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Former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens Killed in Plane Crash; Charlie Rangel Speaks Out on House Floor; Rep. Maxine Waters Investigated; Stevens and O'Keefe Relationship
Aired August 10, 2010 - 15:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: It's hour two now. It's time to pick up the pace of today's LIST for those of you now just checking in.
Here's number one, breaking news again on a plane crash has taken the life of former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. This is a very fluid story.
As you can see, the plane crashed in this very remote area of Alaska. There you see the former senator. Alaskan officials have just finished a news conference and the governor stated that Alaskans have a long road of grief to travel.
As for Governor Sean Parnell, he says that four people have in fact survived. You heard the news conference just a little while ago. Five, including Stevens, died apparently. So, of nine, five have perished.
President Obama released a statement just a little while ago offering his condolences.
And we have this statement from Utah Senator Orrin Hatch now. Let me get that for you. This is Orrin Hatch. There's a lot of senator who have been calling us here at RICK'S LIST and we have been getting a lot of tweets from a lot of folks as well.
"Today, America lost a legend, a patriot, and a gentle warrior who never stopped fighting for his beloved state of Alaska or for what he believed in. Ted Stevens is irreplaceable. His fierce loyalty and spirit remain unrivaled in the United States Senate. He will be greatly missed, but his legacy, as always, will live on -- will always live on" -- pardon me.
Also on the plane with Stevens with former NASA Chief Sean O'Keefe. And we have a report -- this from Reuters just a little while ago -- that O'Keefe and his son have survived the plane crash, that O'Keefe and his son have survived the plane crash.
We have got a couple things we want to do for you, first of all, a couple of guests we want to bring into this now, as we scurry to get the very latest information.
Michael Carey is joining us. He's a reporter with "The Anchorage Daily News." He's joining us by phone.
My own colleague Chad Myers is here as well to bring us up to date on the conditions.
Did you notice that we're now talking about the -- boy, I will tell you, I screwed the pronunciation on this one.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The Nushagak.
SANCHEZ: Say it again.
MYERS: The Nushagak.
SANCHEZ: The Nushagak River.
MYERS: Mm-hmm.
SANCHEZ: Tell us about the Nushagak River.
MYERS: Basically, this entire Wood River-Nushagak area, and there's lake after lake after lake. And in between the lakes are literally fjords. You thing about Oslo, Norway.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Yes, where you have cliffs on each side.
MYERS: Exactly. That's what the topography of this area is like, absolutely stunning. It's fly in, fly out only. There's not a road anywhere where these men and probably women were.
SANCHEZ: Michael, let me go to you now.
We understand and as we discussed earlier CNN has confirmed the death of former Senator Ted Stevens. Unfortunately, we have not been able to confirm, although we're reporting, according to Reuters, that Sean O'Keefe has survived. Is there anything you can add to this?
MICHAEL CAREY, "THE ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS": No. I hadn't seen or heard the Reuters report. And I assume that that would have to be somebody telling them.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: They do. Yes, you're right, you're right. They say -- they're reporting -- I will see if I can pull that one back up again, but they're saying that they have a source who has, in fact, told them that Sean O'Keefe and his son are among the four survivors in this case.
You don't know anything else about that, though, do you?
CAREY: No, I don't.
SANCHEZ: OK.
CAREY: I was just going to say Alaskans are no strangers to tragic plane crashes. I mean, this was violent and sudden and nobody expected it, but the people who have been here a while all remember that Ted Stevens' wife was killed in a previous crash that he survived.
SANCHEZ: Mm-hmm.
CAREY: And they know that many, many Alaskans, including most of the majority of the founders of Alaska aviation, the country can be very unforgiving, and people are aware of that.
SANCHEZ: Do you know what the weather was like when this plane went down last night at 7:30?
CAREY: I had heard -- I had heard conflicting accounts, but by all accounts, it was poor. But that hasn't stopped -- experienced pilots are used to flying in poor circumstances, though, sometimes, they will pull out and go around and so forth.
SANCHEZ: Let me bring Chad back into this.
Chad, do the best you can for our viewers now.
MYERS: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: A lot of folks are joining us now at 4:00. They are just getting news that former Senator Ted Stevens has passed on.
Show us -- for those of us who live in the Lower 48, show us once again where this area is and what the complexities are of this particular terrain.
MYERS: It's all about in the -- and I just heard the word -- in the cube. We call this little soundproof room that we're in there in the cube.
SANCHEZ: Right.
MYERS: It called contact flying. You fly to a spot and you go, oh, contact, found it, fly to another spot, oh, got that one. And then you go from point to point to point to point.
