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Pilot Threatening To Crash Small Plane; Artemis I Launch Scrubbed For Second Time; Mississippi Water Crisis; Stolen Plane Now Down, Pilot In Custody; Judge Releases Detailed Inventory Of Mar-a- Lago Documents; Jane Fonda Reveals Battle With Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired September 03, 2022 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:00:42]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. Thank you for joining me. I'm Sara Sidner in for the fabulous Fredericka Whitfield.

We begin this hour with breaking news out of Mississippi. Police in Tupelo say a pilot is threatening to crash a twin-engine plane into a local Walmart.

CNN's aviation correspondent Pete Muntean is following the story from Washington.

Pete, can you give us the latest on what we know, how long this pilot has been in the air, and what the danger is to the public at this point?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well Sara, we know that this plane took off from the Tupelo Regional Airport around 5:00 a.m. Central time, 6:00 a.m. on the East Coast.

So we're coming up on the plane being in the air for about five hours now. The plane is a King Air C-90. You can see it there, that's a small twin-engine turboprop type airplane. It seats between about six and eight people. It can go about 250 miles an hour.

The question now is how this will end, how this story will end. Will the airplane run out of fuel? We've been talking to sources who fly King Airs and they tell me it can only fly for between four and six hours if the plane is fully loaded with fuel.

That is the track from FlightAware. You can see the plane took off from the Tupelo Regional Airport, circled an area just north of Tupelo for a time at a relatively low altitude between 1,000 and 1,500 feet. And then the plane continued northbound over what a government source tells me is the Holly Springs National Forest.

This is now on a loop so you can see the plane going back and forth. This is video from local affiliates. We've also seen some on social media. The tail number of the plane, 342ER -- 3, 4, 2, Echo, Romeo. We know that airplane is owned by a company locally. And police in the area tell us that the person who is flying this airplane initially contacted them via 911, calling them on the telephone and telling them that they were in the air and they were threatening to crash into the Tupelo Walmart.

Now, according to the track on FlightAware, I'm looking at it right now, the plane has gone north by about 30 or 40 miles and is still circling 1,600 feet, 158 nautical miles an hour -- about 180 miles an hour.

So we will see as this goes forward, Sara, what is the end of this. We're not totally sure just yet. We've reached out to the local air national guard. They're aware of this and they're just finding out about this although they're not telling us exactly what they will do.

We've also heard from the FAA. They say that they are monitoring this situation, and we'll see. I mean it is just a developing situation right now. And it's unclear exactly how this will end.

We do know from a government source familiar telling me that the Tupelo police who initially took that call from the person flying this airplane are now no longer in contact with that person.

SIDNER: So they're not in contact but the plane is still up in the air ostensibly. And we're seeing that video from our local affiliate.

Just out of curiosity, something like this has happened, if I do recall, has happened before where someone has stolen a plane, not made a threat, but stolen a plane, and in that instance -- if I remember correctly and correct me if I'm wrong -- they actually did send up fighter jets to follow it, because they were concerned about the people on the ground. Is that a possibility here? Are you hearing anything on those lines?

MUNTEAN: We're not hearing anything from the military just yet about whether or not that they will get involved. Although we do know from that incident, you're speaking of a Seattle incident a few years ago when an airport employee got onto the ramp, got into a Dash-8 (ph) airliner, turned it on, which is not an easy thing to do especially for a nonpilot, and then took off.

The plane was ultimately intercepted by fighter jets although sadly that story ended with the person who stole the airplane crashing into the ground.

We'll see if that turns into the scenario here. The plane is relatively low. The goal now is to essentially minimize risk to the people on the ground and minimize the risk to the person in the airplane, although we know that police are no longer in contact, according to this government source telling me, via phone with the person on board this plane. So that makes things much more difficult.

[11:04:57]

MUNTEAN: At the risk of making a big leap here, if this person is a nonpilot, they probably made a phone call only because they could not use the radio. That is typically how you would contact air traffic control, to make some sort of declarative statement or tell them exactly what your intentions are.

The Tupelo Airport looks to me like it has a control tower there, we've seen it in the video as well. So why they made a phone call? Probably because they were not able to contact anybody on the ground any other way.

