Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Delta Jet Skids Off Runway; Jodi Arias' Fate Undecided

Aired March 5, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Ana Cabrera. Thanks for rolling on in the 3:00 hour with me.

We begin with breaking news. Severe winter weather causing problems all across the eastern half of this country. We're talking about snow, ice, rain, freezing fog causing two major travel nightmares.

Here on the left of your screen, that is a Delta jet that went off the runway at La Guardia Airport about four hours ago. And now all the inbound flights are still -- they're canceled until tonight.

Now, there on the right side of your screen, hundreds of drivers are stranded on highways in Kentucky. And we will have an interview with somebody who is among those trapped coming up.

But first to that Delta Air Lines jet. It's an MD-88. It skidded off the runway this morning, a harrowing end to a flight that was coming from Atlanta. The shaken passengers were forced to evacuate using emergency exits. Listen to one of them who shot video right after getting off the plane.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just survived this. Thank you, New York, for being -- having such (EXPLETIVE DELETED) weather. We almost all got fricking killed landing on the damned tarmac.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Miguel Marquez is live at La Guardia Airport and CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien is with me. He is also a pilot.

Miguel, what is the very latest? Has the NTSB arrived yet?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're on their way.

They on their way. And from what we understand, that it may have been with the runway and the condition out there, the very cold temperatures and heavy snow throughout the day today and pilots reporting throughout the day varying conditions on that runway.

The Port Authority saying that just minutes before pilots were reporting that everything was OK. But I can say that from everything we know at this point, that plane, when it hit the runway, it lost control almost immediately and it hit that embankment about 4,000 feet down that 7,000-foot runway.

It's almost perpendicular to the runway with the nose, the cockpit of that airplane up over that embankment and hanging out over Flushing Bay, the landing gear ripped off the front. The front part of it, the cone of it completely ripped off. The left wing was damaged during the landing as well and leaked fuel. About as much as 1,000 gallons of fuel leaked onto the runway there. They were able to contain it very quickly and they are starting to clean that up.

At this point, that runway 13, the inbound runway, is still closed. The outbound runway is now open and very, very slowly flights are starting to creep back on to the schedule to get people out of here at La Guardia. I can tell you since they have announced that, the situation here in the American terminal, one terminal over, is much less chaotic.

People seem to be getting through the terminal and starting to get on flights, hopefully. And, amazingly, despite how hard that plane came down and hit that embankment, 24 minor injuries, two, perhaps three people transported to the hospital, but everybody A-OK -- Ana.

CABRERA: It's good news for sure. Thank you, Miguel Marquez.

Miles, I want you to listen to some sound we heard from the air traffic control tower communicating with other planes that were in the air right as this was unfolding. Listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Delta 1086. Tower.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tower. Call 1-3. Tower. Call 100. Runway 13 is closed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tower. Red team to go on to 13.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tower, do you copy? call 100, Runway 13 is closed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Call 100 said Runway 13 is closed?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Affirmative; 13 is closed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Team red?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sorry. We have an aircraft off the runway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Delta 10-1999, go around. Try to maintain 2000.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 1999 going around.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The airport is closed. The airport is closed. We got a 34. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Call 100, say again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tower, you have an aircraft off 31 on the north vehicle service road. Please advise crash rescue. La Guardia Airport is closed at this time.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

CABRERA: The pilots in that communication, they had no choice but to turn a different direction to go land at JFK maybe, maybe Newark. But ultimately, it is, in general to land when the runway is open in bad conditions.

You're a pilot. How difficult is it for you to know precisely whether it's safe to land?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, there is a lot of instrumentation at an airport. They give you up-to-date real-time data what is going on, the wind conditions, the visibility, the height of the ceiling, and a key factor is the braking action on the runway.

The one thing that is required to get that information is a truck needs to roll down the runway with a sensor behind it to determine the braking action is. If the weather is changing quickly, it's important to get out there relatively frequently to give a proper update to the pilots so they understand what they are getting into.

One thing to consider here, this Runway 13 was basically what we call a quartering tailwind, meaning ideally you want to land into the wind. In this case, they landed with tailwind that was partially a crosswind. The reason you would select to do is this particular runway has a certain kind of -- what we call an instrument landing system, which allows you to land in worse weather than in the other direction of the airport.

While the other runways would have been better for the wind, you might not have been able to land because you wouldn't have been able to see the runway soon enough based on the amount of data you get from your navigational gear.

So there's a lot of factors that kind of go into these decisions on whether to land and it's quite possibly that this flight, as you're landing in a crosswind would have been banking hard to the left to compensate for the crosswind, landed and maybe in a gust, maybe that wing was damaged in some way. And that could have led to all of the events we have now seen unfold.

