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United Flight Suffers Engine Failure After Takeoff In Denver; NTSB Investigating "Engine Event" Of United Flight Near Denver; Rep. Ocasio-Cortez Raises $4 Million For Texas Disaster Relief; Safe Water Now The Biggest Need In Storm-Battered Texas; United Plane Lands Safely After Engine Fails, Parts Fall Onto Neighborhoods; President Biden Visits Bob Dole Following Cancer Diagnosis; COVID Hospitalizations Dip To Lowest Level Since November. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired February 20, 2021 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Saturday evening, and we're following breaking news tonight out of Colorado. A Boeing 777 with 241 passengers and crew onboard started shedding debris after an engine failure, causing huge pieces of metal to rain down over Broomfield, Colorado just outside of Denver.

The United Airlines flight was headed to Honolulu from Denver International Airport, and then turned around for an emergency landing this afternoon, shortly after taking off. The NTSB has formally launched an investigation into the incident. But it appears a huge tragedy was narrowly avoided. Pilots landed the plane safely with no injuries to anyone on board and there are no known injuries on the ground from the falling debris, which local police say is amazing.

Incredibly, calm in the cockpit even as a United Airlines pilot called air traffic control to report engine failure. We now have that audio of the very moment the pilot issued the mayday call, listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

PILOT: Mayday Mayday United Air28. 328 heavy Mayday Mayday aircraft uh...

ATC: 328 Heavy say again please - repeat all that again.

PILOT: Denver, departure. United 328 Heavy Mayday aircraft just experienced engine failure. Need to turn immediately.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BROWN: I want to turn now to our Lucy Kafanov; she is at the scene. Lucy, what are you seeing? LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pam, it's been a surreal

experience being out here. It's a Saturday afternoon, a lot of families were out and about, there's a dog park nearby, so folks were walking their dogs. There's also a massive soccer field where a lot of kids were practicing soccer, when this incident took place several hours ago.

And we're actually standing on one of the streets that's closed off by police tape where some of the debris had fallen on a house, that image that you saw, the round piece of engine or whatever that was is actually right behind the RV there.

But I want to bring in two guests, two young women who were actually practicing soccer on the field when this happened. This is Rylee, who's 16 years old, sorry, 17 years old, and Bella, who's 16 years old. And Bella, you were actually on the field when this happened. Can you describe what you experienced?

ISABELLA RUEDA, EYEWITNESS: Yes, so we were about an hour into practice. We're going to go for like an hour and 30 today, I think. And we were doing a possession drill working on our attacking and defending. And then we kind of just heard like a boom or like a POW kind of like either a gunshot or like firecrackers or fireworks going off, and I actually thought it came from the neighborhood.

So we just kind of kept practicing. But then these guys came over and said a plane exploded and we looked up and you just kind of see these black debris, things falling out of the sky. And it took us a second to really realize what was going on and we kind of just stood there like what are we supposed to do.

And then we were out in the middle of the field, so we had to figure out whether where to go, some girls went to their cars and then there were two pavilions that we could go under. I went to one that was up on the hillside. And so, under there, we just kind of watched the rest of the debris fall down. Some fell into the neighborhood and other pieces on to the field. And yes...

KAFANOV: What was going through your mind when you realized this was a plane? I mean, were you scared?

RUEDA: I was really nervous. I was more like, OK, I don't want to get impaled by anything. So I'm going to run towards that thing that has a big metal roof over it. I drive a jeep and I had this soft top on and I was like, that's probably not the smartest place to be, if anything, so I was just kind of focused on getting there and then see what happened afterwards.

KAFANOV: And Rylee, you had just finished your practice session. So what did you see?

RYLEE CARROLL, EYEWITNESS: So I was just about to leave, and I was in the car with my friend, and we just saw black stuff falling from the sky and we were really confused. And then we saw people like starting to run out to the shelters with bags over their heads. And after like a few minutes of just seeing that stuff, I saw a few people pick up like one of the one of the biggest pieces. I was like, I'm pretty sure that's a plane, so then I kind of figured it out.