SIDNER: That's a really interesting detail there, Pete, because I was going to ask you, this person has been able to keep the plane in the air for quite some time, it is circling and circling. From the video that we're seeing from social media, that people on the ground are starting to take and send into our local affiliate.

I do want to ask you, I mean this plane has been in the air for some time. I'm not sure, do you know how long it's been in the air? And how much fuel can one of these planes hold before they're out?

MUNTEAN: We know from data on FlightAware at least that this plane took off at 7:45 Central Time. So that is what is according to FlightAware.

Now, sometimes that data is not perfect. The Tupelo police tell us they received a call at 5:00 a.m. Central Time, 6:00 a.m. on the East Coast. So that's five hours ago. 7:45 central time, according to FlightAware, is the takeoff time. So it's been some time. It's been hours. And I've been talking to folks who fly King Airs like this, and they say that most can fly for about four to six hours. So it's a possibility here that this airplane could simply just run out of fuel, which would essentially render it into a glider.

The airplane's at relatively low altitude, at 1,500 feet. That's not a lot of altitude to use to glide to a safe landing spot. So now this is the risk here where this airplane will land. Will it go to an airport? Will it go to a farmer's field? Will it go into trees? Will it even run out of gas? Or could this end safely and the pilot -- the person who is piloting this plane, excuse me -- we don't know whether or not this person is a pilot, lands safely at an airport. We'll see.

SIDNER: Pete Muntean, thank you for those details. At this point in time to just bring people up to speed that this person who is flying the plane, we don't know if it's a pilot or not, but certainly piloting the plane has called police at some point this morning and said that they are going to crash the plane into a Walmart. That has not happened.

What we have so far seen is that the plane continues to go around and around and around over clearly a neighborhood, because people are taking video of this plane.

We are going to be joined now by CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem as well as CNN transportation analyst Mary Schiavo. Thank you, ladies both, for joining us right now.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Thank you. MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Thank you.

SIDNER: Juliette, I want to start with you.

KAYYEM: Yes.

SIDNER: Police have said that they were in contact with the pilot, that the pilot said that he was going to, you know, crash this plane into a Walmart. But now they've lost contact. They're no longer in contact.

Can you walk us through how they deal with a situation like this, to try to get this person to land this plane without hurting anyone or without hurting themselves?

KAYYEM: Right. And the second thing is less consequential than the first. I mean in other words, your goal is to minimize the harm to the public. So there's desired and undesired outcomes at this stage. This is the range we're in. These things have been anticipated.

The most desirable is reconnecting with the person piloting, assuming he knows how to land to get him to land safely. We don't know if that's possible.

The least desirable is that he makes a purposeful move to harm as many people as possible in an urban area. The good news is that hasn't happened yet. And I know what he said this morning, but the fact that it hasn't happened yet, he's been in the air a couple of hours, he's going to run out of gas soon, may suggest that this is someone with, you know, with an intent that he is not able to go through with.

So in between those two extremes, the most likely outcome at this stage is that he is unable to land the plane safely for himself, he runs out of gas or there's some fuel and there's some distress, and that hopefully he goes down in an area that is not urban.

And my understanding is that that would be the goal from emergency managers at this stage if they cannot reconnect with him and get him to land. So in this range of sort of worst case scenario and best case scenario, there is a desired outcome for sort of protecting the most on the ground from an emergency management perspective.

[11:09:48]

SIDNER: Juliette, I can't help but asking you, the fact that this person called police and said what the plan was, what does that indicate to you? Because usually in a terrorist attack, for example, you don't know, they just do it, it happens and you have to suffer the consequences.

KAYYEM: That's exactly right. So when I heard this this morning, you know, in the weird world in which I judge good news by -- you know, is it not bad news, the fact that he had called, he left at 4:00, 5:00 a.m., that's not a high density time. The airspace is going to be less crowded. This is not someone who wanted to wreak maximum havoc. He may want

attention for either a personal grievance or other issues and we just don't know that yet.

So those are sort of the good news things that I'm looking at. And the fact that it's now a couple of hours later, I guess about five hours later and he still hasn't done this.