SANCHEZ: So, like landmarks.
MYERS: So, the more you know the points, the safer and the better pilot you are in contact flying.
SANCHEZ: Yes. Interesting.
MYERS: So, the report earlier that we talked about, we didn't know whether this was the original pilot or not, the normal pilot for this plane or not. No way to know, right, at this point in time. We don't know.
SANCHEZ: Right.
(CROSSTALK) MYERS: And I think it's important to say that four other souls have lost their lives here. OK. We're focusing on the senator, and I get that, but there are other family members.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Five fatalities, four survivors at this point.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: Exactly. So, there's more to this story. And I knew this last night. I felt this in my bones last night. When we -- when I got home and I heard this plane went down, I went, there's going to be people on this plane.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: You know what I want you to do? Start with that big picture first, if you would.
MYERS: Come on over.
SANCHEZ: Because I think those of us in the Lower 48, we look at -- we think of Alaska as this giant mass. But to the people who live there, there are parts and parcels to it, right?
MYERS: Sure. OK.
The western edge, you can see Russia from here, back all the way down, all the way down here, and this would be the areas that they drove those big boats around and catch all the crabs, the opilio season and the king crab season.
OK, Anchorage over here and then Juneau down here as the line to Canada is over there.
SANCHEZ: Right.
MYERS: So, obviously a very large state. Only been a state for a little over 50 years. The flight that was in the way here from Lake Nerka down in toward -- to Dillingham was only about 38 miles.
I just heard the report say that the plane was found 17 miles from Dillingham, found because people went out to look for it because it was overdue. It was supposed to land at Dillingham or it was supposed to land at this fish camp and didn't get there, because there are a couple camps in between.
They don't know whether they were flying to this fish camp to go get fuel or were they -- was it just going to be a stop to pick somebody else up, drop somebody else off? I think there's still -- and when you said flight plan, we don't know, because they don't have to file flight plans when you're going to point to point to point to point to point.
SANCHEZ: You don't need to do one. MYERS: You don't have to worry about that. All right, Sean, so we will zoom in a little bit here, because you will be able to see the topography. It is rough. Lake, lake, lake, lake, lake. Kind of east-west -- kind of -- almost the Finger Lakes in New York, but going the other way. So, all of a sudden, there is the lake they left on and left from.
SANCHEZ: Right.
MYERS: And then, theoretically, there's another fish camp either in here or along the lake that that they were flying around this mountain chain to get to. I don't know.
SANCHEZ: So they're going around these mountains to get in this area here.
MYERS: Well, I would hope that they were, because we had a ceiling of 100 feet to 500 feet. OK? I will just give it a 100.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: Those mountains are an awful lot higher than 500 feet high.
SANCHEZ: Right.
MYERS: And without literally being able to fly over, really into it, you're in the muck. You don't want to be in there. So, you want to fly away one way or the other. And we will find out. Obviously, FAA has a lot of work to do. This is just the beginning.
SANCHEZ: CNN has just confirmed -- and I'm just going to interrupt you to bring you up to date on this.
MYERS: Yes, I can't hear that. Go ahead.
SANCHEZ: CNN has just confirmed that Sean O'Keefe and his son have in fact, as reported a little while ago by Reuters, have in fact survived the plane crash. So, there you go. Pardon me for interrupting.
MYERS: And it probably has something to do with where they were on the plane, to be honest.
SANCHEZ: Right.
MYERS: You always see a plane crash. What's still up there? The tail, the section is still there. So, the farther you are back in the plane, it's considerably, especially in a small plane like this, not safer, but there's more impact to be absorbed as you get farther into the back.
SANCHEZ: And we will learn more about that when we get to the actual scene.
(CROSSTALK) SANCHEZ: Close this out for us, if you would, the area where this came in, how difficult the terrain is.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: Sean, just zoom out just a little bit here. Just you can do this manually if you like.
The whole terrain from Dillingham and the lake to lake to lake and then there's another little town. And they were probably heading -- there's a town at the end of both of these lakes. And then the river goes down toward Dillingham there.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: We're going to have to get a lat and a lon, a latitude and a longitude, where this plane literally is, and then we will be able to tell you a lot more.
SANCHEZ: Thanks so much.
MYERS: OK.
SANCHEZ: We will be getting back to you as we follow this story.
Let me just go back here and see if I can figure out on my computer this -- did you just send me that stuff, Andreas? EADS North America. All right, here we go. I just want to make sure that we can confirm, in fact, what you are saying to me.
