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EgyptAir Search Intensifies, Terror Suspected; Flight 804 Family Members Wait and Hope for Answers; Egypt Not Always Quick to Point Finger at Terrorism; Confusion, Contradictions on EgyptAir Flight 804; EgyptAir Search Intensifies, Terror Suspected; Competency of Flight 804 Defended; Presidential Candidates Argue over EgyptAir Flight 804 Disappearance; Flight 804 Family Members Wait and Hope for Answers. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired May 20, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:14] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause live in Los Angeles. It's just gone 11:00 on a Wednesday night.

ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Isha Sesay.

Here's our top story. A massive search is under way right now for any sign of missing EgyptAir flight 804. The airline says debris found earlier in the Mediterranean Sea did not come the missing jet. Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane Thursday as it flew from Paris to Cairo with 66 people onboard.

VAUSE: Most onboard were Egyptian and French nationals. Egypt's civil aviation minister says it's possible a terror attack brought down the plane.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHARIF FATHI, EGYPT'S CIVIL AVIATION MINISTER (through translation): The situation may point -- I said may. I tonight want to go to speculation. I don't want to go to assumptions like others. But if you analyze the situation properly, the possibility of having a different action aboard, of having a terror attack is higher than having a technical problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: As the investigation continues, security has been heightened at Los Angeles International Airport, out of an abundance of caution. Security, too, has been increased at a number of other airports across the world.

CNN has reporters across the region right now covering this story from every angle.

SESAY: Right now, Max Foster joins us from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and Becky Anderson is following developments at Cairo's International Airport.

VAUSE: We go with Becky Anderson.

The search is under way. It's been daylight there for three or four hours. This is a multinational search, Becky. It is spread out over a wide area.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's correct. The Egyptians and the Greeks, supported by the U.S., by the French, by the British, by the Cypriots and by the Italians, we are told. Much confusion still. I'm afraid there aren't more answers than questions. The flight did disappear early thursday morning after leaving Charles de Gaulle to Cairo with 66 onboard. The early theory of U.S. government officials is that this was terrorism, that the plane was taken down by a bomb. But, frankly, authorities have no evidence to substantiate that. One source telling CNN, the theory is placed on conjecture. As they pointed out, the plane seems to have fallen out of the sky. But there's no smoking gun yet. And you pointed out that Egypt's view is that the cause is more likely to be terrorism than a technical issue.

And there's a sense, I guess, in an effort to avoid the sort of accusations of a lack of transparency on the part of Egyptian government that were levied against it, as the investigation into the Russian MetroJet 9268 that was downed after leaving Sharm el Shaikh in Egyptian last year, there's a sense that perhaps the Egyptians have been too quick to try to provide information, and the pressure from media and of the families to get information. And we know yesterday the vice chairman of EgyptAir had to roll back on the announcement that he made that debris had been found. He said he stood corrected on that. And he apologized for it.

There's been a lot of discrepancies from authorities as to the details they know. The Greek authorities say the plane disappearing from the radar between 2:29 a.m. on Thursday and 2:37 when they say it swerved some 90 degrees to the left and 360 to the right before disappearing. The Egyptian aviation minister gave a whole other timeline of events.

Meantime, the research-and-rescue goes on. It is officially a research-and-rescue. And therefore, the families of those who were aboard this flight will at least keep that in mind, as they wake up today and hope to get more details on their loved ones, many of whom -- the relatives, many of whom were gathered here yesterday at the EgyptAir facility, outside of the airport here in Cairo. We're told that many were put up in local hotels here. And we await the arrival of the same relatives today. Again, it is reported, and we witnessed, were relatively calm and collected yesterday, although very frustrated with the discrepancies and information as it came out. Research-and- rescue continues -- John?

VAUSE: OK, Becky, thank you.

[02:05:06] SESAY: Let's go to Paris, Max Foster at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Max, given there's some speculation among some that Charles de Gaulle may have been the weak link here, may have been the source for some nefarious activity, how are French authorities responding?

MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: We've been hearing from the French foreign minister speaking to France 2, one of the main channels here in France. He's been talking with his Egyptian counterpart and saying that his Egyptian counterpart doesn't see terror as the only standout investigation here. Being open minded about this that terror does comes into it. This is what the French foreign minister has said in the last few minutes. "All assumptions are reviewed but none is favored because we have absolutely no indication of the causes of this event."

