[John Vause, Cnn Correspondent:] Terrorized by ISIS and now ready to fight back the Yazidi men forced to flee their home and Iraq about to go on the offensive to reclaim their city from the brutal Islamic militants. And Yemen braces for a natural disaster where a cyclone heading their war weary country into dumping a years worth of rain in just days. Hello and welcome everybody, wherever you are all around the world. I'm John Vause. NEWSROOM L.A. begins now.
[Vause:] And we'll begin with a homecoming which was not meant to be like this. Some of the passengers who died on Metrojet Flight 9268 now back in St. Petersburg. Russian state media reports a plane carrying 144 bodies touched down just a short time ago. St. Petersburg was going to be final destination for the flight which crushed Saturday in the Sinai Peninsula. Investigators say the plane broke apart in mid-air but they don't know why, this new information though little comfort for the families of the 224 passengers and crew who died when that plane came down. For the very latest we have Ian Lee standing by in Cairo, also Nic Robertson live this hour in St. Petersburg, we'll go to Ian. So, Ian, what is the very latest on the recovery and the search efforts at the scene of the crash?
[Ian Lee, Cnn Correspondent:] Well they're still looking for bodies out there, right now we're hearing from Egyptian state media that 187 bodies have been recovered, they're in Cairo, they're going through the identification process of the ones that are still here, they're are also going to be looking out at the scene of the crash where any more clues that could lead to what caused this plane to come down, we heard from the Russian officials that it broke up in the air, Egyptian officials further time have always been saying that this seems to be a mechanical issue, ruling out any foul play. Now this plane had in incident back in 2001 where the tail hit the runway, that's something that they're going to be looking into. But this goes along the line of what we're hearing from the co-pilot's ex-wife, take a listen.
[Unidentified Female:] My daughter had a telephone chat with him just before the flight, he complained before the flight that one could wish for better technical condition of the plane.
[Lee:] Well an Egypt civil aviation minister had said that before this flight took off that the pilot hadn't alerted anyone to any issues that they found and it passed a routine check, so these are all thing that they're going to be looking for when going through this wreckage. Also those black boxes we're hearing a team from Ireland is going to comment and help them with that as well. So, still a lot of questions remain, really trying to figure out what happened in those final moments.
[Vause:] A lot of questions yet to be answered, Ian stay with us, St. Petersburg. We are now learning a little more about some of the passengers who were onboard this flight as those bodies arrive back there in St. Petersburg, what can you tell us Nic?
[Nic Robertson, Cnn Correspondent:] Well the first of the bodies have now been moved to the airport to a nearby crematorium which is where the families will begin to be taken to identify in the families, who remember hotel close to the airport, they'll be driven from their bike up med officials to begin that identification process. But the youngest passenger to die aboard that aircraft is a 10-month old girl, Tania Gromova. And, although you can't see from where we're standing right now, there were candles over there just beside me and there were picture of her photographs of her [inaudible] has now before iconic for small trial standing with a hand on a glass window, looking out at the aircraft of the photograph taken from behind shortly before she was due to travel. We've been talking, we've heard from various family members as they've arrived here to become to become this difficult process of identification. And, her government officials are here ready to help them, but these are some of the things that they've been telling us.
[Unidentified Male:] I watched where the plane was on, a radar, on the internet, everything looked normal, I came here around 11:30 but the plane didn't appear anywhere on the information screens.
[Unidentified Female::] Yesterday my son called and said that the plane was landing around 11:40. He was on holiday with his family, a 10-month-old daughter.
[Robertson:] So this identification process is expected to take quite a period of time obviously, a lot of families 144 bodies so far recovered and brought back today, more are expected, and also today we're expecting the press conference to be given in Moscow in coming hours, a press conference given by the airline metro jet. We're not sure what they're going what issues they're going to address at this stage but they are expected to at least give a first analysis from their perspective, obviously questions have been raised so far about the air worthiness of this aircraft, about the crashes that the airline has had in recent years. So, perhaps we may get more details on that, we'll wait and see. John?