Did you send this to me, Andreas? Here it is. EADS North America has been informed that company chief -- OK, this is the company that he worked for -- has been informed that company chief executive officer Sean O'Keefe has survived the Alaska aircraft accident that tragically -- tragically took the lives of the five individuals.
This is according to chairman Ralph D. Crosby Jr., issuing the following statement: "It was with a great sense of relief and gratitude that we learned that Sean and his son Kevin has survived the aircraft crash in Alaska."
So, there you go, confirmed by the very company as well. We're going to continue to follow this story. As we go, we will bring you more reaction, obviously a breaking news story, and we will continue to check with our sources to get the very latest from there as well.
You're watching RICK'S LIST. As we go to break, I want you to take a look at this particular piece of sound. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. CHARLES RANGEL (D), NEW YORK: I deserve and demand the right to be heard.
And if I hurt anybody's feeling, believe me, it's the equity and the fairness and the justice that I'm asking for, and not your feelings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: This is crazy. Did you see this today? Congressman Charlie Rangel stands up on the floor of the House and he just goes off. Wait until you hear what he said about the ethics charges against him and what he's telling them they have got to do for him. Got to do for him?
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: Also, I'm going to tell you why another Democrat under fire says race is involved in the allegations against her, and she's naming names. She's taking it further than Charlie Rangel. We're going to tell you about Maxine Waters.
Stay right there. You're watching RICK'S LIST. I'm Rick Sanchez. And we're coming right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: It was on this show last week that Nancy Pelosi tweeted saying that she was calling House members back because they were going to get this bill passed, and today we learn from our own Brianna Keilar they passed it just a little while ago.
We're now learning that there has been a ceremonial signing by Nancy Pelosi just a little while ago. Is this part of it, guys? We're just now getting some of this video in. By the way, I will tell you what the proper procedure is.
It's from -- from the House, it goes to the president. We understand that the president will sign this tonight, again, that the president will sign this bill tonight, this bill that the Dems say is important because it saves jobs, specifically for teachers around the country.
We will be all over that.
In the meantime, here's who else is making the LIST in a big way today, and he did it with his presence on the House floor. Congressman Charlie Rangel, boy, is he fired up. The Democrat defends himself against ethics charges in a direct and angry -- well, at times, it seemed like a tirade. We will let you decide. We're going to take you through it in just a little bit. You will hear it right here.
It's next on the LIST. I'm Rick Sanchez. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Hey, welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez.
Pardon me for doing this, but I literally have to use two laptops now because there's so much information coming in on these stories. First, did you know that Sean O'Keefe was once a part of the LSU community? LSU community is now putting out a statement saying that Sean -- about Sean O'Keefe: "Happy and relieved to learn that the former chancellor of LSU, Sean O'Keefe" -- pardon me for giving you my back here just to get all this information up here -- "learn that former chancellor Sean O'Keefe and his son Kevin were found alive following their plane crash in Alaska. Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to everyone affected by this tragic event. We send our deepest condolences to the loved ones lost in the crash."
This is signed by LSU chancellor Michael Martin. So, there you go.
And as we look at the picture of Sean O'Keefe, now we have also got this, going over -- switching over to this laptop. This is from the former chief of staff to Ted Stevens. We have just gotten this note, first time we have heard from the family directly.
This is sent by -- from Mitch Rose. "Alaska and the nation he so loved have lost a great man. We have lost a tremendous husband and father and grandfather. He loved Alaska with all of his heart. He was a guiding light through statehood and the development of the 49th state. Now that light is gone, but the warmth and radiance of his life and his work will shine forever in the last frontier, his legacy in the 49th star of the American flag."
Here's the very latest. From the -- from the first time -- for the first time, I should say, we're hearing from the family and those who were extremely close to former Senator Ted Stevens.
Let's take a quick break. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez.
Obviously we will continue to bring you the very latest information coming out of Alaska as we follow the tragic death of Senator Ted Stevens.
But did you see this? This is Representative -- Congressman Charlie Rangel. He made an extraordinary speech on the House floor of the House of Representatives today. Rangel is facing more than a dozen allegations of ethics violations. Some of his peers are saying, look, just give it up. Walk away. It's going be a problem for you, for your family, for us.
The allegations include failing to pay taxes on a Caribbean vacation house, and not filing accurate financial disclosure forms. Again, some of his fellow Democrats really want Rangel to go away. You're going to hear him say that here in no uncertain terms.
They're afraid that he's going to drag them down in the November midterm elections. Rangel answered today on the House floor. I want you to hear this. This is a passionate speech. He -- he -- he swung from contrite to defiant. He insisted that he's not corrupt, and he made it clear he's not going quietly into the good night.
