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Flight 370 Search; Four Weeks Since Jet Vanished; No Audio Released; Job Market Picks Up After Winter Slowdown; Underwater Hunt Covering 150-Mile Track

Aired April 04, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, guys. Thanks so much.

NEWSROOM starts right now.

And good morning, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me.

We begin the hour in the southern Indian Ocean where the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has now moved underwater. A critical piece of equipment has finally joined the hunt this morning. The Australian ship, known as the Ocean Shield, and on board, a U.S. Navy pinger locator, which is battling the clock in a bid to find the plane's black boxes. The batteries for those pingers are expected to fade starting tomorrow. And on the surface, teams continue to look for any debris related to that missing jet. The man in charge of coordinating the mission says there is still a chance that something will be discovered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGUS HOUSTON, CHIEF COORDINATOR, JOINT AGENCY COORDINATION CENTER: I think there's still a great possibility of finding something on the surface. There's lots of -- lots of things in aircraft that float. I mean, in previous -- previous searches, life jackets have appeared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And a total of 14 planes and nine ships are scouring the search area today, which totals some 84,000 square miles or roughly the size of Idaho. The specific region, about 1,000 miles off the western Australian coast. Well, CNN's Will Ripley is there and he has more on the conditions faced by the teams.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, after a day of fair weather in the search zone where we saw somewhat low clouds but calm seas, we're starting to now see light rain here close to the coast of western Australia and the weather in the search zone 1,000 miles from here, very unpredictable as well. But the good news has been for searchers today visually, they weren't seeing those white caps over the waves. The white caps that can be so distracting when you're trying to spot objects and you can't tell if you're seeing the top of a wave or you're seeing debris.

The search continues 24/7 now. Even though the planes have flown home for the day, the ships that are in the area, specifically the Ocean Shield which is towing that pinger locator, the British submarine and then the British ship, the Echo, which is sending out sonar signals, that search, the sonar search underwater is continuing throughout the night and will continue, we're told, for the next 10 to 12 days. They're going to be listening as long as possible just to see if there's any chance they can detect some sort of ping from the in flight data recorder from Flight 370.

Here's the problem though, the search zone is still massive. It needs to be at least 100 times smaller than it is right now for this equipment to effectively zero in on a signal. But we just don't have answers as to where any confirmed debris may be.

Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Will Ripley, thank you so much.

And despite the challenges involved in that underwater search, the U.S. Navy's top ocean engineer says that he's confident that the U.S. pinger locator being used by Ocean Shield can get the job done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPTAIN MARK M. MATTHEWS, OCEAN ENGINEERING DIR., U.S. NAVY: I'm confident in my equipment. This terrain is not as mountainous as other terrain is, so you can relatively adjust the search depth as you need to. It's a gradual change more than, you know, a drastic changes. So I have confidence in our equipment and our ability to tow the system at the optimal depths.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: CNN's Paula Newton live in Perth, Australia.

Well, Paula, the families definitely want that confidence, that's for sure.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. You know, in speaking to one family member here, Danica Weeks, she is the wife of engineer Paul Weeks. Kyra, very sadly, he was on his way to Mongolia on a mining job. He was on Flight 370. He didn't make it home. Can you imagine the fact that here Danica Weeks, she's just ten minutes from this base. She's been watching all of this unfold. She says she's confident that if there's something to be found, they will find it.

I think like all of us though, Kyra, she just echoes the question, are they really looking in the right place? And through all this uncertainty, the fact that no one has any idea how it ended up. I mean listen to her talk to me about how, you know, her feelings get all confused when you start thinking about the fact that they have no idea what happened to this plane. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANICA WEEKS, HUSBAND WAS ONBOARD FLIGHT 370: I still have a slight - slight hope, you know? And sometimes I catch myself, you know, seeing the excitement of him coming home and I have to - I have to get rid of that out of my brain quickly because I can't let myself go to that level of excitement because it would only -- it's only going to make me crash further when I find out the real truth, which we're all expecting will be that the plane has crashed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: You know, torture going through this. I mean, when she describes in terms of talking about the search and everything that's being done, you can imagine how difficult it is. I mean, Kyra, she's got two young boys. You know how they can keep your spirits up. She's doing as well as she can. But she feels as -- terms of speaking for all the family out there, they want something to be found as soon as possible. They're very hopeful now that the search has moved underwater.

