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EARLY START

Egyptian Officials: EgyptAir Plane Debris Found. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired May 20, 2016 - 04:30   ET

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


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[04:32:19] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news now: more than a day after EgyptAir 804 vanished on its way from Paris to Cairo with 66 people. Our live team coverage begins right now.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Happy to be here with you, Christine. I'm Boris Sanchez. We are 32 minutes past the hour. And we welcome all our viewers in the U.S. and around the world.

We're following breaking news at this hour. The search for the missing Egyptian jet intensifying. EgyptAir Flight vanished more than 30 hours ago with 66 people on board. It was on its way from Paris to Cairo, the plane disappearing about 175 miles off the coast of Egypt.

Right now, crews from five countries are combing the eastern Mediterranean for any sign of wreckage, but so far, none has been found. U.S. officials say they found no indication of an explosion either. That said, their working theory is that the plane could have been downed by a bomb. So, a terror investigation is under way.

At this point, there has been no claim of responsibility from ISIS or any other terror organization.

We're covering the story the way only CNN can. So, let's start in Egypt with CNN's Becky Anderson live at Cairo International Airport.

Becky, we know a crisis command center has been set up there. What are families telling you about the information they're getting?

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, frustrating for them. Still more questions than answers for the family members of those 66 people aboard EgyptAir flight 804. This was a hive of activity yesterday, set up as a semi-permanent crisis center, as you point out, with medics and doctors on hand to provide some sort of infrastructure for family members yesterday. And it was a relatively calm and controlled environment, given what these family members are going through.

But frustration boiling over at times, because of the discrepancy in detail, that these family members were getting yesterday. Do remember, and it continues to be a search and rescue operation that is ongoing in the Mediterranean at present. And of course that provides some glimmer of hope still for the relatives who have been bussed away from here overnight, and this morning we expect they may actually be taken to a local hotel where EgyptAir will send its staff to work with them.

But I think the discrepancy and the frustration with that is what really became apparent over the last 30 hours or so. The very fact that the Greek authorities said the plane disappearing from the radar, between 2:29 a.m. in the morning and 2:37.

[04:35:03] They say it swerved to the left and to the right. The Egyptians have quite a different timeline.

And then there was the report, the statement by the aviation minister that debris had been found. That comment then rode back on. The minister saying that he stands corrected. Can you imagine what the family members were and continue to be going through, that is the real story from here. Meantime, this file, and this is significant, I think, the file on this case, as it were, has been moved from the chief prosecutor here in Egypt to the state security prosecutor, which would suggest, one assumes, that this is to be dealt with as a criminal case.

You're right to point out that the president here has demanded that the search and rescue operation is intensified. We've learned this morning, though, that the Greeks have actually pulled back some assets, suggesting their coast guard can't actually work -- that they're working outside of the limit they can work, so far as distance is concerned from the Greek coast. But the Greeks still have aircraft associated with the search and rescue, as do the British, the French.

French officials arriving here at the airport this morning, just in the past couple of hours, the Cypriots and the Italians also involved. So, a massive operation continues in the Mediterranean. Meantime here, I'm afraid for the families of those involved, the wait goes on.

Back to you guys.

ROMANS: Yes. That's a shame for them.

All right. Thank you so much for that, Becky Anderson.

Now, investigators in France still trying to figure out what brought down EgyptAir 804. They'll be interviewing ground crews, air crews, anyone who had access to the plane at the airport.

For the latest on the airport security angle, I want to bring in CNN international correspondent Max Foster. He is live at Charles de Gaulle International in Paris.

And, Max, this is one of the largest airports in the world, certainly one of the busiest airports in the world.

Also, back in November, there was a terrorist attack right there in Paris which really raised concerns about how secure the airport and the transport system is in France. I mean, it's a country that has been soul-searching, trying to make sure that it is safe. What do we know about the conditions at the airport now? Is it safe?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, because of those occasions, those extraordinary occasions, two Paris attacks and the Brussels attacks as well. They've been ramping up security to unprecedented levels. So people here would argue, you've probably got one of the safest airports in the world here. And the idea that a fly could be compromised, sabotaged, is extraordinary to people here, when you consider the layers of security.

Even now, you've got an extra layer of security today, at the entrance to the terminal. You got bag checks there today. So, very high levels of security.

The issue at the moment, Christine, we're having to rely on our sources because a formal investigation won't actually begin until they've found the body of a victim of a French national. We don't actually have that yet.

So, officially, we're not hearing any big lines or announcements, because any terror investigations are being done on the quiet now. It's being called a verification process. And we can only assume that what they're doing is checking up on anyone that had contact with the aircraft as it stood on the tarmac.

So, ground crew, aircrew, apparently passengers, who had touch with the aircraft, who are they, tracking back. We know from Washington sources that the intelligence services in the U.S. are coordinating with France and with Egypt. So, they're looking at those lines of inquiry, very important to look at them as well at this early stage. So, any potential culprits can't get away too far.

