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North Carolina Still Recovering Following Storms; Beyonce Wows on Netflix NFL Halftime Show; Did Russia Shoot Down Passenger Plane?. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired December 26, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:50]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: A very good morning to you. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in Washington, D.C. Pamela Brown is off.

And we begin this hour with breaking news and disturbing allegations in the deadly Christmas morning crash of a passenger plane in Kazakstan. Reuters is reporting multiple unnamed sources in Azerbaijan with knowledge of this investigation now believe that passenger jet was downed by a Russian air defense system.

Russia initially claiming a bird strike forcing the emergency landing, but holes seen in the wreckage are raising some suspicions. We also have new video this morning aboard the plane just moments before that crash.

You hear that man apparently recording himself reciting a prayer as that plane was in distress. CNN has not been able to verify the man's identity or if he survived the crash.

Let's bring in CNN aviation analyst Peter Goelz. He's a former managing director of the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board, of course.

And, Peter, it's nice to see you today.

This video, though, is pretty heart-wrenching to listen to and see. You hear this man praying in what must have been very terrifying moments for him. And you have to think that clearly the passengers at that point knew something was wrong.

PETER GOELZ, FORMER MANAGING DIRECTOR, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: It certainly is.

And this is not the first time that Russia has been involved in shooting down passenger planes. In 2014, MH270 -- or MH17 was flying over Ukraine, and Russian-controlled separatists launched a missile that took that plane out and 298 people were killed.

There was -- this speculation yesterday all didn't make much sense, the idea of a bird strike and then the plane diverting across the Caspian Sea. Something was up. And officials are now pointing the finger directly at the Russian air defense system.

DEAN: Does it surprise you at all that these officials in Azerbaijan are leaning in to these accusations against the Russian military?

GOELZ: Well, it certainly takes a little bit of courage on their part. But they -- it is such a shocking event and that the truth was going to come out.

They announced yesterday that they had recovered the black box, the data recorder from the aircraft. Well, the really important piece in this kind of accident will be the cockpit voice recorder. And that has not been mentioned. The voice recorder will confirm exactly what the crew was seeing, what they were speaking about, how they were responding and what happened.

But I think this investigation will break very shortly.

DEAN: And just -- we're looking at video while you're talking of the aftermath and we were also seeing what the damage looked like to that plane.

When you, with your expertise are looking at that, does that look consistent with a bird strike to you?

GOELZ: Well, only if there was any an extraordinarily rare, catastrophic failure of one of the engines that spit out shrapnel into the -- into the fuselage. And those are so rare.

GE makes an extraordinarily safe engine. The puncture wounds in the back portion of the plane really does raise questions about a surface- to-air missile. And the idea that -- they will be able to confirm that both from the autopsies of victims and from further radar.

I don't think this is going to be a mystery for too much longer.

DEAN: Yes, over two dozen puncture wounds there.

I -- also, just the fact that there are survivors of this plane crash seems remarkable to me. But I'm curious if it seems remarkable to you that someone was able to survive this, multiple people.

[11:05:06]

GOELZ: Well, it is remarkable, but it's part of government regulation of aviation. The NTSB and the FAA mandated that aircraft be equipped with 16-g seats some years ago, which means that the seat stays in place in an accident and you're not propelled out of the aircraft.

And if you've got a -- if you're in a 16-G seat, you can survive an accident. And this is further proof of that. So it's government regulation mandating a safety step that saves lives.

DEAN: It is incredible because it expands even beyond. Obviously, the NTSB is for the United States. But that -- you're saying that those regulations, because that's where you're setting the standards for planes, that it extends to this Azerbaijan flight, which is kind of amazing.

GOELZ: Well, it was a requirement for manufacturers.

So, Embraer, Airbus, Boeing, they were required to install these seats. And aircraft carriers were required to retrofit over time. So, I mean, I think it's pretty extraordinary that there were that many survivors and that the injuries ranged from some severe, others not so severe.

It was because of these seats.

DEAN: It is. It's so, so interesting and so incredible to me.

