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CNN Saturday Morning News
Manhunt in Oklahoma; Woman Lands Plane After Husband Collapses
Aired April 07, 2012 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A killer on the loose in Tulsa, Oklahoma; four shootings that left three dead may be connected and now the FBI is involved.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole thing was in flames, the whole back yard.
KAYE: A fighter jet turns a Virginia apartment building into a ball of fire. What was behind this fiery crash?
And a quarter past the hour, we put the jobs report in focus.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We got a lot more work to do.
KAYE: Its impact on the election and the new normal for unemployment.
And later.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't you have any (INAUDIBLE).
KAYE: A gutsy grandma 2,000 feet in the air. You won't believe this story. CNN "Saturday Morning" starts right now.
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KAYE: Hello, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye. Now more on the manhunt in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Three people are dead. Police, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals all on the case, looking for what they think is a lone shooter. We're hearing that the suspect drove up to people on the street to ask directions and then started shooting. There have been four shootings.
It started Friday morning with the first shooting in a predominantly African-American neighborhood. The first person was shot and then later died, just about three minutes later another shooting, two men were shot in that incident and both survived and they actually may be helping police.
About 50 minutes after the first shooting, a second death, 54-year-old Bobby Clark was shot and he died at the hospital, and finally, more than seven hours after that first killing a fourth and hopefully the last. Thirty one-year-old William Allen was shot in the chest.
Earlier I talked with Tulsa city councilman Jack Henderson about the message for his community.
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JACK HENDERSON, TULSA OKLAHOMA CITY COUNCIL: What we were trying to do is to assure the citizens that we don't need anybody to go and take matters into their own hands. We want to give the police department an opportunity and to support them in trying to apprehend this person. We need to cooperate with the police and I know is that there is pockets of people that have not traditionally done that, but this is a crisis situation and a lot of people are afraid for their lives and afraid for their children, afraid for their loved ones and if you can't walk outside or walk down in the streets of the city that you live in, then that's definitely a problem.
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KAYE: Councilman Henderson also said that he does consider this a hate crime because the suspected shooter is white and the victims are all black. In all of the incidents were in predominantly African-American areas.
A grand jury expected to convene next week to take up the Trayvon Martin case. The 17-year-old was shot and killed by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in late February. Zimmerman said it was self-defense. Protesters have criticized the Sanford, Florida, police, who did the investigation.
CNN's Ashley Banfield talked with one witness about this. And we altered the witness's voice to protect their identity.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ASHLEY BANFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): What kind of questions did they ask you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just what I saw, what I heard.
BANFIELD: Did they seem interested? Were they in depth in their questioning of you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am not sure if I would say in-depth, just I kind of told what I saw and heard and I did offer to show them where I did see the incident and they said, "No, we don't need to see it."
BANFIELD: They weren't interested in you taking them to that location?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, they were not.
BANFIELD: Why do you suppose they weren't interested?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to ask them that.
BANFIELD: Were you surprised?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know how investigators think.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: That witness also talked about hearing cries for help from Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman's attorneys dispute that.
A catastrophic mechanical failure, being blamed for a Navy fighter jet crash into an apartment building in Virginia. Investigators are trying to figure out why the plane crashed. No one actually died in the crash, either from the F-18 or there on the ground even considering those flames there.
CNN's Sandra Endo joins me live now from Virginia Beach. Sandra, good morning to you. What are we hearing about the people who were unaccounted for?
SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pretty remarkable news as you mentioned, Randi, that there have been no fatalities reported from this horrific crash that happened yesterday afternoon. We know that local officials here say they're not searching for anyone that is missing and all the people that were unaccounted for have now been accounted for, so now they're saying they're transitioning into the investigation phase.
They have done a primary and secondary search of all five buildings you can see behind me that have been devastated by the fiery crash and now they are just looking through all 40 units that were affected. They say they have searched that entirely and are focusing on the investigation. Here is what one witness describes the scene of the crash yesterday when the yet came down.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I got off the couch and went to the back door, the sliding door and when I looked out I saw a pilot laying there bleeding from the nose and the parachute hanging from the building and I knew exactly what happened, the jet had crashed. I just didn't know where until I saw the smoke.
