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Rick's List

Paris-to-Atlanta Flight Diverted; Goldman Sachs Under Fire on Capitol Hill

Aired April 27, 2010 - 16:00   ET

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

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: There is the bell, a ring, ring, ring. And it is down. Huh.

Poppy, are you there? Can you just join us?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm here, Rick.

SANCHEZ: Hey, listen. I'm sorry. I thought that -- that police chief was -- I know he ate into some of your time there. But I...

HARLOW: That's OK.

SANCHEZ: ... I was spellbound having that conversation with him.

He's an interesting guy, and he's got a lot to say.

All right, two things.

HARLOW: Absolutely.

SANCHEZ: Why is the market so far down today? And has there been any effect on that Goldman hearing that we have been watching?

HARLOW: Nothing to do with Goldman Sachs.

Look, Goldman's stock is in the green. It's up right now. The market, the Dow is off 215 points almost, the biggest decline we have seen for this index since early February.

The whole reason behind this, Rick, is that a major rating agency, Standard & Poor's, downgraded Greece's debt to junk status. That's extremely bad news for the country. It means it's going to make them -- much more expensive for them to borrow money, pay off their debts. Portugal's debt also downgraded today.

Why do we care? It can affect the entire global economy -- investors on Wall Street extremely worried about that. That's why the market is down heavily today. That's a very big decline, again, the biggest we have seen for the Dow since early February, Rick.

SANCHEZ: All right, thanks so much, Poppy. We appreciate it. We will look forward to...

HARLOW: Got it.

SANCHEZ: ... seeing you again tomorrow.

I want to start the beginning of this new hour now with what is a developing story. For those of you who are just now joining us, let me try and catch you up.

There has been a Paris-to-Atlanta flight that has been diverted to Maine, to Bangor, Maine, because of some type of disruptive passenger. All right, we have got these pictures coming in now. This is the flight as it was coming in to the airport there in Bangor. We thank -- want to thank our affiliate there, WLBZ, for bringing us this video.

We're going to obviously monitor this. And as we get more information on it -- and I know that's going to be coming in just the next couple of minutes, because the story has been developing now for the better part of the last 15 minutes -- we will share this with you.

Also, part of my interview with Manuel Noriega.

Now, let's cut to the chase. Here's what else is on the LIST.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ (voice-over): Here's what's making the list on this day.

Yesterday, Tim Tebow's family is compared to Nazis. Now what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congrats to all the dirty Mexicans in San Antonio.

SANCHEZ: A sport talk hosts calls residents of San Antonio dirty Mexicans. We're calling him out.

SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL (D), MISSOURI: It's gambling, pure and simple.

SANCHEZ: The debate begins -- how investment schemes almost buried our economy and how to stop it from happening again.

And RICK'S LIST takes to the air for the latest on just how close this massive oil leak is coming to some of America's most beautiful beaches.

The lists you need to know about. Who's today's most intriguing? Who's making news on Twitter? It's why I keep a list, pioneering tomorrow's cutting-edge news right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez.

Let's get right to it, if we possibly can. I'm looking at my notes on the details, because this story is still unfolding.

Hey, Rog, if you got the shot of the plane coming in, this is that -- can you do that? Thanks, man. This is the -- this is Flight 273. It's a DELTA flight. it was scheduled to go from Paris to Atlanta. It has now been deviated from Atlanta to Bangor, Maine, instead. And the reason is that there is a disruptive passenger on there. We're expecting to get a whole bunch of new information, but, you know, because we keep a list of the tweets on relevant stories all over the country, and we do our due diligence to find out anybody who is sharing that information, we just happen to have some information coming in now.

Somebody happens to be tweeting who works at Bangor Station 5, Bangor Station 5. This is one of the fire rescue crews out there. They tweet. We follow. You learn news. "Station 6 central units now responding to the airport, the International Bangor International Airport. Assist station 3 with diverted Flight 273, Air" -- it's an Airbus 320 -- "for bomb threat."

Well, that's interesting. That's the first we have learned of that, Airbus 320 for bomb threat. "Aircraft is now on the ground."

Well, that certainly elevates the story somewhat. It's first we have heard of such a thing. And we're getting it straight from some of the fire rescue officials who are responding to the scene.

Have we got any other pictures from the airport there, Angie or Rog? So, all we got right now is that plane landing.

Oh, here we go. We got live pictures coming in from the airport now. This is from WLBZ. Folks, I'm kind of swinging at the fences here as I go with you. This is all information that is coming in to us.

Is that -- is -- do we know, is that -- is that an airport -- an airplane? Is that the airplane in the background? We don't know, do we? All right, we don't know. So, we will say just that. We don't know.

