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CNN This Morning

NHK Reports, Five Japanese Coast Guard Crew Killed in Jet Collision; FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force Probing Fiery New York Car Crash; Today, Trump Expected to Appeal Colorado and Maine Bans. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 02, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning, everyone. We're following the breaking news. Audie Cornish is with us. Poppy Harlow is off today.

Out of Tokyo, the news, a Coast Guard plane and a passenger jet colliding into one another. Miraculously, all of the passengers on the commercial plane were safely evacuated, although some were injured. Some Coast Guard members lost their lives. We're going to show you the video.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Overnight, more deaths reported out of Japan after the 7.5 magnitude earthquake. At least 48 people have been killed. Our crews are standing by in one of the hardest hit areas.

And this morning, the FBI looks into a deadly and fiery crash in Rochester, New York, two vehicles colliding and then plowing into a crowd of people. What officials are saying about gasoline canisters found at the scene.

CNN This Morning starts now.

MATTINGLY: And we are following more breaking news out of Tokyo this morning. A Japan Airlines passenger jet with 400 people on board, see it landing there with the fire ball on its wing.

[07:00:04]

Japan's public broadcaster now reporting five crew members on that Coast Guard plane had been killed. The captain is in critical condition.

CORNISH: Now, video shows the commercial plane igniting into a fireball, barreling down the runway this morning. The airline says nearly everyone from that flight was safely evacuated. Japan's public broadcaster says 17 passengers were injured.

And this was the panic scene inside the plane, as smoke filled the cabin and passengers scrambled to find a way out.

CNN's Will Ripley joins us live from Tokyo. And, Will, I just want to talk about the crew, actually. We'll get to the evacuation efforts. But the crew who died, they were on their way to help, correct? Can you give us more?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, this Haneda Airport is right in the heart of Tokyo, about 20 minutes from where I'm standing right now, and there's also a Coast Guard base nearby. The whole airport actually sits right on the bay. It's a beautiful approach when you fly in there. It's probably my favorite airport when I fly into Tokyo. My cameraman, John, flew in there just a few hours before this happened.

But in this case, this Coast Guard aircraft somehow ended up on the same runway as this Japan Airlines jet was flying in, a packed plane coming from the tourist hot spot of Sapporo in Northern Japan. And these two planes had an incredibly fiery collision.

We know that according to NHK Japan's national broadcaster, five crew members were killed. The captain was able to escape. But he is currently being held, or currently on life support.

I've also lost my IFB signal. So, let's not ask a follow-up question until I get reconnected. But what we know is that this Coast Guard plane was headed to assist with the earthquake relief efforts that, within hours of the New Year, there was a 7.5 magnitude quake that rocked the central western coast of Japan. I know we're going to talk more about that in a moment. There's the number of dead in the dozens right now.

But what is truly extraordinary is that what could have been a horrific mass casualty situation was averted because, in a matter of seconds, despite the fact that passengers say the rear and middle exits of this aircraft were damaged in this collision, there was a fire rapidly engulfing the plane, and yet everybody, 367 passengers, 8 children under the age of 2 included on the passenger list. So, a lot of parents, they're clutching onto their young babies and these 12 crew members, they all were able to make it off of that aircraft safely.

MATTINGLY: All right. Will Ripley, we do have follow up questions we're going to ask you when you're plugged back in over the course of the next hour as we keep an eye on the breaking news from on the ground.

CORNISH: In the meantime, former FAA safety inspector and CNN safety analyst David Soucie is here. So, first, walk us through what happens in an emergency situation like this on the runway because there was not a mass casualty event, right? Essentially, this is when things go well.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: It's truly miraculous and the fact that there were two exits actually blocked and not able to be used really, really made this a miraculous event to be able to get everybody off of there.

So, what happens at this point is everybody -- they deployed the slides so that everybody could get out quickly and it really is amazing that that many people got out of there so quickly. You channel out, you go to your nearest exit, as they always tell you when you get on the airplane, look for your nearest exit, it may be behind you. This is what they did. They were aware. They were conscious. They were ready for any kind of accident.