He apologized sincerely for hitting our complex, and I told him, "Don't worry about it. You just take care of yourself, we'll take care of you. Everybody else will take care of the other stuff."
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ENDO: Now, the Navy is calling this a catastrophic mechanical malfunction. Of course the jet as we know was on a training run crashing just moments after take off of a two-mile air base. The air base is actually two miles away from here, so very close to the site of take off and now we know that the investigation is fully under way. Randi.
KAYE: And any clues as to what might have caused this? I know it is early on here.
ENDO: Of course the Navy is saying that this is a catastrophic mechanical malfunction. We know that the Navy is also saying that there was a leakage in the fuel that was seen from the jet, so clearly they're going to piece all of that information together and they are on the scene right now and undergoing the investigation.
KAYE: Sandra Endo, appreciate the update. Thank you.
Now to Syria. More bloodshed as the ceasefire draws near. Next, we'll be live speaking to an activist risking his life on the ground. You're watching CNN "Saturday Morning," where news doesn't take the weekend off.
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KAYE: Welcome back. Syria is just days away from a planned ceasefire. But there is no stopping the violence this weekend.
Despite promises to withdraw Tuesday, opposition leaders say Syrian government forces are keeping up their brutal assault against civilians. U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford has posted satellite photographs online showing that there have been partial withdrawals in a few cities. You see less armored vehicles there in red on the right Friday than there are on the left Tuesday in the (INAUDIBLE) province. But forces remain in populated cities like Homs and Idlib and people continue to die.
According to the opposition, at least 52 people were killed around the country Friday and so far 62 people have been killed today. Thousands trying to escape the violence and crossing into Turkey. Many are fighting back.
Joining me now from Idlib, Syrian activist Shaher. He is on the ground in the middle of the United Nations' calling a "rapidly deteriorating situation." Shaher, thank you very much. We are hearing that more than 100 people might have been killed in Syria since Friday. What are you seeing on the ground there?
SHAHER, SYRIAN ACTIVIST: I see the mercy on marchers and freedom for our detainees and healthy for our (INAUDIBLE). The regime committed terrible massacre here in Homs and (INAUDIBLE) countryside. This fight or last week we don't know what's happened and maybe he will say - look to me and ready to pull our army (INAUDIBLE). Since four or five days, he made a terrible massacre aid, about 100 marches in (INAUDIBLE) and more than six children and 10 children and some of them are still and some of them entered the (INAUDIBLE) and then he moved it to (INAUDIBLE) the tanks and airplanes (INAUDIBLE) and we don't know what's happened to the regime. So crazy.
KAYE: Shaher, thank you very much. Please stay safe there on the ground.
I want to bring in Musab Asawai. He is the chair of the Syrian Network for Human Rights. Welcome to the show this morning. What do you think? Are things getting better or worse? So it certainly look like a whole lot worse since even talk of a ceasefire began.
MUSAB ASAWAI, SYRIAN NETWORK FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: Well, basically, if you want to understand what's going on, you have to look at other figures and last march more than 2,600 people have been killed. Since the regime accepted in principle Mr. Anan initiative, more than 300 people have been killed and if you look to what is happening today in Hama, many small villages have been attacked by mortar shells, by heavy artillery, indiscriminately with the support of the military aircraft and more than 100 people were killed under the rubble of their houses, so I think it is getting very, very worse.
KAYE: What do you think will happen Tuesday? I mean that is the date that the ceasefire is supposed to go into effect.
ASAWAI: Well, basically the regime is not capable technically of accepting anything which is close to cease fire because the regime got only one solution to the crisis since the uprising erupted which was the military solution. If the regime will accept at any stage some kind of cease fire, that means millions of people in the (INAUDIBLE) situation will creep into the squares of the Syrian cities and towns. That would technically mean that the regime will fall down. I think that the regime is just buying time in the hope that in the future he will be able to empty Mr. Annan initiative.
