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Nancy Grace
Florida Physician Found Murdered; Two Pilots Let Playboy Bunny Fly Plane. Aired 8-9:00p ET
Aired July 01, 2015 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight, live, Bonita Springs, Florida. In the last hours, mystery surrounding the murder of a gorgeous
young doctor, a mother of two little girls. Bombshell tonight. Dr. Teresa Sievers found murdered brutally in her upscale Florida home while Sievers`s
husband and two little daughters out of town.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A neighborhood on edge after this doctor and mother of two was found dead inside her Bonita Springs home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m very scared for my safety.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who believes she may have heard the murder as it happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thinking that someone`s going to come in and kill me.
DR. TERESA SIEVERS, PHYSICIAN: To understand it, we as doctors are treating this physical body that we can touch.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That from Teresa Sievers`s YouTube channel.
And live, a bunny in the cockpit -- no, not that kind of bunny. Pilots allow a Playboy bunny into the cockpit for takeoff and landing,
known to be the most dangerous times in a flight, and all times in between, even allowing the Playmate to fly the plane, unbeknownst to all the
passengers. We have the video from Tilon O`Shay (ph) and channel 13.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two pilots allowed a busty model to fly their passenger plane with 35 others on board.
Passengers allegedly had no idea what was going on. On the video, the model tells the pilots, I`m going to accelerate, and we`ll take off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. We go live to Bonita Springs, Florida. In the last hours, mystery surrounding the murder of a gorgeous young doctor, a
mother of two little girls, Dr. Teresa Sievers found brutally murdered in her upscale Florida home while her husband and their two little girls were
out of town.
I want to go straight to the scene. Bob Alexander, news director there at 92.5 Fox News in Fort Meyers -- Bob, what do we know?
BOB ALEXANDER, 92.5 FOX NEWS (via telephone): Well, Nancy, the first thing that we know is it`s been confirmed that this was, indeed, a
homicide. The reports came in first early Monday morning, when Dr. Sievers was supposed to report to work. Apparently, she had a very full
schedule...
GRACE: OK, wait a minute, wait a minute, Bob. I think I`m seeing -- let me see that in full. I believe I`m seeing a gurney carrying her out.
Bob Alexander with me. We`re seeing a gurney right now taking the doctor out of the home.
Everybody, this is what we know. Bob, she, her husband and their two daughters, I believe, were in Connecticut for a family get-together? What
happened?
ALEXANDER: Yes. They were in Connecticut over this past weekend. She apparently flew home by herself to the Fort Meyers area Sunday and was
scheduled to see patients at her office on Monday. When she did not show up, a call was placed to the Lee County sheriff`s office. The sheriff`s
deputies arrived at the home in Bonita Springs. It was then that they found her dead. Major crimes was called in, and the investigation was
launched from there.
GRACE: OK, let me understand this timeline. With me is Bob Alexander, and I`m about to bring in Rita Cosby with WABC.
Bob, so she and her family -- she`s got two little girls with the husband, who I think is also a doctor, but I know he works in the practice
with her. They`re out of town with a big family gathering in Connecticut.
She flies home alone, leaving her children and husband behind, because she`s got patients the next morning, all right? So my understanding was
her plan was -- she gets in late at night. She`s going to get up at 5:00 o`clock to go start seeing patients.
Let me understand this, Bob. Is it true the doctor called her husband and said, I got home OK?
ALEXANDER: Yes. Her sister Lisa (ph) confirmed to us that she, indeed, did make the call once she got back here to the Fort Meyers area,
that she was here safe and that she had planned to go in to work the next morning...
GRACE: OK.
ALEXANDER: ... and that was the last communication that anybody apparently had with her.
GRACE: So that`s a yes, plain and simple.
ALEXANDER: Yes.
GRACE: She called. She said she get home safely. But did she get home safely, or did she touch down? Go with me here. I`m trying to figure
this out. This is a very upscale home, all right? I know they had an alarm system. No surveillance video, but they had an alarm system, and I
believe it was on.
