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Hope Still Floats for MH 370; Ebola Virus in West Africa

Aired April 12, 2014 - 16:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

A message of confidence in the search for missing flight 370, it came from the Australian prime minister who said today, the four signals detected over the past week are huge step forward but with the optimism comes caution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY ABBOTT, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: It is numerous, numerous transmissions recorded which gives us the high degree of confidence that this is the black box from the missing flight.

I don't want you to underestimate the difficulties of the task still ahead of us trying to locate anything 4 1/2 kilometers beneath the surface of the ocean, about 1,000 kilometers from land is a massive, massive task.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Search crews are trying to find that signal again before they take the next step. The prime minister said it is fading rapidly.

On Saturday, 14 ships and 10 planes were involved in the search focusing on an area roughly the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut. We're covering this story from around the world. Matthew Chance is live for us in Perth, Australia, and Joe Johns is live with us in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. So Matthew, let's begin with you, what is the latest on the search efforts in the Indian Ocean?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's still continuing, Fredricka, about 1,000 miles off the coast of western Australia. Details are pretty thin in terms of what they found in terms of concrete developments but it seems they're still continuing overnight with their search of the under water situation to try to find it, find, try and detect any further pings coming from underneath the water, coming from those beacons on the black box flight recorders.

And so far there hasn't been anything in the past four days. But nevertheless there's still very much at work at this. The search area has been reduced further to 16,000 square miles as you mentioned, which is significantly less than it was, for instance, a week ago but it's still a vast area of ocean which the search teams are still currently looking in closely to try and find any trace of this missing airliner, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Matthew Chance, appreciate that, in Perth. Let's go to Kuala Lumpur now, that's where we find our Joe Johns. So Joe, what are you hearing from the families after these latest developments from the Australian prime minister and his real optimism?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, to be honest, the families are not saying much. There's not a lot of willingness to accept the conclusion that their loved ones are dead, despite what the government has said about being lost, they are waiting for evidence. They've been through this before. This hope of resolution, to the mystery and each time that hope has just disappeared.

Still, many of the Chinese families who were here have already returned to China. The Malaysian families are still here in this country, of course. And the government has said it will make arrangements to fly them to Perth, Australia, but only after the wreckage - some wreckage is found that is conclusively linked to the missing plane.

Once they arrive in Australia, we're told, the plan will be for them to set up a minimal base there and await further information from the authorities. Basic compensation is already being paid out. $5,000 a passenger to help with the financial strain on the families. Of course, those numbers are expected to go up if there is any confirmation of a crash. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, Joe Johns, thank you so much.

So, will the families get closure any time soon for their loved ones? I want to go to now Miles O'Brien, a CNN aviation analyst. Good to see you, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Hello, Fred.

WHITFIELD: OK. So, you know, the shrinking of this search area, how encouraging is it to you? We are still talking about 16,000 square miles.

O'BRIEN: Yes, and we have to remember that this area that they're searching for debris is based on trying to figure out ocean currents over more than 30 days. 36 days now I guess it is. Using the location where they believe those black boxes are based on the pings and trying to figure out where the drift would take that debris. And that's a hard thing to predict. I mean, the oceanographers are good at predicting these currents and they feel pretty confident that they're in the right place.

But, remember, shortly after the plane went missing, a cyclone went through there. And who knows maybe they are searching in an area where there is no debris, and, of course, there is the possibility that the plane just went in intact.

WHITFIELD: And do you think that's a high probability? I mean, is it just seeming to be the case that it went intact simply because there is no debris? O'BRIEN: Well, this is just so extraordinary -

WHITFIELD: Yes.

O'BRIEN: -- to be on the pingers and not have even a seat cushion come to the surface, so we're all kind of scratching our heads a little bit on this one. But, you know, I suppose it is possible, if you check the cease date on the day that the plane went missing, it was a very benign day on the seas. So the swells are not too high. It wasn't like the glass that we saw on the Hudson River when Sully Sullenberger brought that US Airways flight down, but with the right technique a successful ditching can be accomplished.

