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Search Underway for Missing Titanic Tourist Submersible; Russian Launches Wave of Iranian Drones on Kyiv; 25M+ Under Storm Threat as Bret Churns in Atlantic. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 20, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR/CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: No, 2, Texas, not far behind, with 404 bites.

[06:00:06]

And No. 3, New York, 321 dog bites of mail carriers.

The Postal Service says mail carriers are usually bitten by good dogs who have not previously shown menacing behavior.

All right Thanks for joining me this Tuesday morning. I'm Christine Romans. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good Tuesday morning, everyone. We are so glad you're with us. I'm so thrilled to have my buddy all the way from Atlanta, Victor Blackwell.

Hey, good morning, friend.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good to be here. Good to be with you.

HARLOW: Back in the day, we used to get to sit next to each other.

BLACKWELL: Right, right.

HARLOW: A long time ago.

BLACKWELL: Way back on -- I don't even know what the show was called then. "CNN SATURDAY MORNING."

HARLOW: We were young. I was wrinkle-free. I'm glad you're here.

BLACKWELL: Me, too.

HARLOW: I appreciate it. There's a lot of news to get to. Let's start with "Five Things to Know" for this Tuesday, June 20.

A desperate search-and-rescue operation underway for a tourist submersible carrying five people who paid to see wreckage of the Titanic. The U.S. Coast Guard one of multiple teams scouring the Atlantic Ocean this morning, trying to locate that vessel thousands of feet below the surface. BLACKWELL: Fresh off his latest indictment, Donald Trump offers up a

new defense of why he didn't turn over those classified documents. He says he was too busy.

A tropical storm brewing over the Atlantic is expected to strengthen into a hurricane by tomorrow. We are tracking where that's headed.

HARLOW: In just a matter of hours, the Texas Senate is expected to set the ground rules in the impeachment trial for embattled state attorney general, Ken Paxton. Among the procedures to debate: should his wife, who is a sitting state senator, be allowed to serve as a juror?

BLACKWELL: And have you had your BMI checked lately? It turns out, it may not be the best barometer after all to gauge your health risks.

CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

HARLOW: We begin this morning on just a terrifying -- a terrifying story. A huge search-and-rescue operation is under way right now, really racing against time, trying to find a tourist submersible that went missing on a trip to see the Titanic shipwreck.

Five people, we know, are onboard. The United States and Canadian Coast Guards have launched an all-out search with planes, with ships, and with buoys equipped with sonar.

As of yesterday afternoon, officials estimated the passengers could have been somewhere between 70 and 96 hours' worth of air. That's all they had, they believe, and that was yesterday.

We're learning more about the people who are on the submarine. The passengers included a British billionaire explorer, a Pakistani businessman and his son, and CBC News and CTV News in Canada reporting that a world-renowned French diver and Titanic expert was also on this trip. CNN has yet to confirm, though, that he is, indeed, onboard.

Take a look. These are some of the last images of the submersible as it prepared to dive down on Sunday. The ocean is about 13,000 feet deep in that area. The deepest ever underwater rescue was less than 2,000 feet, just for some perspective.

So we begin this hour with our colleague, CNN national correspondent Jason Carroll, live from Boston. Any updates this morning, Jason?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, what I can tell you is that, as you can well understand, a massive search is now underway, a search by air, a search by -- a search by sea. The Coast Guard has also reached out to experts in deep-sea exploration. So they've reached out to people in the field. Meanwhile, time is running out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're doing everything that we can do to locate the submersible and rescue those onboard.

CARROLL (voice-over): Search-and-rescue teams from the United States and Canada are working around the clock in the North Atlantic to locate a lost submersible with five people onboard. Search planes have been scanning the ocean's surface, sonar buoys deployed to try to detect any sound from the missile vessel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The location of the search is approximately 900 miles East of Cape Cod in a water depth of roughly 13,000 feet.

CARROLL (voice-over): According to the Coast Guard, the submersible lost communication with its mothership, The Polar Prince, less than two hours into its descent Sunday morning as it ventured towards the wreckage of the Titanic.

The company that operates the submersible on voyages to The Titanic, OceanGate Expeditions, releasing this statement: "Our entire focus is on the well-being of the crew, and every step possible is being taken to bring the five crew members back safely."

Onboard, businessman Hamish Harding, who is no stranger to adventure.

HAMISH HARDING, BRITISH BILLIONAIRE BUSINESSMAN: I've always wanted to do this.

CARROLL (voice-over): Recently, he was a passenger on Blue Origin's June 2022 space flight.

[06:05:02]

On Saturday, he posted on his Facebook page, "I am proud to finally announce that I joined OceanGate Expeditions for their RMS Titanic mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic."

Also onboard, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, their family issuing a statement, saying, "We are very grateful for the concern being shown by our colleagues and friends and would like to request everyone to pray for their safety."

