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Man Crash Lands Stolen Plane In Mississippi After Threatening To Intentionally Crash Into Tupelo Walmart; Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant In Zaporizhzhia Under Siege By Shelling May Lose Power; Residents Flee From Areas Around Zaporizhzhia Due To Possible Nuclear Power Plant Failure; Ukrainian Prosecutors Identify Russian Soldier Caught On Video Shooting Ukrainian Civilians In Back; Residents Throughout California Suffering Through Severe Heatwave; Scientists Make Breakthrough In Reproducing Elkhorn Coral, Species Which May Offer Protection From Hurricanes. Aired 2-3p ET.

Aired September 03, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:28]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Good afternoon. Thank you for joining me. I'm Sara Sidner in for Fredricka Whitfield.

We're learning new details now about that dangerous situation that was unfolding in Mississippi. A man stole a plane, managed to fly it, and then threatened to crash it into a Walmart. That plane, thankfully, is now down. It landed in a field. The suspect is unhurt and in custody. And officials just gave a press conference just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR TODD JORDAN, TUPELO, MISSISSIPPI: After the initial threat, he did not want to hurt himself or anyone else. And I believe that we had what you would think would be the best-case scenario.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: It was the best-case scenario because nobody was injured. CNN's Pete Muntean and Nadia Romero joins us now live. Thank you both for joining me.

Pete, first to you. What more have we learned? There were quite a few details in that press conference.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Tupelo mayor, Sara, said something so interesting here, that Cory Wayne Patterson, the person piloting the plane, apparently changed his mind. He wanted to hurt people on the ground after he stole this Beechcraft twin-engine turboprop commuter plane. It seats about six or eight people. He wanted to crash it into the local Walmart. There are two there in Tupelo.

Police negotiators were able to get in touch with him via phone. He initially called 911. Negotiators were able to get in touch with him, and then they were able to get a pilot to talk to Patterson on the phone.

And at one point they tried to steer the plane back to the Tupelo regional airport and get Cory Wayne Patterson to effort a landing there. They said that he was within 100 feet of making a successful landing, that is a very small distance, and then essentially just went back around, flew off to the northwest, over a national forest.

They lost contact with him, the police did, via phone. And then they were able to reestablish contact with him when he said that he was in the plane still, but at this point it was crash landed into a soybean field. Police showed up at that soybean field in Gravestown, Mississippi, a pretty rural area, and they were able to bring Cory Wayne Patterson out, hands up, and detained him.

It is an incredibly harrowing story to tell of at one point a suicidal pilot turned into a successful pilot who made an emergency landing. The big questions here are how he was able to really do all of this. We know that Cory Wayne Patterson had access to planes as part of his job.

He worked at Tupelo Aviation, which is the fixed base operator there at the Tupelo regional airport, where he fueled planes for a living. So the area is relatively secure, relatively sterile. You would need to use a pass card to get out on the ramp or someone buzz you through. There's a fence.

The question is how he was able to start the airplane in the first place, not necessarily an easy task, although police do say that Patterson did have a bit of previous flying experience, they're just not totally sure how much just yet.

SIDNER: All good information there, and we should again mention there was a real threat at the very beginning of this with someone in the sky saying they were going to crash it by a Walmart, and then staying in the air for hours. Nadia, we just heard a bit more from police. They had a lot of details that they gave out to the public. What else did they have to say?

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, the police were talking about that initial call, hearing on 911 that Cory Patterson had called in and said he was going to crash into that Walmart. So immediately authorities rushed to that Walmart on West Main there in Tupelo.

And then they were able to close down the streets all around that main area in Tupelo to make sure that people weren't going to be around if he followed through with those threats.

Now, we know that he then took off in that plane and continued north away from that downtown area, landing in a soy field, soybean field, where witnesses say that he landed, he had his arms up when police were able to detain him.

So we went from this scenario early this morning where we thought people could be in danger. And if you looked on a map, Tupelo is much closer to Memphis than it is to Jackson, Mississippi. [14:05:00]

So if he had decided to injure other people, he had a much better target with more people that could have been in danger in Memphis, Tennessee, than just keeping himself in that rural part of Mississippi. So that's why people there are saying they're feeling a sigh of relief that the only person truly impacted by all of this was Cory Patterson.