But certainly, if terror is concerned, and one of the lines is in the investigation, that is something that are focusing on here at Charles de Gaulle, because the plane left from here, and if there was a weak link, it would have appeared here because there was a security sweep of the plane as it landed here. All the passengers came off and new passengers got on. So looking at whether or not ground crew or air crew were in any way compromised and could have sabotaged the plane.

But, Isha, it's not the only line of investigation at this point. And certainly the Paris prosecutors office is involve here. It is investigating, as are the national police. We haven't heard any official lines on terrorism, and whether or not that's the primary concern so far. So, it's just one of the strands of the investigation so far -- Isha?

VAUSE: Max, this was an Airbus. It took off from Paris. When they find this debris, assuming they do, does it go back to Paris? To Cairo? Or to France, because they have that laboratory there where they can analyze pieces of wreckage like they've done in the past? Where does it go? Who takes the lead?

FOSTER: Certain, went into Egyptian air space, that's where it happened, so they're taking the lead, the Egyptian air traffic investigators. We know that three traffic air accident investigators from France have left to join that investigation, and technicians from Airbus, as well, the manufacturer of the plane, to advise that. In other investigations, they've been sent to the U.K., for example, the black boxes, once they've been found. We know the French foreign minister is focused on the black boxes, trying to find out what they can from them. So the immediate concern is recovering those, as well. And then, if Airbus or the French investigators have the most expertise, and the Egyptians will lean on that, and bring the boxes to France or the U.K. We'll wait and see what the Egyptians decide on that.

VAUSE: OK, Max, thank you.

Max Foster, live in Paris. And Becky Anderson, live in Cairo.

SESAY: Our thanks to you both.

As we mentioned, most of the passengers were Egyptian and French citizens, but people from other countries were onboard, too. A Portuguese passenger has been identified. The 62-year-old was working in South Africa. He was married with four children. Another passenger was an employee at Procter & Gamble in France. You see him on the right in glasses. This is just last month. The company says he was on a personal trip.

VAUSE: 56 passengers onboard, 53 adults, along with one child and two infants. Of the 10 crew members, five were cabin crew, two in the cockpit and three were security personnel.

Some family members gathered at Cairo's International Airport, hoping for information. Among them, relatives of the flight attendants.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): Pray for her. Please, all of you, pray for them. She is a bride. She got married, six, seven months ago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): We're confused. We don't know the truth. Some tell us it fell in the sea. Some say it's in the air. Some say it didn't fall. Some say the black box is communicating signals. But where is the truth? It's with God. We don't know anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: An agonizing time for these families.

VAUSE: And we have to keep reminding everyone, this is still very early.

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: You know, and you think of MH370, which has gone on for years. This is just the second day. And Richard Quest is telling us the search will go on. They will find the debris, maybe days or weeks, and the investigation will move forward.

SESAY: And the families need as much support as possible during a time like this.

VAUSE: Yes.

[02:09:45] SESAY: Coming up, officials have not ruled out a terror attack in the disappearance of EgyptAir flight 804. We will tell you why, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(SPORTS REPORT)

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ANDERSON: I'm Becky Anderson outside the international airport in Cairo, in Egypt, where there's still much confusion and more questions than answers about the EgyptAir flight 804 that disappeared en route from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris to Cairo on Thursday with 66 people onboard.

The early theory of U.S. officials was this was terrorism. This was taken down by a bomb. But there's no evidence that substantiates that. And one source told CNN that theory is based on conjecture at this point because, as they pointed out, the plane appears to have fallen out of the sky but there's no smoking gun, as of yet. Egypt's view is that the cause is more likely to be terrorism than a technical issue. And the Egyptian president has demanded that the search for this plane intensifies. He's called in the civil aviation authorities, the air force, and the navy.

[02:15:07] And they have here, significantly, referred the case from the chief prosecutor to the head of state security, suggesting they believe there is a criminal investigation to be had in all of this. Perhaps, trying to avoid the accusations of a lack of transparency leveled at the government, over the downing of the Russian MetroJet 9268 back in November where it took a long time for Egyptian authorities to actually come out with the -- the information that, indeed, that had been, as a result of terror-led activity.

