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CNN NEWSROOM

Near Collision Between Two Planes; Police Searched Pats Player's Home; Dow Lost 550 Plus Points in Two Days; Trayvon Martin Murder Case; Gandolfini Died of a Heart Attack; Heat Repeat as NBA Champions; Near Collision Between 2 Planes; Rubio Defends Immigration Deal

Aired June 21, 2013 - 09:00   ET

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


CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, CNN NEWSROOM, Carol Costello begins right now.

Thanks to you, too, Carol. It's been great going to you every day.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It was fun listening to you, guys. Thanks for the laugh this morning.

NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, legacy set.

JAMES LEBRON, MIAMI HEAT: This is sweet.

COSTELLO: Another trophy for King James.

LEBRON: This team is amazing.

COSTELLO: The fans. The hugs. And a night for the history books.

Also, less than a football field apart, two planes just miss crashing in mid-air over New York City.

Plus, valedictorian missing. An American high school kid disappears hiking in Ecuador.

And --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was like, whoa. You just see this guy just start walking right in front of the car. And sure enough in the video you can hear the door locks go.

COSTELLO: Car theft goes hi-tech. A mystery box can unlock your car in 20 seconds.

And positioning for a life-saving catch. Yes. That was a baby. Tragedy averted, yet again.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Good morning. Thank you so much for being with me, I'm Carol Costello.

We start this morning with that close call in the skies over New York City. Investigators are trying to figure out how a Delta flight coming in for a landing at JFK nearly collided in midair with another plane leaving LaGuardia.

Rene Marsh is live in Washington.

What happened?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, the scary situation here. We're talking about perhaps one of the busier air spaces in the country. And, so, we know that this was this near miss that actually happened here. So what we're trying to find out is how did this happened.

The FAA telling us this morning that their investigation is just starting. But here's what we know so far.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH (voice-over): The incident happened here at New York's JFK airport. A shuttle America Embraer E170 was taking off just as a Delta 747 was preparing to land. That 747 then peeled out of its landing in a standard procedure called a missed approach. The two planes then came way too close.

The FAA will not confirm just how close. In a statement it said the two aircraft were turning away from each other at the point where they lost the required separation. Both aircraft landed safely.

It is the latest in the string of near misses across the nation's airports in the past few years. Last year in Washington, D.C., at Reagan National Airport, three planes barely avoided slamming into one another after a control tower miscommunication. And a frightening near multiple collision in Denver, just before last Thanksgiving.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Traffic alert. 1:00. Less than two miles at same altitude. Descend immediately.

MARSH: The passenger plane caught on radar steering directly into the line of several aircraft.

In 2010, a pilot at Boston Logan Airport takes a wrong turn. Right into the path of another aircraft. An air traffic controller frantically works to avoid a disaster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: JetBlue 264, hold right there. JetBlue 264 hold, hold.

MARSH: Thankfully the pilot hears him just in time. Crisis averted.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MARSH: And, Carol, no specifics from the FAA, at least not right now exactly on how close these two planes came to each other. But they say the standard separation of aircrafts, in situations like these, is about three miles. So at the very least we know that these two planes were less than three miles apart at some point -- Carol.

COSTELLO: That's very scary. Rene Marsh reporting live from Washington this morning.

New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez is used to avoiding defenders on the field but he'd never faced the kind of coverage he has now. From the air and all the ground reporters swarmed Hernandez Thursday seeking comment on a murder case that's casting a large shadow around him.

Here's more from our Susan Candiotti.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The embattled Patriots' tight end spent much of Thursday away from home. First, he drove to Gillette Stadium as a news helicopter hovered overhead tracking his white SUV. Hernandez hustled into the facility. Next he stopped for gas where he was bombarded with questions from reporters.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you tell us anything you want to say? What happened on Monday night? Can you just tell us what happened on Monday night?

CANDIOTTI: The family of Lloyd also wants to know what happened Monday night. They wonder why Lloyd, a friend of Hernandez, was shot dead. His body discovered a half mile from Hernandez's home.

Police are not calling Hernandez a suspect in the murder, yet Lloyd's family wants to know why police are searching Hernandez's home.

