Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Saturday

U.S. Crew Homecoming: Crew Set to Speak Before Departure

Aired April 14, 2001 - 12:00   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: We begin in Hawaii, where, in about an hour, the 24 now-famous crew members of a downed U.S. reconnaissance plane will begin their long flight home. First, though, they'll talk briefly to the media about the air collision and emergency landing that nearly sparked a crisis with China. That's coming up shortly for you here on CNN.

The crew has spent two days in debriefings at Pearl Harbor.

And CNN's national correspondent Martin Savidge has been covering all the developments at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii -- hi, Marty.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Donna -- good morning, Hawaii time, that is -- a little after 6:00 in the morning. We're anticipating the crew will arrive here around 6:30 this morning: the first hints of daylight starting to creep into the area. We have got the moon overhead.

And then directly behind us, as you can see, is the C-9 military aircraft. That's a DC-9 to everybody else. And that is plane that is going to wing all of those crew members back to Whidbey Island and back to the waiting arms of their family members. So, in the background, you may hear the noise that is not so much engine. That is the auxiliary power unit of the aircraft.

What they are doing right now is just running through instrument checks, the tests. Nobody wants to be embarrassed in front of all of the media here to have that crew march on board the aircraft and then find out there is a technical problem. So they are simply running through the checks. But just in case, if there were to be a problem, there is an identical aircraft that is standing by just down the flight line so that they could quickly move the crew on board of that one.

They have a redundancy factor here. Nobody wants to delay or interfere in any way with the joyous homecoming that is anticipated later today -- Donna.

KELLEY: Marty, thank you. We will be talking to you again shortly.

Preparations for a big welcome home are in full swing at the crew's home base at Whidbey Island, Washington. An entire hangar has been cleared for the celebrating. And up to 10,000 people -- family, friends and Navy officials -- are expected.

Joining me now from Whidbey Island Naval Air Station is Captain Larry Salter. He is commanding officer of the base.

Captain Salter, thanks for coming to talk with us. I know there must be an enormous amount of excitement and pride.

CAPT. LARRY SALTER, U.S. NAVY: Well good morning, Donna. Thank you very much for having me on this morning. This is absolutely a great Navy day. And, as you can imagine, we are busily preparing for this. We have been preparing for four days. And, you know, there is a lot of last-minute details. And this is an operational Navy base. So we are not used to putting on big productions like this. But we have got hundreds of folks who are working very hard.

And we are trying to put on a show that is -- will honor our returning crew members.

KELLEY: Captain Salter, President Bush said to the pilot, Shane Osborn, that you did a heck of a job. He was speaking as a former pilot. Give folks an idea of what kind of training these members go through to be able to handle a situation like they did.

SALTER: Well, the type of training that a Navy pilot will go through is -- it can be up a year-and-a-half long in basic training, and then up to a, you know, the type training in that airplane. And they go through a number of maneuvers. And they go through, you know, years of training to get them comfortable in flying the airplane so that when the unexpected happens, they are able to react to it.

KELLEY: What did you think, when you saw the plane and what condition it was in, how they got that plane down on the ground?

SALTER: Oh, I was thoroughly amazed. I have only seen pictures that have been on CNN. But looking at the damage to that airplane, the fact that they were able to recover that airplane was truly -- it was truly a miraculous event.

KELLEY: Do have you any idea how much the crew was able to dismantle some of the sensitive high-technology gear that's on that EP-3, and how much the Chinese might have been able to get ahold of?

SALTER: Donna, my focus has been on the preparing the base and getting ready for the homecoming. As the base commander, my job has been the support. The operational chain of command has been looking at those types of issues. So I -- I am really not prepared to answer those types of questions.

KELLEY: Do have you a opinion about whether the U.S. surveillance flights should continue? The Chinese, of course, would like those to stop. And are you aware, of course, that they have been being challenged more. Do you think that the surveillance flights should continue? Or should SOPs change, maybe, on these intel flights?

SALTER: You know, Donna, again, I am in charge of trying to set up this homecoming. And you know, the president, the secretary of defense have all

(CROSSTALK)

KELLEY: No opinion on that: whether or not the flights or continue?

SALTER: I am not qualified to answer that question.

KELLEY: Well, tell us a little bit more about the celebration. When they arrive, what's going to happen?

SALTER: OK, we are looking for number of the between 5,000 and 10,000 folks to be here. We are going to open the base at 1:00 p.m. We are looking for the plane to touch down at 4:00 p.m. And the ceremony will be kind of in two parts. We will be looking at the homecoming, the reuniting of the families. And then we will take a little bit of a break to reset for the formal welcoming-home ceremony.

KELLEY: Give us an idea of what it's like for that community now. I saw one quote from a person earlier saying that it is really a family that comes together.

SALTER: Oh, absolutely. I have had the honor to be stationed at Whidbey Island on five different occasions. Two of my three children were born here. I have been a community member for a long time. And this is just an awesome community to be associated with. The outpouring of support from the community and the nation in general has been absolutely awesome.