We were driving around in this part of rural Mississippi, and we passed by a private airspace. And it wouldn't be that hard to jump the fence and have access to those planes. And that's something that you'd like to see the FAA or TSA really take another look at, how some of these smaller airports are securing their planes so that things like this don't happen, Sara.

SIDNER: Nadia Romero and Pete Muntean, thank you both so much for giving us those updated details.

I want to now bring in CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem and CNN transportation analyst Mary Schiavo. Juliette and Mary, welcome back to the show. You gave us some great insight earlier. Juliette, we'll start with this. we have heard the suspect's name now, Cory Wayne Patterson.

We know he had access to those planes because he worked there as an employee of Tupelo aviation. So this may change the trajectory of what security measures are in place, because this is someone that was given access because he worked there. But is there something that could have potentially stopped him from doing this?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Probably not. Look, insider threat is always a concern, whether it's cybersecurity or aviation security. There is all sorts of background reviews and assessments of who has access to what.

It does sound like it was early on a Saturday morning, or it was early on a Saturday morning. If he had access to the runway or planes for any reason, he could have gotten into one. He clearly had some flying experience. So we know that now.

So this is just going to require sort of an assessment by especially smaller airports about who has access and why are they coming in at 4:00 in the morning to take a plane out. But as you said, this did end up sort of better than even I had imagined just a couple of hours ago when I thought, well, maybe suicide by plane would be your best-case scenario.

But this did end up being good, and now it's a question of what were his motives, why was Walmart a focus early on in the morning, and getting him the help that he clearly was -- as we were discussing earlier, once someone doesn't do immediately what they say they're going to do, that ends up being good news because they're clearly reassessing their original plan to cause great harm.

SIDNER: It seemed to open up a window for law enforcement, as they put it, to talk to him, and have negotiates say negotiators say, hey, you don't want to do this. In the end, they were able to talk him down. Mary, I do want to ask you about the ability to land this plane.

Apparently, he didn't really know how to land the plane. He did have some experience flying. He had some instruction. But ultimately, couldn't get the plane down back at the airport. They say he got 100 feet from the runway.

And eventually someone helped him out. Can you explain how hard this would be? How can you help someone who really doesn't know how to land a plane, land something like this?

MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT: First and foremost, he had to have had some flight training. Flying a single engine without flight training, if someone's on the phone telling you what to do, is possible, it's happened before.

But a twin-engine presents additional problems, additional skills. And to bring the plane down with a twin-engine, we know it was running low on fuel given how many hours in the air, but it's a possibility that one of the engines, he was losing one engine. When you have unequal thrust from the engines, it's difficult to keep the wings straight and level.

We've seen from pictures that the plane is in a field, but the wings are still intact. We can't see the damage to the engine or landing gear, on any plane landing in a field, landing with a thud, witnesses said, you're going to have extensive damage to the plane. But he came down with the wings level and got it in the field, so he had to have had some flight training.

I think what's going to be the focus of the investigation is just what Juliette said, what access did he have, what was his role at the airline, at the air service, et cetera, because this has happened before. A few years back, we were right here covering another employee from another airline who had taken a plane and taken off.

So I think the focus is going to be on that. And also when I look at FlightAware and other radar service services, it looks like he was heading to another airport, had circled it, had done a go-round, and may have just run out of fuel.

SIDNER: Yes, and not have the competence -- sure. Sure, Juliette, go ahead.

KAYYEM: No, no, no. I just totally agree with Mary, but like, yes, this ends up being good. He's in serious trouble.

[14:10:00]

In a civilized society, we don't take small airplanes and threaten Walmarts or cities. This is not just what Mary was saying in terms of his access and accessibility, but yes, he survived, and now he suffers the consequences for putting an entire jurisdiction at risk like this. So get him the help he needs, there are issues around him. But if you don't put the hammer down on this, every person who wants

to make a point is going to start taking planes. So he will be investigated, there will be a federal investigation. And he is going to suffer some serious time for this.

SIDNER: Yes, I do want to mention, too, just to your point, Juliette, that the police did say he's going to face grand larceny, but even more serious, face charges of making a terroristic threat. And they did say that the federal investigators were going to be involved as well. So that is likely more charges.

I do want to quickly go to Pete Muntean. He is coming back in this conversation because you have learned some new details. Can you tell me what you can about what you learned about this -- the person piloting this plane?