[20:05:00]The back yard totally enclosed with that gate. It`s a tall gate. You have to go through a side entrance, which is locked, either the
garage or the front door. Those are the only ways to get into the home.
This is what I`m trying to figure out, Bob Alexander. When she said, I`m here, does that mean, I touched down safely, or I`m in the home and
everything`s good? Because if it means, I touched down, what did she do? Did she take an uber? Did she drive herself? Did she get a taxi. Did she
have a limo waiting? Who drove her home? How did she get home? Do we know that, Bob?
ALEXANDER: We don`t know that yet, Nancy. Again, the investigation is ongoing. They`ve released very few details in the whole thing. All we
know for sure is that she did arrive in Fort Meyers. How she got home and who brought her home, that sort of information, that has not been released.
GRACE: Because where I`m going with this, Rita Cosby, investigative journalist, WABC host -- Rita, I need to know who drove her home. Was it
an uber driver? Was it a car you call as you touch down and they show up? Was it a cab driver she got at ground transport? Was her car parked there?
I need to know.
Was somebody waiting in her car? Because if they were, how did they know she was about to come out? Did they wait there all weekend? I don`t
think so. Or was the person in the home? They`ve got an alarm system. The alarm didn`t go off, all right? It did not go off. We know the alarm
did not go off.
What do you know, Rita?
RITA COSBY, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Well, and there`s a lot of other unanswered questions, too, Nancy. They have two dogs that always
bark when people come inside. We don`t know if the cogs barked.
What we do know is two interesting things coming from neighbors, neighbors in the pre-dawn hours. Remember, they found her body at 9:45.
She typically wakes up at 5:00. One neighbor heard a sound like a shrill. It sounded like a child screaming in the pre-dawn hours. Another neighbor
heard a man shouting at someone inside the home.
GRACE: OK. Look at this home. It`s extremely protected. There`s only three ways in to the home, the front door, which you see, the garage,
which you`ve got to be able to get that garage door up -- it`s an extended garage, it can actually hold three cars -- or you can get in through the
back.
Now, the problem with the back -- there`s a gate. You`d have to get over the gate and then in somehow through the back. These are the only
ways into the home.
Now, another thing I question, Bob Alexander, is whether the carport, the garage, has an attic because very often, if there`s an attic or
crawlspace in the garage, that connects to the house. Somebody can get up through there, go through it, and then land right in your bedroom.
Very easy to do if you can get into that garage, but notice the garage does not have any windows. You`d have to be able to get that door up,
unless you got in when she came in with the car.
That would suggest, Bob, that somebody knew she was on her way home and was lying in wait. Who would know that?
Let me go to you, Matt Zarrell. The police are not releasing cause or manner of death right now. Well, we do know it`s a homicide. We know it`s
not involuntary, so it`s going to have to be either voluntary or murder.
We also know that it`s been leaked out it was one of the most brutal and chilling crime scenes police have ever seen. Now, that means blood.
That does not mean asphyxiation, that means blood, either shooting or stabbing. What do you know, Matt Zarrell?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Well, we know that the police were waiting for the autopsy report right now. We`ve got
calls into the coroner`s office. We know that the scene, as you mentioned, was very, very gruesome. Another factor that we`re looking into here is,
was a weapon used? Was there a weapon at the scene, and where her body was found. That could also tell us exactly how the murder played out.
GRACE: You know what? I want to backtrack to Rita Cosby. With me, Rita Cosby, WABC, Bob Alexander, Fox News.
Rita, let`s talk about those neighbors. They`re not living in the same home together. These are two separate entities, correct?
CROSBY: Yes, two separate and different times.
GRACE: Which means you can expect maybe one person to be wrong, possibly, about what they heard at 3:00 o`clock, 4:00 o`clock in the
morning, but not two people living in two homes. Now, the one person heard, as she describes it, a "shrill," which is a shriek, all right? She
hears it in the pre-dawn hours.
