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MH-370 Search Weather Worsens as Cyclone Nears; Race to Find Sunken South Korean Ferry Survivors; Boy Smuggles Himself in Jet Wheel Well; American Wins Boston Marathon as Bombing Survivors Triumph.
Aired April 21, 2014 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: When and if that hits, how would that kind of rough weather affect any kind of submersibles and the search in general?
DAVID JOURDAN, FORMER NAVY SUBMARINE OFFICER: Weather is always an issue. The submersible is really not affected. It goes down, way deep below. However, every day we need to launch and recover that drone. And launch and recovery in high seas and high winds is difficult if not impossible if the conditions deteriorate as much as suggested. And the ships can't see out there. So weather is a serious impediment. We always build a certain amount of weather time into our schedules because it's inevitable of nature. Deep down, the drones are fine and this weather won't disturb any wreckage on the sea floor. There is no concern about the weather causing the long term problem with the search.
BALDWIN: Just, finally, there is an interesting -- and that's a good thing. We're getting the first imagery of the region of the earth that Angus Houston has said, and I'm quoting him, "new to man." What could we learn from these Bluefin images?
JOURDAN: I'm really glad you brought that up. I've been wanting to say that myself. There are areas of the ocean in this part of the world, the size of Nebraska or Texas, pick a state, that have been completely unmapped. We don't have even a single data point. So this is an incredible advance in the science of ocean exploration to be able to actually have a reason to map these areas. Who knows what we will find.
BALDWIN: Mapping them, hoping though to find debris and find the black boxes along the way.
David Jourdan --
JOURDAN: OK.
BALDWIN: -- Thank you so much for your expertise, and joining me. Really appreciate it.
When we come back, one year later, tragedy replaced by joy and triumph as an American takes first place at the Boston Marathon.
And a race to find survivors from the Korean sunken ferry nears its seventh day. But with no lights, awful conditions, how are these divers trying to find possible survivors and victims as well? That's next.
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BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN.
Want to get to the very latest on the heartbreaking search for passengers onboard a sunken ferry in the Yellow Sea. South Korea officials are still calling this a search-and-rescue operation. Have all these underwater divers. They believe there could be some survivors and they say they refuse to give up hope looking. But the grim task of going in and finding those bodies continues. 87 now are confirmed dead. 215 still missing. And the pain of grieving families is affecting police officers who guard the tents, that are makeshift morgues.
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(CRYING)
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BALDWIN: How horrible is that?
CNN's Will Ripley talked to volunteer divers who say they are willing to risk their lives to find survivors.
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WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For these divers every day is a race against time, a race to find survivors of the sunken ferry marked by only these two buoys.
CHOUNG DONG-HAM, PRESIDENT, KOREA RESCUE ASSOCIATION: (through translation): There must be survivors. We must find the air pocket. That's why I have hope.
RIPLEY: That hope is fading quickly for Choung Dong-Ham, who leads hundreds of volunteer divers. Each hour reduces the chances of finding anyone alive.
DONG-HAM (through translation): We try every day and search for the missing people. I cry when ever I think about it.
RIPLEY: A heavy burden as divers brave dangerous conditions underwater, strong currents and almost zero visibility.
DONG-HAM (through translation): If you go down 10 meters, you can only see about 20 centimeters. Divers can barely recognize their own palms.
RIPLEY (on camera): As they search for the living all they find are the dead. Each day, more and more victims are pulled from water, placed on these ships and taken to shore.
DONG-HAM (through translation): All the families of missing people and hundreds of volunteer divers are focused on finding the survivors. We are willing to risk our lives for this.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Each day, they fight to find survivors. They fight the pain of knowing there may be nobody left alive.
DONG-HAM (through translation): Let's stop here.
(SHOUTING)
RIPLEY: Body after body, these divers don't give up. They say they can't give up.
Will Ripley, CNN, off the coast South Korea.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Now these divers are working under incredibly dangerous conditions. It's dark and it's extremely cold. They can only see about a foot and a half in front of them. So what is the best way to try to go in and find survivors and conduct the search?