CABRERA: Obviously, air traffic control is in communication with pilots. We know pilots are giving the airport and controllers information after they land about what the conditions were like. And we know that about two hours prior to this plane landing, one of those pilots said, landing conditions were poor.

Now, apparently, just before this plane landed, according to the Port Authority, there was a pilot who said that conditions were good. How quickly do those conditions change? O'BRIEN: First of all, you have got a very dynamic situation. The

wind was changing. The temperatures were changing. It was moving from rain to freezing rain, ultimately into snow.

So you had a very dynamic weather picture. And let's not forget it's kind of a subjective thing. One pilot might say, oh, that was no problem, but he might have learned how to fly in northern Canada. Who knows, right? There's a lot of things that go into it. So, it's very important the airports on a frequent basis get out there and really determine what the traction is and clear the runways, especially when they are in this kind of dynamic situation.

You try to get real-time information to pilots, but things are moving fast in aviation.

CABRERA: Absolutely. And planes are moving fast, that's for sure.

O'BRIEN: Exactly.

CABRERA: When you look at the pictures, you see just how close the plane came to landing up in the water. Are you surprised it didn't go over the edge?

O'BRIEN: Well, frankly, that berm there, that dike probably saved the day as far as heading over into the drink. I always think about La Guardia as kind of a stationary aircraft carrier. There's not overrun space, 7,000-feet runways in any direction. It is -- you know, it's varsity landing for airliners.

And so they need to pay attention. They need to get it on the ground. That's why you frequent get a hard landing when you land at La Guardia. Same happens as Reagan National Airport, Midway. These short runways with a lot of -- no overrun space require retire a very attentive crew. Throw in bad weather and low visibility and a slick runway and you have got a prescription for trouble.

And that might be the series of events which led to this.

CABRERA: All of us who drive a car know how quickly the conditions on the ground can change and you can get caught off-guard. These planes are coming in how fast?

O'BRIEN: Well, we're talking on the order about 150, 160 miles an hour as they're landing. That's a lot of speed.

CABRERA: So, I imagine it very touchy trying to get control.

O'BRIEN: It is.

And what they tell you to do is land and before you hit the brakes, make sure you have got directional control, make sure you're headed straight down the runway before you applying brakes, because you can easily get into a fishtail scenario. So, you land. Make sure you're straightened out just right, because you have been compensating for those crosswinds, and you might be a little askew. And then begin the process of braking. Throw in the reverse thrust,

which are the clamshell devices which go over the back of the engines, to further increase the braking. But in this case, were the brakes asymmetrical? Were those thrust reversers not working properly, so it was asymmetrical thrust revering? Or was the slipperiness of the runway not uniform and perhaps it was more slippery on one side than the other? So when they hit the brakes, off to the side they went.

All of these factors need to be considered.

CABRERA: Miles, thank you so much for your expertise. We really appreciate it. Stand by, because we would like to pick your brain some more.

But coming up, we are hearing from passengers on that Delta plane and we will play their reaction to this ordeal next.

Also, hundreds of drivers also stranded on Kentucky interstates since last night, if you can believe it. I will speak with one of them still sitting there right now. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: More on the breaking news, snow and ice causing a nightmare situation in Kentucky, just gridlock on the major interstates. Unfortunately, it's not improving quick enough.

This is a stretch along I-65, some of these drivers stranded in their cars or their big rigs. Some 200 big rigs, we are told, are along this road as well. They have been there more than 12 hours and this line stretches well beyond a mile.

The National Guard has been dispatched to help rescue some of these stranded drivers.

And our Martin Savidge is staying on top of developments from Atlanta.

Martin, how long have these people than stranded again?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Some of these people say they have been stranded since about 6:00, 6:30 last night. Most people seem to say it really bogged down around 11:00 last night.

We do have good news for us, at least a positive glimmer. And that is that the National Guard of Kentucky is reporting that they had been rescuing people and taking them to warming shelters. Now that process is starting to go to the reverse, in other words, taking people from shelters back to their vehicles.

That suggests that they have made progress on opening the roadways and you need to get the drivers back in the vehicles to get them on the move. So it sounds good. But, as you point out, the traffic cameras show there are still hundreds, if not thousands, of people that have been stuck, many of them since late last night. And upwards of two feet of snow fell in Central Kentucky and the main highways we are talking about are I-25, that's to western part of the state, and I-65 in the central part of the state.

And the problem has been that most folks didn't have a lot of food and water. They were running low on fuel trying to stay warm last night. And they got stuck because of the heavy snow. It's steep inclines on some of these highways. The big rigs, they slowed and then eventually stopped and that backed everybody up.

