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Flight 370 Cockpit Transcript Released; GM CEO Apologizes

Aired April 01, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And here we are, top of the hour. Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Day 26 in the mystery of Flight 370, and finally some transparency from Malaysia. We have learned that officials are planning to meet with families to explain the technical side of the investigation into this missing plane and answer questions about what led them to believe that this plane crashed into this very specific spot down in the Southern Indian Ocean, this as they also released the transcript of what was said between the cockpit crew and air traffic control the night this jetliner vanished with 239 people on board.

And as far as aviation experts and officials are concerned, what was spoken here is nothing out of the ordinary, but mystery still surrounds that left turn, that veer off course, a source telling CNN today that Malaysian officials believe the plane's rerouting to the west was a deliberate, and to quote them, criminal act.

As for the search itself, 20 planes and ships have been scouring what we hope is the right place in the Southern Indian Ocean.

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AIR CHIEF ANGUS HOUSTON, JOINT AGENCY COORDINATION CENTER: This could drag on for a long time. But I think at this stage, it's very important to pursue the leads, I will call them leads, the evidence that is being presented to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The slow case of the search, though, it's frustrating for those families. But the people in charge of it are warning all of us that it will take a long, long time.

Let's go straight to Perth to correspondent Kyung Lah, 3:00 in the morning where she is there, and more on this search.

And here we have another day. No confirmed plane debris. No satellite images. What are searchers telling you? How confident are they in this strategy?

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They're reasonably confident that they're looking in the right area and that the emphasis all along has been reasonably competent.

Remember, all of this is based on estimates, and you may remember late last week, the search area which was further southwest, was moved northeast about 700 miles. So it's constantly evolving, constantly changing. But there are a large number of governments here. The resources are continuing to go up.

And the prime minister of Australia has said that he will not let up on this search. And he intends to throw as much at it as possible until they can try to bring some of these families the answer. Brooke, but, certainly, again, this is based on satellite imagery, math, a lot of technology, but so far, no debris from this missing plane -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: And again just to remind everyone, we know that this ocean shield, this vessel heading out there has this TPL, this towed pinger locater 25. That's what we will be listening for those pings once they find the debris and know exactly where to look.

But, a , Kyung, remind all of us how many days we have before the juice in that black box, the battery juice is gone.

LAH: Just like estimates on the search, estimates on the battery life as well. It will take about -- now about two to three days before the ocean shield reaches the search area. But you have got to find the debris before you can even use what's being described as the U.S. Navy's large hearing aid in order to hear those pings from the black box, so no debris, no usage of this device.

And then there is a window. The battery is guaranteed approximately 30 days. That's approximate. It could last another 15 days beyond that, perhaps even longer. But, again, these are all estimates. So there is a ticking clock here, Brooke. Everyone hears it. The search crews are well aware of it. And they are trying to find it.

BALDWIN: Kyung Lah, in the middle of the night where you are in Perth, Australia, Kyung, many thanks to you.

And, again, nothing unusual, that is the ruling from Malaysia on this cockpit transcript from Flight 370, but the change in the wording, more than three weeks into this search for this missing plane really raises all kinds of questions about how Malaysian officials have handled the investigation itself.

Let's bring in Captain Kit Darby, retired United Airlines captain.

Great to see you back in here.

Listen, we learned the change in a few words from the "All right, good night" to what they actually really said, and now we have this two, two-and-a-half-page transcript. Nothing sinister, according to airline officials. You agree?

KIT DARBY, RETIRED COMMERCIAL PILOT: Yes, ma'am, normal business.

BALDWIN: Wow.

DARBY: I hear a flight late at night, perhaps a few shortcuts in the communication, which would be typical when it's quiet. I don't see a thing that stands out.

In fact, that's what's remarkable is that there's nothing that stands out. We went from a perfectly normal flight one moment to a left-hand turn, perhaps a descent and six hours in the wrong direction. So it's very confusing.

BALDWIN: Let me get to that left-hand turn in a second, what we're hearing from Malaysian sources.

But it's one thing to read a transcript, right? It's quite another to actually hear the audio. Two ways, correct me, two ways to hear audio. One is perhaps buried somewhere deep in the Southern Indian Ocean within that cockpit voice recorder, which they're hoping to find with the pings. Two would be the air traffic control audio between the cockpit and ATC, which the ATC would have, correct?

DARBY: They would. In this case, there's two audios. There's one from Malaysia and the handoff to Vietnam. They would have audio with nothing on the main frequency.

There are reports that another aircraft, which was typical, was asked to contact this plane. And they established contact, but got no useful information after simply establishing the contact. In fact, the guy that made the call said he was sure he was talking to the co- pilot, which makes sense. He was handling the radios. So we can't verify that yet, but there should be recordings on both ends of this. Both Malaysia and Vietnam should have recordings.

