Flight Lands At Wrong Airport; Stocks Struggle In 2014
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Breaking news overnight. Passengers jolted, tires burning as a Southwest Airline slams on its brakes, landing at the wrong airport, not far, folks, from the edge of disaster.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The wait for water may soon be over in West Virginia days after a chemical spill contaminated the water supply for hundreds of thousands of people! New developments released overnight.</s>BERMAN: And the future looks more golden for an unlikely "Golden Globes" winner. How the race for Oscar changed overnight? The intrigue, the glamour, coming up.</s>ROMANS (on-camera): Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans, intriguing, glamorous, not us.</s>BERMAN (on-camera): That's the "Golden Globes." Not us so much at all. I'm John Berman. Thirty-one minutes past the hour right now.</s>ROMANS: All right. Our top story this morning, many questions this morning about a scary mistake that happened overnight in Missouri. A Southwest Airlines 737 with 129 people on board landed at the wrong airport, an airport not designated to handle big, commercial jets. Now, the airline and the FAA and the people on board that flight want to know how did it happen. The jet was supposed to land in Branson, Missouri. Instead, it touched down at a county airport about seven miles away. The runway there, half the length of most major airports. Passengers say they smelled burning rubber as the jet landed. And when they got off the plane, they realized they were only a few hundred feet from the end of the runway and a few hundred feet from a major highway that runs past it. For those coming to pick them up, they never expected to get a call sending them to someplace else.</s>JODELL FITZWATER, PASSENGER ON SOUTHWEST FLIGHT: We had like a really rough landing. We were all like moving pretty close to the seats as we were landing, because the runway, I guess, is too short for the plane. And so, then, they just came on and said that we had landed at the wrong runway.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then we got a call saying the plane has landed at an airport nearby. With that, we were thinking, OK, there is only one other airport, and it was the C of O airport, and we're thinking, surely, not a jet plane could land there.</s>ROMANS: Oh, but surely it did. Southwest says everyone is safe. Buses were sent to pick the passengers up and bring them to the right airport. Now comes the investigation why it landed there in the first place.</s>BERMAN: Could have been much, much worse. Breaking overnight, someone in West Virginia may finally get a chance to use their tap water again today. This comes five days after a chemical spill led to hundreds of thousands of people being told to not drink, don't bathe, or even wash your clothes with what was coming out of the tap. West Virginia American Water today plans to set up zones where water use is once again allowed, but they're urging customers to flush their plumbing systems and do not do anything until they know that they are in the clear.</s>GOV. EARLY RAY TOMBLIN, (D) WEST VIRGINIA: I believe that we're at a point where we could say that we see light at the end of the tunnel. I ask all West Virginians to continue to be patient as we work to safely restore service to the affected areas.</s>MICHELE ROSE, RESIDENT: I would probably wait, test myself. I can tell if I could still smell it before I would trust that I can use it. I don't know, a few days, maybe to a week to actually consume it.</s>BERMAN: You can certainly understand that concern. An investigation is now under way into Freedom Industries, the company where the chemical spill took place. Its president insists it is doing all it can to prevent further spills. A federal prosecutor is promising to take any appropriate action against whoever is responsible for this.</s>ROMANS: Subpoenas could come as soon as today in the scandal many are now calling Bridgegate involving New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, in the closing of a route to the George Washington Bridge.</s>ROMANS (voice-over): That as some in the state are talking impeachment. The head of the state legislative committee investigating the scandal says if Christie knew about what happened, if Christie lied about it, the state assembly would consider impeaching him. And even some well-known Republicans are now saying while they believe the governor was telling the truth when he said he didn't know what two top former aides were doing, if he was lying, his political career is likely over.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: I think he stated very clearly, he should have known. I think he stated it very clearly and very openly and honestly, and that's why he has to answer every single question. Is this a blow to him? Obviously. How permanent it is? I think we will know in the days and weeks ahead.