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Bluefin 21 is Deployed; All Passengers Remain Suspects; Protesters Take Over Ukraine Police Building; Police: "Raging Anti- Semite" Killed 3; What Black Boxes Revealed in Previous Charges
Aired April 14, 2014 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Happening now in the NEWSROOM.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's time to go underwater.
COSTELLO: Breaking overnight -- going to the floor of the ocean.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the best lead we have.
COSTELLO: This underwater vehicle two miles down now scanning for Flight 370.
Threat of civil war: Ukraine erupting overnight, gas-soaked toilet paper rolls used at makeshift bombs. Every hour getting more tense.
Jewish Center attack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a guy with a rifle here shooting at people.
COSTELLO: A white supremacist, on the eve of Passover, allegedly opens fire, killing three.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was asking people before he shot if they were Jewish or not.
COSTELLO: Suspect Glenn Miller under arrest this morning as a community starts to heal.
You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (on camera): Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.
After 38 days, the search for Flight 370 now moves deep under water. For the first time, a 16-foot-long unmanned submarine has been launched to scan the ocean floor for those black boxes. This new strategy will likely drag out the search a lot longer, though. This Bluefin-21 submarine takes six times as long to search as the towed pinger locater. Each mission will take 24 hours to complete. Today, the sub can only cover an area of about 15 square miles, which is about 7,200 football fields, meaning a scan of the entire search area, which is the size of Los Angeles, could take up to two months.
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ANGUS HOUSTON, JOINT AGENCY COORDINATION CHIEF: The deployment of the autonomous under water vehicle has the potential to take us a further step towards visual identification since it offers a possible opportunity to detect debris from the aircraft on the ocean floor. I would caution you against raising hopes that the deployment of the autonomous under water vehicle will result in the detection of the aircraft wreckage. It may not. However, this is the best lead we have, and it must be pursued vigorously.
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COSTELLO: And this morning, the head of the search team says an oil slick was found in the search area, but it will take several more days to figure out where that oil came from. CNN's Will Ripley has more on the new phase in the search. He's in Perth, Australia.
Hi, Will.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol.
Yes, you know, Angus Houston, at the press conference, also said that this area where the Bluefin-21 we believe is searching right now is an area that is new to man, meaning more people have been in outer space than have been this far down at the bottom of the ocean.
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RIPLEY (voice-over): The search for MH370 is moving into a dark corner of the world that, in some ways, is more mysterious than outer space.
CHARI PATTIARATCHI, COASTAL OCEANOGRAPHY PROF., UNIV. OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA: We know less about our deep ocean than we know of the moon's surface.
RIPLEY: Chari Pattiaratchi and his research team took this video in the southern Indian Ocean. The professor of coastal oceanography at the University of Western Australia thinks this is what the search zone, nearly three miles down, could look like.
PATTIARATCHI: It's dark, very cold.
RIPLEY: With pressure so intense, it crushes a Styrofoam cup down to a fraction of its size. The missing plane is believed to be 4,500 meters, nearly 15,000 feet down.
PATTIARATCHI: It's flat and it's -- the sediment is -- it's silt.
RIPLEY: The extreme conditions will test the limits of the U.S. Navy's Bluefin-21, which is beginning the slow, painstaking process of mapping the ocean floor.
CAPT. MARK MATTHEWS, U.S. NAVY: Patience. People need patience.
RIPLEY: U.S. Navy Captain Mark Matthews says just one mission takes 24 hours, two hours down, 16 hours of scanning, two hours up, another four hours of downloading data from the side scan sonar which maps out the ocean floor.
MATTHEWS: You can actually see the shapes. You kind of see the - basically the outlines of the objects.
RIPLEY: Pattiaratchi's team also took this video of what this next step, the salvage phase, would look like. Underwater robots would grab small pieces of the plane and pull them up. A ship would have to hoist up any large pieces.
PATTIARATCHI: Bottom line, it's a very, very slow process.
RIPLEY: A process that is just beginning, meaning MH370 families could wait months or even years for the answers and closure they so desperately need.
