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NEW DAY SUNDAY

Crash of Flight 9525; Pilot's Emotional Speech Hit Social Media; On the Frontline Battle for Tikrit; Ferguson Police Officer Harassed; Police Officers' Wives Push Back; Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired March 29, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:31:27] VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: We have new video this morning. Take a look. This is the family of Patrick Sondenheimer, the pilot locked out of the cockpit by Andreas Lubitz, visiting a memorial that is being erected in honor of those on board Germanwings Flight 9525.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: Also this morning, work crews are beginning construction on an access road which will make getting to the crash site easier for both search teams and the families of those on board. The mayor of the town closest to the site said, quote, "Every meter is important in trying to get the families close to their loved ones."

BLACKWELL: Justice correspondent Pamela Brown is heading up our live coverage from Germany. She joins us from outside the headquarters of Germanwings in Cologne.

Pamela, good morning to you.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Alison and Victor. We're learning more about this co-pilot Andreas Lubitz. According to "Bild" newspaper, he had a live-in girlfriend who worked as a school teacher not far from where he lived in Dusseldorf about 30 minutes away from where I am right now. And according to media reports here in Germany and elsewhere, investigators have found a lot of prescription drugs inside of his apartment.

In fact, "The New York Times" is reporting that he may have suffered from a psycho somatic illness, that he may have had vision problems but a German aviation source I spoke with said that he was tested just this last summer, passed his recertification test and that his vision was tested during that exam. Lufthansa says it finds it hard to believe that he had vision problems but a lot to learn here.

Now one of the pilots who actually knew Lubitz and actually flew with him once before made a very emotional announcement before takeoff recently and this has really taken over social media what he had to say.

And for that I'm going to bring in Diana Magnay. She has more on this story -- Diana. DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Pam. Thank you. Yes. Well,

I'm in the town of Haltern am See, which of course is the town in Germany which lost 16 school children in that air crash and two pilots, and there has been a Palm Sunday mass in the church behind me. And I just want to quickly play for you what one woman said which sums up the feelings of the town. Let's take a quick listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (Through Translator): Extremely awful still. We are in mourning and we still can't comprehend it. The whole town is in shock and we don't even know how to process it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MAGNAY: Now about that pilot, he is Germanwings pilot and, of course, if you're in Germany, you fly Germanwings all the time.

I believe, Pam, you flew it coming over here. And therefore the fact that he made an announcement to people has gone on very well. He became a sensation on social media and here's the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAGNAY (voice-over): After Tuesday's horrific crash and the devastating revelations that Germanwings Flight 9525 was likely brought down with intent, it's a nervous time for air travelers which is why the reassuring words of one Germanwings pilot was so appreciated by his passengers.

One of them, Britta Englisch, wrote about it on her Facebook page. Roughly translated, it says, he talked about how much the crash had affected him and the crew, that the crew also had collywobbles but they'd all come voluntarily and about the fact that he also had family, that the crewmembers had family and that he will do everything possible to be with his family again in the evening. After a moment of silence the whole plane applauded, she said, and her post went viral.

[06:35:02] Frank Wolton, the pilot she's referring to, is modest about his Facebook stardom.

FRANK WOLTON, GERMANWINGS PILOT (Through Translator): What makes me happy is that I managed to return a little bit of trust to the passengers.

MAGNAY: Just a few weeks ago, he says he'd flown with Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot accused of flying his passenger to their deaths.

WOLTON (Through Translator): I had one flight with him. He seemed to me quite normal. I think the media already had mentioned that.

MAGNAY: Strangely, both men from Montabaur, a small German town which this week became a focus for the world media, the home of Lubitz's parents still shuttered there, as they digest the terrible news about their son. Several Germanwings flights were cancelled this week. Now more than

ever passengers and crew alike are holding their nerve as they place themselves in the hands of the crew and the cockpit.

WOLTON (Through Translator): As a pilot, I think it's important, while the cockpit doors closed during the flight to show yourself before or after the flight so the passengers can build up trust.

MAGNAY: Trust in an airline and an industry where it is being profoundly shaken.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MAGNAY: And, Pam, I'm sure you'll agree with me on a story where each day the revelations and the misery just seems to get worse. It's quite nice to be able to bring a story like that to the audience -- Pam.

BROWN: Absolutely, Diana Magnay. Thank you so much.

It's true. I've been hearing a lot of stories of various Germanwings pilots making that kind of announcement before the flight takes off. As I said I -- as Diana said, I flew on Germanwings from Zurich to Cologne. The pilot in this case chose not to say anything. So it's clear, Alison and Victor, that the Germanwings pilots are really taking sort of their own initiative to say something to the passengers to perhaps ease their fears.

Back to you.

KOSIK: Absolutely. Pamela Brown, thanks very much.

Let's go ahead and bring in former FBI assistant director and CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes.

Tom, with all these new reports about Lubitz's apparent psychosomatic illness, what are your thoughts about security? Do those change at all? Because that kind of -- that kind of illness can sometimes be hard to see.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: No, that's exactly right, Alison. You know, you have to worry about the fact that you can't detect it until, oftentimes, it's too late, as in this case and especially if the person is trying to hide it from the public and from the boss. So, you know, it's a very difficult thing and I think the other concern that I think many pilots have at this point and many passengers is that even with stepped-up testing, it may not be completely reliable.