So, certainly, behind the scenes they're working on a theory that the aircraft is compromised, but they're also looking at other possible causes of the crash as well. They're not highlighting this terror issue at the moment, Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Thanks for that so much, Max Foster. Certainly, they'll be looking every place this aircraft went earlier that day on prior flights. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Right now, teams from Egypt, France, Greece, Britain, and the U.S. are combing the Eastern Mediterranean, about 130 miles south southeast of the Greek islands of Karpathos, hoping to find any signed of EgyptAir flight 804.

Joining us now with the latest on the search, journalist Elinda Labropoulou, standing by live in part of Greece.

Elinda, what are Greek officials telling you about the search?

ELINDA LABROPOULOU, JOURNALIST: Well, the search continues and they've increased the force in the air since early this morning. It's a large international team that is now taking part.

The Greek air force has military aircraft scanning the greater area. They're saying they're working very closely with the Egyptian and the other forces.

[04:40:02] They're also saying that many marine ships that were in the area, just following normal routes have also joined in.

So, it's a very big operation that's now under way. But of course we're looking at over 24 hours since this incident happened, and the Greek authorities are telling us that every minute really matters.

But in essence, what is actually happening is that we know less than we did yesterday. Because at some point yesterday, we thought debris had been found. Greek officials and then the Egyptians said that none of the floating objects that had initially been identified were from the aircraft. So what we have now, we can only go back to what Greece initially said, Greece being the country that had the last contact with the pilot of the plane, when it was in Greek airspace.

The pilot confirming that everything was fine. And then the Greeks being the first to alert their Egyptian counterparts that the plane was no longer responding, as it crossed into Egyptian airspace. The Greek defense minister has come out and said that the plane seems to have swerved mid-air and then plunged before the radar -- the Greek radar's last signal, just two minutes after it got into Egyptian airspace.

Now, they're asking for satellite information from other countries and they're saying that they will do all they can to get to the bottom of this.

SANCHEZ: Still many questions about the last moments that the plane was on radar and how it swerved and exactly what happened. Elinda, thank you.

ROMANS: So what are the challenges, searching such a huge area? And could weather hammer this hunt?

We'll get more now from meteorologist Derek Van Dam live in the CNN Weather Center.

What are you seeing there on your maps, Derek?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, Boris and Christine, this is still considered a search and rescue operation, so weather which is fine at the moment is also a consideration, but are the water temperatures for the potential of survivors in the water, 65 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit over the Eastern Mediterranean as we speak.

And if we consider the survival rates for this type of water temperature, 60 to 70 degrees, it depends if you're a healthy individual, young, or an elderly individual. It really depends, but roughly from two hours to about 40 hours. This is the area they're scouring at the moment, south and east of Crete and the Karpathos Islands over the eastern Mediterranean. This is known as the Levant Basin.

But the weather conditions will start to change over the next 24 hour hours, and this could potentially hamper the search and rescue operation that is ongoing across the area, because I do expect the winds to pick up. I do expect the choppy seas to be a factor. Perhaps one to two meters, three-meter swells possibilities, going forward.

You can see on the wind map that we have the potential for wind gusts in excess of 40 miles per hour as a cold front moves through this region, and if they do and when they do start scouring the sea floor of the eastern Mediterranean. It's very interesting to note that the depths of the sea across this region range anywhere between 8,000 and 11,000 feet.

With our Google Earth capabilities, we can actually go into the seabed. You can see it's a relatively smooth area. This is going to allow for remotely operated vehicles to properly scour the sea floor, searching for any signs of wreckage.

ROMANS: All right. And again, the weather was clear at the time the plane disappeared, one of the reasons why investigators early on think something happened on the plane, a bomb or terrorist attack that brought it down.

Derek, thank you for that.

So, almost a day and a half now since the EgyptAir Flight 804 vanished. What happened here? We're going to break down all the leading theories, next.

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[04:47:57] ROMANS: Back to our breaking news coverage of the disappearance of EgyptAir Flight 804.

Here is where things stand right now: still no sign of debris from the missing jet liner more than 24 hours after it vanished from radar, heading from Paris to Cairo. At least four possible scenarios are now being investigated. Was a bomb smuggled on board? Was an insider threat involved? Did a catastrophic technical malfunction take place? Or could it have been misconduct on the part of the pilot or crew member?

I want to bring in CNN aviation analyst Les Abend to talk a little bit more about these scenarios.

Now, look, we know, Les, that there's no real evidence, there's no plane. We haven't -- the plane is still missing here. But we know that some authorities, the U.S. in particular, are working under the assumption this could be a terrorist attack because of the circumstantial evidence. This flight was perfect weather, 37,000 feet, cruising altitude, statistically, the least dangerous time of a flight.

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Right. Cruising is the most benign part, statistically, it's the safest part of the flight. If you do have an emergency, you have time to take care of your particular problem. My gut feeling, certain scenarios, something catastrophic just

occurred instantaneously, because of the data we saw with the turns and the fact that the airplane lost so much altitude in such a quick period of time, leads me to believe that these pilots were not in control of that aircraft, or were unable to regain control of that aircraft.

