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Investigation Underway Into Deadly Plane Collision At Tokyo Airport; Police: Suspect In Deadly Suspicious Crash Has Died; Man Forces Way Into Colorado Supreme Court Bldg., Fires Gunshots. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired January 02, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:38]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Terrifying moments on an airport runway in Japan. A new video showing the moment when a passenger jet with hundreds of people on board collides with a Coast Guard plane and burst into flames, the investigation is now underway.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Any moment now, police in upstate New York will give an update on the investigation into a deadly New Year's Eve car crash, it happened outside a concert. Officials now say the incident is being investigated as a possible act of domestic terror.

SOLOMON: Plus, the names of nearly 200 people linked to Jeffrey Epstein could be made public today. Details on who could be on the list straight ahead.

I'm Rahel Solomon alongside John Berman. Kate and Sara off today. And this is CNN News Central.

We want to begin this hour with the latest now on that breaking news out of Japan. An investigation underway this morning after a Japan Airlines plane collided with a Japanese Coast Guard aircraft on the runway in Tokyo and then burst into flames. Take a look at this video. It shows the moment of impact after the passenger jet landed at the airport. You can see the apparent collision and the Coast Guard plane in a fireball.

The Japan Airlines plane on fire as well as it goes down the runway there. Five crew members on the Coast Guard plane were killed. The captain is in critical condition. The crew were preparing to fly to western Japan to try to help with earthquake relief there. Nearly 400 passengers and crew had only 90 seconds to get off that Japan Airlines flight. You can see the smoke inside of the plane. And amazingly here no one, no one on that aircraft was seriously injured. Four people however, were taken to the hospital after they said that they didn't feel well. CNN's Will Ripley has more now.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Japanese Prime Minister is sending condolences to the families of those five Coast Guard crew members who lost their lives in this fiery runway collision right in the heart of Tokyo. Take a look at this. This is at Haneda Airport. Shortly before 6:00 p.m. local time, a massive fireball erupted right on the runway right in the middle of this busy airport when a crowded Japan Airlines jet with 367 passengers including eight children under the age of two and 12 crew members on board collided with a Coast Guard plane that was taking off to deliver relief supplies to parts of Central Japan on the western side that are desperately in need of aid right now because of the massive earthquake that struck just hours after the country rang in the new year and then began 2024.

After that tragedy, and all of the hustle and bustle of the holiday weekend come to a close at this very busy airport, Haneda Airport hub, that serves the serves the Japanese capital along with Narita Airport, two major airports in town and now only one operational because Haneda operations had to shut down after this collision and all of the questions that are being raised about how it happened. But the extraordinary part of this story is that everybody who was on that plane, in a matter of seconds, was safely evacuated. Everybody on that passenger plane, including the parents with their young children, even as the black smoke was filling in the cabin, even as passengers said they really thought they were going to die. And they can see the fire spreading.

Even as passengers claim that some of the exit doors were not operational and they all had to go out through the exits near the front of the aircraft. They all made it out alive. And then half a dozen people on that coast guard plane, only one of them survived in critical condition right now at the hospital.

Will Ripley, CNN, Tokyo.

BERMAN: Our thanks to Will Ripley for that.

You can see this diagram of the airport here, the Japan Airways flight 516 from Sapporo, it came in on Runway 34R. This is the Japan Airlines flight. The Coast Guard flight if it wasn't clear, was already on the runway. This is where the collision occurred. You can see the fireball right there. That's the moment of impact on the collision. You can see the Japan Airways Flight going down the runway even more right there just in flames. That's extraordinary to look at in and of itself. And as it pulls off you can see where it ends up further on down the runway ultimately in flames right there. That is where the passengers evacuate from.

[10:05:15]

I want to bring in CNN safety analyst, former FAA safety inspector, David Soucie. David, it is not clear, it is not clear as we look at this, whether the Japan Airlines Flight was given clearance to land. What questions do you have this morning?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, not only was it not given clearance to land that we don't know anything about it right now. But what is more concerning is the fact that it was on the runway, but it wasn't seen by the pilots as they came in to land so they could have done a go around. But there's too many questions right now, John, as there always is, with these near miss incidents and runway incursions. There's always questions about who talked to who and who said what to whom. It just -- it's ridiculous how unorganized these things can be at this point of such a critical juncture of the flight.

BERMAN: One thing I do want to point out, as we've been saying, the Coast Guard flight that was on the runway right there was destined to deliver military aid to earthquake victims on the other side of the country. Could there be a scenario again, the -- it was right there, the Coast Guard flight, and that's where the collision took place, could it have been a scenario where people were saying, let's just get as much as we can, as quickly as we can, to the west coast of Japan, where this earthquake has happened, and maybe some of the systems, the safety systems that are normally and should be in place weren't functioning correctly?