The other person I believe is a male, and he hears an argument or words between a man and a woman, or did he just hear the man?
CROSBY: He just heard the man, but he said he heard the man shouting loudly and screaming. So it sounds like there was some sort of argument
heard, both again, at the same timeframe, which is very significant.
GRACE: Interesting that that alarm was not triggered. Who turned the alarm off? Because, you know, when you`re coming home at night by yourself
from out of town, you would think you`d turn that alarm back on.
[20:10:08]Did she forget to turn the alarm on? Also, with most alarms, the alarm company can tell you, was the house was armed at that
time or not. Why wasn`t it?
Let`s take a listen to what the neighbors are saying. Who killed this gorgeous young doctor, this mother of two? Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you scared for your own safety?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m very scared for my safety.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re the one who actually heard a scream.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did. I did. It was early in the morning. I got up, and I heard what was like a shrill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did it sound like whoever it was was in pain or scared?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like they got hurt. I have children, and I know when a child gets hurt, how they`ll have that shrill. And that`s -- to me,
that`s what it sounded like.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have an idea who did this? Put a footrest (ph). Don`t let us sit and think that, you know, there`s a
murderer out there that`s going to attack everybody in the neighborhood.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:15:14]UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard what was like a shrill, like they got hurt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doctor and mother of two found dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Murder of Dr. Teresa Sievers...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Inside her home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the safest place is in your own home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Neighborhood on edge.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m very scared.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) thinking that someone`s going to come in and kill me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Who would murder this gorgeous young mother of two, a doctor who spent her whole life trying to heal others? Let`s take a listen to
what Dr. Teresa Sievers is saying. This is her on Teresa Sievers`s YouTube channel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. TERESA SIEVERS, PHYSICIAN: The amount of disease that it`s covering, it`s more than just your typical arthritis and it has more
products (ph)...
I have a lot of gratitude that I`m able to give some time back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You are seeing -- part of that is from a syndicated national TV show, "Know the Cause."
I want to see a little bit more of Dr. Sievers. Let me know when you get it cued up, Liz.
Who would kill her? Her husband and two children had been with her in Connecticut at a family gathering. Her sister was there. She came back
home to see patients. Not an enemy known, but somebody went in her home while she was there alone and brutally, brutally murdered her.
Now, her patients were all coming to her practice the next morning. Everybody was lined up to see the doctor. They all loved her. She had a
real healing touch, a real personal touch with her patients. And they`re greeted by a note on the door that says, We regret to inform you that Dr.
Sievers is dead. She has passed away. She was murdered.
To Rita Cosby, investigative journalist, WABC. When police say -- when a police source leaks out, This is one of the most brutal crime scenes
I`ve ever seen, that means she`s not found just lying there in her bed like she fell asleep and died peacefully, OK? There was a struggle. There is
blood. And it`s a scene that even police say is one of the most brutal they`ve ever seen.
And did you hear the neighbor? She heard what she calls a "shrill," which is basically a cry of pain, in the early dawn hours. And that`s in
another home. This lady screamed her head off!
CROSBY: Yes, it`s heartbreaking to hear. And Nancy, they say that they knew right away it was a homicide. So clearly, the scene was bloody.
It was gruesome. They`re providing few details.
What they are saying is interesting to neighbors, though. They`re saying that they don`t believe there`s a threat to the neighborhood, but
lock your doors. They`re sending mixed messages, signaling that it looks like it was someone who knew her.
GRACE: OK, interesting. Someone that knew her. Now, typically, when you`ve got a spouse murdered in this manner, you immediately look to the
husband or the wife. The husband was not there, the husband in Connecticut with the children. The husband has not been named a person of interest,
not a suspect.
Right now, no suspects, no persons of interest. In fact, the police are asking for your help to figure out who murdered this beloved mom of
two, this doctor to the community. The tip line, 1-800-780-TIPS -- 1-800- 780-8477.