Here it is. Play it, Rog.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RANGEL: Hey, I'm 80 years old. All my life has been, from the beginning, public service. That's all I have ever done. Been in the Army. Been a state legislator. Been a federal prosecutor, 40 years here.
And all I'm saying is, if it is the judgment of people here, for whatever reason, that I resign, then, heck, have the Ethics Committee expedite this. Don't leave me swinging in the wind until November.
If this is an emergency -- and I think it is -- to help our local and state governments out, what about me? I don't want anyone to feel embarrassed, awkward. Hey, if I was you, I may want me to go away too.
I'm not going away.
Now, I don't expect answers today. And I know you're going home. And I wish all of you well. But, at the end of the day, somebody, somebody has to do more than wish I go away. Somebody has to tell me, when does Rangel get a chance to talk to witnesses?
I haven't talked with any member of the Ethics Committee. I haven't talked -- I mean, in terms of settlement. My lawyers have. I haven't talked with any of the witnesses, and they had to expedite this case.
Don't let this happen to you. Don't walk away from here because it's convenient that I disappear, because not all of you will be able to withstand it, as I have. If there's no issue of corruption, if everybody, including the leader over here, has to start off with what a great American I am before he drops the bomb, well, I think that should count for something.
And I am not asking for leniency. I'm asking for exposure of the facts. They have made a decision. I want you to make a decision.
Now, I apologize to the leadership. I feel for those people, especially the newcomers, that love this place so much that, like someone said, "Charlie, they all I love you." And I paused until they finished, say, "But they love themselves better."
I understand that. You know?
But, for God's sake, just don't believe that I don't have feelings, that I don't have pride, that -- that I do want the dignity that the president has said.
And the dignity is that, even if you see fit to cause me not to be able to come back, because you're not going to do it in my district, but if there's some recommendation that I be expelled, for me, for me, that would be dignity, because it shows openly that this system is not working for me.
And I hope some of you might think, if it doesn't work for me, that it may not work for you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Do you think he stops there? Uh-uh. Watch this, really throws down the gauntlet on this one. Here, he dares Congress to throw him out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RANGEL: If I can't get my dignity back here, then fire your best shot in getting rid of me through expulsion.
Now, I apologize for any embarrassment that I have caused. I'm prepared to admit and try to let young people know that you never get too big to recognize that these rules are for junior members, as they are for senior members. And that you can't get so carried away with good intentions that you break the rules, because the rules are there to make certain that we have some order, some discipline and respect for the rules. And I violated that. And I'm apologizing for it.
And I don't think apologies mean that this is a light matter. It's very serious. But corruption? No evidence, no suggestion that this was ever found.
I deserve and demand the right to be heard.
And if I hurt anybody's feelings, believe me, it's the equity and the fairness and the justice that I'm asking for, and not your feelings. We're entitled to our political feelings in what we want done. But we have to respect each other, and this institution, which I love.
I love my country. I love my Congress. And there's nothing I wouldn't do to preserve this from going on. I love the disagreements. I love the debates. I love the arguments. But you're not going to tell me to resign to make you feel comfortable.
So to all of those that tried to help me to help myself, let me appreciate it. And for those who disagree, I'm sorry, but that's one thing you can't take away from me.
So thank you for listening. I do hope that -- that you have a pleasant time while you're away. And maybe, just maybe, the members of the ethics committee might think about telling me when they think they might have a hearing so that whatever they decide, I can let my constituents -- my families, my friends, know that I did the best I could as an American, as a patriot, and someone that loves this country.
Thank you for your attention. Go home.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: You thought that was something. There's another Democrat on the Hill facing charges of her own now. Maxine Waters is pointing fingers, and she's fighting back. And she's naming names. She takes it to a whole new level when she's complaining about her ethics charges. And you're going to hear her now exclusively. Roland Martin had a chance to talk to her this morning.
He sent us this tape. You will hear it next right here on RICK'S LIST.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: I promised you, after playing you Charlie Rangel, I would let you hear something else. I want -- I want to play for you something from Representative Maxine Waters. She's also under investigation by the OCE, the Office of Congressional Ethics.
Just like Rangel, she wants to expedite her trial. She talked to our Roland Martin on the radio today. And he asked her if African- American leaders are being investigated more than others.
Not only did she answer that. She then goes on to lay the blame for her investigation to someone from the Bush administration.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
REP. MAXINE WATERS (D), CALIFORNIA: When you take a look at this, we do know that at the time that I went to the meeting, this was the Bush White House. And I do know that there was someone in the meeting that I'm being told about, Jeb Mason, who was a mentee of Karl Rove. I think he's the one that started all of this, maybe.
