Return to Transcripts main page

Erin Burnett Outfront

New Debris Not Likely From Missing Jet; Investigators Analyzing New Debris; Investigators Raid Ferry Owner's Offices

Aired April 23, 2014 - 19:00   ET

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

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Next, breaking news, the most promising lead yet. Debris washing up on an Australian beach tonight. Is it the plane?

Plus, the ferry disaster in South Korea. New questions about what was really on that ferry.

And the 15-year-old stowaway who flew in a jet's landing gear to Hawaii and survived. Tonight the mother of another stowaway speaks out. Let's go OUTFRONT.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, we begin with the breaking news, a potentially game changing new question also in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. High hopes that a piece of debris found on the shore of Australia was the plane dashed just moments ago. Officials telling CNN, quote, "analysis of the photos is enough not to warrant further analysis of the material."

What was the material? Well, it was found near Augusta, Australia, about a thousand miles from the current underwater search site. The object described by local media as an eight-foot tall piece of metal and fiberglass. But as the underwater search comes up empty again tonight, new questions raised about whether they're hunting in the right place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you shed any light on reports that Flight MH370 may have landed and not crashed?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: The answer according to Australia's prime minister, the plane went down somewhere in the Indian Ocean. But they haven't found anything yet. Miguel Marquez is in Augusta almost four hours south of Perth, at the bottom of Australia, the southwest tip of the country. Near where that possible debris was found. Miguel, how seriously were officials taking this piece of debris?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, very, very seriously. Look, police got it from this very remote and very beautiful part of Australia, all the way up the coast to Perth. Tells us one police officer. They also took photographs of it. And I'm sure those were sent around the world, including probably Boeing airline in the U.S., and certainly officials in Canberra as they tried to determine whether it was.

I can tell you police here and the public that we have already seen walking along the beach here, they have been watching for weeks now to see if anything from that airliner washed up on shore. It will come as perhaps not great shock, but certainly a little frustration on everyone's part that this does not seem to be part of it -- Erin.

BURNETT: Miguel, thank you very much. Miguel, to emphasize, Miguel is there too. They really did take this incredibly seriously. Joining me now via Skype is Commander McEvoy of the New Zealand Air Force. Commander, are you 100 percent sure that the object that Miguel was just reporting on near Augusta in Australia is not from the plane?

COMMANDER KEVIN MCEVOY, ROYAL NEW ZEALAND AIR FORCE: The only information we've got at this stage, Erin, is the same information that you've got. The photos are being analyzed. And I've got nothing further. So if it is a piece, it will be great, but unfortunately, I don't think it will be.

BURNETT: So people are hoping, right? Because it had washed up on shore that it could have indicated there was debris. That's what you've been searching. Now it's been 48 days since this plane went down. The underwater search in the most promising area is almost done. They're close to done. Are you starting to lose hope?

MCEVOY: No. As you see day 48, the crews are raring to go. It's disheartening on the one hand that we haven't found anything. But every day that we search, we manage to cover another area that we can say, you know, we don't need to go back to that area. We have searched that. So it's a slow, progressive search. But that's just what searches are all about. So it's slow progress.

BURNETT: And when do you think the underwater search -- because right now they've been searching in that area. The second ping, they said this was the most promising area. They were very enthusiastic, right? They've been using the towed ping locator and now they've been down with the Bluefin. When are they going to be done in that area?

MCEVOY: Again, I don't have the details on the underwater search. I know with reference to the air search that we'll be out again today there is another eight missions that we have planned for. It's approaching Anzac Day, which is the equivalent of commemoration or your Memorial Day. That won't stop the crews and everybody searching tomorrow. The weather hasn't been great the past two days. Had to actually cancel some missions yesterday, but crews are ready and focused, raring to go today.

