Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Flight 370's Satellite Data Released; Interview with Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut; 40 Killed in Ukraine Airport Gun Battle

Aired May 27, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All I can say is that was a good song.

(LAUGHTER)

NEWSROOM starts now.

Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me this morning.

Malaysia's government peels back the curtain on its search to missing Flight 370. Overnight officials released satellite data from the airliner's final hours. It's the very information that wildly diverted the search to one of the most remote areas on earth where not a single piece of wreckage has yet been found.

Today's release comes after two months of angry demands and accusations from families of those aboard. And no sooner did this data go public before even more criticism that key information was being withheld.

We'll talk to our own aviation experts in just a minute. But first, CNN's Richard Quest has an exclusive look inside Inmarsat, the British satellite company that's solely responsible for pinpointing the search.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Inmarsat, the company which for 35 years has been used by ships and planes to keep in touch. We were given exclusive access to the network's operation center.

(On camera): It's here in the satellite control room in London that you see the technology involved, and you start to understand how they came to the conclusions. The satellite involved is Inmarsat 3-F1. One of the 11 satellites in the Inmarsat collection. It's in geostationary orbit just over the Indian Ocean and it was to this satellite that MH-370 sent the signals, the so-called handshakes.

(Voice-over): Leading the team here was Mark Dickinson. With his colleagues they dived deep into the data.

MARK DICKINSON, VP OF SATELLITE OPERATION, INMARSAT: There's essentially three types of information we have. We have actually the messages from the ground station to the plane and back again. That essentially tells you the terminal is switched on and powered up. We have some timing information and in addition to that there were some frequency measurements.

QUEST: The timing has told them the distance within the plane and the satellite, enabling them to create the so-called arcs.

DICKINSON: How fast the plane can travel so that will bound where you get to the next arc up here.

QUEST: They then factored in the frequency differences. The so- called Doppler effect. Dickinson's team concluded MH-370 had to have flown south. In the opposite direction. It was a startling conclusion.

(On camera): What did you think when you got the data and you started the modeling, you're putting it in and you suddenly realize where this plane probably went?

DICKINSON: Let's check this. Let's check it again. Because you want to make sure when you come to a conclusion like that, that you've done the right work. The data is as you understand it to be.

QUEST: Was there a moment of disbelief?

DICKINSON: Having messages for six hours after the plane was lost is probably the biggest disbelief in terms of what you have.

QUEST: Inmarsat quickly realized the analysis of data from MH-370 to the satellite would produce an extraordinary result and needed to be tested. So they ran the model against other planes which had been in the sky at the same time on the night, and against previous flights of the same aircraft. Time and again they ran the model, over dozens of flights. And the planes were always found to be exactly where they were supposed to be.

DICKINSON: No one has come up yet with a reason why it shouldn't work for this particular flight when it works for the others. And it's very important that this isn't just an Inmarsat activity. There's other people doing investigations, experts who are helping the investigation team, who have got the same data, who made their own models up and did the same thing to see if they got the same results and broadly speaking, they got roughly the same answers.

QUEST (voice-over): The results of all this work led to dozens of search planes and ships being sent to the Southern Indian Ocean, where for weeks they followed the trail to nowhere. Inmarsat's calculations have been called into question. The families demanding the raw data.

DICKINSON: Well, I think that data itself, in stand alone, is barely (INAUDIBLE) and not particularly -- you can't draw too much from it. What I think is more pertinent is to see the messages and to see the important bit of information, and that's the job that we've been trying to do, and some explanation behind how the numbers are used.

QUEST (on camera): To be clear, you're letting people make judgments on your work. You're not inviting them to re-do your work?

DICKINSON: No. I say the -- to re-do the work requires experts in many, many different fields.

QUEST (voice-over): Mark Dickinson has recently returned from Canberra where he was part of the rethink team. He knows the entire weight of this search rests on the Inmarsat data.

DICKINSON: I think the investigation team working with this, understand what it means. It means this is all the data that we have for what's happened for those six or so hours. It's important that we all get it right and particularly trying, for the families and friends of the relatives onboard, try and make sure that we can help to try and bring this sad incident to a close.

QUEST: The Inmarsat data will guide the search for the foreseeable future. It's all they've got. Without it, there'd be no search at all. And the men in London are still sure they're right.

Richard Quest, CNN, at Inmarsat in London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: But I'll tell you right now, family members are not exactly rejoicing over this report. It's difficult to understand. And it's the process version, not the raw data many experts have been demanding.

So let's bring in our -- CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general of the Department of Transportation Mary Schiavo. Also joined by safety analyst and author of "Why Planes Crash" David Soucie.

Welcome to you both.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Thank you.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here.

David, does this newly released data show the plane did indeed ran out of fuel and crashed into the Southern Indian Ocean?