And t hen, of course, as we go into the official OCE -- that's the initial body that hears this stuff -- we find there are two Democrats and there are two Republicans. The Republican who was kind of in the leadership on the Republican side is a representative called Conaway out of Texas, who was the, I think, CFO of Bush Senior's oil company. And so he just really dislikes me. I mean, he's just glad the whole time. I mean, it's one of those really, really conservative guys that can't stand this liberal kind of woman from California.
ROLAND MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Congresswoman, the Congressional Black Caucus has been very critical of the OCE, saying that several names have leaked out, all of them African-American. The CBC has wanted action taken against them.
Obviously, there's a case with you. There's a case with Congressman Rangel and several others.
Is there an issue in Congress with this committee where allegations can be levied against any member, and all of a sudden they are tainted by that? WATERS: Absolutely. The OCE is poorly constructed. You don't know who is charging you with what, or brought a claim against you, or who brought the claim to the OCE. I guess they can get it from the newspapers, they can get it from a telephone call. I don't know where it can comes from.
And they can move forward without you knowing who's accusing you of what, and there's no real due process. What we do know is we don't know where it's coming from. And we do know that all of the information claims or accusations brought to them, it seems that African-Americans are the only ones who they move further with the investigations on.
MARTIN: Congresswoman, Democrats are saying that you and Congressman Rangel should accept some kind of censure, if you will, to move this along, that Republicans could use this against the Democrats in the midterm elections, similar to what Democrats did against Republicans in 2006.
Will you accept some kind of deal that makes this go away? And what about calls by other Democrats that you and Congressman Rangel should resign in order -- so this does not affect Democrats in the fall? What do you say?
WATERS: Well, let me just say this -- that I am not going to agree to any violation that I have not committed. That's number one.
Number two, this OCE was created by Democrats under Nancy Pelosi's watch, and this whole politicizing of so-called corruption and draining the swarm, pitting up what I consider an unconstitutional and illegal organization. Yes, we have said something about it.
Marcie Fudge has put together legislation that's trying to clean it up. I'm a supporter of it. And no, I will not be a sacrificial lamb for anybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: So, obviously, we asked some questions and did a little digging on this story.
Mrs. Waters blames the investigation on someone that she calls a mentee of Karl Rove. His name is Jeb Mason. He's now with the policy-oriented firm called The Cypress Group.
My team has made several calls throughout the day to Mr. Mason's office. His office says that they are not able to locate him at this time. If we get any response from Mr. Mason, I will certainly let you know, and we'll add that to the mix on this ongoing and controversial story.
I told you about Rangel a little while ago, and you were watching when he was giving that speech. Now, what would it be like to be a member of Congress on the House floor when you're watching this happening and you're not quite sure exactly what's going on? Well, you're about to find out. Look at this tweet. This is from one of those congressmen.
This is Jim Himes. And Jim Himes tweeted this just as Rangel was still talking. Right?
He tweets, "Rangel mounting a lengthy defense of himself in the well. No notes. Unclear where this is going."
Well, we eventually found out where it was going because we had the luxury of being able to listen to it just a little while ago.
All right. The big story that we're following today here on CNN and on RICK'S LIST throughout the day is asking all the questions that we can about this plane crash in Alaska that has taken the lives of five people, including former senator Ted Stevens.
What's the connection between Stevens and former NASA official Sean O'Keefe? Brooke Baldwin has got some new information on this. She's been drilling down on this. She covers trending for us, and I see her walking my way as we speak.
Brooke, look forward to talking to you in the next block. You good?
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm good.
SANCHEZ: All right. Let's do it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Hey. Welcome back to RICK'S LIST. I'm Rick Sanchez.
This is the part of the show where we invite Brooke Baldwin in, and she brings us up to date on what people are talking about. These are the trending topics.
And today, a lot of people out there are wondering -- I mean, what are the chances that you can have two notable persons, two guys who have been on TV an awful lot -- I mean, a former senator from the state of Alaska and the former NASA chief on the same plane, a small plane, albeit?
BALDWIN: Right. What in the world were they both doing on this plane.
Both headed to this lodge to go fishing. And not a coincidence at all.
We've been digging on the background and the relationship. Here's what we know.
Senator Stevens, on many occasions, actually flew with people very close with a lot of these aerospace companies, these execs. OK? So the feeling was mutual.
They liked him -- talking about the space agencies, talking about NASA -- and they liked his passion for space travel. He certainly supported the space agency. In fact, he chaired a committee that controlled a lot of the purse strings at NASA where, from '01 to '05, O'Keefe served as chair.