[Vause:] Nic, it seems this tragedy is being felt acutely not just here in St. Petersburg but all across Russia. It's being felt very widely, I mean we witness it here at the airport where every few minutes, people come out and need more flowers, an entire football team emerged from the airport a few minutes ago, there were people here now come to lay flowers, come to take photographs, come for a moment of silent personal prayer, I see a man approaching with a couple of coronations. And one of the things that you see here towards the back now is this pile of flowers grows and grows are a lot of toys that are being laid here. The reason for that is that there were children like 10-month old Tania onboard this aircraft but there's a also a growing realization here, there were quite a lot of parents that went on vacation to Egypt together leaving their children with relatives. So, this is left a large number of orphans now. Nobody has put a figure to that number at the moment, but there was a there was gather of people in St. Petersburg late last night, they stood with lights and spelt out the word "Mom" on the ground because there was just this connection for people here knowing that perhaps it could have been them, knowing that this is a terrible tragedy for the children. And as you say not just St. Petersburg, it's Moscow, it's across the country, people are onboard this aircraft, most of them from St. Petersburg but from we're told 13 other regions across the country as well John. And of course Nic, people are wanting answers, they have a lot of questions as to what happen, and with that we go to Ian in Cairo. Ian how will the Egyptian and Russian authorities be handling this investigation as it moves forward?
[Lee:] Oh we were told that this investigation will be rigorous, that it could be while before they figure out exactly what happens, but they said they want to get it right. We know that Egypt, Egyptian officials, Russian officials are on the ground, they're searching for clues, and this is a large area, this is over 20 square kilometers that they're searching over, as this plane did break up in the air. So, they want to make sure that they have every piece, every little bit of evidence that comes to a solid conclusion and they say that could take some time. What they are bringing in other experts, they have a team from Air Bus which is also here, they're going to be helping out in this effort. So, the Egyptians are wanting to give the impression that they're in control of this, and with this operation going forward we're expecting more information and more bodies. We need to point out that about 40 bodies are still out in the desert, still uncounted for. So, they're still somewhat recovery effort going on as well this morning.
[Vause:] OK. Ian Lee, live with us in Cairo, Nic Robertson also live in St. Petersburg with some very grim duty for both of you, we thank you for that. We also want to get more on the story. Our military analyst Rick Francona is also standing by, he is in Oregon. And also in Albuquerque, New Mexico Dr. Alan Diehl, Dr. Diehl is a former NTSB crash investor, FAA and USAF, air safety investigators using science to save lives, one crash at a time. Thank you both for being with us, Rick I would I would like to start with you. Let's talk a little more about this part of the Sinai Dessert, this is a dangerous part of the world, there's a lot of Islamic extremism going on there, there's also been warnings for commercial jets which pas s over this part of the world. So how dangerous is it and how dangerous is it right now for investigators on the ground?
[Lt. Gen. Rick Francona , Cnn Military Analyst:] Well, let's just a second part firstly, I don't think the investigators are any danger there because, when this happened the Egyptian forces moved in there with such for that, I don't think the militants are going to mess around with them, because they were like the plan and operations if they were going to do it, attacking the Egyptian military where into such force probably not a good idea. So I think the investigators are probably OK there. Now as to this part of the world and you're right, the Sinai is a dangerous place, it's been very dangerous since 2011 when there was a militancy that started there, it got much worse after the overthrow of Mohammed Morsi as the president and Sisi took over. A lot of the people are the supported Muslim brotherhood moved to the Sinai and they become much more involved in the violence there. And then just last year as you know, they swore allegiance to ISIS. So now we've got an ISIS province declared itself into Sinai, well they've been quite active and they got a lot of weaponry, a lot of training and obviously an ongoing insurgency for at least three years.
[Vause:] OK, we'll get to the [inaudible] when it comes to anti- aircraft reference in a moment, but let's go Alan. Officials are saying the fuselage of this plane disintegrated mid-air, what are the possible causes for that because there's some speculation maybe there was bomb onboard, you know, that an ISIS group has claimed responsibility for shooting this plane with some kind of missile, what's your take?
[Alan Diehl, Fmr. Ntsb Crash Investor:] Well, it certainly could be any kind of explosive device or a missile. But there is also other possibilities, the aircraft do break up in flight if they're overstressed. And, what we know is they were climbing through 31,000 feet, there was data streaming that has been released, now this is not Egyptian ground radar, this is an onboard data link system that said they climbed a couple thousand feet then descended a few thousand feet, climbed back and then climbed five miles before they lost the data link at about 500 feet above the ground level. Now, and from the description of the wreckage pattern, John it sounds to me like the plan probably broke up closer to 5,000 feet than 31,000 feet. So, it sounds to me like it may will be the final distraction may have been due to aerodynamic forces or some other type of g-forces as oppose to a very large explosive device ala Malaysia flight 14.
[Vause:] Yes, and so, Colonel Francona, piece together [inaudible] ISIS capabilities because they made they're claiming responsibility that they shot this plane down. But as Alan was saying, the plane was at 31,000 feed so is this even possible?
