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Commercial Plane and Japanese Coast Guard Plane Collide on Runway in Tokyo Airport; Japanese Commercial Plane Evacuated after Collision; Five Out of Six Crew Members of Japanese Coast Guard Plane Die after Collision with Commercial Plane; Today: Trump Expected to Appeal Colorado and Maine Rulings; Fiery Car Crash Investigated as Domestic Terrorism; Supreme Court Strikes Down Controversial Judicial Change. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired January 02, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: How those passengers were able to evacuate just seconds before the jet burst into flames.

This hour of CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: -- later stabbed in the neck on camera. He survived and is conscious. What we are learning about the attacker.

MATTINGLY: And new this morning, the FBI joint terrorism task force is investigating this deadly crash, you see it on video right here, outside a crowded music venue early on New Year's Day. Officers say the flaming SUV was full of gas cans.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

MATTINGLY: And we do begin the top of this hour with the breaking news out of Tokyo a Japanese Airlines passenger jet colliding with the Japan Coast Guard aircraft and bursting into flames. We'll show you the moment of impact as it landed at Tokyo Haneda Airport. You see it on security video right there. That large fireball, the jet barreling down the runway. Officials say it collided with the Coast Guard plane that was headed to help with earthquake relief efforts. Five crew members in that Coast Guard plane have died, and the captain is in critical condition.

CORNISH: Japan Airlines says nearly 400 passengers and crew of the commercial flight were miraculously evacuated, 17 were reportedly injured. Now, this was the chaotic scene inside the jet as smoke killed the cabin and passengers scrambled to find a way out. You can see the plane with emergency slides open. People running out as firefighters tried to put out the flames.

MATTINGLY: And we have team coverage on this breaking story. CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean is with us in Washington. CNN aerospace analyst miles O'Brien joins us from Paris. Pete, let's start with you. When you look at this footage given kind of your innate sense of how this industry works, how airlines work, what do you see happened here?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I am seeing a wake-up call here, Phil, around the world, also especially here in the U.S. We'll get to that in a second. The images are incredible. You can see the Airbus A- 350 burning there. But what is really poignant to me is the video from NHK where you see this Japan airlines Flight 516 flight come in to land on runway 34-left at Haneda Airport.

This is very telling here, because you can see the immediate aftermath of the nose gear on fire of this plane as its it's decelerating down the runway. What we do not see what is just out of frame on the right. We don't see the moment of collision with that Japanese Coast Guard Dash 8, that's a twin turboprop airplane. We know that six people were onboard that plane. Five of them are dead. The captain in critical condition.

Haneda Airport, this happened around 5:47 p.m. local time, about 3:47 a.m. here on the east coast. As four runways, there are two parallel runways that go north and south. This was on runway 34-right, and then there are other parallel runways that buttress that on the north edge and the south edge of the airport. The real question here is who was in the wrong place at the wrong time? And the question that investigators will really look at is whether or not it was this Japan Airlines flight or whether it was the Japanese Coast Guard flight.

This is something known as a runway incursion, and that is immediately apparent to me. And this is an issue that has been happening over and over again in the U.S. In 2023, we saw about seven of these incidents very serious, serious enough to get kicked to the National Transportation Safety Board. It was an issue from coast to coast, JFK, Austin, Boston, Burbank. In the Austin incident, a FedEx flight almost landed on a departing Southwest Airlines flight.

To me, these incidents sound somewhat similar, and of course the aviation community around the world will be looking at this incident to see if that was this, if this was indeed a runway incursion. And that will really change things potentially. The Federal Aviation Administration here, of course, has to watch this closely, and we will see if there will be any international help from the National Transportation Safety Board here in the U.S. when it comes to this investigation.

Of course, the first thing they will want to listen to is whether or not there was much confusion on the radio, whether or not the pilots were getting the proper instruction from air traffic control or whether or not the pilots were confused about where they were on this very complicated airport with four different runways.

MATTINGLY: Miles, over to you. When you kind of watch the -- it's been striking watching the video and the pictures throughout the course of the morning of the landing where you see kind of a fireball to somehow from inside the plane you can see the smoke, but people are relatively calm given kind of a horrifying moment. And then shortly after they are out of the plane it is completely engulfed and looks to crack in half at one point. How much time in an emergency situation like this does the crew have to get the people off the plane? MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: It's a matter of seconds, Phil.

This is a carbon fiber aircraft. As it started to burn, it burned pretty quickly, as you saw.

[08:05:02]

Hat off to the flight crew that, obviously, did a very successful evacuation. I'm actually stunned that everybody got off that Airbus A350 alive. It's amazing when you see it. Let's not forget, what we have here is a tragedy inside a big disaster. That Coast Guard crew, four of the five of them have passed away and the pilot is hurt. And they were just doing their duty, trying to get relief supplies in that region in the wake of that earthquake. But I am just amazed at how, frankly, orderly that evacuation was out of that Airbus A-350.