I'm not saying it won't happen, but one of the things, reasons why you don't want to react too quickly in these incidents, there's people saying shoot it down, get aviation or military up there is that, you know, there might be an outcome that is least harmful at all.

To do anything that engages the airplane at this stage, trying to bring it down, that's more what happens in movies actually, would harm more people on the ground than maybe necessary. So time in some ways in these emergencies, sort of giving yourself more time, we call it extending the runway, figure out whether you can get this person to land safely or he runs out of fuel and the outcome is not good for him, but nonetheless it is beneficial to the community.

SIDNER: All right. Juliette, I'm going to keep you with us.

We're going to ask Mary a quick question here. Mary, you know, we heard what kind of plane this is. Can you give us some sense of the parameters of this plane and potentially with the fact that he's been flying or this pilot has been flying for a very long time, what danger this may pose, for example the amount of fuel that is a plane like -- a King Air type plane?

SCHIAVO: That's right. Well, we know a lot of clues already from Pete, from Juliette. We have so many clues already. He's clearly a trained pilot. We know from watching Flight Radar and other radar services, he's made a number of turns -- a number of coordinated turns. Even getting the plane in the first place and turning it on. Lots of pilots and even commercial services disconnect their batteries, they often don't leave the plane full of fuel.

So we know already that this pilot was skilled enough to do all these things, get it in the air and make many, many turns in this aircraft. Now, the danger is lessening in one way as time goes on because let's remember from September 11th, 2001, the fuller the tanks of fuel, the more danger it poses if the plane does crash. You know, the fireball is greater, the destruction is greater, et cetera.

So, you know, the danger now is where. We don't know this pilot's intention. Like we said, I think it is pretty clear it is a trained pilot. And we don't know what this pilot intends to do.

So now if the plane crashes with the fuel tanks depleted, obviously the fireball will be less, the danger is less. But a plane of this size crashing into a building still poses so many dangers. And it actually though surprised me that we don't know that the have -- we don't know at least whether they haven't or have -- have not sent up escorts. Because if this plane -- you know, this plane can still be damaging

with a skilled pilot, they can direct it pretty much into anything. So I would have expected by now that they would have had escort planes go up. And the fact that he is no longer talking is highly significant.

But again, I have to say, I mean I worked, you know, the 9/11 cases for 12 years, and the one thing that was significant about terrorists is they didn't call up and tell us their intentions.

So I have to agree with Juliette, it seems like a person with some sort of a trouble or sending a message rather than what we think of as a traditional air terrorist.

SIDNER: Mary, I would like to ask you about what Pete has said, which is that the way the pilot got in touch with police was via a phone as opposed to calling the tower through the radio.

Is that significant? Does that indicate that this person is a good pilot or a pilot at all? Or someone who is very new to this?

SCHIAVO: Well, this is someone who knows the system, because you don't -- if you're at an uncontrolled airport or in an airport where the tower isn't open, you don't have to call the tower. And if you're flying what's called visual flight rules, VFR, you don't have to file a flight plan, et cetera.

So the pilot knew they didn't have to get permission. Depending upon where it came (INAUDIBLE) -- I think it came from Oxford, Mississippi.

But you know, this person knew they didn't have to call the tower if they're doing a VFR flight, you know, visual flight rules. They don't have to file a flight plane. And they called the police on a phone, you know, clearly for a reason. They wanted to tell someone what they were doing rather than get assistance from air traffic control or from FAA flight services to actually make the flight.

So I do think it's significant that they called the police and did not contact air traffic control or FAA, to the point that we know. Now, we don't know those things yet.

[11:14:57]

SCHIAVO: And apparently the transponder on the plane is on, meaning they have the equipment on the plane that allows it to be tracked, which to me is pretty significant, because in past terror incidents and accidents and attacks, they've turned the transponders off.

So the transponder is still on, they didn't request anything out of the FAA but made a call to the police, to me that's very telling.

And one thing more, when the plane does run out of fuel, there's no indication -- you know, the engines won't quit at the same time. And if you're a skilled pilot, it takes a lot of skill, if you're flying a twin-engine and one engine quits. We may not see a, you know, a smooth landing on this when they run out of fuel. It may not necessarily be a glider that glides to the ground. We could expect a catastrophic ending if the pilot can't control a twin-engine with one engine stopping first.