But get this -- the relationship actually goes back even farther. According to CNN's John Zarrella, who's been reporting and digging on this as well today, it goes back to 1989, when Stevens first nominated O'Keefe for the comptroller's job at the DOD, Department of Defense.
But when O'Keefe was nominated to be head of NASA in 2001 -- and I have part of that it in my hand. I want to read it to you.
He thanked those who supported him for his nomination. This goes back December 7, 2001.
"Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, it's a pleasure to be here this morning. It's a particular honor to enjoy the sponsorship of my long-time friend and mentor, Senator Ted Stevens."
SANCHEZ: That's interesting.
BALDWIN: Mentor. Not just a fishing buddy.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
BALDWIN: I have the reaction from that from Senator Stevens, who said, "John O'Keefe is a money of great honor, of great talent, great ability. He's the right man for NASA at this time."
And so, apparently, in their spare time they would go fishing. Where's a great fishing location? Alaska.
SANCHEZ: If you want to catch sockeye salmon, you want to go to Alaska.
BALDWIN: You're serious. You go to Alaska.
SANCHEZ: So here's O'Keefe, a guy from the South, a guy from the New Orleans area, ends up going to Alaska, befriending Ted Stevens.
BALDWIN: Going from lodge to lodge, staying, hunting, fishing.
SANCHEZ: Yes. And by the way, just to catch you up on the story, the latest that we know at this point, and CNN has now confirmed, that O'Keefe and his son --
BALDWIN: Are OK.
SANCHEZ: -- are OK. They're two of the four who survived. Five others, including Ted Stevens have died.
BALDWIN: Yes. You gave me the chills when you said that earlier. I like hearing some good news regarding this story.
SANCHEZ: Yes. Well, we'll stay on this and we'll get more information. Thanks for digging down on that.
BALDWIN: You got it.
SANCHEZ: That's good stuff
We're going to be right back. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Well, it seems on a story like this, like just everybody in Washington who knew Ted Stevens -- and that would be about just everybody in Washington --
BALDWIN: Everybody, yes.
SANCHEZ: -- has a comment. And what we want to do now is bring you up to date on some of the tweets, some of the comments that are being made by folks in Washington.
Let's start us off.
BALDWIN: OK. Let's start reading some of them.
First from Senator Mark Begich. "Alaska has lost one of its greatest statesmen and a true pioneer of our state with the passing of Senator Ted Stevens."
One more. Kay Bailey Hutchison tweets, "Today we have lost a remarkable public servant and a giant of man."
SANCHEZ: And here's the irony in this story. Look at this. This is from our own Ed Henry.
"In 1996 interview, Ted Stevens told me about the 1978 plane crash he survived. Said that he felt guilty that he lived while his wife died."
Now, that's -- folks will read that and kind of --
BALDWIN: Surviving your wife in a horrific plane accident.
SANCHEZ: Yes. It kind of gives you the chills when you read that, the fact that he survived the plane crash --
BALDWIN: He went on, remarried.
SANCHEZ: -- but his wife died. He felt guilty about it, and now, as it turns out, he has died on this day on a plane crash in Alaska on a fishing trip.
Wow.
Let's take a quick break. We're going to be right back with more on the developments of this story that so many are following around the country. This is RICK'S LIST. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez.
The big story that we're following on this day is the plane crash in Alaska which seems to have -- well, not seems to -- which has claimed the life of former senator Ted Stevens. Sean O'Keefe, the former NASA director, was also on that plane with his son. We can confirm now that he and his son have both survived the plane crash.
There were nine people on board. There are only four survivors, two of which were, in fact, the O'Keefes.
We've got new information that we're going to be taking you to on this story.
We want to welcome those of you who are visiting with us on this day here at CNN. I'm so glad that you guys are visiting as we bring this news to our viewers.
The plane, by the way, did not file a flight plan, and I should let you know that it was not required to.
Some of the other preliminary information that we're getting is that it did, in fact, take off at 2:00 p.m. from Lake Nerka. It was heading for a camp on the Nushagak River.
The Nushagak River not far from the city of Dillingham. And there was an alert notice that was put out for the plane by the FAA just yesterday afternoon. This is a notice to all aviators and airports to be on the lookout for an aircraft with which radio contact has been lost.
Then it was about 7:30 that apparently it went down. It wasn't until 6:00 a.m. the next day that some of the rescue officials finally got to the scene and were able to get to the plane. Apparently, they used helicopters, they used swimmers, and they were able to extract the four survivors.
