Tragedy on a Mountainside; Former Alaska Senator Killed; Colorado Primary Win; Former Alaska Senator Killed
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to the "Most News in the Morning" on this Wednesday, the 11th of August. It's good to have you with us. I'm John Roberts.</s>KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. There's lots to talk about this morning, so we get right to it. First look, now at the aftermath of the mountainside tragedy in Alaska. Investigators now heading to the scene where former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens and four others were killed in a plane crash. We're also learning more about Tuesday's extraordinary rescue efforts and why survivors had to wait 12 agonizing hours before help finally arrived.</s>ROBERTS: Fifteen minutes of fame and you're on the clock. It was an absolute mob scene as the JetBlue flight attendant who flipped and became a folk hero walked out of the lockup in the Bronx last night.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You're going to lose your job?</s>STEVEN SLATER, JETBLUE FLIGHT ATTENDANT: More than likely.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Tell me about rude passengers. Talk about that.</s>SLATER: There's a lot of wonderful people out there.</s>ROBERTS: And there he goes. He had a bump on his head and said he desperately needed a bath. We'll have more of what he said and we'll take a closer look this morning at why people snap.</s>CHETRY: Plus, is America's economic recovery in trouble? The Feds sending out a warning that is rattling people from Wall Street to main street. What you can do to make sure you're prepared in these uncertain times. We're talking to the CNN Money Team about issue number one coming up.</s>ROBERTS: And the "AM Fix" blog is up and running. Join the live conversation going on right now. Just go to CNN.com/amfix.</s>CHETRY: Later this morning, on a rugged hard-to-reach mountainside in remote southwest Alaska, investigators will make their way to the scene of a plane crash that killed former Senator Ted Stevens and four friends. Their plane was found Monday night on a hillside near the Bearing Sea.</s>ROBERTS: These are the first pictures that we're seeing of the wreckage this morning. The fuselage remaining mostly intact, enabling four other passengers to survive the crash despite treacherous conditions that kept rescuers at bay for 12 critical hours. Ted Stevens' body is back home this morning. The longest serving Republican in U.S. Senate history being remembered as the man who literally put Alaska on the map. Casey Wian is live in Anchorage for us this morning with the very latest. Good morning, Casey.</s>CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. We're at Provident Hospital here in Anchorage where those four survivors of that horrific plane crash have been taken. And we have new information about their condition. Sean O'Keefe, the former NASA administrator, one of the survivors, is listed in critical condition this morning. His teenage son, Kevin O'Keefe, is in serious condition. And another passenger, Jim Morhard, also listed in serious condition. There was a young 13-year-old, minor, male, whose condition has not been disclosed. His father who's one of the victims who died in that crash. The crash that they survived -- one of the pilots that we spoke with yesterday, he flew over the area, said that when he first came upon that scene he didn't think that there was going to be any survivors because of the condition of the plane. As I believe you showed earlier, we're now getting the first pictures of that scene. What the pilot described to us as a plane that looked like it had basically just flown straight -- almost straight into that mountain. It had skidded maybe 100 yards up the mountain. So there's some speculation that maybe the plane was trying to climb. But the weather was really bad at the time and investigators are still looking into obviously what caused that crash. And we have -- CNN earlier spoke with that pilot who was one of the first folks who discovered the crash. And here's what he had to say.</s>ERIC HADE, PILOT WHO FOUND CRASHED PLANE: The main fuselage in the tail was in one piece but the wings were off and the -- I couldn't see the engine. So.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you think anybody could have survived that?</s>HADE: I didn't think it was survivable.</s>WIAN: And when rescuers finally reached, hours later, the crash site, one of the victims was walking outside -- one of the survivors was actually walking outside the fuselage of the plane. No one was ejected from the plane on impact. And there was no fire. We are going to be hearing, as you mentioned, later today more information from the NTSB as they gather it, but they're having a difficult time reaching that site -- John, Kiran?</s>CHETRY: And as we talked about, because of that, because of the remote location, 12 agonizing hours before there could be any type of professional help for the people that actually survived. Tell us more about the heroic efforts. Some of the volunteers that I understand reached the site earlier than the rescuers.