Let`s take a listen to Dr. Sievers in her own words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIEVERS: I didn`t come from the perfect family when I was a kid, although I never had a life anything like these girls go through. I do
like them to know you don`t just wake up one day, become a doctor, have a business and have a perfect life. It requires work. And so, hopefully, I
instill in them hope and a belief that they can be anything they want to be.
I have a lot of gratitude that I`m able to give some time back. It`s a place of healing for girls. It`s a chance of a new life. And it really
makes you realize what is important in life that you have and what so many other people don`t have and how important it is to give back to them, to
help them get the things that they didn`t have in life from the traditional family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Part of what you were just hearing when she was speaking -- this woman, this Dr. Teresa Sievers, a mother of two, a married mom of two,
also worked at a home for teen girls that were pregnant. And she`s devoted hours and hours and hours trying to help these girls start their life over,
to inspire them that they can do more in this world.
She herself, as you heard her say, didn`t come from a perfect family, but look what she has made of herself and is trying to raise two girls to
do the same thing.
[20:20:08]I want to go back out to Bob Alexander. When we hear the police say that this was a brutal crime scene, what do we know? Do we know
if a weapon was involved? And what I`m getting at, was the weapon brought into the home, or was this a murder of the moment, where she woke up and
there was an intruder in the home, and he whacked her with a fire iron? Somehow, I`m not getting that feeling.
ALEXANDER: The thought that it`s a very brutal murder means that, of course, there had to be some kind of a weapon involved. But again, the
sheriff`s office here in this area being very tight-lipped about all the details, only saying that it`s a homicide.
They brought in dozens of training academy recruits to comb the scene. They`re helping the detectives look for evidence. They also brought in the
members of that Statewide Security Company that was hired to provide security for the home. They are working with the detectives, as well. But
they`re just not giving out very many details about what happened.
GRACE: OK, wait. What did you say about the security company? What did you say?
ALEXANDER: Statewide Security is the local company in this area that was hired by the Sievers family to provide security at the home. They
arrived at the home this morning to help the investigation, but that`s all that the company would tell us.
GRACE: Everyone, you are seeing the scene where this young doctor murdered at home. We know she made it back safely. She had no idea
anything was wrong, didn`t feel she was being followed, nothing like that. She called back to her husband and girls when she landed, said she had made
it all right.
To Dr. Bill Manion, forensic pathologist. Dr. Manion, when you hear the words "brutal crime scene," as a forensic pathologist -- and basically
a criminologist, as well -- that means a treasure trove of evidence.
DR. BILL MANION, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST (via telephone): That`s correct, plenty of blood, and they`ll be analyzing that blood to see if
it`s from stab wounds. Is it from blunt force injury, being hit by a bat or a pipe? People sometimes leave footprints in the blood, so they`ll be
looking for any shoe footprints that are left in the blood. So yes, there`s plenty of evidence there.
And if the person was using a knife, they may have cut themselves, and they`ll be looking for all kinds of blood evidence that may have been on
walls or railings or on the floor as she struggled with her assailant.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:26:33]UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shrill, and that`s -- to me, that`s what it sounded like.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dr. Teresa Sievers, who was found dead inside this home...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who could do something like that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators were still scouring over every inch of property.
SIEVERS: You don`t just wake up one day, become a doctor, have a business and have a perfect life.
I got (INAUDIBLE) home because had started to learn about human trafficking, and I was already donating to the home, and I did not realize
that they actually took human trafficking victims. And literally, I just received a message one day, I felt like, thinking about the home, and it
was just divine intervention. You know, you need to just go to the home and just see what it`s about. And I came and I never left, and that was
almost six years ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That is from the murder victim, Dr. Teresa Sievers, at TeresaSievers.com.
She leaves behind a husband and two little girls -- two little girls. And as we are so intent on focusing on forensics and blood spatter and mode
of death, cause of death, what happened, was there a murder weapon, what about those two little girls? What are they going to grow up remembering
about Mommy`s death?
