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Putin Apologizes, Doesn't Take Responsibility For Jet Crash; Georgia's Parliament to Swear in Controversial New President; Dozens Dead in South Korea Plane Crash. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired December 29, 2024 - 00:00   ET

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

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[00:00:20]

PAULA NEWTON, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome. I'm Paula Newton in Atlanta. And we do begin with breaking news this hour. At least 85 people have died in a plane crash in South Korea. At least two crew members were rescued, but the remaining passengers and crew are now presumed dead. 181 people were traveling on the Jeju Air passenger jet which crashed while landing at Muan International Airport.

Firefighters say the accident was caused by a landing gear malfunction. You're looking at this video now, which shows the plane dragging along the runway with no landing gear in sight. Moments later, the plane bursts into flames. Investigators are at the scene. And South Korea's acting President, who is also on the scene, has ordered all available emergency equipment and personnel to respond to this disaster

CNN Correspondent Mike Valerio has the latest now from Seoul. And Mike, a lot more that we're learning just in the last hour as family members, you know, rush as well to the scene, just trying to figure out how this happened.

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. And I mean, you can only imagine, Paula, so many of us are coming home from Christmas holidays and getting ready to be with families for New Year's. This is exactly what whole multitudes of people who had family members on board this flight are having to contend with coming back from Bangkok, Thailand. What a wonderful holiday destination for so many people on this airline that goes to all these vacation destinations across Southeast Asia.

So, Paula, to bring you and our viewers up to speed, we see this terrible video of the airliner, the Jeju 737-800 Boeing aircraft landing on its belly. And then we pause the video, the moment of an explosion, of course, because it's the end of life for up to 179 passengers. We want to be respectful of them and their families. But it's a sour, Paula, there are two potential issues in tension here in terms of how this happened.

We seemingly have landing gear that did not deploy, which appears to be clear in the video with the airliner on its belly upon landing. And then we have video that we're working to clear at CNN that has been shown by one broadcaster here in South Korea, which appears to show some apparent, I want to stress, apparent explosion near one of the engines while this plane was still airborne. And bird strike is entering into the equation of possibilities for what potentially went wrong here.

So just before the last time we were with you, Paula, a couple minutes ago, we have the fire chief of the locality where this airport is located, about three-and-a half hours south of Seoul, where we are now. And he said to reporters the following quote, "The cause of this accident is estimated to be the occurrence of bird strike or bad weather". But he goes on to say that the official cause will be ascertained through an official investigation.

So bird strike or bad weather. You can tell from the video and our background here in Seoul, there's barely a cloud in the sky across the Korean peninsula. It's a beautiful Sunday afternoon here. But we're waiting to see if there's more official confirmation on the possibility of bird strike and if an emergency communication from the aircraft to the ground relayed that a bird strike certainly happened.

Bringing you further in depth as to what transpired here. This is a Jeju Air 737-800 that left Bangkok, pushed back from the gate at 2:11 a.m. local time, due in the 9:00 hour, and skids on the runway and hits an embankment and bursts into flames. We did have a miraculous storyline in the earliest part of this catastrophe with two crew members, a man and a woman, who were able to be rescued from the back of the plane where you find the tail section.

And that led so many people who were on the ground in terms of first responders, the fire department, etc. to be hopeful that perhaps more people could be found even after we had the fireball and the plume of smoke. But we now, Paula, are in a strictly recovery mission, not a rescue.

So it remains to be seen why exactly this happened and if this will broaden out into an international investigation. Because this is a Boeing aircraft, because it was manufactured in Washington State, one of the main points investigators will be conceivably looking at is whether or not this was something that happened specific to the aircraft, or if this is something that the wider fleet needs to look out for.

[00:05:13]

But again, very stunning and striking comments with the head of this fire department saying bird strike is now within the realm of possibility. Paula.

NEWTON: Yeah. And obviously he had been informed of something, as you said, perhaps communication that the crew had indicated that they were having some kind of trouble with an engine. And still obviously so many questions.

