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Space Shuttle Repair Successful; Investigation Launched in Air France Crash; Flight Attendant Shares Safety Tips for Evacuation

Aired August 03, 2005 - 13:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE ROBINSON, ASTRONAUT: Thank you. Here we go.

OK, watch it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: Emergency mission accomplished. We're live from Houston where right now there isn't a problem.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Mary Snow in Toronto, where officials are both investigating and marveling at Air France Flight 358 and how more than 300 people escaped flames. We'll have that story coming up.

PHILLIPS: Making it out alive. What did these passengers do right? A former flight attendant shares life saving insight.

Also this hour. A dog's debut. We're going to show you the first pictures of the world's first cloned puppy.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

We're getting a story right now. This just in to CNN. We are being told that the first suspect that was being held in the July 21 attempted bombing in London has been arrested. Of course, there were a number of individuals being held, being interrogated. And now we're being told that the first suspect being held in this case has been charged.

There has been an individual, a 23-year-old individual that was in custody has now been charged, officially charged in the London bombing from back on July 21. As soon as we get more information on his name, details about him and the exact charge, we will let you know. We're working it right now.

The belly of Discovery is once again as smooth as -- well, as smooth as Steve Robinson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE ROBINSON, ASTRONAUT: Thank you. Here we go.

OK, watch it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: There you go. You saw it right there. Robinson, the shuttlenaut who dangled from Discovery's robot arm to remove a couple of gap fillers that you just saw. Could have messed up the shuttle's aerodynamics on reentry, but he made it look so easy, though any wrong move could have been far more problematic than the original problem.

CNN's John Zarrella was on the edge of his seat at mission control in Houston. He saw it all live. Pretty awesome stuff.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Boy, Kyra. What was that smooth as a baby's bottom now. The bottom of the shuttle now that they got those gap fillers out of there. And you know, they did; they made it look so easy.

Steve Robinson -- of course, it was not that easy -- out there extended on the end of the International Space Station's Canada arm (ph). He had to be maneuvered into position, very gentle maneuvers as they moved him to the bottom of the shuttle beneath the Space Shuttle Discovery. And there he is on the end of that arm as they moved him into position.

Remember, this is the first time in nearly a quarter century of shuttle program history that they have ever done this, gone to the bottom of the space shuttle, to the exterior of the vehicle to perform any kind of repair.

Robinson got in position, and then, he approached up to the very first gap filler. And he made it look, as we said, so very easy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBINSON: OK, that came out very easily. Probably even less force. It looks like this big patient is cured.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: You can see that red material on the -- that gap filler there. That's actually the adhesive material that's supposed to hold them in. Clearly, it did not.

The first of the gap fillers was pulled as the space shuttle flew over Massachusetts. The second one was pulled a few minutes later as the space shuttle and the International Space Station were flying over France.

And, I think certainly on the ground, the sentiments at the -- a mission briefing just a little while ago was, "We told you so."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL HILL, FLIGHT DIRECTOR: This was the last thing remaining open for us to clear. So with those gap fillers coming out like that, we've got a clean vehicle for de-orbit, pending the discussion on Eileen's side window, which we expect to hear today or tomorrow. CINDY BEGLEY, SPACE WALK OFFICER: So it did turn out to be just as easy as we said it was going to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: Now you heard Paul Hill there mentioning the blanket. There's a puffy blanket material that is on Eileen Collins' -- Commander Collins' window. They have taken images of that. It's above the "D" in Discovery, really difficult to make out there. But you can actually see there how it's puffed out just above the "D" in Discovery. NASA is looking at that.

There is the possibility, again, very, very remote, that they might have to do another fourth space walk to take care of that material. They're examining all of their options. And again, they do not believe the space walk will be necessary. But they do have to decide what, if anything, to do about that puffy blanket material before reentry.

But other than that, Kyra, the Space Shuttle Discovery is fit as a fiddle and ready to return to earth next Monday -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Sounds good. John Zarrella, thank you so much.

Well, lightning, sleet, and high winds. An extreme storm, in the words of one airport official in Toronto, but the cause of a near calamity? Possibly, not confirmed. Investigators are trying to recover the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from Air France Flight 358, which came to rest in a gully, as you know, in flames after touching down from Paris in terrible weather with 309 passengers in crew. Each and every one got out alive. That's the amazing part.

CNN's Mary Snow brings us up to date now.

Hi, Mary.