The Boeing 777 is a hardy aircraft and a skilled pilot could pull it off if they flew just the right way either parallel to the swells or on the back side of a swell. So, you know, you can't rule it out, put it that way.

WHITFIELD: So now we understand there has been no sound of the pinging in some four days and of those four pings that was within a 17-mile area. So, is it your feeling that at this juncture it's only wise that a submersible be used to try to locate any kind of debris or wreckage, et cetera, because it's unlikely we're going to hear or they are going to hear another ping given the battery life, expected battery life?

O'BRIEN: Well, my gut tells me we're not going to hear any more pings. We're past the, you know, the 30 days plus engineer margin time for those batteries. I think they'll probably give it a go a few more days because the minute you start using that blue fin device, the underwater autonomous vehicle that has the sonar, everything slows down so dramatically. Six times slower to cover the same, you know, piece of turf in the ocean. And so they want to just run this to ground, if you will. And then begin that process, but it's just going to be a very slow and for the families excruciating process.

WHITFIELD: Excruciating indeed, because to hear one expert put it earlier, he said to cover a 100-square-mile area it may span five months' time and we're talking with 16,000 square miles. This just seems like an endless search.

O'BRIEN: Well, let's be clear. Because that 16,000-mile area that's the search for the debris. The area where they're actually searching for the pingers is a smaller area. But it's still many months of work. So, we have to - we have to kind of brace ourselves collectively and the families in particular have to understand this. And I hope they're being well informed about the realities of this, that, you know, we're talking about as if this device could be used every day consecutively.

There's a lot of weather concerns, there's technical problems, you know, for every day that they get - they're under water, they lose a day for various reasons. So, it's a slow, laborious process. And it's not going to happen as quickly as we all hope.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And do you worry that while you have a dozen countries that are committed right now that as time elapsed, many of those countries will simply drop off because of the resources or do you feel like once they're in it, they feel like they have to stay for the long haul?

O'BRIEN: Well, I'm hopeful that they stick it out until we get those black boxes identified and pulled to the surface. You know, when it turns into a salvage operation which will go on even much longer, who knows who can stick it out and whether it becomes, you know, sort of a private endeavor. You know, the real question is if the black boxes, the flight data recorder, the cockpit voice recorder, don't have answers for us, there's going to be tremendous pressure to bring up significant parts of the aircraft. And that will be some task.

WHITFIELD: And what would jeopardize that message, a corrosion issue or simply because of the way in which the material is recorded over itself?

O'BRIEN: Well, let's assume that the black boxes are fine and intact and they work fine. The cockpit voice recorder captures the last two hours on a loop. This was a seven-hour flight and whatever happened the event which caused it to turn around is most likely not captured on that cockpit voice recorder unless somebody pulled a breaker. So, there's that.

We don't know what happened the last two hours of that flight. Is anything on there? Any conversations? Any statement, who knows? The flight data recorder which captures about 80-plus parameters of the aspects of flight, the control surfaces, the fuel burn, the power, you name it, it's all there. If it - if it reveals that the airplane was working perfectly well, then we know it was a deliberate act.

But we still don't know who because there's no black box inside a human being, right? So, that could leave us still with many unanswered questions which could require going down and seeing, you know, what's in the cockpit. Who's in the cockpit? That kind of thing. Is the cockpit intact? There's a lot of questions, so there's many, many questions that stretch out for quite some time I'm afraid.

WHITFIELD: Gosh, hard to believe 37 days in and really we still are kind of at a starting point.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Miles O'Brien, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Good to see you.

O'BRIEN: You're welcome, Fred. My pleasure.

WHITFIELD: All right. Aircraft will soon continue looking for any debris from Flight 370. We'll get a live update right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Aircraft will be taking off again in just a few hours to continue searching in the Indian Ocean for flight 370. Four pings were detected under water in the past week, but while there's optimism the pings are coming from the black boxes, officials haven't been able to confirm that or find any debris.

Joining me now Air Commodore Kevin McElvoy of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, so he's deeply involved in this search. Air Commodore, good to see you.