I want to go back out to Bob Alexander. We know, or we think we know, that this was not around the pool because all of the photos we`ve seen, the
police are going into the home. At first, I thought maybe something had happened outside at the pool because the neighbors heard this scream and
these voices, but those were clearly coming from inside the home. That must have been some scream and very loud voices.
Now, look at that. Look. She is testing fingerprints on the gate. That tech was testing the gate. Does that mean they don`t know how the
person got in? Does that mean there`s no forced entry? In other words, the entry is not readily discernible? There`s no broken glass. It hasn`t
been pried open at the front door or back door. So she`s printing the gate door.
Rita Cosby, what do you -- what`s your takeaway from that?
CROSBY: Well, it sounds me like they don`t know how the person got inside. They are also trying to find out if she had any enemies. And at
this point, cops are saying, Nancy, that they don`t know of any history here.
This is a woman who in the community -- just to give you a sense -- she was so well loved, helping at-risk teens, but also those in the
transgender community, so many different charitable causes. And she was known as "Mother Teresa" in the neighborhood. They can`t imagine who would
do this to her.
GRACE: Look at this woman. We need your help. Police need your help. Who murdered this beautiful young doctor and mother of two little
girls? 1-800-780-TIPS, 1-800-780-8477. There is a reward, and it is climbing.
For those of you just joining us, Dr. Teresa Sievers`s body has just been removed from her Bonita Springs, Florida, home. She was murdered in
her home, a brutal murder, after leaving her husband and children at a family get-together in Connecticut to come back to see her patients. Here
she is from TeresaSievers.com. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIEVERS: Just before I introduce her, I`m going to tell you that to understand it, we as doctors are treating this physical body that we can
touch. But there`s a whole other part of our body, if you break us down to that smallest level, even beyond the cell, we are atoms and molecules. And
guess what?
[20:30:00]
That has energy, and it vibrates and it moves. And sometimes when you have an imbalance in that energy, just like if you have a clogged artery and you
can`t get the blood flow to go through, you can have problems in your physical body because of that energy flow, and this is not new age. This
is actually ancient years of wisdom of healing from eastern medicine.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:35:00]
GRACE: A bunny in the cockpit. No, not that kind of bunny. Pilots actually allow a Playboy bunny into the plane`s cockpit for takeoff and
landing, known to be the most dangerous times in a flight, and all times in between. Even allowing the Playmate to fly the plane, unbeknownst to all
the passengers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shocking video shows a busty model fly a plane containing 35 passengers during takeoff. The pilots can be heard joking
that the model is entitled to fly the aircraft, and encourage her to take control of the plane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Okay. What happened, Rita Cosby? Why is a Playboy bunny allowed to fly a plane?
RITA COSBY, INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: It`s an unbelievable story. This 29-year-old, very busty, Playboy model, gets on the plane. She says
the pilots invited her into the cockpit. And now this is, as you point out, this was at takeoff. This is one of the most dangerous times, and not
only was she there in the cockpit during takeoff, she stayed during the entire one-hour flight.
I think one of the most damning things, Nancy, you hear the pilots on this recording. She videotaped the whole thing, saying you`re now going to
take control of the plane, and she`s saying, are you sure, are you sure. The pilots are heard laughing. Thinking it`s one big joke. Then she said
she`s scared. And then she`s heard saying, I`m going to accelerate and we`ll take off, so she was handling the plane at takeoff.
GRACE: Everybody, you`re seeing video from Telenoce (ph) Channel 14. I don`t understand, Matt Zarrell, how she -- I didn`t think you could even
get into the cockpit anymore after September 11. Every plane I`m on, you see, like, bars across it and the flight attendant stand in front of it.
They`re buzzing around there the whole time. How did she -- are those the pilots smiling and taking selfies? I`m afraid they are.
ZARRELL: Yes. They are.
GRACE: How did this thing go down, Matt?
ZARRELL: Well, she claims the pilots were the ones who invited her into the cockpit, and that was the only reason she went in there in the
first place, and she actually questioned, are you sure nothing could happen if I fly this plane? And the pilots were having a great time saying yes,
go ahead, why not?
