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Search For Missing Air Ambulance; New York Governor Appoints Attorney General To Investigate Alleged Rape At Cornell; Trump Urges Republicans To Vote Early, By Mail, In Person; Trump Offers $5,000 To Every U.S. Adult If GOP Wins House, Senate; Hundreds Of Schools Closed As Violent Protest Spread Across France; Trump Says U.S. Doesn't Know Who To Deal With In Iran; Failed Execution Raising Questions About Lethal Injection Drugs; New Expedition Aims To Solve Amelia Earhart Mystery; Inside A Rural Hospital In North Dakota. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired October 03, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:01]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello again, and thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin this hour with breaking news. A search is underway off the coast of Massachusetts for a medical transport plane with six people on board. The Coast Guard is searching off the coast of Massachusetts near Nantucket. The Gulf Stream was flying from Bermuda to Boston overnight when the FAA reported losing contact with the aircraft early this morning.

The plane is registered to a Canadian-based company Latitude Air Ambulance. Air traffic controllers got word that the Boston-bound air ambulance was having some sort of issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger, you said you're coming in blind. Is that what you said? OK. You declared an emergency or no? OK. You're coming in a little weak. So you're -- I didn't hear what your response was if you were declare an emergency or not

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Former FBI, retired Navy pilot Richard Kolko is joining me right now.

Richard, great to see you. So what do you think or what do you decipher from that audio?

RICHARD KOLKO, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, something quickly happened that was very bad for the aircraft and the passengers on board. They're at about 24,000 feet, made a quick descent to 11,000 feet at very rapid pace. And as we just heard from that radio transmission, they declared an emergency, and then they just disappeared from radar. Relatively short flight, just a few hundred miles from Bermuda to

Boston, I think about 600 miles. And in a medevac, so somebody ill was on the plane. There were two Bermuda persons on board, and the four other members of the flight crew were Canadian. Very expensive flight. These flights usually cost upwards of $100,000 to move somebody in an air medevac. So, it'll be difficult to determine exactly what happened.

WHITFIELD: Let's talk about how they would go about looking for this aircraft now if there is some belief that it might be in the water after, you know, this audio transmission was heard losing contact. How will they go about searching? What kind of equipment is going to be used in that area? And it was in the middle of the night, very dark.

KOLKO: Good point. Coast Guard jumped into it right away. They launched a multiple aircraft, some fixed-wing airplanes, as well as some helicopters. They got some Coast Guard cutters out there right away. A 47-foot lifeboat, as well as a 150-foot, what's called a fast response cutter. And they're out there doing a search.

The first way they'll search, obviously, is the path that the airplane was expected to take. And then you can find online the different tracks that the aircraft are taking. They'll do what's called a grid search. They'll use every method that they have available, searching from above. When an aircraft goes in the water, it's got what's called an ELT or an emergency locator transmitter.

And they can either deploy this manually or once it goes into the water, it will send -- light it off as well. And that provides radio signal. And then, as you all know from all the times we talk about airplane incidents or crashes, the black boxes. People don't realize this, but black boxes, they've actually got beepers as well when they go underwater, that starts them as well.

So if an airplane ends up on the bottom of the ocean, it puts out a beep and that's another way that searchers can look for it.

WHITFIELD: What kind of depths are we talking about with the water there near Nantucket, where -- about where the call may have been made?

KOLKO: It shouldn't be extensive. They had gotten fairly close to the shore or to the coastline, as you can see from that search grid provided by the Flight Radar folks, that shows the airplanes. Shouldn't be more than a few hundred feet of depth of water right there. Does drop off more quickly than that, but they won't have -- I don't think they'll have too much difficulty at some point locating this aircraft.

Hopefully on the surface there should be something floating if the airplane did indeed go into the water. But at this point, if the airplane had flown to land, they certainly would have been a phone call by now. So I'm not sure what the results are going to be there. The weather has gotten better, though. They're for searching. I believe they flew into some bad weather last night. WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. All right. Richard Kolko, thank you so

much. Let us know if you happen to hear anything more on this. Appreciate it.

KOLKO: Will do.

WHITFIELD: All right. We're also following growing outrage over gang rape allegations at Cornell University. A criminal investigation is now underway after New York's governor appointed state attorney general Letitia James to take over the case. Governor Kathy Hochul rebuked the original investigation conducted by campus police, saying she was, I'm quoting now, "deeply disturbed," unquote, by how it was handled.