And this crew is amazing that they got everybody out of there so quickly by just channeling them through the aisles. There's already smoke, if you can visualize this, there's smoke in the cabin at the time. There may be fire going on at the time. People are getting out these exits and jumping onto the slides and coming out to the out to the ramp. And then once they clear that, they have to get away.

So, this is all an incredibly urgent situation. And to have someone to be able to manage it, a crew to be able to manage it and get them all out of there safely is really testament to the work that they did to prepare for this type of tragedy.

MATTINGLY: Yes. David, to that point, there's preparation, and then there's action. And the former, you can do whatever you want in the lead-up to, the latter is what really matters. And when you look at the pictures from the landing, where the wing was clearly on fire, to just how quickly the entire flame, or the entire plane, was engulfed, you see it there. I mean, it looks like it's almost cracked in half, but the flames crawling up the windows. How much of a time window did they have here?

SOUCIE: It's seconds. I mean, just within about two minutes, everybody was up and out of their seats and starting to exit. Here's the issue with this and the reason that it came so quickly is the fact that it was a solid enough hit or collision that not only the tip of the wing hit, but the structure, the spar, the main wing spar is cracked.

[07:05:05]

You can tell that that happened because the fuel cells go through there and the connections to the fuel cells are in the fuselage of the aircraft underneath where people are sitting. So, when that hit and it pulled that wing back, it obviously ruptured some fuel cells or at least some fuel attachments, and that started pouring fuel into the area. Combine that with some winds that were going on at the time, too, and that can spread the fire much more rapidly.

So we are talking about just seconds to be able to react, to be able to get out of there, leave your personal belongings behind and get out of that airplane as quickly as possible.

CORNISH: David, as a safety inspector, former safety inspector, can you talk about what are the next steps in terms of an investigation? What are the things that people will start to look at?

SOUCIE: Well, there're some things that you can jump to conclusions about, and we want to make sure as an investigator, you don't do that. We need to look first at what happened, and it's too early to assign blame to anybody or anything like that.

But what we can conclude is that we know that the Coast Guard was heading out to provide relief to the earthquake victims. We know that they were in a hurry to get out and do that. They were moving. If you look at how busy that airport is, that's a very, very active airport. There's a lot of moving pieces.

And we talk about this a lot in the United States. We've had a really large increase in the number of near misses and runway incursions, such as this one. But we haven't had a fatality. We haven't had anything like this one so far in the United States. But the FAA has started a panel to investigate these types of incidents.

So, where I would start with this investigation first is the communications, the communications between who said what to whom. And, as you know, there's been a lot in the United States. One of them most recently was where the air traffic controller had said, go ahead and go onto Runway 17 left, or I don't know exactly which one it was. And when the pilot repeated that back to confirm, he said something different, like 17 right.

And the air traffic controller was busy, fatigued, had worked several shifts, and then it didn't recognize the fact that he didn't get the message properly. And then that airplane taxied onto an active live runway where there was an airplane landing.

So, these types of communications are something that's under close scrutiny right now with FAA in the United States and also in Europe and in Japan. We have to really look at how this is happening. As these airports get busier and busier and busier, you still have a human being trying to figure out what I call the fourth dimension. It's not only where the airplanes are, but where will they be if they make a mistake or even if they do what they're supposed to do, where will they be in the future? And do those times intersect with each other?

And so it's an extremely difficult job, and I hope that it improves. We really have a lot of efforts going forward to improve that over the next year or two, with the FAA at least and in the international community.

CORNISH: David, thanks for this insight.

Now, this morning, the FBI is investigating this deadly crash outside a crowded music venue early on New Year's Day. Officers say that a flaming SUV was full of gas cans. We'll have more detail on that.

MATTINGLY: And any moment now, a list of nearly 200 people linked to Jeffrey Epstein could be made public. What it could reveal, that's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

CORNISH: This just in, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force is now investigating a deadly and fiery crash outside a New Year's Eve concert, involving an SUV that was loaded with gas cans.