CORNISH: I want to bring in Will Ripley. He is in Tokyo as we have been following the story all morning, and he's been getting some eyewitness accounts. Will, so far what else have you heard?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, we are hearing, starting to hear now from some of these passengers who have to be kind of at this point just thinking about what they experienced. And we can see from the social media videos. Imagine if you are on a flight, you have just been -- it's just been the New Year celebration, you are up in a ski town. You are relaxed. You're landing, whether you're transiting on home or whether Tokyo is home. And then all of a sudden this crash, and you look out the window, the engine is on fire. All of a sudden black smoke fills the cabin. And in probably what feels like either an eternity or just a heartbeat, you're safely outside the plane and you're standing and you're looking at this looking at this from a distance, thinking how did I survive this? How did this happen?

That is what around 400 people, although some of them are so young they are probably not going to remember it, because there were eight people, eight children under the age of two on the plane, that's what they went through. And as I said they are starting to now tell their stories. Listen to this passenger and what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUY MAESTRE, TOURIST: Just as we were starting into -- we heard a big bang. And I turned and I saw the flames that was making a trace, and then we saw the plane that was in flames. By the time we go like that, I could hear the plane. And there's videos, then a few minutes later we saw two big firefighter trucks coming and fighting the fire, and then controlling the fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: There was a mother who was speaking on television here, national television, holding her young child, saying that she honestly didn't think she was going to make it out. But she was -- the only thing that was on this mother's mind was to keep her child safe somehow and to do what she could. This is something that everybody who flies a lot or flies at all

thinks about, has thought about. What happens if your plane is in an emergency situation? What happens if the plane is involved in an incident? And a lot of people wouldn't expect that after something so dramatic that they would be able to be standing and talking about it. And it's got to be just a mix of emotions that one could only understand, really, if they have been through it themselves. And more stories from the passengers I am sure we will be hearing about in the coming hours and days.

But just truly extraordinary. And also truly heartbreaking to think about the five families of those Coast Guard crew members who are now grieving along with the dozens of families across Japan that are mourning after just what's been a really horrible start to 2024. Just hours after ringing in the new year, a massive 7.5 magnitude earthquake, homes just devastated, entire roads washed away by some of those tsunami waves. Even though they weren't as big as back in 2011, they still were big enough to cause serious damage.

And then this plane, with Coast Guard crew members who were supposed to help deliver relief is involved in this incident, and now these families are here during what was a time of celebration, now joining the people here in Japan who are grieving and who have lost.

MATTINGLY: Yes, a clear tragedy that goes kind of hand in hand with the miracle in the commercial flight mile. Miles, to that point, clearly, the earthquake relief efforts are urgent at this point in time. Clearly, this is a very busy time at any airport, particularly Haneda, which is never a slow airport to begin with. How much do those dynamics, could they play into an accident like this happening?

O'BRIEN: This is a subtle piece of it that investigators will be looking very closely at, Phil. This is if not the busiest airport in the Pacific rim, it's the top two or three for sure. And so every day is a busy day at Haneda.

However, in the midst of a crisis, which is what is going on right now in Japan, frankly, there is a lot of adrenaline flowing as these crews are attempting to get relief supplies urgently needed to that stricken region.

[08:10:01]

And did that in some way cloud judgments in either the cockpits involved or in the control tower? That is going to be at the very focus of this investigation. Clearly, those two planes, one of those planes was in the wrong place. There's no question. Was it the flight crews? Was it air traffic control? Was there some fundamental confusion? And was that exacerbated by the determination of especially the Coast Guard crew to do something to help in a crisis?

MATTINGLY: All right, Will Ripley, Pete Muntean, Miles O'Brien, thank you.

And happening today, Donald Trump is expected to fight the decisions to boot him off the ballots in Colorado and Maine. What that may look like, next.

CORNISH: And the FBI joint terrorism task force is investigating this deadly crash outside a crowded music venue early on New Year's Day. Officers say that flaming SUV was full of gas cans. New details coming in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CORNISH: Today former President Trump is expected to file appeals to the decisions in Colorado and Maine disqualifying him from the Republican primary ballot. It comes after both states rule Trump is ineligible under Section Three of the 14th Amendment, which bars insurrectionists from holding office. Trump will appeal the Colorado decision to the Supreme Court, and the Maine decision to Maine's Superior Court.

[08:15:00]

CNN's Zachary Cohen joins us now.

And Zachary, help us understand the arguments being made in these appeals. What are the former president's chances?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Audie, first, it's really important to know that the looming political calendar really is creating a sense of urgency here and it is one of the reasons why there is this mounting pressure on the US Supreme Court to weigh in on this issue, this 14th Amendment issue that we've seen come up in Colorado and again in Maine, where they say that under the 14th Amendment, Section 3, Trump should be removed from the primary ballot, because he engaged in an insurrection.