SNOW: Hi, there, Kyra. And certainly, some amazing stories being told today. But investigators have secured that crash site. They are looking for those black boxes. They had not retrieved them of this morning.

They're hoping they can get some more information about the final moments of Air France Flight 358. As you mentioned, weather certainly something they say they will be looking into, because there were thunderstorms yesterday, heavy rain, and heavy wind. And there had been a lightning alert at this airport at the time when the plane landed and skidded off the runway.

It was carrying 297 passengers, 12 crew. There were only 43 minor injuries, very thankfully, and those on board are still shaking their heads in disbelief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLIVIER DUBOS, PLANE CRASH SURVIVOR: We just feel that it's a miracle. Looking at the pictures in the newspaper this morning, I just can't believe that we all managed to get out of there, that there are any survivors. We -- I'm still in shock. I don't really understand the whole thing, what happened. But, really happy to be -- to be alive from that. That's quite an unusual feeling when you come back from a vacation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: That's one of the passengers recounting their stories today. Some telling about getting out through chutes, some saying that there were chutes that were not operable. And Air France did confirm that some of them weren't working properly. Some of the passengers jumping from the plane after it stopped.

Now, one other crucial timing factor in this, so the fire department saying that under a minute it had responded to the plane. And at least three-quarters of the passengers had already been evacuated at that point. Within the next minute or so everyone was off the plane.

And there were credits being given to the crew. Officials say the pilot had gone through the plane one more time to make sure that everyone was out. And officials say the plane went up in flames about one to two minutes after everyone had evacuated.

We are expecting another briefing around 3 p.m. Eastern Time with more information, possibly, on what happened in those final moments -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. We look forward to that 3 p.m. newser. Thank you so much, Mary Snow.

Well, if you've ever tried to reach the lavatory on a crowded flight, or be the first into the terminal to make a connecting flight, you can probably imagine what it might be like to have to get out fast, like those Toronto passengers. Or die trying.

Well, we hope you never have to. But remember, what you're about to hear, just in case, is very important.

Jennie Ziesenhenne is a newly retired flight attendant supervisor who knows all the ins and outs of emergency exits. You did the training. You know exactly what you would need to do. You never had to evacuate an aircraft, though. You were very lucky in your years.

JENNIE ZIESENHENNE, RETIRED FLIGHT ATTENDANT SUPERVISOR: Very lucky. Absolutely.

PHILLIPS: All right. So as you look at these pictures, what were your first impressions? When you saw up close, you saw the door open, and you saw folks jumping out. Your first initial reaction was, OK, that's how it should have happened.

ZIESENHENNE: Well, initially when a flight attendant has an emergency like that, they'll assess the conditions. So it's quite possible that they assessed the conditions. And because it was a belly landing, that they decided not to deploy the emergency slides.

PHILLIPS: Yes, because that's what Mary was talking about. That possibly, she said the chute -- she referred to them as chutes -- weren't working properly. But what you're saying is it's possible they didn't even need them. It was OK to just open the door and jump out.

ZIESENHENNE: Well they would assess since they were -- had a belly landing, whether the plane was at an altitude, an attitude so that it would not be too hard for the people to jump out. They didn't want the slides to impede the emergency evacuation.

PHILLIPS: Got it. All right, now, put me in the mind set. Let's say you were aboard that aircraft. How quickly do you find out that something is wrong? I mean, a lot of times you don't even get the head's up, right? So, in this situation, what would have been going through your mind? And what would have been your check list?

ZIESENHENNE: Well, because this is considered an unanticipated emergency, you should be doing a mental review on the landing. All landings and take-offs have a mental review of your emergency equipment location, your door, what you would be doing in an emergency situation.

And, what they did here, was, when they landed, they immediately assessed the situation. I don't know if there were any commands given in the cabin or not, but based on what happened, they knew that they had to immediately get as many people out as possible. And one of the things I did notice, that not all the doors were operational, so they had to just use some of the doors.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Now, considering the plane was on fire. We saw the flames. How do you know it's safe to open up the door and let people jump out? I mean, if there's a fire, no matter what the situation, you want to get out of there. Is that the deal?

ZIESENHENNE: Yes, but you keep redirecting. You don't go out that door that has a fire. You redirect. You grab assistance, and you help them redirect to another door that's a good exit.

PHILLIPS: Now, in a situation like this, whomever's sitting next to the -- whoever's in the emergency exit, are they the ones you really truly depend on to open that door? Or do you guys really, when it comes down to it, jump in and get that door open.