And you mentioned that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. That was 10 years ago. You said 298 people killed in that crash in Eastern Ukraine. And, as you mentioned, investigators later concluded that a Russian surface-to-air missile brought that down that civilian aircraft.

As you think back to that -- and now we're looking at video of that as well -- what similarities stand out to you? And I know you said this isn't probably going to be a mystery much longer what happened to this most recent flight, but what similarities stand out to you?

GOELZ: Well, what -- the Dutch safety board investigated that accident because there were a significant number of Dutch citizens on board, and they rebuilt the nose of the aircraft.

And you could see the multiple puncture wounds from the shrapnel, from the surface-to-air missile throughout the nose of the aircraft. And these puncture wounds confirmed the type of missile that was used to bring it down.

The Russians, of course, have never accepted that explanation. But the investigation that the Dutch did was complete, thorough, and left no doubt.

DEAN: And we know NATO is calling for a full investigation. We now have several governments involved, Kazakstan, Russia, Azerbaijan. How do they all work together? How does that work?

GOELZ: Well, there's an organization called ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organization, located in Montreal. And that sets the standards for these kinds of investigations. And Kazakstan, as the site where the crash took place, would probably take the lead unless they ceded that it to Azerbaijan, whose aircraft it was.

And the Russians really wouldn't have anything to do with it. It's really a two-country investigation. But there's no teeth in the investigative requirements. So I'm not sure that we will ever get a complete investigation this event.

DEAN: Peter Goelz, thank you so much for that analysis, giving us so much context. We appreciate it. Good to see you.

And still to come: This holiday season has been different for so many communities devastated by Hurricane Helene. Ahead, I will speak to the owner of an art studio in Asheville that was destroyed.

And the BeyHive buzz is in full throttle after the Netflix halftime show that gave some Super Bowl vibes.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:13:49]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. AMANDA DIXON, U.S. ARMY: My name is Major Amanda Dixon. And I'm an exchange officer with the 3rd U.K. Division in Salisbury, England.

I just want to take this opportunity to wish a merry Christmas to my friends and family back in Fremont, Iowa. Miss you, love you, see you soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Cowboy Carter came to slay on Christmas Day, Beyonce rocking her hometown of Houston as part of Netflix's first-ever NFL doubleheader.

The 32-time Grammy winner brought down the house, and she had some help including special guests, Post Malone, Shaboozey, even her daughter, Blue Ivy. The highly anticipated performance was teased for weeks ahead of Netflix's first foray into the NFL which, carried a $150 million price tag.

It was also dogged by concerns over whether the streaming giant was ready for prime time after those tech issues plagued their marquee boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. We can safely say, though, that Beyonce delivered.

Did Netflix?

Joining us now to discuss more about that, CNN sports analyst and "USA Today" sports columnist Christine Brennan.

Christine, great to see you. Thanks so much for being here.

[11:15:01]

I want to talk about the games, but I also want to talk about the fact we pretty much had an almost Super Bowl halftime show there. What did you think of how they put this whole package together?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Jessica, you nailed it. That's it. This was Super Bowl-esque about, what, two months before the Super Bowl, a month-and-a-half before the Super Bowl, brilliant move by the NFL, which continues to dominate the sports landscape.

They get it. They have understood marketing for years. This is our national halftime, the NFL, obviously, football. Americans love it. They can't get enough of it. And we thought about Super Bowl Sunday, of course, which is like a national holiday. We certainly know that the NFL has a game of the week, right? They have a day of the week, basically, Sunday, that is theirs.

They have moved into Saturday, Thursday night. But now this, just a super smart move by the National Football League. Everyone's home. Everyone wants to do something other than eat or open presents after a while. And what do they want to do? They want to watch sports. This is the United States. This is what we love.

So the NBA kind of had Christmas. In fact, LeBron James even said, hey, NFL, the NBA, Christmas is ours. Well, not so much anymore. And I think that we're going to see, in addition to 200 countries -- according to Netflix, that the game was watched in about 200 countries. We're going to see numbers that Netflix loves and the NFL will love even more.