MUNTEAN: We were able to see on FAA records that Cory Wayne Patterson had a student pilot certificate. At some point he was trying to learn to fly. That's pretty easy to figure out.

But I want to balance this out a little bit here, because the general aviation world, the smaller airports, I'm a bit biased because I'm a member and I fly small airplanes for a living, is a place that really, is a sector that looks out for its own and is always trying to look out for these threats.

And I just looked at Google Maps and Streetview to see how secure the Tupelo airport really is. And it's a place with high fences, large gates, you have to swipe to get into doors. It is not an unsecure area.

So maybe there was a micro-gap here, but it is not like the small aviation community is really lacking in security. After 9/11 there was a wholesale redo of that. And now there is a 1-800 number where pilots can call and say, hey, I've seen something suspicious.

And in a way, those always get filtered through the federal authorities to make sure that there is no possible gap at many other small airports across the country. There are a few thousand of them in the U.S.

And so to vilify small airports is maybe a bit unfair, only because so many of these gaps have been closed, especially in a post-9/11 era. And you don't want to punch down on Cory Wayne Patterson. He may have had some issue here.

And even the Tupelo mayor says he hopes he gets the help that he needs. So there was something clearly wrong here. But this is maybe just a micro case, and maybe some of those micro gaps in security at the airport need to be looked at. But it is not like there is an issue every place.

SIDNER: Yes, this doesn't happen every day. Let's be clear, Pete. That's why it is definitely a news story. Juliette Kayyem, Mary Schiavo, thank you so much for joining us and giving your in depth insight into a situation that ended well but started with a lot of danger. Thank you, appreciate it.

Still ahead, disappointment in Florida as NASA scrubs its second scheduled launch of the Artemis 1 rocket. We will go live to the Kennedy Space Center right after the break.

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SIDNER: It feels like deja vu, but again today NASA had to scrub the launch of its Artemis 1 rocket. It was scheduled to blast off this afternoon but ran into new technical problems. CNN's Kristin Fisher is live at the Kennedy Space Center. Kristin, what happens next?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sara, I was actually just now looking down at my phone. The time, 2:17 p.m. eastern time. This is exactly when the launch window would have opened if NASA did not scrub. So a lot of disappointment today. Another day, another hydrogen leak.

Right now, the MMT, or mission management team, they're meeting at some point this afternoon to finalize what to do next. The official results of that meeting are likely going to be unveiled at a press conference later today, likely around 4:00 p.m.

But unofficially, behind the scenes, we already know that NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and other top NASA leaders have been telling the IPs who had gathered in a nearby building to watch the launch that they believe a full rollback of this rocket is going to be necessary, meaning they're going to take this entire stacked rocket, 322 feet tall, taller than the Statue of Liberty, put it on the crawler, which moves at the speed of one mile per hour, and then take it all the way back, four miles, to the vertical assembly building.

If that happens, Sara, that means the earliest that NASA could try again to launch this rocket would likely be at the very earliest end of September, more likely sometime in the mid to late October timeframe. So that's likely what will happen here.

But I should point out some of the other possibilities that technically are still in play. Technically they could still try again on Monday. They've got a launch window opening in the 5:00 p.m. hour, two hours long.

If they think they can launch again then, it's a possibility. And then technically they have another potential launch attempt on Tuesday too. But that window, very short.

So, Sara, a lot of disappointment today. And in addition to people just wanting to see this rocket, the most powerful rocket ever built, finally lift off, which is, by the way, billions over budget, several years behind schedule, there's also some real geopolitical implications here, because NASA Administrator Bill Nelson was on CNN just yesterday, and he said he believes right now the U.S. is in the middle of a second space race.

[14:20:14] This time, instead of the Soviet Union, though, this space race, he believes, is with China. And when Jim Sciutto asked him, hey, who is winning? The NASA administrator said, well, we'll see, but the Artemis 1 launch is a first step, was how he characterized it. So Sara, this is not something that just people here are watching. It's truly something that the entire world is watching, and China in particular. Sara?

SIDNER: I have a question quickly for you. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk both very much into the space race themselves, to try to get people up there. I'm curious from you if there is concern from folks at NASA about these overruns, the cost overruns, having to scrub the launch, and if they're concerned about public sentiment and political sentiment towards the program there at NASA.

FISHER: NASA officials are acutely aware of that kind of criticism, lots of criticism from former NASA officials about just that. There is obviously some criticism on Capitol Hill as well, although Congress has largely kept this program alive for the better part of a decade.

