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Update on South Korean Ferry Disaster; Flight 370 Search Continues; Update on Kidnapping of Nigerian School Girls

Aired April 18, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

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BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: I love this story. Graduation, it's an exciting day. What happens when you add the element of surprise? A South Carolina mom, set to graduate with her GED, but little did she know that her son, a specialist in the U.S. Army, was waiting backstage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For his mom's graduation --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She had no clue whatsoever about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As soon as I saw him, I just -- that was it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The happy homecoming came a couple months early. Brandon (ph) was not supposed to come home until June.

Top of the next hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We begin with breaking news here in the hunt for missing Malaysia Flight 370. A senior Malaysian aviation sources tells CNN it is bizarre that the four emergency locator transmitters didn't activate, didn't go off. At the very least, they were not picked by the emergency monitoring satellite.

We also have some more information from this source telling us that after Flight 370 veered off course and made the sharp left turn, its altitude went up to 39,000 feet, remained there for about 20 minutes as it flew over the Malaysian Peninsula.

So, I want to get our experts to weigh in on what the new information could mean for the mystery of Flight 370. So let's get you up on today's underwater search. Right now, the Bluefin-21 underwater drone, it is on mission number five. You know the deal here. It's scouring the ocean floor. It's looking for any traces, debris, evidence, wreckage, something from this missing plane. Crews have spent hours and hours analyzing data from the Bluefin's most recent mission and they came up empty.

This week, the Bluefin has scanned more than 42,000 square miles without finding a thing. Malaysia's transport minister did tweet today that they may add more underwater drones. Remember they are just using one this one Bluefin, this one AUV to help this the search.

Turning to this. The search for survivors on a capsized ferry is turning increasingly grim and now new pictures inside the once sinking ship. First, here we are beginning day three, and by the looks of this, do you see anything? No. That's because this ferry has totally submerged under the water.

The death toll now at 29, missing, 273 people. Scuba divers have made multiple attempts to go in to find those survivors. And they managed to get into the second and third floors of this ferry, but debris hampered their search efforts to get into that fourth floor. That's where the passenger cabin rooms are located, possibly some of those people.

Meantime, we are finally getting a closer look and a clearer look at inside the ship. Watch this, the water rushing, frightened passengers right here outside this ship with their life vests on gripping the guardrails.

Some of those trapped grabbed their cell phones and hit record and taking videos like this one as they waited to be rescued. And we are now hearing part of that conversation between ferry's crew and the ocean minister officials. Take a listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please notify the coast guard. Our ship is in danger. The ship is rolling right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where is your ship?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please hurry. Absolutely hurry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, OK. We will contact you. This is group 12.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ship rolled over a lot right now. Cannot move. Please come quickly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're next to Byeongpung Island.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, understood.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We have this back and forth now between the ship and the dispatch. You we also have this, this image of the captain of this ferry, Lee Joon-Seok, caught here being rescued and leaving the ship, leaving hundreds of passengers behind.

I can tell you today an arrest warrant has been issued for him and two other crew members. The captain was also not at the ship's helm when it started to sink. His third mate was. Both of them appeared in court in what is now Saturday morning in South Korea. The captain tried to defend his actions saying -- and I'm quoting him -- "The tidal current was strong and water temperature was cold and there was no rescue boat, so I had everyone on standby and wait for the rescue boat to arrive."

He also said that when the accident happened, he had gone to his room to briefly tend to something, direct quote from him. He then issued another apology.

CNN's Kyung Lah is in Jindo, South Korea, where these passenger families are stationed waiting for word. She joins me now on the phone.

Kyung, how are these families doing?

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Given, you know, what we have heard about the captain, his arrest, these are things that they have wanted.

But this is a 24-hour vigil here. These are parents who are still ferrying out at sea, still clinging to an ever dimming hope.

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LAH (voice-over): Hope slipping away, palpable anger replacing grief as families lashed out at whoever they could, the news media and the government, chanting."Return them to us," they say.

These families who have been here since the ship went down on Wednesday. Police officers were brought in to control the increasingly volatile crowd. What do you expect of us? says this father, whose teenage son is among the missing.

He left saying, "Dad, I will be back," he says. Now, he's in the sea."

"Please help my baby. My baby is crying with fear in the sea. Please save my baby. All of his friends are there, all his school friends."

"I want to jump in the sea," she says, "Thinking about my child in the sea, how can I as a parent eat or drink? I hate myself for this."

This couple can't bear to show us their son's picture or even utter his name. They and the other parents watching the live video feed of the rescue and news reports say what they need most is answers.

Why did the ferry capsize? Why were their children initially told to stay put instead of escaping?

Are you feeling that there's still hope for your child?

"My little baby is in the sea, in the dark. I worry he is shivering with fear and with hunger. They need to rescue him fast. I don't know what to do. I just want him back."

A nation's prayers from many faiths fill this port, waiting to be answered.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LAH: But the sentiment here is getting increasingly desperate with each passing hour, with each sunrise, with each sunset. Every time, Brooke, that a ship comes in, they all rush to it hoping there is some news. And yesterday there just wasn't -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Kyung, let me ask you since I have you on the phone all the way from South Korea, just reading a little bit more today about Korean culture, about the culture of guilt, reading about the vice principal of this high school who was found hanging from a tree after being rescued, tell me more about what you're learning about that.

