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Search for AirAsia 8501 Continues; AirAsia CEO Faces Big Challenge; Answering Viewer Questions on Flight 8501; Rep. Michael Grimm to Resign House Seat; Rep. Steve Scalise Under Fire for Speech to White Supremacist Group

Aired December 30, 2014 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Wolf Blitzer.

How do authorities figure out what happened to AirAsia Flight 8501? Finding answers won't be an easy process nor a quick one most likely. But experts do have sophisticated tools to help recover the plane from the bottom of the sea. Tom Foreman here with more on this.

This is, you know, this is a tough task. What's the biggest challenge in this kind of recovery, Tom?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The biggest challenge in this is going to be sheer topography. But it's in their favor in this case. If you look at what we're talking about here, this is some 100 miles or so offshore. That's in their favor. The depth of the water out here is in their favor in that it's only maybe 100 feet deep in that particular area. They already have debris on the surface pointing them to where they need to go. And the tools they have are the same tools we talk about in the Malaysia crash, the TWA crash. They will deploy all of them at some point here. It's not just a matter of looking down to see it with divers. The water level in this area is about 100 feet or so. This is easily in the range of divers. But they'll also use pinger locaters to find out where the flight data recorders are and any sort of underwater robotics they want to look through the wreckage, to retrieve some of the wreckage. They have a lot of tools as their disposal here. They will probably deploy all of them as they try to collect every piece of this plane that they can, along with all of the victims -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Do they use the divers and submersibles at the same time?

FOREMAN: It depends on how they want to array and what they're looking for. Not everything is created equal down here. Recovery of the bodies is important. The recovery of things like the flight data recorder is very important. But this process could drag on for some time. I mentioned TWA-800 that went down off Long Island. We're talking about ocean currents that can move things around. TWA-800 went down over this kind of water. They collected about 95 percent of the plane and recovered every victim, even though the last one wasn't found for ten months. In these circumstances, the chances of getting it all together are pretty good. And the more they can collect all of this, the more they can look to say, did something fail here, did something fail here? What was the condition inside what's left of the cabin? Did that indicate it hit hard or that it glided in and tore up on the water's surface? Was there any effort for people to get out of the plane? Were they alive after hitting the water? Those things can be answered by collecting all this evidence. And that process is just starting. It could take a long time. And the analysis, maybe a lot longer.

KEILAR: Is that one of the takeaways from the flight off of Long Island, from the TWA flight? Because the water depth is about the same, are we able to say that the recovery prospects for 8501 are pretty good?

FOREMAN: I think the recovery prospects are excellent unless they find that for some reason something really unusual happened. For example, if they find evidence that the plane actually tore up in- flight at 32,000 feet and the debris is spread over a very, very big area, then it gets more complicated. But if any way it actually is more or less intact until it hits the water, 100 feet of water, the big parts, the things you want to know about, the engines, the cockpit, the electrical systems, all those things, they're going to be right there. They're not going to go very far. A current isn't going move an airplane. It's not strong enough.

KEILAR: It's so key to find all of that information.

Tom Foreman, thank you so much.

The CEOs of AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines have one thing in common, their worst nightmares came true when a major plane crash happened on their watch. What they don't have in common is the way they handled those disasters. We'll take a look at their differences in leadership.

And we also want to hear from you. Send your questions to #8501qs. We have our team of experts here to answer your questions later this hour.

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KEILAR: The CEO of AirAsia has been front and center since the start of the crisis involving flight 8501. Tony Fernandes is outspoken, a bit of a celebrity. He's a former host of "The Apprentice Asia," who bought the airline for less than a buck. But now he's facing his biggest challenge.

The story from CNN's Poppy Harlow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tony Fernandes is living the moment every airline executive dreads.

TONY FERNANDES, CEO, AIRASIA: We are very devastated about what's happened. HARLOW: AirAsia's CEO since 2001, Fernandes tweeted more than a dozen

times in the hours following the plane's disappearance. This is my worst nightmare. We will go through this terrible ordeal together.

FERNANDES: Our concern right now is for the relatives and for the next of kin.

HARLOW: The approach of AirAsia's CEO, thus far, stands in stark contrast to that of Malaysia's CEO, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, known as A.J., after MH-370 disappeared.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, A.C. 360: It is a Boeing 777, wide-body twin jet.

AHMAD JAUHARI YAHYA, CEO, MALAYSIA AIRLINES: Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members.

HARLOW: But Malaysia Airlines didn't tell families flight 370 was missing until after it was supposed to have arrived in Beijing, many hours after it vanished.