BURNETT: Because of this big development today, that there was this debris that they thought might have been a piece from the jet, does this make you think that perhaps there could be debris still on the surface? Because you know a lot of people had said to us experts, at this point there could be no debris anywhere. The fact that they thought they might have had it on the beach sort of maybe changed the parameters. MCEVOY: I don't think there is anything unusual about the. It's been going for seven weeks as you said. You haven't actually managed to sight anything in terms of aircraft debris associated with the airplane yet. So it's a difficult, challenging environment, but the crews are able to search in those environments. They're well used to it. The aircraft has recently been upgraded to support that so we'll be going out again today. And we'll be continuing on for as long as is necessary to try and find something so we can get some closure for all the people involved.

BURNETT: Commander, thank you very much. For joining us this morning your time. Richard Quest now joins me from Kuala Lumpur. Richard, you heard the commander. You heard Miguel who is down in Augusta, Australia because that is how seriously they took the lead. They thought this might be it. Everybody was there. Everybody was analyzing the pictures. They're not giving up. They're looking at everything. What is the next move? That we could still have a piece of debris wash up on the beach and the whole world think this is it and be wrong?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. But the way that you often do get these incidents taking place is exactly debris washing up on shorelines. So the fact that it would be a piece of debris on a shoreline is not a huge surprise, Erin. Obviously, the fact that there is not a lot of debris, the fact there has been no debris, it would make it somewhat unusual. Debris washing up as such is one of those issues that does happen with plane crashes at sea.

In terms of the wider search, now it really does get much more difficult, because once Bluefin has completed the ten-kilometer radius around ping number 2, they have to rethink. Do you start going around all the other pings down in the South Indian Ocean in that area? Do you regroup? Do you re-strategize?

But they're up to the task. They have known since they began that this moment might come. And this is what they do for a living, these people. They are professional. So they will go back, look at the data, and decide where next.

BURNETT: And Richard, what is your bet on that, where next. Still going to stick in the Southern Indian Ocean, or are they going to open up and consider something more broadly?

QUEST: I think that they will continue in the area where they are for the time being. For the very simple reason that it is the best hope that they've got. It's where the Inmarsat data pointed the plane would be. It's where the endurance fuel of the aircraft took it. It's where the pings are located. If you start to natural house apart, you're left with very little ideas. Certainly ideas searching up in Kandahar and looking for landing sites and anything else like that simply are not run as compares to what they're looking at the moment.

BURNETT: Thank you very much, Richard Quest will be with you in a moment. OUTFRONT, that big question we raised with no debris. There is a big question about whether that plane may have actually landed somewhere.

Plus, a ferry capsizes with hundreds still on board. So what else was on the boat?

And the death toll from a major Ebola outbreak, the most deadly strain in the world rising tonight. Dr. Sanjay Gupta exclusively OUTFRONT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Tonight questions about whether Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 could have landed somewhere. Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott was asked about that earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you shed any light on reports that Flight MH370 may have landed and not crashed?

TONY ABBOTT, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Well, I have no advice whatsoever to suggest that there is any truth at all in that. Our expert advice is that the aircraft went down somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: It has been 48 days since the plane vanished, and still not one piece of debris has been found that promising piece that we've been looking at all day, as we said just moments before this program confirmed that they say it is not the plane.

Joining me now are aviation analysts, Arthur Rosenberg, Jeff Wise and Les Abend along with Richard Quest back in Kuala Lumpur. Jeff, let me start with you. There have been some reporting out of Asia to that end about the plane being intact. Why do you think there is a chance that that could be the case?

JEFF WISE, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, in the absence as we've noted many times, in the absence of any debris or wreckage, the only reason we have to believe that the plane is in the southern ocean is the assurances of the authorities. Now, we have heard reference to this Inmarsat data. We don't have that data. Don't have the analysis, and we don't know what assumptions were put into it to produce this search area.

All we have had to go on is the assertions by the Malaysians and the Australians as well. And you remember the language that Tony Abbott used when he assured, he spoke before parliament, he went up to China and told the Chinese that it was very confident that we were on the verge of finding this plane. Those promises have come up empty and left a lot of people wondering what were those assumptions? What was that analysis? Why did they say the plane was here in the first place?

