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Final Words of Flight 370 Were "Good Night, Malaysian 3-7-0"; U.S. Sends Pinger Locater To Search; Eight Lessons From Missing Flight; SoCal Rattled By Weekend Quakes; Final Four Is Set; Australia's P.M. Say Effort Ramping Up; Newlyweds on First Trip Abroad Were on Flight 370

Aired March 31, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: It is the bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And the words, we keep going over these words, "All right, good night." For weeks, we have believed these were the final words from the cockpit on Flight 370.

But today we've learned that was actually not the case, Malaysian officials now clarifying the words were actually, "Good night, Malaysian 3-7-0."

We don't know yet the significance of this or even whether the pilot or co-pilot said it. We are still waiting for the Malaysian government to release those crucial transcripts.

A missing puzzle piece here, as the U.S. sends in equipment to track down the ping from the plane's black box, the U.S. Navy being realistic about how tough the task really is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPTAIN MARK MATTHEWS, U.S. NAVY SUPERVISOR, SALVAGE & DIVING: If you compare this to Air France Flight 447, we had much better positional information of where that aircraft went in the water.

We supported with the tow-pinger locater search. The pingers were nonfunctional on that aircraft due to the damage it received when it hit the water.

It then took over two years, conducting side-scan sonar searches with autonomous vehicles to locate the debris.

So it can be a very long effort.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And keep this in mind, as he says, it could be long. That black-box pinger could run out of battery in the next week. It may actually take the ship three days to reach the search zone. And, in the more than three weeks since this plane disappeared, much of the conversation has focused on what needs to change in the airline industry and in the way airline accidents are investigated.

So, William McGee, he joins me now from New Haven, Connecticut, and, Mr. McGee, he is a contributor for Yahoo.com and the author of "Attention All Passengers -- The Airlines' Dangerous Descent and How to Reclaim Our Skies."

Sir, welcome.

WILLIAM MCGEE, YAHOO.COM CONTRIBUTOR: Thanks very much, Brooke. I appreciate it.

BALDWIN: Read the list that you wrote up, these eight lessons you say that we have learned from this case, and number one, you say, specifically, focusing primarily on terrorism can obscure other threats.

And you remind folks that it's actually pilot error more half of the time, right? That's the leading cause of airline accidents.

MCGEE: Yes, it is. The biggest concerns are pilot error and maintenance. There's no question about that.

The piece that I wrote for Yahoo! News last week outlined eight, separate lessons that we continue to learn, unfortunately in some cases, over and over again. Some of these are not new lessons.

I think right at the top of the list is the treatment or the mistreatment of the next of kin, the family members of these passengers.

We saw here in the United States, back in 1996, the passage of The Family Assistance Act, and we just saw last month the U.S. Department of Transportation fined Asiana Airlines $500,000 for its mistreatment of family members back with that accident in San Francisco last July.

In this case, I really think that the treatment of the next of kin by Malaysia has been horrific, and they've just done a horrible job.

BALDWIN: And they want an apology, and so far they haven't really gotten that.

Let me move on from next of kin. You write about -- and this is something we've taken a lot of viewer questions, William, and a lot of people are asking about black boxes.

And, so, you point out the myriad mix of the black box, and you pose this question, do we really still need them? Are there alternatives?

MCGEE: Absolutely, and there have been for years. The so-called black box, which, of course, there are two boxes, and they are orange, not black.

But there's no question we need the data that they capture. But that data, there has been technology that has existed for years to catch it in other ways, primarily air-to-ground systems so that we have it in real-time.

As you just heard, that Air France accident in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, those boxes weren't found until 2011.

BALDWIN: That's right.

MCGEE: And, in that case, we were much clearer about where the general area of where that airplane went down.

In many cases, the boxes are either not recovered, or when they are recovered, they're damaged or they're completely useless.

The technology exists. The --

BALDWIN: Why are they not being put in use? Sorry for interrupting. Why aren't they used?

MCGEE: Not at all. I think the answer is very simple. I think it's cost. This is an old issue in the airline industry, cost versus safety, this benefit issue.

But as I pointed out in Yahoo! News last week, with -- the National Transportation Safety Board several years ago recommended that there be cameras in all commercial airline cockpits in the United States.

