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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Russian Jet Broke Up Mid-Air; St. Petersburg. Russia in Mourning; GOP Debate Meeting Ends with Modest Goals; Wreckage Similar in Size to El Faro Found. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired November 02, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:06] MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, investigators trying to determine what brought down a plane from the skies over Egypt. The airliner coming apart mid air en route to Russia. We have officials -- we have what officials are saying and what grieving families are demanding at this hour.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: The Republicans are taking charge. Campaigns laying down the law on future debates after last week's GOP outrage at CNBC. We're going to show you what the campaigns agree on and what needs to be worked out.

MARQUEZ: And they are celebrating in Kansas City. Royals world champs. A gutsy performance to finish off another come-from-behind win over the Mets. We have the highlights from Queens.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Miguel Marquez.

KOSIK: And I'm Alison Kosik. It's Monday, November 2nd, it's 4:00 a.m. in the East.

Crash investigators are still trying to determine this morning what brought down a Russian passenger jet killing all 224 people on board. The Metrojet flight operated by the Kogalymavia Airlines crashed Saturday 20 minutes into the flight from an Egyptian report to St. Petersburg, Russia. Russian officials now say the plane's fuselage disintegrated in mid air, scattering debris across eight square miles in a remote part of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

The cause of the crash still unknown. Was it a technical problem with the 18-year-old Airbus jet? Could it have been a terror attack?

With the latest on the search for answers, let's bring in CNN's Ian Lee live from Cairo.

So, Ian, we heard early reports that the pilot had radioed in, looking for land at a different airport saying there was a technical problem. Now there are questions something more egregious happened to the plane, talking about a terror attack.

Is it too early to really know?

IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, it is a bit too early to know exactly what happened, though the predominant theory right now is that it was a technical issue. The Russians saying the plane did disintegrate over the Sinai Peninsula. What we're hearing from Egyptian officials, though, is they're blaming a mechanical issue on board this plane.

We are hearing from the ex-wife of the co- pilot who said the co-pilot was worried about the plane. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NATALYA TRUKHACHEVA, EX-WIFE OF CO-PILOT SERGEI TRUKACHEV (Through Translator): Our daughter had a telephone chat with him just before the flight. He complained before the flight about better condition of the plane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: The wreckage is over that eight square miles as you said so they are still looking for clues to determine exactly what happened. The Egyptian Civil Aviation minister said that there wasn't any concerns before the plane went off and that it passed routine inspection.

Now you do have the other theory and this is predominantly coming from ISIS in the Sinai Peninsula claiming responsibility. A military source told CNN that they just don't have the means to take down a plane. They don't have sophisticated missiles or radar to do so. Their other theory is a bomb. But those black boxes are in Cairo right now. Officials are going over them to determine really exactly what happened.

KOSIK: You know, Ian, it's so heartbreaking for the families. A lot of these people who are on this plane were coming back from a vacation, from a holiday. And so many children on board that flight. Can you tell us more about the people who were killed?

LEE: Well, that's right. And many of these people going on holiday escaping the cold weather in Russia, looking for a vacation on the beach. And I have been to Sharm el Sheikh quite a few times. I've seen these flights come in. You get these charter jets from all over. People looking for a little fun in the sun. And you did, when you look at the makeup of the passenger list, a lot of family members, you have 17 children.

You also have couples who are escaping and going to the beach as well, which right now is leaving people questioning how many orphans have been created by this tragedy.

KOSIK: Absolutely heart breaking. Ian Lee, thanks so much for your report.

MARQUEZ: Now in Russia, a city is in mourning. In St. Petersburg overnight, a plane landed carrying the remains of 144 victims of the Metro flight crash. A second transport expected to depart Cairo around midday Eastern Time.

This haunting photo spreading on social media this morning, it shows the 10-month-old Darina Gromov in St. Petersburg before she and her parents boarded their plane to Egypt. All three perished on the return flight. At St. Petersburg Airport, a memorial sprung up, with flowers, candles and children's toys.

That's where CNN's Nic Robertson has joined us.

Nic, what is the scene there now?

