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Interview With Mary Schiavo
Aired November 12, 2001 - 14:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Mary Schiavo joins us now. Miss Schiavo is familiar to all of us. And I wish I was so confident, I could actually do all your titles on the fly. But I know you were former inspector general and I want to say the FAA. And I know you teach aviation at Ohio State now, that I'm sure of.
MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: Right.
BROWN: It's nice to see you, Mary.
SCHIAVO: Thank you.
BROWN: Anything you've heard that gives you any clue as to what may or may not have happened?
SCHIAVO: Yes. We are actually fortunate in a terribly unfortunate situation. We have a lot of clues already. There were eyewitness accounts. They are not always accurate, but they provide real information.
The fact that the NTSB is on site, says that this case, the government's official position, that it is an accident as opposed to a terrorist attack or a crime. The FBI and the ATF -- ATF does the explosives work, FBI of course processes it if it's crime.
The fact that we had an engine separation is very important that people saw that that happened before the crash. Several accidents come to mind, and usually you look to other accidents to be instructive. There was the American Airlines accident in Chicago where the engine separated from the wing because of damage to the engine pylons, engine mounts, during maintenance -- improper maintenance procedures.
And then we had the United Airlines in Sioux City, which was an uncontained engine failure, meaning a flaw in the engine. And that too was a GE engine. A flaw in the engine, literally from the factory, with age, widened, caused more metal stress and fatigue and finally blew apart, taking all hydraulic lines with it. The American Airlines plane augured in like this one. And the United was partially recovered. About half the persons survived. So, we do have other instructive accidents.
BROWN: I'm sorry, I'm just writing really fast, Mary. The United flight was the DC-10? Is that the one in Iowa?
SCHIAVO: Sioux City, that's right -- eventually crash landed in Sioux City. That is correct.
BROWN: And it was a DC-10, correct?
SCHIAVO: Yes.
With this kind of an engine, we're probably going to be looking at the engines here as opposed to the plane model.
BROWN: And that's because there is some early -- because the engine itself separated, that gives you some idea.
SCHIAVO: It does give us some idea and also because the engine -- some eyewitness reports are that the engine exploded and came apart and there was a shower of debris. The fact that there was a shower of debris before people report hearing a very loud bang or explosion may give some indication that it was the engine coming apart. It's possible for metal fatigue in the actual plane structure. But it does seem to be -- the reports seem to limit it to the engine.
BROWN: Mary, that is a very quick and helpful look at what we know now and how to place it into context. I hope we will talk to you later today or tonight.
SCHIAVO: All right.
BROWN: Thank you, I will have our office give you a call.
Mary Schiavo, who is, as I think many of you know, has been a critic of the FAA security procedures, is very knowledgeable in this sort of thing and very helpful as we work our way through it. Mary, thank you.
SCHIAVO: Thank you.
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