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Airline Officials Discuss French Alps Crash; Yemen President Flees Country. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired March 25, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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


[14:30:00] CARSTEN SPOHR, CEO, LUFTHANSA: Yesterday morning, at the French Alps, it is still incomprehensible for us. And the whole company and all of our 120,000 people around the world, we are still in the state of deep shock. And I came here today to Spain, to Barcelona, especially, of course, to express my sympathy with the relatives and friends of the victims of Germanwings flight 9525 since there was a high number of Finnish people on board.

This, of course, also why we're here, to express our sympathy to the people of Spain. I just returned from meeting the relatives and friends of those who lost their lives yesterday and this meeting, it's hard to describe in words, was very emotional for all of us including the CEO of Germanwings and myself. We did our utmost to share the pain of these relatives or friends we met, but I think what they have gone through is, of course, incomprehensible and it was difficult to be there. It was difficult to be there.

Our focus now especially of today and also tomorrow will be to take best care of the relatives and friends of our victims of yesterday's flight. I have been at the crash site myself yesterday with the German minister of transport and foreign affairs. It was a terrible sight to see the small pieces of debris, and we have been organizing with the French authorities the possibility for those relatives who want to get closer to the scene of the accident to get there tomorrow.

As a matter of fact, we'll have a Lufthansa special flight tomorrow morning from Barcelona leaving at 8:45 to Marseilles and with the support of the French authorities we will be able to bring the relatives and friends of the victims to family assistance center near the crash site, which is still locked off and will remain to be blocked off. We're also doing anything we can do around the clock to help those in need. We have provided psychological support from trained counselors from Lufthansa and other resources. We've offered immediate financial help for those who are in need, and we now believe that the next step will be for those who are interested to go to the site tomorrow with our flight, which is also going to be offered from Dusseldorf. We'll have a big group of relatives and friends.

Believe me, after 20 years in this industry and being a Lufthansa pilot myself, we still cannot understand what happened yesterday. Lufthansa has never in its history lost an aircraft in cruise flight. And we cannot understand how an airplane which was in perfect technical condition with two experienced and trained Lufthansa pilots was involved in such a terrible accident. After taking care of the relatives and friends of the victims, the next priority, of course, is to find out how this accident could have happened and how we make sure that this can never, ever happen again. It's too early for speculation, but I'm very happy to say that we are indeed very constructive dialogue and cooperation with the French authorities, the Spanish authorities, the German authorities, Airbus industries and our experts on Lufthansa, technical expert, operational expert who all have convened at the accident site for the investigation.

We're very glad that the first flight recorder has been retrieved yesterday and the French authority confirmed just a few hours ago that one of the audio streams is readable, so we expect, hopefully over the next days, more information and we, of course, hope that the rescue teams will very soon find the second flight data recorder as well, which will then provide us with a complete picture of the accident, and after I visited the site yesterday, I'm very sure that we will be able to find out the cause of this terrible accident as soon as we have those data recorders both retrieved.

Running an airline during such an accident is terrible. We all at Lufthansa do our very best to help those who have been affected, but of course we can never make up the loss. So, yeah, that's why I'm here, to help those, to help the people here in Spain. And this meeting, I must say, yeah, it was emotional and was showing us that this accident has caused terrible pain.

Thank you.

[14:35:] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

May I ask a question?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Is there any connection between that and the -- (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I just explain the question? The question was yesterday we said the plane was delayed but there was obviously no explanation of why.

SPOHR: Yes. There's no reasoning behind this but that there's congestion at the airport which caused air traffic control to give us a later start-up time for the aircraft other than the one according to the schedule. So no relationship, relation to the incident whatsoever.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How many people are taking the flight tomorrow?

SPOHR: This will depend on the resources of the French authorities to help us to bring the people once they land in Marseilles closer to the crash site. We expect to bring an aircraft with up to 150 seats and we'll find out over the next hours how many of those we can fill to make sure that there is transportation provided on the ground. The German and French authorities are working on this.

You have to understand that this area is hardly accessible. You need the support of the military and police forces of France to get people to the family relief center. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have another question?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You said yesterday that the aircraft has gone through a full service mechanical service in Dusseldorf prior to the flight. We're hearing also that there was another service done at Heathrow on Sunday and some technical issues were found with the plane. Are you able to give the plane a full clean bill of health before it took off?

SPOHR: Yes. The aircraft got the clean maintenance bill as it passed the check in Dusseldorf two days ago. And we also talked to the captain who operated the aircraft on Monday afternoon. He also confirmed that the aircraft was in perfect technical shape.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So there was nothing wrong with it at Heathrow on Sunday that you're aware of?

SPOHR: I'm not aware of anything. Of course, it's all in the records but the last records were the check in Dusseldorf that the plane was released with a perfect technical sheet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One more question.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yesterday, you said there was this -- there was no mayday call. When did you last hear from the plane? (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

SPOHR: The French authority corrected their initial information yesterday afternoon and confirmed in the afternoon that there was no distress signal from the plane received, neither vocally or with the radio nor technically over the transponder. I think today is not the day to talk about strategy instructions of Lufthansa.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: When did you last hear from the plane? What did you hear? Was everything going well? Anything you can tell us?

