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New Day

Tail of Flight 8501 Found in Java Sea; Arctic Blast Slams Much of the U.S.; Obama Threatens to Veto Keystone Pipeline Bill; Gunfire at France Satirical Magazine Office

Aired January 07, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tail section of AirAsia Flight 8501 has been found.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Divers are in the water looking for those black boxes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tail may have come away from the aircraft in that violent thunderstorm.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Temperatures potentially deadly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wind chills easily 20 to 30 below zero. Some areas could be closing in on 40 below zero.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to be monitoring on a minute by minute basis.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) and my feet are still freezing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Baltimore police urging other East Coast police agencies to be on heightened alert.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to send a message. We're not going to cower, we're not going to back down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is another indicator of the dangers that our officers face in the line of duty.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, January 7th, 6:00 in the East. Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota here, and we do have breaking news in the search for AirAsia Flight 8501. Divers say they have found the tail section of the jet in these murky waters off the Java Sea. The tail, of course, is where the flight data recorders are located. So, after 11 days, will they still be there? You're looking at the pictures that are just coming in now. Divers had to be down about 100 feet, bottom of the sea, obviously. Images show the AirAsia logo, other debris, that all seem related to this crash on the seabed.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All this as we learn that the pilots of the ill-fated flight never picked up the paperwork, the weather report before taking off.

Meanwhile, another body has been pulled from the water, bringing the total number to 40. And CNN learning that the victims' families will receive roughly $100,000 in compensation per passenger.

We have the developments covered from every angle. So let's begin with Anna Coren. She is live on the ground in Indonesia. Good morning, Anna.

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn.

As you say, a major breakthrough in day 11 of the search for AirAsia Flight 8501, with teams discovering the tail of the aircraft upside- down, deep in the mud at the bottom of the Java Sea.

Now, the tail as we know, contains those two vital black boxes, which is hoped will hold the answers as to why this aircraft crashed with 162 passengers and crew onboard.

Now we've learned from officials that they have deployed a sub salvage vehicle. It will retrieve the tail, put it onto a ship so that investigators can get to work.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COREN (voice-over): Breaking overnight, these are the very first images of what top Indonesian search officials are saying is the tail section of AirAsia Flight 8501. AirAsia's CEO tweeting, "I am led to believe the tail section has been found. If right part of tail section, then the black box should be there." Divers capturing underwater images of the letters "XA" and the word "Air," which officials say is consistent with the back portion of AirAsia planes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even if they are actually inside the tail, it would be similar to removing a hard drive from a damaged computer. It's something that you want to do very carefully and very slowly.

COREN: This major breakthrough comes as reports raise questions about AirAsia's handling of weather information on that fateful day. According to Indonesia's official weather service, no one from the doomed plane came to pick up potentially crucial weather information in person, as other airlines did that day.

This climate report from the day of the flight, sent by the meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency, contains a satellite image showing storms in the area, wind speeds and a planned forecast showing that the flight would go through an area with occasional embedded storm clouds up to 48,000 feet.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: It's the pilot's responsibility to make his or herself aware of the conditions and the weather in advance of a flight. That's what pilots do all the time.

COREN: AirAsia's handling of weather information is now being investigated by Indonesia's transportation ministry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN (on camera): Now, all assets in the area have been deployed also to this specific search area where they found the tail. Obviously they're hoping to find more debris, also the bulk of the plane, which they do believe will have the passengers still strapped to their seat amongst the wreckage -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Anna Coren, thanks so much for all that background.

And we want to bring in now David Gallo. He's a CNN analyst and the director of special projects at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He helped lead the search for Air France Flight 447. And David Soucie, CNN safety analyst and a former FAA safety inspector. He's the author of the upcoming book "Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Why It Disappeared and Why It's Only a Matter of Time Before This Happens Again."

David Soucie, I want to begin with you. We have here one of -- well, one of the so-called black boxes, obviously not the one that they're looking for but a version of it. And it's interesting, because I've reported on dozens of plane crashes, but I've never actually seen one of these black boxes before in real life. It's much heavier than I ever imagined, with all of the equipment inside it. How confident are you that the black boxes of the flight at the bottom of the sea are still in the tail section?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, there's one of them that will be, certainly. The cockpit voice recorder is further forward, so it depends on where this tail broke off as to whether they're together or not.

Typically, like on the 777, those boxes are co-located. But in this case one is a little bit more forward than the other. So depending on where it broke off, this could be just a very, very difficult task trying to find both boxes, so -- and we have to have both in order to get really good information.

