Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Interview with Australian Prime Minister; Families Demand Apology from Malaysia; Russian Prime Minister Visits Crimea; Flight 370's Final Moments?; Time Running Out on Black Box Batteries; California Quake Sparks 100 Aftershocks

Aired March 31, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY ABBOTT, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: We've also just appointed Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the former chief of our defense force, very well respected in our region in the water world, as the chief of the coordinating center. So Angus Houston can liaise with the officials, the senior officials of all the various countries who have taken this.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How would you categorize then that cooperation or the challenges?

ABBOTT: The challenges are considerable. But let's not underestimate the good will. Everyone wants to get to the bottom of this mystery. Everyone is united in their common grief, in their common anxiety to resolve this. I don't think we've got a whole lot of competing national pride at stake here. I think we've got at stake here a whole lot of people who just want to solve the problem.

SHUBERT: So what message do you have not only for the families but loved ones aboard the flight but also the search teams that are going out there every day about how important this search is?

ABBOTT: I say to the teams please keep it up. We admire the work you have put in. We deeply respect the professionalism you bring to the task. I say to the families, we will not give up. We will not give up and should you choose to come to Australia, you will find yourselves in the arms of a friendly country.

SHUBERT: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Despite that, families are still wondering if they are being told the whole truth. Malaysia says again this morning it's not hiding anything as it investigates what happened to Flight 370. Still, families of the missing are demanding an apology from Malaysian officials for saying the plane crashed with no direct evidence.

CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director, Tom Fuentes joins me now. Good morning, Tom.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good morning Carol.

COSTELLO: Gosh, Malaysian authorities are in a difficult place because they can't exactly say there is, like we believe there is a slim chance that the families survived this thing. . Can they?

FUENTES: Well that's true Carol and you know they've been in a difficult place from the very beginning because you know the calculation done by technicians from all over the world. Not just Malaysians but British and American technician have determined several different search areas and then changed them to other search areas during the last couple of weeks.

So even if the Malaysian government had performed perfectly in the way they have presented their -- their handling of the crisis, when they've had to change that, it gives them the appearance of being either incompetent or not honest with their people and with the victim -- families of this event. Even when it's no fault of their own they still look bad.

COSTELLO: Right, right.

Malaysia's acting transportation minister said this morning he would not release the transcripts of the cockpit voice recorders. He says there is nothing suspicious in them. But again if there's nothing suspicious in them why not release them? Because it seems like he is hiding something.

FUENTES: Well that's what it seems like. But -- and you know in this country, we do things a little bit differently; other countries also do it depending on your legal system. You know these countries -- many of these countries, Malaysia included are not used to being pressed so intensively by worldwide media and the demands to release information during an investigation.

You know many, many countries in this situation would have released less information and other countries, maybe more information. They have not had the benefit of experience in having dealt with this many other times, thankfully. And therefore you know they are kind of learning as they go as far as how they put out information to the public and the families.

COSTELLO: Well I think it's important to keep in mind after 9/11, the full cockpit transcripts weren't released until I think 2004. So there's is some precedent.

FUENTES: Right and that's our own country, so you know it's hard to criticize another country that's doing exactly what we may have done or pretty close to what we have done under similar circumstances.

So unfortunately you know in a major event, once a government loses credibility for whatever reason, it's pretty much gone for the rest of that event. And they are going to be hard-pressed to ever get it back you know the way they are going right now. And this is just unfortunate. And again a large part of the confusion is not their fault but the technicians and the mathematicians and the satellite company experts have changed their opinion as to where that plane may have gone after it disappeared off of radar.

COSTELLO: Well one way Malaysia is trying to you know patch things up for lack of a better term to hold this high-level briefing for families of the missing and that briefing will feature international experts including experts from China. Might that help?

FUENTES: It certainly would help and I think the Chinese families definitely you know need to hear it from more than just the Malaysian government. And I think that's the lesson from the beginning that if you have a multi-national incident, you include your partners as soon as possible and include them in the investigation and the study of the material itself.

As I said China has a space program. They're putting more than just satellites in orbit, they certainly have the mathematical expertise that could have provided additional assistance in making these calculations.

Now INMARSAT is a private company. And maybe they don't want other mathematicians looking at all their data you know for their own proprietary reasons. We don't know all of that. You know we're -- we're worried about whether governments cooperate with each other. But we have private companies involved in high-tech issues here that are protecting their own, you know, their own company.

COSTELLO: It is just so frustrating for the families. So all of this fighting factions --

FUENTES: Yes.

COSTELLO: -- and all the families want is just tell us what's going on.

FUENTES: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: Tom Fuentes thanks so much.

FUENTES: You're welcome -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM. What were the final moments? Actually we are going to go to that flight simulator next. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We'll get back to the investigation to Flight 370 in just a minute. But first some promising news out of Ukraine -- Russia's defense ministry says one infantry battalion is leaving a region near Ukraine's border after finishing military exercises. But Ukrainian officials say Russian forces are merely repositioning and conducting quote, "Unclear maneuvers."