Sara, what I would say is one of the Artemis rocket's big downfalls is the fact that it is totally expendable, meaning everything aside from this little capsule on top essentially gets dropped into the ocean and becomes trash, they can't use it again.

What SpaceX is doing with its new rocket, which is not yet ready to fly, this new rocket is called Starship, and it would be fully reusable. And with that reusability, the cost goes way down. So yes, Starship isn't quite on the launchpad just yet like the Artemis rocket.

But same day that is certainly a way you could bring down costs. Whereas the SLS rocket, NASA officials say at some point they'll be able to bring down those costs, but right now it's approximately $4.1 billion per flight, Sara.

SIDNER: Wow. Well, if they end up doing that in the future, whenever that is, it is one step closer to going to Mars, which is pretty cool. Kristin Fisher, thanks so much for joining us.

Let's bring in meteorologist Britley Ritz. She is in the CNN Weather Center. Britley, NASA says a launch window possible Monday, maybe Tuesday. What kind of weather conditions are in store Monday?

BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely, Monday and Tuesday those two windows much smaller than what we dealt with today. So hopefully the weather holds true. And we have that 30 percent chance of a weather violation.

Prior concerns here, cumulus clouds, of course the lightning threat, and the anvil. So we've got lightning due to the friction of the thrust of the rocket itself, and then the cumulus clouds billowing up and creating the potential for thunderstorms.

So we're watching your future forecast rolling in with the chance for thunderstorms later on into the afternoon with the heat of the day. Your sea breeze will set up. And that strong easterly wind is going to push a lot of that further inland.

The problem is these cumulonimbus clouds build up. We get the anvil tops and lightning can strike up to 10 miles from some of these storms. So there's that east wind expected to push the storm inland, but not just the winds at the surface. While they're starting to pick up, 10 to 20 miles per hour, that's still below the threshold.

We're not just talking about surface winds, though. We're also talking about the winds aloft. So then we wind up with windshear, wind direction and speed changing with height. And that's one of the bigger concerns as we press on to Monday afternoon, Sara.

SIDNER: Thank you so much, Britley Ritz.

Here now to talk about this in more in depth terms, former astronaut Leroy Chiao. It's great to have you here. How cool is it that you're an astronaut and I'm getting that talk to you this morning?

(LAUGHTER)

LEROY CHIAO, FORMER COMMANDER OF THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: It's great to be with you.

SIDNER: You've been on the launchpad at Kennedy. What concerns you about a future manned mission on this rocket?

CHIAO: This rocket is based on a lot of shuttle components. And it reminded me, these hydrogen leaks, when I first joined NASA, we were involved in a lot of hydrogen leaks dealing with the shuttle. And so it kind of brought back a few shudders there.

Liquid hydrogen, of course, very difficult to contain. This quick disconnect that was leaking had already been through four tanking cycles without any issues, so that just goes to show you these things can happen and do happen even with the best preparation.

[14:25:00]

So unfortunately, the leak rate was higher than the limits, so we had to scrub. But that being said, it's unclear right now whether or not crews, the teams will be able to make a replacement or repairs at the pad or if they have to roll back, as you were discussing earlier. That can make the difference, or that will make the difference between a delay of a few days or a week to having to roll back and talking about a month or more.

SIDNER: You're talking about just how important it is to get this right and to have everything in working order. I think many of us who are scarred by what happened with Space Shuttle Columbia and after that, I think it was the Discovery, where you saw devastation and destruction and death.

And there is so much hope that goes behind the building of these rockets. Give me a sense of just how serious the stakes are to get this right, even in an unmanned mission. CHIAO: Sure. I talked about the difficulty of liquid hydrogen, and

actually the Space Shuttle Challenger accident didn't involve liquid hydrogen. It involved problems with the solid rocket boosters, the two wide boosters on the side in that case in 1986.

The Columbia, of course, was a problem with reentry. But we always worry about fuel leaks, propellant leaks. That certainly can lead to catastrophic failure. So you're right, everything has to be done just right.

This is -- we're talking turbo pumps spinning around 85,000 rpm to pump these propellants into the engine, liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen, a lot more difficult to deal with than, say, more conventional kerosene and liquid oxygen.

