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Dramatic Video Captures Taiwan Plane Crash; Seven Killed When Train Slams into Jeep; Jordan Exacts Revenge on ISIS; Interview with Sen. Angus King; U.S. Condemns Killing of Jordanian Pilot

Aired February 04, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Let's start there. Take a look at this. It's a twin-engine plane in Taiwan. Not long after takeoff.

You see it there? This is caught on jaw-dropping dash cam video. It started up in the left. Just missed those buildings, hits the highway and falls into a very shallow river.

We have new information about survivors and fatalities.

CNN's David McKenzie is monitoring developments live in Beijing. What do we know?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Chris, I want to give you the late this morning. At least 21 dead, that's numbers rising unfortunately from aviation authorities in Taipei. They say 15 injured, and then scores still missing, 22 missing.

Amazing in fact that anyone managed to leave that plane, some of them, in fact, walking on their own steam in that shallow river, as you describe, after their plane ditched in the river.

Aviation authorities from TransAsia apologizing to the passengers and crew. This is the second deadly crash that airline has had in just seven months in the region. They say they've recovered the black boxes or the flight data recorders. We should get more idea what happened with this bizarre and dramatic crash in Taipei this morning. But for now, it's still very much a mystery -- Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, thanks so much for that update.

Now to that train crash just outside New York City. This is the train line that hundreds of thousands of commuters take in and out of work every week. And this is the deadliest accident ever for that railroad. Seven people dead after a train slammed into a Jeep stuck on the tracks.

CNN's Deborah Feyerick is at the crash site for us. What's the latest, Deb?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, we can tell you that the train cars here behind me, this is where the impact happened here at the front of the car -- at the front of the train cars. The Jeep Cherokee stuck on the tracks. Unclear as to whether the

woman tried to beat the gate that was coming down as the train was arriving, or whether she simply got stuck with her wheels skidding out because of the icy conditions. All of that is under investigation by NTSB investigators who are on their way here.

But thick black clouds of smoke billowing from the impact of the train. You can even smell some of that smoke still in the air.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK (voice-over): This morning, commuters in New York reeling after a train crash left seven people dead, at least a dozen injured Tuesday evening.

MARC WELTE, METRO-NORTH PASSENGER: There was a passenger that ran past me. He had blood on his face. And people were pulling the windows off, trying to get out through the emergency windows. Screaming, yelling, it was just total panic.

FEYERICK: It was rush hour just around 7 p.m., when this Metro-North train traveling on the tracks north of New York City, heading from Grand Central Terminal to Valhalla, collided with an SUV.

FRED BUONOCORE, METRO-NORTH PASSENGER: You could tell there was panic going on towards the front of the train. Like "Walk balk, walk back, walk back."

FEYERICK: According to Metro Transit Authority officials, the gate at the train crossing closed down on the SUV. The female driver got out to look at the rear of her Jeep Cherokee, and that's when the train struck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was an explosion. People were trapped inside, so there were multiple fatalities. And then there was smoke in the head car, and we saw a couple of flames.

DEVON CHAMPAGNE, METRO-NORTH PASSENGER: But we were able to get off in time. But, I mean, it was scary.

FEYERICK: The explosion leaving behind a plume of smoke billowing from the cabs. About 650 people aboard.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: The third rail of the track came up from the explosion and went right through the car. So it is truly a devastatingly ugly situation to see.

FEYERICK: The driver of that SUV and six train passengers killed. The NTSB sending a go team to investigate the crash later today.

A. CUOMO: When you look at the damage done, it's actually amazing that not more people were hurt on that train.

FEYERICK: This deadly train collision comes on the heels of a November NTSB report finding that five Metro-North accidents that killed six and injured more than 100 passengers were all preventable. (END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: And at the time the MTA said that it would be taking steps to insure that it improved rail safety. We can tell you that the NTSB investigators are on their way here. Because there weren't more fatalities, Chris and Alisyn, because a lot of people simply self- evacuated. Once they understood that the impact and the fire was at the front cars, they began walking back, as you heard, many of them jumping into snowbanks in really frigid weather, trying to get as far away from the train as possible -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Deb, so we have that train crash here in the U.S. We have the plane crash in Taiwan. But they both raise the same question: Why did they happen?

Let's bring in CNN aviation analyst and PBS science correspondent, Miles O'Brien; and Ms. Mary Schiavo, CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Thank you for joining us, Miles. I start with you. Is it just of -- naive, or why does it seem that there have been so many plane crashes in Asia?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, it seems like it would be hard to connect the dots. We're talking about all kinds of different circumstances and all kinds of different aircraft.