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RIPLEY: Carol, another interesting thing that the oceanographer told us is that he would be very surprised if any debris is found floating on the surface. We've been talking now for so long about this visual search area but he thinks, because of the fact that the plane went down in the area it did, where the current patterns are the way they are, plus there was a tropical cyclone, Jillian, that moved through some time back, he believes that all that debris is also sitting on the bottom of the ocean floor, which makes this underwater search so much more critical.
COSTELLO: Another question. What about the visual search efforts? With all the planes and the ships, how much longer will that last?
RIPLEY: You know, that's a good question. Angus Houston would be the man that would have the answer to that, but he did say today, he also said, just like the oceanographer, that the chances of finding any floating debris are significantly lower now. So at some point soon it's safe to say that we will see a tapering off of that visual search effort and eventually the soul focus will be this underwater search.
COSTELLO: All right. Thanks so much, Will Ripley, reporting live from Australia.
To sum of this latest phase of the search, searchers will now search an area the size of Los Angeles for those black boxes. To do that, they'll use the Bluefin-21, an unmanned submersible, a submarine. It's 16.2 feet long, 21 inches in diameter. It weighs 1,650 pounds. Its maximum speed is 4.5 knots. Not very fast. It is equipped with side scan sonar. And I want you to - I want to show you an example of the kind of pictures it takes. This is the picture courtesy of Teledyne. It shows the underwater wreckage of a ship. Now, this image was taken with better technology, but you certainly get the idea. We're going to talk a lot more about this a little later in the NEWSROOM. As the strategy shifts in the Indian Ocean, it becomes even more important to find those black boxes. This weekend, Malaysia's acting transportation minister said, until the flight recorders are located, it is difficult to clear the passengers and crew of any wrongdoing. That's not what Malaysia's inspector general of police said earlier this month.
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KHALID ABU BAICAR, MALAYSIA'S INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE: Actually, we have said earlier, only the passengers has been cleared. The rest, no.
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COSTELLO: Different story this morning. On Sunday, those were the comments from Malaysia's acting transportation minister. Listen.
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HISHAMMUDDIN HUSSEIN, MALAYSIAN ACTING TRANSPORTATION MINISTER: That is an ongoing thing. And I don't think the IGP would have meant that they've all been cleared because unless we find more information specifically on data in the black box, I don't think any chief of police would be in a position to say that they've been cleared.
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COSTELLO: So there you have it. We're back to 200-plus suspects, I suppose.
Sumnima Udas is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with more on this.
Good morning.
SUMNIMA UDAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
There has been some sort of miscommunication or disconnect between the various investigating agencies. And that seems to be a problem or have been a problem all along. The Malaysian acting transport minister explained the discrepancy saying what the police chief was actually trying to say was none of the passengers had any kind of suspicious background, not that they had been cleared, because he said nobody can be cleared, of course, until those key black boxes are found.
Authorities have questioned about 205 people so far. The four main areas they're focusing on are sabotage, terrorism and personal problems and psychological problems. And the main thing we have to remember here, Carol, is, it's not just the Malaysian authorities here who are investigating. There are so many other agencies in involved. You've got representatives from Inmarsat, from Boeing, from the FBI, from the NTSB. So this is a massive investigation and a very complex one. And we're not getting that much information from anywhere really because they say this could jeopardize the investigation.
COSTELLO: Sumnima Udas reporting live from Malaysia this morning, thank you.
Pro-Russian demonstrators in Ukraine show no sign of ending their standoffs. Just today, protestors forced police out of a new building in eastern Ukraine. They set fires and broke windows throughout the building. One man in a police uniform, who was severely beaten, had to be taken away by ambulance. This comes as a deadline passes for those activists to lay down their arms and surrender from the two other buildings they occupy. Senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh joins us now from Ukraine.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's not him (ph). That's (INAUDIBLE).
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Ukrainian government says it's retaking this town, Slavyansk (ph), while not in any hurry. A pro-Russian barricade blocking the main entrance. Hours earlier, the interior minister said elite police would swarm into here, but this helicopter was the only sign of that.
Calm on the streets, just more barricades on more roads.