(CRYING)

HARLOW: And there was the disastrous text message sent from Malaysia Airlines to family members saying none of those on board survived.

(SHOUTING)

HARLOW: The Malaysia Air CEO defended the move saying it was the best way to tell those it could not reach by phone or in person. But it led to some demanding his resignation.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: They are different men with different strategies, but it doesn't mean one's better than the other when it comes to running an airline. Whether you have Tony coming out in front, leading -- A.J. was much more behind. He was much more the government's leading the way forward, we're dealing with it in that way. That does not mean that behind the scenes he wasn't as involved with his staff and with the airline.

HARLOW: How much do you think Tony Fernandes has learned from really the communications debacle after MH-370?

DAVIA TEMIN, CEO, TEMIN AND COMPANY: I think every CEO of an airline around the world has learned something from the Malaysia Airline situation. That was impersonal, disorganized. It was really a checklist of all the bad things that an airline could do.

HARLOW (on camera): Malaysia Airlines is replacing its CEO as part of the company's recovery plan.

As for AirAsia's Fernandes, the outspoken CEO may have managed to turn around a failing airline, but his biggest challenge is ahead.

FERNANDES: We have carried 220 million people up to this point. Of course, there's going to be some reaction. But we are confident in our ability to fly people.

HARLOW: The question now, will flyers feel as confident?

Poppy Harlow, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: There is still time to get your questions in. Use #8501qs on Twitter. Next, we'll ask your questions to our team of experts, next.

And we'll tell you how the number-three House Republican is responding to a revelation that he gave a speech to a white supremacist group.

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KEILAR: Now that the wreckage of flight 8501 has been found, the questions about it have been shifted from where is it to how did it happen? Many of you have submitted your questions on Twitter, using #8501Qs.

And we have Richard Quest and Peter Goelz here, also David Soucie to provide some answers for us.

Peter, to you first.

Shelly Trent tweeted, she wants to know, "Were the passengers aware of what was happening or would rapid descend make them pass out? I hope they weren't awake," she says.

PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: That's a tough question, and it's often asked by family members and others. Unfortunately, unless the plane broke up in midflight, the pressurization would have kept people alive and it would have been a dreadful descent.

KEILAR: And that's what happened with Air France 447, right --

(CROSSTALK)

GOELZ: That's correct. It's just a tough, tough situation.

KEILAR: It's horrible to think about.

David, Philip Hall tweet, he wants to know, "Debris seems to be southeast of the last known location, does this imply that the pilot tried to turn around or is this due to currents?"

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: There's actually three options. One would be because of current. The other would be that he chose to turn around as being the most safe path to get through what he was going through. The third would be that he incurred a deep stall. In a deep stall recovery, the aircraft is intent on getting -- or the pilot is intent on getting air over the top of the wings so he doesn't really pay attention to which direction he's going at that point. He's going to go the direction the plane wants to go.

KEILAR: OK. That's certainly good to know. Richard, David Umtrack (ph) writes, "Is it possible that in an attempt

to recover from a stall that a vertical stabilizer failure occurred?" He's referencing American flight 587.

QUEST: Not terribly likely. And if it did happen, that would have been just compounding the other events that were already -- any stall that was so dramatic that the plane was doomed, I wouldn't have necessarily worried about anything else that happened. This was the stall that took -- if it was a stall, that's what took the plane down. It wouldn't have been something like the rudder or the fin or something else falling off. If anything did fall off the aircraft, it would be because this plane was falling out of the sky.

KEILAR: At such a force.

David, Glenn Marshall is asking, "Could this plane have flown direct into a large, powerful microburst and not recovered?" Is that a possibility?

SOUCIE: It's certainly a possibility when you look at those weather charts and where it is. It's certainly possible. There are two parts to that question. But what I would say is that anything is possible in these thunderstorms. I've worked several aircraft accidents. But with smaller aircraft literally torn apart by these storms, but in this case, it would have had to sneak up on him. Or he misinterpreted the information or didn't get the accurate information through his instruments to make the proper choice.

KEILAR: Peter, David asks a question that I think harkens back to Air France 447. He says, "Is it possible the pilot had to use the bathroom and left the less-experienced co-pilot in control? What's the protocol, Peter?"

GOELZ: Well, sure, that has happened on occasion --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Did that happen on Air France? Something like this?

GOELZ: Well, the relief captain was taking a rest period. And it's happened in Egypt Air as well, where the lead captain was out of the cockpit. But in this case, where you're approaching a line of threatening thunderstorms, both crew members, I'm sure, were in the cockpit trying to diagnose what was the best way to get through. So I'd find that highly unlikely. But we'll know once we get the data recorders back.