SIDNER: Mary Schiavo and Juliette Kayyem, you always give such great insight. We will continue to watch this.

As we understand it, the pilot is now over a national forest which I think brings the threat down some. But he's still in the air and police have not heard from this pilot. So we will keep a close eye on this.

I thank you both for joining us.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

SIDNER: Now, to the other major story we're following this hour, the historic launch of the Artemis I. You're looking at live pictures from the Kennedy Space Center where the rocket is on the launch pad there. And we're learning rocket managers have been presented with a no-go recommendation.

CNN's Kristin Fisher is live there. Kristin, why the no-go recommendation?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: It's that pesky hydrogen leak, Sara, that they've been dealing with all morning long. I just want to be really clear here, no official scrub just yet. But it has a real feeling of inevitability here because what has just happened is the launch team has gone to the launch director and said we think that today we are a no-go for launch.

We're still waiting to find out if the launch director has agreed with that recommendation. She's reviewing some options right now. But it certainly does not look good.

Let me break down the problem for you, Sara. So this is our model of the Artemis rocket -- the SLS rocket. You have the Orion capsule on top which will some day carry astronauts to the moon, hopefully, if this thing ever gets off the launch pad.

And then down here -- this is the SLS rocket. And specifically where the problem is happening right here, right where the orange meets the white on the core stage of the rocket. They're trying to fuel it with this super cold liquid propellent. Liquid hydrogen is going through a line right here at negative 420 degrees Fahrenheit.

But right around here they have a leak, it's about eight inches big, the line is. And essentially what they're trying to do is stop it. And so they've tried Plan A, that didn't work. They tried Plan B, that didn't work. They tried to come up with a Plan C but they couldn't come up with one so they moved back to Plan A.

And they have just essentially run out of options. They don't know how to fix it right now. And so what they've been doing to try to fix it, Sara, is pump that line with alternating hot and cold liquids. You know you kind of think of it, you know, how in your house in the winter time, it gets bigger, it expands a bit and then the walls are (INAUDIBLE) it contracts a bit in the winter time.

Expands in the summer in the heat and contracts in the wintertime when it's cold. Well that's how they've been trying to reseat this seal. But so far it's been unsuccessful.

And actually, Sara, I've just gotten the official word, the second launch attempt of the Artemis moon rocket has indeed scrubbed. So now, Sara, the big question becomes, you know, what next? When can they try again?

The next launch attempt is Monday. They could potentially try to turn this around by then. They would have to try to, you know, get all this liquid propellent out, get to the launch pad, try to make some fixes in a very short period of time.

But they do have a good two-hour long launch window on Monday. So that's a possibility. They have another launch window on Tuesday but it's only like 30 minutes long, that's really not what NASA wants.

So if they cannot get this fixed on the launch pad by either Monday or Tuesday, then it's really not good, because then, Sara, they have to take this entire stack, all 322 feet of it, they have to put it back on the crawler and take it all the way back four miles to the vertical assembly building for repairs.

And that would mean they couldn't try to launch again until late September or early October, not to mention, Sara, that this puts a ton of strain on the entire rocket. Any time you move it -- I mean we're talking about jiggling little hoses and lines and seals. Moving it four miles, that only increases the likelihood that something else can go wrong, sara.

[11:19:58]

SIDNER: Kristin, I love geeking out with you over this. I've been to Kennedy Space Center myself, and I'm actually very jealous that you're there.

But I think there's going to be a lot of people, both the audience and those who have been trying to launch this rocket for a couple of days now. It's been very expensive. It's been very frustrating.

But we should remind people why this is an important mission, because it's to kind of create the ability to have a permanent place on the moon so that eventually they can go to Mars. And we haven't seen humans on the moon for decades.

And so this is sort of the precursor to that, this unmanned mission. A lot of disappointment, at least here on this desk. And I know you have to be disappointed there too.

But it is still incredible chatting with you about this. And I love you have a model, it's like a perfect thing. I was like, I wish I was there to play with you.

FISHER: We've been here a while, so we've had time to get our hands on an actual SLS model. And it sounds like we may be here for a bit longer now too.