ZIESENHENNE: Oh, no. We open the door. If it's an anticipated emergency, you can ask for assistance, to help, to brief them quickly. But under this circumstance, you absolutely jump in there.

PHILLIPS: And I noticed that the door, it looked like when it was open, that you could see it from the outside. Like it came out, and came around. It's not the type of door, some of the aircrafts I've been on that completely come off, right?

ZIESENHENNE: Yes. Yes. PHILLIPS: So if it's the type that completely comes off, what are you supposed to do? You don't want it to get in -- do you just toss it out?

ZIESENHENNE: You just toss.

PHILLIPS: You just toss.

ZIESENHENNE: You just move it out of the way. Move everything out of the way.

PHILLIPS: So for you as a flight attendant never having to go through this. As you watch these pictures, and we were all sitting in the news room just amazed at what we were seeing. And of course, praying that everybody was going to get out alive. Are you amazed that everybody got out of there?

ZIESENHENNE: Oh, absolutely. But this is, really, a tribute to this crew and how quickly they acted. And the passengers following their instructions.

PHILLIPS: Now, what did the pilots do in a situation like this? I mean, do they wait until all the passengers get off? Are they first out the door?

ZIESENHENNE: They are assisting. They have a check list that they have to go through. So they're completing their check list. And as their duties subside, then they also try to help. And you heard the captain made a last check of his aircraft. And that's incredible.

PHILLIPS: That is pretty amazing. We'll have to work on that interview. I think we need to talk to that captain.

ZIESENHENNE: Yes.

PHILLIPS: I was looking at the numbers, too, of actually survivable crashes. One of our producers put this together. Between 1983 and 2000, 568 airline accidents, 51,207 survivors, 2,280 fatalities.

Isn't it wonderful to see that number, about how many people survive, and that's due to training?

ZIESENHENNE: Yes. Yes. It's due to training and everyone's quick reaction. Absolutely. And, you know, just it's a miracle.

PHILLIPS: And maintaining calm. And the miracle factor. You can't leave that out. Jennie, thank you so much.

ZIESENHENNE: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: More LIVE FROM right after a quick break.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next, on LIVE FROM, Marines hit hard in Iraq. One battalion loses 21 members in two days. We're live from the Pentagon.

Later on LIVE FROM, the fight for civil rights. And a heroine of the movement you probably never heard about. The KKK took her life. But her daughter is keeping her legacy alive.

Also ahead, dog double. The first-ever cloning of man's best friend. Meet Snuppy the puppy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We want to quickly update you on a developing story that we've been following. We have confirmed that one suspect, a 23- year-old suspect that was being held in the attempted London bombings back on July 21 has been charged with harboring other suspects in those London bombings.

We're working that story for you. We'll bring you more information as soon as we get it, including a name as soon as we're able to confirm that.

Meanwhile, if you saw Steve Robinson -- you saw the video. He plucked those gap fillers right out of the belly of the Space Shuttle Discovery. It was a pretty amazing moment. You may have all wondered what's all the fuss about?

Well, Robinson admits that his high pressure mission came off very easily. Easy for him to say, right? But like any professional, he can trace his success back to huge amounts of training and expertise, just as Mike Fincke. He's a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, fellow member of the astronaut corps, and veteran of four EVAs, totaling more than 15 hours. He joins me live from Houston.

Mike, great to see you.

MIKE FINCKE, ASTRONAUT: Hi, Kyra, it's great to be here. Hello from Houston.

PHILLIPS: Hello from Houston. No problems to report. Steve Robinson making history.

FINCKE: Boy. Steve did a great job on all three of his space walks. Steve and Soichi have joined the club of veteran space walkers. And boy, they made it look easy today.

PHILLIPS: Well, Mike, you've done it. Is it easy? I have a feeling it's not. There's a lot of training that goes into space walking.

FINCKE: Well, thank you -- thanks to our trainers and thanks to all the experience, especially this crew had. They had an extra 2 1/2 years worth of training while they were waiting for the shuttle to get ready. They were ready for it.

And they are ready to be flexible. Even though they didn't plan to do this, to pick the gap fillers out, they were ready to be able to do it because they had good training. And they had the skill set to do it.

And boy, Steve reached down today and plucked it just like picking a flower. In those big thick gloves, it wasn't so easy.