There is, though, much discrepancy from authorities, as to the details, as they know them now, on this flight 24 hours in. The Greek authorities, who are playing a part in this, so far as the search-and- rescue is concerned, have said the plane, as far as they are concerned, disappeared between 2:29 a.m. and 2:37, where they say it swerved to the right and then the left before disappearing. The Egyptian minister gave a whole other timeline of events.

So as things stand at present, and with the expectation of the relatives of the 66 people onboard, will gather again at the Egypt air facility which has been set up at a crisis center. This search-and- rescue effort continues.

Max?

FOSTER: Becky, all assumptions are reviewed but none is favored. That is what the French foreign minister has told the France 2 network in Paris, suggesting that all options are on the table here, not just terror and not just mechanical. They're considering everything. They're open-minded. Because, he says, we have no indication on the causes of this event.

He also says the government reinforced all security measures since the January attacks, including Charles de Gaulle Airport here. We have other important events ahead of us, such as Euro 2016. So security levels are being ramped up. And the reason he's suggesting that, is there's been the Charles de Gaulle Airport could be the weak link here if, indeed, this was terror attack. Could something have got on the plane here at Charles de Gaulle that caused an exPLOsion and caused the downing of that aircraft?

All options are on the table. We have no evidence if that's the case. But that's one of the lines of investigation here. And human contact with the plane is the primary line of investigation there. Who had contact with that aircraft? Ground crew, air crew, passengers who could have possibly compromised the safety of that aircraft. The Paris prosecutor's office, which oversees terror investigations in France, is involved. But again, it hasn't suggested terror. All lines of investigation are being looked at but certainly terror is one of them -- Isha and John?

VAUSE: Thanks, Max.

SESAY: Thank you, Max.

Thank you, Becky.

Now, the French foreign minister spoke with France 2, just as you heard Max mention there, about the missing EgyptAir plane. He said this, "We're catching the wreckage of the plane. France is contributing to this search, along with Egypt, Greece and other countries. We need to find these fragments, analyze them, find the black boxes. We want the truth, the whole truth."

Well, Egypt has had to deal with other aviation disasters.

VAUSE: And it hasn't always been quick to label them as terrorism. There are political concerns at play here.

Elise Labott explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELISE LABOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just hours after the plane disappeared from radar, the Egyptian government said the plane was likely brought down by an act of terrorism.

FATHI: If you analyze the situation properly, the possibility of having a different action or having a terror attack is higher than the possibility of having a technical issue.

LABOTT: The plane went down a day after Secretary of State John Kerry was in Cairo for urgent talks with Egypt's president about the growing terror threat. Today, Kerry was quick to offer help.

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: The United States is providing assistance in the search effort. And relevant authorities are doing everything they can to try to find out what the facts are of what happened today.

LABOTT: It took four months to acknowledge that terrorists were to blame for last October's bombing of a Russian airliner over Egypt's Sinai. That was months after ISIS posted photos of a bomb it says it planted in a soda can to bring down the plane. And Russia, the U.S. and other countries publicly said the terrorists were responsible.

PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: That was a direct reflection on the lack of security forces at the airport. And it was a blow to the tourism industry. They were resisting any indication they were responsible for that.

[02:20:11] LABOTT: To this day, Egypt insists the 1999 crash of EgyptAir flight 1990 was brought on by mechanical failure, even though American investigators released a transcript of a cockpit recorder they say confirms their findings that the pilot deliberately nose- dived the plane into the Atlantic Ocean.

French officials say this time it may be easier for Cairo to point the finger at terrorism, after flight 804 made stops in Tunisia and Eritrea before being searched in Paris.

GOELZ: It says, listen, Egypt tries to do the best it can in combating terrorism. We have our hands full. But a country like France, with more resources than we do, they weren't able to catch this. This is a big job and we have to do it together.

LABOTT: With the president under fire for human rights abuses, a bout of terrorism could also validate claims his government is in the name of security.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: The government can say, look, we are vulnerable and we need to ensure that no only our citizens are safe but that foreign visitors and others on airplanes are safe.

