Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Possible Breakthrough In Search For Missing Passenger Plane; Fears That Rain Could Trigger Chemical Reaction At Scene Of Deadly Warehouse Explosion In China; Aussie Golfer Jason Day Wins First Major In Record-Breaking Fashion. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired August 17, 2015 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: A possible breakthrough in the search for a passenger plane that went missing over the weekend. Plus, fears that rain could trigger a chemical reaction at the scene of a deadly warehouse explosion in China.

And Australian golfer Jason Day wins his first major in record- breaking fashion.

Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. This is "CNN Newsroom."

And we begin with new developments out of Indonesia. Search and recovery efforts for a missing passenger plane have been suspended because of bad weather. Earlier today, two aerial search teams were said to have spotted debris believed to be from the Trigana air service flight.

The plane lost contact with air traffic control in the Papua region on Sunday. We want to go to straight to CNN's Anna Coren who is following the story from Hong Kong and joins us now with more. So Anna, as we just reported the search and recovery efforts have been suspended due to bad weather but there are also other challenges including the rough terrain. When might the recovery effort continue and how tough will it likely be when it does?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, it looks like the search crews on the ground are going to have to stay where they are for now. Apparently thick fog, poor visibility and storms is hampering them from proceeding any further. They are 3,500 meters up these mountain and had been hiking for an hour when the bad weather rolled in. They will have to camp there overnight. They believe they are six kilometers away from the debris scene. Six kilometers in such challenging terrain is quite a long way.

Remember, we are talking about mountains between 10 and 12,000 feet high, really quite extraordinary and rugged. They were planning to hike to this area, obviously not just to assess the debris but to build a helipad so that helicopters could fly in and help with the recovery efforts. It's looking more and more like a recovery effort and they will have to take away bodies, evidence and find the black boxes to work out what went so terribly wrong. But for now, Rosemary they will be staying put and they are hoping

that tomorrow morning the weather will clear and they will be able to continue with that hike.

CHURCH: And we are also learning that the Trigana air service does not have a particularly good safety record. Talk to us about that and whether authorities have any idea what possibly caused this crash.

COREN: Look, as for the cause, Rosemary it's too early to say. But they are looking at mechanical problems, at pilot error and also weather but it's we know that the plane took off yesterday afternoon with clear weather, that it may have encountered some clouds on the top of the Bintang mountain range that it was flying over when it had this accident but apart from that, it just doesn't - we just don't know as to what went so terribly wrong.

As for the safety record of Trigana, it's been described by experts as being appalling. Something like 14 incidents since 1992 of which five have been fatal. But sadly, it's not just this particular airline. The Indonesian aviation industry does not have a good record. And we only have to look back at what happened in December of last year, with that Air Asia flight to Singapore which crashed into the java sea. All 162 people were killed and in June of this year the C-130 aircraft that crashed shortly after it took off, killing 143 people, 22 of those on the ground.

[03:05:00] Aviation experts that we've spoken to this morning say every two to three months, Indonesia seems to have some sort of aviation accident and that simply, this is not good enough. Obviously, the industry needs an overhaul. Yes, it's expanding extremely quickly. More airlines coming on and they are having to train many more pilots and they are not trained to adequate standards and the planes are old equipment. The aviation industry in Indonesia is going to have to have a massive overall and upgrade.

CHURCH: Certainly a real concern. Anna Coren reporting live from Hong Kong. Many thanks to you as always.

Let's get more on the weather conditions facing the recovery teams. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us now from the international weather center there. And as we heard from Anna, due to weather conditions, this search and recovery effort has been us suspended. Can you get an idea how long they will have to wait before they can resume efforts?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's a great question. The visibility is a major issue. Down to 10 meters at this point. You take a look at where the plane took off from. The closest storm I could find when the plane went missing is 300 kilometers away. But the clouds bank up right around the Bintang mountains. That is a concern. The fog will remain in place for a couple of days. Thunderstorms popped up early on Monday when the sun began to rise. By the afternoon hours the clouds return. This is a pattern we'll follow the next couple days. This is the dry time of year.

July and August is the peak of dry season. And the mountains still get tremendous rainfall. 100 millimeters is a possibility over the area where the plane went down. That is 4 inches in the coming days. And the forecast keeps thunderstorms in there for Tuesday, brings in a few clouds and more thunderstorms could return by the latter portion of the week. I want to show you the landscape here. We heard about what is going on over this region. You bring up the Bintang mountains.

This is the second largest island in the world. One of the most ecologically diverse landscapes in the world as well. In these mountains you will find 21,000 varieties of plants and 800 variety of birds and 250 different mammals. Tremendously steep in this region. And the wind was southerly. You get these eddies that form and translate to clear-air turbulence. We see this in the Rockies and alps and Andes as well.

This is conducive for rough weather especially if the pilots are not trained for it or the aircraft is not equipped to handle it. And it doesn't have visual cues. You're not going to see a cloud formation and radar is capable but conventional radar you don't have access to spot this ahead of it. It's something that I'm sure authorities are looking at carefully. The weather pattern here is notorious for the eddies that form.

