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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

"For God's Sake, Open the Door"; Iran Nuclear Negotiations: Critical Point; Yemen in Crisis: War Intensifies; College Basketball's Final Four is Set. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 30, 2015 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: My book lands this week in bookstores. It's called "Smart is the New Rich: Money for Millennials", particularly for those millennials who do like to save, they have 40 years of a time horizon. So, they are the ones who should be stocking away.

That book also has a lot of advice about investing. Starting your investments young.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Forty years of important information.

EARLY START continues right now.

ROMANS: Thank you, John.

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ROMANS: The final moments of Germanwings flight 9525 revealed. How copilot Andreas Lubitz lured his captain out of the cockpit. New information about the killer's mental health and gruesome recovery happening right now in the Alps. Live team coverage breaking it all down, ahead.

BERMAN: Nuclear negotiations with Iran reaching a critical point. The deadline to reach a framework just two days away and now, overnight, a new roadblock. What is it? Can it be overcome? We are live at the negotiations.

ROMANS: War intensifies in Yemen. Once a key ally on terror, now a country in chaos. A new league of nations forming to get the country under control. We are live with the latest developments.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. A very busy morning in this country and around the world. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. It is Monday, March 30th, 5:00 a.m. in the East.

And this morning, we are hearing chilling new details of the last minutes of Germanwings Flight 9525. They come from a summary transcript of the cockpit voice reporting published Sunday by the German newspaper "Bild." CNN has translated this story but not independently verify the details. Most terrifying is the description of Patrick Sonderheimer's frantic effort to get into the cockpit, banging on the door, screaming, quote, "For God's sake, open the door."

Standing by with more on this astounding report is our senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen.

Good morning, Fred.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, John.

You are absolutely right. It is a chilling read, that transcript is. One of the things that it shows is that this flight seemed to start off quite normally. It took off 20 minutes late. However, it appears as though even in the early stages of the flight and before the flight, Andreas Lubitz, the copilot, was setting his Captain Patrick Sonderheimer up to leave the cockpit.

Now, Sonderheimer, before the flight, said he forgot to go to the bathroom in Barcelona. And repeatedly, Lubitz says, well, you can go anytime, don't worry about it. Then, when they reached cruising altitude at 38,000 feet, Sonderheimer does leave the cockpit. He goes out, his chair can be heard going back and he leaves the cockpit. That is when the chilling moments of the transcript start.

We are 10:29 local time in the air. That's when air traffic radar detects the plane is beginning to descend. Only three minutes later, air traffic control attempts to get in touch with the plane, but there is no answer.

Almost at the same time, an alarm goes off in the cockpit saying sink rate. That is something that indicates the plane is going down very quickly.

Shortly after that, there's a loud bang on the door which is Sonderheimer knocking on the door saying, "For God's sake, open the door." This is the first time that passengers can also be heard screaming inside the cabin.

At 10:35, there's a loud metallic bang on the door as though someone is trying to knock the door down. That, of course, presumably is Sonderheimer again frantically attempting to get back into the cockpit.

Ninety seconds later, there's another warning inside the cockpit saying "terrain, pull up." Now, remember, we are in very mountainous terrain inside the Alps. So, the plane will be going down realizing it is not in a landing configuration and that something appears to be wrong. Almost at the same time, Sonderheimer can be heard screaming again, open the door.

Then, at 10:40 local time, the plane's right wing can apparently be heard, this is what investigators say, it can apparently be heard, scraping a mountain top. The passengers scream one more time and that is when this recording ends. It really is a very chilling, a devastating read. It is also one

where the French investigators say they are dismayed at the fact something like this is leaked could have been leaked. They don't deny that it is accurate. But, of course, we, one more time, have no way of independently verifying whether or not it is a true transcript of the cockpit voice recording, John.

BERMAN: You can understand their dismay at the leaks. Nevertheless, though, with those details inside, easy to see the certainty they were displaying last week as they were outlining what they believe the chain of events to be.

Frederik Pleitgen for us -- thanks so much, Fred.

ROMANS: All right. New this morning, several publications reporting new details on the medical condition of that copilot, that he was suffering from depression, anxiety and vision problems which may have put his career and his lifelong ambition to fly at risk. CNN is working to confirm these details which might shine new light on the events surrounding the disaster.

[05:05:00] CNN's Diana Magnay live for us in Dusseldorf with the latest.