Mike, I want to ask you though, in terms of this airline itself, it is the largest low cost airline in South Korea, but again, obviously incredibly safe. Many people have had a great safety record. Many people had confidence in flying this airline, right?

VALERIO: That's right. This airline was founded in 2005. It is the largest budget airline in South Korea. Jeju Air, named after the -- well, you could say for our viewers in the United States, the Hawaii of South Korea, beautiful Jeju Island. So it's a carrier that so many people, Paula, would go to idyllic destinations on a budget and not think anything twice of their decision to go on Jeju Air. A great safety record. Nothing in its history like this since it was founded in 2005.

So again, that adds to questions that investigators will be posing if this was something so out of the blue, perhaps quite literally as a bird strike, when we're dealing with an airline, when we have an airline involved in this that had such a great safety record. Paula.

NEWTON: Yeah, Mike, we'll leave it there for now. I know that you'll continue your reporting as we continue to follow those dramatic developments there in South Korea. Appreciate it.

VALERIO: Thanks, Paula.

NEWTON: Joining us -- joining us now from Chicago is Scott Hamilton. He is an aviation industry consultant with the Leeham Company of Chicago. And if we want to go straight to it, we've seen a lot of video. We have some information. I am really interested in your initial impression.

SCOTT HAMILTON, AVIATION INDUSTRY CONSULTANT, LEEHAM CO. OF CHICAGO: Well, my initial impression right off the top is that fire sheet ought to shut up. And I'm making declarative statements. There is no way in the world at this point you can know what caused this accident.

Now, having said that, and we're looking at the videos, if that engine malfunction is indeed validated, as Mike indicated CNN is trying to do, first off, I wouldn't say it's an explosion. It's like a backfire. It looks like a compressor stall to me, which could be caused by a bird strike. It could be a mechanical issue. The investigators are going to look into that.

The landing video makes it clear that the land gear was not down. We don't know why that's the case. The landing video also makes it clear that the leading edge slats on the wings were not lowered, which helps slow the airplane as it comes into land. And the video that I've seen and that still shot that you have on your website does not make it clear whether or not the trailing edge flaps were deployed. It appeared to me that they were not.

So the question is, why weren't the slats deployed? Why weren't the flaps deployed? Why weren't the landing gear deployed? Was there an engine problem? All of these could combine to, as your day -- consultant David Soucie also pointed out, could that have caused cockpit confusion or was the cockpit flight crew overwhelmed by handling three emergencies at the same time? We also don't know at this stage what communication there was with the control tower. We don't know at this stage how far down the runway the airplane touched down and why it was not able to stop before exiting the runway and running into that embankment. Those are all areas that investigators will be looking at.

NEWTON: You know, Scott, given that we all fly the 737-800 so many times in a year, so many of us are on them all over the world, and that we all have a stake in what happened here, do you have complete confidence that even though we have seen that the airplane is destroyed, that they will be able to get to the bottom of this, especially given that it is South Korea and it is an airline with a good safety record?

HAMILTON: Yeah, absolutely. The investigators should be able to get to the bottom of this. The flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder are located in the tail of the airplane. The tail of the airplane looks to be reasonably intact, so those recorders should be recovered pretty quickly.

And because it doesn't appear that there was fire in the extreme tail section, the data should be able to be read out in pretty short order. You'll have at some point the recordings of the cockpit airplane communication that will help identify what's going on. And even though the airplane has been destroyed by fire, the investigators can do remarkable things, and they should be able to determine whether or not the flaps were down.

[00:10:09]

We could see that the slats were not extended. We can see that the landing gear wasn't extended. They should be able to tell whether or not there was a general hydraulic failure or not, or whether there were other issues.

NEWTON: Given this is -- we have to say this is a low cost airline. That doesn't necessarily mean at all that they skimp on safety whatsoever. You know, I'm looking at the fleet of this airline. They only had 737. They wanted to keep things simple, right? Be able to service and maintain that one type of airplane. Would you have any concerns at this point, whether it be from a maintenance point of view, especially as it was returning from Bangkok?