CAMEROTA: David Soucie, can you explain where the tail section was located? It wasn't in the primary search location. It was in a secondary search location.

SOUCIE: Yes,

CAMEROTA: David -- I'm sorry, David Gallo.

SOUCIE: ... yet until if we find out if there is actually -- I'm sorry, David. Go ahead.

CAMEROTA: Sorry, David Gallo.

GALLO: Yes, it -- it was in the secondary zone in the secondary area, and that's OK. That's great. But this is a huge step forward in the search. And you know, they've made a lot of -- made up a lot of time by finding that tail section first, especially if the black boxes are still there.

CAMEROTA: David Soucie, how hard is it going to be for them to get the tail section up from the bottom of the Java Sea?

SOUCIE: Well, that -- that may not be necessary yet. The first thing they want to do is get through it and find out where that black box is. They don't want to disturb too much yet. They need to look for the black boxes, see if they're open first.

Secondarily, then they'll start bringing it up. At this depth, I don't think it's going to be too big of a task. David Gallo will probably know more about how to do that part.

But I think that this part, since we're not bringing it up from a very, very deep area, I think that this will be a little bit less difficult than we thought it might be before.

CAMEROTA: David Gallo explain that. You've been involved in other crash recoveries, how hard of a task?

GALLO: Yes, it seems -- well, the shallow depth certainly will help, and it seems like visibility was a lot better than zero and currents not so bad.

And they're already under way, from what I heard, to retrieve the tail section, so they're moving fairly quickly. That may be good, that may be bad, I'm assuming they've done their homework, as David Soucie suggested. So you know, it's not routine; it's very dangerous, and we'll see what happens later today.

CAMEROTA: David Soucie, can you explain why this black box here on our table is so heavy? What is inside this? And what do they do to extract the information from this?

SOUCIE: Well, most of the weight of it is to protect the insides and to protect the electronics that keep and record all the information. So the inside of it, there's a very, very heavy casing. Within that there's silicone rubber that protects the devices from moving. Inside of that there's foam. The actual piece that the information is stored on is no bigger than an integrated circuit board, and so that's what they're actually protecting. All of that weight, all other information is -- all the other components in there are for translating the information so that it can be recorded. Just in 1's and 0's on the inside.

So the hard part now is finding out how much damage has occurred to the box. If the underwater locator beacons, which appear not to be working right now, which unfortunately has become fairly typical in these accidents, that those ULBs don't work. But if it's not, that indicates to me that there's been a very abrupt and violent upset of the box.

So at that point, taking it apart is very, very, very detailed and you want to be very careful not to put any static electricity in. You have to protect it and keep it in the same environment and the saltwater environment until you have a chance to rinse that out. It's a very tedious process.

CAMEROTA: Last, David Soucie, I just want to stick with you for one more second. We understand that the families are being offered by AirAsia $100,000 to compensate them for the loss. I mean, how can you ever put a price tag, obviously, on a loved one's life? But is that a customary amount?

SOUCIE: It is a customary amount to start. It doesn't mean that that's all -- all they would receive. But it is customary. It's actually a little bit higher than the customary amount that's given up front to the families. But we'll have to wait to see, to see what the final settlement amount is. It would be more along the lines of $150,000 if they comply with all the regulations.

CAMEROTA: OK. David Soucie, David Gallo, thanks so much, gentlemen. Great GcGreat to get your expertise.

Let's go over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Alisyn. We have a three-word story for you, it tells you everything you need to know. Bitter cold everywhere. That's it. That's what's going on right now.

A deep freeze is affecting 240 million of us. Take a look at the map. It is everywhere: wind chills in Green Bay, Chicago, wind chills hovering about 20 below zero. Minneapolis? Thirty below zero. So cold, roads so treacherous, public schools in the Midwest are closing. Kansas city, Minneapolis, Chicago, Des Moines, Indianapolis, Omaha. Check your local listing in terms of whether or not your school is going to be affected.

Let's get to meteorologist Jennifer Gray, on the ground in Chicago. The wind chill, I am told, makes it feel as bad as 30 below today, which is why for once I am happy I am not you, Jennifer.

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I bet are you happy, and yes, temperatures are expected to actually get colder right now. The wind chill, it feels between 10 and 20 degrees below zero.

A lot of you may have one of these at home. We bought one. It doesn't do you any good. It only goes down to zero. So we brought the big daddy, so we could tell you what the temperature was like out here. And I'm telling you right now, where we are, it feels like 10 degrees below -- it is 10 degrees below zero and feels like 14 below.

Last check at the airport it was about 2 degrees.