SIDNER: I understand. As you mentioned, it is official, this mission for today has been scrubbed.

We are waiting for a conference, a press conference that's going to happen to give us the details on what's ahead and on exactly what happened. But I think you've explained it pretty well there, Kristin, I really appreciate you coming on this morning.

FISHER: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: All right.

Still ahead, the Mississippi governor warning it could be months before Jackson, Mississippi residents have safe drinking water. The latest on the ground, coming up.

Plus actress Jane Fonda revealing she is battling cancer. The latest on her condition when we come back.

[11:21:48]

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SIDNER: The water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi is dire. For six days, thousands of people are without clean tap water after flooding forced a major water plant to fail there. The governor saying it could take three or four months to repair the system.

Joining us now, Maisie Brown. She is a junior at Jackson State University and an organizer of a crisis hotline that locals can call if they need water. You started this, Maisie, on Tuesday. How many calls have you gotten so far?

MAISIE BROWN, ORGANIZER OF WATER CRISIS HOTLINE: So as of right now we've been kind of centralizing everything to a Google sheet. As far as orders that we've completed and need to be fulfilled, I think we're lying at around 300. And through our voicemail that we have somebody go back and check, I think we have about 150 voicemails that need to be checked.

So there are thousands of people that we are trying to impact and impacting during this crisis.

SIDNER: There are 150,000 plus people who do not have access to clean drinking water in America. I'm just curious, from your perspective, you are a junior, you're there, what are your thoughts on what happened here?

BROWN: I think that what's happening in Jackson right now is what has happened to a lot of other urban cities across the United States and what will continue to happen as environmental racism just runs rampant.

It's no secret that the backbone of America was built on racism. And the environment in infrastructure is not excluded from that as well. So what's happening in Jackson is a complete disregard for the blackest state in the nation.

Jackson is a majority black city. There has been a lack of urgency from state officials for years, for decades, on this issue. They knew that it was going to get to this point.

And now that it finally has, they're coming in as if they're saving the day when preventative measures could have been put in place a very long time ago.

SIDNER: Yes. So talking about state officials. But then local officials, you have a mayor who is an African-American. He's a black man, who is running the city. Are you concerned about how the city has been run over all this time? And you know, there's so many people who are suffering through this right now.

BROWN: Well, I think that -- so a lot of people view the Jackson issue as something that Jackson has to fix and that it's their responsibility to fix.

While that is true, the state also has an obligation to its citizens that we pay taxes to and that we vote in for every election year. And so it doesn't just start at Mayor Lumumba. Mayors in the past have been asking for years from help from the state to fund such an expensive project for such an old city.

I mean a lot of those cries and a lot of those requests have gone just completely ignored. That money has been deferred other ways. So while I think that it is important for the state and the cities to work together, we can't do this alone, and the state knows that.

And that's why they continue to play tag with us until we give in to whatever money situation or whatever they want to do.

SIDNER: Maisie, I don't know, you might have a future in politics, my friend, if you're interested in it.

But I want to ask you, you know, as a junior in college, you have plenty to worry about. Can you tell me what gave you this idea and why you decided to take this on and how long you may be prepared for this? Because we are, you know, hearing this could be weeks, if not months before this issue is fixed.

Right. And so when the issue -- you're from Jackson, you're from the area, boil water notices unfortunately are something that you're not -- not used to because they happen so often.

So I think what was different about this was Governor Reeves coming out and saying, you know, this may go on for an indeterminate amount of time. We're not sure the water is going to be unsafe indefinitely.

[11:29:52]

BROWN: I think that kind of like really put a lot of fear in people because people are saying, ok, you're saying this is going to happen but I live here. My children live here and go to school here, what am I supposed to do? And so Jackson has a lot of water distribution sites across the city. But what me and some of my classmates were noticing is there was kind of a gap for delivery to some of those vulnerable populations in Jackson, such as those that don't have transportation, such as the elderly, such as the disabled. We have very large communities of those people here in Jackson.

So what we're trying to do is just really fill that gap of transportation and physical ability and deliver that water to their doorsteps, and trying to keep it -- we've recently launched a Google form for people to sign up. But we know so many of the people who are needing us are elderly and there's a kind of technological divide.