SPOHR: This is part of the official records of the French authorities. When the aircraft was last in touch with air traffic control, which is when it entered the air space it was then cruising through. So those are part of the records that I think the gentleman has given out today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can take two more questions.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One question in German.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, one question in German.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then another question over there.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

[14:40:02] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are speculations but why are you so sure about what happened. SPOHR: Well, I wouldn't say confident. I think in my opinion, there is a high probably that we will find the second black box. The French authorities have confirmed that the first black box can be analyzed. And I believe tht then we will have enough information to reconstruct the information. The French authorities have not made more information public.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

THOMAS WINKELMANN, CEO, GERMANWINGS: We have victims from a total of 18 countries. Right now, there's a family from Mexico City on its way to Frankfurt who asked for assistance. And we will do exactly the same in Caracas. We will fly whoever wants to come to Germany or to France over the Atlantic and we will also support them financially.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So thank you very much.

I beg your pardon. We can't take more questions.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, you had three questions already. Please understand. We will keep you informed about everything we know.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: OK, let's pull away from this. That was the first time I actually heard from both the CEOs of Lufthansa and Germanwings, victims from 18 different countries. What was significant there is they were saying, hearing from Lufthansa CEO, former pilot, he visited the crash site yesterday and he said they're going to provide a plane for any friends, family members of these victims to board this plane tomorrow to go as close as they possibly can to this crash site. It is in an inaccessible location. Helicopters aren't even landing in. They're having to rope in a lot of these investigators. But they're providing a location as close to the crash site as possible for family and loved ones, as close to these remains as possible.

I've got CNN aviation analyst, 777 captain, Les Abend, and contributing editor for "Flying" magazine. And CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in the town, the hometown to a lot of those high schoolers, 16 students and two teachers who lost their lives on that crash.

But, Les, to you first.

Let me begin with this notion that they did already find this cockpit voice recorder. It has even two hours of voices leading up to the point of impact, the fact that there were voices on the cockpit voice recorder. I imagine they're listening to sounds, to alarms as well. What will that be able to tell investigators?

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, it will give us an idea on what was occurring in that cockpit and why that descent started. You're not only getting voices, but you're getting cockpit sounds which can be associated with switches, levers, all sorts of controls in the airplane, in addition to communication with air traffic control, communication between the two pilots, communication from the pilots to the cabin of the airplane, the cabin of the aircraft possibly. So all those things come together once that digital flight data recorder -- and I'm thinking very positively that they'll find it -- that gets coordinated and synchronized together into one program. Now you get a real-time understanding of what happened with the airplane.

BALDWIN: But just to follow up with you, isn't that also part of the baffling part. We were talking about this yesterday, the big question would be and now we're learning this 10-minute descent. Was it a hypoxia issue, smoke in the cockpit? Were these -- was the cockpit clue even conscious. And now knowing there were voices in those final minutes, what does that tell you?

ABEND: Well, that kind of leads me along the path that they were still working on an emergency situation, that there wasn't at least hypoxia that we're aware of. It's important to identify the voices. At this point, you know, we get to the realm of speculation once again. So I think we can rule out hypoxia unless, of course, the voices have some indication of slurred words, of unintelligible type of conversation. That indeed would be a sign.

[14:45:09] BALDWIN: OK. Stand by for me.

Fred Pleitgen, I mean, all of our hearts go out to any of the family and friends of these victims, but just watching you all day seeing these kids, you know, placing flowers, placing candles at this growing vigil behind you, it just takes your breath away. This is the kind of town. Everyone is touched by this.

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, you're absolutely right, Brooke. And one of the interesting things that's been going on is actually what you're seeing there behind me, those people putting down those candles and just sort of standing there in front of the makeshift memorial, that's been going on all day. Really, a steady stream of people. You're right, in this town that has about 37,000 people living in it, almost everybody knows somebody who is in some way affected by all of this. We went out today and we spoke to people and we met some people who actually knew the 16 students who were on that plane.

There was one young lady who said she knew all of them and she had plans for the future with one of the people on that flight. We made plans for when they would come back, we would do certain things. They made longer-term plans as well. These are clearly people who still had their future ahead of them and were looking towards a very bright future. That's what makes this so sad not just for the students that are coming here, but also for this complete town. I was talking to the mayor of this town today, and he broke out into tears. So this is certainly something that's touching people a lot.

But on the other hand also, and this goes back to the press conference that we just watched. The people here also right now, they want answers as well. They want to know how something like this could happen. They want to know what happened. And it seems to us from speaking to people on the ground that most probably many of the family members here are going to take advantage of that offer that we just heard there from the Lufthansa and Germanwings CEOs of being able to go down close to the crash site. They're going to do that for two reasons. One is to get closer to closure on all of this because many of the people we're talking to say it still hasn't sunk into them what actually happened. They still thing that these people are going to come back and talk to them. You know, it's just something they haven't realized yet. The gravity of all this, the finality of all this.