According to OceanGate Expedition's website, the 21-foot, 23,000-pound submersible, made of carbon fiber and titanium, has up to 96 hours, four days, of oxygen for five people.

Larry Daley, a Titanic expert, has been inside the 21-foot vessel.

LARRY DALEY, TITANIC EXPERT: I was in the sub for 12 hours. We have our own breathing system onboard. And if that's maintained properly, like changing your filter and your CO2 scrubber, you can stay down there for, you know, quite a few hours.

CARROLL (voice-over): In an interview with CBS last year, OceanGate Expeditions CEO touting the submersible's safety.

STOCKTON RUSH, CEO, OCEANGATE EXPEDITIONS: Everything else can fail. Your thrusters can go. Your lights can go. You're still going to be safe.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CARROLL (on camera): Well, it's still unclear why the submersible lost contact with the ship that was on the surface. According to OceanGate, there is a system onboard, some sort of an early warning system, which is supposed to alert the pilot if something has gone wrong on board the vessel.

Again, unclear at this point what went wrong here -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Jason, thank you for the reporting and stick with us for a minute, because Victor and I have so many questions about this.

I mean, one of them is I know they have these buoys with sonar trying to find it. Would this be something that would set off pings? Because we know it didn't have GPS. Right? They use text messages to communicate with the vessel, you know, with the ship. Would it even be emitting pings that sonar could trace?

CARROLL: Well, that is a question that is still outstanding at this point. But again, there is a system onboard which is supposed to alert the pilot, as I said, should something go wrong.

And one would theorize, then, that there would be some sort of an emergency alert system if something had gone wrong. So if you do send out some sort of sonar, you know, down below the surface of the water, that would ping.

So that is something, again, that we're still trying to find out. We are expecting to get another briefing from the U.S. Coast Guard here in Boston.

So perhaps at that -- at that point, we'll be able to get some more information about how these sonar pings are going to work, more information about the C-130s that are in the air at this point, searching from the air.

So perhaps at that point, we'll get more information, more specifics about how they're trying to find this vessel.

BLACKWELL: Jason, what do we know about the scope of -- of the search? If this -- this Titan submersible, it doesn't move very quickly.

HARLOW: Right.

BLACKWELL: It's going straight down two and a half miles. Do we know how many square nautical miles they believe this thing could be in?

CARROLL: It is a very, very vast area. And this is a question that was asked of the Coast Guard yesterday. Again, specifically asking, OK, What sort of search area are we talking about here? Because one would theorize, again, if you've got the ship on the surface, and then you've got this vessel, which is descending at any sort of particular rate, you know, are you searching within that square area or because of currents and other factors how much have you widened that search out?

That was another question, again, that was asked of the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard was trying to get that information. Again, still waiting to hear back from them.

HARLOW: OK. Jason Carroll, really appreciate the reporting. Thank you so much. Jason's going to get an update from the Coast Guard.

And also ahead here in our 8 a.m. Eastern hour, we will speak directly with the Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger. He's overseeing the search-and-rescue operations, where crews are now headed as the oxygen inside of this vessel dwindles.

BLACKWELL: Russia is unleashing Iranian drones. It happened overnight at Ukraine's capital. Officials in Kyiv say they came in waves from all directions, and that air defenses shot down more than 2 dozen of them.

Meantime, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine is only gaining ground on the Russians and has not lost any positions in its counter offensive.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Kyiv. Fred, are there reports of damage caused by the drone attacks?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Victor.

Well, we haven't actually received much in the way of reports of damage of these attacks. And I think one of the things that you mentioned is extremely important in all that.

Well, the Ukrainians are saying that they detected 35 of these Shahed drones that were, some of them, coming in waves and already, apparently, in the vicinity of the Ukrainian capital. But the Ukrainians were able to shoot down 32 of those.

[06:10:03]

Now, it's unclear where the other three might have landed, what kind of damage they may have caused. But we certainly haven't heard anything this morning in the way of a loss of life here in the Ukrainian capital.

And certainly, one of the things that that does point to is, obviously, the efficiency of the Ukrainian air defenses, which is something that we've been seeing here as we've been on the ground in the Ukrainian capital.

You know, we have an air raid alarm almost every night and sometimes during the day, as well. And very often, it is these Shahed drones that are used in conjunction with ballistic missiles, in conjunction with cruise missiles. They send these waves of drones to try and penetrate the air defenses.

But as we can see once again, the air defenses seem to be working very well.

Nevertheless, of course, the Ukrainians are saying that these Shaheds do remain a very large problem for them, as they do threaten the population centers of this country and, of course, critical infrastructure, as well, Victor.

BLACKWELL: President Zelenskyy says that Ukrainian troops are losing no tarot, only making gains on Russians. What do we know about the latest in the counteroffensive?