KAFANOV: Thank you so much. I mean a terrifying experience and actually picking up those pieces of planes is what the police say you should definitely not do, they are still investigating the area. In fact, Pam, they don't even know how large the debris field is. While we've been out here, people had actually come up to the police to report pieces of debris in their yard, in front of their house and trying to figure out who to report that to.

[19:05:00]

The NTSB is going to be taking over this investigation but right now this is a very active scene, a lot of folks just dazed and confused, and thankfully for the most part, it seems unhurt. Pam?

BROWN: Thankfully, I just can't imagine what it's like for them, trying to enjoy their Saturday out and about, and then suddenly pieces of a plane fall in their front yard. Incredible to hear what some of those eyewitnesses said that you interviewed Lucy, thanks so much.

And CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean joins me now. First of all, Pete, what strikes me is that how much debris fell from the ground. Why - I mean fell from the plane to the ground. Why is it that that happened? I mean, it's one thing for an engine to fail and to no longer work, it's another for parts of it to just come off, as you see right here in this video, and land on the ground.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: In aviation - I'm a pilot and a flight instructor - we use the term losing an engine, when the engine stops producing power. In this instance, the flight crew literally lost the engine, with this debris field a mile long, over Broomfield, Colorado.

That is something that is very rare, just the uniqueness in the - how extreme this was really can't be understated. Engines fail on commercial airliners from time to time. On the grand scheme of successful flights, that's actually pretty rare. But for this to happen in such an extreme way is especially rare.

You can see in that image there, in front of that house between that RV and the house, that looks to me to be the front of the right engine, of this Pratt and Whitney engine on this Boeing 777 jet and it really speaks to the force of that boom those witnesses described.

These are parts of airplanes that are incredibly well engineered, because not only are parts moving around inside in an incredibly fast speed, it also is so critical to getting the airplane in the air - you can't do it without an engine - but it's also very hot. And so these are pieces of aluminum and Kevlar and composite that truly shook off of the airplane and into this massive debris field. It's really quite something and can't be understated how rare this is.

BROWN: Just remarkable visuals here that we're seeing as you're speaking there. Pete Muntean, stay with us. I want to bring in CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien and CNN aviation analyst and former NTSB managing director Peter Goelz. Thank you both for coming on. Miles, just put this in perspective for us, if you would, how close

were we to witnessing a horrific tragedy today, or was this scenario the result of the training and engineering that's in place specifically to prevent a catastrophe?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Yes, I like to think about the latter part of it. There is this expression in aviation, the rules are written in blood, aviation progressively and systematically over the years has taken mishaps, events, fatalities, crashes, and turn them into better ways to fly.

And a lot of what we're seeing in the wake of this is a system that did OK. Dramatic as it was, we can't expect jet engines doing what they do at the very edge of our technological capabilities to perform flawlessly all the time, especially when you consider the number of flights that we deal with every day, even in the pandemic world.

Statistically, they're going to fail. And so, the system was built to protect against something really catastrophic happening here. That engine is designed to contain the shrapnel that occurs when there is an uncontained failure, as best it can, and it appears that's what happened here. It didn't pierce the fuselage. Imagine if that had happened.

If it had pierced the fuel tank, and you saw the open flames on the engine there, that could have been catastrophic. And then the separate issue of - imagine if there were kids playing on that soccer field.

So several bullets were dodged here, but in many respects, it's in a calculated way. We can say it's lucky, but it's also a system that rolls up their sleeves and tries to imagine these scenarios and tries to build in layers of redundancy and defense in depth against it.

BROWN: And the pilots are so well trained - training for this from the moment they start is what I'm told from other pilots, Pete Muntean said that as well. So clearly the pilot was so calm in the Mayday call, really remarkable to hear about that. And we're hearing from the residents on the ground too is that debris was falling down, Peter, where the police are saying, look, don't touch the plane debris. This is now part of an investigation.