You can see the river behind me starting to freeze over. In fact, you can see part of it not frozen yet and then that very slick part frozen solid. So it will probably continue to freeze throughout the day, because guess what? This is not the worst of it. Temperatures are actually going to be even colder tomorrow.

You can see the flags blowing in the wind. The wind chill is what is so brutal. This is a dangerous cold. You can get frostbite within minutes. And if you don't dress warm enough, you can develop hypothermia.

Schools are closed all across the Midwest. Of course, the other concern, today here in Chicago, will be public transportation, because those rail lines have trouble operating when it is so cold. So do expect delays today.

But Chris, it is going to be cold. Let's look at that weather map. Because highs today are only going to get up into the single digits. We are expecting temperatures 1 degree below zero today in Chicago. You have to get as far south as Dallas to get above freezing.

Back to you.

CUOMO: Jennifer, you did a very good job with ice mouth, first of all, continuing to talk, despite -- I stink at that.

And I like the new CNN gear with the hat, the earmuffs and hat in one.

GRAY: Thank you.

CUOMO: I know I'm going to be wearing it at some point. I'm liking the pom-pom. It works.

GRAY: I'll let you borrow it.

CUOMO: If you're going to be freezing, you might as well look good. Thanks, Jennifer. We'll check back in with you. Get in the truck.

CAMEROTA: I hate when your lips freeze.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: You can't talk.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Slur your words.

CUOMO: No good in the cold. Nose, too far from my face, needs a lot of blood.

CAMEROTA: I can see that.

All right. Meanwhile, the 114th Congress officially in session with the GOP now controlling the House and the Senate. President Obama insists he's looking forward to an exchange of ideas when he meets with the new Republican leadership at the White House next week. But he's already vowing to veto the first bill that they're expected to send him, a measure greenlighting construction of the Keystone Oil Pipeline.

Let's bring in senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns, live from the White House. What's the latest, Joe?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

It really is a sign of things to come here in Washington, D.C. The White House essentially welcoming the start of the new Republican- controlled Congress by issuing a veto threat.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest saying the president would not sign the Keystone XL bill if it reaches his desk. Now what's going on on Capitol Hill? It is pretty clear Republicans

with the help of some Democrats do have enough votes to pass this bill. The question is whether they will be able to muster enough votes to override a presidential veto if it comes to that.

The administration has said it wants to complete a review of this project, but that review has been going on for six years. As you know, environmentalists are opposed to the Keystone XL project. This bill came up last year at the very end of the United States Congress. And was not able to pass. So a sign of things to come, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: It sure is. All right, Joe, nice to see you. Thanks so much.

Let's get a look at some of the other headlines that we're following.

PEREIRA: Yes. We're actually beginning with breaking news, everyone. There are reports of a deadly shooting at the office of the French satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo." Reuters is reporting that multiple people have been killed. If "Charlie Hebdo" sounds familiar to you, it was the magazine office burned several years ago, in response to cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. That infuriated many in the Muslim world. We're getting details very slowly here, but as more come in, we'll pass them along to you.

The FBI is taking over the investigation of a deadly shooting at a V.A. clinic in El Paso, Texas. A gunman shot and killed a doctor Tuesday and later died after turning the gun on himself. Authorities are not releasing the identity of the shooter or at this point a possible motive. That clinic will be closed today as investigators debrief staff and patients.

The Pentagon says it's gaining ground in its battle against ISIS, but it is still a long way to go. Officials say coalition airstrikes have slowed the terror group's momentum. Some tribes apparently have turned against the group. But the extremist manpower and footprint in Syria remains largely intact, since most of their battlefield losses are mid-level operatives who are seemingly easily replaced.

Disgraced former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell says he is sorry, but he plans to appeal his two-year federal prison sentence for corruption. McDonnell was convicted of trading access to the governor's office in exchange for more than $165,000 in gifts and in loans. McDonnell's wife, Maureen, who was convicted along with him, will be sentenced next month.

And a final farewell to a three-term New York governor, Mario Cuomo. He was remembered at his funeral as a crusader for the little guy, a powerful orator and a friend by someone who knew him best, one of his sons, and our current New York governor, Andrew Cuomo. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW CUOMO, GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK: At his core, at his best, he was a philosopher. And he was a poet. and he was an advocate and he was a crusader. Mario Cuomo was the keynote speaker for our better angels.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: The elder Cuomo died Thursday hours after his son was inaugurated for a second term.

It was a beautiful moving, moving tribute to your father, Chris.