And, Diana, you were at his family home in Montabaur last week. Now, you're there in Dusseldorf. What are the pieces they're being able to put together and what reports are and what family and friends are saying about this copilot?

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, investigators and the state prosecutor here in Dusseldorf were hoping and we are being led to expect, will give some kind of a statement today about the update on the investigation. From my time in Montabaur, it's very clear from the gliding club, where Lubitz spent much of his teenage years that he was absolutely passionate about flying. And what it would appear is, though this medical condition which the prosecutor confirmed Lubitz had on Friday did seem to impact possibly the future -- his flying future.

As you said, there are various reports that have come out over weekend citing officials close to the investigation which says that anti- depressants were found in the apartment. Lots of prescription drugs, that he had personal writings there to suggest some kind of psychosomatic illness, that he was being treated by psychologists and neurologists for this illness, and "Bild" characterized this illness as a severe psychosomatic illness, and severe subjective burnout syndrome. And this kind of psychological complaint is also being cited in "Le Figaro", one of the French newspapers citing officials close to the investigation.

We haven't been able to confirm any of that yet. We are trying very hard. I can tell you, though, from my reporting in Montabaur, from all those I spoke to who knew him -- none of this married up with their image of him as a person. Not particularly very nice, very low key. But it was very clear that just as he managed to keep his complaint hidden from his employer, he also seemed to keep it hidden from those who knew him -- Christine.

ROMANS: This is amazing, Diana, to think what kind of psychosis, what kind of depression, what kind of whatever it was would allow someone to watch -- I mean, the thought of him watching and hearing the people boarding the aircraft, school children, women with their babies and to be so damaged to do something like that. It's just really hard to get your head around it, and I think that's probably what a lot of his friends are saying as well.

Diana, thank you so much for that.

Now, Germanwings' parent, Lufthansa, and its insurers have begun the grim task of figuring out compensation for victims' families. Despite unusual circumstances, Lufthansa will most likely still face liability in that crash. One aviation lawyer telling CNN Money, the total bill could top $1 billion, including roughly $350 million to compensate the families. It could take more than a year to settle claims with families. Final payouts will vary depending on the victim's nationality, the age, the employment status. Some families could receive less than $100,000. Others will get millions.

In the meantime, Lufthansa is providing initial support worth about $50,000 per victim, that's just for the very near term, John. But, of course, talking about price and compensation at this stage of the game always sounds so kind of crass and heartless. That is the brutal math of aviation disasters.

BERMAN: They're difficult discussions to be had, but the company is doing it and the families need it right away.

Eight minutes after the hour.

The deadline is approaching in these discussions to end Iran's nuclear program. A snag developing over just the last 24 hours, the Iranians throwing up a surprise roadblock.

CNN's global affairs correspondent Elise Labott is live at the talks in Switzerland.

Elise, this seemed to have come from nowhere.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, what U.S. officials are saying is that there was never full agreement on what the Iranian foreign minister said that Iran would not ship out its existing pile of enriched uranium. You know, this is what we've been talking about, the enriched uranium that would give enough fissile material for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

Now, the understanding was that Iran was going to ship out its existing stockpile and then it was going to reduce the number of centrifuges, the machines that enrich uranium. And that would be a formula by which that would limit the amount of time that Iran would need to make a nuclear weapon.

Now, the Iranian foreign minister is saying that material would never leave Iran. Everyone had the understanding that they would. And now, what U.S. officials are saying that there are a lot of solutions that are being discussed. One possible solution could be to dilute the material.

But certainly, the whole thing is, John, it throws a new wrench into these negotiations. And it's just another thing for the Obama administration to have to explain to Congress who's going to say, look, Iran seems to be keeping a lot of its nuclear infrastructure in this deal, John.

BERMAN: There seems to be a lot of chaos in these discussions. And again, the deadline for the framework is just two days away.

Elise Labott for us in Switzerland, thanks so much.

[05:10:00] ROMANS: All right. Saudi Arabia and the coalition of Arab nations preparing to launch a ground offensive into Yemen. The Egyptians have already pledged troops to the Saudi-led mission to root out Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. Now, Yemen's foreign minister says he's expecting Arab coalition forces to begin the operation within days.

CNN's Ian Lee is tracking developments live from Cairo.

And you can't really, Ian, overstate, kind of how historic this group of Arab nations.