And the last hour, the department spokeswoman told me that there was about a one mile spread of debris there. So what can NTSB investigators learn from the spread and the positioning of these pieces?

PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, there's an old saying that the first piece off the aircraft indicates where the accident occurred. So they're going to be looking at the beginning of the debris field to see what pieces came off this engine first and what they look like.

[19:10:00]

As Miles said, this was - things worked as they were designed. Nothing penetrated the cabin or the aircraft, the pilots were trained to land it. So now the three most important pieces of evidence are going to be the voice recorder, the data recorder and the evidence first off the aircraft. So people really shouldn't be touching this stuff. They want to find where that first piece is.

BROWN: But to be clear, I mean, you're looking at all this debris and everything, do you think that they're going to be able to figure out to get to the bottom of what happened here?

GOELZ: Absolutely. The NTSB - we have we have found cabin doors at 10,000 feet, we have found pieces of fan blades in farming fields, miles from accidents. The NTSB will find the wreckage, they will analyze it, and this one, they'll figure out what happened.

BROWN: So from a pilot's perspective, Miles, try to put us in the shoes of the pilot on this plane. What was happening? I'm sorry, actually, Pete, I'm going to go to you, because I want to get your perspective on this, then Miles, I'll go to you, as - because you're a pilot, Pete, what's going on in the mind of that pilot?

What was going on when the engine failed? This is something you told me before pilots trained for, he was very calm, but how hard is it to land a plane with one engine.

MUNTEAN: It's incredibly hard. It's tricky. Not only have you lost half of the available power here to keep the airplane climbing, but it essentially becomes very hard to maneuver. The dead engine now has essentially turned into a boat anchor, making the airplane hard to turn back to the field, hard to align properly with the runway.

So the physics become very dynamic and it becomes very difficult to fly, running through the scenario, running through the emergency and the problem. That's also especially difficult, especially because of the extreme startle factor that would have been associated with this crash, a loud boom.

So you have to sort of figure out first what that is. And then pilots who drill for emergency engine failures all the time have to start jumping into action and relying on their rote memorization and essentially become emotionless and really tuned into the airplane to make sure they do everything exactly right to get the airplane on the ground right away.

BROWN: It's all the prep they did leading up to that moment that helps in that situation. Very quickly, Miles, what does it tell you that one engine failed and the other didn't?

O'BRIEN: Oh, imagine if we'd had a double failure, that would be - that would take us back to like a Sully incident where you had the geese flying into the engines. Having two engines fail, is such an extremely unusual scenario as maybe a situation involving fuel contamination might be the case, but the fact is they're extremely reliable and the possibility - I don't even want to try to rate the odds on having yet another engine fail subsequent to what you saw here today. That would - you'd be better off playing the lottery and using that as your retirement fund.

BROWN: All right, Miles O'Brien, Peter Goelz, Pete Muntean, thank you so much gentlemen.

And as water systems in Houston and Austin come back online, millions still face food and water crisis following deadly storms right now, as we speak. And you'll hear next from New York Congresswoman AOC, who so far has raised over $4 million for disaster relief.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:15:00]

BROWN: Last weekend's bitter cold is easing in Texas, state-wide just over 50,000 residents are still without power. But more than half the state is still under Boil Water Advisories. And as things begin to fall, broken pipes are becoming the latest headache. CNN's Omar Jimenez is in Austin where clean water is the most precious resource.

CNN's Omar Jimenez:

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The waters not even bubbling--

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The lights may be on, but across parts of Texas, the water isn't. Drinking water, still need it.

DEBORAH WRIGLY, HOUSTON RESIDENT: There's a panic mode that we didn't have enough drinking water. We would love showers but we will - we'll get that when we when we get our water turned back on.

JIMENEZ (voice over): Texans waiting in long lines just to pick up cases of water, with nearly half of the state under Boil Water Advisories.