(On camera): What do you make of the questions that he is being asked and what would you like to know?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would like to know why. He was a very great guy. What could he possibly have done to anger anybody to do that. That's all I can really say.

CANDIOTTI: Do you think he might have had something to do with it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want to make a comment about that.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Olivia Tebow explained the relationship between Hernandez and the victim, saying her brother's girlfriend and Hernandez's fiancee are sisters. She confirms that on Friday both men were at a nightclub together.

(On camera): As far as you know, ever have any angry words between them?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not that I know of. CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Back at the crime scene, investigators using metal detectors pokes through piles of dirt looking for evidence in Lloyd's murder. Hernandez's lawyer won't comment on the investigation. WBZ reports he met with his client in downtown Boston Thursday.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Susan Candiotti is outside Hernandez's home in North Attleborough, Massachusetts.

Any word if charges are going to be filed against Hernandez?

CANDIOTTI: Well, hi, Carol. There are certainly a lot of reports about that. This morning unconfirmed reports to CNN that something might be in the works. So we're following that. And of course everyone is standing by to see what's going to happen next. So far the only action we've seen outside the house and remember we don't believe that Aaron Hernandez is anywhere close to the home, is we did see a couple of women leave here early this morning.

We're told that among other people his mother lives at the home here. So -- and we've seen a lot of landscapers at work. So it's been a noisy morning, but we haven't heard much from here.

COSTELLO: All right, Susan Candiotti reporting live this morning.

Let's take a look at your money this morning. Markets are poised for a rebound, at least we hope so after that massive selloff on Wednesday and Thursday. The Dow down more than 500 points.

CNN business anchor Christine Romans is following all of this in New York.

So futures seem to be looking up.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: They are looking up, Carol. They're up about 59 points right now for the Dow so I'm pleased that you're not seeing a third day of sort of intense selling, but you did have two days where total the Dow fell 550 points. So that is a big two-day move to try to be clawing back from. We'll see if futures can hold and, you know, this sort of deteriorated.

They are higher, still, but they haven't been robust, I would say, in terms of people trying to get in and buy stocks. So we'll watch and see what happens in 23 minutes when the market opens.

One thing to remember here is that you've got -- the stock market has been up a lot this year. The S&P, the Dow, the NASDAQ, all of them up double digits. So if you look at your 401(k), Carol, it's going to be positive. Even after these two bad days and there's this feeling that people are starting to take money off the table. They've had a very good year, they're concerned about what the Fed is going to do, when the Fed is going to stop supporting the economy some time -- probably into next year. And so you've seen just kind of this gut check, I think, where some people are taking money off the table and that's reverberating through the stock market -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Christine Romans reporting live from New York City, thank you.

Six women, six women, just women will decide the fate of George Zimmerman and remember race could be a key factor to this case. Five of those women jurors are white. One is described as Hispanic or black.

Opening statements now set for Monday.

Also, today the judge will rule on a controversial voice analysis of the screams heard on this 911 call.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does he look hurt to you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't see him. I don't want to go out there. I don't know what's going on so -- they're sending.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think he's yelling help?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. What is your --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right, you heard the screams in the background. Well, the prosecution wants to show it was Trayvon Martin's voice. If so, that could hurt Zimmerman's self-defense claim in shooting Martin who was unarmed.

We're going to talk about the larger implications of this case at the bottom of the hour, 9:30 Eastern Time.

We also have new information this morning in the sudden death of James Gandolfini. Hotel staff in Italy had to break down the door to get to the collapsed actor and in just the last few minutes we've learned autopsy results confirm Gandolfini did, indeed, die of a heart attack.

Nischelle Turner joins us live now.

Good morning, Nischelle.

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol. Yes, you know, the hotel staff in Italy, we are also being told, had to actually break the door down in the bathroom to get James Gandolfini out. Gandolfini's son called for help on Wednesday night and when he didn't hear from his father in the bathroom, he was knocking when he didn't answer, that's when he called the hotel staff.

And in just the last few minutes we've also learned, like you said, that the autopsy results confirmed that Gandolfini died of a heart attack. And, Carol, you know, the family of James Gandolfini is having a press conference right now in Italy. Once we get a chance to hear what they're saying, of course we'll bring that information to you.