LABOTT (on camera): If the plane was brought down by terrorists, it will be a devastating blow to Egypt's weakened tourist industry, which already suffered a major hit after the MetroJet crash, a 40 percent loss in revenue. The government had big plans to revive the tourist industry, including enhanced security. But the EgyptAir crash will only fuel concerns about air travel to Egypt.

Elise Labott, CNN, Washington

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Greek air traffic controllers say they lost contact with EgyptAir 804 just as it was preparing to enter air space. Greece's defense minister says the plane began turning erratically and losing altitude before dropping off radar.

SESAY: For more no the investigation, we are joined by CNN law enforcement contributor and former FBI special agent, Steve Moore.

We're hearing from U.S. officials, we're hearing from Egyptian officials that this is likely to be a terrorist attack. Some kind of bomb, perhaps. Is that because that's the most likely scenario? Or they have other evidence? Or you have to do that now.

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Regardless, you have to start the investigation, just in case. The evidence will be gone if you don't. The reason people are jumping on terrorism is because airports in the cruise portion of the flight do not go down on their own. Somebody has to intervene somehow. They just statistically don't.

VAUSE: This is the safest part of any flight.

SESAY: That being said, this notion of this being terrorism, the working theory, that raises chatter. Are we talking about expertise where they can evade detection? How do you read it?

MOORE: The years where we listen to chatter -- and that was significant -- it's still significant but at a lower level. They're using leaderless ways. They are not getting instructions from headquarters, the mother ship. They're doing it on their own. And people who have come from a terrorist training camp, have the skills to make the IEDs.

VAUSE: One working theory, if this was a cell that carried this out --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: That's why there's been no claim or responsibility because we haven't had anything yet, right?

MOORE: Right. When ISIS sees a plane like this go down, you can imagine them saying in their offices, if they have offices, saying, somebody find out if this was one of ours.

VAUSE: Did we do this?

MOORE: Did we do this? That's what happens with this leaderless resistance, lone wolves, the individual, autonomous cells.

SESAY: If they didn't direct it, one would expect them to claim from such an awful event and make that known in the days to come.

MOORE: They want to do that in the days following. But they don't want to say it was a bomb in the rear luggage compartment and say it was a passenger in first class. They want to have information so the claim of capability was corroborated.

VAUSE: If it was a bomb on the plane, everyone who takes a plane, a commercial jet, says do they now have the technology to get past the detection advices?

MOORE: Not necessary at all. It could be something like TATP that would get past our stuff. Or it could be -- and this is probably more likely in my thought process, it could be somebody who is sympathetic to the radical Islamic cause at the airport at de Gaulle or at the airport at Brussels that slapped this in the landing gear.

[02:25:23] SESAY: You mentioned de Gaulle, Brussels. This plane was also in Eritrea and Tunisia.

MOORE: I would be focused on Paris because it was the last place. I would not be monolithically focused on it. Eritrea is 50/50 Christian/Muslim. Tunis is more Muslim. That airport, if you've been there --

(CROSSTALK)

MOORE: Neither airport is a security bastion.

VAUSE: OK. You look at anybody with access to the plane and that thousands of people?

MOORE: It's at least hundreds.

VAUSE: Yeah.

MOORE: But there's no short cut to this.

VAUSE: OK.

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: Steve, thanks.

SESAY: Thank you.

MOORE: Thank you.

SESAY: Still ahead, we'll have more expert analysis as we continue our breaking news coverage of missing EgyptAir flight 804. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

SESAY: Welcome back to our breaking news coverage of the missing EgyptAir plane.

Here's a look at what we know happened right now. The plane took off at 11:00 Wednesday night from Paris, with 66 people onboard. It headed south for Cairo and entered Greek air space at 1:24 in the morning.

[02:30:00] VAUSE: About 20 minutes later, the Airbus A320 checked in with Greek traffic control. The pilot was reportedly cheerful, thanked controllers. Less than an hour after that, at 2:27 in the morning, Athens traffic control tried to contact the pilots and never heard back. Two minutes later, the plane dropped from radar about the same time it left Greek air space.

ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Here's where the plane stopped in the 24 hours leading up to its disappearance. According to Flight Tracker, the plane had flown from Asmara and Eritrea to Cairo. Then it stopped in Tunis, Tunisia's capitol.

