Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

News Conference On Midway Airport Incident; Are Runways Too Short?

Aired December 09, 2005 - 13:54   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, we want to take you live now to Chicago, Illinois, where Chicago's mayor is talking about the awful plane crash that took place yesterday, killing a 6-year-old boy.
ELLEN ENGLEMAN CONNERS, NTSB MEMBER: Thank you, sir. Good morning. Good afternoon.

My name is Ellen Engelman Conners. I serve as a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. The National Transportation Safety Board has jurisdiction into the investigation of this accident of Flight 1248. The plane was a Boeing 737-700 coming in from Baltimore to Midway. We brought in a team of 15 investigators, many from our Washington headquarters office, also from our Chicago office and also from our Atlanta office.

We're going to be focusing on determining what happened and why. The NTSB finds the probable cause -- not fault -- probable cause of the accident. And this will be a lengthy investigation.

We'll be focusing on several core areas: operations, systems and structures, human performance, aircraft performance, air traffic control, power plants. And because there was a multi-modal element to this, we've also brought in an expert from our highway department as well.

The NTSB works under a party system. Those organizations or entities that have the ability to support us in technical investigation aspects are brought in as a party to the investigation. The NTSB has the lead. At present, the initial parties are the Federal Aviation Administration, Southwest Airlines, Southwest Airlines Union Representatives, Boeing and General Electric.

The cockpit video recorder and flight data recorders have be recovered and have already arrived in Washington, D.C. at our headquarters and are being reviewed as we speak. We've done an initial site visit to the accident site, done a physical -- we're doing a physical review of the aircraft now with our engineers and others of the party and we'll be staying there for some time to -- in order to review the physical structure of the aircraft, do a site survey and review all those elements.

And we'll be here as long as we need to be to get that discussion going and that investigation going. We'll be doing extensive interviewing. And the anticipated length of this investigation is at least a year.

Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Erin O'Donnell, deputy aviation commissioner in charge at Midway Airport.

ERIN O'DONNELL, DEP. AVIATION COMMISSIONER, MIDWAY AIRPORT: Midway Airport was in a normal snow removal operation yesterday afternoon. We began rolling our equipment at approximately 1:30 yesterday afternoon. We had achieved 7.7 inches of snow as of 7:00 p.m., just over one inch per hour. Prior to the incident, we had closed all runways except for Runway 31 Center, to focus all of our resources to ensure that that main runway had integrity and had sufficient braking action.

Our snow removal plan is continual and it is constant. It is brooms, plows, de-icers, as well our friction tester, which tests braking action on the runway. All of our indications, the braking action reports, our friction test reports -- braking action was good prior to this incident as well as after this incident when we sent the friction tester down the runway to get braking action immediately after the incident happened.

As soon as the incident happened, we ceased operations at the airport. The airport formally closed. It did, however, reopen for operations today at 6:00 a.m., and things are running normal today. We are in a one runway configuration, but we are -- and we are experiencing delays averaging about 30 minutes.

Our team is prepared for snow removal. We train all summer season for the winter season. We have a very experienced team at Midway Airport and we are able to handle the snow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire commissioner Cortez Trotter.

CORTEZ TROTTER, FIRE COMMISSIONER, CHICAGO: Thank you, (INAUDIBLE). As a recap of what the fire department did -- at go 7:15 last night, the fire department responded to an aircraft incident outside of Midway Airport. We found the aircraft on Central Avenue at 55th Street. The first arriving crews immediately requested additional help and began assisting the evacuation of the aircraft, the extrication of the victims from the two cars that were involved and abating the leaking fuel by applying layers of foam as a precaution.

A total of 122 firefighters and paramedics responded to the scene with 60 pieces of equipment, including our hazardous materials unit. We initiated an EMS plan, too, sending ten ambulances to the scene. The aircraft had over 50 people -- or 90 people on board. They were all triaged and removed to waiting buses to be taken to the terminal.

Five patients were removed from one car, including the little fellow who later died, unfortunately. Four other people who were in the second car suffered less serious injuries. And there were three passengers on the aircraft who later complained of minor injuries and they, too, were transported to area hospitals.