But I think the thread that runs through all of this and which we should all be focused on, is an area where there is rapid growth in aviation, tremendous amount of pressure to meet that demand.

And the question which comes up is how are the aircraft being maintained and how is the training being conducted? Are these pilots being properly trained? Have they learned the lessons that we have learned here over the years, frankly, with a lot of people who have lost their lives? And you have to wonder if those lessons are being taken to heart in this rapid-growing region. I think there's -- it's time now to really look deep behind all of this.

CUOMO: Well, the aircraft itself is supposedly pretty new. Maintenance may be an issue. But it seems that you are going to wind up focusing more on what was done in the cockpit.

We actually slowed the video down. Mary, you made an observation earlier about, you know, it's hard to tell from this. We tried to slow it down. All right. And one of the things we tried to isolate is that, when you slow it down, it does seem as though the port side, the left side propeller is going much more slowly than the starboard, the right side. What does that mean to you?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, to me it suggests that you're having a left engine problem. It could be one of two things. It could have lost power to the left engine. Or they could have a problem with something called the auto feather.

Those propeller blades actually turn to help you get the maximum performance out of your engine. And here after takeoff, they didn't have a lot of wiggle room. It's the most dangerous time of the flight, especially on a twin turboprop plane. If they'd lost an engine there, I guess they would have gotten a mayday call out. You'd have time with an engine failure. Because you'd want them to clear the airway. You'd want to head straight from the nearest runway. It looked to me, just from looking at that video footage, you know, at the 7 a.m. hour, that they had a left engine failure or a prop feathering failure.

CUOMO: One benefit of discovery here will be, Miles, that there shouldn't be any mystery. You know, the plane is right there. They'll be able to discover all the information.

It happened so soon after takeoff, and this plane was obviously almost hit those buildings. It could have been even worse, obviously. It does go to suggestions about what the pilots were doing, right? Obviously, if the left prop isn't moving, maybe they had an engine problem. But it's why they got to that point.

O'BRIEN: I think there's a lot of evidence here that they lost power on that left engine. There's two things that are really crucial to think about. Was the prop feathered?

It's the difference, you know, when you put your hand outside the window in a car and you hold it up flat like a plow, versus holding it parallel. If you have aerodynamic drag on a failed engine, it's very difficult, if not impossible, to recover.

The other thing that the crew needed to do was step very hard on the right rudder of this aircraft to get the plane going the right direction, without banking too heavily. So those are two key things which we'll get from both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.

CUOMO: Now, I don't understand any of that, but obviously, that's because I'm not a pilot.

Mary, are we talking -- is Miles talking about sophisticated flight moves that only the best of the best would know? Or is this what you're supposed to know how to do in this type of aircraft?

SCHIAVO: Well, in fact, you get that training as you move from a single engine plane, which is how you start your training, to a twin- engine plane. You get that training pretty much on the first day. Pilots with a few hundred hours get that training, because flying a twin turbo-prop plane, if you lose one engine, the survival rates on the flights are actually worse than a single-engine plane if you lose the engine. Why? Because you have to balance out the thrust and lift on both of those wings, and it's very tricky. But that is something that you learn very early in the flight training days on your twin turboprop, as Miles correctly explained. You have to feather the engines, too, and the prop. So it's basic training early on.

CUOMO: We're lucky that people walked away from that at all. The numbers are still evolving. But people certainly survived, so we'll take that. And hopefully, we'll get some answers. Let's switch to the train quickly, Mary. The -- we're now hearing

that this Jeep got onto the tracks, and that the crossing bars hit it. How does a car get into that situation? Do you blame the crossing equipment for that? Or what does that sound like to you?

SCHIAVO: Well, there could be many possibilities, one is that the lights and the audible warning signals, the bells didn't work to let them know that the gates were going to come down. That's one thing they will look at. So they will be checking that.

Two, if someone tries to beat the bells and the lights and beat the gates going down, that's sadly a very common scenario in an accident.

And the third thing is also the warning alarms, the horns of the train. There are very specific rules about when the train has to blow its horn, how fast it's traveling as it approaches the crossing. At what point it blows the horn. And all of that will be on the train's recorder.

But we've put a lot of restrictions on trains over the years. You know, people don't like the noise of the horns, but yet the horns of the train announcing that it's coming a mile or two down the track can be life-saving, and all of those things have to be reviewed when they look at this accident. But it's unfortunately it's a very common scenario that people try to beat the gates, and the outcome is not good.