AIR COMMODORE KEVIN MCELVOY, ROYAL NEW ZEALAND AIR FORCE: Likewise.

WHITFIELD: So in a matter of hours your planes will be back up in the air, yes? How many, and what's the mission?

MCELVOY: So, it's 4:00 in Perth at the moment. The first aircraft takes off at 6:00 and there will be a total of eight search aircraft and another three communications aircraft until about 12:00.

WHITFIELD: And then what is the difference between the missions of the search versus the communication aircraft?

MCELVOY: So, the search aircraft will be typically something like the (INAUDIBLE) or C-130 Hercules aircraft that will be specifically either designed or fitted out for search and rescue, able to go the long distances and stay out there for a long period of time, so it's an endurance thing as well as specially fitted with specific seats.

Whereas the communications aircraft such as the Australian Airforce Witch tail aircraft will be up listening and making sure that the aircraft in the vicinity are all deconflicted. So, largely operating as a traffic advisory for the aircraft.

WHITFIELD: So, then, as it pertains to the search aircraft it can go the long haul to the endurance aircraft. How high above the water surface is it able to go? So, I guess I'm going in the direction of how much someone is able to see floating on the surface.

MCELVOY: Yes, so it's always a balance when you are searching between the area that you're trying to cover and the rate at which you cover it. So, so for a visual search you need to be down a lot lower, so the crews will be between sort of 250 and 1,500 feet depending on the weather conditions. For a higher search, you can use some of your other senses such as your radar. So, the crews will be probably down in the vicinity of sort of 300 to 500 feet today, undertaking that primary visual search.

WHITFIELD: So, a couple questions, then, how's the weather, and then how many people do you have on board these aircraft to, you know, look out the windows and try to take pictures or document what or isn't being seen?

MCELVOY: So, largely the crew numbers will depend on the mission. Sort of 12 to 14. But we'll cycle our observers. We'll have some specific observers. There's special windows fitted to the orion which are essentially a bubble window that you can stick your head right out of and get a really good view of the ocean. So, it's a long flight.

It's about three, 3 1/2 hours, gives about three hours in the area itself. So, one of the issues is just controlling the fatigue of the crews over the sustained period not just of that flight, but this is day 37 of the search, so it's, you know, the key for us is to make sure that we're flying at a rate which we can sustain operations.

WHITFIELD: And then how is your crew holding up? I mean, talk to me about that fatigue factor especially given that, you know, the conditions as long as the conditions are good for flight, it still means it's very tough, it's very tenuous to look out into the water and try to spot anything.

MCELVOY: So, the weather is actually playing the game at the moment. We're quite lucky with that. It's suitable for a visual search still, but the worse the weather obviously the harder it gets for air crews because it's just an added factor.

We got a reminder yesterday from the commander of the task group there around making sure that we stay vigilant because often with these types of sustained operations, complacency can creep in and it just becomes like another day at the office. It's the last thing we want. We want people to keep focused, not just to the search itself but also to ensure the safety of the people in the aircraft and all those other aircraft around.

WHITFIELD: All right, Air Commodore Kevin McElvoy of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.

We'll have much more of the ongoing search for this mysterious disappearance of the Malaysian Flight 370.

And the Masters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We'll have more on the mystery of Malaysian flight 370, but first we want to take you to another part of the world where for the first time the deadly virus Ebola has emerged in West Africa. It's happening in the coastal nation of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Mali four decades after striking other parts of the continent.

The World Health Organization said this time Ebola has sickened nearly 200 people and killed more than 100 and more deaths are suspected or confirmed in Sierra Leone and Mali.

CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in the Guinean capital and Sanjay, it's been a while since we talked about this, nearly four decades. Why is it back? What's going on?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, there have been outbreaks in between. The first outbreak that people really put this on the map was back in 1976 along the Ebola River, which is where it got its name. But there have been outbreaks over the years, and no one knows, Fred, exactly where it comes from, why it comes, and where it goes after the outbreak has ended.

