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American Morning
Interview With Sabine County Sheriff
Aired February 05, 2003 - 09:43 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: NASA teams now making significant finds in the hunt for clues of the cause of the shuttle disaster on Saturday.
Maria Hinojosa, on the scene since early Saturday morning, now joins us live again in Hemphill, Texas with more from there -- Maria, good morning.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, what we have heard is by 11:00 Central time, the Huey military helicopters will be lifting out the nose cone, about 500 pounds weight in that nose cone. They are out there right now cutting down trees in the woods to get prepared to do the airlift. We have been told they will be taking that to the Clarksdale (sic) Air Force Base -- Barksdale Air Force Base. Now, also important, from yesterday, the retrieval of pieces of the fuselage, the control panel, and the landing gear. Joining me now to tell us what is going to be told and said, talked about in the next upcoming news conference is Sheriff Tom Maddox. Tell us what is new today that you are going to be telling us about (ph).
TOMMY MADDOX, SHERIFF, SABINE COUNTY, TEXAS: Well, our search there will continue today. There were significant finds there yesterday. You know, this is probably the first day there where our water search was in full operation. We have located several items there, some large items in the lake. And anyway, they will be looking at those there today.
HINOJOSA: How large are we talking about? We had heard a size of a small compact car.
MADDOX: Some of these there will be between 20 to 40 feet.
HINOJOSA: That's very large.
MADDOX: Yes.
HINOJOSA: Any sense of what parts they might be?
MADDOX: I have no idea what it was. Do know that they did spot that from in the aerial searches yesterday afternoon. They could see it, anyway, they did have a visual on it. And today I'm sure the divers there will be going down to look at this.
HINOJOSA: Anything else that we need to know about what happened yesterday or today? Any human remains...
MADDOX: We do continue to find human remains, and this is the focal point there of our operation at this moment. That's what we will continue there to be doing. We have got additional resources there coming in. We've got four new 20-men crews, the Forest Service there sent some of their firefighting crews in today that are well familiar there with the terrain there that we are going through.
HINOJOSA: Now, we had heard there were 600 men and women who were out on the ground. Has that number increased?
MADDOX: That number there will continue there to increase throughout the day.
HINOJOSA: And anything else being removed? We know about the nose cone at about 11:00 a.m. Central time. Anything else major...
MADDOX: The nose cone there will be moved. Nothing -- well, of course, we are starting to gather up the debris. Guidelines have been set forth (ph) in that. Anyway, most of that will start being retrieved today.
HINOJOSA: And just finally, sheriff, what is the sense of the feeling among the workers who are out? Are they feeling motivated, frustrated, daunted?
MADDOX: No, I've never seen a greater group of people in my entire life. I want to tell you, these folks there have gone, I mean, through the worst of what we've got. And somehow they come out with a smile on their face and, of course, their bodies are dragging. But I want to tell you what, the next morning there's a smile on their face, and they're ready to go.
HINOJOSA: Thank you so much.
MADDOX: Thank you.
HINOJOSA: Sheriff Tom Maddox. That's with the latest. So, as you can tell, there is, even though, a sense that this is daunting, going to take months perhaps, a feeling that they will continue to work with a positive attitude -- back to you, Bill.
HEMMER: There is an enormous task ahead of them. Maria, thanks. Maria Hinojosa again in Hemphill, Texas.
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 5, 2003 - 09:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: NASA teams now making significant finds in the hunt for clues of the cause of the shuttle disaster on Saturday.
Maria Hinojosa, on the scene since early Saturday morning, now joins us live again in Hemphill, Texas with more from there -- Maria, good morning.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, what we have heard is by 11:00 Central time, the Huey military helicopters will be lifting out the nose cone, about 500 pounds weight in that nose cone. They are out there right now cutting down trees in the woods to get prepared to do the airlift. We have been told they will be taking that to the Clarksdale (sic) Air Force Base -- Barksdale Air Force Base. Now, also important, from yesterday, the retrieval of pieces of the fuselage, the control panel, and the landing gear. Joining me now to tell us what is going to be told and said, talked about in the next upcoming news conference is Sheriff Tom Maddox. Tell us what is new today that you are going to be telling us about (ph).
TOMMY MADDOX, SHERIFF, SABINE COUNTY, TEXAS: Well, our search there will continue today. There were significant finds there yesterday. You know, this is probably the first day there where our water search was in full operation. We have located several items there, some large items in the lake. And anyway, they will be looking at those there today.
HINOJOSA: How large are we talking about? We had heard a size of a small compact car.
MADDOX: Some of these there will be between 20 to 40 feet.
HINOJOSA: That's very large.
MADDOX: Yes.
HINOJOSA: Any sense of what parts they might be?
MADDOX: I have no idea what it was. Do know that they did spot that from in the aerial searches yesterday afternoon. They could see it, anyway, they did have a visual on it. And today I'm sure the divers there will be going down to look at this.
HINOJOSA: Anything else that we need to know about what happened yesterday or today? Any human remains...
MADDOX: We do continue to find human remains, and this is the focal point there of our operation at this moment. That's what we will continue there to be doing. We have got additional resources there coming in. We've got four new 20-men crews, the Forest Service there sent some of their firefighting crews in today that are well familiar there with the terrain there that we are going through.
HINOJOSA: Now, we had heard there were 600 men and women who were out on the ground. Has that number increased?
MADDOX: That number there will continue there to increase throughout the day.
HINOJOSA: And anything else being removed? We know about the nose cone at about 11:00 a.m. Central time. Anything else major...
MADDOX: The nose cone there will be moved. Nothing -- well, of course, we are starting to gather up the debris. Guidelines have been set forth (ph) in that. Anyway, most of that will start being retrieved today.
HINOJOSA: And just finally, sheriff, what is the sense of the feeling among the workers who are out? Are they feeling motivated, frustrated, daunted?
MADDOX: No, I've never seen a greater group of people in my entire life. I want to tell you, these folks there have gone, I mean, through the worst of what we've got. And somehow they come out with a smile on their face and, of course, their bodies are dragging. But I want to tell you what, the next morning there's a smile on their face, and they're ready to go.
HINOJOSA: Thank you so much.
MADDOX: Thank you.
HINOJOSA: Sheriff Tom Maddox. That's with the latest. So, as you can tell, there is, even though, a sense that this is daunting, going to take months perhaps, a feeling that they will continue to work with a positive attitude -- back to you, Bill.
HEMMER: There is an enormous task ahead of them. Maria, thanks. Maria Hinojosa again in Hemphill, Texas.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