BALDWIN: But when they're listening to recordings -- we don't have the recordings, but you have to believe they have those recordings and they're listening to them. You can hear a lot more than the conversations, right? You can pick up all that other stuff.

DARBY: Background noise, inflection, urgency, many of those things are easily discernible on the tape. Regrettably, they're not sharing that information.

BALDWIN: OK. The left-hand turn. We know that Nic Robertson, one of our senior international correspondents, he has sources within Malaysia and they're calling this veer off course a criminal act. Again, I go back and I'm constantly saying, listen, they know so much more than we do.

But what possibly would they know to make that leap now? When I heard criminal, that was new.

DARBY: Yes. I can't go there.

BALDWIN: You're shaking your head. I'm looking at you shaking it.

DARBY: I can't -- could be. Someone outside the cockpit or someone inside the cockpit can be making a criminal act. Or the pilot could be wrestling with a problem, returning to safe harbor, and I believe descending to protect himself, his plane and his people. We don't know whether we have a hero or the villain. We don't know.

We have to admit we don't have the facts to make this claim yet. Possibly criminal, but to say for sure, I couldn't say that.

BALDWIN: I don't know when they're going to find any piece of this plane. Let's say ultimately they find pieces, not the black box, for who knows how long. Will they still be able to still figure out roughly what happened, do you think?

DARBY: It's going to be tough. Even the voice recording you talk about is good for two hours. The airplane appears to have flown...

BALDWIN: That's right. It records over itself.

DARBY: It does. So now we don't have the event itself. We have what the airplane did, but we don't have the voices. Unless they tell us, unless they're talking toward the end of this flight, we may never know what actually happened in the cockpit.

BALDWIN: Captain Kit Darby, thank you very much.

And now this. Coming up, if the plane, as we were just sadly remarking on, if the plane is never found, what changes then could be made to the way we fly, really whether it is or not?

Plus, a battleship sinks in the same waters where they're looking for Flight 370 decades later. It is found at the bottom of the ocean. Hear and see how.

And moments ago in Washington, D.C., there she is in the middle of your screen, the CEO of General Motors, this is Mary Barra here, apologizing to families who believe their loved ones were killed because GM went years without issuing a recall. You will hear from one of those families coming up.

Stay here. You're watching CNN's special coverage.

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BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Right now, the head of General Motors is answering questions to Congress about a recall that one Massachusetts lawmaker calls a decade late and dozens of lives and injuries short. That's a direct quote here; 13 deaths are linked to a problem that affects some 2.6 million GM cars. Certain year Chevy Cobalts, Pontiac G5s, Saturn Ions and more are at risk of shutdown because of this faulty ignition switch that can just suddenly turn the whole car off.

Mary Barra just became GM's chief executive in January and facing what could be the biggest challenge of her career thus far, she said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY BARRA, CEO, GENERAL MOTORS: As soon as I learned about the problem, we acted without hesitation. We told the world we had a problem that needed to be fixed.

We did so because whatever mistakes were made in the past, we will not shirk from our responsibilities now or in the future. Today's GM will do the right thing. That begins with my sincere apologies to everyone who has been affected by this recall, especially the families and friends who lost their lives or were injured. I am deeply sorry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And as we were watching her earlier testifying at the top of the last hour, she made this unexpected move announcing that Kenneth Feinberg, an attorney who represented victims in 9/11 and the Boston bombings and the BP oil spill, will lead the victims compensation efforts for GM.

So, joining me now, CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin and Alison Kosik live at the New York Stock Exchange.

Alison, just first up to you, I know GM stock has actually rebounded in the last couple of days. Investors wanted Barra to take the issue head-on, on Capitol Hill and she really did precisely that. So how is the stock responding today?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, we are seeing the stock actually losing steam since Mary Barra took the hot seat on Capitol Hill. Company shares had already been losing ground when it announced this recall in February. But then, what we saw happen, investors just hit that sell button even faster, pushing the stock lower.

Now if you look at the broader picture for General Motors, shares are down 15 percent so far this year. Now, yes, the stock has rebounded in recent days, despite the open-ended question of how much money GM is going to have to shell out on these recalls.

So far, here's how things are tallying up. GM has said recalls will cost it $300 million this year, but that amount could go higher. Still, shareholders, they're not running for the exits from this stock because the automaker still has $20 billion in cash at its disposal.

That is actually a strong financial position to be in. One thing to keep in mind, though, "The Wall Street Journal" is questioning whether the government bailout that GM had, had anything to do with how GM handled this situation, because government regulators, the very people who are supposed to look out for these kinds of things, didn't investigate what was happening, even though they got these complaints.