Because we have this live picture, we expect that we might be hearing some sound as well from the airport.

For those of you joining us again, it is a developing story. A plane has been diverted to Bangor, Maine. There was a federal air marshal on board. That's important to note. And he has that -- that passenger in custody.

Do we know what the details are of why he was taken into custody? We don't. But, as soon as we find out, I promise that I will share it with you.

Now, let me tell you what else we have got in hour two. Time to pick up the pace of this national conversation, as we always like to say. And I want to -- I want you to see something that we just got in as well. This is Goldman Sachs executive Fabrice Tourre. He seems to be the -- the guy at the focus of all the attention in these hearings that we have been watching today on Goldman, the Senate hearing.

He was leaving that hearing on Capitol Hill. Just look at the reporters. Look at this. Everybody wants to hear from him.

All right, let's watch and listen. We understand, as this -- as he was leaving the committee hearing, there were some folks that were screaming at the time, "Shame on you" and other not-so-nice suggestions at him. We don't yet who was actually doing the yelling, but I can tell you that it almost sounded at times like it was a mob mentality with some people who were waiting to be able to scream these things at him just as he left the hearing room.

I can tell you this as well. The folks who were doing the yelling, they were not reporters. They were not members of the media.

Let me take you back to the hearing now, because a lot of people say that they don't understand what Goldman did wrong or -- or may have done wrong.

Well, last hour, I had Matt Taibbi on. And he called this Carl Levin moment that we saw today, he called it a YouTube moment.

All right, this is Senator Carl Levin. I want you to watch this. If you were at work today and you missed what was going on, I want you to see what happened when these folks at Goldman finally faced off with these senators. They lay out the case against Goldman Sachs, the senators do, with an assist from Claire McCaskill.

Listen to both of them. Let's start with Senator Levin.

Hit it Rog.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: It profited by taking advantage of its clients' reasonable expectation that it would not sell products that it did not want to succeed and that there was no conflict of economic interest between the firm and the customers that it had pledged to serve.

Those were reasonable expectations of its customers, but Goldman's actions demonstrate that it often saw its clients not as valuable customers, but as objects for its own profit. This matters, because instead of doing well when its clients did well, Goldman Sachs did well when its clients lost money.

Now, Goldman continues to deny that it shorted the mortgage market for profit, despite the evidence. Why the denial? Why the denial?

My best estimate is that it's because the firm, Goldman, cannot successfully continue to portray itself as working on behalf of its clients, if it is selling mortgage-related products to those clients while it was betting its own money against those same products that it was selling to its clients.

It sold those clients high-risk, mortgage- backed securities and CDOs that it wanted to get off its books in transactions that created a conflict of interest between Goldman's bottom line and its clients' interests.

These findings are deeply troubling. They show a Wall Street culture that, while it may once have focused on serving clients and promoting commerce, is now all too often simply self-serving.

The ultimate harm here is not just to clients poorly served by their investment bank; it is to all of us. The toxic mortgages and related instruments that these firms injected into our financial system have done incalculable harm to people who had never heard of a mortgage- backed security or a CDO, and who have no defenses against the harm such exotic Wall Street creations can cause.

Running through our findings in these hearings is a thread that connects the reckless actions of mortgage brokers at Washington Mutual with market-driven credit rating agencies, and with the Wall Street executives designing the next synthetic. That thread is unbridled greed and the absence of a cop on the beat to control it.

SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL (D), MISSOURI: Let me just explain in very simple terms what synthetic CDOs are.

They are instruments that are created so that people can bet on them. It's the la la land of ledger entries. It's not investment in a business that has a good idea. It's not assisting local governments and building infrastructure. It's gambling, pure and simple, raw gambling.

They're called synthetic because there's nothing there but to gamble, but to bet. You are the bookie. You are the house. You have less oversight and less regulation as you all began this Wild, Wild West of tranches, waterfalls, equity tranches, residual warehousing. As you began all that, you had less oversight than a pit boss in Las Vegas and I have got to tell you -- and it's not just you.

All of you were lemming-like. You were chasing each other. What you worried about most was a bad article in the Wall Street Journal, not a regulator. You were chasing compensation, you were chasing your colleagues and other investment banks and you were trying to make a killing.

But let me just tell you, you think it's so complicated and you think you're so smart, any street gambler would never place a bookie or a house with the record that is revealed in the documents that this committee has gathered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Old-fashioned tongue-lashing, as many have said. Goldman Sachs will get to answer the charges. It will have its day in court, unless it settles with the government. And don't bet against that.