Now, that has already gone to -- I mean, the stage is set now -- sorry -- to go before the Supreme Court when Trump appeals this decision, he's going to ask the Supreme Court to essentially overturn the Colorado Supreme Court state level court's ruling that he should be removed from that ballot, that would effectively put him back on the ballot for the primary.

But, you know, the Supreme Court has to choose whether or not it wants to take up this case, but at least this appeal will at least set the stage for that possibility to happen.

Now, we also expect Trump to appeal a similar decision in Maine where the Secretary of State there also ruled that he should be removed from the ballot. That appeal will go through state level courts, and that both decisions are on hold until the courts weigh in and this gets worked out through the legal system.

But listen to what Colorado's Secretary of State said yesterday, when asked about the urgency of this situation, and the need for the courts to weigh in and weigh in quickly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENA GRISWOLD (D), COLORADO SECRETARY OF STATE: I certify the names onto the ballot for the presidential primary this Friday, and so we do hope that the court understands that presidential primaries are rapidly approaching and gives us a definitive answer whether or not the former president is disqualified from the ballot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So with so much uncertainty, states asking the Supreme Court to provide some clarity, we're going to have to wait and see if they ultimately take up this issue, though it is unprecedented.

CORNISH: Zach Cohen, thank you.

MATTINGLY: And joining us now, former Trump attorney, Tim Parlatore.

Tim, we appreciate your time this morning.

On the Colorado case specifically, the appeal is expected as soon as this morning to the Supreme Court. When you think through the defenses that the Trump team would put into that appeal, what do you think is their most effective at this point?

TIM PARLATORE, FORMER DONALD TRUMP ATTORNEY: I think really the most effective is that the state courts don't have the power to enforce this.

You know, the 14th Amendment specifically does have a clause that Congress shall have the power to enforce and Congress has exercised that power in multiple ways. They passed the statute, 18 USC 2383, which is -- they actually expanded the reach of the insurrectionist band beyond just the previously elected officials to basically anybody that would be barred from holding office, but that has to be done through a judicial proceeding in the federal court.

And Congress has also acted through impeaching. They impeached Donald Trump for insurrection, and he was acquitted there. So this case is, in some ways has already been litigated using the provisions of the 14th Amendment, Section 5 provided.

MATTINGLY: Can I ask you about the impeachment point, because I was struck over the course of the last couple days that there has been some signal that the Trump team is going to utilize that, maybe not just for Colorado, but also for the Jack Smith indictment as well on election subversion.

I guess, my question is, I was sitting in the Senate chamber listening to Senate Leader Mitch McConnell talk about how the legal process, this doesn't do anything to change the legal process that is going to come ahead. The Senate is not going to act on this, but by all means, the courts still can. And he wasn't the only Republican to say that, were they wrong?

PARLATORE: So my personal belief on this is that while the impeachment does control as regards to the 14th Amendment litigation, it does not invoke double jeopardy as to criminal litigation.

And so I don't think that that is going to be necessarily a winning argument of a double jeopardy to bar the January 6 prosecution, but I do think that it is going to be effective related to the 14th Amendment cases.

MATTINGLY: It's an important point, particularly as we await the appeal on that federal election subversion case. The special counsel pushed back on Trump's claim that he should have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution. Part of the argument was it threatens to license presidents to commit crimes to remain in office.

I guess the question here right now is, there is not a lot of precedent here, which is, you can say that about a lot of things that are happening right now. Are we in uncharted legal territory?

PARLATORE: Right.

MATTINGLY: Or is there an argument here that they can -- Trump's team can actually pull on to make their point?

PARLATORE: Yes. It's definitely uncharted territory. I think that they're -- you know, the idea of a blanket immunity is a little bit too broad and I don't see the courts buying that.

Now, a more limited, you know very targeted immunity for certain acts, you know that I do see as being something that could win, but that's not something that really can be litigated at this stage.

[08:20:10]

You know, they would have to take this case to trial and show during the trial that what he was doing was within the scope of his duties as the chief executive. And I expect that that will be one of the things that they can and should present to the jury is that, you know, he was acting based on the information, you know, that he had, that he reasonably believed that there would be fraud, and that, as you know, the chief executive charged with ensuring that the laws of the United States are followed, that he was pushing for investigations, and if they make that argument credibly, then I think that immunity could apply at that stage, but not here.

MATTINGLY: And it seems like they're on the path to making that argument, whether it's credible or not, it is still to be determined.

But in that defense itself, when there's a list of dozens of people who've made very clear they told the president explicitly, there was no fraud or that his theories were inaccurate, some have said that they felt like he acknowledged, that was the case at various points, doesn't that undercut that point?