DEAN: It is incredible. And, look, there was a lot riding on this for Netflix as well, as they're trying to figure out, are they going to livestream sports, what that might look like? Obviously, $150 million to make this happen, no small price tag. Do you think that paid off for Netflix?

BRENNAN: The numbers will come out, but I think the answer is going to be yes.

I mean, it just makes so much sense that they will have great numbers, and, as I said, the 200 countries. Think about that. So you're watching your NFL team on Sunday or Saturday or Thursday, "Monday Night Football" -- I forgot that earlier. That's -- you're in the United States, right, and you're watching it because you're an American sports fan.

Well, the NFL has made forays over the last, what, couple decades in terms of playing internationally, especially London, but other European nations as well. Well, now you can reach those fans who love American football. They may not understand it. They always say, why is it stopping and starting and stopping and starting?

And, eventually, they will get the idea that that's for the refrigerator breaks or the bathroom breaks, because, of course, their football -- their football soccer, of course, is -- it's nonstop.

DEAN: Just keeps going, right.

BRENNAN: Right.

But they're getting the hang of it. And so the idea that then the NFL, as you mentioned, $150 million, that's a lot of money, but it's -- I'm going to guess it's totally worth it, and more -- they can reach people on streaming that, yes, you could -- if you're overseas, you could get a Slingbox and have somebody in the United States help you with that. But this is the way to reach the world.

And that's what the NFL wants. And I don't blame them at all for giving it a good try. DEAN: Yes.

And then just the games themselves, what were your biggest takeaways? There were two games back to back.

BRENNAN: They were good teams, all four playoff teams, both of them blowouts. But we saw a couple very key moments with Travis Kelce breaking the Chiefs touchdown receiving record and then dunking the ball over the goalpost, which is a penalty. But that was an homage to the man who had the record before, Tony Gonzalez.

And then Lamar Jackson, obviously, making a stake with Baltimore for the MVP award again, and now at age 27 is the rushing leader for quarterbacks, all-time rushing leader for quarterbacks in the NFL at only 27 years old.

So what we were watching, even though those games were actually not close, what fans were watching were some of the greatest names in the sport, not just right now, Jessica, but throughout history, with these records, Patrick Mahomes doing crazy Patrick Mahomes things, again, as I said, Lamar Jackson with Baltimore.

Kansas City, Baltimore, these are two marquee teams, as well, of course, is the Steelers and Houston. So that's what they gave us. These were not duds, other than the score. But the moments are -- those marquee athletes, those great names, those household names in American households that as they were watching, those athletes performed beautifully on Christmas Day.

DEAN: Yes, that -- big moments indeed.

Christine Brennan, great to see you. Thanks so much for being here with us today. We appreciate it.

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: Parts of Western North Carolina are still struggling months after Hurricane Helene. Ahead, we're going to check back in with the owner of an art studio that was destroyed in that storm.

You're in CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:23:43]

DEAN: Communities are still struggling with the catastrophic aftermath of two major storms that struck the East Coast three months ago, Hurricane Helene hitting in late September, then followed by Hurricane Milton two weeks later.

And the recovery continues to this day, Western North Carolina one of the areas most devastated by Helene. Asheville resident Pattiy Torno lost everything. And she told CNN's Pamela Brown her business seen here underwater was destroyed just weeks shy of its 35th anniversary, but, through it all, Torno remained optimistic. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATTIY TORNO, OWNER CURVE STUDIOS AND GARDEN: As a creative, we are resilient. It is part of our DNA. We figure this -- we figure (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out. Oops. Sorry. We figure it out.

We figure it out.

(LAUGHTER)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: The sentiment is there.

TORNO: And so I have -- I have total faith that anybody that wants to stay in the district will figure out how to stay in the district. I'm just -- I'm done. CURVE Studios as an entity will not exist anymore.

And that is an incredibly sad thing, you know. But we had a good run. And I have appreciated all of our customers and all of the support that we have gotten over the years. And I look -- I'm very optimistic. I look forward to a positive future. It's just Mother Nature said it's time to move on, so I'm going to listen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:25:06]

DEAN: Pattiy Torno joins us now from Asheville.