PLEITGEN: Well, it's difficult. And I think one of the things that we see with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying that, is that there were some people on the ground who were feeling that the counter offensive should be going quicker than some people may have anticipated and maybe some people had hoped for.

And of course, Victor, we just returned from the front lines there in Southeastern Ukraine, and one of the things that we did see for the Ukrainians is that the going is very tough. It's certainly something that a lot of them had anticipated.

And we spoke to some units on the ground and, I have to say, all the ones that we spoke to were still very much in good spirits, but they do say that the Russian defenses are really tough and that the Russians certainly are putting up a fight, as well.

The Ukrainians right now, as they say, are sort of penetrating the early stages or the first stages of those defense lines, but they haven't even reached the main defense lines of the Russians. So they understand there is going to be a tough battle ahead.

And one of the things that they have said again and again, the biggest problem for them on the ground, is Russian airpower. It's being discovered by Russian drones. They're getting blanketed by artillery. But also, Russian helicopters and jets, as well.

So the Ukrainians are saying they need to do something on that front to try and improve their own short-range air defenses as they move forward. It is an extremely tough battle.

But certainly, the Ukrainian president seems to be correct. And this is something that we've seen over the past 24 hours, as well. Right now, it is Ukraine that is on the offensive on pretty much all parts of the frontline. The Russians on the defense on pretty much all these parts, Victor.

BLACKWELL: And we'll talk about some of those advances a little later in the show. Fred Pleitgen for us there in Kyiv, thank you so much.

Tropical Storm Bret building strength in the Atlantic and about to become a hurricane. Where it could be headed.

HARLOW: Also, a new order in Donald Trump's classified documents case. He is not allowed to share certain information with his supporters or the media. More on that ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:16:50] BLACKWELL: Tropical Storm Bret, the second named storm of this early Atlantic hurricane season, is now churning in the Atlantic, with maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour. Forecasters say it could become a hurricane as soon as tomorrow as it pushes closer to the Wayward Islands.

This is -- with more than 25 million Americans are under a severe storm threat today.

Let's bring in our meteorologist Derek van Dam in the CNN Weather Center. All right. Tell us what we need to know about Bret.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: OK. What you need to know is that -- how highly unusual it is for this storm to form in the month of June in the location that it actually is.

This is called the main development region. We look for the African wave train, kind of these clusters of thunderstorms that move off the West coast of Africa; traverse the Atlantic Ocean; eventually start to form into hurricanes or tropical storms, since (ph) this Tropical Storm Bret.

But the water here is running about two to five degrees Fahrenheit above average. This is like jet fuel for development of hurricanes and tropical storms. So that's what we have here.

We have another wave that's going to likely be named later today. Let's focus in on what Bret's about to do, because this is the official forecast track from the National Hurricane Center.

It does show a strengthening storm, into a low-grade Category 1 hurricane, by Thursday morning. And then you see some gradual weakening as it travels towards the Windward Islands, the Lesser Antilles, so Granada into Barbados, St. Vincent and then the Eastern Caribbean. We should see some further de-strengthening -- or de- strengthening as it continues to travel across that area.

Here's a look at the forecast rainfall. We could get a couple of inches of rain, especially across the Windward Islands, and certainly, the potential for hurricane-force gusts.

But this is wind shear. Hurricanes and wind shear do not work well together. So any time we get that upper-level, high-level winds, that's going to kind of shear apart the storm.

So the potential exists, at least some models indicating that this system will start to become disorganized in the five- to seven-day time frame. That's good news for the United States.

But the not-so-good news is the severe weather threat that continues to move across the Deep South. This area has been battered with day after day of severe storms. In fact, I think I've counted on maybe 7 to 8 days of continuous severe storms across this region, from New Orleans into Mobile. You say some of the flash flood video out of that area. Level two of five of flash flood exists for that region today -- Victor. BLACKWELL: And the heat some people are dealing with.

HARLOW: Yes.

BLACKWELL: We'll talk about that a little later. But those triple- digit temperatures are sweltering there. Derek van Dam, thanks so much.

HARLOW: All right. Up next on CNN THIS MORNING, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A team of five will squeeze into Titan for each dive and view the wreckage on these monitors. To fly the vessel, the pilot uses a PlayStation controller.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That's our very own colleague Gabe Cohen, who has reported literally in the submersible that is now missing near The Titanic wreckage. He'll show us what it's like inside that vessel, tell us a lot more about the company behind it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:23:43]

HARLOW: Welcome back to CNN THIS MORNING. We are following the news off the coast of Newfoundland very closely. Right now, ships and planes are searching for five people onboard a small submersible, which set out to see the remains of The Titanic at the bottom of the North Atlantic.

But time is of the essence, as there may only be 70 to 96 hours of oxygen left onboard. What is it actually like being inside that vessel? Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID POGUE, CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Inside the sub has about as much room as a minivan.