SOUCIE: Well, that's an interesting perspective, because this airport specifically does operate military along with commercial airlines together. So there could be something going on with the coordination. However, the actual air traffic control on the ground at that airport is singularly controlled. There was one controller who knew what was going on at that point. But as you know, in United States, we've had a lot of these near misses where the communication was wrong. They said, yes, you can land on this runway, they repeat back, say the wrong runway when they repeat back, and the air traffic controller doesn't catch it, because they're busy, they're moving.

And there's even some issues about fatigue and duty and rest cycles that the FAA has a special panel looking at right now. But all of that is going to come into play in this investigation. John?

BERMAN: All right, David, as we said, this is where the plane ended up on the runway at the end there in flames. This is where the people on board nearly 400 people on board, they were able to get out of this somehow, which is remarkable in and of itself. First, let's talk about what went right, all of these people. And I give you a sense of what they saw on this flight. Well, they were on here, all of them were able to get out of the front here. How were they able to do that?

SOUCIE: Well, there's two things, John. I was into loose when we did the aircraft certification of the Airbus 380, about how you test these exits, they actually put people in the airplanes, they put them in these scenarios fill the cockpit with smoke, and well with steam at that point for this test, then then they see how quickly they can get the metal out. And so to get certified, they have to prove that they can get all of those people out within five minutes. Now, this was much quicker than that. They had everybody out of there within two and a half minutes or so, which is just incredible.

And it's testament to the amount of preparation, the amount of training, training, training, training. That's what we do to make sure that when the -- when these things happen, that the flight crew is ready for any of these events to occur and how to respond to them. And they did that fantastically in this case.

BERMAN: I can give you a sense of again, this is what it looked like from inside the plane as they were looking before evacuation there. You can still see right here, this is the plane running down the runway after the point of collision. This is the view from the passengers on board. And then just a little bit later, you can see the moment the plane has stopped here. Here they are starting to move around beginning the process. And you can see the smoke as they're trying to get out of the plane. This gets to what you were just talking about there, David, the flight crews have extensive training on how to handle this situation.

Now, the exits on the back of the plane, the ones you can look at are here. They were not operational. What does that tell you? Does that just tell you that maybe somehow in the collision itself they were in operable?

SOUCIE: Well, it tells me a couple of things, John, that the impact itself was significant enough to not just hit the wingtip, it actually created a pole and crack something in the structure itself to cause the fuel and the fire to go to the center of the aircraft in the fuselage. You can see how that smokes getting in there. If it was just a wingtip, that wouldn't have happened. So somehow it when it hit that wing, it was significant enough of the damage to crack or to pull apart any kind of fuel structures inside of the aircraft which would have been going back to the back of the aircraft as well to the fuel cell itself. So that tells me that that probably is what was going on in the back of the aircraft. So they said no, it's not safe to go out that way, you need come up to the front.

[10:10:01]

BERMAN: And again causing all that smoke inside and they still managed to get everyone on that plane off safely. David Soucie --

SOUCIE: Miraculous.

BERMAN: -- thank you so much for helping us understand what we see and the questions, the many questions that still remain. Rahel?

SOLOMON: All right, John, any moment now authorities in upstate New York will hold a news conference on a deadly crash that's now being investigated as domestic terrorism. The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force is leading the investigation. Now that's after an SUV slammed into another car and then careened into a crowd outside of New Year's Eve concert. This was outside the Kodak Center in Rochester. After the flames were extinguished, a dozen gas cans were found in and around one of the cars. Let's bring in CNN's Brynn Gingras from New York. So Brynn, we know in the last hour you told us about the suspect, the suspects name. What more can you share with us this hour?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we've just learned from two sources, Rahel, that that driver has since died. He was brought to the hospital with very critical injuries. We've learned that he has since died. His name is Michael Avery, we were told that he is from Syracuse, and was actually staying at a hotel room in Rochester before this whole incident unfolded. Now when we talk about this being passed -- investigated as possible domestic terrorism, it's important to remember that there's a big umbrella that investigators look into basically trying to pinpoint or at least they've maybe have seen evidence of some sort of ideology that makes them think that it rises to that level.

We know that the JTTF was called in by Rochester police to help out with this investigation as well as the FBI. So it's still unclear exactly the motives here. But certainly there's something in there that has raised some flags in investigators minds, we understand from sources that investigators in that hotel room found a suicide note of some sort and also some sort of journal. And they've also spoken since this happened early Monday morning with Avery's family members who hinted at the fact that they believe although weren't diagnosed, according to the source, with bipolar disorder.