There was no fire involved in this incident at all. We did have, however, a small fuel leak, as I mentioned before, and it was abated using layers of foam. The CFD did a good job of assisting passengers and treating the injured. Our airport crews regularly trained for incidents such as this, and of course we will be on hand to support the moving of the aircraft as a safety precaution when the NTSB feels that is safe and ready to do that. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andrea Valasquez (ph), executive director of OEMC (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, mayor. Last night, the Office of Emergency Management and Communications immediately responded to the scene to provide on-scene support and coordination in accordance with our unified command response model.

In addition to the regular fire, EMS, police personnel that responded to the scene OMC facilitated the contacting the Department of Human Services, the Red Cross, Salvation Army, they were all called in to provide food and on-scene support counseling services to those services that were out there providing those particular services.

People's gas was also contacted to respond to the scene because there was concern about a six-inch low-pressure gas main that was in the area where the scene was. And so there was not an issue or problem with that particular gas main.

We received the first emergency call at approximately 7:15. We dispatched resources at approximately 7:16:50. The first company to arrive on the scene arrived from the fire department at approximately 7:20, a five-minute response time. ]

Due to the accident, they issued a traffic advisory. Admit Midway Airport and currently 55th Street from Austin to Cicero and Central from 63rd to Archer are closed and will remain closed for at least two days to allow the NTSB to investigate the scene. OMC will continue to work with the NTSB and remain on scene to work and ensure a quick recovery of the impacted area. I want to remind drivers to avoid the area and drive safely. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Commission of streets and sanitation.

In response to yesterday's storm, the Department of Streets and Sanitation mobilized all 269 snow-fighting trucks at 1:30 p.m. We also mobilized our 22 smaller 4 x 4s and snow tigers. And as the storm continued later in the evening we also mounted 70 plows on garbage trucks to assist with plowing operations through the night.

We continued on all mains through the night, and completed them for this morning's rush hour. And then at 8:00 a.m. this morning we put the entire fleet of 269 salt spreaders on side streets. We're hoping to have those completed by this evening's rush hour. We want to remind all motorists to please be careful. The streets are -- do look dry and in some areas we do see what we call black ice especially on overpasses.

PHILLIPS: We've been monitoring a live news conference out of Chicago, Illinois. We heard from the mayor and we also heard from the member from the NTSB talking about the investigation into that that airplane that skidded off the runway there at Chicago's Midway Airport.

We also heard from a representative from Midway Airport just a note; operations in full swing there at Midway Airport since that accident yesterday. About 30-minute delays on those flights. There were a couple of things that the airport representative and NTSB member mentioned that I had taken note of.

We'll discuss we our next guest in just a moment. But first, the midway skid marks a dubious milestone for Southwest. The first deadly accident in the well-regarded airline's 34-year history. Its worst previous accident was also a runway overshoot at a Southwest flight from Las Vegas came to rest on a street outside Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California in March of 2000 and two passengers were badly hurt but no one was killed. Southwest flies some 70 million passengers to and from 60 U.S. cities every year.

Well it's not rocket science the shorter the runway the smaller the leeway for pilots who also have to factor in weather and airport geography. Why don't all runways lead plenty of margins for error? CNN's Kathleen Koch reports it's a much easier order than done.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The FAA now requires runways to have a thousand-foot buffer zone to keep planes safe. But 38 percent of runways, all at older airports built before the rule, still don't meet the standard.

JOHN GOGLIA, FMR. MEMBER, NTSB: I wouldn't say that it's safe at all. I mean, the risk is there and we need to do what we can to mitigate that risk.

KOCH: The Federal Aviation Administration says it's not easy to get those buffer zones built.

MARION BLAKEY, FAA ADMINISTRATOR: We'd love to wave a wand and have overnight every airport have the safety buffer zone completely installed. Again, this is something that takes time. It obviously requires resources and money. Sometime there's land acquisition involved.