Now the bomb theory --

ROMANS: Too early to zero in on one yet?

ABEND: Yes, I would like to -- accident investigation goes down certain paths based on evidence. You know, let's certainly put that, you know, at a high priority.

But let's look at other things. There potentially could be some loss of control issues because of a mechanical problem and the pilots were unable to overcome that situation, because of that technicality, whatever it might have been, and the airplane did an aerodynamic stall. There's other possibilities.

SANCHEZ: Sure. We were just talking before the break about the training of these pilots. Both had thousands of hours of flying, 6,000 hours for the captain, more than 2,000 on that plane. But because of the specific training they received, they may not have been experienced enough to handle a situation like the one you're describing?

ABEND: Well, first of all, 6,000 hours is a decent amount of time. I've been with my airline for 32 years, I have 26,000 hours. So -- and a lot of folks in the states have that kind of time, because we've been in our seats for quite a while. The co-pilot was a little less experienced.

But getting to your question, a lot of times, these folks can only pull from a certain pool in their countries and a lot of times they're small countries. And they get trained in the United States, come back, but they're trained specifically for just that particular airplane. So, the experience level of seeing different environments, different, you know, situations, as far as weather is concerned, you know, they haven't seen all that, nor have they seen different malfunctions with their airplane.

They train for it, but we generally train for the standard boilerplate stuff. Something out of the ordinary that they're not used to with the airplane, may not be something they're accustomed to and they may handle it, not necessarily wrong, but differently than maybe an experienced pilot, who for instance, would sit back and go, wait a second, what's going on with my airplane? Just put his hands down and try to determine and assess the situation before you rush into it.

ROMANS: So interesting. But of course if it's something that happens before, when the pilot has no control over what happens at the airport before they get there. And we do know that terror groups in variety of different countries, in Yemen and Somalia and others and Egypt, have expressed and have succeeded in using -- getting access inside of airplanes.

ABEND: Unfortunately, that's where our minds are going. But you bring up a good point. I mean, it's not quite transparent to me, I have to trust the fact that everybody involved in the security process is doing their job.

For me, a lot of times the only result that I see is a piece of paper clipped month my control yolk that says the security check has been completed and I have to go with that fact, or my walk-around inspection. You know, I look at the cargo.

ROMANS: So you do, the pilot will go around, you look at your cargo before you take off?

ABEND: Either the captain or the first officer will do walk-on inspection, primarily to see the condition of the aircraft, but we can certainly see if something's amiss when it comes to security.

ROMANS: All right, les, thanks so much for that great expertise for us this morning. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: The disappearance of EgyptAir Flight 804 is Egypt's third flight disaster in just the past year. In past tragedies, officials have been less than transparent. So, what can we expect this time? We're live, next.

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[04:57:18] SANCHEZ: We have some urgent breaking news to bring you. Just a few moments ago, we heard from Egyptian armed forces that confirmed they have found debris that they think was EgyptAir Flight 804.

Obviously, yesterday there was confusion as to whether or not debris was found. It later found out that what was discovered in the Mediterranean was not debris from the plane, but this is confirmation, again, from Egyptian armed forces that debris has been discovered that is linked to Egypt Flight 804.

This disappearance is Egypt's third aviation disaster in less than a year. It follows the hijacking of a plane from Cyprus and the bombing of a jet departing Sharm el-Sheikh in November.

It took the Egyptians months to admit that the Russian airliner in that case was downed by an ISIS bomb.

So, the question now is, can the Egyptians be relied on to conduct a thorough, transparent, candid investigation of this plane's disappearance?

Joining us now is CNN's Ben Wedeman, who's covered Egyptian air disasters since 1990.

EgyptAir, not foreign to these kind of attacks, right, Ben?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No. In fact, as you mentioned, going back to 1999 with the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 off the coast of Long Island, that disaster leaving 217 people dead.

Now, initially the Egyptian authorities really were ruling out, in that case, that there might have been human error, perhaps terrorism. I remember the day of that incident, a senior Egyptian official telling me with a straight face that the plane had been diverted to Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California.

Now, as the investigation proceed and the voice and data recorders were recovered from the bottom of the sea, it turned out that in fact, the co-pilot, his name was Gamil el-Batouty, took the plane down. Essentially committed suicide and killed the other 216 people on board.

And to this day, Egyptian officials deny that scenario. But I think what we're seeing, Boris is a certain evolution of the official Egyptian approach to these disasters. As you mentioned, three incidents within one year. I think what we're seeing is a willingness to consider the possibility, although it's by no means confirmed, that perhaps it was some sort of terrorist plot that brought down EgyptAir Flight 804.

It's important to keep in mind that many of the Egyptian investigators have received some training in the United States. These are competent people. But often times, there's a difference between what the technical level says and what the politicians and the others, the government officials, say who have other concerns -- concerns about the state of tourism in Egypt, which has really taken a nose dive in recent years.