KAYE: Musab Asawai, thank you very much. Appreciate that.
ASAWAI: My pleasure.
KAYE: We're going in focus to the unemployment crisis here in the U.S.. Some good news came in a new jobs report but it didn't quite meet expectations. NTR's Kai (INAUDIBLE) joins me next to talk about the new normal for unemployment and what industries are hiring.
PluS, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta launched a new program called "The Next List." Each week it will profile innovators from all walks of life and all fields of endeavor. This week he talks to David Peterson.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In seasons to come Donnie and (INAUDIBLE) Rocky they are first and foremost her people. And so wherever she goes, they follow. But at the same time, yes, as she is traveling through many different lands there are other languages that she comes across.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have other languages coming up on the show that are (INAUDIBLE) but also need to be invented and we're hoping that David will do those for us as well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Personally, I would love to keep creating languages for projects like "Game of Thrones," for TV shows and movies. It is kind of the dream of everybody that sits down to create a language.
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KAYE: This morning we are putting the new jobs report in focus. Here are the numbers, 120,000 jobs added, 8.2 unemployment rate. It is a disappointment for experts who expected more new jobs but how can anyone really be disappointed with 120,000 new jobs? Definitely not. The 120,000 people who now have jobs.
Joining me is Kai Ryssdal, the host of NPR's "Marketplace." Good morning to you, Kai.
KAI RYSSDAL, HOST NPR'S "MARKETPLACE": Good morning, Randi.
KAYE: So Should we be disappointed, do you think, in these numbers?
RYSSDAL: Well, I think you have it exactly right. How are you disappointed after the economy we've had the last three and a half years? How is 120,000 jobs a bad thing? Here is what you have to bear in mind. It is a bad thing if you think about where we have been the last four or five months with a couple of hundred thousand new jobs added every month. 120,000 jobs is not bad given where we have been but given the fact that our expectations have been raised that we have been talking about a recovery and maybe people are saying it is not as good as we want it. So it is as you said, a good report and a bad report.
KAYE: So obviously it would be great to help everybody gain work and get a job so tell us where the jobs are.
RYSSDAL: The jobs are in the same place as they have been for the past five or six months. They're in education, they're in health care, they're in manufacturing, believe it or not, American manufacturing is adding jobs and where they're not are in the same places they haven't been for a while now, construction is not adding any new jobs because we're not building houses.
The construction industry has been in a very bad place for five or six years. Retail has gone down in the past month or two as people trim their holiday hiring, so it is very much the same story for the past six months both in terms of adding jobs and losing jobs.
KAYE: And who would you say in terms of demographics, who is the most hirable at this point?
RYSSDAL: You know, I think if you are a young kid coming out of college and you have if you can take a lower paycheck, right, because companies aren't going to give you the huge benefits packages they used to. They're not going to give you the great salaries. They're just going to get you in there and they're going to work you. So if you can take a job, you're going to get a job. If you are on the other hand 55, you've been out of work for two-and-a-half years, you have a family to support and you need a higher income, you're going to be in trouble. I mean it is very much the static story of the past two and a half, three years of this recession.
You know, long-term unemployment is becoming a huge structural problem as people are out of the workforce, they are losing skills over the past two and a half, three years and so this is if you're a college graduate now is not a terrible time. Now is a better time than it was, you know, two years ago.
KAYE: Yes.
RYSSDAL: So there are bright spots and not bright spots.
KAYE: And in terms of the unemployment rate, I mean, you know, it has been all over the place. But we do remember - a lot of us remember when it was, you know, four or five percent. Are we ever going to see that again?
RYSSDAL: No.
KAYE: No?
RYSSDAL: Four or five percent unemployment is never coming back. Let's put - no, it's really not. Let's put this in perspective for a second. When we were in, you know, the boom of 2004, 2005, and everything was going great and unemployment was 4.1 percent, right, 4.1 percent. That is actually abnormal. That was abnormally low.