CUOMO: Now, while this is the deadliest crash in Metro-North history. People may say seven deaths. You know it could have been so much worse. There were 600 people on the train.

What do you make of the fact that the NTSB, though, has this report that just came out saying that these prior crashed were preventable. Do we know whether or not steps were taken to improve procedures and safety? Or not? And that may have contributed here.

SCHIAVO: Boy, that's a very important question. Because the NTSB, while they work, you know, to save all of our lives in transportation accidents and crashes, they can only make recommendations. And what they do is they make their recommendations to the rail administration, federal rail. And then it's up to them to put these into place. So their recommendations haven't had time to be fully implemented.

And of course, we, the rail rules are not the same as the aviation rules. Obviously, every time you get on a plane you learn where the exits are, and you're told how to open them and you have to verbally say, "Yes, I will get -- I will help in the event of an emergency." None of that happens on a train. And so I think the NTSB will look at that and say, you know, when the conductor's coming through, why can't they say, "Here's the exit. Here's how you open it"?

CUOMO: Right.

SCHIAVO: And those might be recommendations.

CUOMO: All right. Miles O'Brien, Mary Schiavo, thank you very much -- Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: More breaking news, Jordan has promised an earth-shaking response, and overnight Jordanian authorities hanging two jailed al Qaeda terrorists, including the female bomber ISIS had wanted freed. Deadly retaliation for the barbaric videotaped murder of a captured Jordanian fighter pilot who was burned alive in a cage.

CNN has reporters on the ground in Jordan and at the Pentagon. We're going to start with Atika Shubert, who's tracking the latest developments for us, live from Amman, Jordan -- Atika.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's -- that's right, Michaela. Jordan's King Abdullah has just arrived here. And he is now, at the moment, visiting the army barracks there, clearly to try and gather more support for the fight against ISIS.

And we've just come back from a prayer service for Mu'ath al- Kaseasbeh, that Jordanian pilot who was killed in that brutal video from ISIS.

And at the moment, what we're hearing is support for the Jordanian government's fight against ISIS. And in fact we're hearing people saying that the Jordanian military should annihilate ISIS. In fact, they want to see more airstrikes, more military offensive, as a result of this.

So if ISIS was trying to divide public opinion it seems that, for now, that is not succeeding. But that could change over the next few days. And so the key question will be, you know, we've seen the execution of these two prisoners from -- on Jordan's Death Row. Will that be enough? What more does the public need to see? What is Jordan going to do as a key member of this coalition?

PEREIRA: Atika, I'm curious. You've been talking about what the government's reaction has been, what you're hearing in local media there. I'm curious what the everyday person, how they're reacting to this gruesome and heinous murder.

SHUBERT: Look, I spoke to one man at the prayer service, and he was horrified. He had a small child with him. He said this was just horrific. This does not represent anything in the Arab world or Islam. And he -- for him, this was an offense, not just to the fact that he was Jordanian, but his religion, everything about it. And this is why he said, this: he wants the Jordanian military to pull out all the stops in its fight against ISIS.

But when I asked him, you know, is it more than airstrikes? Do you want to see boots on the ground, troops, Jordanian troops going into Iraq, in Syria to fight ISIS, hand to hand? He said, "No, I just want to see airstrikes for now. I think we'll do more damage that way."

So there's a big question as to just how much of this public opinion is going to push the military, the coalition into taking more military action, Michaela.

PEREIRA: Atika, we understand that King Abdullah arrived back in Jordan a short time ago. He had cut short his visit to Washington, D.C., to return in the wake of this Jordanian pilot being so, again, I can't use any other word, heinously murdered. I'm curious, in terms of what is expected, do you anticipate that there's going to be some sort of comment from him to the people of Jordan?

SHUBERT: What we expect is that we know that he's gone to the army barracks, for example, to speak with the members of the armed forces. But we also expect him to go to Karak. This is the area where the family of -- the al-Kaseasbeh family comes from. And this is very key, because there are many different families here, many different tribes in Jordan. And it's key for his own political support to be able to show them that he is there for them, he has their concerns in mind, and that he is doing everything he can to safeguard the members of their family that are fighting in this coalition.

There have been doubts in Jordan about whether or not Jordan should be a member of the coalition, whether they should be fighting against ISIS. Let's not forget that Jordan itself has a number of foreign fighters that have gone to fight in Iraq and Syria. So he has a very careful line to tread here. And the next few days will be very delicate, Michaela.