</s>WIAN: Yes, there was -- because the weather was so bad as it was described by some of the folks, the clouds were almost down right on top of the crash site. The weather was bad, there was rain. They just couldn't get to this steep terrain. A doctor -- a female doctor was actually airlifted 1,000 feet away from the crash site and she had to hike through this severe dense, wet, slippery brush to reach those survivors and provide some care and comfort overnight. She was equipped with a satellite phone so she was able to stay in touch with rescuers and provide some aid to those victims. At the National Transportation Safety Board's briefing late yesterday, the chief of the NTSB talk about the heroic efforts of those volunteers. Here's what she had to say.</s>DEBORAH HERSMAN, DIRECTOR, NTSB: There were a lot of people who were applying their skills and also supporting those individuals who were trapped on the hillside. Obviously, we don't know what would have happened if they had not been there, but we do thank the Lord that they were there.</s>WIAN: Some of the things that the NTSB is going to be looking at today and in the days ahead are the experience of the pilot who was flying that plane who was killed in the crash. He had 29,000 hours of flying time. But they don't know how much experience he had actually flying this one remote route. They're also going to be obviously looking at the weather. They still don't know what kind of avionics were on that plane, what kind of crash detection -- crash avoidance systems were on that plane. All of those questions they're going to be answering over the next couple of days -- John, Kiran.</s>ROBERTS: Casey Wian for us this morning in Anchorage. Casey, thanks so much. And we will get the latest on the investigation when the chairman of the NTSB Debbie Hersman joins us live from Anchorage. That'll be at 7:10 Eastern this morning.</s>CHETRY: Well, now to politics and two marquee primary races. One in Colorado where incumbent Senator Michael Bennett held off challenger Andrew Romanoff to capture the Democratic nomination. This race was a battle of high-profile endorsements. You had President Obama backing Bennett, and former President Bill Clinton supporting Romanoff. Bennett had zero political experience before his appointment to fill a vacant Senate seat last year. He'll now face the Republican candidate and Tea Party favorite Ken Buck in November.</s>ROBERTS: And perhaps money can buy you love. Former wrestling executive Linda McMahon, who spent $22 million of her own fortune, won the Republican Senate primary in Connecticut. She beat former Congressman Rob Simmons. It sets up a race now between McMahon and Democrat Richard Blumenthal, the state's attorney general, in November. And coming up a the 8:10 Eastern, we're going to talk with Linda McMahon about the primary victory and the general election campaign ahead which many people think is going to be one of the most negative and shall we say smackdownish type -- campaigns we've ever seen.</s>CHETRY: Well, it is just so surreal to see the people hugging her triple H. She was, like, you know, one of the wrestling champs. He's her son-in-law and he's up on the stage like in a wrestling --</s>ROBERTS: I think WWE and the whole wrestling arena is going to factor very heavily into this race.</s>CHETRY: All right, well, she pulled out the primary win. We'll see what happens from here. Meanwhile, do you remember the giant ice chunk that we talk about breaking off of a glacier in Greenland last week? Well, scientists are now worried that it could actually drift into north Atlantic shipping lanes and perhaps even threaten oil platforms off of Canada. The ice island is estimated to be about 100 square miles, four times bigger than Manhattan. Experts say there's not really much they can do to stop something that big from going where it is going to go. Meanwhile, at seven-and-a-half minutes past the hour, we get a check of this morning's weather headlines. Rob Marciano's in the extreme weather center for us. So, I guess the best hope is that -- that the weather will get cold enough, right, the winter freeze, and it'll sort of at least cause it to stop?</s>ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes -- no, there is some hope that it gets caught in one of those channels and actually helps build up more sea ice than it would normally. But, you know, it's worrisome that if it slides into the shipping lanes then we might have more issues. Another thing we don't have control of, but we certainly can prepare for, are our tropical systems. We have this tropical depression that we talked about yesterday. And it is forecast to become a tropical storm. Here's the latest on it.</s>MARCIANO: We'll keep an eye on tropical depression number five and let you know if it becomes a tropical storm here. That could happen as early as before the end of this show -- John and Kiran.</s>CHETRY: Wow. All right, Rob Marciano, thanks.</s>ROBERTS: Getting a little more active out there. Steven Slater's wild ride, Pittsburgh to New York City, down a slide right into jail. Now bailed out and talking.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Tell me about rude passengers. Talk about that for a second.</s>SLATER: There's a lot of wonderful people out there.</s>ROBERTS: We'll have more in his own words. More of what happened on that plane that led to his now-famous meltdown on the tarmac. It's nine minutes after the hour.