Plus records obtained by "The New York Times" show the Tompkins County district attorney's office in November of 2024 declined to review any additional evidence gathered by campus police beyond the six-page statement signed by Jane Doe.

[15:05:02]

That is according to a Cornell police investigator whose note about a conversation with the D.A. was obtained by "The Times."

CNN reporter Mark Morales joining me now with more details on this.

Mark, I mean, the campus has said their investigation into the rape allegations was thorough. Well, what are you hearing about the reaction from faculty and students on campus?

MARK MORALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, students on campus are very upset with both the university and law enforcement for how this was handled. You can see it in the cancellation of fraternity events this weekend. That's all canceled. There's a protest that's going to be happening on Monday. And this is the kind of event where the more details trickle out, the angrier people become. It just sort of kindles that fire.

And as you mentioned, "The New York Times" coming out with this report that the district attorney's office refused to look at that new evidence. And some of this new evidence was new interviews, a reviewing of messages. They even reached out to the attorneys for some of the accused, and they were looking to present this information to the district attorney's office.

But internally, according to "The Times," again, the district attorney's office got together, huddled, discussed this information, and decided that based on the six-page document that Jane Doe had already signed, they weren't going to pursue criminal charges.

Now, the ABC News also came out with new text messages that they -- that were between Jane Doe and two of her attackers, and in those messages, you actually see them apologize for what happened that night. And these are the kind of things that actually prompted New York Governor Kathy Hochul to put the New York state attorney general, Letitia James, as the special prosecutor in this case. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D), NEW YORK: No institution gets to protect its reputation at the expense of a young person seeking justice. No public official gets to look the other way when the system breaks down and fails our young people.

LETITIA JAMES, NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL: I know that you want answers. I do, too. A comprehensive investigation of this nature takes time, but my office is committed to seeing it through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORALES: So this investigation is now going to take some time, and remember way back when to when this first started, there were two things at play here. There's the Title Nine investigation that the university was doing, and that was happening alongside this criminal, this possible criminal investigation that the district attorney was working on.

Now, in these types of situations, it's not uncommon for both to work together. But remember that law enforcement is the one that has the ability to issue search warrants or issue subpoenas to get some of this information. So just because a university has it doesn't necessarily mean that a law enforcement agency can't go back and get it. And again, in these types of situations, they usually work together. So there's a lot of questions that still need to be answered here -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Yes, indeed. All right. Mark Morales, thank you so much for that.

Still to come, President Trump hits the campaign trail with one month to the midterms. In this final stretch new CNN reporting on worries from House Republicans over the chances of holding on to the majority.

And dramatic images from France show fires in the streets as high school students clash with police. The protesters say their schools are underfunded and understaffed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:13:09]

WHITFIELD: Midterm elections are just one month away, and with Republicans facing major political headwinds, President Trump is hitting the campaign trail in traditionally red states. Today he'll be in Ohio, where the fight for Vice President J.D. Vance's former Senate seat stands at a razor thin margin.

The president is urging GOP voters nationwide to get their ballots in, posting on Truth Social this morning, "Republicans must win the 2026 midterm elections, and we must use every appropriate tool whether you vote early, absentee by mail or in person."

Our Julia Benbrook is at the White House. Julia, I mean, this is a change in messaging from the president, who

for a very long time railed against mail-in ballots, in particular, despite frequently using them himself to cast a vote.

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a big focus in strategy over this next month for Republicans is to focus in on turnout. And in a prerecorded message, President Donald Trump told Republicans that they need to get out and vote during the midterms. But he also said that they should use the mail-in voting method if that is available to them.

And as you pointed out, that is notable because he has railed against this method. He has repeatedly and falsely claimed that mail-in voting links to widespread voter fraud. So while his message on that has not been consistent, his message on the campaign trail in recent days has been. He is telling voters that they need to pretend he is on the ballot, using that as a way to encourage voters to get out.

And he did promise he's going to hit the campaign trail hard over this next month. He's already had rallies in Oklahoma and in Alabama. And when he was pressed on why he would spend time in those historically red states, he said that he wanted to thank them, that he wanted to show gratitude for some of the sweeping victories they've delivered to him in the past.