The town population is around 20,000. The base population is around 10,000. So the Navy is a very, very big part of Oak Harbor and the local community. And, as you have seen from news casts from the mayor and the people that have been interviewed around town, it really is very close-knit, very supportive of our Navy. And it is just a great place to live as a Navy person.

KELLEY: Well, Captain Salter, we will be joining in with you this afternoon with live coverage here on CNN. So we appreciate that. And we will be watching.

Captain Larry Salter, the commanding officer at Whidbey, thanks so much.

SALTER: Thank you, Donna.

KELLEY: China says that it has abandoned the search for Wang Wei. That's the fighter pilot lost two weeks ago after a collision with the Navy reconnaissance plane. But Beijing has not abandoned calling the United States responsible for the incident. China disputes the latest U..S statements that the Navy aircraft was flying level and was struck from below by the Chinese jet.

CNN Beijing bureau chief Rebecca MacKinnon has more on the Chinese perspective.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After 14 days, the search for Chinese fighter pilot Wang Wei has been called off: China's state-controlled media eulogizing him as a martyr, a revolutionary hero, a patriot who gave his life to protect his motherland.

People were shown on state TV calling Wang Wei a model for China's youth, the kind of person who will build a strong China. The Chinese government is rejecting claims made by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that Wang Wei caused the April 1 collision by losing control when he flew too close to the U.S. EP-3 surveillance plane.

State television called his comments irresponsible and false. It quoted a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson who said: "We have enough evidence to prove that it was the U.S. plane that violated flight rules by suddenly veering in a wide angle at the Chinese plane in normal flight, rammed into and damaged it, resulting in the loss of the Chinese pilot. These facts are manifest. And we have irrefutable evidence that the U.S. side cannot deny."

So far, the only evidence China has produced is an interview with another Chinese fighter pilot who says he witnessed the incident. China, meanwhile, says its release on humanitarian grounds of the 24 U.S. crew members is not the end of China's dispute with the United States. The EP-3 aircraft remains on Hainan Island. The U.S. will ask China to give it back in diplomatic talks scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

China will demand the U.S. take responsibility for the collision and end all surveillance flights so close to China's coast.

Rebecca MacKinnon, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLEY: President Bush will not be joining the homecoming ceremonies as Whidbey Island today. He is spending the Easter weekend with his family at their Texas ranch.

And White House correspondent Kelly Wallace is in nearby Crawford -- hi, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Donna.

Well, many are asking why the president wouldn't want to be on hand in Washington state to give a hero's welcome to those crew members. Well, Ari Fleischer, the president's spokesman, said that Mr. Bush does not want to intrude, and that he wanted crew members to come home without a lot of -- quote -- "hoop-de-la" -- further, Ari Fleischer telling reporters yesterday, the president -- quote -- "believes people should be entitled to privacy, to dignity. He does not believe that politicians need to always insert themselves into tender moments."

But in this weekly radio address, Mr. Bush did salute those crew members. He also saluted the members of the armed forces who won't be able to be with their families this weekend as many celebrate Easter and mark the end of Passover.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our thoughts are also with the men and women of our military deployed around the world and away from their families. They have our sincere gratitude. And on this holiday, we offer the thanks of our nation to the 24 service men and women who are no longer in China and are now home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Meantime, now that the crew is home, the Bush administration is putting out evidence which it says shows that Chinese pilots have been using aggressive tactics against American surveillance planes. The Pentagon released this videotape shot by a U.S. crew on January 24, which shows a Chinese pilot cutting very close in front of an EP-3 surveillance plane. Sources tell CNN the Chinese pilot is Wang Wei, the pilot presumed dead after that midair collision on April 1.

Now, yesterday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld broke his silence that he held during the 11-day standoff and refuted the Chinese account of the incident and blamed the Chinese pilot for causing the collision. As we heard Rebecca MacKinnon note, the Chinese are sticking with their story. They say that senior administration officials continue to confuse right from wrong.

So, Donna, the stage is set for what is likely to be a very contentious meeting in Beijing on Wednesday. The U.S. will press China about these surveillance flights and also will call on Beijing to return that American plane. Just exactly how the Chinese respond, senior aides say, could say a lot about the future relationship between the two countries -- Donna.

KELLEY: Kelly, has there been any more said about whether or not the Chinese are leaning towards or against returning the U.S. plane?

WALLACE: Well, right now, senior administration officials are saying that Chinese have said very little, other than they want to hold the plane until they complete their investigation. So senior aids say, so far, the Chinese have said -- they have not said that they will not return it, but they have said very little.

The leverage the administration will use going into this is: If the Chinese don't return the plane, well, that will say a lot about future relations between the two countries. And the two do have lots of issues to resolve over the next several months.

KELLEY: Kelly Wallace, at the ranch in Texas, thanks very much.

You'll want to stay with CNN for continuing live coverage of the 24 U.S. aircrew members. They have a news conference before they leave Hawaii. That should come our way about 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time. And you'll see it live right here on CNN. And our special live coverage of their arrival and welcoming ceremony at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station begins at 6:00 p.m. Eastern, which is 3:00 Pacific.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com