WALSH (on camera): The interior minister (INAUDIBLE) declared an anti- terror operation here and told everyone to stay indoors. But, really, life is carrying on as normal here. And just down this road, the barricades have been reinforced around those key buildings. No sign apart from one police car of the Ukrainian government and police here.
WALSH (voice-over): This amateur video shows how far the anti-terror operation got. Just to the outskirts of town according to one senior security official who confirmed armored personnel carriers were there and shots exchanged. One Ukrainian security officer dead and others injured.
And in Cramatort (ph), where the pop song says Putin will save us from fascism, the authorities have simply vanished from the town hall. The speed of change suggesting real preparation. But one man, Vladimir, isn't joining the party.
"Where are they, the mayor, the government?," he says. "Where are these people? This is madness. I'm not afraid. I built this country. My father fought to defend it. And now they want to drag us back to the stone age."
Its (ph) police station was last night run by this captain, but now it's under the control of pro-Russians. Here's how that happened. The captain tries to stop these men dressed the same as militants in Slavyansk. "I'm pro-Russian, an Afghan veteran," one policeman cries. They're pushed aside. Shots in the air.
The captain tries again, but fruitlessly. More shooting. After weeks of restraint and as Ukraine's beleaguered leaders measure how hard they can respond, gunfire is becoming the new language of this crisis.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Slavyansk.
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COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a suspect called a raging anti-semi (ph) is accused of going on a deadly rampage at two Jewish centers just before Passover. George Howell is covering that story for us. He'll have it, next.
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COSTELLO: A white supremacist has been identified as the suspect in a deadly shooting rampage outside of a Kansas City Jewish community center and a Jewish retirement home. Police say Frasier Glenn Miller first killed a grandfather and then his 14-year-old grandson, and then he drove about a mile and killed a third victim. Miller could later be heard yelling, Heil Hitler from the back of that police car. Late last night, many gathered for a vigil to remember the victims. The woman whose son and father were killed spoke out about her family. And you could hear the gasps from the audience when she took the podium.
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MINDY CORPORON, MOTHER/DAUGHTER OF VICTIMS: My name is Mindy Corporon. I'm the daughter of the gentleman who was killed and I'm the mother of the son who was killed.
I want to tell you how much I appreciate you all being here. I heard there was going to be a vigil. We all grieve in different ways, and I just wanted to tell people thank you.
I want you to know that I came upon the scene very, very quickly. I was there before the police and I was there before the ambulance. And I knew immediately that they were in heaven, and I know that they're in heaven together.
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COSTELLO: Such good people in the world, right?
George Howell live in Overland Park, Kansas, with the latest.
George, something I don't understand. This suspect yelled "Heil Hitler" from the back of the police car. Why is not he charged with a hate crime?
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, you know, when we listen to what we heard from witnesses, it does all add up. You have to keep in mind there is an investigative process that must come bear. We do expect to hear more from police later today as they look through the witness statements, gather all the evidence here and try to determine whether what happened was a hate crime here.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a guy with a rifle here shooting at people. I would leave.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why, is he still here? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know.
HOWELL (voice-over): On the eve of Passover, a lone gunman opens fire at two different Jewish facilities near Kansas City.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no other word to describe it. It's panic.
HOWELL: Panic, fear and confusion.
Dr. William Lewis Corporon and his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, both gunned down at a Jewish community center, where many teens have been taking part in rehearsals and auditions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We thought it was weather at first.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, there were people ducking down inside and people yelling at us to get inside.
HOWELL: Moments later, another victim is shot and killed at Village Shalom, a retirement community about a mile away.
Police arrested Frazier Glenn Cross at a nearby elementary school. As he's being taken away, he shouts a neo-Nazi slogan.
FRAZIER GLENN CROSS, SUSPECT: Heil Hitler!
HOWELL: Cross now faces charges of premeditated murder. Police say the suspect also known as Glenn Miller has ties to white supremacists.
He apparently has his own Web site and the Southern Poverty Law Center describes him as a longtime anti-Semite.
A police chaplain was told by witnesses Cross seemed chilling, deliberate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's apparently an older gentleman, and was asking people if before he shot if they were Jewish or not. This sounds like very much like a hate crime.
