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Real Last Words Revealed from Mh370; GM CEO to be Grilled about Recalls; Obamacare Enrollment to Reach Seven Million; Victim Families Speak Out on GM Recall

Aired April 01, 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: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.

Right now, the "Ocean Shield" is on the way to scour the southern Indian Ocean to try to find debris from Flight 370. Actually it's going to try to find that -- those black boxes and the pingers. Officials are racing against the clock because the batteries on those black boxes begin to run out on Saturday.

In the meantime a new report is raising questions about whether search crews wasted critical time looking in the wrong place because of poor coordination.

CNN's Paula Newton is live in Perth, Australia, with more on that. Hi, Paula.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Carol. Yes I mean without the coordination when you are looking at this kind of an effort, some of the efforts can go to waste. And according to a "Wall Street Journal" report, that's exactly what happened. You know Carol if you remember when they first decided that after that turn, Flight 370 was likely to have gone south as opposed to north, that's when they isolated it to the Indian Ocean.

But for several days, they looked in the wrong area and then they moved the search significantly. Why? Because apparently two specialized teams looking at the area just didn't talk to each other.

You know Carol the man in charge right now, chief coordinator, Angus Houston, former chief of the defense staff here, he's going to make sure that doesn't happen again. He's trying his best to really coordinate this international effort.

But I want you to hear him now on his thoughts on this search going forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGUS HOUSTON, CHIEF COORDINATOR, JOINT AGENCY COORDINATION CENTER: I have to say in my experience and I have got a lot of experience in search and rescue over the -- over the years, this search and recovery operation is probably the most challenging one I have ever seen. (END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: You know and listen to him there that's quite a reality check. Having said that, again we are just a few hours Carol from the crew and the pilots getting their briefings for yet another day of searching and many here hope that given all the assets out there, that they will be able to find something, finally identify something from Flight 370 -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Oh, it makes you think, though. "Ocean Shield" won't arrive to the search zone until what, Thursday. The batteries on the black boxes start to die on Saturday. What are officials there saying to you about the window of time they have to find the pinger?

NEWTON: Well, let's start with the fact that the search area for "The Ocean Shield" and Blue Fin 21 that drone -- underwater drone and for that towed pinger locator to find the black boxes, the search zone has to be about 1,000 times smaller than it is right now.

But Carol again people who will be in command of those kinds of assets on the "Ocean Shield" telling me look the pinger could last longer. It's supposed to last at least until Saturday but maybe longer. The point here Carol is that we are really entering a critical phase of this search in the next two or three weeks. This is really their best shot at having a look what's -- on what's in on the ocean surface and then trying to see if below, there will be traces of Flight 370.

COSTELLO: Paula Newton, reporting live from Australia this morning. Thank you.

Malaysian officials are defending their handling of the investigation even as a just-released transcript shows "All right, good night," were not the final words from Flight 370.

CNN aviation correspondent, Richard Quest, live in New York to talk about that. So let's talk about the full transcript first, totally innocuous. Nothing really shocking in it, right?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Here it is the transcript that they released this morning right the way down to from the moment that delivery into air traffic control said good morning right the way through to the hand over between Malaysian air traffic control and Vietnam, some two hours later.

There is -- and there is all the words, tower Malaysia 370, contact Ho Chi Minh 120.9 Good night. The correct read that should have been, "Ho Chi Minh 120.9 Good night Malaysia 370." But the truncated version is fine. It happens it's not the end of the world by any means in aviation.

But unfortunately in this case, it has created questions of why it wasn't said properly. Who was saying it? We thought it was the co- pilot, the first officer. They said that originally. Now, Carol they are saying they are not sure who it was.

COSTELLO: Well wouldn't that be an easy thing to determine? QUEST: No, no, not really because you are talking about listening. Well, let me go back on myself there. You should know who was doing the radio transmissions, because that would have been the pilot not flying, PNF, and we believe the PNF was the first officer.

So yes, it should have been Fariq Hamid. But over the radio, you would have to listen back to it and you would have to work out whose voice it was. So yes, they can work it out that way. And when they go back and actually listen to the tape.

COSTELLO: Well surely, they have done that.

QUEST: Yes. And I'm guessing. I was talking -- if you look into this, sometimes it is quite hard to hear exactly who was speaking particularly on a poor quality transmission. But we believe, because the airliner which you said that it was Fariq Hamid.

COSTELLO: OK, so the reason -- a big reason this full transcript was released, because the families have been putting so much pressure on Malaysian authorities. Might these families continue to pressure the Malaysian authorities? Might that force them to release other things that would give us insight into what happened to this plane?