KOCH: The newest solution relies less on land and more on a system of crushable concrete blocks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 3,000 or 4,000 of these blocks are assembled like a jigsaw puzzle at the end of the runway. If an aircraft should run off the runway it crushes the material and brings the aircraft to a stop the.

KOCH: But the engineered material arresting system, EMAS is in place at just 14 airports. New York's JFK had a buffer of only 550 feet before it put in the country's first EMAS system in 1996. Since then, EMAS has stopped three aircraft there. Local officials insist putting it in more airports is no no-brainer. CHARLES GARGANO, PORT AUTHORITY OF N.Y. AND N.J.: Look, we've had incident where passengers could have been badly injured or even lost their lives. When you think about that, you don't think about the dollars involved. We all have to put our heads together and say we're go doing this.

KOCH: Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Chicago Midway is not among the urban airports Kathleen mentioned that are equipped with those crushable concrete barriers. That list includes JFK, LaGuardia in New York City, and Boston Logan International in Minneapolis, St. Paul.

Also, Little Rock, Arkansas, Burbank, California, Baton Rouge Louisiana, Rochester and Bingham, New York, Greenville, South Carolina, Hyannis, Massachusetts, Roanoke Virginia, EMAS is an issue near and dear to the Captain Terry McVenes. He has the air safety committee of the Airline Pilots Associations. He joins me now live from D.C. Captain, I guess first let me ask you, why doesn't this airport have those barriers?

CAPT. TERRY MCVENES, AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION: Well, these barriers are something that we've been promoting for a long time. We've been working with the FAA and the Airport Authorities for several years to get these in place at all of the nation's airports. Because these runways safety areas are key to the survivability of an overrun accident. We think they're very important.

PHILLIPS: Well, should these types of airports that are in areas that deal with severe weather like this, should they have shorter runways in the first place? I mean should airports like this exist in these types of areas have that have kind of environment?

MCVENES: Well, we think they can exist. We have to make sure we have proper things in place to make them exist in a safe manner. As you've heard report before with these EMAS systems, they can operate very safely and efficiently with these types of things in place that will make them a safe operation. They can exist safely.

PHILLIPS: How expensive is that?

MCVENES: Well, the expenses you have to always balance against what's the effect if they're not there? If you're going to have loss of lives or major damage to airplanes, then you have to always balance that expense to what the potential can be.

PHILLIPS: Well it sounds like it should have been at this airport, yes?

MCVENES: We've been pushing for it at this airport along with quite a few other airports. There are over 200 airports just in the United States alone that need to have these systems.

PHILLIPS: Wow, so there are two other airports that you're concerned about that could I guess be host to an incident like this?

MCVENES: Well there is a lot of airports in the United States that don't meet international standards for runway safety areas. Midway is certainly one of those. There is over 200 of them by the admission of the FAA themselves.

PHILLIPS: Let me ask you something as a pilot. You're well aware of breaking action reports. According to the representative from Midway Airport, she said that they showed sufficient breaking action reports prior to this flight landing and afterward. That means, you tell me, does that mean that according to airport standards this runway was safe to land on?

MCVENES: Well, we've been working very closely, more recently, to actually come up with some better ways of dealing with what runway friction and how those measurements are taken. I think we need to do a lot more work in this area when it comes to snowy and icy runways.

PHILLIPS: Well, but let me ask you, if she came forward and said, look, breaking action reports were good prior and good after, what does that say? Does that say that more than likely, that runway was safe to land so the error occurred someplace else, for example, it was a pilot error or it was a mechanical error on the aircraft?

MCVENES: Well, because this is an ongoing investigation, the investigators are going to take a very close look at all of these issues and that will have to wait until what is actually determined when the investigation is done.

PHILLIPS: Captain Terry McVenes, heads up the Safety Committee at the Airport Pilots Association joining me from D.C., Terry thanks for your time.