So like the shuttle, because it's using shuttle main engines and a lot of the same design for the external tank and the solid rocket boosters, you're going to have a lot of the same issues that we had with the shuttle program.

SIDNER: I misspoke. It is Columbia and Challenger, both of which I watched in real time, and it's heartbreaking. I still feel for those families. Can I ask you about your time as an astronaut, and what that is like? And how long do you think, firstly, it will be before man returns to the moon?

CHIAO: Sure. We're always aware of the risks. We're very well- trained, we know the hardware, we've met the people who worked on it. And we also recognize that there are parts of the flight profile where there's nothing you can do if something goes wrong, or if certain things go wrong. And so we've put that to rest in our own minds about accepting the risk because to us it's worth doing, the risk is worth the reward.

As far as getting back to the moon, my hope is sooner rather than later. You mentioned a little bit earlier in your story about the space race. I actually don't see the space race being with China per se, but as you mentioned, more with the commercial efforts like SpaceX, for example.

SpaceX is making great strides in their Starship program. Their Falcon 9 is basically running like a fiddle. It's launching on a regular basis. It's recovering first stages on a regular basis, bringing launch costs down, launching satellites, launching cargo to and from the ISS, launching astronauts to and from the ISS.

So Elon Musk has made no secret, he wants to go and fly to Mars and colonize Mars and live on Mars. But I think he also has plans to go to the moon as well. So the ideal situation would be for NASA and SpaceX to work together towards that endeavor, and in fact they are.

NASA has given SpaceX a contract to look at designing and build a lander for NASA based on Starship technology. So hopefully we can leverage off of that relationship and go to Mars together using NASA's decades of operational and technical expertise and SpaceX's innovation and nimbleness and ability to react quickly. And that would be the best of all worlds.

SIDNER: You, you lucky dog, have been on three space shuttle flights, getting to see earth in a whole different way. Leroy Chiao, thank you so much for joining us.

CHIAO: My pleasure, thank you.

SIDNER: And still ahead, we've just learned that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has once again lost connection to its last remaining external power line. More on that from Ukraine in a moment.

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[14:33:50]

SIDNER: New details today on the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia which has been under siege by shelling. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the plant has again lost connection with its last remaining external power line. But a reserve line at this point is continuing to supply electricity to the grid. CNN's Sam Kiley spoke with residents who fled towns around the plant, fearing what might happen next.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Newly arrived refugees from Russian-held territory, Their I.D.s are carefully checked. But it's contamination from the Russian side that's most feared, radioactive contamination.

They've come from around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been on the front line of Russia's war in Ukraine. These retirees say they fled in a car with mortars flying over their heads just as U.N. inspectors arrived after weeks of negotiation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Mortars flying right above us, above the car. We didn't know where to go. And right behind us there was bang, bang.

[14:35:00]

They let us through because the IAEA was on its way, and they let us through so there was no queues.

KILEY: Russia's defense minister insisted that there are no heavy weapons near the plant.

SERGEI SHOIGU, RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): I responsibly state that we don't have heavy weapons in the territory of the nuclear power plant and in the surrounding areas. I hope the IAEA commission will be able to see that.

KILEY: On day one, the U.N. inspectors encountered Russian troops and Russian trucks inside nuclear facilities. Ukrainian officials say that they're a fire hazard and maybe even carry explosives. Armored personnel carriers armed with cannon marked with a Russian invader Z also visible.

During the visit, Russian officials are keen to reinforce their claims of Ukrainian attacks on the plant, pointing out spent rockets. A local woman shows the chief nuclear inspector a dossier on alleged Ukrainian attacks. Refugees who arrived in Zaporizhzhia from the town next to the plant tell of Russian helicopter gunships and worse.

These are the latest refugees to have arrived from Enerhodar. Now, that's the dormitory town for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station. We've spoken to a large number of them. None of them want to risk being identified because many of them still have families in the town.

But they all tell us to a man and a woman that they've seen the evidence of Russians shelling their own positions. They say that they hear the flash to bang, the outgoing mortar then the incoming bomb landing within one or two seconds of each other.

RAFAEL GROSSI, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: And I was able to see myself and my team the impact, holes, markings on buildings of shells.

KILEY: His pledge to keep inspections going is falling short of Ukraine's demands that Russian troops leave the power plant.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Unfortunately, we haven't heard the main thing from the IAEA, which is the call for Russia to demilitarize the station. What can we do without it?