HAMILTON: Yeah. It is way too early to say whether or not there's a reason for concern about the safety issues of the airline or of the airplane. Clearly, the investigators are going to look at the maintenance records of the airplane. They will look at the safety record and the maintenance records of the airline in general. They will look at the cockpit crew qualifications. They will look at the cockpit crew history. They will listen for any confusion in the cockpit.

There's what's called Cockpit Resource Management, CRM, to see if the pilots were coordinating correctly like they did with U.S. Air 1549 in 2009. That's the airplane that landed in the Hudson. The CRM in that case was absolutely perfect. We'll see what the investigators find on this.

NEWTON: How crucial do you think that component is -- that component of whatever's gone on here in terms of what actually happened in the cockpit, what the crew could do about certain catastrophes which were clearly occurring and what they couldn't do to control it? I know that this stuff is simulated, right? These pilots get very good training. It's simulated over and over and over again.

HAMILTON: Well, even if there was a bird strike that disabled the right engine, or if it was disabled because of mechanical issues, the 737 can land perfectly fine on one engine and the pilots are trained to do that.

Now, was there a series of events, as I say, were there multiple emergencies going on? If there was a general hydraulic failure that could affect the controls, the stick, the control yoke in the airplane in the cockpit, if there was a general hydraulic failure and an engine failure that caused flaps not to come down, that caused the slats not to come down, caused the gear not to come down, it is easy to see how all of those emergencies could combine to overwhelm the pilots. But that's all part of going to be part of the investigation.

NEWTON: Yeah. Certainly, the mystery deepens most so for those loved ones who will be watching very carefully as they continue to watch this tragedy unfold in South Korea. Scott Hamilton, really appreciate your insights.

HAMILTON: Of course.

NEWTON: And we will take a quick break. When we come back, we will have the very latest on this breaking news. The plane crash in South Korea.

Plus, Vladimir Putin speaking out about the Azerbaijan Airlines crash after a U.S. officials suggested Russia could be involved.

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NEWTON: We want to bring you right up to date on the breaking news. In South Korea, the death toll has now climbed to at least 85 from a passenger plane crash in Muan, South Korea. Two crew members have been rescued, but there were 181 people on board. Firefighters say most of the remaining passengers and crew are presumed dead. South Korea's acting President is now at the Muan Airport where the Boeing 737-800 crash landed Sunday morning. We will continue to bring you the very latest as we get it, including live reports from South Korea.

Now, Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologized for the fact that an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed after entering Russian airspace on Christmas Day, but he did not say Russia was responsible.

Now, during a phone call with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, Putin called it a, quote, "Tragic incident". He said Russia's air defense systems were active at the time, which a U.S. official has suggested may have mistakenly shot down the jet. Aliyev told Putin that external interference led to a complete loss of control before the plane went down in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people. CNN's Nada Bashir picks up the story from there.

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as questions continue to mount over the possible connection between Russian air defense systems and Wednesday's deadly plane crash, Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued an apology for the fact that the flight crashed after entering Russian airspace around the Chechen city of Grozny, acknowledging according to the Kremlin, that Russia's air defense systems were in fact active when the plane attempted to land in Grozny.

However, no admission of responsibility from Moscow investigations are still ongoing, but nearby Ukrainian drone attacks in the moments preceding the crash have led some officials to believe that the plane may have been downed mistakenly by Russian anti-aircraft defenses, with officials in Azerbaijan saying that the plane came under external physical and technical interferences while in Russian airspace.

Meanwhile, several aviation experts and U.S. officials have said that perforations seen in the fuselage are consistent with shrapnel damage from an explosion, that the cause of the holes in the wreckage has not yet been confirmed. Investigators are continuing to assess the evidence, including two black box recorders which were recovered from the wreckage, as well as of course, eyewitness accounts.

