President Trump Meets With Japanese Prime Minister; One Person Killed in Southwest Jet Engine Failure.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: That is the Japanese flag. We are just about to see the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, pull up. And as a fun cue, here is the car. We will sit on the picture. He -- the prime minister is in town to meet with the president for two days. Remember, he was the first foreign leader to actually meet with the president at Mar-a-Lago once the president was elected. Let's just listen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Forward march.</s>BALDWIN: All right. So there's the photo-op. We know that they will hold a bilateral meeting in just a little while there at Mar-a-Lago, have dinner tonight. This is a two-day visit for Prime Minister Abe. We are going to keep our eyes on Mar-a-Lago. Also watching very closely for this NTSB briefing set to begin in mere minutes about what happened on board of that Southwest Flight 1308. Took off from New York's La Guardia Airport, was bound for Dallas. That plane -- there it is right there still sitting on that Philadelphia tarmac at the Philadelphia International Airport. A woman is now, we have learned, is in critical condition after passengers say they were cruising along at altitude when they heard a loud explosion and the cabin became violently depressurized. Shrapnel, specifically portions of the jet's left engine, as it apparently blew up somehow, came flying up, hit the fuselage, smashed into a passenger's window. We have spotlighted it -- oh, here we go. Let's back to Mar-a-Lago.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... and, actually, even before becoming president. It's a, very, very special country, special place with a very, very extraordinary leader. So it's an honor to have you in Florida with us. It's an honor to have you at Mar-a-Lago and an honor to have you in the United States. It's really something special. We're going to be discussing trade with Japan. We are going to be discussing military. We're going to be discussing security. And we will -- I'm sure at the outset we're going to get along, and when it's all over, we're going to get along even better. So, thank you all very much for being here. Mr. Prime Minister?</s>BALDWIN: So, there you have the president and the prime minister there, quick photo-op. We wanted to make sure we took that. But let me get you back to this plane that made this emergency landing in Philadelphia. Guys, throw the picture -- just one second. Can you throw the picture back up and so people can see? Just imagine the plane window blasted out as a result of some of the shrapnel that -- there you go -- that flew out from this engine failure. So we have got Polo Sandoval. He's standing by live in Philadelphia for us. And, Polo, just starting with you, tell us about the injured passenger and how the heck did this happen?</s>POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we heard from officials just a few moments ago, Brooke. They would not go into great detail about this injured passenger, not even confirming the gender of this passenger, just saying they were taken away in critical condition to a local airport here -- to a local hospital, rather. From our vantage point just outside the airport, we could see the damage of that fuselage there on the left side of the plane and also that blown-out engine. Officials saying not long after its takeoff from New York's La Guardia airport at about 11:15 Eastern time, that's when the pilots of Southwest 1380 then called in this emergency, reportedly saying that not did they have an issue, a portion of the aircraft missing, according to the ATC records, but also that apparently somebody had been injured on that plane. So, as a result, they made that quick turn southeast and then eventually heading here to Philadelphia, where it landed at 11:27. Do the math, Brooke. That's about 12, 13 minutes or so that must have been like -- felt like an eternity for those passengers aboard, 143 and the five crew. In that latest update that was put out by officials a few moments ago, they did say -- at least fire officials using the description of an incredible job to describe the efforts on that plane this morning, saying this wasn't just the crew, but also the passengers who essentially pitched in to help, including a few of the people that were apparently medical personnel board that aircraft that helped some of the injured and made this a safe landing a reality. And when you see the pictures, when you even see things from our vantage point here in Philadelphia, Brooke, it's amazing that things certainly didn't turn out as bad as they could have. But, for now, of course, a lot of the focus on this one individual who was at last check in critical condition, as we await the arrival of investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board to find out exactly how this engine was so severely damaged.</s>BALDWIN: Cannot begin to imagine how insanely frightening that would be to be flying at altitude and have this kind of explosion and a window blow out. Polo, thank you very, very much. We're going to come back and analyze this. Again, we're also waiting for that NTSB briefing to begin. But let's go back to Mar-a-Lago. You have the Japanese prime minister and the president of the United States. They are still speaking.</s>SHINZO ABE, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): And I very much feel delighted and also privileged to have a discussion with Donald today to talk about our collaboration to achieve the development of both Japan and the United States and also how we can collaborate together to realize peace in the region, as well as in the entire international community.