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Search for Flight 370 Now Underwater; Comparing 370 to Air France 447; Mother of Iranian Passenger of 370 Suffers in Germany; CNN Hero Helps Impoverished Californians Eat Healthy

Aired April 04, 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: The search for Flight 370 has just become a 24-hour underwater operation, so as we come to you here, right now, new, advanced U.S. devices are scouring the ocean floor.

Unlike eyes in the skies, those visual spotters and satellites, these devices can work through the night. There's a clicking. That's the ping. That's what they're listening for here.

But with no one knowing for sure where this plane is in that massive ocean and the pinger batteries on the flight recorder is quickly running out, this is being called by investigators or by some searchers a shot in the dark.

But a big question today is, how exactly did officials shift their focus to area?

CNN's Tom Foreman joins me here from the Virtual Room to map this out for us. Tom?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is all, Brooke, as it has been for some time now, based on conjecture.

If you look at the general search area, and I bring in what has changed over the past 17, 18 days, look how these search areas have changed, change, change, change, change, change, change, change, change.

Really, the real question is not how they wound up in this latest spot, but what has made them jump around day to day to day with such certainty? Why do they feel like now they should go underwater?

We do know they're underwater, and we know that this is a much different operation than before, much more limited in terms of the towed pinger, the thing that's listening for the pinger down there.

It's got to get pretty close, within a couple of miles even in good conditions to possibly hear this out in all that ocean. That is very a tiny target.

And even if you talk about the other device, this robot device which goes down, they're going to tow that through about a half a football field above the ocean floor. So, down here, this would be about 150 feet to the ocean floor here. It can create a map of the floor here by taking sonar images to either side, but, again, limited range, Brooke.

So this is very high-tech. These are excellent tools, but they have a very limited range. So this does signify a significant change in what they're trying to do out there.

And the pinger may be out, the pinger may never have operated or may be out in a couple of days, either way, a very different way of looking, much slower, much more methodical.

BALDWIN: OK, Tom, thank you so much.

I just want to the stay on this, because last hour, we talked quite a bit about the crash of TWA Flight 800 off of Long Island and the lessons learned finding that wreckage back in 1996 or some time after.

But right now, we'll examine Air France 447 which crashed off of Brazil in 2009. Floating debris was spotted within a week, but the parts of the plane, the wreckage, including those two recorders, eluded discovery for some two years.

Joining me now from Washington is Steve Wallace, former director of the FAA Office of Accident Investigation, and Steve is very familiar here with the search for this Flight 447.

So, Steve, welcome and thank you so much for coming on. You know, I found myself really reading a lot about Air France today, because it's interesting how they really missed it initially.

But based upon the science, some years later, they found it. They didn't use the pings. And, in fact, you say the pingers might never have worked in the first place. So remind us how they found that plane.

STEVE WALLACE, FORMER DIRECTOR, FAA OFFICE OF ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION: Well, you know, this MH-370 search is just so many times more difficult, because when Air France went in the water, all the data transmission, things like the ACARS, the transponder, that was all working, (inaudible), sending messages through the ACAR.

So they had a very good idea of where it went in the water, and they found debris and wreckage of the aircraft and some human remains just within a few days. So they knew quite precisely where it was.

I think ultimately the French authorities, a very competent accident authority, the VAA (ph) over there, concluded there were serious questions of whether the pingers ever worked on Air France.

But as Tom Foreman pointed out, you're going through a huge amount of area with a fairly small and slow-moving swath, so this is an enormously difficult search, and I would also add, everything is still on the table as to the cause.

Every criminal and mechanical theory is still on the table, whereas in Air France it was narrowed a lot more quickly than that.

BALDWIN: But with 447, with Air France Flight 447, they didn't find actually find the wreckage for another two years, the black boxes, one month after that, and that was because of the submersibles, right?

We keep talking about the towed pinger locator in this current situation, but those were the submersibles who somehow finally found it, right?

WALLACE: That's correct. And I think -- you know, I talked to some real experts on that ocean recovery -- that was the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute unmanned, side-scanning, radar vehicle that they said it got a little bit lucky there, because the terrain was fairly mountainous on the floor and the wreckage was apparently sitting out in kind of a flat spot, so they got it on a side-scanning sonar.

What does that tell us about this current situation? Sometimes a tremendous amount of persistence and a little bit of luck.

So I -- the pingers are not the ball game here. The pingers are important. Obviously they're coming to the end of their nominal battery life. I don't think anybody's going to give up when the pingers expire.

BALDWIN: Yeah, I think we're about to see a storyline and search- strategy shift.