But what we just heard, two United States senators cutting through much of the financial jargon, speaking in plain English, in many of the words that you and I who talk to each other on this show every single day for the past year-and-a-half, in plain English, as we have spoken, to explain what happened on Wall Street.

I'm going to be talking more about this with others, as well as my own colleague Wolf Blitzer. That's coming up in just a few minutes.

Meanwhile, take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Why would the United States want to assassinate you?

MANUEL NORIEGA, FORMER PANAMANIAN DICTATOR (through translator): Bush. Bush. Not the United States, Bush.

SANCHEZ: Is it possible that George Bush wanted Noriega out of the way because Noriega had information that could embarrass him?

NORIEGA (through translator): Embarrassing for him, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Who is that pudgy-faced Latino anchor interviewing Manuel Noriega back in 1995? And will Noriega now come clean about what he knew about the CIA and his charges about President George H.W. Bush?

Also, take a look at this. What's wrong with that license plate? Opponents say it has a message of nothing but bigotry and hate. I will take you through it. There is more there than meets the eye. We will be right back. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Rick. This is Bill (ph) from Alabama.

I agree with the law in Arizona. It is about national security. It is not about racism. The Obama administration is not doing nothing to close our borders. This governor has tried to get the Obama administration to do something, and they will not. Any time anybody says anything, it is racism, and that's just not true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: And the conversation continues here on your national conversation. Glad to have you all aboard.

Right now on the LIST, well, some say don't go to Arizona without your papers -- words of caution coming from Mexico's Foreign Ministry to Mexicans living and working in Arizona -- quote -- "There is a negative political environment for migrant communities and for all Mexican visitors." This is the Foreign Ministry in Mexico urging Mexican citizens in Arizona to carry immigration documents and to avoid any needless confrontations.

Arizona's new immigration law was signed by the governor Friday. It goes into effect 90 days after the close of the state's legislative session.

Also on the LIST: The largest class-action employment lawsuit in U.S. history can go to trial. A federal appeals court certified the dispute against Wal-Mart. This allows more than a million current and former Wal-Mart employees to ban together.

The lead plaintiff is Betty Dukes, as seen on the right side of this photo right there. She and other female employees allege that they were paid less than and given fewer opportunities for promotion than their male counterparts. Wal-Mart can still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Now, take a look at this photo. You can see the World Trade Center burning, and there is the statement: "Everything I ever needed to know about Islam, I learned on 9/11."

You may have also noticed the huge Confederate flag. CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also noticed the vanity license plate. It reads 14CV88. CAIR says that is a coded hate message. We're told the number eight is for the eighth letter in the alphabet, H. Two eights equals H.H. for "Heil Hitler." Fourteen represents imprisoned white supremacist David Lane's motto about securing the future for white children. "CV" is for the Confederate veteran plate, which gives you an additional Confederate flag on the truck.

And the Virginia -- the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles has been alerted to this, and the tag has now been recalled.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: If you had had it done by these surgeons, what would have been the total bill to the entire procedure?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Almost $34,000.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Wait until you find out what he really paid. Just a fraction of that price -- medical deals that many Americans have no idea they can take advantage of. Should you?

And then, yesterday, remember that I told you about the guy who called Tebows -- I mean, Tim Tebow's family, he called them Nazis. Today, I'm going to tell you about a guy who calls the residents of San Antonio, the people who live in San Antonio and love their teams -- quote -- "dirty Mexicans."

The list you don't want to be on is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: It's time to do the list that you don't want to be on. And I know many of you wait to see who's going to be on that list every day.

But, first, we do have some breaking news that I need to share with you. There has been a flight that has been diverted to Bangor, Maine. It was scheduled to arrive in Atlanta. It left from Paris. Instead, it has been diverted. And there is the flight. There is the video of the flight as it was finally starting to come in. We're told that there was a disruptive passenger, that there is a federal air marshal on board, and that he's taken the passenger into custody.

By the way, many of you have been tweeting since we -- since I shared the tweet from the -- from the fire rescue guys up there in Bangor who gave us information that there was a threat of a bomb on the plane. The person who sent me that tweet had suggested it was an Airbus 320.

Now, many of you have been tweeting and telling me -- and we thank you for this -- set us straight, guys -- many of you who are pilots or have information about this say it is not a 320. It is an A-330. So, it's an Airbus A-330. There are other pictures on the ground from Bangor, Maine.

What we understand is taking place right now is, the plane is on the ground, and many of the passengers are being questioned by law enforcement officials. So, as to the passenger in question himself, the one who is a suspect in this case, we don't know exactly what has been -- what he's been charged with.