PHILLIPS: Paula, you talked with the U.S. Navy's top ocean engineer. We heard from him right there saying that he's confident. But there has to be challenges also. What did he tell you?

NEWTON: Well, you know, he's been very blunt with me for the entire week as we've been going through this. He's happy to get the towed ping locator in the water. He's got that, you know, underwater robot as well, the blue fin, out there. But, you know, I asked him, Kyra, I said, is this a shot in the dark? And he actually said, yes, Paula, that's a good way to characterize this.

Obviously that doesn't come with a great sense of confidence, but all they're working with is those last pings from that flight and they're very blunt about the fact that they have no clue. This is the first time that's really happened where they have absolutely no clue really in that search zone where that plane could have gone down. And so right now they're doing the best they can.

But a frustrating situation all around. This search, though, Kyra, has entered a new phase. And what Commander Matthews is looking for now is a little bit of luck.

PHILLIPS: Yes. Paula Newton, thanks so much.

Well, the families of those on board the missing jet are increasingly frustrated with Malaysian officials. CNN has learned that authorities denied their requests of recordings of the communications between the cockpit and control tower. Now, on Tuesday, the Department of Civil Aviation put out the transcripts of those recordings, but not even the pilot's families will get to hear them due to the investigation process. CNN's Sara Sidner is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

So, how would letting the families hear the recording hinder the investigation, Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, investigators are simply saying this is part of an active investigation, and just like there in the United States, when there's an active investigation, they're looking at certain things, they do not want to release this to the families, not to anyone. You just mentioned just there, they're not even releasing it to those who would be able to recognize very quickly who exactly made that very last communication, the pilot and copilot's families, to show you how close to the vest they're trying to keep this recording.

But I do want to explain to you why the families want to hear this so bad, because there is a huge and widening trust deficit with authorities here in Malaysia, both the Chinese families and Malaysian families who are here are trusting the government less and less, and they want to hear it and see it for themselves. And part of that is because of some of the discrepancies that have come out. It's been now almost four full weeks since this plane went missing on March 8th. The families are very frustrated because the information keeps changing.

And I'll give you an example. And this is one that the families have brought this up. They say, look, at first they heard from the civil aviation department that the last words coming from the cockpit were "all right, goodnight." That is what they told the families. That is what they told the world. A few weeks later, you look at this transcript that was released by the Department of Civil Aviation and it was something different that was last communicated from the cockpit. It was actually, "goodnight, Malaysia 370."

So the families look at these small things and right now all they have is the details. They don't have the answers to the two things they want to know the most, and that is, where is this plane with our loved ones and why did it go missing? Who was at fault or was this an accident? They don't have those answers. They are desperately seeking those answers and they want every bit, even the smallest detail of information to try to decide for themselves instead of being told by the authorities here.

Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Yes, Sara, point well made. Thank you so much.

Let's talk more about this, shall we? Joining me, CNN aviation analyst and former NTSB managing director Peter Goelz.

So, Peter, let me ask you, OK, we've got these transcripts, so why can't we get the audio?

PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, that's been perplexing from the beginning. If it were the United States, the FAA releases these kinds of tower transcripts promptly following an accident. And it does raise the question of what else is on the tape that the Malaysians don't want others to hear. The reality is, the -- this investigation has been mishandled from the beginning and there is no trust between the family members and the authorities. None.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. So, Peter, do you think they could be hiding something then by saying, sorry, no recording? That there actually could be things that have been deleted from those transcripts?

GOELZ: No, I don't - I have no idea. But what you'd want to hear is, at the very end, when the pilot was signing off, were there any other noises? Was there -- could you hear perhaps the cockpit door opening? Was someone else in the cockpit? You know, what voices were taking place? But in any case, this has just been, you know, a pattern of mishandling and the Malaysians are paying the price.