Remarkably, 29 people out of 67 on board the flight survived the crash, some of whom filmed their final moments on the flight. One survivor describing a loud bang being heard and felt before the plane began to descend. But it could still be a matter of days or even weeks before any final conclusions are made by investigators. For now, at least five airlines have suspended flights to areas in Russia, many citing safety concerns. Nada Bashir, CNN, London.

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NEWTON: William Taylor is a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and vice president for Russia and Europe at the U.S. Institute of Peace and he joins us now from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And very grateful to have your insights on this. I mean, I for one count me as a person who was surprised that Putin even bothered to apologize. I mean, what was your take and do you think a lot of that had to do with the fact that it was Azerbaijan, that in terms of he want him wanting to preserve that kind of a relationship?

WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: I think you're right, Paula. I think you're exactly right that President Putin's worried about his standing with -- with friends and allies. He's had a bad couple of weeks as you've reported. You know, has a problem in Syria. He has got new sanctions on from the United States on his oil exports. His economy is shaky. He's had several problems generated by the Ukrainians attacking deep into Russia. So President Putin is looking to keep what allies he has.

I wouldn't call Azerbaijan an ally, but it is certainly a friend and it's certainly a friend of Turkey. So I think you're right. It's an unusual admission of apology, not quite admission of guilt, but that seems to be the case.

NEWTON: And without that admission of guilt or actually submitting themselves to any kind of an independent investigation, I mean, the answer might be so what is there really going to be any culpability or responsibility for this? And do you believe that unlike what happened with Malaysia Airlines a decade ago, that there will be any accountability here?

TAYLOR: Well, you're -- you're right. A decade ago when the Russians and Russian led forces over occupied Ukraine shot down that another civilian airliner killing 298 people, those people were actually put on trial in The Hague and convicted.

Now, they are still at large in Russia. So that raises the same question that you just asked about this shoot down. Will there ever be accountability? It's going to be difficult. It's going to be difficult unless and until the Ukrainians win this war and can -- can get accountability for all of the crimes, including this one. But all the main one of the crime of aggression against Ukraine.

NEWTON: You know, I'm wondering clearly Russian military, Vladimir Putin did not mean to do this if indeed they are responsible. So I'm wondering what this tells you just about the state of play right now with the Russian military, even though they continue to say that they're actually on the front foot in Ukraine.

TAYLOR: They do say they're on the front foot and they are making some gradual, slow and very expensive in terms of number of soldiers killed. Progress in the eastern part of Ukraine. They are gradually trying to push the Ukrainians back out of the area of Russia that the Ukrainians hold. Ukrainians actually have, as we know, invaded Russia and hold territory, Russian territory. And North Koreans. The Russians have enlisted North Koreans to try to push the Ukrainians out of Russia that they hold.

So all this is to say that things are difficult for Vladimir Putin. He's not having a good series of events. This just demonstrates this latest event, the shoot down of this Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan, landing in Kazakhstan, demonstrates that his -- his military is at best incompetent.

NEWTON: Given the fact that there is still a lot to play for in Ukraine, as far as Vladimir Putin is concerned, where would you put the odds that he will actually come to the negotiating table in 2025 despite what the President Elect Trump is saying about it?

TAYLOR: President Putin has given no indication he's serious about any kind of negotiations. President Zelenskyy, on the other hand, in Ukraine has said he's willing to negotiate if he can get a security guarantee, if he can be assured that the Russians won't invade again.

So the Ukrainians have said they're willing to negotiate. Putin has given no indication that he's serious about negotiating. It is possible that the new administration in Washington could put some pressure on Putin if they've got some leverage on Mr. Putin to make him come to the table. That's a possibility. NEWTON: Yeah. A lot in the next few weeks before President Elect obviously is inaugurated later in January. And we'll continue to see what the fallout is from this plane crash as well as Azerbaijan continues to say that they want a full investigation. William Taylor for us in Pennsylvania. I really appreciate it.

TAYLOR: Thank you, Paula.

