[Wolf Blitzer, Cnn Anchor:] It could prove to be the world's deadliest commercial airline disaster since 2001. The French president says the prospects of finding any survivors from a missing jet are very small. The Air France flight from Rio to Paris vanished over the Atlantic with 228 people on board. Airline officials haven't found the plane, but they suspect it crashed in the ocean. Let's bring in Brian Todd. He's following the investigation Brian.
[Brian Todd, Cnn Correspondent:] Wolf, a lot of speculation going on right now. So, we do have to have some caution and care of what we're reporting here. But what Air France officials are saying is that there was turbulence in that area. That electrical problems were reported. That points to some possibilities for what could have gone wrong but there's also the possibility that we may never find out.
[Todd:] A massive air and sea search that may never provide definite answers on the fate of Flight 447. Air France officials say the plane experienced turbulence and electrical problems before it vanished. Experts say a lightning strike is a possibility. But...
[John Wiley, Former Airbus Pilot:] On average, every airliner is struck at least once a year by a lightning strike. They don't go down.
[Todd:] Experts say when lightning strikes a plane, the bolt typically hits a sharp part of it, a wing tip, or a tail surface. Millions of amps of energy run through the aircraft and usually exit out another sharp point. But sometimes, if components aren't well grounded, high voltages can cause electrical damage. This plane, an Airbus-330, is equipped with a fly-by wire system. Unlike standard aircraft, where the pilot's controls are manually attached to control surfaces like rudders and flaps, with fly-by wire the pilot's controls in the cockpit are linked to the movable services by electrical wires and computers, so essentially a signal is sent to move those devices. Experts say there are backup fly-by computers and wires, but a lightning strike could possibly disable those as well.
[John Hansman, Mit Department Of Aeronautics & Astronautics:] If you have a massive electrical problem, it's possible that you could cut off all the commands out of the control surfaces.
[Todd:] Still, even if those commands are cut off, aviation experts say the A-330 has a manual flight control system, so-called trim tabs, that allows the crew to manipulate the rudder and the surface controls. We asked Airbus for a briefing on possible causes, on the electrical warning system, what protections are built in for lightning strikes. An Airbus spokeswoman said it's way too early at this stage and the company does not want to engage in speculation Wolf.
[Blitzer:] What about the weather in the region over the Atlantic? I understand that could have been a real problem.
[Todd:] That's right. This is an area called the Intertropical Convergence Zone. We're going to show this to viewers now. This is the area of the Atlantic where the Northern Hemisphere meets the Southern, right around the equator. Weather and aviation experts tell us this is where the northeast and southeast trade winds meet, pushing a lot of warm moist air upward. That condenses, produces some of the world's most nasty thunderstorms and hurricanes. If lightning hit this plane, it could have been in this area, Wolf, but again, very preliminary at this stage.
[Blitzer:] Everything is preliminary. The mystery continues. Brian, thanks very much. Only two U.S.-based airlines fly the Airbus A-330, the model of the Air France plane that disappeared. The merged firms of Northwest and Delta together have 32 Airbus A-330s. U.S. Airways has nine of them in operation. Seven internationally based airlines flying the Airbus A-330 in and out of the United States are going on with those flights right now. Joining us now, a former National Transportation Safety Board director, Peter Goelz. Peter, thanks very much for coming in.
[Peter Goelz, Former Managing Director, National Transportation Safety Board:] Thank you.
[Blitzer:] What's your working assumption of what happened?
[Goelz:] Boy, this is a real mystery. But this plane must have catastrophically broken up at altitude. There was no mayday call by the crew. And it's off radar all of the sudden. This is a very tough one. And I think it's going to take a long time if ever that we're going to figure out what happened.
[Blitzer:] What could cause a plane to simply crack up at 40,000 feet?
[Goelz:] Well, it's it's extraordinary. We had TWA, which was a flammable fuel tank. We have had a couple of other mysterious explosions, but nothing like this.
[Blitzer:] You're talking about the TWA plane over Long Island...