PHILLIPS: Well, tell me about the training. Can you give me, you know, the feel, the specifics of how intense it gets? And the kind of detail that you have to pay attention to? So when you do have to do it for real, you've got the confidence to do it like Steve Robinson.

FINCKE: Oh, you bet. We have a huge swimming pool. It's one of the world's largest swimming pools. It's 40 feet deep here. We call it the neutral buoyancy laboratory. And it's the closest thing we can get to weightless training. So it's full of water. We get into real space suits using our real gloves. And we pressurize so it has the same feel of actually being in space.

Now the water's a little bit thicker, and it's a constant temperature, but it's the best we can do on the planet. And these guys had run after run outside of the space station. And outside of the space shuttle in these mock-ups that we have in the pool. The pool is so big, it can hold a mock-up of the entire space shuttle and most of the space station.

And they were able to go and practice and practice. So that when -- they could do their normally scheduled task, and then these tasks that we asked them to do just recently. And they made it look so easy.

PHILLIPS: Wow. And then there's the communication, of course, between NASA's mission control and Steve Robinson, right? I mean, that's a very important part of this. He's not just out there sort of going by a manual or memory. But he's got a lot of important communication in his ear, also.

FINCKE: Communication is important to whatever human beings do. And we try to utilize it and be the best communicators we can as astronauts.

So inside the cockpit, you had Andy Thomas as IB, and Jim Kelly and Wendy Lawrence flying the arm. And you could hear today this morning, in fact, we had some great camera views, too. But you could actually hear as Steve and Jim Kelly were talking to each other to get that arm in just the right position. They were using the minimum amount of words, and yet they were conveying greats amount of detail together. So they did that whole part of that space walk in just about an hour. That was amazing.

PHILLIPS: Now Mike, tell me the difference between what we saw Steve Robinson do, and the last time you went on a space walk. Tell me about your mission. And what the biggest differences were.

FINCKE: Well, this time last year, I was flying in space. But I launched aboard the Russian Soyuz rocket. And I was aboard the International Space Station for six months. In fact, Steve Robinson and I had trained together to fly aboard the space station. He was unable to come, because he was already committed to go fly aboard the Discovery.

So it was myself and a Russian guy and my commander, Gennady Padalka, and we were out in Russian space suits. And we were out without the space shuttle. And we didn't have a robot arm support like Steve did today.

So it was a very different space walk, and yet, it was still very much the same. Going around the planet, once every 90 minutes, you could feel it gets hot and gets cold. Sixteen sunrises and 16 sunsets per day. And when you're in the sunshine, it gets really warm out there. It's like 250 degrees Fahrenheit. And when it's cold, it's minus 200 degrees. That's something we can't mimic or show in our big swimming pool, our big neutral buoyancy laboratory.

So that's one of the biggest -- I won't say surprises, but it was the biggest difference that I noticed. It gets really hot out there. You can actually feel it through your gloves. Even though it's a thick glove, you can certainly feel space.

PHILLIPS: Wow. That's pretty cool stuff. And, of course, if I remember correctly, wasn't your baby born when you were up there, Mike?

FINCKE: Yes. She's, my daughter Tara Lee. She's now 13 months old. And she's walking and talking. And she's grown a lot since I first met her when she was four months old.

PHILLIPS: Well, maybe she'll be space walking one day. Who knows, right?

FINCKE: I certainly hope so. And I think that's a great thing for a parent to want their kid to be, is a space walking astronaut.

PHILLIPS: Oh, Mike Fincke, what a pleasure to talk to you. Big day in history for NASA. And it was fun to reminisce with you also. Thank, Mike.

FINCKE: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Now to deadly events in Iraq being felt in a Cleveland suburb today. We're being told 14 U.S. Marines confirmed killed, mostly members of the same Ohio-based battalion that saw seven Marines killed just two days ago.

Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, standing by with more -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It, indeed, has been a tragically deadly week for U.S. forces in Iraq already, Kyra. It's just Wednesday. In addition to these attacks, the count is that 43 American troops killed in the last 10 days in Iraq.

This latest wave of violence is being looked at very closely. These two attacks have happened in the city of Haditha. This is northwest of Baghdad in the western provinces, which remain an insurgent stronghold. U.S. military forces have been conducting offensive operations up and down that Euphrates River valley for the last many days, trying get those insurgents cornered, captured or killed.