Joining me to discuss just sheer tactics is former Navy SEAL commander, Ryan Zinke.
Thank you so much, sir, for joining me.
Just an incredibly difficult, gut-wrenching task for these divers to go in. How should they physically approach this kind of search effort, get in this ferry?
RYAN ZINKE, FORMER COMMANDER, NAVY SEAL TEAM SIX: You know, I have dove in those waters before. As a SEAL commander, it is about the toughest conditions you can think of. You're virtually going hand to hand through the ship. First, you have to organize how to do it. You're talking about dark, near-zero visibility, cold conditions. There is a chance. There is always a chance that you will have survivors in air pockets. It's a race. They're going to get to those survivors, if they're alive, soon.
BALDWIN: What to you mean hand in hand?
ZINKE: The visibility is almost zero. You will set up tow lines. You are just looking at things with your hands, feeling anything. But metal does transfer signature of sound so if there is any survivors you might be able to hear some tapping.
BALDWIN: So they are listening, obviously, for things like that, for tapping, for sign of survivors. We talk about air pockets, but what really is the likelihood that so many days out, they still exist and, if they do exist, sir, how do they get in and grab these survivors without then water rushing in?
ZINKE: Well, you know, some of the air pockets, you have nooks and crannies. And part of the problem with an air pocket is CO2 build up and it is cold. The ship's without power. Every moment is critical. If they reach them, I think there is a strong probability that they could bring them out successfully. I think the first part is to look and identify any air pockets at all and do as best you can with the search under the conditions. But it is enormously difficult. It's going to be weeks if not months before they go through all the parts of the ship. It's just a grim, grim task.
BALDWIN: It's grim for the police officers, having to stand guard in the morgue. It's grim for the divers, many of whom have children of their own. What is that like for these professionals doing their jobs? They're willing to risk their lives. But that has to take a toll as well, does it not?
ZINKE: It does. Anyone who signs up for public service, these guys are heroes, and they understand the challenges involved and they are certainly willing to get down and do whatever they need to make sure that there is survivors. But it's a devastating task. And certainly my heart goes out to the families that are enduring this. There is always hope, but the hope, every minute, gets less and less. That's part of this operation. It's the cold and zero visibility, and it's just a time-consuming task of searching that size of a ship.
BALDWIN: And as we've learned, so many of these children, they were the only son or daughter that a lot of these families had.
Ryan Zinke, thank you.
For more information --
ZINKE: Thank you.
BALDWIN: You're welcome.
I know a lot of you are watching the story, you wonder how you can help. You can help the families of this ferry tragedy. Go to cnn.com/impact. There you will find links to the Red Cross. Read articles. Again, cnn.com/impact.
Coming up next here on CNN, the altitude reached more than 35,000 feet. There was little oxygen. Temperatures were below freezing. Those were the conditions a teenaged stowaway managed to survive on a flight to Hawaii equipped with only a comb?
And back here live, in Boston, an American man wins the Boston Marathon for the first time in 31 years, one year after a day of tragedy. We celebrate Boston, Massachusetts, a city of triumph.
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BALDWIN: "Lucky to be alive" -- authorities in Hawaii used those four little words over and over after a 16-year-old boy smuggled himself into the wheel well of a jet liner and flew from San Jose, California to Maui. All the way across the Pacific Ocean. I'm talking frigid temperatures, hardly enough oxygen to breathe, but somehow he pulled it off.
CNN's Dan Simon is covering the story for us from San Jose. And, Dan, first, how is this young man doing?
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Apparently, he's doing fine, Brooke. He was taken to the hospital simply as a precaution, but he's said to be in good condition.
I think, at the outset, it's understandable that there was skepticism surrounding this young man's story. The FBI says this happened. There is video surveillance showing him hopping over a fence and apparently going towards that Hawaiian airliner. You have the security issue, which is obviously a big deal. The fact that a teenager could get onto a fence and get on to a tarmac raises a whole host of concerns.
Then you have the survivability aspect. You talked about it, Brooke, going into a wheel well, 35,000 feet in the air. We have heard estimates that the temperature may have dipped 80 below zero and limited oxygen.