STEVE ADLER (D), MAYOR OF AUSTIN, TEXAS: This is a community of people that are scared and upset and angry. We're eventually going to need some better answers. But right now, we're just trying to get water to our neighbors.

JIMENEZ (voice over): But it's not just drinking water, some residents can't even flush the toilet without melting snow.

SMITA PANDE, AUSTIN, TEXAS RESIDENT: We relocated back to our house, five adults and two dogs, and we started harvesting snow because we had also lost water, at that point, harvesting snow for toilet water.

JIMENEZ (voice over): That lack of water making it especially difficult for those suffering from kidney failure. Some dialysis clinics have been forced to temporarily close, meaning patients have to go to the hospital to keep their kidneys from shutting down.

DR. PAUL NADER, CHIEF, DIVISION OF NEPHROLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS DELL MEDICAL SCHOOL: So we've had double, sometimes triple coverages of physicians at all the hospitals. We cover many hospitals in Austin. Ordinarily, we finish most of our dialysis between about 5 PM or 6 PM at night, for a regular day. We were working 2 AM or 3 AM in the morning, dialyzing patients in the hospital.

JIMENEZ (voice over): President Joe Biden approving a major disaster declaration for Texas, freeing up more help from FEMA.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): You know, when disaster strikes, this is not just an issue for Texans, this is an issue for our entire country. Disasters don't strike everyone equally. When you already have so many families in the state and across the country that are on the brink, that can't even afford an emergency to begin with, when you have a disaster like this, it can just set people back for years.

[19:20:00]

JIMENEZ (voice over): And as residents wait for the water and power to come back, some still forced to use their cars for warmth. Others, if they're lucky, find shelter in a hotel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The guests, frankly, it's been the equivalent of camping indoors.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

BROWN: And meantime, CNN's Natasha Chen spent the day in Houston, Texas, and she has more on efforts involving New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other Texas lawmakers to bring in much needed disaster relief funds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Pamela, by Sunday afternoon, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had raised more than $4 million for Texas organizations, including the Houston Food Bank, where she started the day volunteering, along with representatives Sheila Jackson Lee and Sylvia Garcia who represent the Houston area.

She then came to this working-class neighborhood of Houston with Garcia to tour a home where the couple had lost power for days during the worst of this storm. I asked the Congresswoman who's from New York, why she chose to come to Houston to help out and if that had anything to do with a certain colleague of hers?

So, your choice to come to Houston, I mean, what are your thoughts on you coming from out-of-state choosing this city, the home of Ted Cruz, who left--

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Honestly, the big reason I came to Houston is because Sylvia invited me. We started--

REP. SYLVIA GARCIA (D-TX): I said that we had better margaritas at my house than at Cancun.

OCASIO-CORTEZ: It was really Silvia that stepped up and said, we need help with the Houston Food Bank. I've got an extra bedroom in my house, and we could use your help. And so, I just picked up her invitation. CHEN (voice over): The couple that lives here said that they are hauling water from their neighbor's house four or five times a day and that, the wait for a plumber in town could be about two weeks right now. So, they feel very lucky to have a family member who's handy, trying to help them solve these problems more quickly.

As they were giving this tour, they also learned from the members of Congress that they can now start applying for federal assistance available as a result of the major disaster declaration Biden signed. Pamela, back to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN (voice over): Thanks, Natasha. These are new images just in to CNN WOW! Showing the engine failure aboard a Boeing 777 that happened shortly after takeoff. This is in the air, the plane is in the air with the engine on fire. Our experts are standing by, along with an eyewitness on the ground.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN (voice over): Take a look. These are shocking new images coming in to CNN posted on social media, allegedly of the engine failure of the United Airlines Boeing 777, Boeing rather, 777 that suffered engine failure on takeoff. Back with me now is our CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien and CNN aviation analyst and former NTSB Managing Director Peter Goelz.

Peter, as you look at this video, what are you seeing? What does it tell you?