You could be taking somebody from their career that really is fine, you know, that has a false positive in their testing and there could be others that you miss that still get behind, you know, the controls of an aircraft that shouldn't be. And I think it's just -- it's not scientific enough to be able to tell with 100 percent certainty who can fly a plane and who shouldn't be up there. KOSIK: How specifically do you think pilots will be more vetted now?

Not just those pilots who fly internationally but those who -- are here in the U.S. as well flying domestically. Apparently the U.S. has a bit more stringent guidelines. Will those be stepped up as well? Do you see that? And especially how?

FUENTES: I don't know that we have more stringent guidelines. From all the pilots I've heard on the air this past week, you know, they talk about, you know, every six months or a year, there is just a couple of cursory questions asked of them and not a real detailed psychological examination that's conducted. So once they've gotten through flight training and, for many pilots, that could be 10, 20, 30 years ago, you know, they are not retested or re-evaluated in that close of a manner after flight school.

And the problem is that for many people, as you go through life, you have stresses and you have medical conditions that come up well into, you know, as you get older. And so that would go undetected.

KOSIK: What about spreading that extra -- I guess, that extra assessment on to other members of the flight crew who have access to the cockpit? I'm talking especially about those flight attendants. What about, you know, testing them as well?

FUENTES: Well, that's true. And especially if you're going to put flight attendants in the flight deck as one of the pilots leaves to use the bathroom or get food or coffee or something. So, you know, that could help, too. And right now there's almost a reliance that a fellow crew member seeing a problem would report it to management that an individual pilot or flight attendant is exhibiting, you know, strange behavior.

The only other problem with that is, and I can tell you this from experience, that, you know, in the FBI, we had many people call and say their spouse or girlfriend or boyfriend was involved in terrorism because they were going through a bad relationship time and just wanted to get the other person in trouble and it was unfounded. So we don't know.

[06:40:02] KOSIK: That's really harsh. OK. All right. CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes, thanks so much for your analysis.

FUENTES: You're welcome.

BLACKWELL: The war on ISIS hinges upon one key city, if you ask several experts. And the U.S.-led coalition is carrying out air strikes to make sure that city lands in the hands of Iraqi forces. CNN is there live on the front lines.

Also a rise in hostility toward police officers, even deaths of police officers, has one national group -- one nationwide group of women doing something about it. You'll meet them. They are the wives behind the badge. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLACKWELL: Seventeen to the top of the hour now. The U.S.-led coalition is working to tip the battle for Tikrit in the favor of Iraqi forces.

KOSIK: War planes are flying over the city, blasting key ISIS targets. Tikrit is a pivotal battleground city in the war on ISIS.

CNN's Arwa Damon reports from the front line.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There is movement in the house that he is seeing.

(Voice-over): This is Tikrit's southern border.

(On camera): There are a number of federal police positions right along the shore line. They are trying to advance.

(Voice-over): Inside the city, hundreds of ISIS fighters fortified in buildings underground tunnels, booby trapped roads.

(On camera): There is the hospital right there. Those are all ISIS positions.

(Voice-over): For weeks, Iraqi ground units were unable to push into the city. The government requested airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition. By Saturday, two days after the coalition started bombing, bullet casings littered the roof. Jets roar overhead.

(On camera): Twenty-four hours ago, we would have seen ISIS still holding their positions right there on the very outskirts of Tikrit but because of the airstrikes and heavy artillery bombardment the ISIS fighters have been pushed further back at this stage.

(Voice-over): America says it had a precondition for coalition bombing. The Hashd, an umbrella group made of Iranian-backed Shia militias and volunteers and the main fighting force on the ground, would pull back and not be a part of the final phase to liberate the city, but nothing is that straightforward here.

"The Hashd has not withdrawn from any of their areas of responsibility," General Raed Shakir Jawdat, the federal police commander on the ground says. "The base we are at is a Hashd base."

"We hope that in the coming days all the units that are holding the ground will enter Tikrit, one of the Hashd units second in command."

"These are Iraqi rockets," Jawdat says. "Everyone quickly turns to see the impact."

Arwa Damon, CNN, Tikrit, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSIK: Coming up -- (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, hey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Another violent outburst toward a Ferguson police officer. The number of deadly attacks against officers across the country has climbed dramatically.

Next, an interesting perspective. Hear from the wives of law enforcement why they say even their children are targets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:50:14] BLACKWELL: In the wake of the Justice Department's recommendations for integrating Ferguson police officers into the community another violent episode for the community toward its officers.

KOSIK: An African-American officer was called to a nearby McDonald's for a disturbance and when he arrived, this happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, hey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Up to 60 protesters threw water bottles, several other water bottles thrown, racial slurs yelled at the officer.