Interestingly enough, officials are saying that it took a long time to get there, and they still, at least as far as I know -- we've not been able to see any pictures or any video from the scene itself. That's just how remote this area is.
This is what the White House has issued, this statement from the president of the United States. "A decorated World War II veteran, Senator Ted Stevens devoted his career to serving the people of Alaska and fighting for our men and women in uniform." The president goes on to say, "Michelle and I extend our condolences to the entire Stevens family and to the families of those who perished alongside Senator Stevens in this terrible accident."
What I want to do now is bring you up to speed on the area where this happened. We're going to be talking about this particular part of Alaska.
Our Chad Myers has been taking us through this from time to time just so you can see just how remote this area is and how difficult it is for pilots to be able to negotiate the terrain, topographically speaking, just to be able to get in there.
Wolf Blitzer is joining us now.
I know this is buzzing there in Washington as well, Wolf. What are you hearing? What is the buzz in Washington on this day?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's very sad. Senator Stevens was very well known here in Washington.
Unfortunately, his career ended in not the best of circumstances, although no charges ever stuck as far as -- obviously. But, still, a very sad way for him to end his life on this trip, in this plane crash.
The good news is that Sean O'Keefe and his son Kevin are alive. I knew -- I know Sean, in fact, rather well over these many years. When I was a much younger Pentagon correspondent during the first Gulf War, he was a top aide to Defense Secretary Cheney at the time and chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Colin Powell.
He was the comptroller at the Pentagon. He was very smart. And he used that to move along in his career, eventually becoming the head of NASA. So very well liked, and I'm really happy he's alive.
SANCHEZ: Did you see, by the way, this tweet that we got from Ed Henry a little while ago? This is eerie. It's somewhat chilling.
Ed Henry tweets just a little while ago that he's had conversations in the past with Ted Stevens. And, you know, Ted Stevens' wife died in a plane crash.
BLITZER: Right.
SANCHEZ: Stevens was on board that plane. And that for all these years, he's felt guilty about the fact that he survived and his wife didn't. And here, lo and behold now, he dies just like his wife on a plane crash. There's something real ironic.
BLITZER: He was in his 80s. Sean O'Keefe, for example, was in his 50s. And Kevin is a teenager.
So, obviously, the age may have had an impact, where they were sitting on the plane may have had an impact. A lot of factors go into that. And I'm sure the NTSB will have a full investigation.
SANCHEZ: I'll tell you, what story. All right, Wolf. Well, listen, I'll look forward to watching "THE SITUATION ROOM" today. I know that you're going to be all over this story as we move on it.
BLITZER: Yes. SANCHEZ: Chad, come on in here. I do want to ask you a couple of questions about this given the specific -- you know, the story is still, in many ways, this crash itself. In this country we don't pay a lot of attention, certainly not at the national level like us here at CNN, to small plane crashes, but they're more often than maybe we think, right?
MYERS: Oh, there's a lot of small little incidents that we don't hear about. Sure, absolutely.
SANCHEZ: I mean, here we're talking about this one story, and we're hearing about a man and his wife who both died in plane crashes.
MYERS: And this is not the first time that this corporation has had a small incident on one of its plane.
SANCHEZ: Really? What do you know?
MYERS: It was a Beaver. This is called an Otter, a much bigger plane. This can hold quite a few people.
This plane that crashed last night was a 1957 model. It was upgraded. It had a turbo motor, and the turbines were going, and a single prop.
But the smaller plane, the little Beaver, actually, had a landing issue. And as it came in, landing on water is not that easy all the time. You can hit a wave. You hit a wake, something, you can catch one of those floats on the front, and this plane actually nosed over into the water.
SANCHEZ: And that's the plane right there?
MYERS: That's the plane that crashed last night.
SANCHEZ: The type of plane, I should say.
MYERS: No. That is the plane.
SANCHEZ: It is?
MYERS: That is the absolute big red plane. That is it, 455A.
Yes. It's built in 1957, de Havilland DHC3. That's Otter.
See how long the -- see, this thing is supposed to have a stubby nose on it. It was built with a little stubby little nose.
Let's go back to the other one.
See how long that is? This company out in Texas will come back and they will remanufacture, basically, your air frame. And they will make it almost a brand-new airplane with a brand-new engine in it.
SANCHEZ: That's interesting.
MYERS: And that's why it pokes out like it does.
SANCHEZ: Stick around. I want you to explain that when we come back, because I am still somewhat mystified by how this plane was used in that area, literally navigating itself -- navigating around this treacherous terrain, the mountains, fiords, as you described them. So I'd like to hear more about that when we come back.