[15:15:03]

Here's a bit of the message that he shared last night in Mobile, Alabama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot. Here's what happens, when I'm not on the ballot we don't do well. We have 44 percent or 48 percent less people. When I'm on the ballot, we kill everybody. So just close your eyes and pretend I'm on the ballot. But in a way, I am on the ballot because we have to win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: Now, according to a GOP official who spoke with CNN, those stops in Oklahoma and in Alabama are outliers in the overall travel schedule that he will be hitting more battleground areas. And today he is in Dayton, Ohio. He'll be traveling there in a matter of hours. And there is a Senate race there to watch.

This is where Republican senator Jon Husted is facing off against former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown. And according to the Cook Political Report, this is one of seven Senate races that is labeled as a tossup.

Now, taking a closer look at some of the other key races to watch in that chamber, a "New York Times"-Siena poll found that in Iowa, the numbers there are very close. In Texas, that is where Trump is going to be traveling next week. He's expected to make a stop in San Antonio on Wednesday. Then you also have Alaska, a state that typically votes Republican, but that this poll shows that Democrats have an edge right now. And then in Kansas, a state that has not voted for a Democratic senator in decades, in fact, since 1932.

So as Trump hits the campaign trail, some advisers have privately acknowledged that this push for turnout can go a couple of different ways. Of course, it can motivate his base to get out and vote. It can also motivate Democrats who are not happy to get out and vote. Right now, Republicans have control of the White House, the Senate and the House. And any change in that dynamic can really have a big change in the political atmosphere here -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Indeed. Julia Benbrook at the White House, thanks so much.

All right. Now, I want to bring in CNN senior political reporter Aaron Blake.

Aaron, great to see you. So President Trump making it clear he wants Republicans to win big in the midterms. And he's even offering some financial incentive in the hopes of making that happen posting this video on Truth Social this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Our country is doing so well under Republican leadership that only I can make you this promise. If Republicans win the House of Representatives and the Senate, I'm going to give all adult citizens in the United States of America $5,000.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, $5,000. Sometimes he's talking about $500 for something else, and then $90 for something else. I mean, what is going on here?

AARON BLAKE, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is, of course, a promise that he initially talked about at the Republican midterm convention last month, and it kind of blew up at the time. There were actually a number of members of his own party and conservatives who criticized this. Some of them outright called it a bribe.

You're basically giving voters a quid pro quo where you're saying, if you give me this outcome that I want, I will deliver you money. Now he's giving it to everybody, not just to people who vote Republican. But that's because it would be impossible to verify who actually voted for whom. I think you have the right framing here, which is that this is part of a larger effort of really pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable when it comes to appealing to voters.

You have not just the promises of $5,000, which are probably pretty impractical given the cost and given the legality of it. But you also have the $500 checks that are going out to some Obamacare recipients. You have the new thing today where there's nearly $100 checks going out to some seniors. Of course, the White House is also running taxpayer funded ads that are very much geared towards the election. One of them, in fact, is an actual ad that he ran during his 2024 presidential campaign.

So all of these things are pushing the envelope beyond where we've seen in the past. And it's a very thinly veiled effort to use the resources of the official government in order to help Republicans win in the midterm elections.

WHITFIELD: Right. And, of course, one has to wonder whether voters are actually buying that. Are they believing that?

All right. So President Trump, you know, says Republicans, you know, also are doing pretty great. This is another part of his messaging. You know, with the main issues the country is facing, specifically boasting about the economy, he says the problem is that the GOP is just bad at PR. So how will that message resonate?

BLAKE: Well, there's certainly somebody who's been bad at messaging. I think there's a credible argument to be made that that person is, in fact, the president himself. He's been talking for over a year now about how great the economy is, how inflation has been driven down, how we're in a new golden age.

[15:20:05]

And that's just not something that matches up both with many of the facts on the ground, including inflation, which has risen on his watch, but also the perception of the American people. Now, it would be something if Donald Trump could go out there and say things are great and inflation is down, and he's actually convincing people of that argument. But the polling is very clear that this is not an argument that people have warmed to.