BURNETT: I mean, Arthur, there has not been a single piece of debris found. That is why these reports and these stories, you saw the facial reaction on the prime minister of Australia. There are people and family members who are very seriously asking that question because there has been no proof to the contrary.

ARTHUR ROSENBERG, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Look, the bottom line is that it's certainly understandable why people are saying what they have gone, may have gone the northern route and landed intact. We don't have a single piece --

BURNETT: Or beached on an island in the Indian Ocean. That's another one.

ROSENBERG: But we do have the Inmarsat data, the radar data with performance data. We also have the pings. All of these coalesce in an area that shows a likely crash zone for the airport. I say if this plane landed intact or somewhat intact, which it may have done, it was in the South Indian Ocean.

BURNETT: Right. So intact could be in the ocean. Obviously, the questions asked was may have landed and not crashed was the way that was phrased, 48 days and no signs of the plane. Are you confident the search area is correct? And would the only way to explain why there is no debris be that it really is intact in large part as a single or a couple big pieces on the bottom?

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: I mean, none of us are confident about anything as part of this investigation. But everything, if you go by -- this is accident investigation. This is part of the process. We doubt things. You know, when we don't have enough information. But I contacted Inmarsat, and I listened to the whole process that they went through. And it's incredible.

BURNETT: So you actually have spoken to them and talked through this process.

ABEND: Yes.

BURNETT: So what did you find out? What makes you so, because everyone else -- no one else has talked to them about this?

ABEND: Well, he explained to me the whole process on how they got to the satellite. It's a very specific satellite. It's got a specific wobble to it. They checked other aircraft that were in the same position. Nothing matched up in the north. It all matched up in the south. And all of the sudden they readjusted the search area, as you know, about two or three weeks ago. And then all of the sudden they got pings. Where are these pings coming from?

BURNETT: Well, the pings obviously is significant. But what you're saying, Richard, what you're hearing Les say is something, you know, I haven't heard anyone else get that far with Inmarsat when he was saying that they actually walked him through what the satellite was like, how it wobbled, how it matched the plane, why they have looked at other planes and the possibility of going north. And it was a lot more than just trigonometry that led them to believe where this plane is from Inmarsat.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: I have decided to humor Jeff Wise today. It's raining here in Kuala Lumpur. So I decided to be on the other side.

OK, Jeff, let's assume you're right for the purposes of this discussion. We do know that the plane flew for several hours afterwards, ignore the positioning of the Inmarsat, straight forward handshakes. We know the plane communicated for six to seven hours after the turn. We know that. That is a fact.

So, Jeff, where would it have landed in that environment? Bearing in mind it's a 777, bearing in mind the countries in the northern corridor have already have checked the facts. They have already announced that there has been no debris found on the ground, that there has been no sightings of it at any airports. You can't put this thing down on a beach and hope to get away with it. Diego Garcia is not a runner, besides the fact it is too far. It's a military base.

So put it all together, Jeff, and I can't see that you've got a 777 with 239 people that you're going to be able to put on the ground and get away with it.

JEFF WISE, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: That's an excellent point. But you know, I want to speak real briefly to what Les said. In slate last Friday we ran a piece. I talked to many experts.

BURNETT: Let me go to Les' point. And give me a chance to address what Richard said. Because there are people who have come up with scenarios where it could have landed in the beach off the water, right? I mean, are there places that you think it legitimately could have landed to address Richard's question?

WISE: I do. And let me put -- to answer Richard's question real quickly this way. This started out like a Tom Clancy novel. It was unlike anything we've seen before. It looked like a very deliberate and intentional and clever act where they departed from the flight plan exactly in that gap in the radar coverage where it would be easiest for them to slip away.

BURNETT: Yes.

WISE: So, I think it is not -- I think we should really expect something quite unlikely to have happened with this flight. I don't think we should look to high probability outcomes like a crash in the ocean, things that we've seen before like suicides. We should expect something strange and unusual to have happened.

And yes, we have to really stretch our imagination to figure out how you do you get a plane through all this radar kind of coverage. But to say it's hard to imagine it's hard to imagine how it could have been done, it's different than saying it couldn't have been done. And then we shouldn't look at all the ways that could have been done.