Now, this happened in Rochester, New York as thousands of people were pouring out of the concert venue. You can see that SUVs engulfed in flames, and police say the driver slammed into another car, and the vehicles then plowed through a crowd of people crossing the street.

MATTINGLY: We want to show you the video of the aftermath. You can see red gas cans on the ground next to the charred SUV. The police chief says at least a dozen were found inside and around the vehicle. The crash killed at least two people and we're told the driver of the SUV is fighting for his life in the hospital.

Eyewitnesses say you could smell the gasoline.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was only about 20 feet from the building. And at the time when everybody was funneling out the flames, we're probably still like 15 feet high.

GAYLE SHALVOY, CONCERTGOER: As we walked down into the hallway and going down the stairs, the smell of gasoline was just so intense. I couldn't believe how strong it was.

MATTINGLY: Let's bring in CNN's Brynn Gingras. Brynn, I think you made such a good point when we were talking about this earlier. They're already in a state of heightened alert.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right.

MATTINGLY: New Year's, obviously, with everything that's happening in the Middle East right now. What more are we learning about the investigation?

GINGRAS: Yes. Well, the fact that the JTTF is part of this investigation, possibly even leading this investigation, that's a big factor here, right, because that raises the alarm of having all of these sort of agencies working together to figure out was terrorism involved. And it could be just domestic terrorism, someone wanting to commit an act of violence against a large crowd of people, which, of course, you -- when you hear about this story, you see those red flags of what immediately the FBI, the JTTF, investigators see. It's gas canisters found inside a vehicle and a vehicle ramming through a crowd of people.

Let's back up a bit and give you a little bit of the facts of what happened here. So, this is not even an hour into the New Year in Rochester, New York, at the Codex Center, which was having some sort of concert. About a thousand people attended that concert. And as they were leaving the concert, there were actually police helping a group of people across a crosswalk, and a Ford Expedition rammed into a car that was exiting, crossing over that crosswalk.

So, two people inside the car it hit, which was a Mitsubishi Outlander, were killed. There were people that were injured in the crosswalk. There was also the driver of that Ford Expedition that was also seriously injured and is in the hospital right now.

I want you to hear more from the police about how they described what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF DAVID SMITH, ROCHESTER, NEW YORK POLICE: The force of the collision caused the two vehicles to go through a group of pedestrians that were in the crosswalk and then into two other vehicles. There was a large fire associated with a crash that took the Rochester Fire Department almost one hour to extinguish.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: And you heard those concert tours saying they could smell that gasoline as they were exiting that venue, but a dozen gas canisters found in and around that Ford Expedition.

[07:15:00]

So, that's what's raising, of course, this to a whole new level of an investigation. You got to believe that investigators already are trying to figure out who that person is, combing through their social media, talking to anyone who went to the concert, talking to maybe the family members of that person. We're still trying to figure out exactly what happened here, and, of course, we'll keep you updated.

MATTINGLY: Brynn Gingras, thank you.

And joining us now, CNN Law Enforcement Contributor and retired FBI Special Agent Steve Moore. We appreciate your time this morning.

I think Brynn's details that she lays out, I think, are critical here because there are still so many unanswered questions. If you're an investigator on this scene right now or around this scene, what questions are you asking?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I have to explain to myself, you know, why this would happen at that time, why is there a legitimate reason for this, because you don't want to call something terrorism before and spend all your resources.

You know, the timing almost 1:00 A.M. Well, you could say he was out there for New Year's Eve. The fact that he is alleged to have gone and rented this vehicle at the airport earlier, you know, that's a pretty hard one to explain away, except maybe he's an Uber driver and looking for a different vehicle. That's part of the business plan for some.

So, what you're doing is taking this apart, each separate fact, and trying to find out what is the legitimate reason for this. And if you can't explain these things as you go down, it's kind of hard to explain a dozen gas cans, then you have to come to a conclusion about whether it's terrorism or not. And part of that obviously is the identification of the driver and just diving head first into their social media.