Less than 3 in 10 people in this country think the economy is good. Less than 1 in 10 think it's great like he's been saying for many months now. And so I think the real impact here is that he's been sending a message to voters that he's been a little bit out of touch on this issue. That's the kind of the prevailing sentiment that we see from both CNN polling and other polls from CBS News, where we see three quarters of voters, 8 in 10 voters, say that the president has been neglecting the most important issues, saying that he hasn't spent enough time talking about lowering prices and gearing his efforts towards that.

And so it's going to be very interesting to see how voters register their verdict on that in the November elections because inflation is far and away the number one issue for voters. And if they see him asleep at the wheel and they don't like the way he's talking about this, that could redound very poorly for Republicans.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All pretty remarkable. And midterm elections just now one month away.

Aaron Blake, thank you so much.

Still to come, President Trump says a deal is being held up by a leadership vacuum in Iran. So why is he insisting the war will end soon, one way or another, his words.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:09]

WHITFIELD: In France, nationwide protests at times turning violent have gripped the country over the past week. Students are voicing their anger over what they say are poor conditions in schools, including teacher shortages and rundown buildings.

As CNN's Melissa Bell explains, the fury and speed of the protests caught some leaders off guard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, for the time being, there seems to be no end in sight to this. There was this meeting yesterday between the education minister and student representatives, which ended with the students announcing that they didn't feel their demands were being addressed and that they were urging other students to carry on with the movement into next week.

I think what surprised everyone here in France is how suddenly and how violently this protest, which has sort of been simmering for the last 10 days, really escalated this week. Thursday, say authorities, was a turning point when a lot of it descended into -- rather transformed into urban violence. And on Friday, yesterday, we saw again there were 1700 people taken in for questioning. That takes the number over the course of the week to 5,000.

Many of them, of course, are minors. Of those who've ended up being arrested, the question will become, what sort of punishment they get. And there has been this question about the police response and how brutal it's been outside some schools. There have also been questions on the part of the government about the presence that some of these barricades of the French far-left, the LFI Party which, for its part, defends its right to be at the barricades and defends the right of the students to protest.

So you have this growing political side to the debate. And remember, we're just, really just a few months from the French presidential election. So that was inevitable. But which adds also, of course, more fuel to the fire that is already raging among students. So what we expect to see next week is more of these barricades from Monday. There is this broader social movement right now on the part of unions and public sector workers.

We expect them to have another protest on Sunday, but the big one will be on Tuesday. And the latest we've heard from the students is that they're encouraging all students to take part in that, once again to make their anger plain. So very difficult to see at this stage how authorities are going to get a lid on it. They certainly didn't manage it with that meeting yesterday.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Melissa Bell in Paris, thank you.

All right. New today President Trump says a leadership vacuum in Iran is part of the reason why his administration has not been able to reach a deal with Tehran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They lost everything, including their leaders, by the way. And it's part of our problem. I don't know who the hell to deal with. There's nobody to deal with. Nobody wants to be president. I'd say, who do I speak to in Iran? Not nobody around. Knock, knock. Nobody home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Iran says it has received the latest U.S. response brokered by the Qataris, but hasn't publicly given a formal response.

With us now is Robert Malley. He is a former U.S. envoy on Iran and a negotiator for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in the Obama administration. He's also the former president of the International Crisis Group.

Great to see you. All right. So you hear the president --

ROBERT MALLEY, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY ON IRAN: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: You hear the president say, you know, there's a power vacuum in Iran. Is this a legitimate problem that the U.S. simply doesn't know who it should be negotiating with?

MALLEY: I mean, first, I have to make the point that this is one of the paradoxes, too soft a word. But if there's a leadership vacuum, it's because the U.S. killed and Israel killed the existing leadership. The preceding leadership. I don't think this is the main reason. I think there is a consensus in Iran about some red lines. And so far in the negotiations, those red lines have been crossed and Israel -- and Iran, excuse me, has not been prepared to accept the U.S. conditions.

So I don't think that's the main problem. I am sure it's hard for the Iranian leadership to get together and to discuss because of security concerns but the problem go far deeper than that.

[15:30:07]

WHITFIELD: And I mean, Trump, you know, says Iran seems to be on its heels right now. But if you look at the demeanor of Iran's president, you know, recently at the U.N. General Assembly, I mean, he didn't seem like he was lacking of confidence or, you know, composure on how to convey what Iran will and won't, you know, tolerate. He did also underscore some conditions that the U.S. should lift the naval blockade.

