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Tribute Today in Honor of Marathon Victims; Obama, Putin Speak by Phone about Ukraine; Ukraine Military heads to Disputed Region; Ebola Outbreak in Guinea; How Does the Bluefin 21 Search Underwater?

Aired April 15, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm joined now by Courtney Hollands, the senior lifestyle editor at "Boston" magazine. Welcome, Courtney.

COURTNEY HOLLANDS, SENIOR LIFESTYLE EDITOR, BOSTON MAGAZINE: Thank you so much.

COSTELLO: I'm glad you're here. Last year after the attack, your magazine featured running shoes in the shape of a heart with the words "We will finish the race." The new cover simply spells out "Run" with laces of a single shoe. Last year's cover touched so many people. What's the message you want to send with this year's cover?

HOLLANDS: Yes, I think, you know, with last year's cover, we went out and we sought shoes from runners who had run that race and we did it all in about three days and this year we knew that we had to have -- we wanted a response or to be able to reflect on last year's events and we just wanted to say that this is going to be the best marathon ever and that we are looking forward and we are excited to reclaim the race.

COSTELLO: I know as I look at that cover, I know you mean run the race, but it's -- Boston's certainly not running away from anything. I've never seen a city stand up to evil so successfully as Boston.

HOLLANDS: Yes and you know, they expanded the field of runners this year, so it's going to be a field of 36,000 runners, participants, police are expecting million spectators to line the streets about two times as many as there usually is.

So I think everyone is going to be out in force for the day and cheer on the runners and to remember the survivors and those that can't be with us and just to kind of say, you know, Boston strong and come together as a city.

COSTELLO: You're running in this year's marathon. So, what will you be thinking as you run the route?

HOLLANDS: Well, first of all, I'm hoping for nice weather. That's first and foremost. But I think for me, I'm just excited to get out there and I really do think that its crowds are going to be out in force. I think that it's just going to be a really -- somewhat somber but also joyous -- super joyous event and just returning to Boston and returning to the streets and you know, showing off our strength and solidarity, I'm really looking forward to it. COSTELLO: You know I like the fact that Boston seems to want to move on, they don't want to dwell on the pain they just want to, you know, live life as normal and I think that's great.

HOLLANDS: Yes, it was interesting. This year, for the April issue, we went back to people that had given their shoes for the cover and we interviewed about -- I think 35 of them and just checked in with them and said how are you feeling this year? Are you running? And I think, you know, except for maybe two, everybody was running again this year. And we are so excited to lace up and get back out there and you know, just trying to say -- send a message that the events of last year can't bring us down as we -- as we look to get back out on the course.

COSTELLO: Yes. So what do you expect your time will be? What are you shooting for?

HOLLANDS: We'll see. I ran a marathon in October and I did a 4:20. So I'm hoping around there would be great. Just hoping to finish and again, really enjoy myself out there. Slap high fives with many people and just kind of look around and see like I said all the city coming together for such a special day.

COSTELLO: Well, good luck to you. And thank you so much for being with me. I appreciate it.

HOLLANDS: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Courtney Hollands.

HOLLANDS: Thank you so much.

COSTELLO: Our special coverage of the Boston marathon bombing anniversary continues throughout the day. Brook Baldwin live in Boston beginning at 2:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me this morning.

Mission number two for the unmanned submarine searching the depths of the Indian Ocean will begin once the weather clears up. But like all the other searches for Flight 370 and its passengers, the first trip for the Bluefin turned up nothing. The submarine's seven and a half hour mission found no objects of interest plus the mission ended early when the sub passed its maximum operating depth.

For more on these developments, Erin McLaughlin is in Perth, Australia. Hi -- Erin.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Carol. Well we're told that nothing happens quickly in waters this deep and with the Bluefin's very first mission cut short, that certainly seems to be the case. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCLAUGHLIN (voice over): Breaking overnight, U.S. Navy officials say no objects of interest were found among the data downloaded from their unmanned underwater robot. This as the first subsurface search was cut short seven and a half hours into its mission, the Bluefin 21 was forced to resurface early. The Bluefin was originally expected to scour the ocean floor for debris the whole journey lasting 20 hours. But instead, the device resurfaced after officials say it exceeded its maximum operating depth of 14,800 feet.

CAPT. MARK MATTHEWS, U.S. NAVY: We just hit a deeper spot than we initially planned, we just got to bring it up, reprogram it, shift a little bit away from that deeper area and adjust our search pattern.

MCLAUGHLIN: Meanwhile, a new detail emerging, a U.S. official tells CNN the co-pilot's cell phone was on during the play and made contact with the Malaysian cell tower. According to information shared by Malaysian investigators. That cell phone signal reportedly detected about 30 minutes after the plane made that sharp westward turn, around the time the aircraft disappeared from radar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLAUGHLIN: Now as far as we know the Bluefin 21 is on board that Australian vessel, "The Ocean Shield." Officials saying bad weather is preventing them from putting it back into the water -- Carol.