GOELZ: Well, first of all, it's extraordinary. But as I was watching it, it looks like the outer fan blades are rotating and are largely intact, and that the problem occurred further back into the engine in the compressor blades. They have high pressure and low pressure compression chambers and blades. What do you think, Miles?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Peter, I'm looking at it, and what really strikes me here is, is the flames, frankly. One of the first things you do when this happens is you cut off the fuel to the engine. So, is that residual fuel still burning?

Or was there some problem with the fuel cut off? And that's something that as you know, Peter, the NTSB will be looking at. It's interesting, we often talk about how the wreckage tells the tale. These days, we've got video documentation too.

BROWN: Yes, and I just want to - so the viewers know, when I'm looking down, I'm watching this video. That's where I'm seeing it. So you know why I'm looking down. But, as you look at this, what does it tell you given what we know about the debris that's on the ground? And what we see here? Like, where is this? What part of the process is this, you think?

GOELZ: Well, I think - Miles, go ahead.

O'BRIEN: Oh, well, I mean, obviously, whatever happened has in a significant way has happened here, it's - even though it's bouncing around there like crazy and is scary looking, it's relatively speaking, a stable situation.

Those flames appear to be - I'm going to guess that's residual fuel as a lay person, but this is something that a more trained eye needs to look at. But, this is one of the big concerns when you have one of these uncontained failures, is the shrapnel kit - where's the fuel on an aircraft? Inside the wings. They're called wet wings.

That's where we tanker the fuel. And you don't want shrapnel piercing that wing. You don't want flames coming in proximity to that fuel. So it's a scary moment. And I can only imagine what it's like to - you thought you're off on your way to Honolulu and you look out the window and see that.

BROWN: Yes, I really could not imagine. This apparently was posted by a Twitter user whose parents were on this plane filming this in real time.

[19:30:04]

And you have to wonder the panic that was going on, on the plane, how the crew was managing that and everything. Kudos to the crew as well for landing the plane safely and the fact that there were no injuries. Truly remarkable.

Peter and Miles, thanks. Stick around. Much more to discuss on this.

But first, we want to stick with our breaking news this hour. This frightening in-flight incident today in the skies over Colorado, a commercial airliner raining pieces of its engine onto homes and streets below.

This is one view of the plane from the ground the moment witnesses knew something had gone wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it's -- something blew up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: That video was shot by Tyler Thal in Broomfield, Colorado. Tyler joins me now.

Hi, Tyler.

TYLER THAL, EYEWITNESS: Hello. BROWN: So what was going through your mind when this was happening?

And tell us just about that moment where you see it, and then you take out your camera and just start shooting video?

THAL: Well, I just couldn't believe it. We were on a walk with our family, just like any other Saturday and there's a low flying airplane. I looked up.

And as I'm looking at it, I actually see, you know, fire burst out of the plane, an explosion.

So you know, I was kind of in shock at first and then you start thinking, oh my gosh, is this plane going to go down?

So I mentioned it to my family. I didn't know what else to do. I pulled out my camera. I grabbed my phone. I didn't know if I was going to call someone or not or who I'd call, but I took the video.

Once the sound from the exclusion hit, it was very frightening for my daughter. You could hear her on the video. I just didn't know what to do.

BROWN: So tell us about that. So you were with your daughter? How old is she? What was her reaction? What was it like for you as a father in this situation?

THAL: She's in kindergarten, so she is six years old. You know, it's just scary. You know, she is safe, but you know, she's so scared. So you don't know what to tell her. I mean, we just tell her, we're okay, we're going to be okay.

But just looking up at that plane and you know, it just kept going. So it didn't plummet, it just kept going so, at that point I didn't know where it was heading. I'm just hoping all those people on that plane were going to be okay.

BROWN: Yes, I mean you're watching this in real time and you're probably thinking, oh my gosh, where do I go right now? To make sure that a piece of metal doesn't hit me or my family. What was that like and was your suspicions -- at first, were you concerned the whole plane was coming down?

