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CNN Live Today

America Under Attack: Nation Reviewing Aviation Security

Aired September 12, 2001 - 14:17   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you. We want to go over some of the developments from this day in case you're just joining us and want to have the latest on any development. First as far as the rescue goes in New York, we are sad to report there haven't been that many people pulled out alive from the huge blocks of rubble, the stacks of rubble from this scene where the towers collapsed: less than a dozens people sent to hospitals alive, some of those firefighters who were all trapped together. And apparently the hospitals are saying they aren't just -- there's not just an influx of people that are coming in today.

The mayor, Mayor Giuliani of New York, said it could take months to get through the debris, weeks before they know the death toll. But he did say today there could have been a few thousand people in each of those towers in New York.

As far as the investigation, there have been men taken into custody. Some were taken into custody apparently from a hotel in Boston a short while ago. This is the scene outside that hotel when they were apparently taken into custody.

They are not being called suspects. They are being called material witnesses, people who may have information. Police, the FBI want to question. This is at the Westin Copley Hotel. There also apparently has been the same thing occur in South Florida. We don't have a location there, people taking in as material witnesses. So the investigation continues to fan out.

At the airport in Boston, a car that was confiscated had inside of it reportedly a plan for the attack written in Arabic, and a flight training manual, also written in Arabic. The FBI has even removed chairs from the gates in Boston at Logan Airport that could contain some evidence there.

As far as Washington -- there's the car that I just mentioned. As far as Washington goes, the last we heard from the pentagon crash, 80 bodies pulled so far from that wreckage. A county fire official estimated there could be 100 to 800 victims there.

Across the country, you cannot even get in some blood donation centers, because there's so many Americans answering the call to donate blood. We're also told that President Bush and Laura Bush will be two of the Americans donating blood today. And there are many accounts of the patriotism across the country. Commuters saw a huge American flag hanging at an overpass as they went into work in Chicago. Even kids at a high school in Chicago reportedly e-mailed each other to all dress in red, white and blue today as the country grieves with those in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania after what happened yesterday.

Also now we're going to talk with Patty Davis, because so many Americans are waiting to get the word that airports are back up and running. Patty, that hasn't happened yet. And just as one example, there are at one airport in Newfoundland, Gander, Newfoundland, has 38 planes on the ground with a total of 11,000 passengers just at that one airport waiting to get back into the United States. You have information on us on what's the hold up and when that might happen.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as far as international flights, I don't have any information on that. But as far as domestic flights, I do. The transportation secretary, Norman Mineta, as well as the FAA, has just announced that U.S. airspace will be opened in a limited way today. Now, that will be so passengers who were diverted yesterday will be allowed to get back to their original destinations. Only those passenger who were on those original flights will be allowed to reboard.

Now, the FAA also saying that it is temporarily extending the ground stop that affects most other planes while it adds additional security measures. And the FAA says that most of those will be grounded at least through tomorrow.

Now, in terms of beefed up security measures, the FAA has announced these following security measures are on its list. A thorough search and security check of airplanes and airports, of all of them before passengers are allowed to enter and board an aircraft. They are discontinuing curbside check-in. They are discontinuing off- airport check in.

Only ticketed passengers from now on will be allowed to proceed past the airport screeners to catch their flight and vehicles near airport terminals will be monitored more closely. Now, the FAA earlier told me also that there will be complete restrictions on knives as well. Previously, you were allowed to carry less than a four-inch blade onboard an aircraft. Now, you cannot even carry a pocket knife onboard an aircraft. So these beefed-up security measures the FAA putting into effect: FAA opening airspace in a very limited way today at some point, not saying exactly what time. And they're only opening up at the certain airports that meet the security measures. All the airports and the airliners have to meet these security measures at all these to make sure that they can go ahead, go ahead and open up -- Natalie.

ALLEN: Natalie, we thank you, and of course, hearing that many Americans who have trip plans, when their trip can resume, will no doubt need to -- need to add extra time when they go to the airport to take those trips because of all these added measures.

Now, let's go over to Lou. LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: And again, we're waiting for Secretary of State Colin Powell, who this morning said that yesterday's attacks in New York and in Washington were an act of war and he promised the United States would respond as if it is a war. We're expecting the secretary of state to amplify on those comments from the State Department. That should happen within the next 10 minutes or so. We'll carry that live.

In the meantime, while we wait for that, let's talk with Bob Francis, who is the former vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. You apparently will recognize the face -- this is the man who stepped out twice, three times a day sometimes during the investigation of TWA Flight 800. He resigned after that. He joins us now to talk about today's events.

Mr. Francis, your career was devoted primarily to accidents. This of course is not an accident, or we presume it's not an accident. How will this investigation be different, if at all, from the investigation you were in charge of in your career at NTSB?

BOB FRANCIS, FORMER VICE CHAIRMAN, NTSB: Well, I think that the thing that's important here is that this very clearly was from the beginning not an accident but rather a criminal act. And so that the situation that we had with TWA and other -- other accidents was that the NTSB was in charge of doing the investigation. And the FBI in all of those played a very supportive role to us.

In this case, the FBI and the law enforcement is certainly in charge of what's going on, and the NTSB and the FAA will be providing whatever support they can to the effort that the law enforcement agencies are making.

WATERS: What do you suppose would be the most important piece of evidence to be gathered right now? We saw the mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, before the press this morning showing pictures of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the attack on the World Trade Center, asking reporters to get that message out, what those boxes look like.

So there's an apparent determination by authorities to get those boxes, not only from the flights in New York, but the one that crashed in Pennsylvania, where authorities are saying that they may learn something very definitive from finding those boxes.

Do you feel that these flight data and cockpit voice recorders are that important to this investigation?

FRANCIS: I think that they'll be very, very important, because I think they will give us an idea of how this was done. And that's going in turn be very important in terms of what kind of measures are taken by the FAA to beef up civil aviation security.

Now, I would say the chances of finding the recorder in Pennsylvania are probably fairly good. The chances of finding the recorders in the World Trade Center -- and the voice recorders are the ones that are really going to be important here -- are probably not terrific. And the chances of finding the recorder in the Pentagon is probably somewhere in between.

WATERS: We've been hearing ever since the first moments of this horrendous attack about how American life will change forever as a result of this attack. We're talking primarily -- and you mentioned it -- airline security. How do you -- how do you protect against terrorists who apparently, in this case, all they needed were airline tickets and some knowledge of the cockpit and flying?

FRANCIS: Well, I think that the challenge for us here is going to be to figure out how we deal with hijackers who are willing to sacrifice their own lives. This particularly in the United States has not been something that we've dealt with before or considered to be a major threat.

So the fact that these folks are suicidal makes it very, very much more difficult to deal with -- with how you -- how you're going to resolve this.

WATERS: Do you think we need sky marshals domestically like there are on international flights?

FRANCIS: I think that that's certainly is one of the things that -- that's important. And I think that, you know, you're talking about knives. If there are people on these aircraft that are trained -- trained killers, they can -- they can deal with people sometimes without having to have a knife. You know, people that are -- that are trained to do this are going to be able to -- to take over from -- from airplane pilots and people on airplanes. So I don't think that the weapon and the screening is the biggest issue here. It's how to deal with the suicidal aspects of this.

WATERS: Bob Frances, former vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, illustrating quite effectively the future problems faced in America at protecting against this type of tragedy from happening again -- Natalie.

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