So that's why we're trying to keep our hotline open. And we have been receiving pallets. We've been receiving donations from all across the country.

So we're prepared to go for this as long as we can, as long as the funds will allow, as long as the donations keep coming in, and as long as, you know, the wheels on our cars are good. We're prepared to keep going.

SIDNER: Maisie brown, it is absolutely fantastic to see a person, young person, joining to try and help others like this, and really getting it together for the residents there who have no clean drinking water, never mind anything else.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

BROWN: Thank you.

SIDNER: All right. We are going to return back to the historic launch that was planned today for Artemis I. NASA though calling off the launch for a second time due to technical issues.

We're standing by for a press conference at this hour from NASA. There is going to be much more on what we're learning about the decision to go ahead and scrub that much-anticipated launch in just a bit.

[11:31:46]

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SIDNER: Back to our breaking news out of Mississippi where a pilot has been erratically circling the northern part of the state, threatening to crash a twin engine plane.

CNN's aviation correspondent Pete Muntean is following the story in Washington. Pete, we understand there has been some new details about the position of the plane at this point. What do we know?

MUNTEAN: Well, this is all late breaking right now, Sara. We know now from a government source telling me that the plane that that circled for hours over Mississippi is down. A separate government source tells me the pilot is in custody, possibly the best outcome of this scenario after this Beechcraft King Air twin-engine commuter type plane, turboprop took off from the Tupelo, Mississippi airport early this morning.

The Tupelo police say that they got a 911 call from the person on board the airplane around 5:00 a.m. Central Time, 6:00 a.m. on the East Coast. That's about five and a half hours ago now. And that the plane, the person in the plane, was threatening to crash into a Walmart in Tupelo.

We know from FlightAware tracking that this plane with the number 342ER -- 3, 4, 2, Echo, Romeo -- took off, circled an area over Tupelo then flew to the northwest. A government source tells me it flew over the Holly Springs National Forest.

And then police in Tupelo who were communicating with the person flying this airplane lost contact with this pilot or person turned pilot, at least. We do not know if this person was a pilot in fact.

And the plane, according to some photos that are now percolating on social media, appears to be mostly in one piece. So sources who fly this type of airplane, it's called a Beechcraft King Air, tell me that if it's fully loaded with fuel, can fly for between four and six hours depending on the model and configuration. That would match up with the time.

So we'll see ultimately if it turns out that this plane, you can see it there, that's the actual plane, photo courtesy of FlightAware, ran out of fuel and if the pilot was able to make a safe gliding landing into an unpopulated area.

Although to repeat the big breaking news here, the urgent that just came across to CNN wire, the plane is down that was circling over Mississippi after being stolen early this morning near Tupelo. And the pilot of that plane, the person who was flying it, is in custody.

We know from local authorities that this person was an employee of the airport, which would explain how they were able to get out onto the ramp, the Tupelo airport has commercial service, typically an airport with TSA is very secure, fences, gates, you need a pass to get through many of the doors. So that would explain how they were able to get out onto the ramp and get into an airplane like this.

The big question is whether or not this person had any previous flying experience. They did a pretty decent job of flying the airplane, and more essentially, at low altitude for a pretty long period of time. But that will be a really interesting thing to know, especially if this plane ran out of fuel and both of the engines failed, rendering it into a glider, how they were able to make a safe landing, albeit maybe an emergency one, Sara.

SIDNER: So a lot of new details that you have brought to us, Pete. One, that this person was an employee of the airport. Two, that the plane was stolen. Three, that the plane is now, and most important piece of information right now for safety's sake, the plane is now down.

[11:39:58] SIDNER: And amazingly at this point, because that plane has been up in the air for hours upon hours, the suspect is in custody. The plane is not completely destroyed. There wasn't a major crash, from what you have reported so far. And that no one else, it sounds like, has been injured. Have we been able to confirm that there have been no injuries to other people in this incident with the plane finally coming down?

MUNTEAN: I don't want to overstep out of my lane here yet, Sara.

SIDNER: Ok.

MUNTEAN: We have yet to see photos from the scene. Some are popping up on social media, we still have to confirm their authenticity. But so far as I can tell and so far as I have heard from two different government sources, the plane is down, pilot is in custody.