[04:05:05] NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Miguel, it's one of heartbreak and sadness. I just turn around here and you can see some children. They brought their toys here. We've seen a procession of children arriving here today, bringing toys to leave. There's a carpet of toys that covers the ground here. 25 children were lost on board this plane.

And it's not just the children who died on the flight, there were some parents on board. Quite a few parents on board who left their young children with relatives at home here in St. Petersburg. Of course they didn't return. The parents didn't return. There are now a large number of orphans here.

As we stand by this memorial today, we've seen a lot of people coming, leaving flowers. The children leaving toys. Parents hugging their children. A lot of tears here. But of course the toughest and hardest part of the grief here today will be for the families of the victims. They're being taken by government officials to a morgue where 144 bodies of those dead have already returned early this morning to St. Petersburg.

They'll begin the very difficult and tough process of trying to find and recognize their loved ones and identify. Those more bodies we're told will be brought back later tonight. Personal possessions also being transported back here.

It is a day again here in this region, the government has called for another day of national mourning. And as we stand here, we see a lot of sadness this morning -- Miguel.

MARQUEZ: Nic Robertson for us in St. Petersburg, thanks very much for bringing it for us.

KOSIK: Republican presidential candidates trying to seize more control of the TV debate process from networks and the Republican Party. Meeting last night face-to-face for the first time. But this morning, the campaigns have precious little agreement on key issues.

A source inside the meeting telling CNN's Manu Raju the campaign will take over negotiations with host network on the debate format, seeking a two-hour time limit, and 30 seconds for opening and closing statements, among other things. The RNC will continue to handle basic debate logistics. The campaigns will push for earlier information on debate moderators and whether candidates will get equal speaking time.

Among the points where no agreement was reached, CNN source says lower polling candidates want two debates, perhaps split between equal numbers of randomly selected candidates. And the Bush campaign wants Telemundo restored as a debate co-sponsor while the Trump campaign says it would boycott the debate if that happens. Moderating last night's meeting was Republican attorney and fixer, Ben

Ginsberg. He says having the RNC handle negotiations with the networks has left the campaigns out of the information flow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN GINSBERG, REPUBLICAN ATTORNEY AND DEBATE MEETING MODERATOR: The campaigns themselves were not talking to the debate sponsors. The information flow has not been nearly what it's been in past years. Campaigns have been able and should be able to get information about the details of the debate far sooner than they have so far this cycle. So if you have that transparency and accountability, you can talk to the sponsors about formats and opening and closing statements, and the way they put up graphics on the screen and even who the moderators are and the types of questions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: And for more on the campaigns' efforts to set the terms for future debates, let's go to CNN's Chris Frates in Washington.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alison and Miguel, good morning. There are still a number of Republican presidential campaigns upset about how CNBC handled Wednesday night's debate. And some of that blame is coming down on the RNC itself.

The committee tried to channel some of that frustration on Friday when they announced they were suspending the February debate they had planned with NBC News. But that hasn't stopped some of the campaigns from getting together to talk about how they might take some control back over the debates from the RNC.

Now remember in the past, the campaigns themselves negotiated with the TV networks. But this year, the RNC did the negotiating on behalf of the campaigns because they felt like there were too many debates last cycle. Republicans felt like their eventual nominee, who of course was Mitt Romney, came out of the primaries battered by roughly two dozen debates. So this time the RNC cut the number of debates down to nine and announced the debates ahead of time.

The RNC chairman said he was, quote, "trying to limit the opportunity we had to kill each other." But what the RNC couldn't have predicted is the logistics of trying to manage the debate with such a big presidential field. The problem here, of course, is that all the campaigns have very different agendas for what they want. The second tier candidates want to get on the primetime debate stage with the frontrunners, and not having earlier less-watched undercard debate.

Frontrunners, guys like Ben Carson, they want fewer tough questions and more time for talking points which will be a tough sell to the television networks. You know, Carson is basically looking for more of a forum than a debate and that likely won't fly.

And let's not forget, a lot of politics going on here. The candidates are trying to use this moment to influence a process going forward to their advantage. They are even fundraising on this issue -- Alison, Miguel.

[04:10:12] MARQUEZ: Thanks to Chris Frates.