So how demonstrative of the demeanor of Iran's president during the U.N. General Assembly is that of the position of the country as a whole, feeling like it is conducting itself as though it is not losing this war, so to speak?

MALLEY: I mean, if anything, the people who are really pulling the strings in Iran, who are the more security military establishment, they, if anything, as I say, would be even tougher than the president of Iran. They'd be even less inclined to engage in diplomacy and more inclined to use this as a test of wills and to prove to the United States that they could endure more pain than the U.S. can and they have more lasting power in terms of this war than the U.S. does.

So I would take that very clearly that right now, if the U.S. objective, if President Trump's view is if we're going to squeeze them and it doesn't work, we're going to squeeze them harder, that's a recipe for more war, not for diplomatic outcome.

WHITFIELD: And Iran's leaders seem to be acutely aware, very cognizant of the upcoming midterm elections and the stakes for, you know, this White House and how oil and gas prices are a factor in how voters are going to make their decisions.

Does this administration, in your view, have a strategy that acknowledges, you know, Iran's leverage and is trying to exert any, you know, unique pressure here?

MALLEY: Well, number one, the U.S. has tried militarily to allow oil to flow again through the Strait of Hormuz. They've met with some success. The price of oil has not gone down. And you're absolutely right. It's something that the Iranian leadership is looking at very acutely. And they want to be able to say at the end of this election that one of the reasons the Republican Party lost, if in fact it loses, is because of the war and because of Iran's resistance.

So they're not in the mood right now to do President Trump any favors, given that he is responsible, in their eyes, for the war that killed their leadership and devastated their country.

WHITFIELD: Do you see the makings given on how things are going or not going, the makings of a return to a JCPOA but perhaps labeled differently? Or what are you seeing in the near future here?

MALLEY: I mean, you know, if the president's objective, if the U.S. objective is to reach a nuclear deal, they're going about it exactly backwards because everything they're doing is increasing suspicion on the Iranian side and making them want to drive a harder bargain, and perhaps even at some point, try to acquire a nuclear weapon.

I do see the possibility of a diplomatic outcome. I don't think it would be quite as ambitious as the JCPOA. But right now what I do see are more signs of potential escalation than of a potential diplomatic agreement. We've seen what the president has said. We've seen what's happening in Yemen, which is adding fuel to the fire. We see that the diplomacy right now is at an impasse.

We have elections in Israel that are that are coming up, which are just increasing tensions. So there's so many reasons adding to that. What happened with Flydubai, what happened in the U.K., not necessarily related to Iran at all, perhaps we'll know at some point, but just adding to a very, very tense atmosphere.

WHITFIELD: Robert Malley, thank you so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

MALLEY: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Still to come, following the botched execution of a convicted killer in Tennessee, new scrutiny over the death penalty and the methods used to perform capital punishment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:38:42]

WHITFIELD: New details on the failed execution of Tennessee inmate Crista Pike, the head of the state's prison system is now resigning. Frank Strada says he's stepping down as an independent review ordered by the governor begins. Pike survived two lethal injections on Wednesday. She's now on a ventilator and remains unconscious. Pike's attorneys are now requesting that her death sentence be commuted.

The state of Tennessee says it followed all the correct protocols. Now the failed execution is also raising new questions about the drugs used in lethal injections.

CNN's Meg Tirrell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: What I heard from experts is that that is actually happening more frequently, but what's really different about her situation is it does seem like the drug, this pentobarbital, was actually delivered to her. So often one of the things we hear about is that, you know, there's a difficulty finding a place to place an IV, for example.

That can often lead to these really long delays or them not happening at all, as happened in May with the previous execution in Tennessee that was botched and didn't end up happening. But here, you know, the drug actually did seem like it was getting to her. You know, data from the drug penalty, sorry, Death Penalty Information Center shows that botched executions using lethal injection happen about 7.2 percent of the time, and that is twice the rate of with other methods of execution.