CORNISH: So, from what we know, you have this detail about the gas cans, but is there further study of the person's social media accounts? Is there sort of where do you start to look in better understanding, at least, some of the people who are involved?

MOORE: Yes. I think social media is the first place I'd go for. When somebody does something like this, if, I mean, assuming for a second it was a terrorist incident, just for argument's sake, when somebody does something like this, they are not going to essentially kill themselves or ruin their lives without leaving some kind of note, a manifesto, some kind of explanation for what they do.

Terrorists like to get credit for what they've done, even if this is just kind of some lone wolf, which it would seem to be by the crude nature of the attack. So, there's going to be some kind of indication that they wanted to take credit for this. And that's going to be found a lot of times in social media, a search of the residents, talking to friends and neighbors. That's going to be number one.

You might also speak to this person. I don't know if he's conscious or not, but, yes, you can interview at the hospital. This is a pretty intense investigation at this phase.

MATTINGLY: Yes, with necessity. It's still major unanswered questions as we go forward. We'll keep you guys updated. Steve Moore, thank you.

CORNISH: Also happening today, Donald Trump is expected to fight the decisions to boot him off ballots in Colorado and Maine.

MATTINGLY: And a 17-year-old Chinese exchange student was found alone and cold in Utah's mountains. Officials say he was the victim of, quote, cyber kidnapping. What exactly is that? We'll tell you ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

CORNISH: We're following the breaking news out of Tokyo, and we have this new video for you. A Japan Airlines passenger jet with nearly 400 people on board collided with a Japanese Coast Guard aircraft on its way to help with earthquake relief efforts.

Now, Japan's public broadcaster is reporting that five crew members on that Coast Guard plane have been killed. The captain is in critical condition.

CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean joins us now. Pete, tell us more that you've learned.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a pretty incredible scene, given the fact that this happened on the runway at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. These are some of the images that are just coming out right now.

You can see the aftermath there of the Airbus A350, this large, wide body airliner. It's only been in use at Japan Airlines since 2021. And in one of the images, a security image that's now been made public by NHK, you can see this aircraft landing on the runway. That's three, four, right there at Haneda, and the nose gear appears to me to be completely on fire. This plane is decelerating now after apparently hit a Coast Guard Dash 8. That is a twin turboprop airplane that was on its way to help with earthquake relief efforts in a different part of the country. This A350 was a domestic flight. It was going between Sapporo and Tokyo.

That is the image there of the aftermath. And the evacuation was a complete success. All people on board, according to Japan Airlines, 367 passengers and 12 crew, were able to make it out just fine. They had to evacuate using the evacuation slides. You can see it there. That's one on the right side of the airplane. That's door R1, the right side of the airplane, very close to the nose, very close to the cockpit. Those are the inflatable slides that they're using to get out.

This is why flight crews tell you to leave everything behind after an incident if they need to evacuate the airplane. It speeds up the evacuation. And this shows that these evacuations can be done successfully, really a testament to the A350. This airplane is incredibly strong. And it shows that it can take a hit, essentially what appears to be right on the nose. The fact that these folks were able to get out so quickly, also a testament as well.

So, this is really something that was a success, although in the grand scheme, it's very sad that six people on board that Dash 8, one was still in critical condition, five are dead.

[07:25:00]

But it really shows that these things can happen successfully.

And it's also really a warning sign to aviation around the world, especially considering the fact that we've had so many of these runway incursions here in the United States. I think about seven have been under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. It was a real incident -- real spate of incidents in 2023. And so this may just sort of re-underscore the need to up safety in the U.S.

In Japan, the regulations are a bit different, although this would be something that here in the U.S., of course, aviation regulators need to take a big, hard look at.

CORNISH: And, thankfully, there have been no collisions here. Pete Muntean, thank you so much.

MATTINGLY: Well, we'll continue to keep you updated on the breaking news out of Tokyo. But, first, we're going to talk about some potential breaking news today on the legal front.

Back home, Donald Trump's legal team facing a very busy 24 hours ahead. Trump's lawyers are expected to appeal two decisions to remove him from the primary ballots in Colorado and in Maine.