Jeb Bush trying to revive his struggling campaign. Will he be stumping in his home state of Florida today? Bush says he's determined to improve as a candidate and in his debate performances. He is not letting up on Marco Rubio. Listen to what he said about the Florida senator on "Meet the Press."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In this era of good luck, it's really hard to break through. And I think he's given up. And I think that's the wrong thing to do. This is about public service, about solving problems.

I will be better. And look, I know that I got to get better doing the debate. And I'm a grinder. I mean, when I see that I'm not doing something well, then I reset and I get better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Carly Fiorina also trying to reenergize her campaign admitting she misspoke in last week's debate when she insisted 92 percent of the jobs lost during President Obama's first term were held by women.

KOSIK: Bernie Sanders' first TV ad buy of his campaign on the air this morning in Iowa and New Hampshire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's taking on Wall Street and a corrupt political system. Funded over a million contributions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: The campaign says it's going to spend more than $2 million on the ad over 10 days. This months after the Clinton campaign went on the air in key early nominating states.

Hillary Clinton herself is in northern Illinois today fundraising in Chicago and Evanston.

Time for an EARLY START on your money. Looking like a bad start to the week for stocks. Asian stocks are lower. A new survey shows China factory activity slowed for a third month in a row. European stocks, U.S. futures are also in the red this morning.

But a little perspective for you. Stocks have been on fire lately. On Friday, stocks posted their best month in four years. The Dow climbed 1500 points in October. And the S&P 500 shot up more than 8 percent. Market brushed off fears that sent stocks tumbling just a few months ago. Talking about China's slowdown, the Fed's looming rate hike, but in reality, those threats are still there. And you look at corporate profits. They haven't exactly wowed Wall

Street. Sure, there have been some highlights, but profits are still on track for the first back-to-back decline since 2009. So there are a lot of consumer companies who've been raising red flags. All is not completely perfect in the economy.

MARQUEZ: Mixed signals. A shipwreck found at the bottom of the Atlantic and officials suspect it's the cargo ship that went missing during Hurricane Joaquin. We'll tell you why coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:15:50] MARQUEZ: Investigators are convinced they located the wreckage of the cargo ship El Faro nearly three miles down off the coast of the Bahamas. The ship vanished one month ago during Hurricane Joaquin. 33 crew members were onboard, were lost. The big challenge now recovering the vessel's data recorder and any human remains that might be found.

We get more from CNN's Sara Ganim.

SARA GANIM, CNN INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Miguel and Alison, a new development in the search for El Faro. Officials believe they may have spotted it using sonar technology. They saw these images on Saturday, a ship about that size in the location where El Faro was last seen off the coast of the Bahamas.

It's resting about three miles down on the ocean floor upright and intact as far as they can tell. So now investigators of the NTSB and the U.S. Navy are going to deploy this underwater drone, this submarine with cameras to make sure with 100 percent certainty that it is the El Faro.

Of course family members of the 33 crew members who, for the last month, have been dealing with not just the loss of loved ones, but also a lack of answers are very hopeful that this will bring some much needed closure.

Barry Young is the relative of one of those crew members. He said he'd like to see the ship retrieved from the ocean floor. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARRY YOUNG, RELATIVE OF EL FARO CREWMEMBER: If they can pull it up, which I know is kind of not an easy situation with the depth there. We hope that something, if nothing else, something can bring us some closure. To have Sean brought back home. By whatever state it is. We would like to see him brought back home.

The one thing that every parent, every loved one, every family members stated that Wednesday when they said they were suspending the search, they all wanted to find their loved one. Whether they were alive or not. They wanted to have them home. That was their main objective.

(END VIDEO CLIP) GANIM: Now to be clear, the NTSB saying that they have no plans at this point to remove the ship from the ocean. But they say that if they do find human remains, that efforts will be made to bring those back home.

Now also, you know, this process of positively identifying the ship could take up to 15 days. And that's in good weather conditions. If the conditions are less than ideal, it could take longer than that -- Miguel and Alison.

KOSIK: All right, Sara, thanks for that.