But did you just tell me, Angenette (ph), we're going to be talking to a passenger in a couple of minutes? All right, that sounds great.

Angenette (ph), my line producer, has just told me that we have just booked one of the passengers on the plane, and they're going to take us through the story from inside the plane in just a minute. So, stand by for that.

In the meantime, now, I would be the first person to tell you that you have to be careful when you tweet, especially if what you tweet makes you come across as a bigot -- yes, bigot.

It's time for the list that you don't want to be on.

His name is Mike Bacsik. He's a retired Major League pitcher who now works as a sports radio host and producer in Dallas. What's going on with sports radio, right? I mean, the Tebow family attacked yesterday by a sports radio guy, and now this?

Well, let me set this up for you. Bacsik wrote a tweet about his Dallas Mavericks losing to the San Antonio Spurs. OK. It is a basketball game.

But look what he wrote -- quote -- "Congrats to all the dirty Mexicans in San Antonio" -- "dirty Mexicans."

For that obvious display of bigotry -- in less than 140 characters, no less -- the radio station he works for, KTCK, has suspended Bacsik. Bacsik is apologizing for his comments. And he's asking his wife, his kids, his radio station, and he's also asking Jesus Christ, his lord and savior, to forgive him.

We leave it up to them and you. But there is no doubt that Bacsik has earned today's top spot on the list that you don't want to be on. All right, we have got that passenger that we have booked in Bangor, Maine. And they're going to take us through what happened on this plane in just a moment. Here is a live picture from one of our affiliates, WLBZ. We thank them.

In two minutes, you will hear what happened for yourself. Let's go to a break. We will come back. We will have that all set to go technically.

Do it, Rog.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez. This is RICK'S LIST.

I want to bring you up to date on a developing story that we're following for you right now. Let's go to the pictures, if we can. We have got a live picture. This is Bangor, Maine. And this is the airport just outside. This is compliments of WLBZ. And we want to thank them for this.

What we understand is that a plane has been diverted to Bangor, Maine, because of a disruptive passenger. There is the plane just as it was starting to come in. We understand it is an Airbus 330. It is Flight 273.

Originally, it was going from Paris to Atlanta, before it was diverted to Bangor, Maine. And now we have just heard for the very first time reports, and this is from a fire rescue official who tweeted this information that he had heard or overheard reports of a possible bomb threat.

We can also tell you there was a federal air marshal on board. And, beyond that, we can tell you very little.

But we can learn a lot together by talking now to Adithya Sastry, a passenger on the plane at the time. And he's good enough to join us.

Mr. Sastry, thank you, sir, for taking the time to talk to us.

What happened on the plane?

ADITHYA SASTRY, PASSENGER ON DIVERTED FLIGHT: Well, really, you know, about two-and-a-half-hours ago, over the Atlantic, they -- they had passengers from the rear kind of move towards -- it is was not a full flight. So, the passengers from the last 15 feet moved up to the empty seats up front.

And they took pillows, blankets, and the seat cushions from last 15 seats all towards the back.

And, you know, for an extended time, we were not told anything, but, eventually, the pilot came on and informed us that there's been a security threat and they're trying to get it under control.

SANCHEZ: Well, hold on. By the way, where were you sitting, just so it gives us a point of reference?

SASTRY: I was sitting on row 29, but this is an exit row seat.

SANCHEZ: So you were like in the middle of the plane?

SASTRY: Towards the back.

SANCHEZ: OK. And you say that some 15 passengers moved from the back of the plane to the front of the coach section of the plane?

SASTRY: Yes. Basically, there were empty seats up front, so the people in the back rows, in the last 10, 15, you know, seats from the back row, they were made to move up front, to the empty seats up front.

SANCHEZ: And that caused the pilot or a federal air marshal on board to bring the plane down?

SASTRY: No, no.

SANCHEZ: What happened?

SASTRY: That was not the cause.

SANCHEZ: OK.

SASTRY: That was the result of the earlier incident that happened, which basically prompted the flight attendants and the air marshal to clear out that area so they can -- you know, they don't have passengers around the area.

SANCHEZ: So what was the earlier incident? Because we've heard something about a bomb threat. That came from a tweet that we followed from one of the rescue officials there, that he may have overheard from the airport.

Is that true, or what is the truth?

SASTRY: Unfortunately, we don't know a whole lot. We were told that there was some danger and some threats made. But beyond that, we were not told anything else.

SANCHEZ: Did you hear any commotion? Did you hear any argument? Did you overhear anything being said?

SASTRY: No, not really.