IAN LEE, CNN REPORTER (via telephone): What we are hearing from the Arab League summit is they have the coalition of nine countries that pledged to use their air, land and naval forces. This includes six countries from the Gulf Cooperation Council and Egypt and Jordan and Sudan.

What they are hoping is to push back the Iran-backed Houthi rebels from the southern part of the country, to push them back into the north where they come from. Now, Saudi Arabia has said their main objective is to degrade, destroy their capabilities of waging war.

Not everyone was on board with this communique that came out. Iraq and Lebanon, the most vocal opponents. These are dominantly Shiite countries. They are influenced by Iran. They want a diplomatic solution. They believe that is going to be the only way forward with this and they're not alone.

The United Nations has also come forward to say they would like a diplomatic solution. Now, we do not know when or if a ground invasion is going to happen. We could hear it could happen within days. But what we know it is Yemen's president to authorize that use of force, and this comes from the final communique where it said only Arab leaders have the authority to issue this sort of order for foreign armies to enter their country.

ROMANS: All right. Ian Lee for us in Cairo, on the phone this morning reporting. Thank you, Ian.

BERMAN: Happening now in Iraq, U.S. airstrikes pounding ISIS targets in Tikrit. But the battle to retake that city has hit a snag because Iranian-backed Shiite forces who are helping the Iraqi military, they are now boycotting the fight to protest U.S. involvement. Hundreds of ISIS soldiers are holed up in Tikrit. Storming the scene not really an option because the perimeter is where the bombs and bobby traps set by ISIS.

ROMANS: A huge oops by a worker at Australia's immigration department. According to "The Guardian" newspaper, a worker mistakenly sent out personal information of world leaders who attended the last G-20 summit. That information, oh, passport numbers, visa details, all of it sent to organizers of the Asian Cup football tournament.

President Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, all of those leaders affected. Unclear if they're going to that tournament or not. Apparently, managers in Australia felt the leak wasn't serious enough to alert the leaders.

BERMAN: I still would not -- I wouldn't be overly concerned if I were President Obama because I don't think you're going to show up like at Home Depot and buy a two by four and say you are Barack Obama.

ROMANS: I would give fraud alerts to all three of the major credit agencies, just to be sure. That's what I would advise.

Thirteen minutes past the hour.

Indiana's governor firing back at critics who claim the state's new freedom of religion law is legalized discrimination. Companies -- a lot of companies now threatening to take their business elsewhere. They say, hey, how do we get good workers who want to, you know, move to Indiana with a law like this?

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[05:16:43] ROMANS: Governor of Indiana claims his state's controversial new religious freedom law is misunderstood. Critics, a growing number of critics, claim this measure is now about religious freedom. It's about allowing businesses to turn away gay customers on religious grounds and it's triggering quite a backlash.

We get more this morning from CNN's Shasta Darlington.

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SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, Indiana Governor Mike Pence is on the defensive over the new religious freedom bill that's sparking protests and boycotts. Opponents say it will allow businesses to turn away gay and lesbian customers on religious grounds.

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), INDIANA: For our legislature.

DARLINGTON: On ABC's "This Week", Pence blames the media.

PENCE: I think, I understand that there's been a tremendous amount of misinformation and misunderstanding around this bill. I'm just determined -- and I appreciate the time on your program. I'm determined to clarify this.

DARLINGTON: The law has come under fire from business. CEOs from Apple to Yelp lashing out and Angie's List, which is based in Indianapolis cancelling a planned expansion there. The NCAA, which is holding its college basketball Final Four in Indianapolis next weekend, saying it's concerned about the impact on players and employees.

Openly gay NBA player Jason Collins and former star Charles Barkley also denounce the bill.

But Pence made it clear he's not going to change the law, or consider a bill making gays and lesbian a protective class, like in many other states.

PENCE: I will not push for that. That's not on my agenda. This is not about discrimination. This is about protecting the religious liberty of every Hoosier, of every faith.

DARLINGTON: In the end, he refused to answer at least six yes-or-no questions about whether the measure legalizes discrimination against gays and lesbians.

There are now about 20 states with some form of religious freedom law on the books. But with all of this controversy in Indiana, some of the other states pursuing similar legislation could think twice.

Back to you, John, Christine.