PHILLIPS: Can I ask you, you know, even with all this data and even the U.S. -- you heard the head of the U.S. Navy there who's on this search operation, you know, what's the reality of really finding something today as they go underwater with these submersibles?

GOELZ: Listen, this is -- this is a long shot or a shot in the dark. I mean -- that would be an uptick. This is extraordinarily difficult. Unless they are acting on some degree of, you know, classified information that is directing them to this location, this is a day of futility. The pinger can only pick up one mile, one and a half miles to either side. The vessel can only travel at three to five knots. It is painstakingly slow. You only put it in the water once you have a good idea where the pinger is. This is, unfortunately, an act of desperation during the final days that the pinger is emitting its signal.

PHILLIPS: Appreciate you putting it in perspective.

GOELZ: Sure.

PHILLIPS: Peter Goelz, always great to talk to you. Thank you so much.

GOELZ: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: You bet.

Much more on the missing jet search still to come. But first, 192,000 jobs added to payrolls last month, but were they the kind of jobs that can help rebuild the American middle class? We're going to talk about that next.

After a bit of winter hibernation -

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Here's a little bit of a winter hibernation, but the job market is definitely waking up this spring. That's good news. The latest jobs report shows 192,000 jobs were added to payrolls last month, leaving the unemployment rate unchanged at 6.7 percent. But more importantly, marking the return to pre-financial crisis unemployment levels for the private sector.

What does it all mean? That's why we go to chief business correspondent Christine Roman in New York and also our Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange.

Christine, let's start with you and take us through the headlines.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, Kyra, you nailed it there. You know, you've got the thaw from the spring and even we found out that January and February were a little bit better than we had thought ahead of time. So, you've got 192,000 jobs created last month, 197,000 the month before. Little bit better than we thought in January. So, the weather wasn't as quite as terrible as many had been expecting. And you look at the unemployment rate, 6.7 percent. You know, you want to see that coming down. Basically, I would say it's a slowly healing labor market and it's almost like goldilocks for the stock market right now -- and here's why because these numbers aren't so disappointing that you think it's going to hurt business, right? Businesses are going to suffer, their stocks are going to suffer.

But it's also not strong enough that the fed can really take its foot off the accelerator too quickly, right? So, it's just right, right here. That's why I think you're seeing stock futures up a little bit.

When you did within these numbers, you saw temporary workers increase, 29,000. That can be a sign that maybe companies are going to add to their payrolls down the road. They hire temporary workers, Kyra, first, before they go in and hire permanent workers. You saw the work week a little bit longer. They tend to add hours before they add new workers.

So, these are little tiny tea leaves that we read to say maybe things might accelerate going forward.

Now, I'll tell you something -- one economist told me, look, these are mediocre numbers consistent with an underperforming economy. Another said, this is consistent strength across a lot of the sectors. So, there you go.

Two completely different looks at the same set of numbers, and that's what always happens every month.

PHILLIPS: Well, what about Wall Street, Alison? How is Wall Street looking at today's numbers? Let's just add one more opinion.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're seeing the same dichotomy that Christine is looking about. You're seeing that here on Wall Street.

So, I've got traders telling me, look, these jobs report is more reflective of the economy as a whole. It was good, but not great. The economy is doing good, but not great.

Yet we see stock futures up before the bell rings up 60 points. Overall, it looks like for the moment Wall Street giving a thumbs up to this jobs report.

By the way, if it gains hold the Dow could hit the highest mark of the year. We shall see. So, let's go back to the jobs report. The way Wall Street sees it, it's not outstanding, 192,000 wasn't as good as expected.

Also, how much people earned at their workplace, it fell. So that's not a good thing either. Also the number of jobs ticked lower from February.

But on the other hand, the way Wall Street sees it, it's also not a terrible report. The number of people looking for work or the number of people who have jobs, that went up. All private sector jobs lost to the recession. They've been gained back. So, all in all, steady as she goes. It is improvement but many telling me five years out of the recession still not good enough -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll keep tracking it, Christine and Alison, thanks so much.

Still to come: no signs of debris from Flight 370 as that search for the black boxes goes underwater this morning.