SESAY: Next, it headed to Cairo and then on to Paris before dropping off the radar on its return to Cairo.

John Bowell is an aviation expert who heads the airline consulting firm, ADA Millennium and PJB. He joins us from Slovenia via Skype.

John, thanks for being with us.

This is the third aviation crisis for Egypt this year. Right now, Egyptian officials are having a hard time responding to this. A lot of contradictory statements. What's your assessment on what they're doing?

JOHN BOWELL, CEO, ADA MILLENNIUM & PJB AVIATION CONSULTANTS: Good morning. First, our thoughts are with the families after this tragic event. And I think most of the commentators are saying, it's really the early stages here. We don't know what's happened, who, what's responsible. The debris, despite false alarms earlier, hasn't been located. Clearly, early stages in the sequence of events here.

What we do know, is the A320 is the workhorse of the industry. There's more than 7,000 delivered since 1988. There's an airbus taking off every two seconds. 85 million flights since entering service. It's important to put on the record here, although there's been 14 title accidents, it has outstanding safety record in the industry. And there's no question about that. Interesting comments from EgyptAir. The aircraft is 13 years old and accumulated 48,000 flight hours. And the aircraft would have undergone a major maintenance check, a major structural check. This is significant. I don't think any of the commentators have discussed this. With it being 13 years old, the structural test would have taken place toward the end of last year.

We work with major maintenance facilities all over the world. I'm talking to you from a 320 maintenance facility in central Europe right now. We know that the engineering facility. It's reputable. You have excellent people in there. Although it's 13 years old, they probably did the check last year. We paint a picture of what the check looked like. It's an exhaustive check. They almost take the aircraft apart. Anything that can be removed is removed. It's a comprehensive check. And it's very unlikely there will have been structural or major failure through corrosion or fatigue or wear and tear. That's important in this stage in terms of eliminating likely causes here.

VAUSE: John, we appreciate your insight there. John Bowell, with an aviation consulting firm, joining us with some insight. Appreciate it.

SESAY: Thank you, John.

Well, more of our breaking news coverage of the missing EgyptAir jet is coming up. A __ discusses the pilots training. Do stay with us for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:37:40]ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Becky Anderson outside of Cairo international airport where there's confusion and more questions than answers about the EgyptAir flight 804, which disappeared en route from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Cairo on Thursday, with 66 people onboard. Materially theory of the United States officials is this was terrorism. This was taken down by a bomb. The authorities have no evidence to substantiate that. One source telling CNN, this is based on conjecture at this point because there is no smoking gun, as of yet. Egypt's view is that the cause is more likely to be terrorism than a technical issue. And the president here has demanded the intensification of the search efforts. He has pulled in civil aviation. The navy and the air force, in an effort to find out exactly where this plane is and what happened.

And significantly, the Egyptians have referred this case, the chief prosecutor has referred this case to the state security prosecutor, suggesting that the Egyptians see this as a criminal investigation. It is early hours, of course, just after 24 hours since we first learned of this plane had disappeared.

But there's been much discrepancy since authorities since then, as to the details. The Greek authorities saying the plane disappearing from the radar between 2:29 and 2:37, when it swerved to the left and then to the right, before disappearing. The Egyptian aviation minister gave a whole other timeline of events.

Then there's reports of debris that have been found. Those have been rolled back. In fact, EgyptAir say stand correctly on this discrepancy, for those for those people onboard.

We do know at this stage that the pilots onboard the flight were experienced. The captain had over 6,000 flying hours and had an experienced co-pilot.

The search is officially still search-and-rescue. The Greeks and Egyptians supported by the U.S., France, Britain, the Cypriots and the Italians at this point -- Max?

[02:40:25] MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: Becky, here in Paris, questions being asked about whether the plane was sabotaged in some way before it left here at Charles de Gaulle Airport. But the French foreign minister being clear that's only one line of the investigation. He said, at this stage, we have to be careful. And I spoke to the Egyptian counterpart. He said he didn't think terrorism was favored. He wanted all possibilities to be examined. There's not enough work in the investigation to determine what the cause of this was.