With us now to explain all of it, CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig, at the magic wall.

Really, at any moment now, it could happen at any moment. We expect the appeals, appeal to appeals. We'll have to wait and see. Just a step back, though. What's the landscape right now in this New Year?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Phil. So, the 14th Amendment, Section 3, has gone from relative constitutional obscurity to the spotlight very quickly. Let's just remind ourselves what it says. No person shall hold any office who shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.

It seems fairly straightforward. The problem is it is being interpreted and applied very differently across the map. Let's take a look at the current status quo. These six states have rejected challenges, efforts to try to remove Trump from the ballot. Some of them are still being appealed, Arizona and West Virginia. These 11 states we've had challenges to Trump's eligibility brought, but then withdrawn by the challengers for reasons that are varied.

Now, we have, of course, now two states, Colorado and Maine, who have decided Trump is off the ballot. He committed insurrection. 14th Amendment applies. We could see appeals in the Colorado case to the U.S. Supreme Court, in the Maine case into the Maine state level courts at any moment. But as you can see, I mean, this map tells you all you need to know about just how much chaos there is state to state.

MATTINGLY: Do we have any sense of what Trump's legal team's arguments will be in the appeals?

HONIG: Yes. So, this is a complex sort of legal question. There's a lot of different issues swirling, but let's break it down into three questions. First of all, who decides?

Now, if we look at Section 5 of the 14th Amendment, it tells us that the Congress, meaning the U.S. Congress, shall have the power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article. Trump's team will argue that means Congress, and it's not up to the states. The opponents will argue, no, states can still make their own processes to go along with Congress.

If that's true, if the states do have the right to do their own processes, that brings us to the second question, by what process? How much due process is owed here? If we look, for example, at Colorado, look, these don't have to be criminal trials. That's the highest level of due process. But the question is, was there enough? Colorado had a five-day trial. They had some live witnesses. They had a member of Congress. They took in documents. Some of it has hearsay that wouldn't be admissible. But, again, it's not a criminal trial.

If we look at the Maine process, there was less. That was a one or two day hearing. The only witness was a law professor. The secretary of state relied on documents, including YouTube clips. So, the question is, was either of these enough due process?

And then the final question is, and this one may seem a little odd, is the president an officer of the United States? I think, logically, you go, of course. There actually is an argument that's made sometimes that if you look at the construction of the Constitution, the president is actually separate from an officer of the United States. I think that one is a long shot, but look for that argument to be made as well.

MATTINGLY: Colorado will be appealed to the Supreme Court. Look, this seems to be a moment just screaming out for no ambiguity.

HONIG: Yes. This is exactly why we have a Supreme Court. We have a massive constitutional issue. We have all sorts of unknown. We have major implications. We have inconsistency in how it's being applied. We're looking for two things. First, will they take the case? They don't have to take any case. But if Trump files that appeal today, they can tell us, yes or no, we're taking it. That could happen at any moment. And then, of course, if they take it, how will they rule?

Let me just say this. Nobody knows. This is uncharted territory, so it will be in their hands in all likelihood.

MATTINGLY: Just to underscore that point, there is no legal precedent here.

HONIG: Right.

MATTINGLY: There's nothing that people are kind of drafting off of to know how this ends.

HONIG: We can pull on various strings that are out there, but there is nothing on point. We're going to get brand new law when they interpret this.

MATTINGLY: Fascinating and somewhat unsettling.

Elie Honig, thanks, buddy.

HONIG: Thanks.

CORNISH: And in the meantime, we're now less than two weeks out from the Iowa caucuses and the Republican presidential candidates are kicking their campaigns into high gear. Ron DeSantis is keeping his sights firmly on the Hawkeye State, while Nikki Haley is starting a two day swing through New Hampshire. Both are doing everything they can to catch up to the frontrunner, Donald Trump.

CNN's Steve Contorno is live in Des Moines.

[07:30:02]

And, Steve, of course, it's the final sprint. What's the strategy?