CUOMO: It was very nice of you guys to be there. Thank you for that. I of course had exclusive access to the funeral yesterday, which I wish I hadn't. But you know, we're all going to go through it. We're going to lose our parents, and it's a terrible thing.

But it made it so much easier on my mom and on the family. You guys have been so amazing how you've reached out. People came here locally, waited in the cold.

My TV family was amazing to me. All the people you don't get to see who matter the most, who make the show possible, came out. And that's all that matters in a time like that.

We knew who Pop was. It's nice to see a new generation of people kind of being introduced to him. And I have, in typical male especially Cuomo male fashion, not dealt with the situation of losing Pop just by allowing the process to kind of dominate.

I don't know what it will mean to me. My father was such a big part of my life. He was such a -- I never had to look outside my family for a male role model. You know, I had my Pop. I had my big brother, who really did us proud yesterday.

PEREIRA: Beautiful.

CUOMO: That was a hard thing to do. He was talking about somebody who means everything to him.

PEREIRA: Everything.

CUOMO: And I think he acquitted himself very well. Pop would have been proud.

PEREIRA: Well, when it does hit you, lean on us, OK. We're all here for you.

CUOMO: I will. I will.

PEREIRA: We got you.

CUOMO: And I'm sure I will be a mess, but I'm lucky. I'm surrounded by a lot of people who love me.

PEREIRA: True.

CUOMO: So is my mother, and she is the strength in the family now. So thank you very much for how you reached out to me. CAMEROTA: You have such a beautiful family. You have such -- it's

been great to get to know your father through this process and your whole family. Your mother is a doll, your sisters, your wife...

PEREIRA: Dozens of nieces.

CUOMO: She is the best. Mom is the best. The only thing that was untrue yesterday, by the way, now that I'm back to being a journalist, is I did not name Mario, my son, after my father to curry favor. It is the Italian...

PEREIRA: You got the last word on this...

CUOMO: ... tradition.

PEREIRA: ... because you get to say it here.

CUOMO: If are you able to have a boy, you're supposed to name him after the father of the man's parents and then the mother's parents. That's how it works.

CAMEROTA: OK. Back to what you do best, breaking news. We have some right now for all of you.

There's been more on that gunfire erupting at the office of the French satirical magazine that we just told about. You might remember, this was the target of an attack several years ago in response to the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

So for more on this breaking news and what's going on at this hour, let's go straight to Jim Bitterman. He is live to Paris.

What do we know, Jim?

JIM BITTERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, basically, this is the third attack on this magazine over the last ten years or so. And we're not exactly sure on the details. What's apparently happened is that this morning two gunmen, masked and wearing black, broke into the headquarters of the newspaper, which is located near the Bastille district in Paris, and started firing with automatic weapons. The firing went on for about five minutes.

Now, we don't have confirmation of this, but according to a police union spokesman, there may be as many as ten people who are dead. Now again, we don't have any confirmation of this. But the police union spokesman said it was a real butchery, that in fact the shooting went on for a long time. Some of the employees and some of the editors of the newspaper went to the roof to find sanctuary there. And the shooting went on, like I say, for about four or five minutes.

Prosecutors, the Paris prosecutor is on his way to the scene now, as is the interior minister. So I think it's a fairly serious situation. We should have more in coming hours -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Jim, were there threats against this magazine this time around? BITTERMAN: Well, there have been for some time. I mean, this

newspaper is known for its very daring kind of satiric humor, and they have had all kinds of covers and whatnot that have been very controversial. It's very anti-religion of every sort. They've made fun of Catholics and Jews, but also most notably, Islam. And published several photos of Mohammed, or rather, drawings of Mohammed. And that over the years has gotten them into trouble, including a firebomb attack in 2011.

Police surveillance had been fairly tight around the newspaper until recently. But a journalist just said this morning that, in fact, some of the police surveillance had been withdrawn in the last few weeks. So it's not clear that there were enough, there were any policemen around when this attack happened this morning, Alisyn.

CUOMO: Jim, it's also important in understanding why this may have happened. The evolving situation you have in France, with Islam, especially the extremist factions of the community, not just in the country, but specifically in Paris, north Paris, any connection so far to that?

BITTERMAN: Well, no connections so far. But the fact is, yes, I mean in fact, about 10 percent of the population in France is, is of the Muslim religion, and there has been a problem over the last year or so that's been noted by authorities here, about young Muslims being drawn into the conflict in the Middle East and being radicalized.

We saw video just fairly recently, a couple of weeks ago, that showed some of the young Muslims from France who were involved in the beheadings that were taking place in the ISIS areas of Iraq. So it's something that authorities have been quite concerned about.