But we are not talking a mile or two, in some cases, 30, 40, even possibly 50 miles of a traffic jam.

CABRERA: Oh, wow.

SAVIDGE: That has been the problem. Once everybody stopped, the snow continued to fall at an incredible rate and literally starting burying vehicles where they stopped. You not only have to get them moving. In many cases, you have to get them unstuck.

You couldn't get the plows through because the vehicles were all stuck in the road, so it's the chicken and the egg. Get the tow trucks in, clear the traffic, get the plows moving, get everyone safely going again.

CABRERA: Knock on wood that there hasn't been a major emergency where emergency responders would have to get anywhere quickly, at least according to the Kentucky governor we just talked to, no major injuries so far, no fatalities.

SAVIDGE: That is good.

CABRERA: Martin Savidge, thank you so much.

SAVIDGE: You're welcome.

CABRERA: I want to talk to a driver on the phone in just a few minutes, so do stand by for that.

But let's turn to more of our breaking news, since we just got some sound in, first sound from those passengers who just got off that plane that skidded off the runway at La Guardia Airport. Listen to how they describe what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the pilot would have let go one more, probably about two more inches, it would have went into, because the only thing that stopped us was that gate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was in the window seat. We saw the plane hitting the gate, approaching the water very quickly.

QUESTION: You said the plane hit the gate?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think when you see this? Get ready to swim. QUESTION: You thought you were going to have to swim?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to get ready to swim. It's survival mode.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was crazy. It was crazy. But thank God I'm here. This is my first time in New York. I'm just thankful that I'm here because, once we got off the plane, I could tell that it was a little more serious than I thought it was, because, you know, you're getting off the plane, I'm jumping out the window and we're sliding down the wing, and they're like, hurry up, hurry up. I see gas coming out of the wings, of the left wing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think he expected to hit the ice. I don't think so.

QUESTION: And what was that like as the plane was skidding?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was -- I was a little bit anxious, but I didn't feel out of control. I felt he was -- the pilot was in control. So I think the pilot did a good job, a really good job.

QUESTION: And the reaction of the passengers?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Passengers were calm. They were like, whoa. But we all knew we were on the ground, so there was immediate sense of calmness. Then they came by and said you can leave via the ramps. And we slid our tushies down on the wing of the plane and were caught by a fireman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Wow. They really had positive attitudes when you think about it.

Let's bring in our Miles O'Brien, who is with us, a pilot himself.

This has to be a total nightmare situation. If you are a pilot, and you have some 127 passengers lives in your hands.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

That's part of the job, and you don't want to be in that situation, but it sounds like they responded well once it happened. One thing I do want to point out, you know, and this will come out in the investigation, is this -- there are situations where planes get into trouble like this where there is no immediate concern of a fire.

And, yet, the decision is made to send passengers out the exit doors and down the slides. In this case, the slides didn't work, but down -- out the exit doors. That is where the injuries occur.

And sometimes the better decision would be, in fact, to have the passengers sit tight and wait for some steps to come out so they can walk down in a more orderly way. I don't know if in this case there was concern because of the fuel spill that there might be a fire, but the fact is the injuries occur in these cases mostly because people are sliding those slides or shimmying down a wing and they break an ankle.

So I did -- I thought the passengers saying just get ready to swim is a great testament to how people in these situations need to think about what they should be doing. People always say to me, where should you sit on a plane? And I always say to them, don't think about where you're putting your backside. Just keep your head in the game. Know where those exit rows on.

Know not just the primary one. In this case, if you looked to the front, that wasn't going to get you out because of those fences. How do you get to the back one? How many rows behind you is it? What are you supposed to do? Be paying attention when you land, cinch your up seat belt, be ready, just be thinking about what is going on around you.

A lot of kind of people zone out and fly without thinking. And that is when you can get in trouble in these situations.

CABRERA: There were a few back and neck injuries, we are told, nothing major, or we are told are minor injuries. Is that like whiplash, would you think?

O'BRIEN: I'm going to guess most of it had to do with the evacuation. But they did -- it's quite possible they landed very hard and that could have been part of it as well.

Of course, you know it's not a six-point restraint.

CABRERA: Right.

O'BRIEN: It's not even a three-point restraint. You just got your waist belt. You can, in a sudden stop, get in a situation where you cause back or neck injury, but I don't know at this point where that was caused.

CABRERA: Yes.

All right, Miles O'Brien, thanks again for being here.

O'BRIEN: You're welcome, Ana.

CABRERA: And now let's go to our nation's capital. A winter storm warning is still in effect through tonight.

And I want to bring in Joe Johns in Washington, D.C.

Joe, tell us about the situation there.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Ana.