BURNETT: It is an interesting point.

And Les, but I want to get the final word to you because I know Jeff has done analysis of the Inmarsat data, you know, raising a lot of questions. But you're saying that they did look and compare the plane to other dots going north. All those comparisons were done. ABEND: This airplane, those handshakes were from that airplane. I mean, that's the bottom line. And it did fly for as Richard said between six and a half to seven hours afterwards. And they took all the calculations, the data, stuff that I've looked at in my own manuals to see where the airplane might have ended up. And to me, this is the best data we have.

BURNETT: All right.

ABEND: Landing somewhere else, it's tough to hide a 650,000 pound airplane.

BURNETT: All right. Well, thanks to all of you. We appreciate it.

And still to come, with no black box, how every piece of the plane could be crucial, so if that piece that washed up on the beach was it, if that's all they had, could they find out who did it?

And a teen flying in the wheel well of a plane for five hours surviving, for the first time we're going to see what that landing gear looks like tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Breaking news in the search for Malaysia airlines flight 370, officials analyzing a so-called object of interest which washed ashore in Australia. The debris has been described. It was a piece of jagged metal with rivets and fiberglass coating. It was found about 190 miles south of Perth. Early reports we just have in tonight indicate the debris is likely not from the plane. We are still, though, awaiting official word.

Without real physical evidence, how can investigators piece together what happened? Would that one piece of debris have been enough to answer the question of what happened and who did it?

Once again, Miguel Marquez is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Steer 3-1-9.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If and when MH 370 is found, the hard work will begin.

LAWRENCE KOBILINSKY, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: This is a huge, huge crime scene.

MARQUEZ: Forensic pathologist Lawrence Kobilinsky says collecting evidence monumentally tough but crucial.

KOBILINSKY: You've got to gather up the evidence and try to reconstruct the events as to how what happened to the plane.

MARQUEZ: The flight data recorder tracking dozens of plane functions for the entire flight if found should provide a trove of evidence. But investigators will want to see more.

GEOFFREY THOMAS, EDITOR IN-CHIEF, AIRLINERATINGS.COM: While we might see that systems are turned off and turned on and courses changed and courses are altered and altitudes change, we won't necessarily know who did it, unless we investigate the cockpit.

MARQUEZ: If anything is left, the cockpit's interior, who was in it, even the door could answer the question, was there a struggle.

KOBILINSKY: I think there needs to be an inspection of the door that locks the cockpit, because if in fact somebody was trying to break into the cockpit, there would be evidence easily observable on the door itself.

MARQUEZ: The cockpit voice recorder could be revealing, but it records over itself every two hours. The critical piece about 40 minutes into the flight, it won't be there.

THOMAS: You don't get the bits where it first changed course. And that's what we really want. So we don't know who changed course. We don't know who was in control at this particular moment.

MARQUEZ: The condition of the air frame, the seams holding it together could provide clues of the impact. Was it violent or controlled?

THOMAS: How it hit the water very much dictates on how it breaks up. It could well be. It's a very rugged airplane.

MARQUEZ: But MH 370 accident, mechanical, or willful.

THOMAS: This is totally a new paradigm of accidents. I believe the answers to this crash are in the cockpit. Who was in control of that airplane?

MARQUEZ: The passengers themselves could help resolve the mystery.

KOBILINSKY: If you can retrieve bodies and examine the respiratory tract, one of the first things you look for is the presence of soot. Finding soot below the level of the larynx would be a good indication of a fire.

MARQUEZ: But if the cabin was depressurized before a fire --

KOBILINSKY: Passengers would most likely pass out. There would be no evidence of trauma to the body or something that you could see on autopsy if in fact there was a decompression at high altitude.

MARQUEZ: Evening passengers' cell phones and electronics might help tell the story of what happened if the plane is found searchers hope enough is left to fill in the blanks and solve the mystery.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, Perth.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: Why one piece of debris matters so much.

Still to come, we're going live to the scene of the South Korean ferry disaster. New details about what might have caused the ship to capsize, killing hundreds.

