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Paris Launches Lottery for Burial Plots Near Famous People; Federal Investigators Give Update on Louisville Plane Crash; NTSB: Blaze After UPS Crash Covered Nearly 1/2 Mile; NTSB: Engine Fell Off Plane, Wing Caught Fire Before Crash; Detroit Voters Elect City's First Female Mayor; JPMorgan CEO, Detroit Mayor Discuss Election and Economy. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired November 05, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: ... around $4,600. Winners then are on the hook for restoration costs.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Would you do that?

SANCHEZ: Nah, I'd have my ashes blown out of a cannon into the ocean or something.

KEILAR: Yes.

SANCHEZ: I don't know if that's legal, but ...

KEILAR: I'm go on ashes ...

SANCHEZ: ... that's what I aspire to.

KEILAR: I'm going to go many different places.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Why not?

KEILAR: It's going to be really interesting.

SANCHEZ: Why not?

KEILAR: Right?

SANCHEZ: On that hopeful tone ...

KEILAR: That's hopefully in a very long time.

SANCHEZ: ... a new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

A Clean Sweep: Democrats racking up victories in races from New York City to California and sending a message and potentially a warning to President Trump and Republicans.

KEILAR: Blame Game: On the day that the government shutdown becomes the longest in history. One Republican senator says voters are blaming the GOP for the standoff.

And do you think you were bad at protecting your privacy? Wait until you hear what the Louvre's password was for the museum's security system. Hint, it rhymes with ouvre (ph).

We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

So, at any moment, we're going to get a live update from NTSB officials who were on the scene in Louisville investigating last night's deadly UPS plane crash.

Video posted to social media appears to show the plane struggling to take off. You see it there as flames are spewing from under its left wing, where an engine is supposed to be.

KEILAR: And seconds later, that jet plummeted into this. It was a fireball that ripped through businesses near the runway. At this point, at least nine people are confirmed dead. The three-person crew aboard the plane believed to be among them. But Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is saying there could be one more fatality.

Let's go to CNN's Isabel Rosales, who is there on the ground in Louisville with the very latest. And Isabel, you've been talking to officials and witnesses. What are you learning?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, flights to and from Louisville are back on operating in a limited fashion out of really only one runway. There's an NTSB team of at least 28 people here on the ground on the airfield right now investigating how this could have gone so horribly wrong. And it's clear here that there's a lot of work ahead of them.

But they -- they have a lot of clues to go on, from all of the debris that's been scattered, pieces of the covering of the engine that's scattered across the runway, to all of this extensive video, stunning video showing the moment of impact, where we see the back left side of the plane. That's the engine, what appears to be the engine --

KEILAR: All right, let's go to the NTSB press conference that has now begun.

J. TODD INMAN, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: ... along with significant railroad, pipeline, rail, and highway events. We also issue safety recommendations aimed at preventing future losses.

Now, before I go any further, on behalf of the entire NTSB, I want to just express our sincere condolences to those who were not only affected by losing family members in this accident, but those that were also injured and those that are still missing. It is a tough day for Louisville, for Kentucky. It's a tough day as being a Kentuckian myself. And I know what a great community this is, how impactful those people that suffered and have died are, and we've seen it all day.

We know it is -- it's tearing at the community, and we are deeply sorry. And we are here to try to find out not only what happened, but why it happened, and more importantly, how do we prevent it from happening again.

So, here is some factual information we have at this time. And I'm going to read a few notes to make sure we have it exact. The airplane involved was a McDonnell Douglas II, which was then altered to be an MD-11F. The F stands for freighter. It is now handled by the Boeing Corporation.

So, whenever you hear that Boeing is a party, it is because of the merger with McDonnell Douglas many years ago. The plane was manufactured in 1991 with the tail number of November 259UP. The train -- plane was traveling from Louisville, Kentucky to Honolulu, Hawaii. There were three souls on board the plane.

After being cleared for takeoff, a large plume of fire in the area of the left wing occurred during the takeoff roll. The plane lifted off and gained -- gained enough altitude to clear the fence at the end of runway 17R.

[15:05:03]

Shortly after clearing that fence, it made impact with structures and the terrain off of the airport property. A post-impact fire ensued, which covers approximately almost a half of a mile. And we have viewed airport CCTV security coverage, which shows the left engine detaching from the wing during the takeoff roll.