SANCHEZ: No arguments?

SASTRY: No. The flight attendants did a good job of staying in control, keeping a smile while we knew there was definitely chaos in the back.

SANCHEZ: Chaos in the back. Were you able to identify the federal air marshal who we are told was handling this situation?

SASTRY: I think I know who it is, yes.

SANCHEZ: What did he do? What did he say? Anything at all?

SASTRY: I don't know what he did or what he said, but I know who he is now.

SANCHEZ: One final question, because it sounds like they were able to keep everything under control. Did you ever see a weapon or the threat of a weapon of any type during this incident?

SASTRY: No. But I did not see anything myself, but the gentleman sitting next to me said the guy who was -- the young man who was apprehended was holding on to a backpack.

SANCHEZ: A backpack?

SASTRY: Yes.

SANCHEZ: OK. We'll leave it at that, sir. I think we've gotten as much information as we can from you. And we thank you, Mr. Sastry, for taking time to call in and describe for us what was go on, on that plane.

Obviously, there are still some question, and we will do our darndest to try to try to answer those questions as we move forward.

In the meantime, when we come back, we're going to have another passenger on board who is also going to be telling us what he saw, and hopefully try and fill in the blanks as this story develops.

Stay with us. You are watching your national conversation, your list, RICK'S LIST.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: All right. We've got another passenger now who apparently might be able to fill in some of the blanks.

As it's looking to us now -- and we can have that picture once again of the airport where this commotion seems to have been taking place -- well, actually, the commotion was taking place on the plane.

So let's going to that shot, if you can, Roger.

The commotion involved something with a passenger. And there's the plane as it was making this emergency landing, for lack of a better term. It was diverted from Atlanta, where it was supposed to land, to Bangor, Maine, and the reason is there was a disruptive passenger.

There was some kind of incident involving a federal air marshal who was on the plane, who had a disruption of some kind with a passenger. As a result, then people sitting, it looks like, around that passenger were moved out of there so they could contain that passenger. That's as that was described to us a moment ago by one of the passengers. His name was Adithya Sastry.

OK. Now we've got another passenger who is joining us to maybe be able to fill in some of the blanks. It's Sandy.

Sandy, I didn't get your last name. Do you want to give it to me? It doesn't matter if you don't.

SANDY ZUSMANN, PASSENGER ON DIVERTED FLIGHT: Zusmann.

SANCHEZ: Zusmann. Thank you, sir.

Listen, what can you tell us about this passenger, this disruptive passenger that we're hearing about? I can tell you that we got a tweet from a fire rescue official who heard that there may have been some kind of bomb scare or bomb threat.

Do you know anything about that?

ZUSMANN: Here's the way it unfolded. First of all, I know that they took one gentleman off the plane.

SANCHEZ: OK.

ZUSMANN: A younger gentleman, probably mid-20s to mid-30s. Appeared to be of a Mediterranean background, very well dressed, dress pants, dress shirt, all of that.

SANCHEZ: What do you mean by Mediterranean background?

ZUSMANN: Dark complexion, dark hair, clean-shaven, but obviously not somebody from Norway.

SANCHEZ: OK.

ZUSMANN: Now, having said that, what -- the plane was - they came on somewhere between 12:00 and 12:30 Eastern Time and said, "We are expecting to run into some turbulence and we ask that you all stay in your seats and buckle up." Fine. We never encountered the turbulence.

About 45 minutes later to an hour later, they came on and they said, "As some of you may know, we had a security issue on the flight. That's now under control, but we're going to ask everybody to stay in their seats for the remainder of the flight," at which point they asked to collect everyone's blankets and pillows.

Now, they also took the detachable, floatable seat cushions from two of the seats in row 14, which was near where the passenger started the flight. From what I've been told by other passengers, they use those things to build a barricade around the passenger.

Now, having said all of that, I will tell you, sitting on the flight, we did not hear an unruly passenger, at least not row 14. So --

SANCHEZ: So whatever threats he may have made, may not have necessarily screamed them out, but they either observed --

ZUSMANN: No. There was no screaming on the flight. I can promise you that. The crew was great. Everybody was calm. There was never any reason for anybody to panic.

They told us there was an issue. Originally, what the flight attendants mentioned was that the individual didn't have the proper documentation, so we were going to divert to Boston.

Obviously, they changed their minds and diverted us to Bangor. So they brought us all off the plane into the terminal. We were allowed to bring a cell phone, obviously, as well as our identification, but no personal carry-on items.

They sent a team of people on to the plane to look for whatever the threatening device was. And that's where we are, sitting in the terminal right now, and having relatives fill us in on what they see on TV.