In the meantime the Russian Prime Minister is in Crimea today. He is the highest level Russian official to visit the union since Ukraine voted to join Russia earlier this month.

Karl Penhaul is on that border now area. What are you seeing on the ground, Karl?

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Carol, there is a great deal of distrust between Russia and Ukraine, former allies, now pointing the barrels of tanks at one another across the other side of the border.

This T-64 tank that belongs to the Ukrainian army, about five miles away now from the Russian border -- they are taking still very seriously the potential threat that Russian troops could roll in here any time soon. This tank for example has been dug into this position alongside a strategic highway in only the last few hours. It's pointing down over rolling countries and I can't show you that for security reasons. But it's pointing at a bridge. And the order seems to be both this tank and also a number of other -- a number of other tanks and Armored Personnel Carriers gathered around here to defend a small bridge down there or blow it up, in case the Russians come.

But there is a sense of disbelief. Disbelief why -- because remember that the Ukrainian military and the Russian military even after the end of Soviet times are allies, they have been allies. They have done a lot of their training together. A lot of their equipment is the same. This is a Russian tank.

And so there is just a sense here. How can we have come to this point? But certainly, the Ukrainian military taking things very seriously. They don't see any sight of a diplomatic breakthrough just yet Carol.

COSTELLO: I was going to ask you this. Secretary of State John Kerry met with his Russian counterpart over the weekend they talk for four hours. Did anything come of that at all?

PENHAUL: Well you get the sense standing at a stage of five miles from the Russian border that Paris, where their discussions between John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov went on is a long, long way away.

Here, down in the dampers (ph), they are making preparations for what they believe could be a tank battle with the Russians

But of course, it is not just about the military because the civilian population are also getting involved as well. In the last few days they have been dividing and they say they too will join the fight if the Russians come in. They say that they will divide up into small guerrilla style units and use swamps and forests around this region to use that as the launch pad against fighting the Russians.

Even old ladies in some of this village, villages around here you see them doing their bid as well. They have been pickling fruits and vegetables and all kinds of produce, and taking them to a central point so that then they can be donated to the military as well. There is a wartime spirit here. People think that they are coming pretty close to the brink here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Karl Penhaul, reporting live from Ukraine.

We're back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: As the Australian ship, the "Ocean Shield" makes its way to where investigators have plotted a possible debris field for Flight 370. Determining the size and scope depends on how the plane may have gone down.

Joining us now, CNN's Martin Savidge and pilot, Mitchell Casado; they're in that Boeing 777 simulator in Canada. Good morning.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Yes, we are going to talk today about one possibility of how the aircraft may have gone in because depending on the way this plane hit the water -- and of course right now that is just a theory -- would determine the kind of debris and wreckage that authorities could find.

So for this demonstration, we are going to ask Mitchell to one, simulate the engines running out of fuel. Because they probably wouldn't have run out at the same time, the left engine -- is that the one that shuts down first in this exercise?

MITCHELL CASADO, PILOT TRAINER: Normally. Yes, absolutely.

SAVIDGE: So we shut that engine off, cut the fuel off. And what I wanted to show you, Carol, is that even with only one engine, this aircraft continues to fly stable. It is not like it suddenly veers in one direction or the other or it tips over because it's lost one engine. Why is that? Why is it like unaffected?

MITCHELL: Well, we have what's called a Thrust Asymmetry Compensator, which is a computer that compensates for any asymmetric thrust.

SAVIDGE: So essentially, the other engine takes over without any problem and apparently without any affect on the flight.

CASADO: Absolutely.

SAVIDGE: OK. So now let's shut down the one remaining engine to demonstrate what would happen in that circumstance. And so, show us how on the gauges here we know that the engine is now shut down. Both of them are spooling down.

CASADO: Both of them are spooling down. You can see the internal temperature of the engine where the external temperature is winding and this is just the more or less the rpm of the engines left and right decreasing. And it says engines shut down.

SAVIDGE: So you notice in the cabin besides just looking at that that it has gotten quiet. So essentially, this jumbo jet is now a glider and we're not -- are we on autopilot or not?

CASADO: We are on autopilot. But if you take the autopilot off, the airplane will start to glide for the ground.

SAVIDGE: Yes. And this is the thing that's so amazing about the design of this particular aircraft is that even with no one at the controls, even with no power being generated by the engines we are still level in flight. Now, we are going to lose altitude and we are slowly starting to go down by maybe -- what's the rate of descent?

CASADO: Rate of descent is less than 2,000 feet which is normal.

SAVIDGE: Right. It is a very gradual descent. The horizon is very normal here. So that you'll see that the design of the aircraft is meant to fly, even without fuel and without anyone at the controls.

COSTELLO: All right, Martin Savidge, Mitchell Casado -- many thanks to both of you.

Search crews have about eight days left to locate Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 before the pinging noise fades from the black boxes. That ping could help locate critical information about what happened on board. If crews get close, the U.S. Navy has a high-deck device that may help narrow the search.