KEILAR: And this was a relatively short flight.

GOELZ: That's right.

KEILAR: They were two hours, 45 minutes or so in.

GOELZ: Unlikely.

KEILAR: OK. Unlikely. All right. This is for you, Richard. Dante Carter writes, "AirAsia

8501 seems to have had the same fate as Air France. Pilots have to become experts in recovering airplanes from a stall."

So this is more of a statement. But the idea being, if it was a stall, we know it's difficult to recover from, but he's saying they need to be better at it. What do you think?

QUEST: Well, pilots are extremely well-trained at recovering from stalls. It's the one thing that they train more than anything else to do. It's not the stall as such. It's the circumstances of the stall. What's known as a high-altitude stall when the plane is traveling -- when there are very unusual circumstances, either weather or speed or -- as in 447, unreliable air speed. These sudden panic moments, the startle effect, and that's really what they're learning how to do. What the experts say and what airbus and Boeing both agree on privately and what many people in the industry will say privately is that the quality of airmanship, the ability to hand-fly the plane and not simply rely on the technology of the aircraft, that is what has to be improved upon. They are monitors of systems, in many cases. And what we've seen, right away, as recently with Asiana, with Air France 447, is this move towards saying there has to be a better training in handling the aircraft.

KEILAR: Is it part of it, though, David, just the keeping your cool if you're a pilot?

SOUCIE: It certainly is. I've spent thousands and thousands of hours observing pilots in situations, some of which were in thunderstorm situations such as this.

But it was a good point Richard had made about the simulation and the training that goes on in those stall situations. The problem is -- we found this with flight 447. That training is done in a simulator, not a live aircraft. That can feel very, very different to be in that simulator. No simulator can simulate what it's like. I've felt it and it's not pleasant to be in that cockpit when this sort of thing happens. It's difficult to train the feel of what that feels like to be in this situation.

KEILAR: What is that, Peter, just the severity of the feeling of this?

GOELZ: And you also know psychologically you're in a simulator and your job's on the line sometimes --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: You're walking away.

GOELZ: Right. But the pressure of the actual situation and understanding the logic of your flight control system and all its permutations, boy, that's a real challenge these days.

KEILAR: You're doing in it a life-or-death situation and not a simulator. Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us, Peter, David, Richard.

Really appreciate your input in letting our viewers who tweeted at us have answers to their questions.

Next up, high up in the GOP, one powerful Republican Congressman now says, yes, it was likely that he spoke to a white supremacist group, but only likely. More on that in a moment.

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KEILAR: And an update on former President George H.W. Bush. A family spokesman said he was released from the hospital today. He's now resting at home. Bush 41, as he is known, was taken to Houston Methodist Hospital last week after experiencing shortness of breath. He stayed in the hospital through the Christmas holiday. The former president is 90. The family spokesman says he's, quote, "Grateful to the doctors and nurses for their superb care."

And to politics now. New York Republican Congressman Michael Grimm is resigning. His decision comes a week after he pleaded guilty to a felony tax evasion charge. He was indicted on 20 counts back in April but still won a close race for re-election, vowed to stay in office. But the "New York Daily News" reports Grimm changed his mind after a meeting with John Boehner. A special election will be held to fill Grimm's seat.

And another Republican in the House is facing some heat. Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise being criticized for a speech he gave. He issued a new statement. Congressman Scalise says, quote, "12 years ago, I spoke to many different Louisiana groups as a state representative trying to build support for legislation that focused on cutting wasteful state spending, eliminating government corruption and stopping tax hikes." Congressman said, quote, "One of the many groups I spoke to regarding this critical legislation was a group whose views I whole heartedly condemn. It was a mistake I regret. And I emphatically oppose the religious views groups like these hold. I'm disappointed anyone would try to infer otherwise for political gain. And I reject that kind of hateful bigotry. Those who know me best know I have always been passionate about helping, serving and fighting for every family that I represent, and I will continue to do so."

Our Hill producer, Deirdre Walsh, also reports the Congressman has been calling house members personally trying to do damage control, gauge support.

And joining me now to talk more about this is CNN senior digital correspondent, Chris Moody; as well as CNN political commentator, Tara Setmayer.

This was a group founded by former KKK leader, David Duke. So, you know, Chris, can he really say, I didn't know who this group was? Does that defense work here?