PEREIRA: Atika, we thank you for your great reporting and context there from Amman, Jordan. We appreciate it -- Allie.

CAMEROTA: More now on the U.S. reaction to the gruesome murder of that Jordanian fighter pilot. Let's bring in Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. What's the latest there, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, this morning U.S. and Jordanian intelligence services scouring every frame of that terrible video to see if they can get any clues about the identities of the perpetrators.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STARR (voice-over): ISIS released a 22-minute video of Jordanian pilot Lieutenant Mu'ath al-Kaseasbeh being burned alive in a locked steel cage, CNN choosing not to show the gruesome video.

KARIMA BENNOUNE, AUTHOR, "YOUR FATWA DOES NOT APPLY HERE": It's truly horrifying. When you watch the video, that's meant to inflict terror.

STARR: Jordan announced the murder likely took place a month ago, soon after the 27-year-old's F-16 crashed in northern Syria, an ISIS stronghold.

Recently, ISIS threatened to kill the pilot if Jordan didn't release Sajida al-Rishawi, the failed Iraqi suicide bomber who attacked a wedding party in Jordan nearly a decade ago. Al-Rishawi, one of the two, already on Death Row, put to death by Jordan.

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE: I think the executions were more to satisfy the demand for action of the King.

STARR; News of the pilot's death coming as Jordan's King Abdullah was visiting Washington.

KING ABDULLAH, JORDAN: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

STARR: In a message recorded before rushing home, the King called for Jordanians to, quote, "stand together and show the mettle of the Jordanian people in unity, determination and resolve."

President Obama and other U.S. officials expressing solidarity with this close ally in the U.S.-led military coalition to degrade and eventually defeat ISIS.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's just one more indication of the viciousness and barbarity of this organization.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: And what does happen next? Well U.S. officials are aware that the Jordanians are talking about stepping up their participation in the airstrikes. But at this point, no clear decisions have been made -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Barbara, thanks for much for all of that background.

And we should let you know that in just a few minutes we will be joined by Senator Angus King, who was with King Abdullah shortly after he received the news of the pilot's murder.

And then, in the 8 a.m. hour, we'll hear from Senator John McCain on what the U.S. will do.

CUOMO: Canada says it has busted an ISIS terror cell. Three Ottawa men, all in their 20s, have been charged with terrorism-related offenses. But only one of them was arrested. The other two are believed to be fighting with ISIS in Syria or Iraq right now, and they were therefore charged in absentia.

PEREIRA: Federal health officials getting hammered over vaccinations in the wake of the measles outbreak and a brutal flu season. During a congressional hearing, lawmakers asked how measles has made a strong comeback, despite being eliminated back in 2000. And when asked if parents should vaccinate their children, all four health experts said yes.

Lawmakers also questioned why the flu vaccine is only 23 percent effective this year. The health experts said by the time it was clear that the vaccine would not be ideal, it was just too late to make a new batch.

CAMEROTA: More science news. The U.K. is set to approve a ground- breaking and, some say, unethical baby-making method, using DNA from three people. The in vitro fertilization procedure uses DNA from two women and one man. Supporters say the technique can stop genetic diseases from being passed from mother to child. But critics call it genetic modification that could lead to designer babies. The method has yet to be approved by the House of Lords, but it is expected to pass. Such an interesting story. I mean, often we see science is ahead of

ethics. It takes ethics a while to figure out if this is right or wrong. But the science can do it.

PEREIRA: And it sounds like it makes sense for families, especially if there's a woman who has some sort of ongoing disease that could be passed to the child. They want to avoid that, but then it opens a whole other Pandora's box, if you will.

CUOMO: The box is already opened. The "can" versus "should," we're past that. You know you can. The question is what do you do and what don't you do? It's going to be very difficult, not just legally but culturally.

CAMEROTA: All right. We will keep our eyes peeled for all of that.

Meanwhile, after an ISIS video shows a captured pilot being burned alive, Jordan executes two terrorist prisoners, will the murder of this pilot trigger an even larger global response? We'll get the plan from Washington, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Jordan moving quickly to avenge the barbaric murder of its captured fighter pilot, executing two jailed al Qaeda terrorists, but how will the world respond now to ISIS?

Let's bring in Angus King. He's an independent senator from Maine. He is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Intelligence Committee.

Senator, thanks for being on NEW DAY this morning.