And for the first time, we're seeing pictures of the actual landing gear that the teen spent five hours flying in. That's the landing gear of that 767. How did he survive?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Breaking news on the capsized ferry in South Korea. So far, 159 people are confirmed dead, 143 are still missing. Tonight, investigators seizing boxes of information from the ship's owner, trying to find out if the ferry was overloaded when it started to take on water. This is central to the investigation. It could shed light on why the ferry sank so fast.

The South Korean coast guard tells CNN that the ship had a maximum capacity of 3,968 tons in cargo. Now, here is how that breaks down: 88 cars, 60 trucks, 247 shipping containers.

Now, according to the manifest, which we have obtained what was on the ferry, it had about 124 cars, 56 trucks, 105 shipping containers and four vehicles that are only being described as heavy. So, it's unclear whether it exceeded the limit or didn't. But that is going to be a crucial question.

Kyung Lah is OUTFRONT on a boat of the search area this morning, of course, in Jindo, South Korea.

Kyung, when are they going to know how much weight was on the ship, whether this could have been part of the problem?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we asked that very question to the Korean coast guard. And what they told us is up until they are able to lift this entire 6,000-ton vessel off of the sea floor, they won't know exactly how much cargo it has. They may know from the manifest, they may have some figures. But what needs to be sorted out is exactly how heavy it was, how much cargo it had, and that's something, Erin, they won't know until they can actually lift it off the seafloor.

BURNETT: And, obviously, I mean, that might not even -- I know, Kyung, they will be able to tell where it was positioned because things clearly shifted. I mean, we're one week in the search now and I know they thought they might find a lot of the children in the cafeteria. They did not.

Was that any kind of a sign for hope, or what is the latest?

LAH: It's a sign of confusion that what they think is happening isn't actually happening. What they can say is that they have to keep going under the water. So a weekend, you can see that the search is still very much an active search. You see all of those orange vessels. Those inflatables, those are divers. They're still going down into the water, still beneath the surface, still searching with their hands, hoping to find something, Erin.

BURNETT: So, Kyung, they are -- they are still hoping. I know there have been reports that there are no more air pockets, that the bodies they found so far indicated there may have been, but the air obviously is no longer there.

But they're still calling this a search?

LAH: They're calling it a search because they're playing a very, very gentle dance with the families. And that might be the best way to do it.

They're trying to be as respectful to the parents as possible. They don't want to call it a recovery yet, even though it has all the markings of a recovery.

Right now, until they can get more of these children home, they are still telling these parents this is a rescue.

BURNETT: Kyung, thank you very much.

And OUTFRONT now, Retired Captain Paul Roden, an expert in naval engineering and ship stability.

Captain, you know, with these parents waiting and hoping against hope for some kind of a miracle, it -- their answer -- they're going to demand answers, and they must, to find out exactly what happened here. What about the ship's stability? The third mate who was in charge obviously at the helm, a 26-year-old young woman, said, "I made mistakes. For some reason, the steering turned so much faster than usual."

If that is the case, what could have caused that when you think about the cargo?

CAPT. PAUL RODEN, U.S. COAST GUARD (RET): Well, good evening, Erin, and thanks for having me on your show.

I would say that the steering and the rapid turn could be an impact. But the fact that a weakened state of stability may be the case is evident. You mentioned on your reporting about the amount of cargo, as important is the location of that cargo. And generally, the higher it is, the less stable the ship will be.

If you think of a rocking chair, for example, the rocking chair is designed to support a person throughout a motion of rocking. But a person standing on that chair may not have the same amount of stability.

So, likewise on a ship, the higher the weight, the less stability that ship will have. BURNETT: So, what you're saying is, yes, it's important what the weight was. But even if the weight didn't exceed the limit, it possibly is the way that they had it where it was placed on the ship.

RODEN: Yes, correct.

BURNETT: All right. So if the cargo starts to slide to one side, it would seem that that would happen not totally irregularly on a ferry. I mean, what could have made this be particularly vulnerable, this boat?