This and other videos, along with evidence we were finding are very valuable asset to our investigators in helping us hone further which areas we were going to be focusing on as we move into further days of the investigation.

Now, let me tell you a little bit about our process at the NTSB. What we will do is analyze the facts, determine the probable cause of this accident, and then issue a report on those recommendations. Now, the investigator in charge of this is with me here. It's Chihoon Shin, who has been with the NTSB for 13 years. He is one of our more senior investigators, and in fact was leading one of the groups during the DCA crash.

He has a number of other individuals with him. We have approximately 28 from our headquarters and other locations that are either on the ground or will be here before the end of the day. They're also being supported by dozens of individuals at our headquarters in Washington, D.C., and other field offices.

As part of this investigation, we will be forming specific groups. And when we form a group, it will be a focus area led by an NTSB individual, along with subject matter experts that are in that field that can provide expertise to help analyze the evidence. Our current groups that are being formed are operations.

They will review the history of the accident flight and the crew members' duties for as many days before the crash that appear relevant. Our structures group will document the airframe wreckage, the accident scene, including the calculation of the impact angles to help determine the plane's pre-amp (ph) input, pre-impact course and altitude.

We also have a power plants group. They will work on the examination of the engines and engine accessories.

We have a systems group. They will study the components of the plane's hydraulic, electrical, pneumatic, and associated systems, together with the instruments and elements of the flight control system.

Now, outside of that group, we have also brought in -- and -- and another group that we'll have will be maintenance, which will obviously be looking at maintenance, maintenance records, any work that's been done on this plane for as long as back as needed.

We are also bringing in specialists in air traffic control, human performance, aircraft performance, reporters, government relations, media relations. And in addition to our investigators, we have brought five of our transportation disaster assistance team. They will be dealing with the survivors, the families, and others under what we call a federally legislated accident from the 1996 Family Assistance Act.

Now, tonight, we will be holding an organizational meeting and establishing parties to our investigation. Because we're very new into it, we will not be announcing the parties at this moment, but they will obviously be manufacturers of the aircraft, operators of the aircraft, unions representing some of the members. We'll have more details with the -- on that probably tomorrow during a briefing.

Now, the NTSB offers this party status to those companies, government agencies, and associations that have employees or activities or equipment involved in the accident. And we offer this because they have subject matter expertise and technical expertise and relevant information to help support the development of the best possible report.

Now, once a party joins an NTSB investigation, they are not permitted to release documents or talk publicly about the investigation without the consent of the NTSB.

Now, you can rest assured right now, all of the parties or potential parties are complying with that requirement, and they're cooperating fully with the NTSB investigators. Again, it will be only the NTSB that will release information regarding this accident going forward.

Tomorrow will be our first full day on scene. Our investigative teams, we anticipate, will be here at least a week, if not longer. Our mission, again, is not -- to understand not only what happened, but why it happened, and recommend changes to prevent it from happening again. We will not be determining the probable cause while we are here on scene, nor will we speculate about what may have caused this.

Now, since we're just beginning with the investigation, we don't have more factual information to give you at this time, but we believe over the next couple of days, we'll be able to avail a little bit further for you. I do want to also mention, this just happened in the last, basically, 30 minutes.

[15:10:00]

We have identified the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder. This is what is commonly referred to as a black box.

We have investigators now that have located it. As you can imagine, it is in -- it's -- it's suffered some heat -- not intrusion, but heat around it. These recorders are built for that. And just -- before we get to the question, these recorders were updated from its original manufacturer. They are L3Harris, installed at two different dates. We're going back and verifying that, but we feel comfortable once we get these to our lab in D.C., that we will be able to get a good readout of the applicable data, and that will be yet another point of information that will really help us understand what happened during this point of flight.

So, I would ask, though, if you have the opportunity to let the public know, we know there's a lot of debris out there, and it's in some yards, it's in some business locations. If you can have any debris, or you see something that you think is from an aircraft, please contact us at the email address witness@ntsb.gov. Again, that email address is witness@ntsb.gov.

Sometimes we get some very good information from items that are found, and with a debris field a half mile long, we -- we're still making the determination of exactly where and what parts of the airplane and where they're at.

Now, I'll be happy to take a few questions. Again, we are limited in the information. When you do, please tell me who you're with and what your name is.