And he is pointing out that huge amounts of security, now, at Charles de Gaulle Airport, after a series of terror incidents in Paris, also in Brussels earlier this year. Again, with security being ramped up here. More patrols, more screening, more CCTV here. And they're looking to the Euro 2016 football championships here in France, as well. So security being ramped up again. People cannot fathom how on earth any device could have gotten on the plane here, could only have been compromised by humans somehow. They're looking through who had contact with this aircraft, ground crews, air crews, passengers, and going around the intelligence of all of the individuals there, and any footage that might be in place. They're coordinating with the U.S. intelligence authorities, and also with the Egyptian intelligence authorities here. Clearly, terrorism is a line in the investigation here, but it's not the only line.

Back to L.A.

VAUSE: Max Foster in Paris at Charles de Gaulle Airport, and before him, Becky Anderson in Cairo. Thank you to you both.

SESAY: Thank you.

While the massive search is under way for signs of the missing plane, an EgyptAir executive is defending the competency of flight 804's crew.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AHMED ABDEL, VICE PRESIDENT, EGYPTAIR: Our crews are very well trained. We have one of the state-of-the-art training centers. We abide by international rules. There's no explanation at this stage. I need to look at the facts and more investigations to have an idea about what happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Let's bring in Jeffrey Thomas. He's editor-in-chief of airlineratings.com. He joins us now live from Perth, Australia.

Jeffrey, good to have you with us.

JEFFREY THOMAS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, AIRLINERATINGS.COM: Thanks, John.

VAUSE: We're talking about the crew here, the captain, the first office, they are being looked at closely. So, too, are the passengers onboard. How much focus is on the captain of this plane right now?

THOMAS: At this stage, not a lot. From what we understand, very competent and captain. And going on from what the official from EgyptAir said. EgyptAir is good with maintenance and its fleet. It's meeting standards and is a very good airline as far as the maintenance of the airplane, and the competence of EgyptAir to operate an efficient airline. And the captain and co-pilot, I don't think there's focus on that at all. Obviously, we would look at that. But I don't think it's a serious part of the investigation at this stage. Although, having said that, there has been some --

(CROSSTALK)

THOMAS: Sorry. Go on.

SESAY: I didn't mean to cut you off there.

Let me ask you how satisfied you are with how they're handling the investigation at present? Obviously, you were on today, they were told they found wreckage, to be walked back. And Richard Quest was making the point that this is the fault of the Greek authorities. But it was the vice chairman that had to walk that back. How troubling is that to you?

THOMAS: It is distressing for the relatives left behind. The people who run this investigation is not EgyptAir. It is the civil aviation authority of Egypt. They're charged with the responsibility of running this. They bring in the relevant counterparts in France because it's an Airbus airplane, the United States because it's American avionics onboard, the British because their Rolls-Royce is part of the engine. We get multinational investigators coming together. EgyptAir is obviously part of that. They're not the lead in this investigation. The Egyptian authorities are. And the problem is we had the authority, the authority making comments, we had politicians making comments and generals making comments. This is where it gets confusing. We get the Greeks involved, with a running commentary on what's going on and what's not going on. And that's where all of the confusion came from. It's typically politicians and those not involved in the investigation that are causing the problems.

[02:45:47] SESAY: All right.

VAUSE: Jeffrey Thomas, thank you very much for joining us with your insight.

SESAY: Thank you, Jeffrey.

VAUSE: A little bit of news just to bring our viewers in terms of the search. According to the Greek officials there, Greek ships are no longer participating in this search right now for any debris of flight 804. They've been pulled back from the search zone.

SESAY: We'll find out why that's taken place and the significance to the investigation or the search taking place in that area. We'll bring the details to you when we can.

VAUSE: Next here on CNN NEWSROOM, a CNN exclusive. Hillary Clinton weighs in on the EgyptAir tragedy. She also has tough words for her Republican rival, Donald Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:50:19] SESAY: Welcome back, everyone. Hillary Clinton says EgyptAir 804 disaster reinforces the need for global partners to share intelligence and tighten airport security.

VAUSE: In an exclusive interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo, she spoke about the tragedy and she also spoke about Republican rival, Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: It does appear that it was an act of terrorism, exactly how, of course, the investigation will have to determine. But it -- once again, shines a bright light on the threats that we face from organized terror groups, ISIS, of course, but there's other networks of terrorists that have to be hunted down and defeated.