THAL: Well, I absolutely was and you know we're far enough away. I wasn't concerned for our safety necessarily, but knowing the area, I knew that was over Broomfield, and that is just a populated area, you know, the debris I saw on that soccer field, I'd been there with my family.

So you know, I was absolutely concerned for the people on the ground and the people on that plane. And I'm just thankful they all -- they were all okay.

BROWN: Yes, it's really remarkable. I imagine you're talking to others as well who witnessed -- were eyewitnesses to this. What is just the feeling right now in the community? What are you hearing from others?

THAL: Well, it's kind of disbelief.

BROWN: All right, we're having some audio issues there with Tyler, but really, he just laid out how remarkable and scary the situation was there near Broomfield, Colorado when he looked up in the sky, and he saw pieces of metal from a plane coming down to the ground and he captured it on his phone.

Thanks so much to Tyler for coming on.

And up next, President Biden makes a surprise visit to see former Senator Bob Dole as the war hero battles lung cancer. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:38:09]

BROWN: Well, President Biden this afternoon made an unannounced visit to an ailing icon of the Republican Party. His longtime Senate colleague, Bob Dole, the 1996 presidential nominee announced this week that he is battling stage four lung cancer.

Arlette Saenz is at the White House, and Arlette, these two men have a very strong bond, don't they?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They certainly do, Pamela, and it's a relationship that was forged after serving decades together in the United States Senate.

Now, this visit by President Biden was a surprise stop. It was not announced on his public schedule. But he spent a little bit over an hour today visiting with former Senator Bob Dole over at the Watergate.

Now, Dole earlier this week had announced that he has stage four lung cancer. I want to read that statement to you. He said: "Recently, I was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. My first treatment will begin Monday. While I certainly have some hurdles ahead, I also know that I join millions of Americans who face significant health challenges of their own."

So the President paying a visit to his longtime friend just a few days after he made this public announcement and as Dole is set to start that treatment for cancer this week.

Now the President was asked by reporters how Senator Dole was doing and he said that he was doing very well, but certainly the President wanted to spend some time with someone who he really developed a close relationship with while he served those years in the Senate.

BROWN: And we shouldn't be surprised that President Biden made this visit as you said, his bipartisan friendships are well known.

SAENZ: Yes, they certainly are. And Senator Dole and Biden when he was a senator, they were obviously on different sides of the aisle, but still developed this relationship and this friendship. I was watching some videos of them from the past few years where they

were each speaking about each other and you could hear the respect and the decency that they each thought that they saw in the other person.

[19:40:15]

SAENZ: Now, the President also has many relationships with his old bipartisan colleagues. You'll remember he was very close with Senator John McCain, even delivering a eulogy at one of his memorial services. And a lot of these relationships were also formed on their international trips.

Biden traveled with both Dole and McCain abroad trying to work on foreign policy while they were in the Senate. The President also has many other Republican friends that he is close with who he also works on maintaining those friendships with.

I remember being in an airport with him once where he ran into former Republican Senator Alan Simpson, and the two of them spent some private time together before we all got on the same flight.

And so the President has worked very closely with so many of his Republican colleagues up on the Hill, and he tries to maintain these friendships as you saw today, as he paid a visit to Senator Bob Dole.

BROWN: All right, Arlette Saenz live from the White House. Thanks so much, Arlette.

And despite a massive storm that has interrupted shipments of the COVID vaccine, health officials are making a vaccine push to get Americans vaccinated.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:45:52]

BROWN: And we are following breaking news out of Colorado. Take a look. These are stunning pictures of debris from a United flight.

The Boeing 777 took off this afternoon from Denver bound for Honolulu, but then quickly returned after one of its engines failed.

Giant pieces of the airplane came down in Broomfield about 20 miles outside of Denver. And here's audio of the moment the mayday call went out.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

PLANE: Mayday, Mayday United Air28. Three-twenty-eight heavy Mayday Mayday aircraft.