LAH: I can tell you what I hear over and over again -- and this is something that Korean parents can casually say -- that their life is their child, that they don't know how they can live without their child.

Many of these parents here only have one child. And it was that child aboard that ship. Korea has a very low birthrate. Many families here only have one child, not because it's mandated by law, but just culturally they generally only have one child here. It has been a national issue, but here it's a personal and emotional issue, if you think about losing one child in this sudden way.

So what they have here are counselors to try to talk to these families. But they're not reaching out. Suicide is a major problem here in South Korea. You are dealing with survivor's guilt and there is growing concern about the mental health of these families, especially with each passing day -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Watching these family members being taken away on gurneys, and it is excruciating to look at their faces. You don't have to speak the language to know what -- or at least try to understand what they're going through. Kyung Lah on the phone with me from Jindo, South Korea.

It's interesting. Kyung brings the point about only children. Talk about the plane MH370, a lot of the children of moms and dads and they come from single-child households because we're talking about China. So horrible, two major stories we're following.

Speaking of the plane, the Bluefin-21 here as we continue on the search underwater for wreckage, it is scouring the Indian Ocean for any sign of the 777. But can it dive deep enough or send back pictures that are clear enough? We will explore that.

Plus, a possible sniper taken into custody in Kansas -- the details just ahead.

You're watching CNN.

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BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We have news just into us here on the hunt for missing Malaysia Air Flight 370. A senior Malaysian aviation sources tells CNN the plane actually had four emergency locator transmitters on board and according to the source it is odd that the transmitters didn't go off, didn't activate, or were not even picked up by emergency monitoring satellites, if and when it made contact with presumably the water.

For desperate families of Flight 370 passengers, the new information may only add to their agony and confusion, because I want to show you this, heartbroken families here on their knees praying, sobbing, begging for answers at a prayer vigil held today.

They have endured 43 days of agony, 43 days of wondering what happened to their loved ones.

Let's talk about the search here for evidence, for wreckage, for something with analyst and ocean search specialist Rob McCallum and CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Danny Cevallos on the families' legal plight.

But, Rob, I want to begin with you here. You know, when you hear about the news from the Malaysian transport official saying maybe they will bring in more underwater drones, maybe additional AUVs, when you hear that, is that a sign of hope that they are honing in on the right spot or no?

ROB MCCALLUM, CNN ANALYST: I think it's important that you always have a plan A, but realistically life gets more interesting when you get to plan B and the work starts at plan C.

We need to continue with Plan A, which is to investigate these pinger investigations with a tactical tool like the AUV Bluefin. But we should also be planning on plan B, which is if this doesn't pan out and we need to go out to a broader area, then bringing in some deep towed assets too, which are more strategic and more widespread in their abilities.

BALDWIN: You are the third expert in so many days bringing up precisely that, the towed -- tell me what it is again?

MCCALLUM: Well, sonar -- side-scan sonar is deployed one of two ways.

You can put the unit on to an AUV, a free swimming torpedo, if you like, or you can tow it on an underwater sled behind the ship. And the advantage of a deep towed system is that because you're running power down the cable, you have a lot more strength in your signal.

So Bluefin is covering 15 square miles a day. We could find a deep towed unit that would do 10 times that amount per day.

BALDWIN: OK.

Danny, I'm coming to you, I promise, in just a minute.

But, Rob, my final question to you then is when you bring up plans A, B, and C and my ears perked when you say C is really when the work and perhaps the finality of this happens, what does plan C look like in this search?

MCCALLUM: I think it revolves around this information that is still coming to hand.

Over the last few days, we have had inputs from people talking about cell phones. We have had some clarification of the handshake data. Now today we're talking about ELTs. These are lots and lots of sources of information that's coming in. Some of it is new and some of it is old and being recalibrated. But that's the sort of information that generally informs where a search should start and where a search area should be.

BALDWIN: OK.

Danny Cevallos, to you. I just want to quote you reading one of your op-eds here as we talk about lawyers. You write this. "One group of emissaries from the United States has traveled across the globe at their own expense to offer assistance to the grieving families. However, instead of being welcomed, their arrival was reported with thinly veiled revulsion. I'm talking about the lawyers."

A bias against lawyers, Danny Cevallos? No.

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, what a surprise.

The real surprise, I guess, is the old American adage about lawyers has extended now apparently internationally. But, remember, these lawyers have been described as hovering and descending on the scene. That's a very thinly veiled bias against them, but what other profession advances all the costs, all the fees, all the expert fees, millions of dollars, and betting, acquiring all the risk on this case?

If they recover nothing, all of that investment and all of that risk, they could be financially devastated. And yet no other profession does that, but the attorneys somehow are maligned.

BALDWIN: So, if it's not about money, because let's be honest, they could be making quite a bit, what is it about for them?

CEVALLOS: I never said it wasn't about money.

BALDWIN: OK.