Brian Todd is in Washington to explain how that works. Good morning -- Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning -- Carol.

This device is called the towed pinger locator. It is made right near here near Washington D.C. by a company called Phoenix International. That video that you just showed was of our visit to Phoenix International to get a look at how the towed pinger locator works. There's some animation there for you. This device is now on board the Australian ship "Ocean Shield" as it heads out to the search area.

Essentially how it works is if a piece of wreckage is found, and really only if a piece of wreckage is found, then they tow this device back and forth like you see there -- just back and forth for miles at a time, many miles at a time, sometimes hours at a time. And it will listen intently for the sound of the pinger on the black box. And it can pick up that sound.

Here is my conversation with Paul Nelson, the project manager about the distance involved here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: How far away can it be and pick it up?

PAUL NELSON, PROJECT MANAGER: The outside edge is about two miles, a mile and a half to two miles away, it can detect the sound. And so if we hear it and it disappears but barely hear it, then we would turn the boat around and come closer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: So it can even detect the sound if the signal starts fading. And Carol, of course, that's an issue right now because we have roughly six days, maybe a little longer, before this black box signal will probably run out. Time is running out very fast and they do have to find a piece of wreckage for this device to even be effective. COSTELLO: Right, you know, we can see the "Ocean Shield" as it churns out to sea. It's going in a very fast clip, Brian. Is there only one pinger detector being used? Is there other more -- do they need more? Of course, they would need more.

TODD: Yes, they would and, of course, the search area is so vast they could use more. But they really -- again, they can only really use them if they find a confirmed piece of wreckage that narrows the search area. And then this can narrow it down even more.

There is only a few of these things in existence in the world. The U.S. Navy has only two of them. And one of them is being lent now to that the vessel, the "Ocean Shield". They are also very expensive to deploy. So they're really of limited use here.

COSTELLO: Brian Todd, reporting live from Washington -- thank you.

TODD: Thanks -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, at least 100 aftershocks in California in a matter of days. What are the chances the "Big One" is coming?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: In California, dozens of aftershocks in the wake of Friday's earthquake are serving as a wake-up call. Seismologists believe there is a 99 percent chance that a catastrophic earthquake will hit California in the next three decades. Stephanie Elam live in Los Angeles to tell us more -- good morning.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Carol. They say it is not a matter of if; they say when and considering how quiet it has been as far as earthquakes go here in Southern California, they are saying that these little shakers could be a bit of a wake-up call for people to start to get prepared.

Now if you take a look at an earthquake that hit Friday evening, it was a 5.1 -- not really a big one as far as Californians are concerned. Unless of course, it does damage to where you live and for some people who live in Orange County south of where I am right now, it definitely had them shaken up. Take a listen to what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS COLLETTE, FULLERTON RESIDENT: You have a chance to calm down and relax for a little while and you are thinking, OK, it is over. You get another one of these jolts and it gets your heart rate going, your adrenaline. It's just -- it is nerve-racking.

JENNA PHILLIPS, FULLERTON RESIDENT: I finally went to bed and aftershocks just kept coming about every hour. After seeing how much damage was caused the first time it was just terrifying.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's far from done.

PHILLIPS: Maybe a lot more (inaudible). I am worried that there's going to be more aftershocks coming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: And there were some 20 apartments that were red tagged, of course, after that initial earthquake on Friday. Those have been cleared. And people have been able to go back to those. Six homes however remain red-tagged, displacing about a couple dozen people.

Just taking a look at the structure, making sure that it is OK but these aftershocks, this is what the seismologists say happened after earth quakes you get the smaller once that keep coming Saturday. We had a 4.1 aftershock that also rattled some nerves. But all in all, they seem to be getting smaller -- Carol.

But hopefully, hopefully, hopefully this will get people to think about getting prepared because a lot of people here are not ready and that's really a bad thing when you consider the fact that it is not a matter of if -- it's a matter of when.

COSTELLO: I know, they're going to say it's hard to believe.

Stephanie Elam thanks so much. As we close our show, the Australian ship "Ocean Shield" is on the way to look for those black boxes. The search for debris will continue by air tomorrow. Of course, the hunt for Flight 370 has yielded few clues. But if debris from the plane is found, what are the next steps to solving this mystery?

We actually were going to -- we actually were going to throw the story by Rosa Flores but we're having technical difficulties. So I am going to throw to a break. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We are still having technical difficulties with Rose's package. But we have much, much more on the search for Flight 370 in the next hour. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"@ This Hour" with Berman and Michaela starts now.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN HOST: Will searchers find the missing jetliner before the batteries die on the black boxes? Time is winding down as the search effort ramps up.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: A very big earthquake, bigger than they are used to shaking California. Is this a sign of what's to come? What the West Coast has feared for so long.

PEREIRA: And Web site problems on this, the last day, to enroll in Obamacare. Despite the glitches, earliest returns suggest close to seven million people have signed up.