[Francona:] Not with the group that we have in the Sinai operating there. We do know that they have the man pods, the man portable air defense system, the shoulder-fire rockets, the heat-seekers if you will. They've got those, they used them effectively, they've been able to down two Egyptian helicopters. But to take a commercial airliner down at that altitude just isn't possible with what they have, these systems top at about 14,000 feet. So the only way you would shot a commercial airliner down is in that transition from takeoff to flight and from the flight level down to landing. So, they don't have the kind of weaponry that we saw in Ukraine that brought down the Malaysian flight. So, I don't think we're looking at a service-to-air missile here. I do they released a video, they showed a video but that aircraft was certainly much slower than 31,000 feet.
[Vause:] So how often do these groups like ISIS, you know, ISIS-lead groups put out these spurious claims that really they or they have a claim to I guess, that they make a lot of sense.
[Diehl:] Well, they're very optimistic, we've seen this in other instance where an incident will happen and they'll immediately take credit for it, whether or not they were involved or not. You know the one that everybody remembers is the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris. They did claim these they're responsible for that, it turned to be there was a slight affiliation within al-Qaeda group and then later on they did attract some of the Hebdo shooters. But, it's just an opportunistic thing and I think we have to see that they've also claimed responsibility for attacks in the state. So, I think that we can expect that from
[Isis. Vause:] Sure. Hey Alan the Russian has to be very quick to this, this terrorism, will we know for certain what exactly happen when they get the black boxes downloaded and look at that information. Or will the wreckage or the group be far more important in an instance like this?
[Diehl:] Well, clearly the recorders should tell the story. And what's so interning John and Rick is that they they Co apparently said they had a technical problem, you know, that I would think if they have been hit by some kind of explosive they might have said and it could even heave heard it on the microphones so that they air traffic control takes will be kind of interesting, but the recorders, the onboard recorders should tell the story. Now of course, if it does look like this is some kind of terrorism then the wreckage will be key and people with Rick's expertise will be called in to look at the stifling and the patterns of explosives that we saw in the Ukraine in the Malaysia flight. But, at this point, I think the recorders are likely within hopefully several days to reveal at least basically what appears to have happen, of course the investigation will go on for months and probably up to a year before they reach a final conclusion.
[Vause:] OK, Dr. Alan Diehl, Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, both experts on your field, we appreciate you being with us, thank you for you both.
[Diehl:] Thanks John.
[Vause:] Well a surprise comeback for Turkey's president and this justice and development party. They won an upright majority in snap elections on Sunday, the party lost that majority back in June but now the country's prime minister is urging Turkey's political parties to work together on a new constitution. The win will help Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tighten his group on power. It comes after last month's suicide bombing which killed more as 100 people in Ankara. Well for more on Turkey's election we're joined now by CNN Turk Reporter Busha Aslantis and she joins us on the line from Ankara. So Busha, give the opinion polls that up to this verdict, it seems that this is a stunning result of President Erdogan and hi AKP party, how did he do it?
[Busha Aslantis , Cnn Correspondent:] Oh yes John, it's true that there's also the vote came as a surprise to most people. And, actually this is a key question how apart he did that, what happens in the last past month heard about such a different result on political landscape, so these are the key questions and one is and will be discussing today and upcoming days, an effort that will change according to who you talk to, because, for example for according to some also show, say that, pending together in this result, and when we check the newspapers columns today, asking one point of view, do these people became annoyed with growing instability in the country in recent months, and the protocol and [inaudible] in the last past months we called it, that memory is after 1990s during which strictly have to be moved by unsuccessful coalition government. Another point is that, that is just influence is that, treaty were dropped, were two major treaty dropped in the [inaudible] you remember one of which in July and the other in October a few days ago. So, as [inaudible], and like that so, PKK's violent acts against the Turkish army and the police added additional deservant to the Turkish public opinion, the Turkish army having most the engagement against the terrorist have added additional support from the especially nationwide explaining to the needs of Turkey and some H.P., national party voters will happen to see government where getting also this also PKK heart which broke the in fact the ceasefire of three years and received a tax after the June 7th election. Then, according to some other comments today, the church has taken back their support from HDP for the AKP due to their disturbance with PKK-led efforts to create conflict. And so [inaudible] these regions in the South Eastern [inaudible] region... [OFF-MIC]... and President Erdogan during his campaign period when he compared the June 7th election campaign are the key other factors some in Turkey, I mean at least these are the point, [inaudible] stressed today.
[Vause:] Busha, we appreciate you being with us, thank you for the update. Busha Aslantis said with the CNN Turk like in Ankara. A short break here, but when we come back, debating the debates, Republicans running for president aren't happy the rules, the format, the questions, the moderators, even their own party. We'll tell you what they want when we come back. Also head, a powerful cyclone heading for Yemen devastated by war braces for natural disaster.