Tom, you made the trip.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, sir. Member Inman, can you talk about a photo that we've seen, and video as well, of what appears to be an engine sitting on the side of a -- of a road or on the road. Is that, in fact, do you believe that's the number one left side engine? And separately, you talked about the black boxes that you've identified them, and they should be able to withstand heat, but can you describe what they look like and what, if any, marks, sear marks, black marks there are on those black boxes?

INMAN: Okay, the first question was basically the engine that's been seen in some photographs. We do believe that that is the engine from the left side of the plane. It is actually on the airfield, so it's not off the airport property. That correlates with the video that we've seen of it detaching from the airplane while it is in flight. We also know that a fire was occurring during that time, and so we're analyzing that.

In fact, we have teams right now that are preparing to do the runway in what we call a FOD walk. That is foreign object debris. Obviously, the runways have been shut down, but we need to not only take drone coverage and video coverage of where every piece of this evidence is, but then we need to recover it and tag it, and those will give us even more pieces of information.

So, right now it's still in the field. We're making arrangements for that evidence to be recovered and stored in a secure location, and once we are able to analyze it, we may need to ship it off for specialists for things like that. But we do feel comfortable that we're going to get a lot of good information from it.

What was your second part?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jeff (ph), can you describe the physical condition, what you saw and how those black boxes actually looked?

INMAN: The physical condition of the black boxes, we've only -- I've only seen one picture. You could very -- you could easily tell that it was a black box, about two types of cylinders on top. Our specialists said they were -- they were able to easily identify that. We don't know until it gets to Washington, D.C.

I will tell you that they are -- they're manufactured to a very specific standard. Luckily, they were not in a post-impact fire for multiple days or on the bottom of the ocean, so while the fire may have been intense, it is built to withstand that. And once we get them to D.C. and we can open them up and take the steps, and sometimes we have to take multiple steps, now it will be multiple or at least several days before we have a readout of those because as we take them apart, we need to let some of our groups go through and do what's called audition them, and then they'll come up with a potential or partial transcript looking for identifying markers that we need to delve into further while we're on the ground.

So -- and as always, we will never be releasing the actual audio of any of those conversations out of respect for those who are involved in the aircraft. Yes, sir.

ALEX CAPRARIELLO, NEWSNATION: Alex Caprariello with NewsNation.

While the black boxes in the data recorders are certainly built to withstand heat, and exposure, and -- and the sort of catastrophe that occurred here, can you give us an idea about the rest of the aircraft, the fuselage, if anything exists, and then perhaps even larger point, the difficulty for you and your investigators when there is a debris field that's half a mile long?

INMAN: So, the question is how the rest of the -- the fuselage, the airplane as it rests right now, what -- what we may have seen and how it impacts the investigation.

We've -- we've seen some aerial videos and -- and -- and some photographs. The emergency management here, along with the first responders, have done an amazing job.

[15:15:04]

We've been working with them since we've gotten on the ground. They have some command posts set up, and I just want to applaud them for not only the work they've done and the work they are doing and the courtesies they're providing us, along with the UPS staff and everyone here at the airport. But to -- to answer the ultimate question, there are a lot of different parts of this airplane in different places. I mean, whenever you have a post-impact to not only structures, but also to the terrain, you have to analyze why it came there, and then how do you recover it correctly in order to analyze it.

So, I can't give you a real good definition of what it is. There's a lot of different parts. It does -- it doesn't complicate it to where it's not recoverable. A mile and a half, or excuse me, a half a mile, is a pretty large distance, but we have to be very cautious. The main thing we're also worried about are the safety of not only the investigators, but the first responders that are there. I know -- we know that there's been some shelter in places in the area and we also know that while the fire departments were working throughout the night, there were occasionally little flare-ups in different spots, so they're having to constantly monitor that to make sure it's safe for someone to get in.

So, it may not be the length of the debris field. It may be where the debris field is in, say, a recycling facility or another location, and the amount, of course, fuel that the plane was carrying. Those can all add to the complexity of an investigation. Yes, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) ...

KEILAR: All right. We are joined now by David Soucie, who is a CNN Safety Analyst and former FAA Safety Inspector.