RUSH: So this is not your grandfather's submersible.

It should be like an elevator. You know, it shouldn't take a lot of skill.

We can use these off-the-shelf components. I got these from Camper World.

We run the whole thing with this game controller.

POGUE: Come on.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HARLOW: That was a CBS "Sunday Morning News" report by David Pogue last year. Our colleague and friend Gabe Cohen also can share his experience, because you've reported on this company a lot. You've been inside the submersible when it was aboveground when you were working for our affiliate, KOMO. What's it like?

COHEN: Yes, Poppy, that's right. So I did several stories on OceanGate during my time reporting in Seattle, Washington. You can see an image there of me actually inside of Titan, the vessel that's now missing.

We do stories when OceanGate would finish some of these vessels, set off on expeditions; and in 2018 that's when I did the story there, interviewing the CEO, Stockton Rush, about Titan.

[06:25:10]

And we went to OceanGate headquarters in Everett, Washington. We talked to the crew. And I was really blown away by how simple some of the technology seemed.

It's this tiny vessel, quite cramped. So you have to sit inside of it, shoes off. It can only fit five people. It is operated, as you heard in that report, by a gaming controller, what essentially looks like a PlayStation controller.

But what seems so simple, the crew and the CEO really insisted could pull off this remarkable feat. It could dive 13,000 feet down into the ocean and handle 150 million pounds of pressure that it would feel on the ocean floor; and it has made, of course, that expedition before.

But it was incredible to see at that time, right as they were packing up the vessel and getting ready for one of these expeditions. So it is obviously very difficult and sad to see what's happened now.

BLACKWELL: Gabe, it's interesting. Because it seems like the company is proud of the ability to build this using consumer-available parts.

HARLOW: Simply, yes.

BLACKWELL: Your gamer controller, a modern-day buy from a store, a simple button push. They say this should be simple. What can you tell us about the company OceanGate Expeditions that's running this?

COHEN: So Victor, the company was founded in 2019 by its current CEO, Stockton Rush. They have done many of these expeditions and really

science-driven expeditions. That's what they have pushed for, to different shipwrecks, not just the Titanic, also and Andrea Doria and repeatedly they would tell me that, yes, you know, you talk about those consumer-friendly products like the game controller.

But they also stress that the carbon-fiber structure of Titan could reliably pull off a mission like this, and they did not spare any expense or cut any corners to pull that off. That's what they repeatedly said to me.

I've interviewed Stockton Rush several times. And not just him but also his staff and his crew. They would talk about safety over and over and how confident they were in the technology of this vessel and of the other vessels they have designed over time.

But we have since learned that Titan has had some issues before with communication, that they've lost communication with support crew on the surface of the ocean before.

CBS News reported that last year the vessel was lost for more than two hours, unable to get messages from the surface, which they rely on to figure out where they're going, because there's no GPS onboard.

So in this case, Titan's last communication with their support group was Sunday at 11:47 a.m. local time. But authorities weren't actually notified until after 6:30 p.m., nearly a half hour after the vessel was scheduled to surface, but it didn't.

HARLOW: Really quickly, Gabe, the -- the FAA, for example, has to sign off on all these safety things for commercial airplanes. Does this entity have any regulatory body that has to sign off before they can put people in it?

COHEN: That's a good question. As far as we know, no. OceanGate on their web site talks a little about this, about how these -- these vessels are not classed and that, essentially, federal regulation or regulations in general have not caught up with innovation.

And so passengers who -- who ride on these vessels, who go on these expeditions have to sign waivers. But it's not clear exactly what the regulatory process is.

HARLOW: Gabe Cohen, thank you so much. It's interesting, because I think about Virgin Galactic or Blue Origin and these, you know, commercial civilian -- SpaceX -- they have to have certain signoffs from regulatory bodies.

BLACKWELL: Let's actually read what's on their website. You bring up an interesting point. This is from their website.

"By definition, innovation is outside of an already accepted system. However, this does not mean that OceanGate does not meet standards where they apply. But it does mean that innovation often falls outside of existing industry paradigm."

So that's an important context, especially as we go into this next conversation with Craig Sopin. He is a Titanic historian. He studies Titanic wreckage.

Craig, thanks for being with us. So you know the area. You know this portion of the North Atlantic. As we now have the Coast Guard from the U.S. and Canada, the U.S. Navy in this search, and there's not a lot of time.

What are some of the environmental challenges that they are going to face in trying to not only find this within the time of the air availability in this capsule but also to pull it from wherever it is in the ocean?

CRAIG SOPIN, TITANIC HISTORIAN (via phone): Good morning. It's good to be with you.

So when we think about Titanic, which was almost 900 feet long at the bottom of the ocean, and then we think about Titan, which is only about 21 or 22 feet long, it took 73 years to locate Titanic, notwithstanding its size.