</s>ROMANS: Many in the Republican Party praised Christie for coming forward to talk about the scandal. They praised his performance when he said he was humiliated, he was sorry, he should have known. And even the mayor who was the seeming target for the shutdown said he takes Christie at his word.</s>BERMAN (voice-over): The NSA's phone surveillance program is being blasted this morning as ineffective and even unnecessary in the fight against terrorism. The New America Foundation says that a new report due out today that its analysis shows the bulk collection of phone records has had no discernible impact on preventing terror attacks and only factored into one case involving money being sent to a terror group in Somalia. The findings echo a White House panel's assertion that the program is not essential to preventing attacks. New details this morning about the problems with the health care overhaul, and it's one again involving a website, this time, it's the Spanish-language version of healthcare.gov. Users report that pages on the site link to English-language forms and call the translation so clunky, they're hard to understand. Federal officials insist they're working to make the site better.</s>ROMANS: President Obama and Senate Republicans battling over appointments to this -- taking the battle over appointments to the Supreme Court today. They're fighting over the president's power to temporarily fill high-level position that requires Senate confirmation. The constitution says he can only do it when the Senate is in recess. The courts already have ruled the president overstepped his authority in January of 2012 by appointing two temporary nominees while the Senate was in session.</s>BERMAN: The Senate vote -- set to vote today on a bill to extend long-term unemployment benefits for more than a million people, but hope is fading this morning over any chance of this passing. A group of Republicans is balking because they do not like the way Democrats plan to pay for it. They're also upset about the procedures in the Senate right now. It is looking unlikely this morning that this measure will get the votes that it needs to pass.</s>ROMANS: A lot of the people thought that they were going to be able to resolve that.</s>BERMAN: Fell apart over the last five days.</s>ROMANS (on-camera): All right. Stocks around the world rising this morning, except for futures here in the U.S. Let's look at Asia's main indices. They just closed higher. Europe opening higher. Right now, here at home, futures point to a modestly lower open for the stock market. The Dow is down nearly one percent so far this year, the first time it started lower since 2009, but things could turn around this week if banks come in with some solid earnings. JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, many others set to report their quarterly report card. These companies are already trading at record highs. Their stocks are at record highs. Solid earnings could be just what we need, especially after last week's terrible jobs report. The thinking is, if banks are doing well, it's partially because people are more confident, taking out loans, a good sign, so it goes, for the economy. It could be a big day for General Motors. The automaker might sweep the car and truck of the year awards at the Detroit auto show! The Corvette and the Cadillac CTS are in the running in car category. The Silverado is gunning for the truck award.</s>BERMAN (on-camera): All right. Speaking of awards, this morning, there are a whole bunch of new favorites in the Oscars race after a night of real surprises at the "Golden Globes." "American Hustle" won three statues, including Best Comedy, Best Actress in a comedy for Amy Adams, and there she is, Best Supporting Actress for Jennifer Lawrence.</s>BERMAN: I think she's very talented. Cate Blanchett, you see her right there, also picking up a Golden Globe for her turn (ph) as a title character in "Blue Jasmine." "12 Years a Slave" won for Best Drama, but the male acting awards went to other films. Leonardo DiCaprio, I predict him, he won for his role in the "Wolf of Wall Street," and Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto won as well for "Dallas Buyers Club." "Gravity" picked up the Best Director award. And in television, it was "Breaking Bad," really a surprise winner, "Brooklyn 99," they both win big. Each getting awards for Best Series. Best Actor went to Bryan Cranston and Andy Sandberg.</s>ROMANS: And Bryan Cranston was talking to our Nischelle Turner before on the red carpet beforehand. He said it'd be a nice way to sort of put a period on the end of the sentence of the show. You know, to end the show with an award for the show.</s>BERMAN: You brought up Nischelle Turner. She was the real star last night at the "Golden Globes," as always.</s>ROMANS: She did a great job. She is one talented young woman. Let's give her the Golden Globe.</s>BERMAN: She wins it.</s>ROMANS: All right. New this morning, Dennis Rodman on his way home from North Korea and opening up about the mistakes he made on his trip to the communist country. We are live with Rodman's latest apologies.