NEWTON: Now, protesters are gathering in Georgia's capital city, Tbilisi, and throughout the country as the parliament prepares to inaugurate the president it appointed.

[00:25:05]

Now, thousands formed a human chain, you see it there, in support of joining the European Union and holding new elections to counter what opposition parties say were illegitimate polls that put the Georgia Dream Party in power.

Now, presidential swearing in ceremony is scheduled today for Mikheil Kavelashvili, but current President, Salome Zourabichvili, vows to remain in the presidential palace. She calls the current situation an anti-constitutional farce. We will continue to watch developments there in Tbilisi for you as well.

Still ahead for us, the latest out of South Korea after the crash of a Jeju jet airliner leaves dozens dead. We'll be right back with more on our top story.

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NEWTON: And we want to bring you right up to speed on our top story. The death toll from the Jeju airplane crash in South Korea has risen to 96. Two crew members have been rescued and the remaining passengers and crew are now presumed dead. The Boeing 737-800 jet was traveling from Bangkok to South Korea when it crash landed at the Muan International Airport.

Emergency workers say the plane has been almost completely destroyed by fire. Investigators are on the scene and so is South Korea's acting President.

[00:30:01]

He has ordered the mobilization of all available resources. CNN Correspondent Mike Valerio joins me now from Seoul. And he has been looking into this and bringing us up to date for hours.

Mike, more information again in the last hour and sadly again, an increase to the death toll there. What more are you learning, though? I mean, there are hundreds of people on the scene right now. In terms of the investigation and the recovery efforts, what more are they saying?

VALERIO: We're getting more of an idea of how this is going to unfold as our death toll unfortunately closes in, Paula, closer to 100. So what is going to happen? The nearly seven -- or I should say more than 700 people on the ground are going to find the people first.

They're going to find bodies. They're going to try to give some semblance of closure and answers to the families that are assembling throughout the airport who were expecting their loved ones to come back from this amazing Christmas series of holidays in Bangkok. And then once all the bodies are found, that is when the search for the black box is going to begin. Black boxes are the -- black box system, according to our reporting, is in the back of the aircraft where the tail can still be seen.

The rest of the plane is just utterly -- had been utterly consumed by flames, is that mountain of debris. Just looking a little closer at the death toll that we have, 96. And our colleague Yoonjung Seo, who's working on this integral part of the Seoul bureau here is reporting 47 men, 48 women and one child whose gender is unconfirmed.

And we have reporting from the firefighters on ground who are saying that the bodies that they are finding spilling quote unquote, out of the fuselage are so badly burned. I mean, you can only imagine from just looking at the wreckage and the video.

So getting to that video, there are two points in this storyline that may be intertwined or could be in tension. And when we're looking at the video of the plane coming in for a landing and none of the landing gear deployed from under -- from its underbelly, or so it seems, none of that landing gear visible.

There's also the leader of the fire department where this airport is located saying that bird strike could be a possibility in what brought this airliner down. But we have bird strike and then we have video of an aircraft, a 737-800 with no landing gear seemingly deployed. There is video that has been shown by at least one South Korean broadcaster that shows what looks to be an explosion from one of the engines while this aircraft was still airborne.

So we are examining that video here at CNN. In an age where it's so easy to manipulate video through AI, we don't want to put on anything on TV or on any of our platforms that may not be authentic. So give us a beat, of course, to work on that.

But it remains to be seen through official channels who are updating reporters and are updating families who are gathered there, if this bird strike -- if a bird strike happened, could it have potentially led to some chain reaction in the cockpit which led to the video that we see of the landing gear not deploying? Those are some of the questions that investigators are going to be asking.

This is a Boeing aircraft that was manufactured in Washington State, I believe, in 2009. 2009, as I checked my notes. So we could see, Boeing says that it is in touch with Jeju Air, we could see personnel from the United States and from Boeing make their way here to just figure out what happened. Paula.

NEWTON: Yes, so many details released in the last few hours. And yet it's really only deepening the mystery and adding just so many more questions, principally obviously for the loved ones of those affected here. Mike Valerio, I know you're staying on top of the story. We'll continue to check in with you.