If you talk to economists today they will say "You know what? It will be seven percent for a while, seven percent unemployment could well be the new normal. Think about where we were a year-and-a-half ago in this economy, 10 percent. If we got down to seven everybody would have a great time. Nobody would be worried about President Obama's re- election on the democratic side. It would be a great thing. Seven percent is going to be the new normal, my guess would be, for some time to come, given the number of jobs this economy have lost in the past four years.
KAYE: Kai Ryssdal, thank you very much. Nice to talk with you.
RYSSDAL: You bet.
KAYE: She has no pilot's license and had never actually flown a plane. But even experienced pilots are giving kudos to this 80-year-old grandmother.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You better get me in there pretty soon. I don't know how long I will have gas.
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KAYE: Her story, her incredible story, next.
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KAYE: Here is a story that will have you thinking what you would do in that same situation. There are two things you should know. Helen Collins doesn't have a pilot's license though she has flown many hours by her husband's side and she is 80 years old. This is her story.
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KAYE (voice-over): Good thing Helen Collins was paying attention all those years flying around in small planes with her husband. On Monday, 2,000 feet above the ground Helen's husband John Collins who was piloting the plane had a heart attack and lost consciousness. With her husband slumped over the controls, this 80-year-old Wisconsin grandmother did what most of us probably could not. She took control of the twin engine Cessna, low on fuel and without a pilot's license, Helen began to maneuver towards Cherry Land Airport, about 150 miles north of Milwaukee. Her heroic efforts were recorded. One thing she makes clear right away, she needs to land fast.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You better get me in there pretty soon. I don't know how long I will have gas.
KAYE: If Helen was nervous, she hardly let it show. Friends on the ground at the airport were alerted to the emergency and quickly made contact.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Helen, this is Cathy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Cathy. The hell of a place to be.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Helen, we're going to launch another aircraft. It will come up and it will fly right next to you and give you instructions.
KAYE: Within seven minutes pilot Robert Vuksanovic was in the air in another plane. Helen had herself a wing man. Everything he did she did.
ROBERT VUKSANOVIC, PILOT: She was confident. She wanted to know if I was confident in her confidence. And I said "Well, if you're confident, I am confident, I think we're confident. I think we can do this."
KAYE: Despite the fact Helen hadn't had a flying lesson in years, Vuksanovic says she was familiar with some of the switches. But he thought she was coming in too fast and too high, so he had her do some practice runs. But when her wing man asked the airport to close the road, Helen again questioned his confidence in her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to be a little bit of a flight lesson but you will enjoy it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you mean by close the road?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm talking to the people on the ground, Helen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't you have any faith in me?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do. I don't trust the drivers on the road.
KAYE: The final approach was tricky. An eyewitness caught it all on tape.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turn left, turn left, left turn, left turn, turn left. Bring the nose up. That's it. That's it.
KAYE: Not only was Helen out of fuel, but her right engine was out. Her wing man shouted urgent commands.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nose down, nose down. Turn right a little bit. Turn right. OK. Bring the nose down. Nose down. Come on. Get down. Get down. Bring the power back. Power back. Power back. Reduce the power. Over. Reduce the power. Nose down. Over. Helen, do you read me?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I read you.
KAYE: About 45 minutes after this nightmare began Helen landed best she could.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She did a great job. The timing was perfect, came down, landed a little less than three points, landed on the nose.
KAYE: Her plane bounced hard off the runway and then skidded about 1,000 feet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Power off. Power off. Power off. OK. You're down. Great job, Helen, great job.
KAYE: Helen escaped with just a few minor injuries. All those years of flying with her husband paid off. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital. But no doubt, he would have been proud.
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KAYE: Amazing. Amazing courage. The Collins' son hopes to repair the plane one day and fly it as a tribute to his father. This is CNN "Saturday Morning" where news doesn't take the weekend off. "Your Bottom Line" starts right now.