It is lovely to see you now three months later.

And, Pattiy, you just got access to clean drinking water two days ago. And I know I'm not telling you anything you haven't lived through.

TORNO: No, no, no.

DEAN: But I just think for the rest of...

TORNO: No, it was actually in November.

DEAN: In November.

TORNO: It was 52 days after...

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: OK. All right, we had been told two days ago, which seemed insane. November is still bad. That's better. OK, good.

(CROSSTALK)

TORNO: No, 52 days without potable water was enough.

DEAN: Wow. Yes, that's plenty.

TORNO: Yes, it's really interesting to -- yes, for sure. No. And, actually, for the damage that happened to our water system, 52 days was miraculously fast. They had to replace over 2,000 feet of pipe, that, literally, the road that it was located under, that road was gone. So they had to rebuild the pipe, rebuild the roads. They had to rebuild the roads to get people to be able to rebuild our water system.

It was -- it -- the level of devastation here is unimaginable unless you have come and put your boots on the ground. It's amazing.

DEAN: I believe that.

TORNO: And when you say months later, it's still happening. We are looking at years' worth of rebuilding. This is not -- this is not going to be a fast thing. It's...

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: And I -- yes.

TORNO: ... an awareness that I did not have when I was with you the last time.

DEAN: No, well, that's I think the important thing for people to remember, for us to remember for those watching who aren't in Asheville, that this storm was so devastating, it will be years before your community is back to whole, even though, as you know, you have made incredible progress kind of against all odds to be able to rebuild the water system, all of those sort of things.

I do want to show, you took some photos. Last time, we had them on as well, right after this all happened, and it was the mud that was outside, I believe it was your studio.

TORNO: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: And it's like six -- look at this mud. It's so thick and heavy.

TORNO: Oh, it's like a foot deep, yes. It's ridiculous.

DEAN: Oh, my gosh, and probably so heavy too.

TORNO: Very.

DEAN: And, at the time, you said you wouldn't be reopening your business, CURVE Studios. Is that still the case?

TORNO: That's true.

DEAN: Where are you on that today?

TORNO: Yes. Yes, as a small business owner, as well as a building owner and an artist, the surprise that I have gotten is the help that doesn't exist for somebody in my position. I got money from FEMA for my housing, for my dwelling, but there

really are no other grants available for businesses and for building owners. You can apply for an SBA loan, but they are currently out of money. The only other grant program that's available to me that I have been able to access is the hazard mitigation grant, and that basically is me applying for the state of North Carolina to buy my property.

And they will probably tear my buildings down, and it would be green space in perpetuity. But even for our -- the River Arts District Foundation, RiverArtsDistrict.com, if anybody wants to donate to us, that's a great resource.

As a nonprofit, even the big federal BRIC grants, the way that this particular -- the way that North Carolina does it, it's not set up for nonprofits to be able to apply for the billions of dollars, which is honestly what we are going to need.

DEAN: Wow. That's incredible, and to know kind of what -- how limiting it is from where you sit, uniquely sit, with what you're trying to do and would need the funds for.

And, look, Asheville, as you have alluded to, is so well-known for its creative community, its artistic community.

TORNO: Yes. Yes.

DEAN: It's what really makes it so special. How would you say -- here we are now three months later. How would you say it's progressing? How are people feeling? Just give us kind of a status check of what's going on, on the ground there.

TORNO: Well, a lot of the artists that were -- I mean, about 80 percent of the studios in the district were damaged or made unusable at this point.

And until those building owners are able to either, in some cases, physically rebuild the buildings -- I mean, there are buildings that simply went downriver. Again, until sufficient federal and philanthropic money comes through, there's no place for those artists.

So, again, the River Arts District Artists organization is doing a great job. We did RADFest 1.0, which sort of supplanted our normal studio stroll in November, and it was wildly successful.

So we are trying to do what we can with the buildings that still exist on the east side of the tracks, but all of the properties on the west side, where the river is, which is what you're looking at here, and, from what I can see, that -- all of those buildings have major, substantial damage.