COSTELLO: We know that searchers picked up an oil slick and a sample is on its way back to Australia. Do we know anything more?

MCLAUGHLIN: That's right. The sample still making its way back here to the Western Australia -- it'll be -- it's currently on board an Australian military vessel. It'll be taken to a base before, jetted here to Perth for further analysis. We expect it to arrive here on Wednesday, but so far, authorities not giving a timetable from when those test results will come back -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Erin McLaughlin reporting live from Australia this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, provocative and unprofessional, that's how the Pentagon is describing what happened when a Russian fighter jet buzzed a U.S. destroyer on patrol in the Black Sea. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Just days after a Russian fighter jet buzzed a U.S. warship in the Black Sea, Russian leader Vladimir Putin is asking the United States to prevent the use of force in Ukraine. Yesterday President Obama spoke to Putin over the phone to discuss escalating tensions there. Putin's request comes at a critical time. Right now troops are pushing east toward pro-Russia demonstrators in Ukraine.

CNN's Michelle Kosinski is at the White House with more this morning. Good morning, Michelle. MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi Carol. Right you know this is the second time that President Obama and Putin have spoken in a few weeks' time and the last time I remember was March 28th. President Obama told President Vladimir Putin to put it in writing, your response to the U.S.'s demands for what needs to be done for a diplomatic solution in Ukraine. And the White House has said that response never came but yesterday, President Vladimir Putin called president Obama and had this discussion.

And as always, when you look at what each side has said describing that phone conversation, it almost seems like two different calls. The White House said that President Obama told Putin that the situation -- that he has grave concerns about the situation there. What he described as the Russian government's support of those armed militants who've taken over these government buildings across the eastern Ukraine, asking again that things be moved back, that the troops be removed to even the pre-Crimea levels, but these warnings repeatedly, as we know, have changed virtually nothing and the situation keeps escalating.

Vladimir Putin on the other hand, according to the Kremlin, told President Obama that it's -- it's the fault of the Ukrainian government, the violence and the protests that have happened there and actually called on President Obama to use American influence to prevent further violence. We know that we have these four-party talks coming up this week that will bring Russia, Ukraine, the U.S. and the EU together, their foreign ministers.

And if there really is a diplomatic window still open as the White House keeps saying, it looks like that will be the time and police for it and of course, what we want to know, did anything positive come out of this phone conversation that the White House called frank and direct? Was there any real progress?

That's not exactly clear, although at first read, there doesn't seem to be any progress. And the last time one of these phone conversations happen, the White House said no. There actually was not progress. But we have more questions for the administration and hopefully, we'll hear more detail about that call today -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Michelle Kosinski reporting live in the White House.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Things are becoming much more tense in Ukraine. The Russian prime minister quoted in Russian newspapers today saying that Ukraine is on the brink of a civil war and that's frightening. And here's why. We understand there is a convoy on the way to eastern Ukraine, perhaps to fight back against those Russian protesters that have been taking over government buildings. The big question here, who's really to blame for this unrest?

Nick Paton Walsh is riding along with one of the convoys in the Donetsk region. Bring us up to date. What does this convoy consist of -- Nick?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a large number of armored personnel carriers and support vehicles, carrying it seems elite paratroopers. One of them said he was from Odessa but we think actually this may be a unit out of (inaudible) in the middle or eastern part of Ukraine.

It's not clear where they're headed. They said -- they wouldn't tell us exactly what their orders were, apart from saying their orders were changing, moving most of the time in eastern direction but also around to the north as well alongside roads not far from a main road that leads between two towns, Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. Now, they have been the real focus of everybody's attention for the last two hours.

We were earlier on this morning in Kramatorsk. Now that had been the scene of a violent takeover by pro-Russian militants just a matter of days ago where the police station was seized. We went back to that particular building and remarkably, the original police captain was inside, he spoke to us. They were cleaning up the barricades, putting the place back together very much.

But behind that we got the feeling that they reached some sort of accommodation with the pro-Russian protesters. They said that they were -- the police said we're with the people and we asked them what that meant -- they were still with the Ukrainian government following their orders and they didn't want to answer that question.

So, a calm there, but that seems to have been shattered now because we've heard reports from one witness inside that town speaking to us, saying that they have seen a plane, a jet fly over it and heard gunfire afterwards. There've been an awful lot of sort of speculation on media as to what may have occurred inside there but we're not also hearing from a (inaudible) witness the possibility that troops most likely Ukrainian troops have landed inside the airfield near that particular town.