SOUCIE: You know, this in itself does not, Carol, in my opinion. However, I'm still convinced that they're correct, that they did do the information correctly, but remember, there's a lot of other people involved in coming up with these answers. There's -- this is a complex system, and co-dependent things going on with Honeywell, with Boeing, with the antenna manufacturer. So there's a lot more to this than you can get from this singular report.

COSTELLO: So, Mary, what do you think is missing from this report?

SCHIAVO: Well, for the family's sake I would have liked to have seen more of the detail of how they used this data to come up with their conclusions, and as David said, he's absolutely right, it's not just Inmarsat. There are many other participants, including Honeywell, including Boeing. Boeing is a participant and obviously the manufacturer, the assembler, rather, of the plane.

So it would have been much better for the families to provide the data and the full analysis and earlier this morning on CNN, CEO of Inmarsat, Rupert Pearce, said they've provided all that to Malaysia and they are perfectly happy if Malaysia releases it. Why they did not, I'm not sure, but the data certainly does support the -- you know, that Inmarsat had. You know, certainly a lot to analyze, and it's not just, you know, seven random points. There's something there and it's very important for the families to have it.

COSTELLO: OK. So this report, David, was able to kind of pinpoint, maybe, where the plane went down, but does it lead to any other clues? Like did the plane go down because of mechanical failure or something else?

SOUCIE: It's a good question, Carol, because as I look to the data, specific points, the base frequency offset or the offset frequencies that we talked about before, it jumps really high. It was like 80s, and then it went to 170. But suddenly it went to 273, which tells me that at some point something significant happened. Either the data bus was lost, the 429 ARINC bus that gives the information to the satellite was lost. Or there's an electrical failure of some kind on the aircraft, or simply it was just turned off and they lost the data.

So it doesn't tell us a whole lot at this point but I'd like to look into that a little bit further and I am doing that. So hopefully we'll find some more information whether it was mechanical or if it was physically turned off.

COSTELLO: I hope so. I know you'll keep us posted.

Mary, last question. The Bluefin 21 is expected to wrap up its final mission tomorrow. Officials say the underwater search may not actually resume until August when new vehicles are deployed. When that happens, will the search look different?

SCHIAVO: It will. It's going to look entirely different. Australia is putting out bids for private companies to carry it out. They're going to map the ocean floor first and then they're going to only after that, they're going deploy submersibles again. They've put out a bid for private companies to do it and they're looking for that to cost, both of those projects, to be about $55 million U.S. so it'll look very different in different companies and different actors doing it.

COSTELLO: Mary Schiavo, David Soucie, thanks, as always.

SOUCIE: Thanks, Carol.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, as the nation reels from another mass shooting, pressure is intensifying for politicians to do something. I'll talk with a lawmaker who says while that Washington laws can't stop all violence, it can be a start.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The shattered community of Isla Vista, California, will come together today for a day of mourning and reflection. Classes have been canceled at the University of California at Santa Barbara which saw six of its students killed and another nine injured in last Friday's rampage.

A memorial service will be held this afternoon on campus while flags will be lowered to half-staff across the UC system through this Sunday.

The tragedy has sparked renewed calls for stricter gun control laws in this country from grieving parents who call Congress' inability to come to some sort of compromise a dereliction of duty.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Politicians after Sandy Hook swore that they would do something.

RICHARD MARTINEZ, FATHER OF SHOOTING VICTIM CHRIS MARTINEZ: We're all proud to be Americans, but what kind of message does it send to the world when we have such a -- such a -- such a rudderless bunch of idiots in government?

These things are going to continue until somebody does something. So where the hell is the leadership? Where the hell are these people we elect to Congress and spend so much money on? These people are getting rich sitting in Congress, and what do they do? They don't take care of our kids. My kid died because nobody responded to what occurred at Sandy Hook.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut joins us now.

Good morning.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D), CONNECTICUT: Good morning. Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. Is Mr. Martinez right?

BLUMENTHAL: He is right that Congress' failure to act is shameful, and disgraceful. That day in April of last year when we had 55 votes but failed to reach the 60 needed to pass a comprehensive measure was, in fact, a day of shame and disgrace in the United States Congress, but I am absolutely determined that we will achieve common sense, sensible measures, including a focus on mental health, which I think is common ground to bring us together.

The majority leader, Harry Reid, has pled he will bring these bills back when we have the votes and I think we need to pursue the organizing and mobilizing at the grass roots level that we saw so necessary in the wake of that failure back in April of last year to pass these common sense measures.

COSTELLO: Senator, California -- California has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. The shooter in this case, abided by a background check and waiting period. She had never been charged with a crime or voluntarily committed. How would any gun control law prevent this particular shooter from buying a gun?

BLUMENTHAL: There is no single solution. There's no panacea to the problem of gun violence, and not every death, even every mass shooting, can be prevented, but health professionals going with those police who spoke to Mr. Rodgers after he was reported as being suicidal might have helped them to detect and even to treat the very severe mental illness that made him so dangerous to himself and others.