SANCHEZ: There is no question though, Sandy, that there was a threat of some kind perceived by this -- by airline officials and certainly by the air marshal, correct?

ZUSMANN: I believe. And I may be wrong about this, but when we grounded in Bangor, when we landed in Bangor, two individuals came on the plane, but four took him off. I believe there may have been two air marshals on the flight.

SANCHEZ: Now, I'm interested in all this business about taking all the blankets and all the other seat cushions and surrounding the passenger with all that paraphernalia. I'm just curious -- tell me again what you think the intent of that was. And how did they go about getting all those items?

ZUSMANN: Well, they simply said, "We would ask at this time that you pass all of your blankets and pillows to the fight attendants as they come down the aisle, which we did.

SANCHEZ: Really?

ZUSMANN: Yes. And we did.

They never told us what went on. And the truth is, I did not find out about the concept of the barricade that I mentioned to you before until just a few minutes before -- as I was in the terminal, just a few minutes before you and I started talking.

But the back of the plane was obviously not something that I could see from row 14. I do know that there were some unaccompanied minors who were sitting in the back of the plane that the airline moved forward to, I guess, calm them, keep them away from anything that might be happening back there. But the crew has been very good about everything in terms of just keeping it calm.

SANCHEZ: What was it like for you? Did you ever feel when you started hearing all these strange requests, and you got a sense that there's something going on here, and then you heard, "Now we're going to land in Bangor, Maine," did you ever start kind of putting it all together and saying, oh, my God, there's something going on here? Were you concerned?

ZUSMANN: I wasn't probably as concerned as maybe some other people were.

SANCHEZ: Let me just stop you there. When you say other people were, what did you see that would lead you to believe that other people were?

ZUSMANN: No. But I'm sure everybody has their own level of concern. And I've watched the news enough and read enough Tom Clancy books that your mind can go in all different directions about what possibly could be happening. And, you know, the passenger that I was sitting next to, we started sort of playing connect the dots, why would they need this, why would they do that? But at the same time, we knew that it wasn't a loud and unruly passenger.

So we would have heard that.

SANCHEZ: I'm sorry, that it wasn't --

ZUSMANN: It wasn't --

SANCHEZ: Just the last part.

ZUSMANN: It wasn't a loud and unruly passenger, because we would have heard that in the plane. But we felt that everything was under control. And because, remember, they initially told us they were going to take us to Boston.

Our first thought was, if this were hyper-serious, they would have put us on the ground in Canada right away, right in Nova Scotia somewhere. And they didn't. They were going to bring us all the way down to Boston. So that gave us more comfort.

SANCHEZ: For those of you joining us right now, we're talking to Sandy Zusmann. He's the second passenger we have talked to from this flight, Flight 273, Delta Air Lines Flight 273, that has been diverted from landing in Atlanta. Instead, it's been diverted to Bangor, Maine. And as we learn more information, it seems that there was some kind of threat perceived by airline officials and possibly by one or two air marshals who were on the flight.

Here's what else we have now.

We're just now getting this tweet, and you know we follow all the tweets that we possibly can to get the latest information. This comes from the Department of Homeland Security. I'll read it to you.

"Air marshal restrained disruptive passenger on Delta Flight 273. Flight landed safely in Bangor, Maine. Law enforcement met aircraft."

The man described to us as mid-20s, Mediterranean looking, by at least one of the passengers who we have been talking to. That's Sandy Zusmann.

And, by the way, we thank Mr. Zusmann for joining us and for taking us through his eyewitness account of what happened on board the plane.

Stay with us. More information forthcoming. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We are about to pick up this conversation with our homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve. Before we do so -- because we understand we're having just a little bit of a technical problem getting to Jeanne -- let me try and fill you in on what we know at this point.

And that is that there has been a flight that has been diverted to Bangor, Maine, and it is starting to look like the reason it was diverted is because there was a perceived threat from a particular passenger who was sitting somewhere near the rear of the plane, who was confronted by at least one, possibly two, federal marshals, according to the information that we have gotten from passengers on the plane. The man has been described to us as being in his mid-20s and looking Mediterranean.

When I asked what the passenger meant when he described him as looking Mediterranean, he said, well, let's just say, Rick, that he certainly didn't look like a guy from Norway. Take that for what it's worth.

The two passengers have told us that they did not at any time sense that there was any screaming or shouting or any kind of loud disruption, but they perceived that there was a problem when, suddenly, airline crew members started coming around and asking all their passengers for seat cushions and some of their other material on the plane like their blankets. That it appeared that they may be trying to set up some kind of barricade situation where they could control the passenger, or it may be keep him confined to one area.