QUEST: Yes I think -- I think the transcript wasn't released, according to the authorities in Malaysia, because it was part of the criminal investigation. And I think it was part of the criminal investigation, because they also in the statement this morning went out of their way, somewhat gratuitously to throw in the fact that they still believed the turn and all the actions thereafter were deliberate.

So they are obviously still very concerned and they are deeply looking at the mechanisms and reasons why this person made these turns. This wasn't the plane out of control. This was somebody physically turning the aircraft either physically on the yoke or physically on the autopilot. But it was a very concentrated, deliberate action by somebody controlling the aircraft.

And that is why they said they didn't release the transcript. I have to tell you, I've looked back at other investigations. And you may get a feeling of what the transcript says. But you don't always and quite rarely get a printed copy of the transcript within a month or three of a crash.

COSTELLO: OK so I'm going to ask you this question, even though it might be silly. Is it possible that Malaysian authorities are farther along in their investigation than we think they are?

QUEST: I think they are discounting and they are eliminating possibilities. And if you look at that, you've got to look at it as building a case. Now the case goes as follows. You've got the plane. You've got the turn.

You've got the fact that it looks deliberate. And now, you've the fact of all the other factors on top of it. And so you start eliminating what you don't know. The flight simulator the air traffic control handovers (ph) any of the debris, all these things you eliminate from the situation.

So they -- I don't think that they've got some great got you piece of evidence. In fact we know that they don't. They have said that there is nothing that they are keeping back that is particularly material. They've said the Australians said yesterday on Wolf Blitzer's program, they said, we don't believe there is some smoking guns somewhere that we have not been told about.

And not listening, Carol, just to what the Australian was saying in Paula Newton's report, this is by far and away, the most difficult and complex that anyone has ever seen.

COSTELLO: Richard Quest, thanks as always.

Still ahead in the NEWSROOM, how the perfect honeymoon has transformed into 25 days of agony for the family of one young couple aboard that flight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: General Motors facing criticism for waiting more than a decade to recall cars that had a fatal design flaw, 13 deaths are linked to faulty ignition switches in 2.2 million vehicles. GM's CEO is testifying on Capitol Hill. Later this afternoon but just moments ago victim's families spoke to reporters to demand change. They want answers.

CNN's Poppy Harlow live on Capitol Hill to tell us more. Good morning Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Good morning Carol. This press conference, it went for about 40 minutes, just wrapped up. It was kicked off by a number of lawmakers. You heard from Senator Blumenthal of Connecticut, also from Senator Ed Markey, calling frankly for a victim's fund to be set up. Also calling on GM to take all of these cars off the road, not allow people to drive them until they are fixed, frankly. That is something that GM has not done yet.

But then we had a chance to hear from the family members. People that had lost loved ones, some of them wearing T-shirts saying, "protect our children" and also holding pictures of the loved ones they lost. We do know up to this point that this ignition switch failure caused at least 31 frontal accidents and 13 deaths. That number could go up.

I want you to take a listen to some sound from Samantha Denty, this is a 20-year-old from Toms River, New Jersey, who just spoke at this presser about driving one of these cars that they believe had this ignition problem and just how traumatic going through this experience twice for them was. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMANTHA DENTY, OWNER OF RECALLED GM VEHICLE: When my mother and I decided that this car was surely a death trap in the game of what if and what again, we are not ones who are willing to play anymore. Driving this car was like playing a game of Russian roulette with my safety and that of my friends.

I can't begin to explain the fear and confusion that runs through you that moment you have no control over your car. I cannot comprehend the loss that these families are going through. My hope is that the horror stops right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: A few important things to know. First of all, Mary Barra, who is the CEO of General Motors. She has been in office there at the helm of the company for just about three months. She will testify at 2:00 p.m. today but she met with victims families last night. I'm told by General Motors, about 20 family members she met with in a room at General Motors office here in D.C. last night. They are not releasing details of that meeting but we do know that they met.

I can also say that GM has come out and apologized numerous times for this saying that they will accept responsibility. In terms of the testimony, we are going to hear from the General Motors CEO today. We do have some of the prepared testimony. She will say, "I cannot tell you why it took years for a safety defect to be announced. But I can tell you that we will find out."

The bottom line, lawmakers on this House committee want to know why General Motors knew about this problem as early as 2004 and did not come forward with that information until a decade later. Also, facing some tough questions from lawmakers today will be the acting director of NHTSA, basically the government agency that is tasked with protecting people on the road -- that hearing kicking off here in just about three hours' time.

COSTELLO: Yes, the National Transportation Safety Board is supposed to protect us from things like this, correct? Something went wrong there. Maybe we will find some answers later this afternoon. Poppy Harlow reporting live from capitol hill.