GRACE: OK. Joining me right now out of Des Moines, Captain David Funk is joining us, pilot retired, international captain of Northwest
Airlines. Captain Funk, thank you for being with us.
CAPT. DAVID FUNK: Always a pleasure, Nancy.
GRACE: Captain Funk, when I get on a plane -- most people are afraid to fly, whether they`re willing to admit it or not. When you get on a
plane, you see the pilot standing there or they are in the cockpit fiddling with all the controls, and it gives you kind of a feeling of security,
because they`re trained, they look calm, they look like they know what they`re doing, and there`s two of them up there, so if one passes out,
you`ve got a spare. I don`t necessarily want to think of them with a Playboy bunny entertaining her while they`re supposed to be flying a plane.
FUNK: Clearly in this case, their hormones got the better of their judgment. Yes, one pilot can fly the airplane. You remember the recent
JetBlue incident a few years ago where the co-pilot had to land the airplane after they locked the captain out of the cockpit. I`ll be
surprised, Nancy, if this airline did not fire these guys, just like we in the industry would have been surprised that the co-pilot not being able to
handle that JetBlue flight a few years ago. These guys don`t belong in the flight deck. If you can`t put your personal feelings aside when you`re
operating up there, then you probably ought not to be flying that airplane.
GRACE: Another thing, Captain David Funk joining us, pilot, and retired international captain of Northwest Airlines. And those are long
international flights where the captain has really got to be very, very acutely aware of everything you`re doing. We take so many flights now, it
is almost mundane, but this is a highly technical job, highly technical. I`m just very surprised. I would never dream of going up to the cockpit
during the flight. I would not dream of it, so I`m just curious as to how the whole thing unfolded. Captain Funk, why is it said that the most
dangerous times within a flight are at takeoff and at landing? Why is that, Captain Funk?
FUNK: Let`s think about it. When you`re in close proximity to the ground or you`re on the ground taking off, on takeoff, the airplane is at
its heaviest weight. You are accelerating to the highest speed it`s going to have on the ground. And if an engine were to fail at the most critical
moment, hopefully -- well, not hopefully, the airplane is certified so that you can stop either before you run out of runway, or that the airplane will
fly just fine on one engine.
[20:40:00]
With the distraction on the flight deck of this nature, those pilots clearly did not put the best interest of the safety of the flight or the
passengers or the airline. Frankly, as a fellow professional traveler, so to speak, or a fellow traveler in the airline business, in the flying
business, I`m sure these guys are not surprised they got fired. I would have been shocked if the airline had not fired them, but really they kind
of put the rest of us in a bad position.
GRACE: There is no way in h-e-l-l, Captain Funk, that I would take my kids onto a flight if I thought the pilots were during a selfie video.
This is the video right there. You`re seeing it. They`re laughing and joking, both of them, the pilot and the co-pilot, with this Playboy bunny.
No offense to all you bunnies out there.
Unleash the lawyers. Peter Odom and Randy Kessler. Now Captain Funk has explained to you why the two pilots should be fired, but what about
criminal charges, Peter Odom? Endangering all the passengers?
ODOM: Nobody was endangered, Nancy. I think it`s more likely that the pilots made her believe that she was flying the plane, when they
actually had control. I don`t believe everything I see on video.
GRACE: Oh, so they were just pretending? Okay. So you see it and you hear them saying, sure, take the controls, fly the plane.
ODOM: Right, because they wanted to impress her.
GRACE: You know better.
ODOM: Yes, they want to make her think she`s flying the plane because they might get lucky later with a Playboy bunny. No, I don`t believe they
gave her control of the plane. You can`t see that on the video. You cannot see it on the video.
GRACE: So you`re saying you don`t believe what you see on video because you don`t see her hands on the controls on the video, then you
believe the video now --
ODOM: There are two controls, Nancy.
GRACE: -- because it`s not on the video. Okay, yes. That`s called eating your cake --
ODOM: There are dual controls.