COSTELLO: Yes. We showed an empty podium in Rome. And they're expected to come out soon. So in just going -- I mean, it's just so sad the way this happened, especially from Gandolfini's son's perspective. So his dad was in the bathroom. He was in there a long time. This son is 13 years old, right?

TURNER: Right. Right.

COSTELLO: He's wondering, like, why isn't dad coming out of the bathroom and then he called emergency workers?

TURNER: Yes, he -- well, no, he did not call emergency workers. He called the hotel staff. But that's a good point. I mean, you have to understand, this is a 13-year-old boy on vacation with his father and his family. And his dad's in the bathroom, he's been there for a long time, he's knocking on the door and he's not getting an answer.

So he panics and he doesn't know what's going on and, you know, he had to call the hotel staff and the hotel staff came in and knocked the door down and then that's when the emergency services were called and they took him by ambulance to the hospital officials where of course the hospital officials told us that he did arrive dead on arrival.

Now the next step, Carol, is of course, making final arrangements for him. Probably bringing his body back here and, according to Italian law, the family does have to request a death certificate and the U.S. embassy has to issue that death certificate before his body can be released. But that can all, we're told, be taken care of in a matter of a day.

COSTELLO: All right. Nischelle Turner reporting live for us this morning.

TURNER: Sure.

COSTELLO: You have to take a look at this.

This is like the catch of a lifetime. Take a look. These guys look like they're tracking a fly -- It was a toddler. That was a toddler falling five stories into their waiting arms. This went down in China. Those men now heroes were delivery men who happened to be on break when that little girl really, really needed them.

It's a fabulous catch, wasn't it?

Still ahead in the NEWSROOM a new deal could help get immigration reform through the Senate. But there's still a lot of frustration and Senator Marco Rubio knows all about that. We'll tell you why the Tea Party is now turning on their hero, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: King James crowned, again. His royal subjects rejoice. Miami Heat fans took to the streets to celebrate the second NBA title with LeBron James getting his second straight MVP.

CNN's Rachel Nichols was at last night's game seven as the Heat beat the San Antonio Spurs.

I guess LeBron chose to wear that headband and it worked out for him.

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS: Absolutely. And, really, just a crazy, crazy past few hours here.

And it's really just been what made the past couple days so special, that these are two elite teams with a half a dozen hall of fame players on the floor staging what a lot of people feel is one of the best NBA finals in history. And just because of all the toughness, the grit and heart they displayed, it turned into something very special.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICHOLS (voice-over): They fought to the very end, to the very last possible minute of the very last possible game of the season. If sometimes sports is about fantastic feats of athleticism, this NBA finals was about unrelenting determination. Two past champions bringing out the best in each other, but only one was left standing.

LEBRON JAMES, MIAMI HEAT: Saying hard work pays off was a true testament to what happened tonight. Last year when I was sitting up here, with my first championship, I said it was the toughest thing I've ever done. This year, I tell last year, he's absolutely wrong. This was the toughest championship right here.

TONY PARKER, SAN ANTONIO SPURS: Obviously, we were really disappointed, you know. I had a great opportunity in game six and tonight, you know, we did a great fight, but just couldn't get over the hump. That's the life of sports.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought we had a little bit of everything. We've got a bunch of guys who aren't going to give in, who keep playing for each other, with each other and really feel a responsibility to each other. So, you know, I expect nothing less, and that's what I got.

NICHOLS: The San Antonio Spurs had every right to think they had won the series three days ago in a potentially clinching game six, they were up by five points with less than 30 seconds to go. But the Miami Heat fought and fought some more, pushing the finals to a thrilling seventh game and ultimately a second straight title.

Afterward in a champagne-soaked locker room, players took extra time to savor the moment.

DWYANE WADE, MIAMI HEAT: I just wanted to soak it in, you know. We go through life so fast. And we never really get to enjoy moments. It seems like they go past us. So I just wanted to take that moment, soak it in, holler at my home boy, Larry, right here and just have my own moment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NICHOLS: Larry, of course, would be the Larry O'Brien trophy. He and Dwyane Wade apparently on a first-name basis after Dwayne has won three rings.

