affects the future of aviation because we learn so much from it.
ELAM (voice over): Jetliner catastrophes don't happen often, but when they do, the impact on air travel can be global. In light of the mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the decades-old radar technology is being called into question.
(on camera): It seems pretty crazy to me that in 2014 a plane could just disappear.
SCHIFF: I agree with you. You know, anybody can buy a little spot locator that transmits to satellites all the time. We would always know where this person was. Why such things are not on board every jetliner I don't know.
ELAM (voice over): In fact the Federal Aviation Administration has mandated that by 2020 all commercial aircraft have GPS on board. But the FAA doesn't call the shots for international skies.
ANDREW THOMAS, JOURNAL OF TRANSPORTATION SECURITY: The way that aviation happens in so many ways is still very local. It's dependent upon government regulations. It's history, tradition, idiosyncrasies and government at the local level.
ELAM: After 9/11 changes were made. Cockpit doors, for example, were reinforced but Thomas says long before 2001 calls for that very improvement from some groups in the industry fell on deaf ears.
THOMAS: The industry is always hard pressed to spend money on anything above and beyond what it's mandated to do by government. There will be talk about this, but I think in the end you won't see a lot of action on it.
ELAM (on camera): Any changes will take years. The major reason for that is cost. So while there are many suggestions out there from cameras in the cockpit and cabin to streaming flight data in real time, these upgrades would cost millions of and would have to be implemented without disrupting a system that moves millions of passengers a day.
(on camera): And who will pay for those upgrades? In the U.S., the airlines, the taxpayers and ultimately, passengers.
Do you think maybe now the world will change how we fly?
SCHIFF: We've learned that we need to keep track of airplanes flying across the world's oceans. We need to know where they are at all times, more today perhaps than at any other time in the past.
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ELAM: And another thing that obviously is very important here is how airplanes fly from different air space, how they communicate with those different countries. It's still proprietary. But Andrew Thomas tells me things are getting better but any improvements will still take a lot of time -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Stephanie Elam reporting live from Los Angeles.
I'll be right back.
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COSTELLO: 239 people thrust into the global spotlight after the disappearance of a Malaysian jetliner. I'm talking about the passengers of Flight 370. Anderson has some of their stories.
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Paul Weeks is a husband and father of two. He was on his way to start a new job in Mongolia, his dream job. Before he left his home in Australia, he gave his wedding ring and his watch to his wife, Danica.
DANICA WEEKS, WIFE OF PAUL WEEKS: Just as he was leaving, he said I'm going to leave my wedding ring here. Should anything happen to me I want the ring to go to the first son that's married and the watch to the second. I said something to him like don't be stupid. Just come back, and I'll give it back to you and you can give it to them.
Muktash Mukherjee (ph) and Sha Mobai (ph) had been on vacation and were on their way home to their two young sons in Beijing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As parents, nothing was more important to them than those kids. Everything they did was surrounded those kids. You go to their house and it was covered with pictures of their boys.
COOPER: 30-year-old Hwang Yi (ph) was also on her way home to her five-year-old daughter. She works for a semiconductor company based in Austin, Texas and was on board with 19 of her colleagues.
Rodney and Mary Burroughs (ph) from Australia were looking forward to becoming first time grandparents after they returned home. They were beginning a long planned trip with their friends Katherine and Robert Louden (ph). The Loudens were known as doting grandparents. A friend described them as passionate travelers.
This group of artists from China were in Malaysia to display their work. Most of them were on the flight back to Beijing. Among them, the oldest passenger on board, 76-year-old Lu Ru Shang (ph) a renowned calligrapher who traveling with his wife.
The loved ones of these passengers have waited with prayers and with hope. Strangers mostly children held up pictures at the airport in Malaysia. This one reads, "We miss you. We love you." This one simply says, "Please come back."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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COSTELLO: President Obama wrapping up the European leg of his overseas trip. He is expected to hold a joint news conference with Italy's new prime minister in the next few minutes. The two leaders held talks after Mr. Obama and his first ever meeting with Pope Francis. Earlier today the two men talked, they exchanged gifts. You've got to admit the setting here is just absolutely gorgeous.
Michelle Kosinski is in Rome -- she's covering this for us. Tell us more about this meeting.
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is interesting to see inside that part of the Vatican where cameras rarely go. It's the people's palace. And you're right, it kind of stops you in your tracks when you first see it how ornate it is in there.
And in fact, this Pope has declined to live there because of that. He has always stuck to his views as being poor among the poor as he says it. He didn't want to live there. He wanted something much, much simpler -- I should say.
And you know, so far we haven't heard from the White House on what exactly was discussed in the meeting. It was in private. There were not cameras inside while the meeting was going on for the 52 minutes exactly that they said it lasted. That was, you could say a significantly longer time than was expected. We thought it would be maybe around 30 minutes.
So they did go over, obviously, lots to talk about. And I think the world wanted to see how this went. I mean obviously President Obama's policies would conflict with the Catholic Church in a number of obvious ways. So people wondered if as well as the views that they share, they also went into the ways that they didn't agree.
But we did get a statement just now from the Vatican somewhat vague saying what they talked about. Here's part of it. They said "During the cordial meeting, views were exchanged on some current international themes and it was hoped that in areas of conflict there would be for respect for humanitarian and international law and a negotiated solution between the parties involved."
That seems to be talking about the situation in Ukraine. And it seems evident that would be one of the topics of discussion. I mean that has figured so heavily into this entire European trip. And it is an urgent situation at this point.
But there's another paragraph of this press release from the Vatican that talks more about some of the specifics as relates to the United States. And it says, "In the context of bilateral relations and cooperation between church and state there was a discussion on questions of particular relevance for the church in that country," meaning the U.S. such as the exercise of right to religious freedom, life and conscientious objection as well as the issue of immigration reform.
Finally, the common commitment is the eradication of trafficking of humans persons in the world was stated. So that spells out the subjects that were touched upon. And it seems like as they left the meeting it was much more informal. They were smiling a lot, shaking hands and the president managed to crack a few jokes as well Carol. COSTELLO: All right. So we expect the president to hold this joint news conference with the Prime Minister of Italy. That will happen in the next few minutes.
That does it for me today. I'm Carol Costello.
"@THIS HOUR" with Berman and Michaela starts now.
