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American Morning
Mike Brooks Reports From Barksdale Air Force Base
Aired February 02, 2003 - 11:33 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.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We're about 90 minutes or so away from the news conference, the briefing we're expecting from NASA officials. They'll be answering questions. We have a lot of questions about possibly what went wrong.
All of those thousands and thousands of pieces of debris -- they're being brought to one location, Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. That's where they'll be reviewed, they'll be searched, because, as you point out, perhaps on one of those pieces of debris, they'll find an answer, why the space shuttle exploded.
CNN's Mike Brooks is at Barksdale Air Force Base. He's joining us now live.
Mike, tell our viewers what you're seeing there and what kind of investigation they plan on conducting at Barksdale.
MIKE BROOKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, one of the reasons they're going to bring the evidence here in Barksdale are because of the hangar spaces they do have here and the close proximity to the debris fields all through the State of Texas and Louisiana.
I spoke a short time ago with representatives of both NASA and FEMA.
NASA said that they're -- basically, quote, "evidence recovery is kind of foreign to us." They're right now focusing on the systems that were involved with the shuttle, but they are going to have to collect that evidence, and that -- then comes in the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They are the lead agency for searching for, finding, and securing the debris. NASA has the overall responsibility for the investigation and the evidence collection.
NASA said you will be seeing folks out there from their agency in blue jump-suits, yellow gloves that will be actually handling the evidence and picking it up. But, since that is kind of foreign to them, they are going to need the assistance of people that do that every single day.
Right now, they are in the process of trying to figure out exactly how they're going to go about that with the assistance of the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, and the National Transportation Safety Board, who are going help them because they -- of their experience with recovery of this kind of evidence -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Are they treating all those pieces of evidence, all those little pieces of debris as what? How -- when they get to Barksdale, what will they actually be?
BROOKS: It will be evidence. It will be evidence of this investigation. This is an investigation, and, with that, we have evidence.
And I want to point out, too, to any of our listeners, any of our viewers that are watching, if you find anything, please don't touch it. It can be very, very toxic. Some of the residue on the debris can be extremely, extremely toxic because of some of this -- formulas they use in the fuels for the shuttle. So please don't touch it.
If you do find it, we have a number that you can call at the Johnson Space Center. That number is Area Code 281-483-3388. That's the Emergency Operations Center at the Johnson Space Center.
Now, once they do get it here, again, they will go over it, try to figure out exactly what part the piece came from, just as they've done in other investigations similar to this. But they will try to find out and hopefully try to find that one piece -- or there may not be a piece, but to -- hopefully, they will be able to find exactly that one piece and find out what the cause of this tragedy was -- Wolf.
BLITZER: CNN's Mike Brooks at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 2, 2003 - 11:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We're about 90 minutes or so away from the news conference, the briefing we're expecting from NASA officials. They'll be answering questions. We have a lot of questions about possibly what went wrong.
All of those thousands and thousands of pieces of debris -- they're being brought to one location, Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. That's where they'll be reviewed, they'll be searched, because, as you point out, perhaps on one of those pieces of debris, they'll find an answer, why the space shuttle exploded.
CNN's Mike Brooks is at Barksdale Air Force Base. He's joining us now live.
Mike, tell our viewers what you're seeing there and what kind of investigation they plan on conducting at Barksdale.
MIKE BROOKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, one of the reasons they're going to bring the evidence here in Barksdale are because of the hangar spaces they do have here and the close proximity to the debris fields all through the State of Texas and Louisiana.
I spoke a short time ago with representatives of both NASA and FEMA.
NASA said that they're -- basically, quote, "evidence recovery is kind of foreign to us." They're right now focusing on the systems that were involved with the shuttle, but they are going to have to collect that evidence, and that -- then comes in the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They are the lead agency for searching for, finding, and securing the debris. NASA has the overall responsibility for the investigation and the evidence collection.
NASA said you will be seeing folks out there from their agency in blue jump-suits, yellow gloves that will be actually handling the evidence and picking it up. But, since that is kind of foreign to them, they are going to need the assistance of people that do that every single day.
Right now, they are in the process of trying to figure out exactly how they're going to go about that with the assistance of the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, and the National Transportation Safety Board, who are going help them because they -- of their experience with recovery of this kind of evidence -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Are they treating all those pieces of evidence, all those little pieces of debris as what? How -- when they get to Barksdale, what will they actually be?
BROOKS: It will be evidence. It will be evidence of this investigation. This is an investigation, and, with that, we have evidence.
And I want to point out, too, to any of our listeners, any of our viewers that are watching, if you find anything, please don't touch it. It can be very, very toxic. Some of the residue on the debris can be extremely, extremely toxic because of some of this -- formulas they use in the fuels for the shuttle. So please don't touch it.
If you do find it, we have a number that you can call at the Johnson Space Center. That number is Area Code 281-483-3388. That's the Emergency Operations Center at the Johnson Space Center.
Now, once they do get it here, again, they will go over it, try to figure out exactly what part the piece came from, just as they've done in other investigations similar to this. But they will try to find out and hopefully try to find that one piece -- or there may not be a piece, but to -- hopefully, they will be able to find exactly that one piece and find out what the cause of this tragedy was -- Wolf.
BLITZER: CNN's Mike Brooks at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