[Goelz:] Long Island, exactly.
[Blitzer:] ... that simply exploded or whatever.
[Goelz:] Right. And that that one went down only nine miles off the shore in 200 feet of water, you know, and it took us four or five days to find out where it was. This one, it's the size of two or three times the size of Europe. I think they're going to have a real tough time.
[Blitzer:] Can lightning or turbulence cause a plane to explode like that?
[Goelz:] Well, let's look at each one of those. Turbulence, these pilots are certified to fly through tough weather. Other flights from South America were traveling the same airway. They reached they hit some turbulence, but nothing extraordinary, tough stuff, but nothing extraordinary. And, in terms of lightning, planes are hit by lightning virtually every day. They're designed to dissipate the charge. Sometimes, there there are problems with their electronics systems, but nothing catastrophic on lightning, nothing catastrophic since the 1980s.
[Blitzer:] So so, when we say when you say breaking up, the plane could have broken up, does it necessarily mean an explosion that would cause that?
[Goelz:] Well, it could have been a structural failure. But this was a new plane. It was manufactured in 2005. You know, if it if it were a 30- or 40-year-old plane, you might look toward some sort of fatigue issue, but this was relatively a brand-new plane.
[Blitzer:] Here's what I don't understand. With the GPS technology that is out there, how it is possible we don't know where this big plane is right now?
[Goelz:] Well...
[Blitzer:] Because with all the pings and the pongs, you would think they would have an idea.
[Goelz:] Well, that's that's one of the questions. You know, we many of these planes are not flying on GPS. That's the whole issue of next generation that you might have heard about. That's going to satellite you know, use satellite technology to traffic planes in air traffic control. But, even today, on transoceanic flights, we don't have a very good picture of where these planes are precisely at all times. And, this one, boy, I don't I think we're going to have a hard time.
[Blitzer:] And could this plane have landed safely on on the Atlantic Ocean?
[Goelz:] No, it's virtually impossible. And what we're going to have to do is track down whatever radar we have got, then put some ships in the area with listening devices to see if they can pick up the pinging noises from the flight data and voice recorder. They issue a tone on a certain frequency when it's submerged. It will last for about 30 days. They have got to get those search vessels out there as quickly as possible.
[Blitzer:] If you were running an airline now that had a flight over the Atlantic Ocean, what would you be doing, if anything, differently?
[Goelz:] I don't think I think I would be watching what this investigation turns up. I would be making sure that the crew and the maintenance guys were all doing their jobs. But, boy, there isn't anything you can do.
[Blitzer:] Does the U.S. get involved in this investigation at all, since it's it's an Air France plane flying from Brazil to France, a plane that's made by not the United States?
[Goelz:] The the U.S. will be participating, because the engines were GE engines. They were they were U.S.-manufactured engines. So, the NTSB will offer support, as will the FAA. And there's good working relationships with the French investigative agency, the BEA. This will be a worldwide effort to try and try and uncover this.
[Blitzer:] The last communication, we're told, between the plane and ground control was something along the lines that they have an emergency under way. Is that right?
[Goelz:] Well, it's not clear yet. What what we do know is that there was a signal sent, an automatic signal sent to the operations base that said that there was an electrical issue. Now, these these are sent periodically, so that the plane can be maintained. It could also signify that that the plane was in real distress and perhaps starting to break up.
[Blitzer:] And this was the kind of plane where the pilots are sitting there, but it's basically automatic. It's all on it's all on you know, just mechanical, if you will?
[Goelz:] Yes. This this is a fly-by-wire plane. The pilots, during cruise altitude, are sitting there charting numbers off the flight control system. They usually do not have their hands on the on the stick. And this this plane is a first-class aircraft...
[Blitzer:] We have all been in on planes where the the turbulence starts. You have been over there, especially over the Pacific or the Atlantic. And it gets a little nerve-racking when your your plane is moving along, especially if it's a big one, a jumbo jetliner...
[Goelz:] Yes.