PARLATORE: Sure, and that's why it is something that really does have to go to a jury. And it's the last point that you raised there about whether he acknowledged it, that's going to be key.

And so that's -- when you have disputed issues of fact like that, it is not something that can be decided by a judge at a motion stage. It is something that must be presented to a jury because the juries are the arbiters of fact. MATTINGLY: It is a very busy day ahead and a very busy year ahead.

Tim Parlatore, we appreciate your time as always. Thank you.

PARLATORE: All right, thank you.

CORNISH: This just in, a deadly and fiery car crash outside a New Year's Eve concert in Rochester is now being investigated as domestic terrorism. That's what a source tells CNN.

The FBI's Joint Terrorism Taskforce has joined the probe. Police say an SUV full of gas cans slammed into another car and the vehicles then plowed through a crowd of pedestrians as thousands of people were leaving a concert. You can see some of the red gas cans on the ground outside that burnt out SUV.

A source tells CNN the driver allegedly left a suicide note and a journal in his hotel room. The crash killed at least two people and we are told, the suspect is fighting for his life in the hospital.

We're going to bring in Brynn Gingras and tell us more about what you've learned, a lot more detail.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a lot more detail.

We've actually learned the identity of that person who was driving that Ford Expedition that plowed into that crowd of people. A source telling us his name is Michael Avery, actually from the Syracuse, New York area, but staying in Rochester.

And as you just heard Audie talk about, a source saying that they found a suicide note and a journal in a hotel room where he was actually staying.

So those items coupled with the fact that there were gas cans at the scene of this crash along with the fact that this car was plowing through a crowd of people outside a busy area, and also the fact that a source says that investigators have already spoken to Avery's family members, put that all together and that's why authorities can definitively say this is an investigation involving domestic terrorism.

Now, whether or not it is domestic terrorism, again, still early in the investigation, but this is the questions that they are asking as they sort of comb through the profile of this person.

Let's back up just a little bit and explain exactly what happened though. This was really only an hour into the New Year's Day in Rochester right outside the Kodak Center, a facility that was having a New Year's Eve event.

About a thousand people attended this event, and as they were leaving, even one witness said they could smell gasoline in the air. Authorities or actually police rather on the scene were trying to get people across a crosswalk when this Ford Expedition with those gas cans plowed into a Mitsubishi Outlander that was leaving the venue, in that car is where two people were killed. Several other people were injured in the crosswalk and the person driving that Ford Expedition, Michael Avery as identified by a source, he is still in the hospital we're hearing with life-threatening injuries, but we're continuing to get an update on that.

So a lot here to digest that we've learned within the last couple of hours, but domestic terrorism is a question, something that's being investigated in this incident.

And again, as we've talked about, Audie, this -- you know, authorities have been on the lookout for sort of these incidents, have been keeping really, you know, head on a swivel because of this sort of heightened threat environment that we're in right now.

So this is an example of how the FBI gets involved very quickly, Joint Terrorism Taskforce gets involved very quickly with this investigation and we will continue to look for more answers, but two people killed.

CORNISH: Brynn, thank you so much.

MATTINGLY: The Israeli Supreme Court narrowly striking down part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial judicial overhaul plan. We're going to speak to a senior adviser to the prime minister, up next.

CORNISH: And a missing student in Utah found alive in the mountains after he was reportedly cyber kidnapped. More details on what exactly that means, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:28:26]

MATTINGLY: This morning, the leader of South Korea's main opposition party is in the hospital after he was stabbed in the neck during a brazen daytime attack. Disturbing video shows Lee Jae-myung walking through a crowd of journalist when a man posing as a supporter suddenly strikes him in the left side of his neck. Lee is then seen -- you can see it there -- collapsing to the ground with his eyes closed, looking pale. Doctors say the wound is not life threatening.

CORNISH: In the midst of its war against Hamas, Israel is facing the equivalent of a constitutional crisis after a ruling by the nation's High Court.

Yesterday, the Israeli Supreme Court narrowly struck down part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial judicial overhaul plan.

The law in question had placed severe limitations on the Supreme Court's oversight of the government. The law passed last summer after months of massive protests. Netanyahu spoke to CNN's Wolf Blitzer back in July about this exact scenario.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": If the court does strike this down, will you abide by that ruling?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: What you're talking about is a situation, a potential situation where in American terms, the United States Supreme Court would take a constitutional amendment and say that it is unconstitutional.

That's the kind of -- the kind of spiral that you're talking about, and I hope we don't get to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining us now is Mark Regev, senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Mark Regev, I just want to start with what we just heard. Netanyahu saying that he has hoped it wouldn't come to this. Now that you are here, does he plan to respond to this and abide by this ruling?

[08:30:00]