</s>TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. Many of the world's great leaders request to come to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. They like it. I like it. We're comfortable. We have great relationships. As you remember, we were here and President Xi of China was here, and when we do it -- it was originally built as the southern White House. It was called the southern White House. It was given to the United States and then Jimmy Carter decided it was too expensive for the United States, so they fortunately for me gave it back. And I bought it. But we are -- who would have thought. It was a circuitous route, but now it is indeed the southern White House. And, again, many, many people want to be here. Many of the leaders want to be here. They request specifically. North Korea is coming along. South Korea is meeting and has plans to meet with North Korea to see if they can end the war. And they have my blessing on that. And they have been very generous that, without us and without me in particular, I guess, you would have to say, that they wouldn't be discussing anything, including the Olympics would have been a failure. Instead, it was a great success. They would have had a real problem. But, as you know, North Korea participated in the Olympics, and it made it -- really, it was quite an Olympics. It was quite a success. That would not have happened. And they do have my blessing to discuss the end to the war. People don't realize, the Korean War has not ended. It's going on the right now, and they are discussing an end to the war. So, subject to a deal, they would certainly have my blessing and they do have my blessing to discuss that. Japan and ourselves are locked and we are very unified on the subject of North Korea. We will probably be, depending on the various meetings and conversations, we will be having meetings with Kim Jong- un very soon. It will -- that will be taking place, probably in early June or a little before that, assuming things go well. It's possible things won't go well and we won't have the meetings and we will just continue to go along this very strong path that we have taken, but we will see what happens. Tomorrow, we will have further discussions on trade, on North Korea, on our military. Japan is buying a tremendous amount of military equipment from the United States, which is good. And, as you know, we're buying a lot of cars and a lot of other things from Japan, but we are each buying a lot. But we still have to talk about trade, and the prime minister understands that. We're going to sneak out tomorrow morning and play a round of golf, if possible, and if we have the time. When I was in Japan, the prime minister took me out to -- and we played with a great golfer, Matsuyama, right? Matsuyama, he's one of the top three or four golfers in the world, and I always thought I was OK at golf, but then I realized, we're not so good.</s>TRUMP: So, he was -- he was really great and very special. And I also, just in ending, I want to congratulate you. It wasn't Matsuyama, but another great golfer from Japan won the big PGA event this weekend. And it's been a long time. So, I just want to congratulate you, and that's a big honor. It's a great honor. Thank you. Did he do a good job?</s>ABE: Very good. Very good.</s>TRUMP: I think so. Very good. I just want to conclude by saying that our house, this great house, is filled with people from Japan, representatives from Japan and from the U.S. And they have been negotiating for weeks, actually, and hopefully this will be the conclusion of some very good transactions for both, including tremendous purchases from the United States and also from Japan. So, I want to thank everyone for being here. And, Mr. Prime Minister, it's a great honor to have you. Thank you, sir.</s>BALDWIN: OK. So, again, the president there with the Japanese prime minister, referenced that Kim Jong-un meeting may, may not happen, maybe the early bit of June. So, that was the first time we really heard directly from the president, though the White House has put that out there for the last week or so, and they may or may not go golfing tomorrow. That's the president at Mar-a-Lago. Let's go to the NTSB briefing that has just begun on this emergency landing of the Southwest plane.</s>ROBERT SUMWALT, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: We expect a preliminary readout of those records in the NTSB's lab in Washington this evening. We expect to arrive in Philadelphia around 4:30 this afternoon, and we will begin our immediate investigation, examination of the engine and the damage to the fuselage. The engine will be ultimately shipped off site, where we can do a detailed examination, tear-down of the engine. We expect to release factual information from Philadelphia once we get out there. We're just now beginning our journey. This will an extensive investigation. And we do expect to release information once we're in Philadelphia. We certainly don't have a lot of factual information to report at this time. Follow us for the latest information. For our latest media interviews, you can follow us from Twitter on -- our handle is @NTSB_Newsroom or at our Web site, www.NTSB.gov. As you know, we do need to get on the airplane and head up to Philadelphia so we can get on with this investigation, but I will be glad to take a few questions. If you would, just raise your hands and I will call on you. And state your name and your outlet. And you had your hand raised first.</s>QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) How concerned are you this is a repeat of the August 2016 incident with another Southwest flight? And can you describe some of those injuries that were in this incident?</s>SUMWALT: Well, the two-part question. Is this related to -- are we concerned this might be related to the event that happened a few years ago over the Gulf of Mexico? And, first of all, first and foremost, we want to look at this particular event and see what the factors surrounding this. And maybe they're related to that previous event, and maybe they're not. But we need to understand what's going on here. As far as the injuries, we do have information there was one fatality. Any other questions? Right here.</s>QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) Can you speak to how rare an uncontained engine fire is?</s>SUMWALT: Well, so, the term -- you said an uncontained engine fire. Some people are saying an uncontained engine failure. Let's -- we don't think there was a fire at all. Now, the term has been widely used this morning and this afternoon uncontained engine failure. Now, I don't want to sound bureaucratic, but that -- uncontained engine failure connotates a very specific thing. The engine is designed not to have an uncontained engine failure. There are protection rings around the engine to keep shrapnel from coming out. Even though we believe there were parts coming out of this engine, it may not have been in that section of the engine that technically would qualify this as an uncontained engine failure. So, at this point, at this point, the NTSB is classifying this, we are saying this is an engine failure. Once we get there and look at it, we may say, well, in fact, this is an uncontained engine failure. We do know that parts came off the engine, but those parts may not have been in that section of the engine that is associated with the protection region associated with an uncontained engine failure. There's a question here.