So they want closure on the one hand, but they also want answers. They want to know that this investigation is moving forward and they want to know that everything is being done to find out how this plane could have fallen out of the sky -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: You can understand, Fred and Les, to both of you, as a family member, you want to get as close as possible to where your son, your daughter, your husband, your wife, or where their remains now lie on this mountainous terrain in the French Alps.

But, Les, my question would be as far as I understand what is happening with the mapping of the remains and the debris and they're not even removing any of that just yet, what exactly will these family members be able to see, be able to do at this location away from the crash site?

ABEND: It's a great question. I don't think a whole lot. I would assume that the helicopters would just give them an aerial view. There's no way they could get these folks down in that area. But having been involved on a really bad day with my airline's accidents and being trained in stress management, this is part of the grieving process, and it's very important for them to at least get to close proximity, even if it's just to the staging area. I think they'll probably go further. But this is all part of the process to understand and to try to deal with this situation.

And I'm very gratified that the CEO of the company, Lufthansa, is also a pilot. And you can see how touched he is by this whole situation. And I think everything he's saying is very sincere. And you can just tell the way this investigation is being handled, how carefully, how every aspect of it is being handled. I think it's being done very well.

[14:59:10] BALDWIN: There's just no words, no words for this.

Les Abend and Fred Pleitgen, thanks to both of you. We'll come back to that, stay on the story. We'll stay on the investigation.

Two other breaking stories we're watching here on this Wednesday. We're now just learning the president of Yemen has left the country. Gone. What does this mean now for the battle against -- keep in mind, Yemen, that's headquarters for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and now ISIS. We will have a live report on the ramifications of this absence.

Also ahead, the news that Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl will be charge. We're expecting a news conference. That will happen live during this show. Charged with desertion and also misbehavior before the enemy. A lot to talk about on this Wednesday. Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We have more breaking news for you. This coming out of Yemen here. We've just learned Yemen's president, who he left his official presidency under the pressure of the encroaching of these Houthi rebels. He's now officially left the country.

Nick Paton Walsh is live from Kabul, following this.

I think it's worth reminding our viewers that the layers of this, we know as recently as yesterday, U.S. and British Special Ops, they announce they were leaving Yemen. We reported on the mosque attack last Friday in which innocents were killed. ISIS took responsibility of this. Yemen is home to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Now you have the president leaving? Tell me more about that.

[14:54:48] NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Now the State Department confirming after days of conflicts rumors of where former President Hadi was. Perhaps I should say former president. He's still internationally recognized. He resigned then. Didn't stick around back in January. He's now left the country. Perhaps thought to be headed towards Saudi Arabia.

Let me explain to people why Yemen matters so much. It's the base of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. They've pledged to attack the United States, and they are pretty serious about it. ISIS seemed to have a foothold there. They claim that horrifying mosque series of blasts back last Friday that killed over 130. U.S. Special forces were there hunting down al Qaeda, and maybe in the future ISIS. They've had to leave their posts now. The final lot leaving the base. Where they used to be, we're learning has now got Houthi rebels inside it, although against the government inside the grounds of that base. A stark change in what's happening in that country. It's vital geopolitically because it's to the south of Saudi Arabia. Oil-rich Saudis really worried about what's happening to the south of them. They're predominantly Sunni in the Muslim world.

In Yemen, we're seeing the Houthi rebels, who are predominantly Shia, and some say backed by Iran, sweeping to power. Those are the ones that kicked President Hadi out of his administration building in the capital back in January. They're now the ones advancing on Aden, the city in the south to which President Hadi fled. They're advancing, putting pressure. Planes loyal to them said to be in the air. That seems to have contributed to a series of events that meant President Hadi fled today.

It's a key development because now that government which the West still puts hope in is no longer there. It's most likely remnants collapsing around it. The Houthies, it seems their advance close to unimpeded at this stage. There are still many Yemeni tribes that will oppose them. But this is a stark change for a country whose opposition to al Qaeda in region for to the United States was so vital -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: Nick Paton Walsh, thank you.

Coming up here, we have more on our breaking news. Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl will be charged, we've learned, with desertion. This is according to his attorney. We're learning the Army will be making a statement. That will be happening in precisely half an hour from now. We'll take that live. Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[14:59:27] BALDWIN: All right, here we go. Top of the hour. You're watching CNN.

Two major breaking stories to talk to you about. First up, we now know there were three, three Americans, including this young woman from Virginia, who were on board that Germanwings flight 9525 that took off from Barcelona headed to Dusseldorf. Something happened 44 minutes into this flight and it took a 10-minute descent to then slam into this mountainous region in the French Alps. We have much more on what we're hearing from the investigation. Just heard from the CEO of Lufthansa official announcing that they will be taking a plane, presumably, of loved ones and family members to go as close as they possibly can to that crash site tomorrow in France. More on that.