But you remember, Carol, when LeBron James came down to Miami to join Wade three years ago. There was such a huge backlash. People hated that TV special "The Decision". And then team president Pat Riley organized a pep rally, LeBron famously started counting the championships he assumed they're going to win, not one, not two, not three, not four.

And it was seen as such intense arrogance. Well, now, they have won two, and public opinion largely rebounded for LeBron.

So, really, it's hard to judge this big experiment of Pat Riley's of anything but a huge success.

COSTELLO: Hey, winning solves everything, doesn't it?

NICHOLS: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: Rachel Nichols, thanks so much.

Eighteen minutes past the hour --

NICHOLS: Thanks.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

Eighteen minutes past the hour, time to check our top stories.

An Oklahoma high school valedictorian is missing in Ecuador. August Reiger was on a mountain hike with his family, they split up and he simply disappeared. The teen's father says it's baffling since there were only two trails on their hike and the area isn't dangerous.

First, his family thought the teenager had doubled back and headed towards the hotel. But when they returned to the hotel, the boy was nowhere to be found. Investigators say they have no leads.

A state of emergency has been declared in Calgary where as many as 100,000 people may have to evacuate. Several roads and bridges have been wiped out by torrential rain and mudslides and portions of the TransCanada highway have been closed.

Passengers could soon be free to use electronic gadgets while onboard an airplane. Like when the flight is in the air and everything. "The Wall Street Journal" says they will relax a ban during takeoffs and landings. Music players and e-readers would be allowed and cell phones would still be banned. A decision could come before the end of the year.

All right, we just got some interesting tape into CNN. We have the air a traffic control tapes from that near miss over JFK. Where two passenger jets came, what? Within three miles of one another in mid- air?

Rene Marsh is in Washington with those tapes. Show us, tell us.

MARSH: That's right, Carol. We'll start by saying that this happened in a very busy air space. And we do have some of that audio.

Again, this is between one of the planes and the control tower.

Take a listen in.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

CONTROLLER: 172 heavy, are you turning?

PILOT: Yes, sir. We're almost at zero four zero now.

CONTROLLER: Delta 172, heavy traffic, 12:00, 1,400 feet, Embraer, 1,600 feet.

PILOT: OK, we've got him on the fish finder here.

CONTROLLER: OK. He's eastbound at 1,800 feet.

PILOT: OK, we're turning right to zero six zero.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MARSH: All right, again, carol, that's just a portion of the audio between the plane and the control tower here.

Again, just to recap for you. The situation that we had had here on June 13th, according to the FAA, there was a plane that was supposed to be landing at JFK airport. However, for whatever reason, we don't know why at this point, the pilot did not land the plane. Instead, the pilot kept on flying the plane towards the direction of LaGuardia airport.

But at that time, there was a second plane taking off from LaGuardia and then these two planes came dangerously close together. We're calling it a near-miss. The FAA says they're now investigating.

Unclear at this very moment exactly how close these two planes came to each other, but we know the standard is about three miles apart. So, at the very least, we know they were less than three miles apart -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So, just in, you know, I'm going to engage in a little speculation. It could be an air traffic control problem, right? They could have made a mistake, or the pilot could have made a mistake. We just don't know.

MARSH: Yes, it could be several things. It could be that the pilot was having problems with the aircraft and didn't feel that he was able to land it. It could be that there was a plane on the runway. Either waiting to take off or was just taxiing in and was slow to complete taxiing in. So, maybe the runway wasn't clear.

There are several reasons as to why he may not or she may not have been able to land this plane. That is still under investigation.

We're still waiting from the FAA to know exactly how and why this happened.

COSTELLO: OK, Rene, thanks so much.

Still ahead in NEWSROOM: keeping a close eye on the Dow after two days of triple-digit losses. The opening bell minutes away.

We're back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A border agent every 120,000 feet, 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 700 miles of fencing along our border with Mexico. It's all part of a bipartisan compromise to try to get a major immigration reform bill passed in the Senate.