RODEN: Correct. The safety regulations generally require the cargo be lashed down, especially in heavy seas. But in a case like this, if the ship were to heel over and the cargo were not lashed down, going one side would decrease the stability that much more.

BURNETT: We also, of course, have reporting as no doubt you're familiar, captain, with, that there had been renovations on the ferry, that they increased the weight by 180 tons. Now, obviously, the ferry had gone about its trail since those renovations. So, the renovations themselves didn't necessarily cause this.

But do you think they could have been part of it? For example, to your point about the rocking chair, could they have shifted the center of gravity or something on the ship and maybe they didn't know that and therefore the cargo went in what would have been the right place and had become the wrong place?

RODEN: I do believe that retrofits to the ship could have had an impact, especially if they were weight added high. They would typically want to compensate for that higher weight through ballast or additional weight down low. And if that ballast or cargo were not placed down low in the ship, then the stability could be degraded.

BURNETT: All right. Captain, thank you very much.

RODEN: Thank you.

[A portion of this transcript has been removed.]

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: Pretty amazing part of the story.

Still to come, a teen travels in the wheel well of a plane and lives. Tonight, for the first time, we're going to show you pictures of the landing gear on that jet, the jet he flew for five hours. Look at the footprints. Was that really where this teen was? We're going show you.

Plus, the death toll growing in the Ebola outbreak. Dr. Sanjay Gupta was there. His exclusive reporting is OUTFRONT next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Now, let's check in with Anderson with a look what is coming up on "A.C. 360".

Hey, Anderson.

ADNERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Erin.

Yes, we've got much more of the breaking news ahead tonight in the program. What sparked hope that a large piece of metallic debris found on a beach in Australia was from Flight 370 now appears to be yet another false lead. We'll show you why almost anything can be found on the surface of the search area. Randi Kaye has the story on how this part of the ocean is basically a floating junkyard.

Also tonight, the tragic incident off the coast of Korea could have been worse. A young woman may have personally a third of the survivors and died doing it. Tonight, you'll meet a true hero. Her name is Park Jee Young. Paula Hancocks shares her story tonight.

Also, an exclusive on "360", a V.A. hospital, one doctor says was cooking its book to hide the fact that sick veterans were waiting months for medical care, 40 patients died while waiting. We're keeping them honest tonight.

It's all ahead at the top of the hour, Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Thanks, Anderson.

A new development tonight in the case of the teen stowaway who miraculous survived a five-hour flight outside the body of a 767 jet. A new picture shows the wheel well of a 767 where officials say the 15-year-old travelled from San Jose, California, to Maui, surviving sub-zero temperatures and a near total lack of oxygen.

You can actually see a lot of footprints in that landing gear. That's what they're saying shows that he was actually able to clamber up there, and then to survive not only those conditions, but the landing gear, 3,000 tons of it coming down around him.

The teen is not the first to attempt to fly in a wheel well. In 2010, the body of Devonte Tisdale was found in the town of Milton, Massachusetts. The 16-year-old fell from the landing gear of a U.S. Airways jet that was in route from Charlotte to Boston.

Devonte's mother Jonette Washington is with me now.

And, Jonette, just hearing this must have made you had to relive such a horrible time that is always going to be with you. When you heard this story, what went through your mind?

JONETTE WASHINGTON, SON DIED IN AIRPLANE STOWAWAY ATTEMPT: All I can think about is another child could have been hurt and lost. And it shook me so much. It really bothered me.

BURNETT: I mean, Jonette, we know we heard this boy was trying to visit his mother in Somalia. That was the reason apparently that he got up into the wheel well of the 767. But Devonte -- what was he trying to do? I mean, why would someone try to do this? WASHINGTON: Well, at this moment, I couldn't say, he was with his father. I was living in Baltimore, and they were in Charlotte. He was with his father.

What I've heard is maybe he was trying to come see me or something. But I'm not sure what was going on. We're not even sure how he got to the airport to get on the plane.

We have no proof. We have no -- I'm sorry, we have no video or anything showing him on the airfield or anything. So we're just waiting for answers that we need so desperately for closure and everything else.