I was talking to our aviation correspondent and saying, with Air France, I think it was the last time, the final time they were looking for that plane, and they found it, to your point about luck, sir.

Steve Wallace, thank you so much for joining me.

WALLACE: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: We will have much more on the missing plane, coming up, but next we have a story a lot of people are talking about today, grumbling about in some cases, praising perhaps.

This baseball player goes home to be with his wife for the birth of their baby. Sounds innocent, right?

A couple of sports radio hosts say he shouldn't have missed opening day for baseball, and one even suggested he should have told his wife, honey, get a C-section, and then I need to play ball.

It's got a lot of people are fired up, including my next guest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: OK. Let's talk about this story that taps into the all the conflicts we're familiar with, men versus women, work versus family, individual versus group.

Sportscaster Boomer Esiason apologized today for his comments about a paternity leave taken by New York Mets baseball player Daniel Murphy.

Esiason and his talk show co-host were talking about the fact that Murphy missed opening day and another game because his wife was giving birth.

And I want you to notice Esiason hesitates -- play this for you -- he hesitates just a little bit. Look at his eyes, look at his face as he says the words that have really gotten him in trouble, and his apology follows that.

Roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRAIG CARTON, HOST, "BOOMER & CARTON" RADIO SHOW: Assuming the baby is fine, 24 hours, you stay there.

Baby's good. You have a good support system for the mom and the baby. You get your (inaudible) back to your team and you play baseball.

I'm like, Are you kidding me?

BOOMER ESIASON, HOST, "BOOMER & CARTON" RADIO SHOW: Bottom line, that's not me. I wouldn't do that.

CARTON: You get back and play Game Two, right?

ESIASON: Quite frankly, I would have --

CARTON: Go ahead.

ESIASON: I would have said C-section before the season starts. I need to be at opening day.

I'm sorry. This is what makes our money. This is how we're going to live our life.

This is going to give my child every opportunity to be a success in life. I'll be able to afford any college I want to send my kid to because I'm a baseball player.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ESIASON: And I apologize for putting him and his wife in the midst of a public discussion that I basically started by uttering insensitive comments that came off very insensitive. So, for that, I apologize, and that's really all I can do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joining me now, CNN digital correspondent Kelly Wallace who wrote an opinion piece reacting to that on CNN.com.

And, Kelly, say what? KELLY WALLACE, CNN DIGITIAL CORRESPONDENT AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE: El footo in el moutho, right?

You were so perceptive, though, to notice, because it does -- it wasn't as if he got -- let's give him the benefit of the doubt --

BALDWIN: Credit to my segment producer, Tina Kim. She said, Brooke, look at his face.

WALLACE: It wasn't like he went on the show and said, My God, this guy, get a C-section, Daniel Murphy's wife.

I mean, he kind of went into it, but what he said is what he said, and that's why people like myself were outraged, which was, schedule the C-section, get the baby's birth scheduled so that I can get on with opening season.

And I think, whether you're a CEO, whether you're a baseball player, whether you're a school teacher or a janitor, I think we all took offense to that sentence that you can schedule major surgery that requires weeks to recover because of convenience. That's the outrage.

BALDWIN: Honey, I'm making the big bucks, you need to handle this and get your -- let's have a baby before I need to play some ball. Yeah, that wouldn't set very well with me, I tell you that much.

But I will say this that there are people, women included, with that power of choice these days, right, to voluntarily go into the doctor because of the technology and everything that we have, if we know the baby's going to be OK, and say, all right, Tuesday, 8:40 a.m., C- section works for me. Done. People are doing that.

WALLACE: Yes. And although I think, talking to doctors, you know, they're doing it less and less often.

I mean, you know, the medical experts have come out and said you really cannot have a baby induce or have a C-section before 39 weeks or else you have great risks for issues of prematurity, so no longer are they doing elective C-sections before 39 weeks.

And most of the doctors say they're not going to let someone come in and say, you know what, I want to do it on Tuesday, 2:00 p.m., let's go for it, unless there are some medical reasons behind it, the size of the baby, the age of the mother, if you had a previous C-section.

So, that sense that it's just happening a ton for convenience, people say it's not really true.

BALDWIN: But you do have to wonder how many conversations are being had in an age where we're like, on our phones and busy, busy, busy, and people are, whether it's the wife saying to the husband, honey, this is the most convenient for me, this is when I'd like to -- if they can -- have this child, or the husband saying, you know, I've got to leave this conference, I've got to be in Austin, can we work something out, not saying, demanding the C-section.

Do you think that that might be happening, and what kind of feedback are you getting on your piece?