ATC: Three-twenty-eight Heavy say again please, repeat all that again.

PLANE: Denver departure, United 328 Heavy Mayday aircraft just experienced engine failure. Need to turn immediately.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BROWN: And the flight landed safely back at Denver International Airport. All 241 people on that flight were safe and miraculously, there have been no reports of injuries from the falling debris.

The N.T.S.B. is now investigating and we will continue to keep you updated on this developing situation.

Meantime, in the fight against the coronavirus, public health officials are pushing large shipments of COVID vaccine this weekend for two reasons. One is to make up for progress lost during this week's winter storms and two, to try and stay ahead of any COVID variants.

Details here from CNN's Polo Sandoval.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Just a month after reaching 400,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths, the U.S. is closing in on half a million people dead from the virus.

Yes, the latest numbers do show a continuing five-week decline in the nation's new cases, as well as the decline in hospitalizations and deaths, but there's a caveat. The C.D.C. warning it is unclear how much of the decrease is due to recent winter weather closing some testing sites, and there is a sharp spike in cases at the University of Maryland, school officials there are ordering all students living on campus to sequester in place until next Saturday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it's pretty much expected when you see that the fact that students are returning back to campus.

SANDOVAL (voice over): Despite the positive signs elsewhere, the Director of the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation thinks we may not achieve herd immunity until next winter. This despite recent reports suggesting we may get there next month.

DR. CHRIS MURPHY, DIRECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON'S INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH METRICS AND EVALUATION: We know COVID is really seasonal, so when the next winter rolls around, we need to have a much higher level of protection to stop COVID in its tracks than we're likely to achieve.

SANDOVAL (voice over): This week, weather-related shipping delays are fueling discussions about whether or not the administering of second doses should be delayed, allowing for more first round shots for Americans. The White House maintains that is still too risky given the data about the vaccines.

Dr. Paul Offit who sits on the F.D.A.'s Advisory Committee told CNN's Jake Tapper yesterday, he agrees.

DR. PAUL OFFIT, F.D.A. ADVISORY COMMITTEE: IT is clear that this is a two-dose vaccine that you're going to have longer, better, more complete immunity with that second dose. And I worry that if people wait a long time for that second dose, I'm not saying like you know that you can't wait say six weeks between dose one and dose two.

But if you're waiting months and months, I think you're going to have this false notion that you're protected when you may well not be.

SANDOVAL (voice over): Many states are getting vaccination efforts back on track and Maryland officials are using a mobile vaccination unit to make up for lost ground.

And in the City of Minneapolis, health officials are making additional efforts such as partnering with local organizations and churches to reach communities hardest hit by the pandemic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The best thing I can say to anyone is if it's available, take it and just pray that it works for you and you stay safe.

SANDOVAL (voice over): Along with vaccinations, the U.S. needs to prioritize testing thinks Kathleen Sebelius, she is a former head of Health and Human Services.

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, FORMER SECRETARY OF HEALTH UNDER OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Focus on both testing that we need to identify who has the disease and then the serology tests that will tell us more about antibodies and what kind of variant is circulating, but we need both tests and we need them very, very quickly.

SANDOVAL (voice over): Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[19:50:01]

BROWN: And we are getting some new images from Mars, from the Perseverance rover. Have you seen this? And NASA's mission is one of three on the Red Planet this year. But why is there so much earthly interest? Former NASA astronaut joins us next to explain. Stay with us.

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[19:55:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Touchdown confirmed. Perseverance is safely on the surface of Mars, ready to being seeking the signs of past life.

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: NASA's Perseverance rover affectionately called Percy landed on Mars, Thursday, beginning its historic mission for evidence of ancient life on the Red Planet. But already, we are not alone. The UAE and China have orbiters

circling Mars with China expected to land there in May. So why the sudden convergence on Mars and what do we hope to learn from these missions?