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BERMAN: The prosecution of the trial of Boston marathon bombing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev expected to rest today after medical examiners testify. The defense will then mount its case, if in fact does mount one at all. One the questions that will be unanswered shortly, will Tsarnaev take the stand in his own defense in this part of the trial, perhaps in the sentencing phase, perhaps neither? Some jury members were in tears as a medical examiner testified about Krystle Campbell's fatal injuries. They also saw six bomb replicas built by the FBI.

ROMANS: Passengers on an Air Canada jet from Toronto to Halifax say they are lucky to be alive this morning after a crash-landing and bad weather tore off the nose gear and most of the engine.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were coming in to land and we heard a really big bump, and very hard. I hit my head. We heard another big bang. And then, we just started to say, get out, get out, get out.

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ROMANS: Investigators say the plane came down 1,100 feet short of the runway, severing a power line, smashing an airport antenna array. Twenty-five people, including two pilots, were treated for minor injuries. The cause of that crash is under investigation. [05:20:02] BERMAN: The Final Four is set, Duke, Michigan State,

Wisconsin and Kentucky. Sixty-four entered, four remain, all vying for the national championship. Andy Scholes breaks down the Final Four, hopefully with a full profile of Frank Kaminsky, in the bleacher report, next.

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BERMAN: The Final Four is set. It's the little guys out of nowhere.

ROMANS: You never would have picked these teams.

BERMAN: Kentucky, Wisconsin, Duke and Michigan State, they will battle it out in Indianapolis.

ROMANS: Andy Scholes has more in this morning's bleacher report.

Hey, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Guys, I never saw this coming, right? We could not ask for a more star-studded Final Four when it comes to the coaches that were involved, we've got Mike Krzyzewski, Bo Ryan, John Calipari, and Tom Izzo combined, they made 25 Final Fours. That's the most ever for a group of choices at the Final Four.

Now, Duke was the last time to punch their ticket, last night, outlasting Gonzaga, 66-52. This is going to be Coach K's 12th Final Four, tying him for the most all time with legendary coach John Wood.

Tom Izzo, meanwhile, he has his Spartans back in the Final Four for a seventh time. Michigan State and Louisville is coming down to the wire. Yesterday, Cardinals down one and Mathiang at the line. His first free throw amazingly bounces in. Magic Johnson can't believe it. The game would go to overtime. In the extra period, Forbes with the three, as the Spartans would go on to win this game, 76-70.

[05:25:03] Now, Twitter was absolutely going numbers on Saturday night as Kentucky and Notre Dame played a thriller. Andrew Harrison made a pair of clutch free throws with seconds remaining. Notre Dame's prayer goes unanswered on the final possession as the Wildcats improve to a perfect 38-0.

What do you get for being the hero for Kentucky? Well, Wildcats super fan Ashley Judd will apparently leap into your arms and give you a hug and kiss. Here is her with Harrison's after Saturday's night big win.

Now, up next for Kentucky will be a rematch with Wisconsin in the Final Four. In other game, Michigan State will take on Duke. You can watch both on our sister station TBS Saturday night.

Our best wishing go out to TNT sideline reporter and former CNNer, Craig Sager this morning. Sager's son announced last night that his father's leukemia has unfortunately returned. Sager caught a flu and had to be hospitalized. He will begin chemotherapy and have another bone marrow transplant. We wish him a full and speedy recovery. And finally, knee problem? What knee problem? Serena Williams

looking strong at the Miami open. She crushed 15-year-old CiCi Bellis in straight sets on Sunday to reach the fourth round of the tournament. Bellis, as you remember, she made headlines by winning a match at last year's U.S. Open, but she just couldn't stay with the world's number one player.

And, guys, back to the Final Four, you know, I said at the start, a star-studded coaches in the Final Four. We're going to see a lot of talent in this year's Final Four, too. Projected nine first round picks in the NBA draft are going to be on display.

You know, you're going to have good coaching, great players. I'm looking forward to Indianapolis next weekend.

BERMAN: Some of these performances this weekend, Andy, were phenomenal. Wisconsin game, I was watching Sam Dekker hitting these threes from Mars.

SCHOLES: Those threes were crazy. The final one where he hit it and walked down the sidelines are great.

BERMAN: Some day, we're all going to experience something like that. No.

All right. Thanks, Andy.

ROMANS: Thanks, Andy.

Twenty-seven minutes past the hour this morning.

New information this morning about the final moments of Germanwings Flight 9525. How the copilot managed to lock his captain out of the cockpit and disturbing new details about the killer's mental health problems. Live team coverage, next.

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