And according to the Pentagon, they now believe that some of these attacks from the insurgents are a reaction to those offenses by U.S. military troops. Here's a bit of what the Pentagon had to say earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. CARTER HAM, U.S. ARMY: So I think what we're seeing here is a concerted effort to assert control, ultimately Iraqi control in those towns, and there's resistance that is coming from the insurgents in those towns. Perhaps, previously, they may have had an opportunity to move. For example, if there was pressure in Haditha, they could perhaps move some place else. Well, now because of the simultaneity of operations that multinational force west is conducting, they don't have that freedom of movement. And I think that's one of the contributing causes of this -- these number of direct contacts that are occurring.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: General Ham, they are making it very clear, at least he believes that these attacks are a result of U.S. military pressure.

Now, he went on to say, that while the number of IED attacks have declined, the lethality of them has gone up, that these IED's are becoming very, very lethal. They are seeing larger amounts of explosives. They are seeing what they call penetrators, meaning that these IED's are now structured to penetrate into the armored vehicles that U.S. troops have been using to try to defend themselves against these IED's.

So the 14 Marines earlier today, killed by an IED attack as they were driving in their vehicle. Six Marines, as you say, Kyra, killed on Monday. They were Marine Corps expert-trained snipers. They were killed by small arms attack from insurgents.

That whole matter still very much under investigation. Five of those Marines were found killed in one location. One of the Marines was found three miles away, dead. They are not sure what happened in all of that, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Barbara Starr. We will continue to follow up with you. Thank you so much, live from the Pentagon there.

Now I'm getting word we're getting more information on that 23- year-old suspect that's being charged now in those attempted bombings in London. Our Matthew Chance joining us live from London.

Matthew, what do you know? MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, details are very sketchy at the moment. But it is certainly the first charging of an individual in connection with the July 21 attempted bombings on the transport system in this city.

The police have named the individual in question as 23-year-old Ismael Abdurahman from southeast London, from the Kennington area of London. He's charged, apparently, under section 38 of the British Antiterrorism Act of 2000. On the understanding, according to the charge sheet, that he basically, between the dates of July 23 and July 28 had information that he knew or believed to be of material assistance in securing the apprehension, the prosecutional conviction of another person in the U.K. for an offense involving the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

In other words, he seemed to have, this individual, some kind of information, about the whereabouts, presumably, of one of the four suspects in that July 21 bombing, who were, of course, subject to the biggest man hunt this country has seen, ever, perhaps, and didn't disclose that information to the police. He's been charged, as a result, under the anti-terrorism laws.

But, let's be clear about this. This man does not seem to be one of the main suspects in this case. He's certainly not one of the bombers. He's just somebody who seemed to have information that police say he should have told them -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So Matthew, information is good. This Ismael Rachmani (ph) could lead investigators to others involved, or possibly, lead to more charges for other suspects being held, yes?

CHANCE: Well, I think that's certainly a possibility. If, indeed, he did have information about the whereabouts of one or more of the bombers, which is what he's being charged with. Then perhaps he has information about the conspiracy in general. And that will obviously be something that police interrogators will be trying to extract from this individual.

They only have a certain short period of time, though, under British law, in order to do this. Before they can -- they have to bring charges within 14 days for all these terrorism suspects or they have to let them go. And so, that's why we're seeing the start of the process of all these individuals being charged for various offenses.

We're going to be seeing a lot more of that in the next week or so, because that time since these arrests were made last Friday is now running out very much, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Matthew Chance, live from London. Thank you so much.

Well, straight ahead, the great escape. How did Britain's most wanted man manage to get out of the country after the terror bombings? We'll have that story straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: In today's "House Call," middle aged and older adults with diabetes may be at greater risk of pancreatic cancer. That's according to a new study by the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. Patients were eight times more likely to develop pancreatic cancer within three years after their diabetes diagnosis. Researchers say that diabetes itself may be an early symptom of pancreatic cancer. They hope the findings will lead to earlier detectment and treatment -- or detection, rather.

A new report says that Caesarian sections are the most common procedures done in U.S. hospitals. And according to the government study, 1.2 million C-sections are performed each year. They're accounting for more than $14 billion in hospital charges just in 2003. And incidentally, nearly one-fourth of all hospital stays in the U.S. are related to pregnancy and child birth.

And, don't forget, we do have a doctor in the house even on the weekends. Watch CNN Saturday and Sunday mornings at 8:30 Eastern for all the latest medical news on "HOUSE CALL WITH DR. SANJAY GUPTA."

We'll check the headlines and the markets after a quick break.

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