CHRIS MOODY, CNN SENIOR DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, politicians speak to a wide range of groups, that's true. However, and this could have been a staff mix-up, however. Steve Scalise had been in politics since 1996, in this game for six years. He should very well know better. And so to go ahead and do this really is very little if not no excuse for this. Also, this group's organization, their confab had been in the news for a long time. A baseball team had voiced concern about the minority players staying in the hotel where this group was located. This was in the newspapers locally. He should've known about this, and someone on his staff or he himself should have called it out earlier.

KEILAR: And, Tara, there's now this report, "The Washington Post," forced to report David Duke saying that Scalise was invited by his aide, with whom Scalise was acquainted with. So presumably, you would expect that Scalise knows who this guy works for. What do you make of that?

TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, I think this was clearly a misstep by Scalise. I'm not going to defend him speaking in front of this group. I think that as a state rep, yeah, he probably put electability and trying to get votes over principle, which is something Eric Erickson wrote today in his blog. And I happen to agree with that. This is what politicians do, unfortunately, and this happens on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, right now, race is the hot button issue, and it's a slow news cycle. And now this has blown up and this is what we've got. This is a nightmare for Speaker Boehner and for the Republican leadership going into the new Congress. This is the last thing they need is a controversy like this. It distracts from what the new Republican Congress is going to do. And I do not see how Steve Scalise survives this.

Whether it's fair, or not, I don't believe Steve Scalise is a racist. I worked on Capitol Hill for several years as a communications director. The office I worked for, we worked with him on issues. And Cedric Richmond, who is a Black congressional caucus member, a Democrat from Louisiana, said, "I don't believe Scalise has a racist bone in his body." I think that's probably true.

What this does show, though, it was probably poor judgment and, yeah, I think his explanation for it is -- leave a lot to desired. And the statement he issued just now, that statement should have been issued yesterday.

(CROSSTALK)

SETMAYER: -- That level of emphasis.

KEILAR: Can we dissect that? Can we dissect that a little bit?

I think, Chris, between what he did just issue -- and certainly weigh in, as well, Tara. What we were hearing from his staff before was that he didn't know. And you're sort of explaining, you're giving context to, OK, if he's saying he didn't know, he sure should've known. I mean, this was a group that people know about at this time in Louisiana. That statement that was just put out that we just read as it came out, it doesn't say he didn't know. It's his words -- he's not saying I didn't know who they were. He's saying, I spoke to a wide range of groups. Do you make anything of that? Or am I just reading? Am I getting -- (CROSSTALK)

MOODY: Communication staff is not doing a good job communicating with their staff here, and with the member himself. They issued a statement --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Well, many of them wouldn't have been working for him.

(CROSSTALK)

MOODY: He only had one legislative staffer at that time. And it is a much smaller shop when you're working with state legislator -- as a state legislator as opposed to someone in Congress. But, again, he wasn't brand new. He had been in this game for a long time and knew the players in it. And so, if he knew who this group was, it seems to be he did, that's a different story. He was just talking to a bunch of groups.

KEILAR: And certainly was well aware. Yeah. Go on, Tara. He was well aware of who David Duke was.

SETMAYER: Well, that's -- I expressed cynicism on that excuse of ignorance of I had no idea given how close knit Louisiana politics are, the neighbor was the chief of -- I think campaign aide to David Duke. I find it hard to believe he had no idea whatsoever who this group was. Possible. Probably unlikely. But as far as from a communications perspective, like I said, I was a communications director for Congressman for almost seven years. And with something like this, his staff, Scalise's staff should've come out with an emphatic statement like this yesterday condemning this saying, yes, I did, it was a mistake. I don't support any of those -- any of what that group espouse, and kept it moving, but unfortunately, he sat back and went back and forth, did he remember? Maybe not. I don't know. And it allowed this to gain traction. And I don't see how he can walk this back now as part of leadership. I don't think he should resign his seat in Congress but I don't just see how --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Maybe not as leadership.

SETMAYER: Correct. And moving forward, it's very important to have credibility with your conference as the whip. That's his job, is to get votes. And this is going to reignite, now, another conversation about the establishment versus conservatives. And this is a headache that Boehner does not need going into the new Congress.

KEILAR: All right. This is going to keep on going --

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this is going to keep on going, I am sure. I will say, the speaker is saying that he has my full confidence as our whip. So we'll see where this goes. Tara Setmayer, Chris Moody, thanks to both of you.

That's it for me. I'll be back at 5:00 Eastern on "The Situation Room." For our viewers in North America and around the world, "Newsroom" with Ana Cabrera starts right now.