So, there are a lot of mysteries around this Ebola virus, and I think that's part of what strikes so much fear into people. Also you gave some of the numbers there, but the mortality rates in some of these outbreaks have been as high as 90 percent, so that's something we're going to be talking about on the program today, Fred. WHITFIELD: OK. Now, Sanjay, your journey has been remarkable. You're in a place where many are trying to flee. In fact, we have a photograph of you where you're one of the only ones on this plane. That had to be fairly unsettling, or is that what you expected?

GUPTA: You know, I've never covered an Ebola outbreak before, Fred. I've covered lots of different types of stories, you know, wars, natural disasters even other infectious disease outbreaks but I think there's something about Ebola that really does again strike a lot of fear into people. So being on a plane that's basically empty, coming into the city of Conakry here and the hotels are basically empty. You know, I think that's all part of it. There is a panic component to this as well, and I think that's part of the challenge, in addition to taking care of patients, isolating patients, making sure it doesn't spread further, a lot of the mission of these doctors here is to make sure the messages are getting out about how people can keep safe and some of that's fairly straightforward and something that we've learned over the last couple of days that we're going to share with people.

WHITFIELD: So, since this is the first time this has really taken place in West Africa, that means doctors, health officials don't have the experience with this virus, maybe not even the resources. So, what are you observing about how they are trying to handle this outbreak?

GUPTA: It's really fascinating, and you're absolutely right. While you've had outbreaks in various parts of Africa, not here in Western Africa. That raises some concerns, but you also have teams of people who have done this before from the Centers for Disease Control, the government here asking the Centers for Disease Control to come in, the World Health Organization, and Doctors Without Borders, MSF, they are here as well, and they set up these footprints fairly quickly, Fred.

We are in the capital city again, but people who are coming here for their health care, they set up areas where they can get isolation. They know how to do this. But, again, part of it is going into the area where this virus emanated this time and try to figure out what caused it and how to stop it.

WHITFIELD: All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much. We'll see you in about seven minutes or so from now with Sanjay's special live report on Ebola. It's coming up at 4:30 Eastern Time, "Sanjay Gupta, MD" reporting from the West African nation of Guinea.

All right. Big shifting of gears now, we're talking about round three of the Masters golf tournament in Georgia under way right now. Let's check in with Lara Baldesarra, live for us in Augusta. OK. So, Lara, what's going on?

LARA BALDESARRA, CNN SPORTS: Hi, Fredricka. Well, the course is playing very, very tough today. It seems as though if you try to take anything from this course, it's going to take a few shots from you and that's what we're seeing now.

Bubba Watson entered into the third round as a huge leader. He had a four-stroke lead, but we're seeing that that's starting to be chipped away at a little bit now. The last check of the leader board Bubba is two over through five holes and brings his total to five under. He teed off about two hours ago. And it's not really that he's playing poorly it's just that the conditions are incredibly tough to deal with.

We're seeing the greens really firming up, making them a lot faster, and we've actually just seen Bubba Watson three-putt for the first time in a lot of holes at the Masters. Now another player we were keeping our eye on is Fred Couples. Fred Couples is an older player. He's 54 years old, but he always seems to be a mainstay on this Masters leader board, it's just a tournament that he plays ridiculously well, let's put it that way.

But the real question is with Fred Couples in recent years is how is he going to do through the weekends? We've seen him fade in the past two years and we might be seeing that a little bit of that now. At last check of the leader board with him, he was two over through eight holes bringing him to even par.

Now Adam Scott who is the defending champion he's actually having a bit tougher of a time out there. He was off to a great start through his first two rounds, but right now he's four over through seven holes for a one over total.

So Fredricka, he certainly has his work cut out for him. But I do want to say that right now it's all about positioning for Sunday. The leader today might not necessarily be the lead - the winner of the Masters come Sunday evening, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh, anything can happen. Fred Couples, we'll call you the seasoned player out there on the greens. How about that? All right, Lara, thank you so much.

All right, the "CNN Newsroom" continues at the top of the hour.

But right now keep it right here for a special live edition of "Sanjay Gupta M.D." next, right here on CNN.

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