KOSIK: And Ferguson's Acting Police Chief Alan Eickhoff condemned the attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN EICKHOFF, FERGUSON'S ACTING POLICE CHIEF: It's frustrating for them. You know? And they are, like, I should be your poster child, educated four-year degree, I'm out here helping the community, I want to be here, I want to be a good policeman, and you got these people full of hate is the only way to describe it. Hate and anger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well, that attack is another instance of violence toward law enforcement. Nicole Kirkwood, that wife -- the wife of that officer understandably horrified.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NICOLE KIRKWOOD, FERGUSON OFFICER'S WIFE: I was disgusted. I couldn't believe that was happening. He's not the only black officer. From what I understand, all the black officers are being targeted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well, regardless of race, being targeted is a reality for police officers across the nation. Recently, I sat down and spoke with the wives of law enforcement in one North Carolina community. They say that what's happening in communities like Ferguson is spreading across the country. They say that their children now, members of their families, have become targets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Multiple shots. About a good 15 to 20 were fired and struck my vehicle.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): An urgent call for help from a Durham City police officer, followed by a warning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All officers respond to the area. Be careful, appear to be an ambush.

BLACKWELL: The officer was not hurt but the February shooting is at least the third attack on law enforcement in the area in recent months. And for the wives of law enforcement the strain of the job can sometimes be too much to bear alone.

JENNIFER, WIFE OF DURHAM POLICE OFFICER: It really is very stressful and a lot of things go through your mind. You're like will my husband come home tonight?

JESSICA, WIFE OF ZEBULON POLICE OFFICER: I know personally, I don't think I could have gotten through it without law enforcement support.

BLACKWELL: Jennifer and Jessica are two of 10 women in this group. They and the other women declined to share their last names out of concern for their husband's safety. They're members of Wives Behind the Badge, a national organization helping law enforcement espouses find strength in one another.

DANIELLE, WIFE OF ZEBULON POLICE OFFICER: They know what it's like to have that first Christmas when your husband is not there or to celebrate, you know, a birthday on another day because your husband has gone out and he is doing a job that most people wouldn't do.

BLACKWELL: CNN was granted rare access to a recent meeting of the group in the wake of the rash of attacks on local officers.

JENNIFER: When you hear things like that, you really feel for the other police wives as well because you know how they feel when you first hear that gunshots fired. Is it mine? Is it one of my friends' spouses?

BLACKWELL: According to a report from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 126 officers did not make it home alive in 2014. The group found the number of officers who were shot to death across the country in 2014 increased by 56 percent from the previous year. The number of ambush shooting in 2014 tripled the number of ambushes in 2013.

(On camera): Has anyone here asked their husband to consider taking a different job, going into a different line of work?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never.

BLACKWELL: Never?

JENNIFER: I've actually never asked him because my husband is so passionate about what he does and you don't want to belittle his dreams because he's always wanted to be an officer.

BLACKWELL: You have?

JENNIFER: Yes, we talked about it.

BLACKWELL: OK.

JENNIFER: He's actually, you know, talked about it in conversations that we had. He loves his job. But he knows there's a chance one day he'll never come home. If it continues and things don't change or, you know, things get a lot worse, a lot worse than they are right now, maybe a consideration. Like I said he loves his job but he loves his family, too.

BLACKWELL: How do you explain this to the kids?

JESSICA: We're honest with him. He knows what his dad does for a living and he knows it's a scary job and there is a chance that one day he may never come home.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): The group's Blue Line Kids online forum allows children of law enforcement to get answers to some tough questions.

LADONNA, WIFE OF WAKE COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPUTY: You're going to come under judgment because there are going to be parents out there that are going to tell you that maybe you shouldn't tell your children about the realities of the law enforcement lives. But the reality is we have to. They need to know that their lives as children of law enforcement officers are in danger 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

[06:55:07] BLACKWELL: So the families look out for one another.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When my husband became a police officer, it's, like, suddenly 90 percent of your friends are law enforcement.

BLACKWELL: There is some fun events for their children, Paint the Town Blue days to honor officers and an annual gala. But on the whole, these 10 women say life as a law enforcement wife is tough, for some more than they expected, but as long as their husbands are willing to do the tough part, these wives say they are willing to stand behind the badge.

VELVET, WIFE OF NC WILDLIFE ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: For my husband it's what he's wanted to do since he was a child. And I knew that when I married him so for me, it's just supporting him and really just trying to have as much passion for it as he does.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: My thanks to the women of the North Carolina Auxiliary for inviting me into that meeting. And for more information on their cause, you can go to the Wives Behind the Badge Web site. It's WivesBehindtheBadge.org.

KOSIK: And we continue following the latest development in the crash of Flight 9525. At the top of the hour, reports that the co-pilot of that doomed plane had a psychosomatic illness.

Plus new insight about his ex-girlfriend and their volatile relationship.

Also coming up, hundreds protest a controversial religious freedom law in Indiana, but could those protests and condemnations by national organizations force a change in the law?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No hate in our state.

CROWD: No hate in our state.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whose state?

CROWD: Our state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Protesters in Indiana over a very controversial law. Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed a religious freedom law this week.

[07:00:00] Critics say it could allow discrimination against gays and lesbians. Business and civil rights groups are threatening to boycott the state.

BLACKWELL: Now Governor Pence says the law -- he wants the law to be clarified. Let's say that.