WALLACE: The feedback is overwhelming. People are outraged, as you said, men, women, all across the board.

A lot of objection and outrage about it, but there's a lot of support, too, I have to say, Brooke. There are people who think Boomer was right, and that this guy's making a ton of money and that maybe he should have, been there for the birth, but then he should have gotten back for the next game. So there are some supporters out there.

And it is a world where we try to control everything, right? We try to do that. The sense I'm getting from the people I talked to is, because of medical reasons, there's a movement to really move away from that and try and have a natural, vaginal delivery, if you can, because a C- section comes with, you know, recovery and its own kind of risks, as well.

BALDWIN: I'll take your word for it. Haven't been there yet.

Kelly Wallace, thank you very much.

And I should mention, you know, we tried booking a man, a man who supports this, and we got crickets.

But check out Kelly's piece online. Go to CNN.com/living.

Next, an emotional story here about a mother whose son was on board Flight 370. He was, actually, one of those Iranian teenagers who was initially suspected in the plane's disappearance because he used a stolen passport to board the plane. Remember that storyline early on?

He has since been cleared. His mother says he was trying to leave to help her battle cancer, and she talked exclusively to CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: One mother is enduring an additional layer of suffering in the search for Flight 370, the suggestion that her son might have had something to do with the plane's disappearance.

Here is CNN's Sara Sidner.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This mother is tormented by the words she saw used in conjunction with her son, terrorism and suspect.

She has asked us not to show her face for fear her family will be harassed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My son isn't a bad boy. He wanted to study. He wanted to work and he wants to be freedom.

SIDNER: Her eldest son is Pouri Nourmohammadi, initially suspected in the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The Iranian teenager and his friend managed to board the flight with stolen passports. Investigators later determined they had nothing to do with the flight's disappearance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I thought maybe they caught him in airport.

SIDNER: Were you hoping that they had caught him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

SIDNER: It turns out Nourmohammadi was trying to leave Iran quickly to be with his mother who has cancer. She needed his help.

Because he is 18-years-old, she couldn't bring him to Germany legally, where she is awaiting refugee status, along with his younger brother.

So, Pouri decided the quickest way to get to his mom was to use a stolen passport.

Did you think that you were going to die? Is that why you wanted him with you and he wanted to be with you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. That sickness reminds me all the time, short time. We have short time.

SIDNER: Shorter than she could ever have imagined.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To lose your son is hard for every mother, but I am here alone.

SIDNER: She can't travel to Malaysia to be close to the investigation and information like the other families of other passengers aboard Flight 370. She is also still undergoing cancer treatment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These three weeks is -- was more difficult than the rest of my life. I need to know what happened.

SIDNER: After reading our story about her eldest son online, she decided to reach us via Skype.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that you understand me. I think you hear me. I appreciate you.

SIDNER: Thank you.

A mother with no support system at home, crushed by the burden of waiting to find out what happened to her first-born son.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: And she says just because her son did something wrong, that she should not have to pay for it by not being given any information from anyone.

She hasn't heard from officials. She's simply been getting information, scouring the Internet. And she says she's just like any other mother who lost a son or a daughter on that flight, and she hurts just as much.

Brooke?

BALDWIN: Incredibly powerful. Sara, thank you for sharing.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This week's CNN Hero chooses to live in one of California's most impoverished community to bring health and wellness to people who so desperately need it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARAH RAMIREZ, CNN HERO: Pixley is a small community located in the central part of California.

We are in this agriculturally rich area and yet people who live here and work here are hungry, are impoverished.

Some are working in the fields that feed the entire country and then they don't have the resources to support them and their health? It's heartbreaking.

I can't just watch that and not wonder, is there something more that we could do?

What we do is we glean mostly from backyards. Today, we're looking at a glean of about 6,400 pound, and that's incredible.

My husband and I grew up in Pixley. My parents, they worked in the fields. I had family members who died at very young ages due to chronic diseases like diabetes.

For those of you that are high school students --

Looking at these issues of poverty and obesity, we were trying to figure out how do we provide our resource for our communities and our homes.

We actually have a component in our garden that's a you-pick area, if your household needs some fruits and vegetables.

We really try to teach how to use what we're growing.

I want to grow old, and I want to grow old in a healthy way, and I want that for everybody.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: All these awesome stories we get here at CNN.

By the way, each week, we honor a new CNN Hero, someone could be in your neighborhood, making a difference, so if you'd like to nominate someone you know, go to CNNHeroes.com -- CNNHeroes.com. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Have a wonderful weekend.

Stay right here, though. My colleague Jake Tapper begins with "THE LEAD" in Washington.