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Anguished Ferry Families Lash Out; Teen Survived Frigid Cold, Lack of Oxygen; Tight Security for This Year's Boston Marathon

Aired April 21, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Finding survivors in the South Korean ferry disaster is still possible here, but it is growing increasingly unlikely with each passing hour.

That ship sank six days ago now while carrying hundreds of high school students and teachers on a class trip, the number now, 87; 87 bodies have been recovered; 215 are still missing. And divers say they may have located many of the bodies that were trapped in the ship.

And now the parents, the mothers, the fathers distraught, they wait, hoping against hope that their children could still be rescued.

Here is CNN's Kyung Lah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Parents waiting, bracing. They return one by one in identical plain white bags.

Behind the screen, initial inspection. A blanket to cover. And a short march back to land.

Parents rush to the white tents to identify their children.

"You must have said, daddy, save me," weeps this father. No one is immune to the sound of losing a child.

As the families leave the tents, so too do the stretchers empty. Returning to the gurneys that await the next boat. Another group of someone's children, another march back to the tents.

Thirteen return in this group but more than 200 are still missing. Gurneys on the left side of the dock, divers board ships to the right to continue the search. To bring the rest home.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Jindo, South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: The grief of a victim's family is just magnified by the fact that many of the students refused to jump ship. Instead they obeyed the captain's orders. Remember the orders? Don't move. Stay put. Even though the ferry was sinking. And there is reason for that based upon culture in South Korea.

Joining me now to further explore that is Stephen Noerper, vice president of the Korea Society.

So, Mr. Noerper, thank you so much for joining me and if you can just help us understand because a lot of Americans are struggling to understand why some of the students, you know, as the boat is lifting and the water is rushing in, one would think to jump, to throw on a vest and save yourself. But there is really more here among Koreans of this culture of obedience, respect for their elders, is there not?

STEPHEN NOERPER, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, THE KOREA SOCIETY: Yes, certainly, Brooke. You're absolutely right. And really, I mean, first our condolences go out to all of those Korean families.

BALDWIN: Yes.

NOERPER: It's such a terrible tragedy. Indeed because of the Confucian aspect in their upbringing, the focus on education and deference in the family and to teachers and positions of authority and people in positions of authority, indeed that seems to be the case and it seems to have affected the way they listen to that. The lack of an evacuation warning and reports that that ship listed very quickly probably were the main factors but certainly their decisions to remain in cabin perhaps at the order of the captain very concerning indeed and something as Koreans they would have been deferential toward.

BALDWIN: Following those orders, and as we know the captain and members of the crew facing charges now. Now the captain managed to get away. But then you have, sir, also just outrage, outrage from the families toward the ship officials in Jindo. I mean, there also too is this culture of responsibility in South Korea where people in power are expected to honor and respect the people they serve.

NOERPER: You're absolutely right, Brooke. There is expectation in a Confucian society that those in positions of authority do take care of those under them. And there's a demand for accountability. We've seen that in terms of the reactions by the family members. And that outpouring of grief is very real.

Koreans have a spirit of Han of grievance given the suffering in particular this last century where they were under colonial occupation. They were divided for the last 60 years and this type of national tragedy just drives that home all the more.

I would also note that Korea was one of the first countries that expressed solidarity with Americans after 9/11 and so that's why it's important to express our condolences for the people of Korea this very tragic time. The country really is in a state of national mourning.

BALDWIN: Absolutely. Condolences all the way around. And hopefully they can find survivors. Some believe it is possible in this ferry. But, you know, in terms of, Mr. Noerper, the low birthrate in Korea, we, you know, read that it's 1.2 child per household, about basically half of parents' income usually goes to education, and talking to our correspondent over there, and telling me that there really is a high rate of suicide.

I mean, we saw what happened with the vice principal hanging himself where families were waiting. I mean, what kind of real fear is there that these mothers and fathers who may never see their kids again take their own lives?

NOERPER: Well, there is a tremendous amount of despair and any of us who are parents certainly sympathize and perhaps empathize with that, but I think you're right to point out the fact that the low birthrate means that most parents have one or two children. The loss is driven home all the more and that the fact that so much is spent on education, 55 percent of household income goes towards schooling.