This was around the time GM went bankrupt and the government rescued the company. So, Brooke, this does raise questions, if GM's financial situation was behind GM not taking action on this early on because of worries about the costs involved about taking care of all these cars early on -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Right. And here we have this new CEO, first female CEO of the Big Three really trying to represent the new GM.

Sunny Hostin, but this goes back, at least reports of these faulty ignition switches, at least to 2004, and correct me if I'm wrong, but really the crux of this legally speaking will be figuring out whether GM knew about this, and just ignored these problems, or whether GM knew about this and purposefully brushed it under the rug, covered it up.

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think you're right, Brooke. The bottom line is we know that in 2009, there was this bankruptcy restructuring, and generally when you have this type of restructuring under the bankruptcy laws, you're shielded from civil lawsuits.

You have this immunity from liability. Now, at this point, the question is, did they know about this during this bankruptcy restructuring, and did they then hide that? Did they not tell anyone? If that's the case, then perhaps that civil liability is still a possibility. Perhaps they don't have that immunity.

And then, it's sort of the I think this Pandora's box of legal problems, because if that is the case, then you're starting to look at criminal liability. We already know the Department of Justice has opened up some investigations. This is a real problem for GM. And I would think that what people are suggesting is listen, you have got to do the right thing. You have to be a good corporate citizen, and what you should do is start this victims compensation fund at about a billion dollars and forget about all this liability and this immunity, rather, and make sure that these victims are compensated.

And I think, to Alison's point, that certainly will help the investors have more confidence in GM because they would be doing the right thing and investors would know what that cap is. If it's a billion dollars and they have $20 billion in cash, then, as an investor, you're a little more comfortable. And so I think we heard the right things from the CEO today, which is GM will do the right thing by its customers.

BALDWIN: Yes. Yes, even though some of those customers and some of those families, whether we know they were directly impacted by this particular issue or not, they're saying, sorry, but sorry is not quite enough, but the Kenneth Feinberg naming perhaps not a huge surprise, huge name in this industry.

Sunny Hostin and Alison Kosik, ladies, thank you very much.

Next, we are getting back on the plane story, asking a question some people are wondering about this missing MH370. What happens if this plane is never found? And will this mystery change the way we fly in the future? We will delve into that next.

Also ahead, the search in the Indian Ocean has thus far turned up not a thing from this plane here. But you see these pictures. They have gotten fishing equipment, all kinds of trash, jellyfish. In fact, this area is known for ocean junk. Coming up, we will bring in an expert to explain exactly how much debris, how much muck is floating around and how much more difficult it's actually making the search.

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BALDWIN: Welcome back to CNN's special coverage. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You have dozens of planes and ships, so many hours of searching. Is it possible, though, that despite all that, Flight 370 may never be found? That reality is actually looking more and more likely as each and every day passes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOUSTON: But, inevitably, I think if we don't find wreckage on the surface, we are eventually going to have to probably in consultation with everybody who has a stake in this review what we do next.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's go straight to CNN aviation and government regulation correspondent Rene Marsh.

Rene, you heard him. If no debris is found, search teams will obviously have to reevaluate what their next step is. What happens if the plane is never found?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, that is a question that we ask as we enter this week four. And you just can't help but ask that question. What if this plane is never found?

If that is the case, there could be safety and security implications for people who fly on airplanes every day. And that's because many of the safety and security regulations that are currently in place, they came about as a result of a crash or an incident involving an aircraft.

September 11, for example, hijacking, that led to the strengthened cockpit doors. The shoe bomber, that led to shoe checks at the airport. And in 1996, if you remember, hazardous cargo on board ValuJet Flight 592, that caught fire; 110 people died in that crash when it went down in the Florida Everglades.

That crash, that led to new cargo hold safety rules. So you can see how these crashes lead to changes within the industry. But if we don't find Flight 370 or its data recorders, it really could be a missed opportunity. And as one former NTSB investigator said to me today, let's just say it turns out to be a fleet-wide problem that no one knows about. If we find out about it the next time this happens, that's not a good situation.

That's just an example of why we really would want to know what went wrong on board that plane -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Rene Marsh, thank you. Who knows? It could turn up decades from now, like this next story. This is absolutely stunning here, because in the exact same area that these crews are looking for this plane, there was a World War II battleship found more than 60 years after it sank.

So you will hear from the man who actually spent decades looking for this, and he will share how he finally found it.

Plus, the search is also putting the spotlight really on the junk, for lack of a better word, in the ocean. Coming up next, we will talk to an expert with some objects crews are seeing, like this, my goodness, in the water, which shows us really just the difficulty of spotting wreckage.

You're watching CNN's special coverage.

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