[15:40:10]

And according to an Amherst College professor, Austin Sarat, who's been studying this, that has been ticking higher since 2010. He says closer now to 8 percent for lethal injection. And there's a few reasons for that potentially. One is that around that time, there was an advocacy group out of the U.K. called Reprieve, which started putting pressure on pharmaceutical companies first in Europe to not export their drugs to be used in lethal injections in the United States. That also led to export controls from the U.K. and Europe, and then

American pharmaceutical companies followed suit and put restrictions in place to try to ensure that their drugs, which they say are used for life-saving medical purposes, should not be used to execute people. And so that caused states and the federal government to have to turn to alternative sources to try to get these drugs.

And sometimes experts have questioned the quality of those drugs and how well they're stored and tested. Beyond that, we know that major medical groups here in the United States, including the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, they oppose or even prohibit their members from participating in executions. The AMA says in its code of ethics, quote, "An individual's opinion on capital punishment is the personal moral decision of the individual."

They say, "However, as a member of a profession dedicated to preserving life when there's hope of doing so, a physician must not participate in a legally authorized execution."

Experts I've talked with have said this is just the sort of terrible, perfect storm of things that can go wrong, possibly not the best quality drugs. And we don't know who the people are who are actually performing the executions themselves and what their medical training is.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Meg Tirrell, thank you so much.

All right. Just ahead, a new expedition is setting out to solve one of aviation's greatest mysteries. The tantalizing clue researchers believe could reveal what happened to Amelia Earhart nearly 90 years after she disappeared.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:46:48]

WHITFIELD: Nearly 90 years after Amelia Earhart disappeared, a historic mission is set to search for clues that could finally solve the mystery. An expedition team is headed to a remote island in the South Pacific, where they'll investigate an unidentified object spotted in satellite images of a lagoon. You kind of see it there in the water. Some believe it could be wreckage from Earhart's plane.

Three representatives from Purdue University are joining the crew, including the university's senior vice president Steve Schultz, who says Purdue has a special connection to Earhart and her legacy. And Steve Schultz is joining us right now.

Oh, my gosh. Tell me about this upcoming expedition, what it means to be part of that. What are you hoping to find or at least get your eyes on?

STEVE SCHULTZ, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL COUNSEL, PURDUE UNIVERSITY: Hi, Fredricka. Thanks for having me. Yes, we are in mobilization mode right now. Most of our team is in Los Angeles today. One more day of preparation before they get on the late night flight to join me here in Nandi in Fiji. And they'll get here tomorrow morning my time.

And the next day, we will depart for Tarawa, get on a boat, travel six days to Nikumaroro. And we'll do the work there over five days on the island. We're very excited about it. It's taken a lot of work, a lot of planning, a lot of preparation to get here. But, yes, this would be -- well, it's a science, it's a science project at its core. And so we're testing a hypothesis.

We're not providing any assurances that we'll find the Electra. But if we do, it'll be world changing I think in terms of solving this mystery.

WHITFIELD: I mean, it really would, but, I mean, even just hearing you say from where you are in Fiji, it's going to take another six days' journey to actually get to this location. I mean, that is just how remote it is. Are you getting there by boat? Six days. Is there some air travel involved? I mean, tell me, how are you getting there?

SCHULTZ: Yes, it is one of the most remote places on earth. It takes six days to get there by boat from Tarawa. By the way, both Nikumaroro, which is in the Phoenix Islands, and Tarawa, which is in the Gilbert Islands, are part of the Republic of Kiribati, whose support we have and very much appreciate in terms of this expedition. So we'll leave Fiji, we'll get to Tarawa, we will get on a boat in Tarawa, and go six days to Nikumaroro.

And actually, Niku does not have any anchorage because it's an atoll. It's a volcano. So it drops thousands of feet off the reef. So we'll have to power our place -- ourselves in place for five days. Stay on the boat each night and go on to the island to do the work each day.

WHITFIELD: Wow. OK, so then tell me about how this image kind of finally emerged. Does it have something to do with the weather patterns? I mean, you know, the erosion. So an exposure that happened of this object as a result of, you know, weather or conditions there.

SCHULTZ: Well, this island has been the subject of investigation and the development of what's called the castaway hypothesis. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery has conducted a dozen or so expeditions to the island, gathered evidence over the years.

[15:50:04]

But in 2020, this image was discovered in Apple maps. It was taken to Dr. Rick Pettigrew, our expedition lead at the Archeological Legacy Institute. He took an interest. He did go back. He curated images going back to 2015, where the image is even more clear. And the theory is that Tropical Cyclone Pam, which hit in the late March of 2015, the storm surge of that tropical storm would have swept the sediment off the object, making it visible to the naked eye for the first time in 2015 but not seen until 2020. WHITFIELD: Incredible. Now tell me about this connection of Amelia

Earhart and Purdue, and why this really is, I mean, this is a personal search for you all.