In terms of the security angle, this is what the spokesperson here at the San Jose Airport had to say. Take a look.
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ROSEMARY BARNES, SPOKESPERSON, SAN JOSE AIRPORT: We have a security program here at San Jose Airport that we coordinate in conjunction with TSA with our San Jose Police Department and so many other people that are here at our airports. However, no system is 100 percent. And it appears that this teenager scaled a section of our perimeter and was able to proceed onto our ramp under cover of darkness and into the wheel well of an aircraft.
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SIMON: The boy says he became unconscious during the flight. When it landed, he was still unconscious for approximately one hour and came to, got off the plane, and came out of the wheel well, and seen wandering the tarmac in Maui -- Brooke?
BALDWIN: To think a teenager could pull this off raises serious questions about security. Hope they're being looked into, as you pointed out.
Dan Simon, thank you.
When we come back, it was a blast that stunned the nation, 2:49 p.m. eastern to be precise, the Boston Marathon, the finish line. And these images from one year and one week ago. We mark the moment as thousands of runners honor the fallen. They are back here in Boston, and better than ever.
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BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin, privileged to be coming to you from Boston, Massachusetts. It was just around this time last marathon when the smoke and the screams and everything that really just doesn't bear repeating. You know what happened with the finish line.
Just to focus on the joy today, let me show you this picture as the first American won the men's elite division. I love this picture. I love the look on his face. He finished in two hours, eight minutes and 37 seconds. I think he beat me as we drove from the starting line back here to Boston.
We remember right around this time last year -- there was an iconic photo. We wanted to tell the story behind the photo. We all know the name of the youngest victim, 8-year-old Martin Richard and his oldest sister, Jane, who survived that but lost a leg. And there are two young men I want you to meet who were next to them when that blast happened.
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BALDWIN (voice-over): These two smiling children, Martin and Jane Richard, the face of that cruel day in Boston. A few feet away, the alleged bombers are about to strike.
AARON HERN, BOSTON BOMBING SURVIVOR: I kept looking at the kids and they were screaming and yelling for their parents to keep running. They were cheering them on.
BALDWIN: martin, just eight years old, was killed. His sister, Jane, lost her leg. The moments before the bomb captured in this haunting photo.
But what happened to those other boys standing inches away?
HERN: To see where they were next to me and to find out it was devastating.
BALDWIN: Aaron Hern is the boy to Jane and Martin's right. Next to him is David Yepez. They were hit by a concussive blast.
ALAN HERN, AARON'S FATHER: It felt like it was on top of us. He was in this cloud. I was just standing right over there.
BALDWIN: In the scramble, Aaron and David were pulled apart feet from Martin Richards.
HERN: I think it was Martin and he was over about five feet that way and there was a lady trying to get him to stay up and, once in a while, when I have visions, that's one of the things in my visions that I see.
DAVID YEPEZ, BOSTON BOMBING SURVIVOR: I did not see what happened to him. I guess, I don't want to say I forgot. There.
BALDWIN: Aaron remembers seeing Martin.
HERN: I saw a boy over there and I looked at my legs, and from my knees down, it was solid red with blood.
BALDWIN: At the hospital, they felt relief that they had survived. A room away, the Richard family grieved.
HERN: I always wanted to trade places with them because I didn't think it was fair. But, I do remember how lucky I am.
DR. MARK VECCHIOTTI, TUFTS MEDICAL CENTER: This was taken one week after your injury.
BALDWIN: David Yepez's ears are slowly repairing though specialists are worried that hearing loss may become the worst of his injuries.
VECCHIOTTI: So there it is, a completely healed eardrum.
BALDWIN: Aaron's leg injuries are also on the mend.
HERN: I have my scars, still. They will probably be there forever. But I don't have any problems. Once in a while, I will have some stings.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bless those who lost their lives --
BALDWIN: At the memorial, the boys found inspiration in seeing Jane Richard.
HERN: It was very inspiring seeing her. I always had them in my head.
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