Now, earlier I spoke with Alan Diehl. He is a former Investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board. And I asked him about this investigation.

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NEWTON: In terms of actually seeing this airplane essentially do a catastrophic hard landing at an airport? It is difficult to understand why that would ever happen with a Boeing 737-800, given the fact -- I mean, I've been in a simulator before. If the landing gear is not down, isn't it alarms bells going off? I mean, if that's working properly, the crew would know, right?

ALAN DIEHL, FRM. INVESTIGATOR, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: Oh, yeah. And normally the tower will also advise a crew that, you know, your gear is not down. You know, they sit there with binoculars watching the aircraft land. The other thing is if there is a manual backup, people have said, well, maybe the hydraulic systems fail in the cockpit.

There's a little compartment beside the co-pilot or first officer seat.

[00:35:01]

You lift that compartment up and there's three things that look like an old lawnmower, starting cables. You can just pull these cables and each of the three gears free fall. They don't require hydraulic pressure. They're spring loaded and gravity brings them down. So to land gear up is a very, very unusual occurrence.

NEWTON: That is incredible context there. You're saying it just falls, right? It just automatically drops down even if the hydraulic system isn't working. You know, we've had mentioned and we can see from the video that it looks to be clear weather, it's sunny skies. Is there anything else in the weather that could have been a factor there? Are we talking winds perhaps?

DIEHL: Well, you know that -- that brings up an issue. They always land into the wind, as you know, to minimize the distance traveled. You want to try to slow the airplane down with respect to the ground by flying into the wind.

But you know, Paula, there's one thing that may have thrown them off. When you have the gear down, if you use the speeds -- the airplane has a lot of drag, so you carry more power. Now, if you're going to do a gear up landing, you probably need to carry even less power.

I'm not saying this is what the crew did, but you have to be cognizant -- I'm not type rated, as they say. I have an airline pilot's license. I'm not, you know, I'm not qualified to fly the 737. But I'm thinking, I wonder if they were carrying a power setting for a normal approach with the gear down. Now, you don't have a landing gear so you have less drag, so you're landing faster than you mean to and therefore going further as you skid along the runway. I'm just guessing at this point. I'm, you know, I'm not suggesting they did that, but it's, you know, it's one potential explanation. Obviously they'll have the recorders follow. They'll know in a matter of days just why this happened. Of course, the other question will be the maintenance on the airframe. If there was some problem. The gear wouldn't come down. That's something they'll document.

And lastly, you wonder if maybe they shouldn't have gone to either a U.S. military base or a Korean military base where they have very good firefighting equipment, or even to a bigger airport, a civilian airport, where they would have more foam trucks and other ways of dealing with these kind of emergencies.

NEWTON: Yeah, the issue that that didn't seem to have been deployed or they didn't know that they would have to deploy it -- deployed is also a mystery. I do want to ask you, is a 737-800 incredible safety record? It is not -- not a max. Is there anything that gives you pause given so many of us fly these planes each and every day? Are you thinking here in terms of this must be circumstantial in a way that these planes really are solid and given it's a country like South Korea, an airline with a great safety record, that this is an anomaly at this point?

DIEHL: Paula, I think you captured it well. This is -- this should never have happened. Obviously, there's something that went wrong. Whether, you know, my speculation about the used the speed for the gear down and because the gear was up, they were landing faster than they could have because of the power setting, we don't know. That's what the board -- the investigators will have to find out.

Now, they'll have air safety investigators from Korea that will lead the investigation. But of course, Boeing and the engine manufacturer and the FAA and probably the NTS -- certainly the NTSB will -- will offer their assistance to the Koreans to understand this. But you're right, this -- this is an accident that should never have happened given the benign -- apparently benign circumstances that were present that night -- that day. Excuse me, that morning.

NEWTON: Yeah. Still a mystery. And as we say, investigators are on the scene right now doing the best they can, first the rescuers and then the investigation, which is so important to so many of us. Alan Diehl, thank you again. Appreciate it.