And we're also going to catch our viewers up on a couple of other stories.
Stay right there. RICK'S LIST continues on this breaking news right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: What we're doing now -- and Chad Myers is joining me to drill down on the type of plane that we're talking about in this crash and the type of terrain that that pilot had to negotiate.
Is it difficult? Why is it difficult?
MYERS: Sure.
SANCHEZ: Why this type of plane?
MYERS: Sure. And many times -- if an Alaskan pilot waited for the weather to clear, he would never fly anywhere.
SANCHEZ: Really?
MYERS: Right.
SANCHEZ: It's just --
MYERS: The weather is not that good all the time, no. And it's called contact flying. You go from one point to another point. And you say, hey, there's the beach.
All right. We flew right over the beach. Now we've got to go left 20 degrees.
SANCHEZ: So that means you have got to have in your mind's eye a visual script of what this terrain looks like. In other words, experience is what makes you a good pilot up there.
MYERS: Well, yes, but there's also a new thing called GPS. That works in a plane, too, thank goodness. And we know where we're going now. So we can actually see the ground. But yes --
SANCHEZ: But the conditions when it's really misty, when it's really -- when there's a lot of haze, for example, it's a little harder to fly.
MYERS: It is. And you know what? We don't have an exact weather forecast for where that plane was, because basically nobody lives there. There's not a weather station right there. We have Dillingham on the water. (INAUDIBLE) a thousand feet. Well, guess what? A thousand feet is fine, but when you fly up into the mountains, you're losing your thousand feet because the clouds are still here, but your ground is coming up.
So, you don't own one --
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: But they say he crashed into a mountain.
MYERS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: So what happened?
MYERS: I don't know. And the only way that we will know with a plane like this is that there are survivors to tell us the story.
SANCHEZ: Well, show us the mountain we might be talking about. Show us this particular area and what's mountainous and what isn't, and how he could have brought that plane down safely.
MYERS: Let us talk about -- well, we don't even know why he didn't bring it down safely, because it should have come down safely. It comes down safely hundreds of times a day.
This is the Finger Lake region, basically, of western Alaska. So there we go. All of these lakes, they're dark spots.
Sean (ph), go ahead and zoom in.
You'll be able to see them a lot better.
Dillingham on the water right there, on the river. That's the area that they were going to.
They were leaving Lake Nerka and flying down toward Dillingham. Theoretically, a stop in one of these other little fish camps here, a fish camp with fuel. Interesting.
Were they going to get fuel? Were they running low on fuel? We don't know.
But if you draw a straight line -- literally, you don't want to draw a straight line. Rick, this is part of this -- you must fly around these higher spots. You must know where you are on the ground all the time, especially if you only have a quarter mile visibility, which is what it was called, and 100-foot ceilings.
One hundred foot ceilings means that's all you had between you and the ground. You have to fly somewhere down here because you can't fly up here and see anything. So you have to be able to fly here.
SANCHEZ: So obviously the mountains is over 100 feet, which means you have to go around it.
MYERS: Of course you do.
SANCHEZ: So they go around Nerka, go around this area, and come into some area over here.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: Not sure. Not sure.
SANCHEZ: But that's the only thing that makes sense, right?
MYERS: Well, sure. But that's the straight line from where that fish camp was down to where they were going.
SANCHEZ: We know they left Nerka.
MYERS: Well, we don't know whether they went this way or not.
SANCHEZ: Oh, I see.
MYERS: See? There's another way around this little mountain range here. This is the Finger Lake, so you've got one lake, two lakes, another lake down here. And so they may have been coming this way. I don't have a latitude/longitude to know where the heck they were.
SANCHEZ: Because there's not flight plan.
MYERS: Because there wasn't a flight plan. And the pilot that was on earlier said, "We don't make flight plans, because when we land, we can't get rid of that flight plan because there's nobody to give it to."
SANCHEZ: That's interesting.
MYERS: We can't get rid of it.
SANCHEZ: I'll tell you, it's some interesting terrain when you look at this. And you can only imagine what it was like at the last minute when that plane finally started to go down and how it is that these four people survived.
MYERS: Search parties went out 7:30, found them. Sunset wasn't until 10:30. So we still had three hours of daylight.
SANCHEZ: And that's why they say the searchers had such a tough time.
MYERS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: All right. That's it for us. Thanks for taking us back through it.
I'm Rick Sanchez, here with Chad Myers.
"THE SITUATION ROOM" takes you through this story and all the reaction that's coming in right now from Washington. Here is Wolf Blitzer.