BURNETT: And you're still waiting for those answers now after several years.

WASHINGTON: Yes.

BURNETT: I mean, are you surprised in this story that this boy was able to again, like your son, evade airport security, climb up to a jet, get into the landing gear? I mean, it almost seems implausible from the start.

WASHINGTON: Yes, yes, because with the airport security being the way that it's supposed to be, he should -- security at the airport is supposed to be much tighter than what it is. And with these kids these days, getting in and out of these airports and it's not just kids. It's grownups also that I've heard.

And I'm just trying to figure out what security is doing at these airports that they can't catch these people. Because what if it was a terrorist or a something even more traumatic of just kids getting in there?

BURNETT: And I mean, these kids, of course, you're the mother of one of these children.

WASHINGTON: Yes.

BURNETT: I mean, you have lost your son. We don't have all the details about this latest case, but it sounds like this particular boy, Jonette, walked away. I mean, with minor injuries after, you know, six hours over the Pacific Ocean. I mean, how do you reconcile that with what happened to your son?

WASHINGTON: All I can say is by the grace of God, by the grace of God, he walked away with no injuries. And just a little dirty, as they said. I am still figuring -- trying to figure out how, truthfully, I just want -- you know, it's amazing. It's amazing how it could happen.

BURNETT: Well, Jonette, thank you very much for taking the time and talking to us tonight.

WASHINGTON: Thank you.

BURNETT: And joining me now is Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay, you just heard the mother of another stowaway. I mean, her son, you know, did not survive the passage in the wheel well. But this story that we're hearing is miraculous. I mean, how did this 15- year-old kid survive? If he was in the wheel well, how the heck did it happen?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think there were two things, one that was very much working against him and one thing that was in his favor. But as you point out, it's a very unlikely story no matter how you look at it.

When you rise up that high, your ability to absorb oxygen in your body is dramatically decreased. The air is very thin up there. And he probably would have passed out. So, he probably wasn't experiencing anything after a couple of minutes.

But what is interesting is that the super cold probably threw his body into almost a state of hibernation. In fact, they call it suspended animation in medicine, where basically reducing the body's demand for anything. It's like it's hibernating.

So, he was probably, in his state of almost hibernation throughout the time that he was flying, and then when he came back down to the warmer air, it was thicker again, he had more oxygen, he was able to wake up. But --

BURNETT: I mean, it's also incredible, it seems that he's talking and functioning, because other people who have survived seem to have had, you know, longer term, damage, brain damage problems because of the oxygen --

GUPTA: Yes, you worry about enough oxygen the blood getting to the brain. But again, that's super cold. And we do this in the operating room sometimes, super chill the body so that the brain just doesn't just demand the oxygen.

You couldn't have planned this. I mean, it was remarkable that it happened, but I think that those two competing forces worked in his favor.

BURNETT: That's incredible. And I wanted to talk about another story you've been covering. This is -- you know, the significant development in this, you all probably saw Sanjay in West Africa, in Guinea, covering the Ebola outbreak. Doctors are struggling to stop it. It is one of the world's deadliest viruses, and one of the deadliest strains in the world right now.

Spreading fast, the virus claiming 22 lives in Guinea and Liberia, there have been reports of other places like Mali. The World Health Organization now says there are another 100 cases and they say it could spread.

Sanjay, the number of cases -- I mean, this is -- it seems to be spreading. The death rate is incredibly high. They don't have obviously a lot of medical care there if this were to spread elsewhere in the world, you could be talking about something with epic proportions. You're with the doctors, can they contain it?

GUPTA: I have a lot more faith now. You know, look, it's the first time I covered the story of Ebola, and there is a lot of those concerns. It is widespread. It has found its way into a city of 2 million people that has an international airport. Those are all really valid concerns.

There are sort of three things that are going on simultaneously, as soon as somebody is potentially ill, they are able to get those people isolated really quickly. You see some of that going on in there.

BURNETT: Yes.