KILEY: Ukraine's launched a counteroffensive against Russia this week. So in the long term, Ukraine may not be able to keep its promise not to fire on targets close to Europe's biggest nuclear plant.

Sam Kiley, CNN, Zaporizhzhia.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SIDNER: That's a terrifying prospect there in Ukraine. And staying in Ukraine, a horrific, brutal war crime caught on camera. The video of that crime obtained by CNN for an exclusive story shows two Ukrainian civilians being shot in the back at the outskirts of Kyiv.

Now Ukrainian prosecutors say that same video has been used to help identify the Russian soldier responsible for their deaths. We want to warn you, what you're about to see is violent and it is disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SIDNER: Ukrainian prosecutors say this is the moment an undeniable war crime was carried out by Russian soldiers. This video clip obtained by CNN has yet to be seen by the public. It shows Russian soldiers firing at something alongside a business they have just overtaken on the outskirts of Kyiv. Turns out their target is two unsuspecting and unarmed Ukrainian civilians who they shoot in the back. We first reported on this portion of the video in May, showing the

business owner dying where he falls, and the guard initially surviving, but bleeding to death after making it back to his guard shack.

Both men had just spent the last few minutes speaking calmly with the Russian soldiers who appeared to let them go. But we now see two of the soldiers return and fire on them.

YULIA PLYATS, FATHER KILLED BY RUSSIANS (through translator): My father's name is Leonid Oleksiyovych Plyats.

SIDNER: The guard's daughter Yulia told us then she wanted the world to know her father's name and what the Russians did to them.

Yulia, have you seen the video?

PLYATS (through translator): I can't watch it now. I will save it to the cloud and leave it for my grandchildren and children. They should know about this crime and always remember who our neighbors are.

SIDNER: And now, the Bucha prosecutor's office says with the help of CNN's story, it has finally identified one of his executioners. The suspect name, Nikolay Sergeevich Sokovikov. Ukraine has informed Russia that their pretrial investigation has zeroed in on Sokovikov as the perpetrator of the cold-blooded killing.

While prosecutors will not reveal exactly how they identified this particular soldier, we have seen one part of the process being used by Ukrainian officials, facial recognition technology.

It's really fast.

The ministry of digital transformation gets an image, loads it into the program they created, and it scrubs social media looking for a match. Once they have a match of a soldier dead or alive, they try to corroborate with friends and family and the soldier's social media sites.

[14:40:07]

"We have identified 300 cases," he says. The identification of the latest suspect of war crimes was months in the making, but it is at least one step toward justice for the families who have had one thing taken from them they can never get back, the life of someone they loved.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SIDNER: And prosecutors say the Russian soldier charged in the crime has not been found but he has been indicted in absentia. They are seeking Nikolay Sergeevich Sokovikov's whereabouts at this point and have sent court documents to the Russian government to that effect. We will be tracking the situation as it develops.

And we will be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: More than 40 million people in America are under heat advisories this holiday weekend.

[14:45:00]

CNN's Chris Nguyen has more from Pasadena.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CHRIS NGUYEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Across the west, the scorching heat is showing no signs of cooling off this holiday weekend.

MARIE METCALFE, RESIDENT OF LOS ANGELES: Our A.C. at home can only do so much when we're in these triple digits.

NGUYEN: In Glendale, California, residents are seeking refuge at the Galleria Shopping Mall, taking advantage of the free air conditioning.

METCALFE: Getting out to the mall and just getting out of the house to get some sort of cool release is nice.

NGUYEN: California is in the midst of its longest heat wave of the year, a major concern, especially in large cities like Los Angeles where dark pavement and buildings can easily absorb heat, bringing little relief overnight.

Skid Row is an urban heat island, which is why water is crucial, especially when temperatures hit triple digits.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Free water! Agua gratis! Free water!

NGUYEN: That's why volunteers with Water Drop L.A. are checking up on the unhoused and the elderly, handing out cold water to those who need it.

SOFIA GUADRON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WATER DROP L.A.: At the core, we're all people, and we should care about each other. We should love each other, and we should look out for each other.

NGUYEN: The extreme heat wave also testing California's power grid. In Irwindale, Southern California Edison crews are busy moving transformers and extra equipment throughout the region.

DAVID EISENHAUER, SPOKESMAN, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON: We have all hands on deck, ready to respond if there are outages so that we can get the power restored as quickly and safely as possible.