It doesn't look initially like this airplane landed at an airport. We were watching on FlightAware and the tracking stopped at 10:07 central time, that's 33 minutes ago. The live tracking stopped then, which would line up with these reports of the plane being down and the pilot being in custody.

So when the tracking stopped, the plane was near the town of Ashland -- it was about five miles or so from the nearest airport. If it was relatively low and both of the engines failed due to the plane being exhausted of fuel, it would not really be able to glide that far.

So my guess is that this airplane is in a field or in a rural area right now, based on the aeronautical charts that I was able to pull up, the maps, not a lot there in Ashland, so probably the best possible place for this to happen.

SIDNER: That is good news so far. We'll be keeping an eye on exactly what happened and try to see what the identity of this person is and what the reason for taking this plane was. We will also check on whether anyone else has been injured as this plane has finally come down out of the sky.

Pete Muntean, thank you so much for your reporting and the update on this breaking news story.

We'll be right back.

[11:43:57]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: We are learning new details today about the trove of documents removed from Donald Trump's Florida home now that a federal judge has unsealed a detailed inventory of items from the August search. It showed how the country's most sensitive secrets were mixed in with personal items, including press clippings, clothing.

And yes, in all federal investigators retrieved more than 11,000 non- classified government documents, 18 were marked "top secret", 54 marked "secret", and 31 labeled "confidential". Agents also seized dozens of empty folders marked "classified" or "return to".

With me now to talk about these developments is Michael Zeldin. He is a former federal prosecutor and host of "That Said With Michael Zeldin". And Shawn Turner is a CNN national security analyst and a former communications director for U.S. National Intelligence.

Good to see both of you, gentlemen.

MICHAEL ZELDIN, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Good morning.

SHAWN TURNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Hey, Sara.

SIDNER: Shawn 11,000 documents, some of them classified items mixed with personal items. You know, as a former member of the U.S. intel community, what kind of risk to national security could these documents actually pose?

TURNER: Yes, good morning, Sara, thanks for having me.

Well, the truth is that the risks are endless. And that's one of the reasons why this intelligence community assessment for damage is so important.

When I saw those numbers, there were a couple of things that came to mind, Sara. The first thing is, you know, I spent a lot of time in government with a security clearance, a lot of time working in SCIFs.

But what really stood out to me is just this idea that I cannot recall a time when I as an intelligence community official had tens -- dozens and dozens of documents that were printed out, were classified documents, in an area, even in what we call an open storage area. I can't recall a number or time when we had all of those documents.

So when I saw that number, that said to me that one of two things had to happen. Either someone was compiling these documents, putting them aside, which is mishandling of classified information; or someone at some point decided to print a bunch of documents and take them at one time.

We don't know which of those scenarios is the case here. But the implications are significant because while we don't know how these documents got to Mar-a-Lago and why they were there, we also don't know who had access to them while they were there.

SIDNER: It is really, really troubling, Michael. Trump's former attorney general Bill Barr has come out very publicly saying that there is no legitimate reason for the documents to have been at Mar-a- Lago. Let's take a listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: I frankly am skeptical of this claim that "I declassified everything", you know, because frankly, I think it's highly improbable. And second, if in fact he sort of stood over scores of boxes, not really knowing what was in them, and said "I hereby declassify everything in here", that would be such an abuse and shows such recklessness that it's almost worse than taking the documents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Michael, when you hear that, what are your thoughts on what the former AG said, and if he's correct?

ZELDIN: Well, he is correct. And I agree with him. And I think that he's spot on when he says that the rank declassification of things probably didn't happen but if it did, it's terrible.

But he also indicated that there was no reasonable explanation for why these documents were taken out of the White House to begin with.

[11:49:43]

ZELDIN: So the big questions from a legal standpoint are whether or not this conduct violates any of the three statutes that gave rise to the search warrant. The gross negligence in handling national security documents, the concealment of those documents with the intent to keep them, or the concealment with the intent to obstruct or impede an investigation.

We have to find that out by studying the documents and speaking to more people. And it is interesting that more people now seem to be speaking.