[Blitzer:] Or a huge commercial jetliner like this one. What do the pilots normally do? Do they try to go up even higher and fly over the turbulence?
[Goelz:] Well, they they they have forward-looking forward that that they try to pick a way through the storm cell, where where it's least intense. And they can go up. They can go left. They can go right. They can go drop down. But they try to pick a path through it that that looks less intense...
[Blitzer:] But, the higher the storm, usually, the it's more intense, the storm, right? And, sometimes you know, can a plane go over 50,000 feet...
[Goelz:] No.
[Blitzer:] ... flying over the Atlantic?
[Goelz:] No. The maximum altitude for for a plane like this is in the low 40s. So and the usual crew's altitude, somewhere between 32,000 and 39,000. So, I mean, that's that's that's where you have your maximum efficiency.
[Blitzer:] Is it possible we will never know what happened to this Air France plane?
[Goelz:] If we don't get the flight data recorders or the voice recorder back, I think it's it's likely that we will never know.
[Blitzer:] And, given the depth of the Atlantic Ocean, it's possible that that stuff is at the bottom of the Atlantic right now.
[Goelz:] Well, you can recover it. We have recovered things since as deep as 10,000, 12,000 feet. But the point is, you know, the locator device only works for 30 days. We have got to find it.
[Blitzer:] So, it's pinging right now?
[Goelz:] It is pinging right now, hopefully.
[Blitzer:] And it doesn't and it's not floating?
[Goelz:] It is not floating. It's in the it's at the bottom of the sea.
[Blitzer:] Peter, thanks very much for coming in.
[Goelz:] Thank you, Wolf.
[Blitzer:] Let's go to Jack Cafferty for "The Cafferty File" right now. Jack, that's quite a mystery.
[Jack Cafferty, Cnn Anchor:] That was quite an interview. That's a he's a very interesting fellow.
[Blitzer:] Yes.
[Cafferty:] I was I was riveted listening to his explanation of stuff. He knows what he's talking about.
[Blitzer:] He's a former director of the
[Ntsb. Cafferty:] And and it shows. His expertise came through in the interview. He speaks in sentences that that laymen like me can understand. "American capitalism is disappearing with barely a whimper" that's a quote "from the public," according to the online edition of the Russian news agency Pravda. They write the U.S. descent into Marxism is happening with breathtaking speed. First, Pravda says the population was dumbed down through a substandard education system based on pop culture they're right instead of the classics. They write, Americans' faith in God was destroyed until its churches became little more than Sunday circuses. And Pravda says the final collapse came with the election of President Obama, who has been spending and printing money at a record pace. Pravda also mentions the president's desire to redesign the tax system and cap executive compensation, and notes how he forced the former CEO of General Motors to step down. Speaking of GM, President Obama announced today the government will become a reluctant shareholder when it assumes a 60 percent stake in General Motors. President Obama insists he has no interest in running GM. Nevertheless, the government's stake in GM comes after a much smaller ownership of Chrysler and with significant federal equity in banks, the insurance giant AIG, and two mortgage interest giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That's not exactly old-school capitalism, now, is it? Republicans say the government's quote "firmly in the business of running companies using taxpayer dollars" and question how Washington bureaucrats can make a huge corporation profitable. They want the administration to explain its exit strategy. There's a phrase we haven't heard in awhile. Here's the question: Is American capitalism dead? Go to CNN.comcaffertyfile. Post a comment on my blog. How ironic that Pravda is writing the obituary of the U.S. economic system, when the collapse of the Soviet Union happened, what, about 20 years ago, and things haven't been exactly shipshape ever since.
[Blitzer:] Yes, good point, very ironic indeed. Thanks, Jack. In the debate over the Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, some conservatives portray her as a racist. But wait until you hear her real record deciding claims of discrimination. And what do people who actually know Judge Sotomayor think about her? Our Soledad O'Brien and she is here to preview CNN's newest documentary, "Latino in America." And the fourth largest bankruptcy in U.S. history GM's troubles could cost you a lot more money.