This is from NORAD, by the way. Here's a tweet. We're following NORAD, we're following Homeland Security, we're following Delta Air Lines, we're following the fire rescue crews and rescue officials there in Bangor, Maine, as well as Bangor, Maine, officials.

Here's what we picked up from NORAD just a little while ago, as we make news using Twitter. "Another in-flight bomb scare. Delta flight diverted to Maine." That's the very latest that we're getting out of there.

Jeanne Meserve is going to join us on the other side. Let's sneak a break in now if we possibly can. She, as you know, is our homeland security correspondent. She's been making phone, calls and we've got some new tape coming in now.

These are the passengers. Apparently, they're using school buses to take the passengers off the plane. Don't know what they'll do about those passengers to get them to Atlanta, where their ultimate destination is.

We'll hopefully ask Jeanne Meserve that in just a little bit, as soon as we get her up. Apparently, she's not ready to go yet.

But these are the passengers. It looks like they're getting out on the other side.

Now, the one passenger in question -- that's the suspect, who apparently was perceived to pose some kind of threat, possibly a bomb threat -- and I say possibly a bomb threat because that was reported -- we reported that after reading some of the tweets as to what the fire rescue officials were talking or tweeting about when they got the original call. So fire rescue officials allude to the fact that it may have opinion a bomb threat.

Let's take a quick break, sneak it in. When we come back, I think we're going to have Jeanne Meserve ready to go.

Let's go to break, Rog.

And when we come back, RICK'S LIST continues.

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SANCHEZ: Our homeland security correspondent is Jeanne Meserve. And she's joining us now to bring us up to date on what's going on.

Jeanne, what have you got?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Rick, a couple of observations about what we have been seeing and hearing here.

You've heard passengers talk about passing over blankets and pillows and the like to the flight attendants. You might remember that after the Christmas Day bombing, attempted bomb bombing by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, one of the short-term security measures that was put in place on all aircraft was that people not have blankets and pillows in their laps.

That's because flight attendants wanted to have a clear view of exactly what sorts of security threats might be posed, what people were doing. You'll remember Abdulmutallab was trying to light the explosive underneath a blanket.

SANCHEZ: Oh. Brilliant.

MESERVE: So that might explain what's happening there.

SANCHEZ: But in other words -- and I don't mean to interrupt, but in other words, they were thinking of the possibility that that person might have had an accomplice on the plane and they wanted to make sure they were covering their tracks?

MESERVE: Well, we don't know that for sure, but that certainly would appear to be one of the possibilities here.

SANCHEZ: Right.

MESERVE: The other thing I'd note is that it's pretty unusual for federal air marshals to break their cover. It did happen one other time recently. That was when you had the case of the diplomat from Qatar who was flying into Denver and lit up a cigarette. In that instance, federal air marshals came out. Ordinarily, they very closely guard their identities. They don't come out in the open unless they think there is something happening that really is untoward. So something worth noting in this particular situation -- Rick.

SANCHEZ: I'm just reading here now from -- all right, I'll share with you as you share with me here, Jeanne, as we go through this story, because we still don't know -- aircraft is an A-330. This is per Rebecca Hopp (ph), airport director.

OK. We just contacted the airport director. She says 235 passengers, there were 13 crew. The aircraft landed at 15:35, obviously military time. All passengers and crew are safely off the aircraft.

And I think with we saw some of the pictures of the passengers being taken off the aircraft there, Jeanne, just a moment ago, and it looked like they were using school buses, right?

MESERVE: Oh, that's right. Let me tell you some additional information here.

Government sources telling us that he would not discourage us from the reports that the passenger made comments that he had explosives. That doesn't mean he really had them, but he made comments to that effect, and that he had false documents. So those are clearly things that are going to be of very high interest.

You can bet that that individual has been taken off this airplane, and he is being questioned intensively by law enforcement, all of whom are on the ground, to determine exactly what kind of threat he posed. And those other passengers that you mentioned, they're going to be questioned too. Each and every one of them is going to be asked, "What did you see on that aircraft, what did you hear on this aircraft?" as they try and build a full picture here of what exactly happened.

SANCHEZ: That's interesting, because we have been reporting -- and Angie (ph), if you could, go back to that original tweet we got from the fire rescue guys over there in Bangor. Is that it right there?

There it is. There it is.

This is what -- Jeanne, I don't know if you saw -- if you were watching us when we first reported this. This came to us from a tweet from Bangor Station 5, essentially alluding to the fact that the plane had been diverted, it was a 273 -- they said Airbus 320, they meant 330. And then they said bomb threat.