GRACE: -- and having it too. That`s what that`s called, Peter.
ODOM: You asked the question.
GRACE: You might need to look that up in Black`s law dictionary. If you got one.
ODOM: You asked me a question. Do you want me to answer it?
GRACE: No, I didn`t ask you a question. I`ve already asked you and you answered me, and I was commenting.
But now I think you might know something else, go ahead, I do want to hear it.
ODOM: There`s only one control you can see. She has got her hand on it. But there are dual controls in there. And there is another pilot
there. They were trying to impress her, Nancy. There was nobody in danger.
GRACE: You already said that.
ODOM: There is no way they were ever going to bring criminal charges. There`s no crime.
GRACE: Basically, you just regurgitated what you had already said. And at first, you were saying it`s not on the video, shrieking it out, but
in fact, Randy Kessler, he has now come full circle and said, oh, actually it is on the video. You do see her hands on the controls. Ruh-roh. You
can see her flying the plane, people.
(CROSSTALK)
KESSLER: And they`ve been punished. They`ve lost their jobs, and this airline is going to lose a lot of money because people are not going
to trust this airline to hire good pilots. They`ve already been punished more than we can do to them.
GRACE: OK. Take a look at these videos. Seth Meyers, clinical psychologist, is there a direct link between a man`s brain and his let me
just say water works? Explain to me why a pilot in his right mind would entertain a Playboy bunny, not just for a few moments, she was in the
cockpit the whole flight.
MEYERS: I do think the sexual appetite of both of these pilots took precedence over their rational professional minds.
GRACE: Nobody said they had sex with her. Dr. Seth, nobody is accusing these two of having sex with her. That didn`t happen, or at least
I don`t think it did.
MEYERS: They may not have had sex with her, but it looks to me as if half of her breasts are exposed, so they certainly got a good shot of them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:48:20]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two pilots allowed a busty model to fly their passenger plane with 35 others on board. Passengers allegedly had no idea
what was going on. On the video, the model tells the pilots, I`m going to accelerate and we`ll take off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Two pilots allow a Playboy bunny to go into the cockpit not only on takeoff and landing, but at all times in between. I want to show
you the video. These are their selfies, but they also took video. You`re seeing video from Telenoce (ph) Channel 13. There you see -- Peter Odom,
make sure you can see this, put on your glasses. Her hands are on the controls. They tell her she can drive the plane. She expresses concern.
I could drive the plane? They`re like, sure, drive the plane. Look at this. The whole time she`s in the cockpit with the two pilots, who are
obviously trying their best to impress her, but that`s not the end of it. Matt Zarrell, what`s the very latest?
ZARRELL: The latest is there are reports that a number of passengers -- now there were 36 passengers on this plane who did not know that this
woman was allegedly flying the plane. They are preparing lawsuits according to reports against the airline because of this incident.
GRACE: The bottom line on that is they are going to have to show some kind of an injury. If they didn`t know she was back there, I`m not quite
sure what the basis of their lawsuit is, other than endangering their lives. I would say if she were driving the plane.
To Captain David Funk joining us. Pilot, retired, international captain, with Northwest Airlines. Captain, what is the danger of having
people in the cockpit?
[20:50:00]
FUNK: There`s obviously the security risk of having a non-crew member on the flight deck.
GRACE: She`s a Playboy bunny, Captain Funk.
FUNK: I get it, and thankfully I did all my stupid things before the Internet came about. But the bottom line is, she`s not a crew member, she
shouldn`t be on the flight deck for takeoff and landing. All these guys know the rules. I know they were thinking with the wrong head here, they
let their hormones get the better of them, but you still have to do your job. You can`t let your fellow pilots and the industry down, and really,
you can`t let the traveling public down. They have tremendous trust in airline pilots all around the world, and they deserved to be fired.
GRACE: That`s true. Captain Funk, I don`t think I articulated it very well the first time I was talking to you about this. But for
instance, when I take my twins, which I`ve wanted a family my whole life, and I was just devoted to trying, one bad guy after the next after the
next. I finally had, you know, my dream come true, my prayers answered when I had my boy and girl.