So all of that is sort of part of this investigation as we know it right now. But as you just mentioned, we are waiting for this news conference with at least Rochester police and the mayor to happen any moment now. So hopefully we have more clear direction when that news conference happens. But let's talk about what happened. It was early morning, not even an hour into the new year in Rochester at the Kodak Center where about 1,000 people were attending a concert. And as concert goers were leaving some crossing a crosswalk with police there, this SUV driven allegedly driven by police say Avery plowed into another car that was trying to exit a parking lot area.

Two people in that opposing car were killed. And then there were other people that were injured as well. But in addition to that, there was a huge explosion. And investigators learned once they put the flames out that that car had in it about a dozen gas canisters. So all of this coupled together is why this is where we're at with the investigation with the agencies that are involved right now. So two people killed in this very early morning, New Year's Day incident there in Rochester. And we're waiting to find out more possibly if there's some sort of motive to all this from law enforcement when we get that update any moment now.

SOLOMON: Yes, that update happening any moment. Brynn, we'll let you continue to watch for that and monitor that and please keep us posted as those developments come in. Brynn Gingras there. And again, as we said as soon as that police news conference begins, we will bring it to you live, so stick with us.

BERMAN: All right, any minute now, Donald Trump is expected to file appeals to get on the ballots in Colorado and Maine, the key constitutional decisions ahead.

New this morning the Iranian Navy is deploying a warship destroyer to the Red Sea. This comes after the U.S. military confirmation with three militant boats.

[10:13:44]

And we're standing by to see the list of nearly 200 people possibly linked to Jeffrey Epstein. It could be made public what it might reveal.

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BERMAN: This is a live press conference from Rochester, New York, where a car plowed into a crowd after a concert on New Year's Eve. Let's listen to what they're saying.

CHIEF DAVID SMITH, ROCHESTER, NY POLICE: We've been conducting extensive investigation into the tragedy that occurred on New Year's Eve outside the Kodak Theatre on West Ridge Road. The following is a synopsis of the information we have learned thus far. Again, it must be noted we are still gathering information. And all of this is preliminary.

All evidence point to the suspect is 35-year-old Michael Avery from the Syracuse New York area. The suspect passed away last night. He has not been scientifically identified, but we are in the process of confirming his identity. We have been in contact with his family since yesterday. Avery traveled to Rochester, New York in his personal vehicle on or about December 27th and checked in at the WoodSpring Suites in the town of Greece.

On December 29th at about 2:45 p.m., Avery rented the Ford Expedition from a car rental agency at the Rochester Airport. On December 30th between 9:00 a.m. until about 6:00 p.m., Avery made at least a half dozen purchases of gasoline and gas containers from different locations throughout the Monroe County and Ontario County areas.

Thus far our information has shown he was alone when making these purchases. On January 1st about 12:52 a.m., Avery was operating the rented Ford Expedition eastbound on West Ridge Road. At about this time, two Rochester police officers assigned to the concert we're on traffic posts in stopping traffic to allow for pedestrians to cross. At this time, Avery sped up, crossed into the oncoming lane of traffic and appears to have intentionally been driving towards the pedestrian crossing.

In about the same time, a rideshare vehicle containing two passengers in the backseat was pulling out of the theater parking lot and was struck by Avery's expedition. This created the chain of events that followed, leading to the death of the two rear seat passengers of the rideshare vehicle and the injuries of at least nine pedestrians. That number has changed since yesterday as more people have come forward to report their injuries.

Yesterday a search warrant was executed on the hotel room rented by Michael Avery. There was no suicide note recovered during the search of the hotel room. An additional search warrant was executed on Avery's personal vehicle, which was recovered at the airport parking garage. Investigators are still combing through evidence recovered from his vehicle, but nothing thus far has been recovered that provides any additional insight in to why this occurred. Although the motive behind the crime remains unknown, the conversations we've had with his family so far leads us to believe that Avery may have been suffering from possible undiagnosed mental health issues.

[10:20:16]

At this time, we've not been able to identify that there was anyone else involved in the crime, or that it was part of a larger plot. Additionally, we have not uncovered any information, leading us to believe that the actions of Michael Avery on New Year's Eve, were motivated by any form of political or social biases. It must be noted, this is an ongoing investigation, and additional information may be developed.

We're going to share his photo today and ask that anyone with additional information about this tragedy, or about the suspect's motivation, please contact the RPD Major Crimes Unit at 4287157. There's also an e-mail and this will be on the written release when we put it out. But it's majorcrimescityofrochester.gov. Mayor Evans who's going to say a few words and then I will come back and take some questions.