The Federal Aviation Administration took that under advisement and then said, no, we're not going to require that.

We've seen this, time and again, that technology exists to do things better and then the cost factor comes in.

We also heard from the FAA in 2010 that GPS should be on board every airliner in the United States by 2020, and now we're hearing that we're behind schedule. It's only 2014.

BALDWIN: We're also hearing about the -- you know, we talked so much about the black boxes and the battery life, the 30 days, and apparently, there have been changes so that some are mandated 90 days.

But, unfortunately, this plane didn't have that kind of battery, so all that we're learning and all that could change and perhaps not, as you point out, because of cost.

William McGee, author of "Attention All Passengers -- The Airlines' Dangerous Descent and How to Reclaim Our Skies," sir, thank you.

MCGEE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Want you to now take a look at this Australian ship, because it's equipped -- speaking of all the technology -- it's equipped with some of the fanciest stuff here from the Navy, the U.S. Navy.It has just left the search area a couple of hours ago.

So, coming up, we will take a closer look at what's on board and how it could help find the elusive black boxes.

Plus, a series of earthquakes rocked part of California and now some experts are concerned it could activate one fault line, this fault thrust, in particular, and if that happens, one expert says it could lead to $250 billion in damages.

We'll talk to him, next.

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BALDWIN: Southern California is counting up the damage from a weekend of quakes that startled people for two straight days.

You had these three earthquakes rocking the L.A. basin within this 24- hour period, and one word seismologists are using to describe this? Unprecedented.

Look at the map. The earthquakes happened along the Puente Hills thrust fault line. So this is this rectangular rod area that runs up through Downtown L.A. and west toward Hollywood and Beverly Hills.

So, when you consider that, the danger here if a major quake -- and I'm not even saying the big one that everyone is talking about -- but a sizable one that strikes along this fault line, this is an example of how far it could spread.

And the damage and the loss of life in the heart of Los Angeles could be catastrophic.

Joining me now to further examine this is Dan Vergano, senior science editor for "National Geographic," and also joining me is Chad Myers, here in studio.

But, Dan, first to you, it sounds like maybe you're in agreement with some of these seismologists in this unprecedented, frightening kind of category. Tell me why.

DAN VERGANO, SENIOR SCIENCE EDITOR, "NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC": This fault is sitting with its western edge on Downtown Los Angeles, so it's one that people have been worrying about.

We only really figured out what was going on with it in 1999, so it's still sort of new to the seismologists and they're figuring out.

But when they saw how close it was to Downtown L.A., their attention got up. So, when they see these quakes now, people are saying, oh my gosh, this is a warning of a very dangerous quake that could come.

BALDWIN: How big -- and Chad I'm getting to you in a minute, but how big would a quake actually have to be to cause some pretty serious devastation in Downtown L.A.?

VERGANO: Right. We're talking about a magnitude-7.5 quake, which hundreds of times stronger than the one that just hit on Friday.

That would cause shaking over a 25-mile wide strip of the quake, stretching from the San Gabriel Mountains to Downtown L.A. It would cause a lot of damage.

BALDWIN: Chad Myers, show me what you have here.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Two different kind of slip-strike or thrust-fault quakes that are out there. This is in three-dimension. You can have a little bit of this, and a little bit of that.

What we're used to is an earthquake where the land slides, one way or the other. It slips.

BANFIELD: These are your plates.

MYERS: This is the chop saw that I just did about 10 seconds ago.

BANFIELD: Thank you very much.

MYERS: So, that's how it happens in a slip-strike like the San Andreas fault.

BANFIELD: OK.

MYERS: What we had here was a -- think about now this in the vertical because it was thrust upward.

So no longer now are we just here where these buildings in a regular quake do this. In this one the buildings would do this.

And if you shove those buildings two feet up, they don't have the ability to absorb him as well as the shake back and forth as they're made to wiggle and wobble.

BALDWIN: But, Dan, it's one thing, I guess, to have this 5.1- magnitude, what we got on Friday. It would be quite another as you talk about a 7.5 or more.

But the thing with earthquakes, as I suppose with tornados and other things like that, is they're really not -- you don't get a heads up, correct?