GUPTA: This is dangerous work, and obviously dangerous work even for some of these health care professionals.

But then they're doing something else. They're immediately going out and finding all the contacts of those people, as well. People they may have come in touch with that could also be potentially carriers, people who might get sick later on.

And then, finally, they're testing people to make sure they actually have it or don't have it.

What I'm describing sounds like pretty simple, but even five years ago they couldn't do it all simultaneously. And I think as a result of that they have a better shot of containing this.

BURNETT: All right, so what about -- I'm curious, you're sitting here, all jokes aside how about close I want to sit with you, you know, you were able to get on a plane and fly internationally out of Guinea, was it easy to do? Because obviously you're talking about an international airport. Somebody could have come in contact with somebody, how easy would it have been to get on a plane and come here?

GUPTA: Well, you know, there's a couple of precautions they take at the airport. You fill out a lot of questionnaire, it's a pretty basic questionnaire and they ask if you've been sick and some specific questions around that. They take your temperature because a fever is one of the earliest signs that you may have infection. So, before you can get on, you actually have to prove that you don't have a fever at all. But those are pretty basic things.

Let me point out again --

BURNETT: The questionnaire relies in self-reporting, I mean --

GUPTA: Self-reporting. But, you know, again, Erin, you know, we talk about this when I was over there, in order for somebody to pass this virus on to somebody else, the person has to already be really, really sick. I mean, you're in bed, you're out, you're not walking around the streets of Conakry, you're not walking around in airport and suddenly going to become, you know, Typhoid Mary here. It can happen, what we're describing, but it's very unlikely.

So, with some pretty basic questions, the isolation, the contact tracing, all of that, it does seem to be making a difference. By the way, mortality rates normally 90 percent for Ebola, closer to 60 percent this time, still terrible but making a dent.

BURNETT: All right. Sanjay, thank you very much.

GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.

BURNETT: And still to come, Jeanne Moos has been watching this particular video all day long. Why, Jeanne, why?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Nine years ago today, the very first YouTube video has been posted online, and since then, billions of hours of videos have been viewed.

Which video the people really go wild for?

For the answer, we turn to our Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You are looking at the very first video ever uploaded to YouTube. It was nine years ago that one of YouTube's founders, Jawed Karim --

JAWED KARIM, YOUTUBE FOUNDER: Here we are in front of the elephants.

MOOS: -- uploaded "Me at the Zoo".

KARIM: Really, really, really long tusks.

MOOS: It was a really, really, really unremarkable video lasting 18 seconds.

(on camera): Happy birthday, YouTube, and with that boring zoo video, you ushered in what many consider to be the greatest genre of YouTube video.

(voice-over): The animal video, from a lion wishing it could eat a kid dressed in a zebra costume, to a camel wrapping its jaws around a little girl's head.

How time flies, even nine years when you're watching animal videos, from keyboard cat to --

(MUSIC)

MOOS: We've passed, Lord knows, how much time watching a sneezing panda or a sneezing goat. If it is not a goat sneezing, it's goats screaming like humans.

We're wide awake watching a sleepwalking dog.

(on camera): But when it comes to the most watched video on YouTube in the first nine years, the winner isn't some cute animal video -- (MUSIC)

(voice-over): Which racked up 1.9 billion with B views.

YouTube isn't celebrating. "Don't light those birthday candles just yet! We'll celebrate YouTube's ninth anniversary in May when YouTube.com became public."

But most of the Web is paying homage to their first upload in April.

KARIM: That's pretty much all there to say.

MOOS: But there is plenty to say about a German shepherd eating chips out of a jar.

One poster spoke for us all when he said "I'm watching a dog in a suit eating peanut butter. What am I doing with my life?"

You're watching finger licking good, animal videos.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: I can't even choose, but obviously, I have to choose the camel one, but I mean -- I don't know, that is hard to choose.

Anyway, there is going to be lots more of those where those videos came from. Currently, 100 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute, 99.99 percent of it utterly worthless, but still enjoyable.

Thanks so much as always for joining us. We'll see you again tomorrow.

Anderson starts now.