And it should be said, too, that they're quite concerned that some of those folks who had been trained up in the Middle East might come back to France and perpetrate attacks here. So we don't have anything to connect this morning's action with that, but that's certainly the kind of thing that authorities have been worried about.

CAMEROTA: Jim, we know that you don't have confirmation yet of how many people were killed inside. You know how many people were at work there today?

BITTERMAN: Well, it was a normal working day. It's a weekly newspaper. They were apparently in the middle of their editorial meeting this morning, conversing with the various editors and cartoonists who are involved at the newspaper. It's unclear at this time how many people might have been there. But one can imagine that they have a staff of around 50-60 people, all told; that a good part of those people were there for the meetings this morning.

CUOMO: But Jim, also to be clear in terms of what we're dealing with here, this wasn't just an open assault on this office where they were all victimless. We understand that police were also involved in this, and it turned into a firefight. Is that true?

BITTERMAN: Well, in fact, there were apparently, again, where we have no confirmation of this. There may have been two police officers who were wounded while they were trying to pursue the gunman.

But as I said, mentioned earlier. One journalist told BFM, our sister network here, that in fact, the police surveillance of this newspaper had been somewhat drawn down in recent weeks. And so it's not clear how many police may have been in the area.

Up until that point, the newspaper had been under 24/7 surveillance with a truckload of police out front every day. And so it's not clear how many police might have been there this morning.

But according to one journalist who was across the street from the newspaper, he said that, in fact, recently the number of police surveilling the offices had been withdrawn.

CAMEROTA: Jim, we're just getting the latest bulletin from the police there. They say that at least one journalist has been killed. Three police officers, they say, were wounded during this shooting at the newspaper, as you're saying.

Two heavily armed gunmen entered the newspaper's headquarters, opened fire inside the building. The Paris mayor's office says at least six people were wounded. Those are the latest numbers that we're getting, unless you're hearing something different.

BITTERMAN: No, I think that's probably the latest that we've got. And in fact, we have the prosecutor and the interior minister of France on his way to the scene right now. And I suspect, once they get on the scene, we're going to see some announcements coming that will clarify the situation.

Until then, I think it will probably trickle out bit by bit. As I mentioned, a police union spokesman was -- told our colleagues that BFM Television here in France, that in fact he thought that as many as 10 people may have been killed. And that it was a real butchery inside. That the gunmen had opened up fire and continued firing for about five minutes.

CUOMO: All right, Jim. We're starting to get the latest round of reporting on this. We'll let you get back to work there on the ground. Let us know what you find out, and we'll round up all the details. This is obviously a developing situation.

There has been a gun assault in France, on a literary magazine there, a well-known satirical magazine. People were at work. The latest numbers we have, that it involved two heavily armed gunman. A journalist has possibly been killed. Three police officers have been injured in trying to deal with the situation. There was pursuit involved.

We're getting details, and we're going to come back to you after the break with the latest on this situation in Paris. Stay with us.

CAMEROTA: Also, police across this country on high alert right now after this disturbing incident inside a Baltimore precinct. Can anything be done to ease tensions between law enforcement and the public? We'll tell you all about that. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Here's some breaking news that we want to update you on right now. There's been a gun attack on a French satirical newspaper in Paris. This is the same newspaper that was the target of a bombing back in 2011 that you'll remember after they published a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.

We understand that there has been one journalist killed at least. This is coming from French police. Three police officers were killed in this gun battle, and we also understand that French president Francois -- I'm sorry, three police officers wounded. Three police officers wounded. One journalist killed. These are the latest numbers that we're getting. The French president is heading to the scene, we're told. We will be monitoring all these developments and staying on them. We have live reports there for you coming up. So stay tuned to that.

Meanwhile, back at home we want to tell you what's happening this morning, because there's been a warning from police here in Baltimore. They say that they've sent out a warning to law enforcement across the country and have them on high alert today. This comes after a man walked into a Baltimore police station armed with a gun, apparently on orders from a street gang. This was some sort of security test, they believe.

Meanwhile, the NYPD has now arrested two people in connection with the shooting of those two city cops in the Bronx on Monday night.

CNN's Jason Carroll is following all of these developments for us, and he joins us now with the latest -- Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, those two suspects from New York expected to be arraigned today, possibly as early as this morning. Also, expect police unions to continue to speak out about the need to support their officers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SIRENS)

CARROLL (voice-over): This morning, Baltimore police urging other East Coast police agencies to be on heightened alert after a frightening incident involving a local gang.