VERGANO: That's correct. There was a -- there's a demonstration, early-warning system that gave about four-seconds of warning to Pasadena.

But, yeah, I mean, it starts shaking very quickly, and this is a populated area where this quake was centered on. So, it's happening right now. A lot of people live there, and it could be dangerous.

BALDWIN: And just quickly, in terms of mitigating potential problems, I know some of these buildings have been retrofitted, but that couldn't really withstand something of the magnitude you are talking about, correct?

VERGANO: It depends on how the earth moves. There is a lot of retrofitting, and people need to be prepared for a quake, and people in L.A. get these warnings all the time, but they really need to take this as a serious warning. BALDWIN: OK. Dan Vergano, "National Geographic," thank you, sir.

And, Chad Myers --

VERGANO: You bet.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

From Ukraine to North Korea, big stories from the overseas, but here we are. It is March 31st. Does that date ring a bell?

Not just the day that Jake Tapper is returning from vacation, but, indeed, it is actually the ObamaCare deadline, and wouldn't you know it? There are, Jake Tapper, issues with the Web site?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: There were this morning, and I was on just a few minutes ago, and it was being used so much you were asked to wait in line in the queue.

So, there have been some problems, but the White House says they are trying to work them out as much as possible.

BALDWIN: OK, so, given that, how is it looking so far?

TAPPER: The originally stated goal was 7 million by this day, by the end of this day. They will get more than 6 million. They achieved that last week.

It's unclear if they will get up to 7 million with the Web site problems. We should point out this is the number of people who are enrolling. We don't know whether or not they have paid their premiums or will necessarily pay their premiums.

And we also don't know if the percentage works out in terms of healthy people, some of whom are called "young invincibles" who will pay for the older, sicker people who are signing up. We also don't know those details, but hopefully in the coming weeks, we'll find out more.

BALDWIN: OK, I know you'll have more on that on your show.

Just quickly, did you have a nice vacation with the fam?

TAPPER: We did. It was a lot of fun. We were swimming with the kids on the beach, Puerto Rico, very beautiful.

BALDWIN: Good deal.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts in just a couple of minutes. Good to have you back, my friend.

TAPPER: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, finding the black boxes could really hold the key to the mystery of Flight 370, so the U.S. navy is sending some of its most sophisticated technology to help with the search.

It's on this boat which left for the search area just a couple of hours ago. Keep in mind it's nighttime in this part of the world here.

What exactly is this equipment, and how does it work? How could it find the black boxes?

We'll explore that, next.

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BALDWIN: College basketball, the Final Four is set today after a series of pretty exciting games over the weekend.

So, your bracket, how is it looking? Couple of lower seeded teams making deep runs, but can the Cinderellas keep their alive?

You can find out. Final Four airs this weekend on our sister network, TBS.

Seventh seed U-Conn takes on the overall number one seed, Florida. Florida has won 30 games in a row. Last team to beat them? U-Conn, back in December.

And the second game, eighth seeded Kentucky faces Wisconsin, a two seed. The winner of each game, as you know, plays a week from today for the national championship in Dallas, Texas. I'll be there.

Back in two minutes.

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BALDWIN: Australia's prime minister didn't shy away from what he sees as the truth about Flight 370.

Tony Abbott said today all evidence suggests the plane went down in the ocean and everyone onboard was lost.

He also gave an exclusive interview to CNN's Atika Shubert, where he insisted that Australia will find the plane if it can be found.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY ABBOTT, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: The effort is ramping up, not down. We'll have more aircraft in the sky tomorrow. We've got more ships in the area. So we are ramping this effort up.

We owe it to the families of the 239 people on board. We owe it to the anxious governments who want to know what happened to their citizens. We owe it to everyone who travels by air and wants the skies to be safe.

We owe it to the whole world, which has been transfixed by this mystery now for some time.

We owe it to everyone to find out as much as we can, and that's exactly what Australia is doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: Australia's prime minister, Tony Abbott, there.

For now, any chance of finding Flight 370's black boxes may depend on this ship. It's called the Ocean Shield. It's carrying this cutting- edge detector that can pick up those faint pings broadcast by those black boxes.