CHURCH: Aviation accidents always unsettling to cover and we've had to report on far too many of late. Many thanks to you for explaining the situation on the ground there. Appreciate it.

Well, thousands of Chinese troops are searching for chemicals at the site of last week's massive explosions in Tianjin. The blast killed at least 114 people. 70 are still missing. New video shows the explosions from a neighbor apartment. More than 50 people were rescued from the rubble, including one firefighter who described the scene.

More than 50 people were rescued from the rumbling including one firefighter who described the scene.

XIAO XU, FIREFIGHTER: We hid ourselves behind containers which were deformed by the blast wave. We walked through the containers but couldn't find a way out. Smoke and fire were everywhere. I found it hard to believe.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were you afraid?

XU: A little bit but I focused on how to get there.

CHURCH: Steven Jiang is there and joins us with the latest. We learned that 700 tons of sodium cyanide was in the blast site. Why would there be such a large quantity of the substance. Talk about just how toxic it is.

[03:10:00] STEVEN JIANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That site was a large chemical warehouse containing all sorts of toxic material. Sodium cyanide is a chemical used in chemical manufacturing and in the Ming industry. It's stuff that is easy to inhale. And if inhaled or ingested it can be lethal to humans quickly. We are talking about 700 tons of it lying around in the blast zone. That's why the military officer in charge are saying they are doing everything they can to handle this with the utmost care and methodically.

If the material has leaked into the ground they have been building walls around it to contain it. If they have found the barrels ripped open by a blast forces they are trying to neutralize the chemical with hydrogen peroxide. Now if the barrels happen to be intact they are shipped away immediately. It's that precaution they are taking. But still they are searching a wider area within a three kilometer radius, have 2,000 soldiers trying to find other chemicals that may have been launched into the air by the blast forces and fallen to the ground. They are looking for it and cleaning it up.

Rosemary?

CHURCH: Yes, Steven, that's the big concern, isn't it? The air and water quality. Apparently they have measured this but a lot of people are suspicious about the outcome and the results. Talk to us about that and what people nearby are going to do as far as where they're going to live if they lost homes and the fear some have solve going back to their homes that still remain in that area.

JIANG: That's right Rosemary, despite the shocking finding in the blast zone of the 700 tons of material. The environmental protection agency officials say it is safe to live here. The air quality and water quality, they have been measuring since the day after the blast, the readings have come back to normal levels, they say. And that's what they are telling people. It's safe to drink the water here. It's safe to breathe in the air here. But this line of argument has not convinced a lot of residents especially those who lived nearby. Some are staging protests outside a government press center two days in a row. They want answers and cauterization from the authorities.

They say when they bought the apartments no one told them they would be living next to a ticking time bomb. They said how can such a project with so much dangerous chemical material be stored so close to residential areas with thousands of residents. They want the government to buy back their apartments and give them answers to questions that have not been answered by the authorities so far.

Rosemary?

CHURCH: Let's hope they get answers and get them soon. Steven Jiang reporting live from Tianjin, many thanks to you. Tens of thousands of protesters are keeping up the pressure on the Brazilian president. They filled the streets, calling for her impeachment. President Rousseff has seen her approval rating sink to single digits with brazil's economy mired in recession. Prices are climbing while the currency is hitting a 12-year low. A government spokesman calls the protest a part of democracy.

Sri Lankans are voting for a new parliament and it's a referendum on the comeback of the former president. The so-called warrior king is hoping his party can win enough seats to put him on the path to becoming prime minister. But his former ally, the current president and leader of the party, is ruling that out. Rajapanksa narrowly lost the election.

Let's turn now to the U.S. presidential race. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has released his long awaited policy on immigration. It's a cornerstone of his campaign. In the plan the billionaire outlines how he will force Mexico to pay for a wall along its border with the United States. Andy Rose has more on that.

ANDY ROSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Getting specific on immigration policy in an interview aired Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" Republican candidate, Donald Trump says the U.S. must deport all Mexican immigrant also are in the country illegally. Trump says the U.S. must build a wall along the border with Mexico and have Mexico pay for it or face possible tariffs or fees. He says any plan should improve jobs, wages and security for Americans.

[03:15:00] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It will work out so well and You will be so happy. In four years you're going to be Interviewing me and saying what A great job you've done President Trump.

ROSE: Trump has faced criticism from his own party for his sometimes controversial stands on issues and the media's coverage of them.

MIKE HUCKABEE, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's getting ten times the press coverage than any other candidate. You give me ten times the coverage that any other candidate gets I'll be leading in the polls.

ROSE: Structure's support is at 25 percent nationwide eclipsing Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz. Ben Carson is in second place. When asked if Trump's campaign was part of a reality show, the candidate replied.

BEN CARSON, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is the real deal.

CHURCH: Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton continues to be dogged by questions regarding her e-mail use as secretary of state. On Saturday, the democratic front runner dismissed suggestions she was taking the issue to lightly and said partisan politics is fueling the controversy that has plagued her campaign. Carly Fiorina appeared on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday and had blunt words for her political rival.