</s>QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) Can you say what the status of the investigation (</s>OFF-MIKE) SUMWALT: What is the status of the previous Southwest Airlines uncontained engine failure -- or engine failure, I should say, that was classified as an uncontained engine failure? I don't have that information right now. Our focus right now is getting out the door at headquarters and getting on this airplane so that we can get up to Philadelphia. Yes, sir.</s>QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) As a former Boeing 737 pilot, have you ever experienced a situation like this?</s>SUMWALT: As a former Boeing 737 pilot, have I -- I flew a 737 for 10 years. Have I ever experienced a situation like this? And the answer to that is no. I will take two more questions. There's a question right here.</s>QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) How unusual is an uncontained engine failure vs. how unusual is a midair generic engine...</s>SUMWALT: Yes, great question. So, even if this is not an uncontained engine failure, how frequent does the NTSB see what we technically do qualify as an uncontained engine failure? And the answer to that is about three or four a year. And not all of those involve U.S. carriers. In late fall, there was an A-380 that had an uncontained engine failure over Greenland. That was not a U.S. carrier. So, we see about three or four of those a year. One last question. I will take it right here.</s>QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) involving this model of engine. What can you tell us about that?</s>SUMWALT: Yes. So what can I tell you about a prepared airworthiness directive on this engine? Now, the engine is a CFM-56 engine, which is a very widely used engine in commercial transport. And the CFM-56, there are various iterations of that.</s>BALDWIN: OK. We're going to pull away. This is the NTSB chairman himself briefing the media on this emergency landing. The most significant piece of news that we just learned from him is he just said there has been one fatality in the wake of this incident. He was very careful not to say it could be X or Y. Obviously, the investigation has just begun. But one person has died as a result of this. I have CNN aviation analyst and former Inspector General for the U.S. Transportation Department Mary Schiavo, an aviation attorney, and our aviation as well here as CNN, Justin Green. But, Mary Schiavo, just first to you. The fact that it is the NTSB chair himself -- Justin was just pointing out to me -- doing the briefing suggests they're taking this extraordinarily seriously. Can you translate for us what we just heard as far as what he thinks may have happened?</s>MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, he was careful not to have any investigation bias and say he assumed it was like the previous one from 2016. But I put the pictures side by side of the engines, and the fact that they have been investigating it for some time, don't have the final out and haven't put out airworthiness directives, I think he was being cautious to not focus on that prior one. But it certainly looks similar and it sounds similar. And, by the way, in the 2016 incident, shrapnel did exit the engine and it hit the side of the plane. So, they were very fortunate that it did not hit the window. So, I think he was being cautious and, as he is supposed to do, not jump to conclusions. But the similarities are eerily similar. And I think previously, on the previous one, they were just fortunate that the shrapnel hit the plane and not the window. And he pointed out something very important. The engine covering, the cowling, the housing, is not designed to contain an engine failure. It's the engine itself that is engineered not to have an engine failure. And that's a very important correction of some of the things that have been talked about on the cowling. So, he was absolutely correct on that and it's significant that he's doing it. I agree.</s>BALDWIN: OK. Justin, can you jump in? And we had the picture of the plane. Guys, if you can throw the picture of the plane up, because I would love to have you walk us through, because the issue is -- and, by the way, we don't know. This fatality, was it the person who was sitting next to the window that got shattered? Last I heard, this person was in critical condition. We don't know who died, how the person died.</s>JUSTIN GREEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Right.</s>BALDWIN: But that is spotlighted. That's the window that got blown out. And there's that left engine.</s>GREEN: Right. And what Mary mentioned a minute ago is, if you take the 2016 -- the pictures that were taken.</s>BALDWIN: Very same airline.</s>GREEN: Same airline, same aircraft, same engine. In 2016, they had a failure. The failure, parts of the turbofan, I believe, exited the engine, penetrated the fuselage, caused a depressurization on landing. The pictures -- I'm looking at this picture, and I looked at the pictures from the last incident this morning. They look exactly the same to me. So, again, Mary is right. You can't speculate. This an accident we're going to know very soon what happened. They have the cockpit voice recorder, the flight data recorder. They're going to take a look at this engine. It is going to be pretty clear. But they really haven't drilled down on the last accident, so the tragedy will be, is this tied to the accident, and could they have done something to prevent this accident? That would be the tragedy. But right now, it's time for the investigators to go to work.</s>BALDWIN: How scary for all these people and the pilots to drop altitude and get them safely down on the ground. Justin, thank you so very much. And, Mary Schiavo, thank you as well.</s>SCHIAVO: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: Coming up here, a new face in this saga involving the president and the porn star, Stormy Daniels revealing this sketch of the man she says threatened her some years ago over her alleged affair with Donald Trump. Now she's asking the public to help identify the -- her word -- thug. Plus, will Michael Cohen flip on the president? Stormy Daniels' attorney seems to think so. We will discuss what that could mean for this case.