These children 16, 17 years of age lost in their prime in terms of their being high school educated individuals and the fact now that it's turning from a search and rescue to a salvage operation, very grim days ahead. And so we'll have to see.

In terms of the suicide, in the ritual suicide of the vice principal, a tragedy on tragedies and again our hearts really go out to Korea in that regard.

BALDWIN: Absolutely. Hearts and thoughts with those families as they wait. Day six now.

Stephen Noerper, thank you for joining me.

NOERPER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, imagine spending hours in a space like this one. Cramped, freezing, grasping for air and waking up several hours away in Hawaii. This young man's pretty incredible story is just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just about 20 minutes away from the Closing Bell. Let's take a quick peek here on Wall Street. The Dow up by 29 points. Pretty solid. A lot of green on the screen here which is a good thing to see. Stocks turned it up on a high note. Dow popped right at the open, has been bouncing around in the green for much of the day.

In the meantime to this story. Have you heard about this? Lucky to be alive. That is a direct quote here from authorities in Hawaii using that phrase over and over to describe this crazy story.

This 16-year-old boy managed to smuggle himself into the wheel well of a jet liner and stay there and flew the multiple hours from San Jose, California, all the way to Maui. Across the Pacific, frigid temperatures here, hardly enough oxygen in this compartment to breath but somehow he pulled it off.

CNN's Dan Simon is covering the story for us there from the airport in San Jose.

So many questions, Dan. Let's just begin with how is this young man doing?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Apparently he's doing OK. He was taken to a local hospital in Maui simply as a precaution but he said to be doing fine. And it's pretty remarkable. You've talked about it. He's up 35,000 feet in the air, temperature somewhere around 80 below, according the experts, very limited oxygen. He passed out and that, in fact, may have saved his life.

According to medical experts they say that when the temperatures reach that level that he'd actually don't need a whole lot of oxygen to survive, that essentially he may have been hibernating like a bear. That's the analogy that's being given.

Brooke, there are really two stories here. The survivability aspect and of course the security issue. Apparently the way this happened is he scaled a fence here on the perimeter of the San Jose Airport. He told authorities that he got into an argument with his family and then came here to the airport. He scaled that fence according to the FBI. There is surveillance video of him actually going over that fence and making his way to that Hawaiian airliner here on the tarmac.

It raises a whole host of security issues. One of the unspoken things here is if a young man, if a teenager can do this so easily, it really raises questions about terrorism and you know, simply anyone could come on here, especially on the cover of darkness where he apparently did this and go to a wheel well and possibly place a bomb in the wheel well of an aircraft.

Those questions certainly exist at least today -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Clearly, Dan Simon. Got some security at that airport and I am sure they are looking -- we would like to think they are looking very closely into closing those gaps.

Dan Simon, thank you so much.

Now let's talk a little bit more about all of this, the survivability and the security issues, aviation analyst Michael Kay, the former pilot with the British Royal Air Force.

Michael Kay, just first, try to wrap my head around how -- before we even talk about how he pulled this off, 35,000 feet in the air in a wheel well. How is he even breathing?

LT. COL. MICHAEL KAY, BRITISH ROYAL AIR FORCE PILOT (RET.): That is a brilliant question, Brooke. I mean, what we're seeing here is if corroborated it's an extraordinary tale of human survival and resilience. The points you just raised are absolutely spot on. The two H's I like to call, there is the hypothermia and the hypoxia aspect. I mean, let's deal with the hypothermia piece first.

Hypothermia effectively is when the body core temperatures is reduced from its normal operating temperature which is around 36.5 to 37.5 degrees. And it drops below 35 degrees. And when that happens, the body slowly starts to shut down. That's the hypothermia aspect.

The hypoxia aspect is when the body is starved of oxygen. And that usually happens as you pass through an altitude between 10,000 and 12,000 feet. And if you keep climbing, slowly the body becomes euphoric and you get these chemicals in your body where you don't even actually realize what's going on. And we went through it for military training. We were put in a gas chamber and we were taken to 20,000, 25,000 feet without oxygen. And we're asked to do mathematics test.