David, as you were listening there to this NTSB press conference, and we're learning that they have recovered the black boxes here, what really stood out to you?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, the fact that that left engine came off during the -- the rollout, during the aircraft's attempt to -- to take off is extremely concerning to me. Of course, it's too early to have any conclusions yet, but it did definitely remind me of 1979 incident with a DC-10, where an engine came off that was the predecessor model to the MD-11, and that engine did come off because it was installed using the wrong tools and damaged the mount. So, that's one of the things the investigators will be looking at.

First thing, I'm glad to hear that he said that there's going to be a maintenance team there as well, and that maintenance team will be looking at that to see what work was done to that aircraft, and if in fact there was something done to damage the mount of that engine on the left side of the aircraft.

SANCHEZ: J. Todd Inman also said that this debris field is a mile and a half long, and that the public is being urged to contact the NTSB if they find any kind of debris, whether in -- in homes, near businesses, in -- in yards. I mean, that presents a unique challenge for investigators. How likely is it that there is crucial evidence that is just out there right now in someone's yard?

SOUCIE: It's very likely that there's something going on out there, there's pieces, because if this engine did indeed come off prematurely, as it appears it did, then you're going to be looking for the engine mounts. You're going to be looking at the bolts themselves. All of those pieces need to be recovered and brought back in so anyone that comes across them, there could be parts and pieces. Even though it's a mile long, the -- the impact zone, you can also find things even further away because as they intersect or as they hit buildings and those sorts of things, I've found accident parts a mile away from the actual impact zone.

So, we need to have everyone aware of that. I'm glad that you're posting that to make sure that if you find anything, if you see anything strange, report it to the NTSB. Those parts are crucially important to determining what happened and how it can be prevented again from happening.

KEILAR: And David, Inman also mentioned all kinds of different team members they're bringing in, including folks who focus on maintenance, which could really be key -- hey here. CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo pointed out there's a report that the plane had some heavy maintenance in October. What are they going to be looking at there?

SOUCIE: Well, I'll -- I'll use the example that I'm aware of on the DC-10, which was when the engine came off back in 1979, I was just out of airframe and power plant mechanics school, and it was used as a powerful example as to how you use the proper equipment. So, what they'll be looking for is, do they have the -- if the engine was removed and reinstalled, they'll look to see if they have the proper devices, the proper mechanical equipment to put that thing in the right place. If they don't have that, which was the case in the DC-10, it can be put in, in the wrong direction and cause undue stresses on those mounts.

So, the maintenance group will be looking at that. They'll be looking at log records. They'll be looking at time as to when it was installed, when it was not installed.

[15:19:56]

Then, one of the things that's often overlooked is you look at the inventory at the place where the maintenance was done to find out if the bolts that were required to be replaced were actually in inventory or if they were used to put them on there.

Oftentimes, a mechanic will be in a rush, and they may, not oftentimes, but it happens where they may pull a part off and put it back on when indeed it had to be replaced with a new part. So, those are the things that they'll be looking at from the maintenance team. I'm very encouraged by the fact that that's one of the focus areas that they'll be looking in this accident.

SANCHEZ: And David Soucie, thanks so much for the analysis.

SOUCIE: Boris, thank you.

SANCHEZ: Among last night's historic election results, Detroit elected its first female mayor, but first the city had to claw its way back from the Great Recession and the pandemic, and they did so with some help from the country's biggest bank.

Up next, CNN's Erin Burnett talks with Detroit's mayor and JPMorgan Chase's CEO, Jamie Dimon, about that revival. We'll explain on the other side of this break. You're watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:25:05]

KEILAR: Among the historic results yesterday, Detroit voters elected the city's first female mayor. Mary Sheffield will replace outgoing mayor, Mike Duggan.

SANCHEZ: Duggan is now running as an Independent in the Michigan governor's race. His time in office saw Detroit through a critical time, facing numerous challenges, including the Great Recession and the pandemic. It did get an assist from the country's biggest bank, JPMorgan Chase, which invested in the Motor City.

CNN's Erin Burnett is in Detroit and joins us now with Mayor Duggan and JPMorgan CEO, Jamie Dimon. Erin.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Boris and Brianna, thanks so much. And you know, we're here, obviously, in the space that JPMorgan is renovating. Some of the investments you've put into this city. And -- and we're here the day after Election Day.

Mayor, I know you're running for governor.