HOWELL: One family member shared her story during an emotional vigil to honor the victims.
CORPORON: I'm the daughter of the gentleman who was killed and I'm the mother of the son who was killed.
HOWELL: You can hear the emotion in the crowd as she shares her last words with her father and son.
CORPORON: I got to tell both of them today that I loved them. I was the last person in the family who saw them and I appreciate you being here. It's very helpful to me. That's how I grieve, thank you.
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HOWELL: Just people going about their day, then forced to take cover and get on the ground and go into locker rooms and get out of harm's way. We do expect to learn more about Cross today as he is expected in court and we're expecting to hear, Carol, more from police and pose those questions to find out if they have determined whether what happened here is a hate crime.
COSTELLO: George Howell reporting live in this morning.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, black box secrets revealed plane crash investigations changed after recorders are recovered. We'll talk about that, next.
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COSTELLO: The search for Flight 370 has now gone deep under water. Search teams in Australia now believe the batteries in those black boxes are dead. So, they're sending out an unmanned submersible to scan the ocean floor.
It's a painstaking process. Searchers only managed to narrow that search area to the size of Los Angeles, still they're expressing hope.
CNN's Randi Kaye looks at how investigations into three plane crashes turned after black boxes were recovered.
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RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In July 2000, the Air France Flight 4590, the Concord jet takes off from Paris. This terrifying video shows the plane on fire as it leaves the runway. The control tower radios the pilots, "4590, you have strong flames behind you". Moments later, they crash into a hotel killing all 109 on board.
The plane's black boxes are recovered.
FRANCOIS BROUSSE, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, AIR FRANCE (through translator): Both boxes are in good state to be decrypted. We have to understand what the data means.
KAYE: The cockpit voice recorder unveils the pilot's last words, the co-pilot tells the captain to land at the nearby airport, his response, too late. The black boxes reveal a catastrophic fire in one engine and a loss of power in another.
Air France Flight 447 caught in a powerful storm and rolling to the right. It is June 2009, a flight from Rio to Paris, 228 people on board. The plane begins to fall 10,000 feet per minute and crashes into the Atlantic, belly first, killing everyone.
PAUL-LOUIS ARSLANIAN, FORMER HEAD OF FRANCE'S ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION AGENCY: This is what we're looking for in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
KAYE: Two years later, they find the black boxes deep in the ocean. Before the recovery, it was thought the plane's speed sensors were to blame. But the black boxes reveal the pilots were at fault. A transcript from the cockpit voice recorder shows confusion in the cockpit. "We still have engines, what the hell is happening?" one co- pilot asks. Another co-pilot says, "Climb, climb, climb," then the captain, "No, no, no, don't climb."
In February 2009, Colgan Air Flight 3407 also stalls and disappears off radar.
CONTROLLER: Colgan 3407, Buffalo.
PILOT: Colgan 3407, now approaching.
CONTROLLER: Delta 1998, look off your right side about five miles, should be 2300, do you see anything there?
KAYE: The plane speed drops dangerously low. It begins to dive in heavy snow, the pilot overcorrects, a fatal mistake.
WALLY WARNER, CHIEF TEST PILOT, BOMBERDLER: Obviously, the initial reaction to the stall warning was incorrect.
KAYE: The jet crashes into a home in Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people on board.
MARIE BRANDQUIST, AIRLINE CRASH VICTIM'S SISTER: We put our lives in the hands of people that we assume that the FAA is -- and the airlines are properly training.
KAYE: Both black boxes, the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder divulge panic in the cockpit as the plane falls to the ground.
Pilot Marvin Renslow blurts out, "Jesus Christ" and "We're down". The first officer Rebecca Shaw starts to say something, but is cut short by her own scream.
(on camera): The airplane pitched and rolled. And this horrifying fact that the planes were joking around as the plane slowed in the final minutes before tragedy struck.
Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.
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COSTELLO: Still to come in THE NEWSROOM: it's called Bluefin-21. Now, this unmanned under water vehicle has joined in the hunt for Malaysia Flight 370. It's only the second time it's been used for this kind of operation. We'll talk about the challenges, next.
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