The deadline for sign up of Obamacare has come and gain. Jim Acosta at the White House -- parses the numbers for us -- Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol. The President will be speaking later today on the latest enrollment numbers in Obamacare. I'll explain why coming up in just a few moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We'll get back to the investigation of Flight 370 in a minute.

But first, the deadline has passed to sign up for health insurance without facing tax penalties. Not before last-minute high-profile plugs. There was President Obama's "Between Two Ferns", funny or die video with that guy from "The Hangover". Vice President Biden's do it for mom plea on Rachel ray and celebrity tweets reminding people to sign up for Obamacare.

Jim Acosta is at the White House with the numbers and what's behind those numbers. Good morning, Jim.

ACOSTA: Good morning Carol -- that's right. they are feeling pretty good over at the White House this morning. That might be the understatement of the day. And mainly because you will recall, Obamacare, or at least the Web site, exploded on the launch pad back in October. They were having major problems with the Web site. The President almost pulled the plug on it and thought they should go with a different Web site all together. They got it fixed and got it going and got people signing up.

And as of this morning, the administration officials are saying, they believe that Obamacare will hit the original target of seven million people signing up this week. How did they do it? A lot of it through social media, like you mentioned, Carol. Keep in mind, just yesterday, they had 4.8 million visits to healthcare.gov. Two million calls to the call centers that they had put up.

But they also had, the administration officials doing dozens of interviews, 300 radio interviews in the last six weeks including 80 from Valerie Jarrett, the senior White House official. Those web videos, like "Between Two Ferns" attracted 30 million of views in the last several weeks and then a hundred of celebrities and athletes were all tweeting support in the last days leading up to this, you know.

You name the celebrity. That celebrity was out there doing it. Lebron James and so on. Add it all up and you have the president giving a statement in the rose garden later on this afternoon at 4:00. This is an impromptu thing. They just set it up to tout this new enrollment news. They are feeling pretty good about it over here at the White House especially given those dark days back in October and November -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Jim Acosta, reporting live from the White House, thanks. I'm back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: After being in a flight simulator for countless hours as part of CNN's coverage of the missing plane, Martin Savidge, maybe he is ready for a pilot's license or at least break.

Jeanne Moos has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's been glued to this flight simulator, ordering sharp turns --

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Taking off.

MOOS: -- and steep descents.

SAVIDGE: Set us down, kind of a dive.

MOOS: For so many days since someone started #freemartinsavage. The phrase was transformed into the shape of an airplane. Someone tweeted, "Blink three times if you're being held against your will."

SAVIDGE: Don't worry.

MOOS: Martin and the actual pilot sitting beside him have demonstrated alarming situations.

MITCHELL CASADO, PILOT TRAINER: The plane would be breaking apart at this point.

MOOS: But even the serious subject matter hasn't stopped a public fascination with the plaid shirts Mitchell Casado always seemed to be wearing. Mitch's plaid shirt even started its own twitter account.

CASADO: The plaid shirt thing, that's not me, man. Only by force, I was wearing them.

MOOS: Encouraged to cover up the white T-shirts he prefers. A pilot trainer with two bunnies for pets. A guy who's gun-shy about being on TV. Normally, the Canadian new-fly simulator is rented out by novices for fun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bask in the sensation of being in the cockpit of a Boeing 777.

MOOS: And by pilots for practice at a rate of $150 bucks an hour until CNN rented it out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is our world.

MOOS: But there's one scenario CNN wouldn't show: a simulation of a plane actually hitting the water.

SAVIDGE: It was so disturbing, that we both agreed we would never show that on the air.

MOOS: There were repeated demonstrations of a plane running out of fuel.

CASADO: And it will fall tail first into the ocean.

The aircraft begins now to just plummet. The ocean is here, and I think we'll stop it right there, because the rest of it you get.

MOOS (on-camera): So what do they do between live shots? Some days they have hours of time on their hands.

SAVIDGE: Well, I always wanted to learn to fly.

MOOS: Mitchell has been teaching Martin. The machine can simulate landings at 24,000 airports. So far, Martin has landed at airports ranging from Paris to Akron, Ohio.

SAVIDGE: Climbing. Is that right? I'm descending rather -- sorry.

MOOS: Mitchell, talking him through it. Martin took off from a simulated Toronto airport and minutes later managed to return and land there without incidents.

SAVIDGE: And the thrusters.

MOOS: After 14 to 18 hour days simulating disaster, it's a nice break to simulate a happy landing.

SAVIDGE: Thank you for flying Martin and Mitchell airlines.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: I'm going to miss Mitchell. Marty will be around forever.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. "@THIS HOUR" with Berman and Michaela starts now.