(END VIDEOTAPE

NEWTON: And stay with CNN. We, of course, will bring you the very latest on this developing story. We'll have much more on that deadly plane crash in South Korea just ahead.

Plus, millions of Americans remain under the threat of severe weather and tornadoes. We'll bring you the latest forecast when we come back. You're watching CNN Newsroom.

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[00:43:03] NEWTON: Extreme weather continues to threaten much of the United States. More than five million Americans are currently under tornado watches and more than two million have been under a rare, quote, "Particularly dangerous situation warning". That's according to the U.S. National Weather Service.

Severe storms and tornadoes tore through parts of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi on Saturday, killing at least two people. The National Weather Service warns the strongest tornadoes could bring widespread damaging winds in the hours ahead. And the threat area moves eastward on Sunday.

Donald Trump is finally taking sides on the civil war brewing among his supporters. His -- like his high profile supporter, Elon Musk, the President Elect is defending the visa program that allows skilled workers to immigrate to the United States. Trump says he's a believer in the visa and apparently always has been.

This is quite the turnaround for the Republican. In his first term, Trump restricted access to foreign worker visas and has previously criticized the program. Elon Musk's support for foreign workers has sparked outcry among MAGA loyalists who take a hard line on immigration.

Now, the Trump administration is, of course, preparing for an aggressive immigration crackdown when he returns to power. But migrants are already facing hardship before they even get to the United States. Karol Suarez has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAROL SUAREZ, JOURNALIST: Eduard (ph) is a barber with an American dream. He left Venezuela a decade ago and is now in Mexico City.

MAN #1: I'm heading to the border since I got here, it's been eight months and I tried three times.

SUAREZ: Mexico is a country of origin, transit and destination for migration flows in the region. Nearly a million migrants have entered Mexico illegally this year, including people from Sri Lanka, India, Colombia, Guatemala and Ecuador, among other countries.

In this makeshift camp, migrants rest and apply daily for U.S. asylum appointments.

[00:45:06]

One migrant told us he's been here over a year without success. He calls the uncertain wait here the hardest part of his journey. Some of those in limbo are unhappy with how they are treated.

WOMAN #1: The worst thing in the world. We feel terrible because we're discriminated against and the children can't go to school because they're bullied.

WOMAN #2: The worst of the seven countries we've traveled through is Mexico. The worst.

SUAREZ: Authorities told CNN that migrant complaints of alleged abuse by officials rarely make it to the prosecutor's office. Meanwhile, others have learned to cope with the situation.

MAN #1: We feel okay. We already know about the xenophobia and everything happening here. We just have to have faith in God.

SUAREZ: However, they say the frustration they feel is hard to keep to themselves.

WOMAN #2: If human rights were respected, as they say, they would give us a permit like they did with the caravan. But they don't do it.

MAN #2: (Speaking foreign language)

SUAREZ: For some, the road north stops here.

MAN #2: I have had enough and I'm going back to Venezuela. I have decided to stop wasting time.

SUAREZ: Jesus (ph) says he wants to forget the experience of being a migrant, but he admits he did not achieve his goals and now it's time to reunite with his family. Karol Suarez, Mexico City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Images of Joe Biden meeting his son's Chinese business partners and Hunter Biden meeting the Chinese President and other officials have been made public for the first time. It appears these encounters happened during an official visit to China in 2013 when Biden was vice president. This undercuts Joe Biden's assertions that he never had any business related contact with his son.

The National Archives released the images following a request from a pro Trump legal group. Hunter Biden's attorney is criticizing the group. He says there is nothing new.

The relatives of hostages held in Gaza have made a new appeal for them to be returned home. Saturday night they lit hanukkiah candles and called for their release after almost 450 days in captivity now. The ceremony is Tel Aviv was led by the son of one of the hostages.