Martin Savidge live with Mitchell Casado in the flight simulator -- Marty.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kyra.

You know, one of the things that people have been talking about now, if there's no debris, maybe the plane landed intact in the water? We'll show you at least one scenario that might work coming up.

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PHILLIPS: It's been nearly a month now to the investigation. Still no credible signs of where this plane might be. And searchers have been looking for debris, but what if the plane didn't even break apart?

CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest says that the lack of debris suggests that it might be possible that the plane hit the water and stayed somewhat intact.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: The lack of debris on the surface either means they are completely in the wrong area or the plane entered the water and remained substantially intact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: CNN correspondent Martin Savidge and pilot Mitchell Casado join me live inside the flight simulator in Canada.

So, what are the thoughts, you guys, between you two with what Richard had to say?

SAVIDGE: Yes, we've actually talked about this, Mitchell and I, and it is actually possible for a plane to get down near the water. It's the last final feet.

Let's show you a way this might happen. We'll set it up here so that the aircraft, we're going to shut the engines down and simulating in essence the engines running out of fuel.

We want to show you something that's rather interesting. It's the way the aircraft is engineered because for this scenario the engines are spooling down, there's no way to gain altitude. You have to go down. We've taken the auto pilot off, right?

So, just give us an indication we know we're no longer going up.

MITCHELL CASADO, PILOT: We know the engines are dying here because you can see it on the display. Everything is rolling back. All these numbers are decreasing which means the engines are basically dying and soon enough they will stock completely and we'll be in a glide toward the water.

SAVIDGE: So, it's the glide part we're talking about here, Kyra. And that's warning us we're getting down to around 2,500 feet, but notice without doing anything, we're not touching any of the controls, Mitchell does not have the auto pilot on, this plane is level. It's steady. And it is descending.

What's the rate of descent?

CASADO: We're descending at 2,000 feet per minute.

SAVIDGE: That's the way the plane was engineered. With no one at the controls, with the auto pilot off, it is meant to fly level and it is meant to descend gradually as best it can with the nose up attitude.

But here's the issue, what happens when we get down to the water?

CASADO: When you get down to the water you're going to want somebody in control because the plane should be as slow as possible. You want to be putting some flaps down and go ahead and pause it for me so we don't get --

SAVIDGE: We're going to hit the water if we don't do this. You want to make sure you don't have the landing gear down. Of course you want to be landing this plane in the water.

CASADO: Right.

SAVIDGE: For it just to glide into the water it doesn't work, why?

CASADO: No, because the wind is going to affect it. It's going to throw it off balance a little bit. If the wind hits the water it will slew in. Nice and level, maybe some flap, reduced the angle of incidence, which is the body angle, slowest as possible on top of the swell. That takes a hand.

SAVIDGE: But if that were done, as we've already seen with the miracle on the Hudson, Kyra, you can have an airplane that survives intact with people on board.

Again, we have no idea if that really happened.

PHILLIPS: So, you guys were saying 2,000 feet per minute, right?

SAVIDGE: Yes, roughly.

PHILLIPS: OK.

SAVIDGE: That's the problem when you hit the water, that's too severe.

PHILLIPS: OK, that is too severe and there's no way you can have a soft landing and that plane not break apart if you're talking 2,000 feet per minute?

SAVIDGE: Right. But if you have someone at the controls who would, of course, level it off, eased it back, slowed that descent once you got down towards the level or got down to the water, in theory this plane could be set down in relatively good shape.

CASADO: You have an 88 percent chance of surviving a water landing. You have a greater chance of dying in the water if you have someone at the controls who levels the plane, keeps it -- you know, a pilot who's flying it to the water.

SAVIDGE: Controlled landing, yes.

PHILLIPS: Thanks for taking us inside the cockpit, once again, guys.

Martin Savidge, Mitchell Casado, thanks so much.

We'll have much more on the plane search still to come.

But, first, what happened to the Fort Hood shooter before he went on the rampage. George Howell following the investigation for us -- George.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Investigators are looking into a verbal altercation along with a list of several other factors that could be important. I'll update you on all the latest live from Fort Hood, Texas, next.

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