MCVENES: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: We're going to take a quick break. More LIVE FROM right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well the first major snowstorm of the season pounded the upper Midwest and tracked eastward, upstate New York, New York City, Hartford, Boston, all of New England, shoveling and snowballing and hopefully keeping it between the ditches today. CNN meteorologist Chad Myers here to tell us how much more is on the horizon. Chad, only I guess folks that live in that kind of weather know what it means keeping it between the ditches.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: We are going to take a quick break. More LIVE FROM right after this. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Developing news going on right now. Lets go straight to the newsroom. Betty Nguyen standing by. Betty.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is talking today about an appointment of a new California Supreme Court judge, but he's also taking question on Stanley Tookie Williams as you know. That clemency hearing was yesterday. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: They're difficult decisions. You have to always make sure that it's a decision that is what is best for California that politics doesn't come in there or in the other opinions because everyone is trying to lobby on all of those things so that none of that has an impact. When it comes to the other decision that's coming up very soon, Tookie Williams thing, you have to have an open mind and on a case by case and look at that and then make up your mind. I mean, that's what they do. But they're heavy responsibilities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it hard to realize you have someone's life in your hands?

SCHWARZENEGGER: They're all very difficult decisions to make. That's just being part -- is being -- being governor is to make those kind of decisions. Always in this job, wonderful moments, like today, this is a wonderful moment.

I love this moment. I told Carol we should take a picture in front of the Christmas tree. That's kind of thing. A new member to the California Supreme Court. This is a great celebration for California to have a woman with this much class and experience and knowledge and all of this stuff that will do a terrific job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: You have been listening to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, his announcement of a new Supreme Court justice. But he is also taking questions as you just heard about Stanley Tookie Williams. Now as you recall he is the co-founder of the Crips gang. He's also been in prison for murder and he's become an anti-gang crusader.

He is scheduled to die about midnight on Tuesday. He had a clemency hearing with the Governor yesterday, his attorneys did. They're asking for life in prison without parole instead of the death penalty. And the governor has until late Monday to make that decision. So we're all standing by and waiting. We'll let you know what we hear Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Betty Nguyen, thank you so much.

Meanwhile we are going to go back overseas, the president of Iran has returned to a familiar theme, blasting the state of Israel. During a news conference, in Saudi Arabia, President Mohammed Ajad was quoted, as saying the state of Israel should be moved to Europe. He implied such a move would be a way for Europe to atone for the Holocaust. Though he also noted, he quotes does not accept the idea that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews. The U.S. and the European Union have condemned his comments. In October, he said that Israel should be in his words wiped off the map.

Not one to restrain him from making outrageous statements, the Iran President Ahmood Ajad (ph) has done it again. Speaking at a conference in Saudi Arabia, the Iran leader has sparked international co condemnation by saying Israel should move to Europe and by suggesting that the Holocaust never occurred. For him, that's moderation. In October he said that Israel, as you said, as we just mentioned, ought to be wiped off the map. What is he up to? Here's one explanation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICK CRONIN, CTR. FOR STRATEGIC AND INTL. STUDIES: He is trying to reach the Arab street over the heads of moderate Arab regimes, he is trying to reach the hard line clerics inside Iran Even though he is completely out of step with the majority of the Iranian people by denying history, by throwing out threats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well Russia has joined the nation's condemning Iran's remarks. Just this week, it was announced that Moscow is to sell Iran more than two dozen surface-to-air missiles. Even as Iran insists on expanding it's nuclear capacity.

Lindsey Hilsum has the profile now of a man who some say is taking Iran back to the dark ages.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LINDSEY HILSUM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The faithful write their prayers. He is the most revered saint, their only hope. One day, they believe, he'll return to the earth through the world, which lives (INAUDIBLE). In the meantime, they mail him their wishes. One woman prays he will cure her son's opium addiction. In the men's section, more prayers. A terminally ill child, a daughter still unmarried, unemployment, all of the problems of poverty.

Many say the box, a mere superstition. But thousands of Iranians come to the shrine every Tuesday evening. They are looking for a sign that the mask will return soon. Now, it seems he's become political. Iran's new president says he is a devotee of the 12th Imam. One of the first things Ahmadinejad did on becoming president was to allocate $17 million to this shrine for the 12th imam.