Mental health initiatives are part of a common ground, perhaps the point of consensus that can bring us together on both sides of the aisle. It should be bipartisan.

And what we have to remember, Carol, is that very soon everyone will have known someone who has suffered from gun violence or will know someone among the 32,000 every year who are victims of gun violence. Either by their own hand or others.

And we need to remember that our community is filled with parents of people like the parents of Javier Martinez or Erica Robinson, two young people in the city of New Haven, whom we continue to grieve, those 26 great educators and young children in Sandy Hook, every win of us will be touched by this problem, and we need to continue this effort. Even if it doesn't eliminate every death.

COSTELLO: In focusing on the case in California, because this is the latest event, right? The shooter, Rodger, he used a knife, too. He use add knife to kill three people and then he used a gun to kill three more.

Some argue, if a deranged person wants to kill, they will find a way. It's the argument that gun control advocates cannot seem to win with those who passionately believe in gun rights.

So, how do you compromise?

BLUMENTHAL: There are compromises that will save lives. That's very simply the undeniable truth. Keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people, whether they're severely mentally ill, or felons or drug addicts, background checks will help stem and stop gun violence. That's an irrefutable truth.

And the myth that that will mean taking guns away from law-abiding people is absolutely incorrect. The Second Amendment continues to be the law of the land and what's needed now is a renewed compliment to organizing, to bringing these bills back, which I hope will happen, and to making sure we have a --

COSTELLO: Well, Senator --

BLUMENTHAL: -- will to make our streets safer.

COSTELLO: Senator, I say this and mean no disrespect. I can tell you right now the majority of my viewers thinks this conversation is a wait of time or worse. Can you really look them in the eye and tell them it's not a waste of time?

BLUMENTHAL: I can look anyone in the eye and say, far from wasting time. This effort is about law enforcement, about protecting our police, whose lives are on the line. Our children who are victims every day in our streets and neighborhoods, about keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous or severely mentally ill people, such as this young man in California.

Not every law will solve every problem. Enforcement is an issue. Mental health is something that can bring us together. Mental health resources, training for our professionals who go out to interview people who may be mentally ill, and trained professionals to go with them, so, as to protect people better.

COSTELLO: Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, thanks so much.

BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM: the fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists may be reaching a new and deadlier stage possibly.

CNN's Jim Sciutto is in Kiev this morning.

Good morning, Jim.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: CNN is now or never fighting the country's massive insurgency and they're following through with a great deal of bloodshed. We'll have more right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Fighting between Ukraine's military and separatists is intensifying this morning. The mayor of Donetsk says 40 people have been killed in a gun battle, going on for control of the city's airport. Two of the dead are civilians. Another 31 people have been injured. Government air and ground forces attacked the militants after they took over an airport terminal on Monday.

The Ukrainian military's fierce response to that terminal takeover may be one sign of a shift in how the government is taking the fight against the separatists.

CNN's Jim Sciutto is in Kiev.

SCIUTTO: A real change in the last 24 hours, a real escalation in this anti-terror operation, as the Kiev government calls it, against the militants in the east. A senior Ukrainian official telling me this morning, quote, "It is now or never to fight this militancy". And he went on to say that we have been patient for far too long.

I think what's happening here is that after this election on Sunday, you have a new president with a commitment to show he's tough to fight these groups and they were reluctant to take severe measures while the election was happening, didn't want to spark more violent clashes with the militants. Now, they feel they have a mandate and are pushing forward using tactics we haven't seen when the militants took over the airport in Donetsk, they responded with attack helicopters, attack jets.

You had a terror training camp destroyed today in Lugansk, another province near Russia. We'll continue to see that over the coming days. As a result, seeing a lot of bloodshed, you know, piled -- more bodies piling up literally of these militants in morgues in that eastern part of the country.

COSTELLO: Jim Sciutto reporting live from Kiev this morning.

A Nigerian military official says he knows where those kidnapped girls are, but he also says the military will not use force try to rescue them. Boko Haram abducted 200 schoolgirls six weeks ago. And believe the terror group could use the girls as human shields in the case of a military operation against them.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: the data used to track the final hours of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. Search officials make it public for members -- for family members, but are still angry about this.

CNN's Tom Foreman will make sense of it for you.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol. You know, these are the numbers that we have been waiting for and waiting for, almost 50 pages of numbers. And some actually do add up and some, maybe not so much. We'll talk about that in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

This morning, the Malaysia government released new information on the final hours of missing Flight 370. The data compiled by a British satellite company explains why its engineers concluded that the flight diverted hundreds of miles off course and why the search was then shifted to the southern Indian Ocean.

Today's release comes after two months of angry demands from the families of those aboard. They want their own experts to verify that conclusion. But immediately after the release, critics say the report is incomplete, and missing key information that independent experts would need.