SEN. ANGUS KING (I), MAINE: Thank you, Alisyn. Good to join you.

CAMEROTA: One of the reasons we wanted to talk to you this morning is we understand that you were with Jordan's King Abdullah shortly after the news broke that ISIS had burned this pilot to death in a locked cage. What did King Abdullah say to you?

KING: Well, it was an extraordinary moment. It was just a few hours, it was a meeting of the Armed Services Committee, a closed meeting with the king. And I would say, I don't want to characterize specifically what he said. But I would say he was obviously disturbed and shaken but absolutely resolute. That's what came through to us. That he and his government and his people are going to respond to this in a serious way.

That started this morning. And I believe we're going to see a serious response from the nation of Jordan. And from other Muslim nations.

This, this could be a tipping point, Alisyn, because these -- these countries have somewhat been standing on the sidelines, and now they've got to step up, because this is a threat to civilization itself and to their countries. And this has to be, the king emphasized this. This has to be a war involving Muslims and Arabs against this outrageous group. It can't be the west. It can't be Americans. It's not going to be effective otherwise.

And there's an old poem from the 19th Century, "There comes a moment to every man and nation when it is time to decide." And I think it's time for the Muslim world to decide that this is, this conduct just can't be tolerated.

CAMEROTA: Senator, is it true that King Abdullah said that, starting tomorrow, that Jordan would launch more sortie missions against ISIS than ever before?

KING: Well, I don't want to -- again, I don't feel comfortable relaying specific things that the king said, but he said there would be a strong response, and we saw it this morning, beginning with the execution of those two prisoners. And I think you're going to see an even greater response.

But the emphasis, I think, has to be, this can't just be Jordan. And I was in the Middle East two weeks ago and got the sense in both Saudi Arabia and Qatar that they're getting the idea they can't play this thing on both sides. They can't stand on the sidelines. This is a threat to them, as well as to us.

I mean, I watched that video last night. It wasn't -- it wasn't fun or something I wanted to do. But it's just unbelievable. I mean, these people literally are living in the 8th Century. I mean, this is Middle Ages. This is Genghis Khan kind of stuff. And I think they overstepped.

Because remember, this guy they burned alive yesterday was a Sunni Muslim, one of their brothers, and it wasn't an American or a British citizen. It was a -- it was a Sunni Muslim. And I think the rest of the Muslim world is going to have to wake up and realize that these people are committing horrible crimes in their name and really perverting the name of the prophet and of Islam.

CAMEROTA: Some people this morning have likened this moment to 9/11 for Jordan, that it has that sort of galvanizing feeling to really fight ISIS. If Jordan were to step up its air campaign against ISIS, would that make a difference in defeating them?

KING: Well, certainly, it would make a difference, but you -- no war has ever been won is entirely by air power. It's got -- there's got to be follow-on. There's got to be, ultimately, to root these guys out of Mosul and Raqqah and the places in northern Syria, and northern and western Iraq, they're going to be -- there's going to have to be people there on the ground. There are going to have to be troops.

And some people say, "Well, they're not going to be Americans, because we don't want to send them." That's part of it. But the reality is, it won't work. If those troops are western, that's exactly what ISIS wants. They want this to be a crusade. They want this to be the west against Islam.

And it's got to be -- it's got to come from the Muslim countries. And that's why I think this could be a galvanizing moment. This really could be a tipping point. I don't want to overstate it. We don't know yet. It's going to take days and weeks for this -- for the fallout to be realized. But this could be a tipping point. They may have overplayed their hands here. Particularly by doing such a horrible thing to one of their brothers in faith.

CAMEROTA: And Senator, what should the U.S. response be to this moment?

KING: Well, one of the specific things we talked yesterday, Senator Joe Manchin asked the king a question, "What can we do?" And apparently, there's been some bureaucratic problems with getting the proper equipment to the Jordanians. And I can assure you that you may see record-time legislation or simply some work between Congress and the administration, to be sure that those problems are worked out.

So what -- one of the things we can do is to continue our leadership of the coalition, to continue to expand the coalition, but also to be sure they have the up-to-date equipment that they need. That was the one specific that was talked about, and I think we're going to -- we're going to tackle that directly today.

CAMEROTA: OK. Senator Angus King, thank you for joining NEW DAY and giving us all that information.

KING: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Let's get over to Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Alisyn. Ahead, an update on the deadly Metro crash -- Metro-North crash that killed seven people in New York. We're awaiting a live news conference. We're going to bring that news conference to you live when it happens.

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