Here to discuss is former NASA astronaut, Mike Massimino. Mike, good to see you.

MIKE MASSIMINO, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Likewise.

BROWN: First, if you would lay out how significant this is. Explain how this Mars trifecta came about and what the three missions aim to accomplish.

MASSIMINO: Sure, Pamela, thanks for having me. And it's a pretty exciting time. As you mentioned, it's not that the U.S. -- it's not just the U.S., it is other countries as well, all part of Mars 2020. That's when all these spaceships started heading toward Mars, and it is not just coincidence that they all kind of left around the same time and arriving around the same time.

Because our planets are in different orbits, there's only certain times throughout the years where they're close enough that you can get there expeditiously. And so that happens about every year and a half or so.

So three countries, the U.S., the UAE and China, as you said, took advantage of that window we had about six to seven months ago to send their spacecraft to Mars.

And it's pretty exciting because it's not just studying the planet of Mars and learning about how it might have affected the formation of Earth or how Earth and Mars kind of went in two different directions. Is there life there and so on? But also kind of the precursor to sending people there, which hopefully will happen in the next decade or two.

BROWN: Yes, that's the big question. So what you would hope is that these other countries would share the data of what they're also getting. But China has this history of holding back some of its findings. Could that create setbacks in terms of synthesizing this data and planning, future missions, planning for humans to go there?

MASSIMINO: No, I don't know. I think, you know, most countries, we cooperate with, of course, on the International Space Station, and the science communities usually cooperate pretty well and share information.

So I don't know how that all is going to work out with, you know with all the countries, but you know, certainly I think that what we're going to learn from the U.S. mission from Perseverance is going to be a huge help, learning how to convert the atmosphere into breathable oxygen, looking for signs of water, looking for signs of ancient life.

Ten years down the road, they're looking toward returning a sample from the rover back to Earth to study. So with all of that coming back, and the great pictures that are coming and the helicopter that is going to be flying around and they're even recording sound on the planet now on Mars, I think there's going to be a lot of science, a lot of information to keep a lot of people active for quite a while.

BROWN: So what is that already telling you? What you're hearing and seeing in these pictures, what's already being collected by Percy, what is all of this telling you about Mars?

MASSIMINO: Well, the hope is that it will find some signs of ancient life from billions of years ago. They picked a very interesting place to land. This is a dry lake bed, but it used to be the size of Lake Tahoe. And now it's dried up, you know, we are talking billions of years ago, it was it that. Now, it's dried up.

So they wanted to go there because they think there may be some very interesting things to find maybe on the surface or just underneath the surface when it looks for maybe signs of microbial life, signs of water, where we can maybe use that in the future.

But in order to get there, they needed a lot of artificial intelligence and autonomy to land in that very interesting place because it was a hard place to land, but they pulled that off, and I think now that engineering miracles have taken place to get the spacecraft there, I think the science will begin in earnest.

But we're going to find out a lot. Hopefully we'll find out the things that we're hopeful about like signs of life and water and so on. But we will have to wait and see a little bit.

BROWN: We are going to have to exercise some patience. One of the rover's experiments will be attempting to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, which could be necessary for manned missions.

If that technology works, could it also have applications here on Earth? Say to reduce carbon in the atmosphere?

MASSIMINO: Absolutely, Pamela. Go into space, everything we did with the space shuttle, with the space station, and still what we're doing, exploring Mars, it is not just about going other places, it's about helping life on Earth.

So we need water when we go to space, we've been able to find out more about how to purify water, reuse water, recycle water on the space station, we're going to be using similar techniques if we can find water on Mars. Same for being able to purify air as well.

So yes, absolutely. I'm glad you brought that up. Going to places like Mars is not just about going there, it's about making life better on Earth, and that's really what our space program is all about.

BROWN: All right, Mike, thanks for laying it all out for us. We really appreciate it.

MASSIMINO: You bet, Pamela. Thanks for having me.

[20:00:11]