And when they see the results, when you're getting all the oxygen, it's phenomenal. So from the environmental conditions alone are a truly phenomenal feat. But then you also have to deal with, how come he wasn't crushed by the actual undercarriage when it retracted in the bay itself. So all around, really, it's a miracle that this small boy ever survived.

BALDWIN: Do you think we'd be telling a different story if it wasn't a young healthier man as opposed to someone much older but equally brazen?

KAY: Yes. Absolutely. There's no doubt about it. I mean, this was a 16-year-old with a relatively strong heart. And also quite nimble and agile as well in terms of being able to climb into the cockpit and hide in the only other part of the -- sorry, not the cockpit, the undercarriage bay and hide in the -- the undercarriage bay where there might be a little bit of room.

Now what I would say is I did mention that when the core temperature dropped below 35, that's when all the hypothermia symptoms dropped in. There was a case in Sweden in 2010 of a 7-year-old girl who was recovered from a lake with a core body temperature of 13 degrees C, 13 degrees C, and she -- and she was revived.

BALDWIN: Wow.

KAY: She survived. So again, I would like to believe that it's impossible but when you have cases like the Swedish girl in 2010, you know, it could be -- it could be almost a miracle.

BALDWIN: But, beyond that, there is the security angle. I hop on planes all the time. I've got to take my shoes off half the time. You know, we're all going through the detection machine, et cetera, and yet you think of this young man hoping a fence in a fairly major American airport makes me a little nervous.

KAY: Yes, I mean, I just got back from Cairo and I had to show my passport and my boarding pass 10 times from entering the airport to actually getting on the jet.

BALDWIN: Wow.

KAY: And you know, I mean, security all over the U.S. and the West is absolutely -- is hyper. What I would say is having spoken to a couple of 767 captains earlier on today, there are airports around the world where airlines designate certain airfields as a stowaway risk. And what that means is that when the aircraft lands or when the gear cycles from an aircraft, the doors actually come back up. So you've just got the legs protruding. That effectively ameliorates the drag.

Now when they go to these airports such as Acura and Ghana in West Africa, what the engineers will do is they will actually drop those doors when the pilot does the walk around. So the pilot can get a really good view up into the undercarriage bays to actually physically check the stowaways. Now this isn't mandated all over the world. And in San Jose there may have been a stowaway type risk. I'm suggesting the doors wouldn't have been dropped.

There are -- there are things that we could do post this to make this less likely in the future.

BALDWIN: Let's hope they're looking into that, Michael Kay.

Michael Kay, CNN aviation analyst, thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

And here in Boston, proud to be in Boston today. Beautiful blue sky. Lots of love here. So many of these thousands of runners have been crossing the finish line the last couple of hours not few far away from me on Boylston Street. I'm told, you know, all the way from Hopkinton, the starting line, all the way here to the finish line in Boston, I mean, just rows upon rows of people.

The biggest race they've had as far as spectators. One million people watching this triumph today. We will take you there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. We are live here in Boston. Before I let you go, we just have to talk about of course the reason we're here. This is the 118th Boston Marathon. And not that I have any claim to fame or have run this thing, but some lovely ladies to my right have just finished.

Yes, congratulations.

And so here is their medal. I was out in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. This beautiful, small quaint town this morning at the starting line with a throng, 36,000 strong, 9,000 more than last year. We're ready to roll and ready to rock with special gusto on this marathon Monday. And I just want to play some sound for you, some of these runners why they're back this year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a great year to be here. Perfect weather. We're claiming the sport back from what happened last year.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The terrorist did not do what they intended because Boston is strong and we'll remain strong.

BALDWIN: You're back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I'm back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's exciting. It's -- the adrenaline is flowing. We support Boston. A great city to run in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boston Strong, Boston Strong.

BALDWIN: Boston Strong, baby.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The energy this morning was absolutely contagious. I'm joined by -- really, we've become friends, columnist --

KEVIN CULLEN, COLUMNIST, BOSTON GLOBE: We're buds.

BALDWIN: We're buds. From the "Boston Globe," Kevin Cullen. And here we are. Everything that you've covered, everything you experienced over the course of the last year, we made it.

CULLEN: Uh-huh.

BALDWIN: And you were saying to me, you're writing a column for the "Globe" tomorrow about how normal today feels.