That is the United States Capitol behind me, the dome. You can hardly see it. It's hard to get to it as well. The roads are a mess here in Washington, D.C. Buses between New York and Washington have pretty much been shut down. There are long, huge lines at union station here, The Amtrak station, for people trying to get to New York. All in all, the U.S. government is shut down.

The schools are shut down. The good news is there isn't going to be much of a rush hour. The bad news is, it's going to be quite a cleanup, Ana.

CABRERA: It looks like people are choosing to get around on foot instead of via car.

JOHNS: That's a fact. You just saw those people right there.

CABRERA: Yes.

JOHNS: One interesting fact that I think I have to talk to you about is the sledding situation over here at the Capitol. Sledding is banned at the Capitol for safety and security reasons.

The U.S. delegate to the United States Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, actually asked for that to be lifted in order for kids to sled. But nothing happened on that. It went viral on Twitter, on Facebook. And then what we got essentially was civil disobedience, parents and their kids showing up here anyway at the Capitol with their sleds.

And I talked to some of the kids about it. They said they thought the ban was ridiculous. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: That's insane.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Yes, that's not fair.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: It's crazy.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: This is mainly the only best hill.

JOHNS: What did you say?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Because this is mainly a really good hill because there's a lot of packed snow in it. And at the other one, it's just really muddy and it gets muddy really fast, the other hill. But this hill is kind of really good.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: And what do you have to do with this hill? Like, why can't we sled on it?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: It's like they are doing nothing with the hill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: So, what are the police going to do about that, quite frankly? I did talk to one person who couldn't identify himself because he

wasn't supposed to speak for the U.S. Capitol Police, but he said they are not enforcing that ban right now. How could you, Ana?

(LAUGHTER)

CABRERA: Well, we are all glad that emergency resources aren't going towards enforcing the sledding ban. That's for sure. Joe Johns, thank you so much.

Just ahead, we told you about the drivers in Kentucky who have been stranded for hours. I'm going to talk with a woman who has been stuck since 2:30 a.m. That is next.

Plus, breaking news in the Jodi Arias case. Another jury cannot make a decision on her fate, so what happens now? Nancy Grace is going to join me live with her thoughts on the outcome next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: One of the most notorious convicted killers in this country will not get the death penalty.

Jodi Arias dodged that punishment when a second jury failed to decide whether she should be put to death. Now, the split was 11-1, just one juror holding out, refusing to sentence her to die. Arias was found guilty of killing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in 2008. Her first sentencing trial ended in a hung jury and now after this mistrial was declared, Alexander's family wept as the judge and the lawyers picked a day for sentencing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At this time, the court is declaring a mistrial. Are we ready to proceed to sentencing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your honor, Ms. Arias is requesting approximately 30 days. My understanding, from our previous conversations, is April 10 was available to the court. I just don't think we had a time indicated.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And April 10 will not work for the state. The next of kin have requested that the sentencing be set either on a Monday or a Tuesday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. We certainly will accommodate that request.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So you could hear the sobbing and the crying in the background.

Next month, Judge Sherry Stephens will sentence Arias to life in prison either with or without parole.

Former prosecutor Nancy Grace is joining me now.

Nancy, I want to get your reaction to this mistrial announcement.

NANCY GRACE, HOST, "NANCY GRACE": Well, you know, I could say we saw it coming, because, as of last, say, Thursday, it appeared as if the jury was deadlocked.

But then it seemed as if there was renewed hope that this jury would reach a unanimous decision. Well, those hopes were dashed today when the jury came out to say they were hopelessly deadlocked. And, as it turns out, the vote was 11-1. We have spoken to the jurors. And the one juror that held out for life behind bars -- the other 11 wanted the death penalty -- had actually seen the "Lifetime" movie about Jodi Arias, and said she was no longer willing to deliberate with the other jurors.

Frankly, once you stop deliberating -- I don't mean change your mind, but once you refuse to deliberate further, that's when you're thrown off the jury and an alternate is brought in. You know what I noticed about the clip you just played? It was so odd. The Travis Alexander family is two seats back -- I have been in that courtroom for months -- bent over, physically bent over in pain.

And Arias and her lawyers are just acting like they can't hear the people behind them screaming and crying.

CABRERA: Well, I imagine, inside, she was celebrating because, basically, they spared her life. She won't get the death penalty, because not just one, but two hung jurors -- two hung juries.

I mean, does that say anything? What was it about this case? It wasn't just this one jury that had to decide her fate. It was -- this jury was the second jury, second jurors.

GRACE: You're right.

The first jury was also hung, a mistrial, so to speak. This jury was hung by one juror. There have been two juries hearing the death penalty phase.