But in Jerusalem, those are emergency sirens that you're hearing ring out after two projectiles were fired on the city from northern Gaza. Israeli officials say there were no reports of injuries and the military fired interceptors after the projectiles crossed over the border.

Meantime, the last major functioning health facility in northern Gaza now sits empty and partially burned out. That's according to the World Health Organization and witnesses following Israel's latest raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital. The IDF says at least 240 people have been detained for questioning, claiming they're Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists. Some patients and staff have been transferred to another hospital, which the WHO described as destroyed and nonfunctional. As Elliott Gotkine reports, witnesses are describing horrific scenes that played out during and after this raid.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A hospital on fire and encircled.

WALID AL BUDI, NURSE AT KAMAL ADWAN HOSPITAL: (Speaking foreign language)

GOTKINE: Patients and staff gather anxiously at the entrance of northern Gaza's last major functioning hospital. Others fight flames.

WOMAN #4: (Speaking foreign language)

GOTKINE: These words from a nurse at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the midst of an evacuation order from the Israeli military.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the hospital's director, is one of the last doctors in northern Gaza. He had been documenting the horror inside his hospital in the wake of an Israeli offensive that began in early October.

HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA, KAMAL ADWAN HOSPITAL'S DIRECTOR (Translated): We had spoken and appealed to the world to protect and neutralize the medical system. But unfortunately, this is the grim reality we are witnessing.

GOTKINE: On Friday, he was assaulted and detained by Israeli forces, witnesses tell CNN. On Saturday, the IDF said he was being questioned in Gaza, suspected of being a Hamas terrorist operative, but didn't provide evidence for the claim.

Meantime, video shared widely appears to show the front of Kamal Adwan Hospital with people walking between a number of tanks.

[00:50:00]

Many appear to be holding their own clothes with hands held above their heads.

MAN #3 (Translated): From Kamal Adwan Hospital to Al-Fakhoura, they made us strip down to our underwear. It was a tough situation. And they assaulted the wounded and women.

GOTKINE: In a briefing, an IDF spokesperson said people were asked to remove clothes to ensure no one was carrying explosives.

SHUROUQ SALAH, NURSE AT KAMA ADWAN HOSPITAL (Translated): They separated the men from the women and took the women in groups. Those who refused to remove their clothing were beaten. And they took our phones. I didn't have a phone. But those who were refusing to hand over their phones were beaten. And those who refused to take off their clothes were also beaten.

GOTKINE: The IDF says that it had carried out targeted operations around the hospital based on intelligence regarding the presence of terrorist infrastructure and operatives there. CNN cannot confirm these claims.

On Friday, the World Health Organization said the raid took the last major health facility in north Gaza out of service, adding that the systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza is a death sentence for 10 of thousands of Palestinians in need of health care.

Many patients now evacuated to Gaza's other hospitals which medical staff say are not fit for purpose. This critically ill man evacuated from Kamal Adwan, still in an ambulance Saturday after he was evacuated a day earlier.

Inside another hospital, this man tries to explain what happened to him, appearing to make signs of gunfire and beating. All the while Gaza's health care system in a seemingly never ending free fall. Elliott Gotkine, CNN, Jerusalem.

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NEWTON: Okay, stay with CNN for the very latest on our breaking news story. We will have more on the deadly plane crash in South Korea just ahead.

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NEWTON: We want to bring you right up to date on the breaking news in South Korea. The country's acting President has arrived at the airport in Muan where a plane crash has killed at least 96 people. Two crew members have been rescued, but there were 181 people on board. Firefighters say most of the remaining passengers and crew are presumed dead.

The Boeing 737-800 crash landed on Sunday and it was caught on video. You were looking at some of the video there. CNN Aviation Analyst says the plane's landing gear appears not to be deployed. South Korean firefighters say investigators will have the final word on what caused this crash. Officials say they'll start searching for the plane's black boxes after they recover all the victims.

We will have the very latest on all of this. I want to thank you for joining me. I'm Paula Newton. CNN Newsroom continues with Kim Brunhuber after a quick break.

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