CULLEN: Yes. I am basking in the boring normalcy of all this.

BALDWIN: We love the boring.

CULLEN: I love it. I love the boring. I got to go see my buddy Ricky (INAUDIBLE) in the emergency room doctor, he's bored out of his mind in the medical tent. And a year ago he had people coming in there, he thought there had been an IED explosion, in fact there was. So I think everybody is enjoying it. It's all about the runners today. It's all about the buzz, it's all about the families here and it's obvious that a lot of people turned out.

I was on the route early this morning, there were more people than last year, I can tell you that.

BALDWIN: They're saying possibly ever people.

CULLEN: I wouldn't doubt it.

BALDWIN: This wasn't actually the largest as far as runners. That was with --

(CROSSTALK)

CULLEN: Yes. I think the crowd might be the biggest.

BALDWIN: The crowd -- walking among the people, I mean, here we are in beautiful Boston Common. People now finishing the race and walking among us. How would you just describe how the air feels in Boston?

CULLEN: Well, I mean, it's actually -- I don't know if you remember it, Brooke, but it's just like it was yesterday -- last year.

BALDWIN: Gorgeous.

CULLEN: I mean last year was a perfect day. Had the (INAUDIBLE) song going through my head and then obviously in a flash it just morphed into veil. This is actually just what it was like last year except it's beautiful. And the Red Sox lost but, hey, what can you do? You can't have everything.

BALDWIN: I know. You can't have everything. They won the series, whatever, last year. There is still time. What do you want people to know, people who -- you know, we talked so much about Boston Strong but it's so much more than that. For people outside of Boston, what do you want them to know about your city?

CULLEN: Well, I think, you know, obviously you just look around to where people came out, it was to defy the bombers and say, this is our town, this is our race. And the race really belongs to the world. And what I love most about this is not only was Meb the first American to win this in 31 years, he was a refugee. He came to this country for all the right reasons and embrace the opportunities that the people who bombed this marathon last year spurned.

And so I think it's good to remember that the vast majority of immigrants who come into this country aspire to be Meb. They don't aspire to be the guys that did what they did last year. And that's a great thing to take away from this race.

BALDWIN: I'm going to take that away from you right now.

Kevin Cullen, thank you so much.

CULLEN: Thanks, (INAUDIBLE).

BALDWIN: And hang with me, hang with me.

CULLEN: All right.

BALDWIN: Because before I let everyone go, I just want to -- if you're not here, just to experience the sights and the sounds, what has just been a tremendous day here in Boston, the 118th Boston Marathon. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More waves of people, each about 9,000 strong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Imagine the first race in 1897 started with 15 runners. Look what we got now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And these people can't wait to get going. With the first wave right on their heels, the elite men take off. It feels like now the Boston Marathon is officially under way. So many things different about this year's Boston Marathon. Emotions, memories, heartache, hope.

She's got it. The fastest woman to ever run from Hopkinton to Boston. This could be a little hairy for Meb Keflezighi.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Meb Keflezighi has got some company trying to stalk him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not in the bag yet. Meb Keflezighi, so close to become the first American Boston champion since 1983. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An American will win the Boston Marathon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. He will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I love that. We just wanted to take you there to feel what so many of us had felt. We're not even running today which is to be part of such a magical moment here in Boston. And just to remind all of you, please stay with CNN today. We're pushing the story forward and we're airing a special tonight at 10:00 Eastern here with the notion of Boston in mind. 10:00 Eastern here on CNN.

And it's just -- it's been a pleasure. Spending so much time here in this wonderful city that last year through --

CULLEN: I think you're picking up an accent.

BALDWIN: You think so?

CULLEN: Absolutely.

BALDWIN: Well, thanks for having me. Can I come back as much as I like?

CULLEN: No. Yes. You can only go to New Bedford or Fall River. That's all I'd say.

BALDWIN: Deal. Deal. Thank you, Kevin Cullen. Thank you, Boston. Stay with me here because my colleague, Jake Tapper, is just over that way here with me in Boston Common as we're surrounded by sunshine and love and happy runners who made it and finish with smiles on their faces.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. That does it for me. Quick break. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)