CEVALLOS: Actually, all of this is about money, because as they travel over there, yes, do they stand to be compensated? Of course.

But every minute, make no mistake, Boeing, Malaysia Airlines, any big corporation with a potential risk in this case is constantly circling its wagons to avoid liability, and thereby trying to save, pocket millions, maybe billions of dollars. This is big business. Helping people is important, but make no mistake about it. Malaysia Airlines and Boeing are in business to make money. And you make money by saving money.

BALDWIN: Danny Cevallos and Rob McCallum, gentlemen, thank you very much.

When we come back, the Bluefin-21, it is the only AUV currently searching the Indian Ocean. We ride along with a mission with the Bluefin's sister technology. It's also an AUV. It's the REMUS 6000 -- this is actually what found the Air France wreckage -- just to understand how the submersibles are using sonar to map the vast ocean floor.

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BALDWIN: They have bombed schools, churches, and mosques, kidnapped women and children, and assassinated politicians and religious leaders alike. And now the militant group Boko Haram is making international headlines yet again, abducting more than 100 girls from a boarding school in Nigeria.

Take a look at the map with me and we can tell you that after a fierce gun battle with soldiers, these militants herded these girls out of their beds onto buses and sped off. Nigeria's military admitted Thursday that only a portion of the 129 girls are safe.

So, let's go to CNN's Erin Burnett, host of "OUTFRONT."

And, Erin, we want to talk to you. You have been to the region. You have reported on Nigeria and the goings-on in Nigeria. How much of a threat is Boko Haram?

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: It's pretty amazing, Brooke, now that we are starting to hear more and more about this group.

They are very powerful in Nigeria. When you talk about these girls that they have abducted, they have gone into churches and burnt people alive. They have gone into mosques and burned people alive. They have slit people's throats. They have gone into colleges and students have been asleep in their bed. They shoot them point blank.

Their tactics are some of the most violent and horrifying in the world. They want Sharia law in Northern Nigeria. And they now have been talking on the Nigerian government. Nigeria is really split between Muslims and Christians. They have taking on the government, which is why what you said is so important.

The government said, oh, these girls have been found. It turns out they were not, so the government's handling of these situations further adds to some of the credibility that Boko Haram is desperately trying to get. They are linked of course to the core al Qaeda, and they're one of the strongest and fastest growing groups.

BALDWIN: You talk about the government and what they're saying and what they're not doing. Is there anything the United States can do about these atrocities?

BURNETT: This is a group that they have been watching.

Back in November, the United States designated them a terrorist group. They have been watching their links to al Qaeda. But so far they are not interested in putting any kinds of boots on the ground, intervening in that kind of a way. You got at, for example, in Mali, where the example was the French went in, not the United States. But Boko Haram is gaining in influence and power. The U.S. has a $7 million bounty on the leader of the group's head, which obviously shows that they do take this extremely seriously. And now they have said they do want to attack the United States. They used al Qaeda very much as a motivational tool for that.

A lot of the fighters from Boko Haram have gone to fight for al Qaeda. Sources are telling me up to dozens have gone to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. So it's a really important group, but at this point not one that the U.S. is directly intervening for.

BALDWIN: How is the economy in Nigeria?

BURNETT: This is what's amazing about this, Brooke.

People may say, oh, it's going to be some kind of a basket case. It's a corrupt country. It's incredibly corrupt, incredibly inept when it comes to the government. I have done interviews there were the lights just go out in the government ministry, right?

BALDWIN: Wow.

BURNETT: It's unbelievable when you think about that.

But it's also an incredible success story. To me, Lagos when you are there comes off as sort of the New York of Africa. The energy and enthusiasm in that economy is incredible. People may say, oh, I know Nigeria, those e-mails I used to get, right, where they were soliciting money.

That's the dark side of it, but there is an entrepreneurialist spirit there. It's most populous country in Africa. And now their economy dwarfs South Africa's, dwarfs, Brooke. Even with all of these problems, it is now almost one of the 20 biggest economies in the world.

BALDWIN: That's incredible.

BURNETT: There is this other side that people don't think of that is pretty amazing. Yes.

BALDWIN: Erin Burnett, we know you will be taking this on, as you continue to do, and other stories. We will watch you tonight, 7:00 Eastern here on CNN, "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT."

Thank you.

BURNETT: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: And we have some news just into CNN that I want to just pass along to you.

Kansas City here, prosecutors there have now identified the suspect caught in connection with a shooting spree across city highways, just terrorizing people there. Mohammed Whitaker is charged with 18 felony counts covering nine incidents. The prosecutor says there is no evidence to suggest that anyone else besides this man was involved in all those highway shootings. They are building their case upon ballistics and tips and witness statements. Three people were shot, none with life-threatening injuries.

Coming up next, we will take a closer look here into the search for this missing plane using high-resolution sonar. We will do that underwater.

And we now know the deadliest avalanche ever on Mount Everest has claimed 12 lives. Conrad Anker, this incredible climber, not only summited Mount Everest, survived an avalanche, but he also climbed with one of these professional guides who died in this accident. Hear his story ahead.

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