The three-decade wait is over. The Kansas City Royals, world champions. The baseball season coming to a wild finish early this morning. We've got highlights next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:22:11] MARQUEZ: Well, the Kansas City Royals are World Series champs. Champion of the world. They beat the New York Mets 7-2 in 12 innings to win the series in five games. The Royals were down 2-0 in the ninth, amazingly enough, but scored two runs to tie the game and send it into extra innings where we heard this before. They scored five runs in the 12th to put it away. It's Kansas City's first World Series title since 1985.

KOSIK: You sound --

MARQUEZ: And the second in the team's history.

KOSIK: You sound like a broken record. I mean, how frustrating for Mets fans. How many games have we seen --

MARQUEZ: It was --

KOSIK: -- that they just couldn't bring it home at the end.

MARQUEZ: Let's call this one the heart break series.

KOSIK: I think that's appropriate.

MARQUEZ: Because the Mets -- at least for New York fans, you know, one's heart just -- if you were with the Mets, this would be a very tough series to watch.

KOSIK: I know. I think there are going to be a lot of tears in New York today.

MARQUEZ: I'm crying on the inside.

KOSIK: Are you?

MARQUEZ: Yes. It's terrible. It's the worst.

KOSIK: El Nino taking shape, bringing heavy rain and snow to the west to start November. Let's go to meteorologist Alison Chinchar with more.

ALISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We certainly are starting to see if change of pattern out in the west which we typically do in a strong El Nino year.

In terms of moisture to the west coast, this low is going to slowly push off to the north and bring a lot of moisture needed, much needed moisture to parts of California, especially. Rain accumulations, we're talking 2 to 4 inches, especially in central California. And also snow accumulations, we're talking in summaries over a foot of snow in parts of the Rockies. That's also very moisture and good news for the ski resorts as well.

Radar shows a lot that are beginning to move in on Monday, but it will continue into Tuesday as well. But a difference of patterns. We've got the colder moist air to the west and much warmer conditions across much of the eastern half of the country. Take a look at Chicago. 71 Monday. 73 on Wednesday. They average in the mid-50s. New York, we're going from 66 to 70 on Tuesday.

The average high temperature only 58 degrees. But changes are coming for Chicago. The morning low Thursday morning may end up being warmer than the high temperature on Saturday -- Alison and Miguel.

KOSIK: OK. Alison, thanks for that.

An e. Coli scare leading to Chipotle to close dozens of its restaurants in Oregon and Washington state. Health officials say 19 cases in Washington and three in Oregon have been linked to a handful of Chipotle locations. Eight people have been hospitalized. The company says it's working with health departments in both states to figure out the source of the contamination.

MARQUEZ: And Fred Thompson is being remembered this morning from Tennessee to Washington to Hollywood. The former senator and actor died Sunday following a recurrence of lymphoma. Thompson was first elected to fill Al Gore's Senate seat in 1994 before winning a full term. He briefly ran for president in 2008. He appeared in several films, but may be best known for his role on the TV show "Law & Order." Fred Thompson was 73 years old.

[04:25:08] KOSIK: One of those really recognizable and likable guy, right?

MARQUEZ: I always thought he was president.

(LAUGHTER)

KOSIK: He was on TV so much as well.

MARQUEZ: Because he -- I think he played president like five times on the -- in movies.

KOSIK: The remains of victims beginning to arrive back in Russia following this weekend's plane crash in Egypt. And now officials have a key piece of information that could help determine what brought the plane down. We're going to tell you what it is.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KOSIK: Happening now, key clues emerging after the plane crash that brought down a passenger jet headed for Russia. We have details of what officials are learning as grieving families demand answers.

MARQUEZ: And Republicans are trying to rip control over the presidential debates from the RNC. A high level meeting going down last night. We have all the big takeaways from that.

KOSIK: And they are a laughing stock no more. The Kansas City Royals are world champions of baseball. We have highlights of another comeback that clinched the crown.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Alison Kosik. Good morning.

MARQUEZ: And I'm Miguel Marquez. Happy Monday to you. It is 29 minutes past the hour.

Now crash investigators are trying to determine this morning what brought down a Russian passenger jet killing all 224 people on board. The Metrojet flight operated by Kogalymavia Airlines crashed Saturday. 20 minutes into the flight from an Egyptian resort to St. Petersburg, Russia. Russian officials now say the plane's fuselage disintegrated mid air scattering debris across eight square miles in remote part of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.