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American Morning

Seven Marines Killed in Plane Crash

Aired January 10, 2002 - 08:06   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: Up front this morning, seven Marines killed in a plane crash as it was trying to land at a base in Pakistan. Among them, the first woman killed in the war on terrorism. We get the very latest now from CNN Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr -- good morning, Barbara. What are you hearing from there?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Well, we have learned now that a team of U.S. Marines and Pakistani soldiers have made an initial trip to the crash site, but they were forced to turn back because of the very heavily mountainous terrain in which the plane crashed. They did spot the crash site, but so far, they have been unable to recover any bodies, again, because of this very mountainous terrain.

Military officials tell CNN that it is such steep terrain, it may be some time before they will be able to engage in a recovery operation and to try and determine what happened and what caused the plane to crash. It was the single-largest loss of life for the U.S. military in one day of this campaign so far, including the death of Sergeant Jeannette Winters, the 25-year-old radio operator, the first woman to die in this war on the U.S. side so far.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

1ST LT. JAMES JARVIS, PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER: Any time we lose on Marine, it is one too many. We've got a lot -- you know, these were our friends. These were our colleagues. You know, these are Little League coaches. You know, these are volunteer firemen in their communities. And so, this is a big loss.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: Paula, a fully equipped team of military investigators is now on their way to the site. They hope to begin their work within the next couple of days, but until they get there, they won't be able to determine the cause of the crash.

Here at the Pentagon this morning, they are still saying so far there is no indication of hostile fire activity in the region -- Paula.

ZAHN: Barbara, I'm just curious what the Pentagon is saying this morning about those reports that high-level Taliban leaders have been freed. The head of the interim government saying that their names weren't on any list.

STARR: Well, you know, the Pentagon has seen those reports, and they say there is a lot of confusion about who was in custody, who has been released, and the status of all of these people. But they say there is no confusion on one crucial point: the U.S. wants custody of all senior al Qaeda and Taliban officials, and they want it as soon as possible -- Paula.

ZAHN: So they're neither confirming nor denying these reports?

STARR: No, officially they won't confirm or deny anything about who might have been in custody. They see a lot of reports out of Afghanistan, and there is a lot of confusion about who may have been in custody, and they still say regardless, they want those senior officials. And they say the Afghan interim government knows that, and that they still fully expect the Karzai government to turn these people over.

ZAHN: We'll be relying on you to keep us posted if anything changes there -- thanks so much, Barbara Starr, for that update.

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