And CNN's Will Ripley watched the Ocean Shield begin its journey, and he explains why there is no guarantee it will be successful.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are heading away now from Garden Island, off the coast of Western Australia, where the Ocean Shield just moments ago began its three-day journey to the search zone in the Indian Ocean, where it will attempt to locate the wreckage of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.

This journey and what's going to happen is really unclear, and here's why

This ship has a lot of crucial technology on it, technology that could be the key to solving this mystery

There's a black box locater, a giant underwater microphone. that is towed behind this boat, listening for the sound from the in-flight data recorder and the cockpit-voice recorder.

But the problem is, that giant microphone, as powerful as it is, it can only hear from about a mile around, so we have to be within a mile of the black box to get a signal

And with only about a week of battery life left and still no clear leads as to where 370 may be in this massive Indian Ocean, the technology pretty much will be useless unless we can narrow down that information.

There's other technology on this ship, as well, an underwater drone that can scan the ocean floor looking for debris.

But again, even that technology can only cover about 50 square miles a day, and when you're talking about a search area that's well over 100,000 square miles, the task of finding this is still too difficult, even for technology like this.

But nonetheless, the journey for the Ocean Shield, now underway, the hope, if this ship can be positioned in the Indian Ocean, if we can get it close to the area, and then if one of the search planes or one of the search boats spots some debris, something that's connected to Flight 370, this ship will be ready to help solve the mystery.

Will Ripley, CNN, off the coast of Western Australia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Will Ripley, thank you so much. Coming up next, a couple on board that plane had just gotten married. The groom apparently saved up for his first trip abroad, and so, CNN sat down with their family for an emotional look at the couple's final days and the worst moment since their disappearance.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Dozens of Chinese family members visited a temple in Kuala Lumpur, lighting candles, meditating, and praying.

Families are asking Malaysia to apologize, arguing that without direct evidence, Malaysia had no right to announce that the plane had crashed.

But for the family of a pair of newlyweds on board that plane, all they can do is pour over the couple's wedding photos, waiting for news and praying for a miracle.

Here is our CNN senior international correspondent Sara Sidner.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This was supposed to be the happiest time of their lives.

Newlyweds Norli Akmar Hamid and Mohammad Razahan Zamini were on their way to their honeymoon in Beijing.

Zamini was particularly excited because, after saving up for a whole year, he was taking his very first trip abroad with the woman he adored.

MOHAMMAD SAHRIL SHAARI, FAMILY MEMBER: First time going outside the country.

SIDNER: The first time they had been on a honeymoon, cousin Mohammad Sahril Shaari said.

The honeymooners never made it to their destination. Their plane left on March 8th, Flight 370, from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

He was so excited to go. He was already on the plane. It was just a matter of reaching his destination. I just feel so helpless, he says. We really don't know and we have never experienced these things before.

Shaari says that he's been to every family briefing, listened to every detail, and felt every bit of heartbreak as the days change to weeks without any signs of the missing plane.

When we met you, you were smiling and talking with us. How do you stay so positive during all of this turmoil?

SHAARI (via translator): It is difficult. We look happy on the outside, but we're dying inside. Only God knows what's inside of me.

He says one of the worst days for the family was this day.

NAJIB RAZAK, MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER: It is, therefore, with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, Flight MH-370 ended in the southern Indian ocean.

SIDNER: Malaysian officials then informed the families all lives were lost.

But a few days later, the acting transportation minister talked about the remote but to be chance of finding survivors.

HISHAMMUDDIN BIN HUSSEIN, ACTING TRANSPORTATION MINISTER: I'm always hoping against hope and I'm praying and if there has been any remote manner has always been to find for survivors.

SIDNER: Who do you believe?

SHAARI (via translator): I prefer to believe Mr. Hishammmuddin because he has vowed to carry on searching until we find this plane while the prime minister says the plane ended in the Indian Ocean.

Though, he didn't say it crashed or anything like that, leaving a lingering hope that this marriage did not end in tragedy.

SIDNER: Sara Sidner, CNN, Kuala Lumpur.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALWIN: That is it for me. I'm Brooke Baldwin here at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. Thanks for watching. See you back here tomorrow.

In the meantime, "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.