When I go on a plane and I look at the captain and I give him a good once-over, both of them. I try to do it where they don`t notice, but it
makes me feel good to take my children onto the plane, when I see the captains, they`re looking all stable and calm, like they know what they`re
doing. Do you know what kind of h-e-l-l I would unleash if I found out they`re entertaining a Playboy bunny in the cockpit! The whole time my
children are with me, sitting on either side!
FUNK: Well, it`s one thing before the flight or after the flight that you have visitors. We`ve all seen that, in our entire lives. And I`m sure
at some point your twins like mine are going to want to come up to the cockpit and see it. But once the door is shut, okay, folks, it`s time for
business. And these guys clearly were way out of bounds. They were doing something way out of the norm. And it sounds like the airline fired them,
but more importantly, they`ll be outcasts in the industry for a long time.
GRACE: Everybody, you`re seeing video from Telenoce Channel 13. So Rita Cosby, who is this woman?
COSBY: Her name is Vicky X. And as you point out, she`s been in the Greek Playboy, she was in "Big Brother" as well. And since this has
happened, she`s also been banned. This is a government-controlled airline, and she`s been banned from this airline for five years. She`s heard on the
videotape saying, thank you, it was a wonderful flight. Thank you for letting me fly the plane, basically. But since then, she`s put on her
website --
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Thank you for letting me fly the plane.
COSBY: She said, it was a wonderful service. She said, thank you for everything, thank you for letting me be in the cockpit, and again on the
tape, she`s heard, I want to accelerate, I`m going to fly now. You hear all of this on the tape.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Peter Odom and Randy Kessler. So, Peter, you`ve got it on video. You see her hands on the controls.
ODOM: Nancy, listen to my point.
GRACE: You hear her saying, thank you for letting my fly the plane.
ODOM: Because she thought she did, she thought she flew the plane.
GRACE: So in Peter world --
ODOM: The pilots told her that, because they thought they were going to get lucky. So they let her put her little hand on one of the controls.
Ask Captain Funk if there weren`t two controls, Nancy. Ask him. And he`ll tell you that there are two controls. And that the other pilot likely had
--
GRACE: (inaudible). It`s hard for me to ask a question while I hear this Peter Odom reverberating in my ear. But I`ll do that right now,
Peter. Good question. Captain David Funk, I accept that there are two controls, or could be two controls. And Captain Funk, if one of those
controls does a nosedive, what happens?
FUNK: Well, you can pull up with the other set and it will override it. The true risk is, as long as the captain of the airplane has access to
the flight controls, you should be safe. But you don`t put a non-pilot, a non-employee of the airline in the flight deck for takeoff and landing.
It`s just un -- it`s something you don`t do.
GRACE: Are you telling me, Captain Funk, that both levers, control levers, must function at the same time?
FUNK: Absolutely.
GRACE: Okay. So, if the pilot moves the control lever to land, does the co-pilot have to do the same thing in order to land?
FUNK: No, the controls move -- whichever pilot is actually moving the flight controls, they move in tandem, perfectly synchronized together.
GRACE: So if she put it in a nosedive, which she did not, but if she did --
FUNK: You could override that.
GRACE: But if she put it in a nosedive, if it was not overridden, they would do a nosedive?
FUNK: Yes, it would, but if they let her put it in a nosedive and they didn`t override it, we have a Germanwings situation. We don`t have
just a couple of guys that are thinking -- with -- not thinking clearly. They`re letting their hormones get the better of them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:59:00]
GRACE: Let`s remember American hero, Marine Private First Class Christopher White. Just 23, Southport, North Carolina. National Defense
Service Metal, Global War on Terrorism Medal. From a family of military veterans, loved growing up on a farm, the outdoors. Never met a stranger.
A nonprofit for disabled vets, Camp Hope, started in his honor. Parents William and Galea (ph), brother, William. Christopher White, American
hero. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.
END