Jamie, but -- sitting in this space would not have been possible. It actually would have been kind of unthinkable. Not very long ago, you know, I'm thinking coming in and out of Detroit. In 2013, Detroit was done. It had filed for bankruptcy. It was sort of, you know, this look back in history. It was great, and now it's dead.

You started investing in the city a year later. And now it's about $2 billion, I think you're going to say, in investment and -- and investment that you've put in here. What has actually changed because of that?

JAMIE DIMON, CEO, JPMORGAN CHASE: Yes. So, the -- the -- so, we were always a big bank here. We owned the National Bank of Detroit. But I knew it had gone through a bankruptcy, so we always wanted the city to do well. It was one of the few cities that didn't have a renaissance in America. I was watching, I think, TV or something, I was watching this man who had been elected. You know, a white man in a town more than 80 percent black, on write-in votes, you know, talking about, I want to fix the city. Anyone can help me, civic society, business.

And we called him up. Since then, the unemployment rate's gone from 23 percent to 8 percent. They've actually started -- their -- their population's been shrinking. There were 40,000 abandoned homes. I -- I don't know what the number is today.

BURNETT: Population's going up now.

DIMON: The -- there are new plants coming in, which you haven't had the benefit yet. Like some of these plants are going to add 25,000 jobs. The community's gotten safer. Wages have gone up. And our investment is a small part. I mean, Michael Bloomberg was here. Dan Gilbert -- I mean, God bless him, what he's done for the city. But he got everyone to work to help lift it up with collaboration, good policy, and it shows you that it works.

BURNETT: So, one of the first calls, Mayor, that you received when you became mayor was actually from him. I know you've talked about that. And you -- you know, there's a lot of things you could have done, but you chose to roll out the red carpet and say, please come in, help if you want to help. You wanted big business, and you wanted big business to be a part of rebuilding Detroit.

Would Detroit be where it was, or where it is now, if you did not have the investment from JPMorgan and other big businesses like Dan?

MAYOR MIKE DUGGAN (I) DETROIT: Well, you know, I ran and said, we're going to end this black versus white, city versus suburban politics that had taken Detroit down for years. And the people of Detroit voted for me and expected me to do that. And so, I reached out across the country and said, we want help.

And I didn't know when the president of the largest bank in the country calls. I was surprised he even knew my name. But they came in and started at 50 million and a hundred million. And Erin, I can't even describe it to you. Massive General Motors Fisher Body Plant been vacant for 40 years is now being renovated into 400 apartments with some local developers here who are supported financially by JPMorgan. It's happened in building after building in the city.

BURNETT: So, President Trump actually talked about Detroit. And his take on it is that your efforts to turn Detroit around actually have failed. About a year ago yesterday, he said, I'll quote him, "I've been hearing about Detroit for a long time. They've been talking about that miracle in Detroit. Well, I mean, look, we got to be honest, hasn't happened, but it's going to happen now."

Okay, so that was a year ago. And he's saying until then, nothing had happened. So, I guess the question is simply this, has the President, since he took office, caused a miracle in Detroit?

DUGGAN: Well, I would say two months before that, he did a speech about how great Detroit's turnaround was. So, I've lived with the President. If you just wait a little while, you might get a different take. But certainly, on the law enforcement side, the Trump administration has given us more U.S. attorneys, ATF and DEA agents to deal with the gun violence. And we are going to have ...

BURNETT: So, you've embraced that, but there's no National Guard here.

DUGGAN: There's -- I haven't had to because what we're doing is traditional prosecution. We're going to have the fewest homicides since 1964. We've done it with law enforcement partnership. The president's never talked about National Guard in Detroit. We're at a record low homicide rate.

BURNETT: Even though when it comes to federal immigration laws, you're not going to enforce those. That hasn't put a target on your back for him.

DUGGAN: Again, I -- so, again, you're not saying that correctly. The city of Detroit and Detroit Police don't enforce federal law. We won't ask you your immigration status.

BURNETT: Right.

DUGGAN: But if we arrest somebody for breaking into a house and ICE calls us and says, that's an undocumented immigrant we want, we honor that detainer and turn it over. We've done it that way under Obama, under Trump, under Biden, and today.

So, we, again, have a -- a working relationship that's driving the crime rate down.

[15:30:01]

BURNETT: So, Jamie, when you look to the total here, again, you're talking about $2 billion that you say you've put in here. In New York City, you've actually just invested $3 billion ...