NGUYEN: Many Californians bracing for more misery ahead.

CARLA LIZAOLA, RESIDENT OF LOS ANGELES: It's insane. It's unbearable to even be home.

(END VIDEO TAPE) NGUYEN (on camera): In Pasadena, it's already in the upper 90s here at the Rose Bowl. The UCLA season opener just kicking off behind me, Sara. And as these temperatures climb, we're in for another hot day across California.

Temperatures are expected to hit triple digits once again here in California. This event behind me just one of three outdoor major events happening throughout the area today, Sara.

SIDNER: And a shoutout to my former neighbors there in Pasadena and in Eagle Rock. Chris Nguyen, thank you so much for bringing us that report.

It's an amazing breakthrough that could not only save a precious ocean coral but help mitigate the effects of bigger and stronger hurricanes. A CNN exclusive, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:52:05]

SIDNER: Scientists say they've made a major breakthrough in the fight to save a species under threat in the Caribbean, the Elkhorn coral, which could also offer protection from hurricanes. CNN's Isabel Rosales explains in an exclusive CNN report.

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ISABEL ROSALES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They're deadly, violent, and unleash mass destruction. Year after year we pay the price in dollars and lives when hurricane season strikes. But under the waters those storms gain their strength from, there's an unexpected layer of protection, coral reefs.

They break up large waves and bar coast lines from storm surge, acting as a buffer against property damage and erosion. Spanning about 360 miles, Florida has the world's third largest barrier reef, and right now it's at risk from stressors like pollution, disease, and warming oceans --

KERI O'NEIL, SENIOR CORAL SCIENTIST, FLORIDA AQUARIUM: They're dying around the world.

ROSALES: -- caused by the climate crisis.

O'NEIL: I would say that the problems facing coral reefs right now are human costs. You can't have the ocean running a fever every summer and not expect there to be impacts.

ROSALES: But in this tank, a sign that hope is not lost for Florida's reefs. You're looking at a mayor scientific breakthrough, Elkhorn coral spawning. The Florida aquarium says it is now the first in the world to reproduce this threatened coral using aquarium technology.

O'NEIL: When it finally happened, we were just, the first sense is just shear relief. ROSALES: Keri O'Neil is a senior coral scientist. She's also been

dubbed the coral whisperer. And she lives up to her name. This spawning produced a couple thousand baby Elkhorn corals. O'Neil expects about 100 could survive into adulthood. Her team has figured out how to spawn 13 other species, yet Elkhorn takes the top spot.

O'NEIL: It's really the most important. This is a critical step to preventing Elkhorn coral from going extinct in the state of Florida.

ROSALES: Named for its resemblance to elk antlers, this coral lives right at the top of the reef crest, meaning it plays a big role protecting Florida's coastline from devastating storm surge, which climate change is making even worse. Problem is --

O'NEIL: Now there's so few left that there's just a few scattered colonies.

ROSALES: Only about 300 of them are left around Florida, she says.

O'NEIL: It makes me emotional because I've seen the destruction of this species in my career.

ROSALES: Getting them to reproduce isn't as easy as you think.

O'NEIL: Terrestrial animals do this all the time. When you have endangered pandas or chimpanzees, the first thing you do is start a breeding program. But coral reproduction is super weird.

ROSALES: O'Neil tells me in the wild they're not successfully reproducing. They're also notoriously difficult to keep alive in aquariums, part of the reasons why, she says, they face so much doubt from the scientific community that they can make this moment happen.

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O'NEIL: We've faced a lot of criticism of people -- you can't keep those in an aquarium, that's impossible.

ROSALES: In the race to restore the reefs, there's more work to be done. This breakthrough only a first step.

O'NEIL: We are really buying time. We're buying time for the reef. We're buying time for the corals.

ROSALES: A breeding program where they could ultimately breed more resilient coral, capable of withstanding threats like pollution, warming ocean waters, and disease.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one, dive.

ROSALES: Nature can then pick up the rest.

O'NEIL: There is hope for coral reefs. Don't give up hope. All is not lost. However, we need to make serious changes in our behavior to save this planet.

ROSALES: I'm Isabel Rosales reporting.

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SIDNER: It's just amazing.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Sara Sidner. CNN Newsroom continues with Jim Acosta just after the break.

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