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American Morning

United States Has Lost First Airplane in Afghanistan Campaign

Aired December 13, 2001 - 07:06   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We now turn to the war in Afghanistan. The United States has lost its first airplane in the campaign, a B-1B bomber. Its four member crew did eject safely near the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. The plane's pilot says the supersonic bomber went out of control. The accident may force the military to take a closer look at the B-1 bomber.

Our Bob Franken is standing by at the Pentagon this morning with more reaction to this crash -- Bob, anything new from the Pentagon at this hour? Good morning.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well -- good morning.

The Pentagon, of course, says it's happy, Pentagon officials say they're happy that the members of the crew are safe and in such good shape. It's interesting, Paula, we actually found out about it in this room at the top of the Pentagon briefing yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICTORIA CLARKE, PENTAGON SPOKESWOMAN: At approximately 11:30 Eastern Standard Time today an air force B-1 bomber went down in the Indian Ocean approximately 30 miles north of Diego Garcia. There are no known casualties. Rescue efforts are under way and we have no indications as to the cause. There is a KC-10 orbiting above the crash site and there is a destroying on its way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: And no more than 15 minutes after that, the crew was rescued from the Arabian Sea off of Diego Garcia, which is the British base which is operating as its base.

What happened was is that that KC-10 was in the vicinity as the B-1B coincidentally was taking off and had gotten about 100 miles out on its 4,000 mile round trip bombing run to Afghanistan when there were mechanical problems. So the four person crew decided to turn the plane around, got to within about 30 miles when it had to ditch from 15,000 feet and from 15,000 feet the crew ejected.

There is a very, very sophisticated ejection seat and an entire operation that goes into effect. They came floating to the sea. That is the KC-10, which is a refueling plane, was in the area. It stayed overhead. It talked with the crew after flares had been sent up by the crew. The crew was responding to the lights from the plane.

Now, it was a very comfortable wait, about two hours. There were no sharks in the water. It is, the water is warm and it is calm. And as the crew waited, a destroyer, the USS Russell, which was in the area from Pearl Harbor, steamed toward the crew to try and do the rescue. The waters were too shallow so they had to send a raft out. That worked very well. The crew climbed on board the raft, got back onto the Russell, went back to Diego Garcia.

And Paula, they had medical tests. They're in good condition except for some cuts and bruises which, of course, points out that ejecting from a plane at 15,000 feet is no picnic, but they're in really good shape. And now everybody's wondering about that $200 million plane -- Paula.

ZAHN: Well, let's talk about some of the questions that are being raised about that $200 million plane. This isn't the first time one of them has crashed. We heard the pilot describe that the plane simply went out of control.

What kind of an evaluation does the Pentagon have to make as a result of this latest crash?

FRANKEN: Well, at $200 million you can assume that it's going to be very thorough. But the B1-B has been controversial almost since the first time it was built. It was designed, really, to be a replacement, a supplement for the B-52. It is not a stealth aircraft, although it has wings that move back and forth and a very, very interest profile.

It's also kind of hard to fly, but it carries both conventional bombs, which it's been using in Afghanistan, along with the smart bombs and it's been really an integral part of what's been going on in Afghanistan, but not this one anymore.

ZAHN: Questions being raised this morning about the strength of the continued bombing attacks in Afghanistan, whether the U.S. goal is simply to defeat the enemy or annihilate them.

FRANKEN: I think...

ZAHN: Any reaction to the, from the Pentagon to those sharp questions?

FRANKEN: Well, I think that it's been made very clear from day one, including just the last couple of days, that annihilate is probably the preferred word. We have repeatedly been told in no uncertain terms by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and the others who have done the briefings that they want to kill or capture. Surrender with any sort of conditions is not an option. That is a repeated message. We'll probably hear it again today when Secretary Rumsfeld briefs at one o'clock, by the way, this afternoon Eastern time.

It is a consistent message and of course that will probably be amplified by the release of the tape by Osama bin Laden that we're expecting, the tape that shows him in ways that is being described by the administration as clear evidence that he was, in fact, behind the attack.

ZAHN: Thanks so much, Bob, for that update. Covered a lot of territory.

And a little bit later on in this hour we expect to talk live by telephone to the pilot of the bomber and the naval officer who led the rescue mission.

As you know, another deadline passes for al Qaeda to surrender. The United States has resumed intensive bombing. Bob Franken just described that campaign, pounding parts of eastern Afghanistan.

That is where our own Ben Wedeman is right now -- Ben, describe to us the strength of these attacks you've witnessed. Good morning. BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

Yes, these attacks today, the bomb attacks have certainly been the most intense I have seen here. Throughout the day, every approximately half hour U.S. fighter bombers, mostly F-14s, have been coming in, dropping it appears more pinpoint than in the past, hitting targets in the mountains behind me.

In the last hour or two, it's become even more intense. Every 15 minutes or so a bomber has come over and dropped their load on the hills behind me.

This follows a very, very noisy night of bombing (AUDIO GAP).

ZAHN: All right, as you no doubt noticed, we have lost our signal with Ben Wedeman. He has a lot to tell us. As we work on that technical feat, we will bring him back to you as soon as we fix that.

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