When you run for president of the United States, when you say we're going to bar all Muslims, you're sending a message to the Muslim world, and you're sending a message to the terrorists. We've seen how Donald Trump is being used, to essentially be a recruiter for more people to join the cause of terrorism.

I know how hard this job is. And I know we need steadiness as well as strength and smarts to it. And I have concluded he is not qualified to be president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Donald Trump fired back on Thursday saying Clinton is not fit to be president this time in history.

SESAY: Speaking in New Jersey, the Republican nominee reacted to the EgyptAir disaster and blasted Clinton almost simultaneously.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: Today, we had a terrible tragedy. And she came up and said that Donald Trump talked about radical Islamic terrorism. She used a different term. And I say to myself, what just happened about 12 hours ago? A plane got blown out of the sky. And if anybody thinks it doesn't get blown out of the sky, you're 100 percent wrong, folks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Well, we spoke earlier with senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein.

VAUSE: And he says Donald Trump's shoot-from-the-hip style could be a hurdle in the race with Hillary Clinton.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: If you look at Donald Trump's vulnerabilities as a candidate, there are really two. One is that he has culturally offended a series of group that are growing in the electorate, Millennials, minorities. But the other is the question of his temperament. "New York Times"/CBS poll tonight, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump almost identically weak on honesty, on shares your values, almost identically strong on leadership. But who has the temperament to be president, she is plus-21.

VAUSE: Right.

BROWNSTEIN: And so, and, by the way, she's up 47-41, in the overall poll. But the question of whether or not Donald Trump is too volatile, too impulsive, too erratic to be president, that is one of the biggest hurdles to get over. And that's why she's pushing at that button today.

SESAY: And Hillary Clinton making headlines today with comments about Bernie Sanders. Effectively saying the race is over. She's won the nomination. It's time to get onboard. Take a listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: When I came out and withdrew and endorsed Senator Obama, about 40 percent, according to polls -- about 40 percent of my supporters said they would never support him. So, I worked really hard to make the case, as I'm sure Senator Sanders will. Whatever differences we might have, they pale in comparison to the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: OK, this was the reply from the Sanders campaign. "In the past three weeks, voters in Indiana, West Virginia and Oregon disagreed with Secretary Clinton. We expect voters in the remaining eight contests will also disagree. And with almost every national and state poll showing Senator Sanders doing much, much better than Secretary Clinton against Donald Trump, it's clear that millions of Americans have growing doubts about the Clinton campaign."

Clearly, they are annoyed by what she said.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

VAUSE: Was it a good move to come out and say, I've won, come on board?

BROWNSTEIN: It's frustration. At the end of April, it looked like Bernie Sanders was bringing it in for a landing. Here we are in mid May and the vitriol and the conflict has been as high as it's ever been. Even as you have a number of polls showing Donald Trump tightening. Democrats are getting uneasy about where this is going. This fact is she's won three million more votes than he has. Look at the 18 biggest states that voted, she's won 14. He has not cracked the diversity of the Democratic Party and that means he hasn't been able to win the big states. She is going to be the nominee. It's all right to continue to the end, but it's unclear why they are ramping it up in terms of the conflict so high at a moment when the outcome is almost ordained at this point.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[02:55:12] VAUSE: Ron Brownstein speaking to us a short time ago.

SESAY: We'll return to our breaking news coverage of the missing EgyptAir jetliner ahead, as family members speak out about the fate of their loved ones.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: Welcome back, everyone. Officials are racing to figure out what happened to missing EgyptAir flight 804. Search-and-rescue efforts are ongoing. The plane disappeared from radar Thursday soon after entering Egyptian airspace.

VAUSE: The flight was headed from Paris to Cairo. Family members of the 66 people onboard have been gathering at the airport in the Egyptian capitol to share stories, express grief, looking for answers as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): He was in Paris where he dropped off his kids a week ago. He was coming to Egypt for a conference. We spoke to him yesterday. We also spoke to his kids. They're at the airport and will be going back to Kuwait.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): She was a newlywed who got married six or seven months ago. I asked God for the flight to be hijacked or something like that instead of what we've been told. We have hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)