SCHULTZ: It really is. She means a lot to us. She's a big part of our culture. Her pioneering spirit is really part of the boilermaker spirit. So we're really proud to claim Amelia Earhart in our pantheon of heroes. But it goes back, it was really a match made in heaven. She met President Edward Elliott of Purdue at a conference in New York City in 1934. They compared notes. She was all about creating opportunities for women.

He was all about creating access to higher education for the working class. He said, I really would love to bring you to Purdue to help increase our women enrollment, but also help our female students complete their degree and get professional careers. Don't just be great homemakers and stay in the home. So she came as a career counselor for women, but also, Purdue had just started its aeronautical engineering program, and she was an adviser to that program.

And in that regard, she laid the foundation for the likes of Neil Armstrong and other members of our cradle of astronauts to come to Purdue over the following decades. So, again, a very key figure. By the way, our forebears at Purdue believed in her so much that they wanted -- they helped her fund a research fund that she then used to develop the experimental Lockheed 10 Electra, which is the thing we're looking at.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh.

SCHULTZ: So Purdue funded her first expedition, and we're really grateful to be a part of this opportunity to complete the story.

WHITFIELD: That's incredible, how fitting that would be for Purdue to be part of, you know, solving this mystery.

Steve Schultz, thank you so much. All the best on your endeavors there and your upcoming six-day journey and everything that comes after that. Good luck.

SCHULTZ: Thanks, Fredricka. Good to be with you.

WHITFIELD: Still to come, a small town hospital fighting to survive and the international workers helping to keep its doors open. A look at this CNN Special Report next.

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[15:57:36]

WHITFIELD: "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER" returns this Sunday with a month long embed inside a rural hospital in North Dakota, examining the workforce challenges facing the facility and the community it serves.

CNN's senior national correspondent Ed Lavandera gets rare access to see firsthand what it takes to keep West River Hospital running.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, we spent 30 days inside the West River Health Services Hospital in the tiny town of Hettinger, North Dakota. It's a fascinating place. It serves much of southwest North Dakota as well as parts of South Dakota and Montana as well. A massive area. And what we heard over and over from people is that if it wasn't for this hospital and the services that it provides, the town would die.

People would have to travel for hours and hours to get adequate health care. But it is facing challenges. This place and this hospital sit at a fascinating crossroads in American culture today. Rural health care is struggling. You have a raging immigration debate, and it's all kind of taking place and on display here in Hettinger.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have a lady coming in by ambulance. She was found unresponsive at home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is baseline (INAUDIBLE)?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No response, ma'am. No response.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

DR. CATHY HOULE, FAMILY PHYSICIAN: We'll probably just admit her and keep her comfortable and will pass. They called their priest in.

Father Adam is here.

LAVANDERA: The demographics of the patients that you're dealing with, census information shows that it was 90 percent white?

HOULE: When I came here was probably 98 percent white.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's not much of a cut.

HOULE: We have a very large elderly population.

I think it's deepening. Every time you use your hand, it's just going to open up. I might put one inside just to pull that deep tissue together.

We have a large agricultural population. So farmers, ranchers.

It's a good thing your doctor had you do that, Dennis, huh?

Fewer younger people, but they are here.

Knock, knock, knock. Hello?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey.

HOULE: Hi, Lynn. What's going on?

LAVANDERA: How sustainable is a hospital like this?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Back pain here.

HOULE: Take some breaths in and out.

It's a struggle because of recruitment.

Does that hurt?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, that hurts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: I am so grateful to the CNN documentary team, the photographers and producers who dedicated so much time over these 30 days to get to know the community members, and the patients that were gracious enough to let us tag along, and also to the hospital staff that opened its doors and let us see us -- and let us see firsthand the challenges that they are up against.

So I hope you'll tune in Sunday night. It is a fascinating and eye- opening hour -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So important. Ed Lavandera, thank you so much.

Watch "THE WHOLE STORY" tomorrow 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield. "THE ARENA SATURDAY" starts right now.