So a fast-developing situation here. I should add as well that Russian media are quoting the de facto self-declared mayor of the town slightly north of Kramatorsk, Slavyansk saying he believes the town he is in where he has been leading for the last few days a group of very pro-Russian protesters, backed up with pro-Russian militants overtake certain buildings in there. This mayor believes -- the self-declared mayor believes they are now surrounded by Ukrainian forces now and that concerned some sort of siege may begin.

I should point out, Carol, a lot of misinformation flying around here but it's quite clear, given the armor we have seen on the move and reports coming from inside some of these towns that we may be seeing the beginning of the Ukrainian military operations trying to re- establish authority in parts of these towns -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Nick Paton Walsh reporting live from Ukraine this morning. I will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: The Ebola virus, once found in remote areas of Africa is spreading. The virus has now reached the western African country of guinea, specifically, its capital city where two million people live and work. The outbreak is only getting worse -- 112 people have died there in the last three weeks.

CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is live in guinea with an exclusive look at the fight to help contain this virus.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, the numbers that you just cited, Carol, they have gone up. I mean this is not the news people here wanted -- it's gone up 11 now new deaths just over the last few days. They are trying to get a handle on things here and that involves trying to identify patients, trying to test them, trying to isolate them. And that is challenging work.

I mean we are here in the capital city. Life goes on here, Carol. No doubt. But there is a real battle here. Doctors trying to go out into these communities and trying to figure out, have any of the people here come in contact with somebody who might have had Ebola? Might they be at risk themselves and trying to identify them early?

They've never done anything like that in this country before -- really in western Africa before. So this is new, certainly a lot of the local doctors here on the ground -- Carol.

COSTELLO: How are people there protecting themselves?

GUPTA: You know, I think the best way to sort of describe this is that there is a nervousness around Ebola. the mysteriousness of it, the lethality of it, but there's also a lot of information campaigns going on to remind people that it's not airborne, it's not something that is going to live on surfaces so people out here in the community, while they are nervous and there's a psychological fear sometimes, there's little risk of actually catching it like this.

It's when they go into the hospitals, it's when someone gets sick, that's when they become more contagious. So it's really, I don't know how best to say it but staying away from sick people, not spending extended time with them.

Health care workers, Carol, they don't have that luxury, 14 health care workers have died since the beginning of this outbreak for that very reason.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta reporting live from Guinea this morning -- thank you.

Back to Flight 370. Weather permitting, crews will send the Bluefin 21 robotic sub back into the Indian Ocean for a second search for the plane. The first search came up empty.

Exactly how does the Bluefin 21 work? CNN's Randi Kaye went out to the Boston Harbor with the firm that makes the submarine to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): On board the RV Resolution in the Boston Harbor, we have come here to see for ourselves how the Bluefin AUV operates.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: AUVs like the Bluefin 21, they are the tools you would use to conduct a wide-area side-scan survey in ultra deep water.

KAYE: Willow Halerin (ph) is a marine operations engineer for Bluefin Robotics which designs and builds these autonomous underwater vehicles in Quincy, Massachusetts.

(on camera): If this were a mission, a real mission what it would it be doing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So the next thing that would happen is the radio instructions received through that red antenna there the vehicle would say, OK, I'm going to start this mission, the propeller would spin up and then it would dive.

KAYE: Here in the Boston Harbor, the water only 40 feet deep which is easily manageable for the Bluefin because this autonomous vehicle is used to working in depths several miles below the surface.

(voice over): The Bluefin 21 can dive about 2 1/2 miles but Flight 370's wreckage in the Indian Ocean may be deeper than that.

It takes about two hours for the Bluefin to reach the bottom where it can operate for another 16 hours. It scans the ocean floor as if it's mowing a lawn, using side-scan sonar, which identifies objects that stand out from the seabed.

(on camera): When it's working with the side scanners it is not actually taking pictures, right, it's measuring sound?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct. What it's doing is it's actually -- it's converting sound to electricity and then turning that electrical value into numerical value, then turn it into an image.

KAYE (voice over): When it returns to the surface, scientists download the sonar data to computers. The results may look something like this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Looking at here, for example, this is a shipwreck in Boston Harbor, you can see how it's different than the area around it, you can see there's parts of the steam engine right there.

KAYE: If something catches their eye, the navy will send down a high resolution camera on the Bluefin 21. It can take black and white photos, covering about 15 square miles a day. It's a slow process, moving at just three nautical miles per hour only made worse by horrendous conditions -- freezing temperatures, mountainous terrain and complete darkness. But even diving blind, there is much hope the Bluefin 21 AUV will see something.

Randy Kaye, CNN, Quincy, Massachusetts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: I'm Carol Costello. Thanks for joining me this hour. "@THIS HOUR" with Berman and Michaela starts now.