All Shias believe that one day he will return but some Iranians are beginning to worry that the new president is reorienting the country's politics towards that day. As if Tony Blair has said that from now on Britons should be preparing for the second coming of Jesus. Darkness falls and still the pilgrims come. They're warding off the evil eye. For eight years Iran was run by reformists who talked of democracy and disparaged such. But the new president talks a language of the people. Some came to praise him, provided they don't have to look a woman journalist in the eye.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Mr. Ahmadinejad is the only president in 28 years who came with the slogan of bringing justice, saying that he is one of us, cut from the same cloth. He proudly invokes the name of god the merciful and always prays for the coming of the Mahdi. With this sentence he proves that he and the government he has formed are all others of the Mahdi.

HILSUM: He repeated that prayer when he addressed the U.N. General Assembly last September, calling on god to hasten the coming of the Mahdi. A DVD circulating secretly in Tehran on the Internet shows the president a few days later entering a house with a senior conservative ayatollah. They it and drink tea in the traditional manner. What he says about his experiences in New York gives a rare insight into how Mr. Ahmadinejad really thinks.

PRES. AHMED AHMADINEJAD, IRAN (through translator): The last day, when I was speaking before the assembly, one of our group told me that when I started to say in the name of god the almighty and merciful he saw a light around me. I was placed inside this aura.

I felt it myself. I felt the atmosphere suddenly change. For those 27, 28 minutes, the leaders of the world did not blink. When I say they didn't bat an eyelid, I'm not exaggerating because I was looking at them. They were wrapped. It seemed as if a hand was holding them there and it opened their eyes to receive the message from the Islamic Republic.

HILSUM: The reformists are horrified that this is the image of Iran being seen around the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The last eight years, the reformists tried to give a very clear sign to the world that Islam and Iran -- think they want to go back and not only they want to go back themselves, but they want to pull back the country so everybody now is worried about the future.

HILSUM: Happy landings, it's the annual day of the paramilitary organization meant to protect the country. Three decades ago, they were the vanguard of the Islamic revolution. Today, here to showing off their skills. And their air force. This is Mr. Ahmadinejad's power base. His enforces are amongst the population. Though it looks as not everyone's in step. We caught up with the president and ask what he meant when he said Iranians should prepare for the return.

The reply they must be pure and devout. Mr. Ahmadinejad shocked western governments when he said Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth. He used Ba Siege Day to send another hard line message to Europe and America, to the countries trying to prevent Iran from developing nuclear technology. AHMADINEJAD (through translator): You, who have used nuclear weapons this century against defenseless people and nations, you, who use depleted uranium in the Iraq war you, whose arsenals are full of chemical and biological weapons who are you to say you're suspicious of Iran's nuclear program?

HILSUM: The parades, the parachutes, it's all dined to show that Iran is a force to be reckoned with and that nuclear power as the president says in every speech, is their inalienable right. A human chain, symbolically protecting the country. The reformists fear the president's harsh words will lead to Iran being called in front of the U.N. Security Council on suspicion of making a nuclear weapon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We want nuclear technology to enhance Iran's standing in the world. If that means we have to sacrifice the power we already have, even more extreme measures against us than in reality we will have gained technology but we won't have increased power and influence at all.

HILSUM: The bright future institute, devoted to the study of the (ph) cults. They catalog the literature and answer questions from the public sent in by e-mail, phone or letter. The most common query is, how will we know that he's about to return?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is representing the imam.

The children's books they design show what a wonderful world it will be afterwards. But just like fundamentalists Christians, Shia's believe the Messiah's second coming will be heralded by an apocalypse. War and chaos. They don't say some publicly, but some Iranians worry that their new president has no fear of international turmoil. They think it's a sign from god.

Iranians mourn their imams, their saints as if they died yesterday, not centuries ago. They voted out the reformists who talked of democracy and human rights but brought no real improvement to the lives of the poor. Iran's new president may alarm the educated elite and western leaders but the faithful aren't looking for clever diplomacy over nuclear power. They're looking to the president for a miracle.

Lindsey Hilsum, Channel 4 News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead a Capital Hill logjam may be breaking up. Coming up, a possible deal on a torture ban. We'll have details later on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com