That's the first we heard of the words "bomb threat," and now you're here to report that government officials, Jeanne, are telling you that it could possibly have been a threat. It doesn't necessarily mean he had a bomb, but that there may have been a bomb threat on this plane.

MESERVE: That's right. And we also know, Rick, that people say all kinds of things on aircraft. Sometimes they think they're making a joke, sometimes they're people who had too much to drink, and sometimes they're people who actually pose a threat. We don't know what the situation is right here.

SANCHEZ: Understood. Thanks, Jeanne.

Let's get a quick break in, and we'll continue with the very latest on this story, and the other day's news as well.

This is your list, your national conversation, as we follow the developing story out of Bangor, Maine. RICK'S LIST.

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SANCHEZ: All right. We've got Mike Brooks, our law enforcement official here, on the set with me now. And he's going to -- Mike, thanks for coming out here and helping us.

MIKE BROOKS, LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL: No problem, Rick.

SANCHEZ: Good to see you.

BROOKS: Good to see you.

SANCHEZ: All right. First of all, you had something to do with some of the planning and organizing for how to deal with disruptive passengers.

BROOKS: Yes. I started the Disruptive and Abusive Passenger Program for Delta Air Lines when I was a manager there.

SANCHEZ: So you know about this.

BROOKS: Absolutely.

SANCHEZ: From what you've heard of the facts that I've reported so far, from the interviews that I've done, what are you seeing here?

BROOKS: And from the sources I've been talking to. Apparently, this guy was disruptive for whatever reason. They're still looking into that. And he mentioned a bomb.

SANCHEZ: He did? OK.

BROOKS: And once you do that, you know, you know, all bets are off and they go under the assumption that this person may have a bomb. And one of the reasons, too, flight attendants are trained that if the passenger who says this, if they believe his luggage or his carry-on may be in the overhead, one of the reasons they ask for blankets and pillows, because they might pack something around that until they get on the ground, in case, in fact, he does have a bomb.

SANCHEZ: That's interesting. Well, that's another theory, because we were just hearing from Jeanne Meserve, too, that they also want to take all the blankets away from people around them as well just in case there was an accomplice, right?

BROOKS: True. Just in case, yes. But another reason is because they could pack it.

And that's one of the things they're taught. If you have a passenger who makes a threat like this, pack it around his or her carry-on in case there is some kind of improvised explosive device.

SANCHEZ: Let me ask you another question. Why Bangor, Maine?

BROOKS: That's a great question. Bangor has all the assets to take care of a situation like this.

SANCHEZ: Really?

BROOKS: They have an FBI office there, they have representatives who will meet the plane. They are very used to Delta and other airlines coming across the Atlantic, stopping there, dealing with disruptive passengers and other emergencies. They are trained to do that.

SANCHEZ: And so it's more because of the law enforcement periphery that --

BROOKS: Law enforcement, fire and rescue. During 9/11, if you remember the pictures of all the planes that were parked on the tarmac at Bangor, that is some of the first U.S. territory as you come across the Atlantic in that route from Charles de Gaulle.

SANCHEZ: Yes, and I didn't say that very artfully, but essentially what we're looking at here is a place where they can land a plane and have enough other agents in the area that they can work with.

BROOKS: And resources.

SANCHEZ: Exactly. It's all about the resources.

BROOKS: Absolutely. And dealing with passengers and everything else. They are pros at it. They know what to do. And they're used to dealing with situations like this.

SANCHEZ: All right.

Mike Brooks is a law enforcement expert.

You've been looking into this. Have you learned anything else about what we're looking at? How long before we know if this guy was just a guy who had too much to drink on a plane and said something he shouldn't have said, or a real, justifiable terrorism suspect?

BROOKS: They probably already know. And we saw the buses for the passengers. They're doing everything to accommodate the passengers coming back to Atlanta, where they were originally scheduled after Charles de Gaulle. So there is going to be some delay, but Delta is always good at, you know, accommodating the passengers after an incident like this because they know how to handle it.

SANCHEZ: That's great. Hey, thanks for seeing that we were on the air, that we needed some questions answered.

BROOKS: There you go.

SANCHEZ: And you jumped on the scene, as you usually do.

Good to see you again, Mike.

BROOKS: Good to see you too, buddy.

SANCHEZ: Appreciate.

All right. Let's do this -- let's mosey on out of here. We're going to go to "THE SITUATION ROOM" now, and I imagine they're going to be following a big part of this story as well.

Here now, my colleague and friend, Wolf Blitzer.