The hope is those changes will also persuade the Republican-controlled House to take up the measure. The bill will stop green cards for illegal immigrants from being handed out until all those new border controls are in place. But, despite the compromise, Senator Marco Rubio says he understands the frustration some Republicans have with that immigration reform plan.

He talked with CNN's chief congressional correspondent, Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, few politicians have as much at stake with immigration reform than Senator Marco Rubio. A Cuban-American Republican from Florida with presidential aspirations.

He's one of those Republicans who believe giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship is critical to bringing those fleeing from the GOP back to the party.

But many disagree they only want to secure the border and say Rubio and like-minded Republicans want amnesty. I asked Rubio about that.

Someone like you from a diverse state, with likely ambition politically -- this is important for somebody who is in a conservative, very red state voting for something like immigration reform hurts them, rather than helps them.

How do you -- how do you overcome that?

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: Well, I understand why conservatives are upset. They've seen all the promises in the past that haven't been delivered. That's why we're saying that nobody can become a legal, permanent resident of the United States unless these border measures past, all five of them. And that's why we have to do it that way, because otherwise it won't happen. That's been the evidence in the past.

I understand why people are frustrated. I do. We shouldn't do this for politics. I can tell you politically this is as much a negative as a positive. People are really upset and I respect it and I understand it.

By the other token, though, this is hurting America.

BASH: The negative as much as the positive. It is a risk for you, politically?

RUBIO: Well, I don't know about for me, certainly, there are people that are upset. I mean, there are people I agree with on every other issue who are at us for having gotten involved in this issue.

And primarily they're just distrustful that the government will do its part. That's why we have to guarantee that it happens by saying that no one who has violated our immigration laws will become a legal, permanent resident unless all five of these things -- the agents, the fence, the technology, the E-Verify, and the entry/exit tracking system.

BASH: In all candor, how much of your personal credibility and viability is on the line here? Nobody talks about this without talking about Marco Rubio in the same breath, politically.

RUBIO: I have not analyzed it that way.

BASH: Oh, come on.

RUBIO: No, because if I wanted to do something political, the easiest thing to do not politically is just not deal with the issue, you know? Give a couple of speeches, and play and get involved in trying to solve it. I'm dealing with this because this is hurting our country badly.

BASH: Many of Rubio's fellow Republicans in the House simply are not buying that argument. In fact, positions there seem to be hardening against immigration reform with a path to citizenship rather than softening for it.

Now, House Speaker John Boehner compared immigration reform to Obama care, which does not bode well for the next step, which would be passing it in the House and eventually making it to the president's desk -- Carol.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All right, Dana Bash reporting this morning.

We're expecting markets to open higher this morning. Fingers crossed because the last two days were ugly. The Dow lost more than 200 points on Wednesday, 353 points yesterday. And that has some investors feeling edgy.

So, we want to talk about how the market will open in just a minute or so. And what that will mean for you and me.

Joining me to discuss CNN business anchor Christine Romans and senior economic writer for "Wall Street Journal" editorial page, Stephen Moore.

Welcome to both of you.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

STEPHEN MOORE, WALL STREET JOURNAL: Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: Hi.

So, Christine, how are futures looking now?

ROMANS: They're still higher, Carol, but I'll be interested to see how much enthusiasm there is for buying stocks right here today. I mean, how the market is going to fare today is going to tell us how investors are feeling around the world about the direction of the stock market, especially in light of the Fed -- the Fed maybe sometimes next year not pumping money into the system every month.

So, how the market reacts today is going to be important. You pointed out, 550 points over two days. Ouch. That really, really hurts.

You want to see some enthusiasm and a bounce back this morning. We had futures up maybe 50 points or so, 30 points. We'll see if we can hold on there.

I want to show you other markets. Gold was down 6 percent, oil was down 3 percent yesterday. Interest rates rising. That's going to translate into your mortgage rates, car loans, auto loans, all that kind of stuff.

This was just not a stock market move, Carol. This was everything around the world was moving yesterday. Watching right now, you know, look, you don't have all the components open quite yet. We'll watch closely.

COSTELLO: But, still, Steven, stocks went down 500 points over the last two days and then on the third day, investors saying, good time to buy.