MAYOR MALIK EVANS (D-ROCHESTER, NY): Just let me again reiterate my thanks to our law enforcement partners into the Rochester Police Department, Rochester Fire Department, FBI, ATF, all of our partners that are here for their work on this unfortunate case. As the chief said, there are still many unanswered questions. We hope to continue to provide updates as we have them. I have been getting inundated with questions as to why this individual would choose number one, Rochester, New York, why he would choose to do this on a -- on New Year's Day, and why he would appear to target concert goers trying to have a great time to bring in the new year.

Those are all things that we don't have questions. Those are all questions that have been raised and things that we just don't have answers to yet. But as I've said, the Evans administration is big on transparency. So we wanted to make sure today that we provide an update on all the information that we have available now because there's been tons of stuff that has been out there that has been unsubstantiated. But what the chief just laid out is the facts. But the most important thing today, I think, for us as we go into the new year is to remember the victims of this horrific accident.

Remember, these folks were going to see a Grateful Dead tribute band. And they were expecting to be able to bring in a new year and have a good time. But instead, we have individuals that are now going to be bearing family members. And we have people who have now life altering injuries because of the choices that this suspect made. So I hope that Rochester in the broader community continues to pray for the families that are mourning the loss of their loved ones. And that we pray for the speedy recovery of the lives that have been impacted by this tragedy.

This is a very traumatic experience, not only for the people who experienced this, but also the first responders. It should be noted that there were off duty Rochester police officers that sprung into action to try to render aid to the individual that was responsible for this heinous act, not even thinking about their own safety, but running to try to put out the fire of the infernal that he started.

So even in the midst of this despicable tragedy, there is a reminder that there still is goodness in this world of the individuals that sprang into action without thinking about their own safety, to try to save others. So our thoughts and prayers are with the families and the victims. We will continue to provide updates as we have them. We did that yesterday. And as we get more information, we will continue to provide them. There are lots of questions. I have lots of questions. Everyone up here still has lots of questions. Why Rochester? Why Syracuse? Why all the gas cans? These are all things that we'll continue to be investigated and as the chief has said, this is an ongoing investigation until it's not.

So this is an ongoing investigation until it's not but we will continue to provide --

BERMAN: All right, so the latest information out of Rochester on what happened just a New Year's morning, an hour or so after midnight. This suspect, Michael Avery, drove his car into a crowd of people. It struck another car on the way killing two people in the back of that car. Michael Avery, the suspect also ultimately died. The big news from this news conference is until now they have not uncovered any information of political or social biases or that this was part of a larger plot. What we did not hear at least not yet in this news conference is whether or not they are still investigating this as an act of possible domestic terror.

[10:25:19]

The news up until this point was that the federal government was involved is an investigation or was an investigation to a possible act of domestic terror as this suspect had bought a number of gas canisters in the hours preceding this accident, Rahel. But again, they did make clear they've not uncovered any information about political social biases are part of a larger plot.

SOLOMON: Yes, that was a pretty big development. But as the mayor said, still a lot of questions that he himself has. We'll continue to track it and watch it.

Also this hour, new details coming out of Colorado, that's after a man was arrested inside the state Supreme Court building so police say that the building now has, quote, significant and extensive damage after they say that he broke in and fired several shots inside. No one was hurt. Let's bring in CNN's Veronica Miracle who joins us now with more on what happened. But also Veronica, I mean, are police saying anything about a potential motive here?

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rahel, Denver Police are not revealing a motive just quite yet. However, they are saying they do not believe that this is associated with previous threats made against the Colorado Supreme Court justices. As you remember back in mid-December, the Colorado Supreme Court voted to remove former President Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot. And as a result, they have been receiving threats. Police saying this morning they believe that this is not associated with that incident.

Now this particular incident took place overnight. It happened about 1:00, at just after 1:00 this morning. They say a man fired one shot into the building from the outside, then was able to gain access to make his way inside, where he reportedly held an unarmed security guard at gunpoint, then was able to access other floors inside the building firing multiple shots, causing, as you said extensive damage though no one was injured. And then around 3:00 in the morning, police say the suspect called police himself and surrendered and was ultimately arrested. This building is going to be closed for at least today, again, extensive damage throughout, Rahel.

SOLOMON: But no one was hurt. Good update there. Veronica Miracle live for us there. Veronica, thank you.

BERMAN: All right. Very shortly, Donald Trump's lawyers are expected to file the official appeals in both Colorado and Maine of their decisions to remove Trump from those state primary ballots. We're waiting to see the justification in these appeals and what it might mean for a possible Supreme Court case coming up soon.

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