CARLY FIORINA, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, in the debate last week I made the statement that Hillary Clinton has lied. She's lied about Benghazi, she's lied about her server and she's lied about her e-mails. And some in the media found that language harsh although the majority of Americans agree with me. The more the story goes on the more it becomes clear that she has lied.

CHURCH: Clinton says that people coming to her campaign events have not brought the controversy up.

All right. Let's turn to golf and the PGA championship ended with a history-making performance by Australian golfer Jason Day as he set a new record with a score that no one in the history of the game as ever achieved. He finished the 72-hole tournament at 20 under par, the lowest score ever in a major championship. He has had several close calls in other major tournaments but was able to put out his first career major win.

JASON DAY, 2015 PGA CHAMPION: I knew today was going to be tough but I didn't realize how tough it was going to be. I learned a lot about myself, again. Being able to finish the way I did. The experiences I've had in the past with previous major finishes has definitely helped me prepare myself for, you know, a moment like this. And - to be able to walk up the 18th hole and finish the way I did, I mean there was just a lot of emotion that came out of me. I haven't had really much time to think about what I just accomplished. And I guess you can take me off the best players without a major now. So, I mean, it's good the be a major champion.

CHURCH: Jason Day sat down with world sport's Don Riddell after his big win and you can see that in our next half hour on "CNN Newsroom."

First, migrants hoping to escape their homeland are faced with a new reality and it's not at all what they expected. We will take a closer look at what life is like for migrants in Greece. And Oscar Pistorius could be released from prison after serving a fraction of his sentence. We're back with that in a moment.

[03:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Syrian watchdog and aid groups say the government has carried out a series of deadly air strikes on a rebel-held town. At least 82 people were reported killed and 250 wounded in the blast in Douma northeast of Damascus. This shows the aftermath of the attacks. Ambulances were on alert before the shelling and the number of wounded overwhelmed the field hospitals.

For thousands of migrants, starting a new life in Greece was supposed to be a dream come true. Instead many are facing a nightmare. The U.N. says nearly all the migrants are fleeing wars in Syria, Iraq, and in Afghanistan but it's only those from Syria were allowed to board this refugee ship on the Greek island of Kos on Sunday. They will be allowed to seek asylum. Others aren't so lucky and their desperation is growing. Members of the group doctors without borders gave CNN an inside look into their work on Kos.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have our medical team here. We are treating the people. There are many women and children. The main medical problems are related to the heat and to the fact that all these people have to stay out in the park without any proper shelter and no proper conditions and no toilet, no food, no water, no milk for the babies. With you see skin diseases and gastro intestinal problems. There are all these refugees coming and no authority to watch and take care of them. There is a clear lack of political willingness to deal with this issue.

[00:25:00] So this is the main beach front road of Kos. A very touristic island, and this is not very much of a touristic island. This is not a camp. This is a public square. You know, people have to stay here because there is no official reception center for them to stay. They don't want to stay here. They are completely shocked by these conditions, you know, the fact that they have to stay here for so many days without even knowing when they will get their paper. They have been fleeing their country because of the war and the bombs. And now they cannot have even a proper toilet. So you know, they are saying that maybe the bombs have been better than to be saying in these condition.

CHURCH: Going to bring in Leonard Doyle, a spokesman for the international organization for migration. He joins us via Skype from Geneva, Switzerland. We are seeing conditions so bad that many of the migrants are wishing they stayed home and face the hardships that face them there rather than come to Kos.

LEONARD DOYLE, INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION: Well, at the end of the day they are safer an happier where they are albeit it's not an ideal situation, anything but. There is a lot of pressure on the Greek government. As everybody knows and they have moved a cruise liner in to accommodate migrants. But it's difficult. And the numbers are unprecedented. 149,000 so far this year. For a small island, for these small islands off turkey it's overwhelming the infrastructure. So it's clear there is an issue here that the entire European Union needs to rally behind.

CHURCH: So I mean, understood there this is putting Greece under incredible pressure. But what needs to be done to improve the situation for these migrants and to find a solution to this problem of tens of thousands of migrants trying to flee their homes for a better life and ending up in worse conditions in some instances than they found at home?

DOYLE: I think if there is a view that by not providing aid you dissuade people from coming that is unfounded and silly. I think the first thing is there needs to be protection for these people with shelter and food and be looked after and get their papers and get registered and validated if they are asylum seekers or not. That's the first level. That's where we are missing something here. And the numbers coming are increasing. We had an awful tragedy this weekend off Libya in which people were found asphyxiated in the hold of a ship. The smugglers don't treat people well and the European Union needs to step it up a little bit.

CHURCH: All right. Leonard Doyle, many thanks to you for joining us and explaining the situation there on the ground. We do appreciate it.

And next here on "CNN Newsroom," just 10 months after being convicted of killing his girlfriend, Oscar Pistorius will soon be a free man but his legal troubles are not over yet.

Legalizing gay marriage is getting support in Australia but it is hitting a road block with the country's prime minister. We'll explain when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)