We just got news, Sara, recently, that Mark Meadows has turned over new texts and new emails to the National Archives that he hadn't turned over before. So it may be that this has cracked the Code of Silence among these people and we'll get to break through and find out what is going on here from a legal standpoint.

SIDNER: We saw a little --

(CROSSTALK)

ZELDIN: To Shawn's point, of course -- sorry, I was just going to say, to Shawn's point, of course, the big question is was national security compromised and we don't know that either.

SIDNER: I do want -- to your point about cracking the sort of code of silence that has surrounded some of those in Trump's world. We have seen some of that during the January 6 committee hearings with people coming out and just saying what they saw and what they were concerned about.

But at this point, Shawn, you know, I want to turn to those empty folders that are marked classified. Some intelligence experts say that the folders are often reused. But since they're empty, I mean how concerned should we be about this situation with these empty folders, ostensibly maybe there was something inside them.

TURNER: Yes. Well, you know, Sara it is true that those folders are often reused. But here is the key question. If those folders were likely in the possession of the president because at some point those folders contained classified documents. So the key question here is where are the documents that were in those

folders at some point? We could be looking at one of two scenarios. The question is were those documents removed from those folders some time prior to January 18th when there were a number of trucks that delivered documents to Mar-a-Lago. Or are those documents some evidence of additional missing -- are those folders evidence of additional missing documents.

At this point we simply don't know. And this is something that may be unknowable but the key point for people to remember is that it is unusual for particularly someone at the level of the president or senior national security officials to simply have a trove of empty folders with classification markings sitting around. That is just really, really unusual. So we'll have to find out where those documents are.

SIDNER: Michael Zeldin, Shawn Turner, thank you so much for your insight. Appreciate it.

ZELDIN: Thank you.

SIDNER: A quick programming note now, the unbelievable true story of the man who took on Putin and lived to expose the truth. The Sundance Award Winning CNN film "NAVALNY" airs tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello.

ALEXEI NAVALNY, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER: Vladimir Alexandrovich, it's Alexei Navalny calling. And I was hoping you could tell me why you wanted to kill me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Remarkably, Vladimir Putin faces a legitimate opponent, Alexei Navalny.

I don't want Putin being president. If I want to be leader of a country, I have to organize people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Kremlin hates Navalny so much that they refused to say his name.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Passengers heard Navalny cry out in agony.

NAVALNY: Come on. Poisoned? Seriously.

We are creating a coalition to fight this regime.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you are killed, what message do you leave behind to the Russian people?

NAVALNY: It is very simple, never give up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "NAVALNY", tomorrow at 8:00 on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP) [11:53:41]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Legendary actress Jane Fonda is sharing that she has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Fonda's latest project on Netflix, "Grace and Frankie" is hilarious, it wrapped its final season back in April.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN SHEEN, ACTOR: Sol and I are in love.

JANE FONDA, ACTRESS: Excuse me.

LILY TOMLIN, ACTRESS: You're gay?

SAM WATERSTON, ACTOR: We want to get married.

FONDA: Married?

SHEEN: Because we can do that now.

TOMLIN: I know, I hosted that fundraiser.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: It's such a good show.

CNN Entertainment Reporter Chloe Melas joins us now live. Chloe, she made the announcement in an Instagram post. What is she saying?

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPOERTER: It was an incredibly emotional yet uplifting post that only Jane Fonda could do at 84 years young. She announced this shocking diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and says that she's already begun chemotherapy but that she's handling it quite well but she also goes to say that this is a very treatable cancer. 80 percent of people survive.

She says she feels very lucky and she then took it as an opportunity, Sara, to talk about the midterms, to talk about all of her activism, climate change and why she is just so passionate about the things that she cares about outside of this diagnosis and that she's not going to let this slow her down like you said.

She just wrapped up "Grace and Frankie". She has a movie coming out called "Moving On" and you know, Jane Fonda, she's going to keep doing what she loves until she can't any more. And as of right now she's still full steam ahead.

[11:59:53]

MELAS: A lot of celebrities took to social media were flooding the comments with positive posts including Reese Witherspoon saying that she sends all of her strength to Jane.

Also, I want to read to you a short snippet of what Diane Keaton said.