Killer Tornado Causes Severe Damage in Missouri; Fatigue May Have Played a Role in Buffalo Plane Crash
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome once again to AMERICAN MORNING on this Thursday, May 14. It is 7:00 right on the nose here in New York.</s>JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. John Roberts together with Kiran Chetry. Here's what's on the agenda this morning, the big stories that we're breaking down for you here in the next 15 minutes. The damage being described as unbelievable in one Missouri town where a killer tornado touched down last night. This went down as our Rob Marciano was chasing storms in Tornado Alley. He's going to join us live in less than a minute with all the news. Sadness turning into anger and frustration in day three of hearings into that deadly plane crash outside of Buffalo, New York. Family members want to know why their loved ones were in the hands of a pilot who may not have gotten enough sleep or training. And the mission to fix the eye that sees through time. The crew of the space shuttle Atlantis takes the first of five risky spacewalks to repair the Hubble telescope. In about two hours time, we're going to have the pictures for you live from space. But first, breaking news, three people killed, several injured, others trapped in their basements after a tornado ripped through homes in northern Missouri last night. IReporter and storm chaser Michael Ambrosia captured the giant funnel cloud on tape and almost became a part of it. Take a look.</s>MICHAEL AMBROSIA, CNN IREPORTER: It's very windy. Wow. It's coming across the road right here in front of me. OK. Actually, this is too close. I feel the winds. Oh, my gosh. I've never been this close before. This is a fat one too. This is wide. OK, see that wind right there? That's about 60 yards from me. This tornado is -- wow. OK, I got close. I got -- that's the closest I've ever been. We got to get out.</s>ROBERTS: Wow, quite an iReport. The severe weather targeting other areas today. Our Rob Marciano live at the Severe Weather Headquarters in Norman, Oklahoma this morning. Rob, you've been chasing tornadoes for the past three days. That guy almost got hit by one.</s>ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's where the most action was yesterday. That's where the most atmospheric energy was. That's where the Storm Prediction Center which is based right here thought the worst case scenario would pan out. And that gentleman certainly had his hands full. More of that amazing video. He said he was driving his car. He's a hobbyist as a storm chaser, and this one a little bit too close. He just pulled over and let the thing go right over his car. Amazing stuff there. As you mentioned, fatalities in Missouri near where this cell was.</s>AMBROSIA: This is a fat one too.</s>MARCIANO: Yes, I bet. He might not be that close again. Thirty to 40 homes damaged with that particular cell. So maybe it stopped at Missouri. Also strong storms through Illinois. This video of damage shot in Ponca City, Oklahoma, near where we were in north central Oklahoma with a cell that touched down close to there. And as you mentioned, we were chasing the last couple of days. Yesterday, we were chasing across parts of Oklahoma. We tracked down a couple of cells that actually later on in the evening developed into something a little bit more vigorous. This still shot I took while we were chasing as the sun was setting. And then tornado warnings and sirens going off in Oklahoma City and Norman, Oklahoma last night as that cell developed and split and became a little bit more active. The whole line now as seen on this radar is moving to the east and southeast fairly rapidly. Severe thunderstorm watches stretching from Ohio all the way back to Texas. And the strongest of these storms at last check across the ArkLaTex (ph) region and into street ports. So a rough morning for those folks, John, as this has the potential of having damaging winds up to 70 miles an hour. Covering the Vortex2 (ph) mission here, we're headed home today but the mission itself researching tornadoes continues for the next five weeks. John, back over to you.</s>ROBERTS: Busy day for you this morning, Rob. Thanks very much.</s>CHETRY: Turning now to a developing story out of Washington, the second day of hearings over the crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407. It left many family members anguished and in shock. We're learning now that the pilot and the co-pilot may have been suffering from fatigue and that may have played a role in the fiery crash that killed 50 people back in February. Our Allan Chernoff is following the story for us this morning, and he has new details. Hi, Allan.</s>ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. And it appears to have happened on Flight 3407. The NTSB here revealed it could be happening quite frequently. Airline crews living far from their base of operations coming to work on little sleep.</s>KATHY JOHNSON, WIFE OF CRASH VICTIM: It is shocking.</s>CHERNOFF (voice-over): Kathy Johnson is furious her husband Kevin died on a plane whose crew may have been functioning on little sleep.</s>JOHNSON: I wonder how many other pilots, first officers do the same thing that we're not aware. So it is very shocking to all of us.</s>CHERNOFF: Colgan Air Captain Marvin Renslow had nearly a full day off before assuming command of Flight 3407. Yet the NTSB investigation found he slept in the Newark Airport crew lounge against Colgan Air regulations. The airline though appears to have been lax in enforcing the rule.</s>KITTY HIGGINS, NTSB BOARD MEMBER: The Colgan policy is that they're not to sleep in the crew room, but it turns out that they are sleeping in the crew room.</s>DANIEL MORGAN, COLGAN VP FLIGHT SAFETY: People can come in between their flights when they're on duty and take a nap.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is napping sleeping?</s>MORGAN: That's a definition I'm not -- probably not prepared to answer.</s>CHERNOFF: First Officer Rebecca Shaw had three days off before the flight, yet she commuted through the night from Seattle catching rides on connecting FedEx flights to get to Newark.</s>HARRY MITCHEL, COLGAN VP FLIGHT OPERATIONS: We hire professionals and those professionals we expect should show up fresh, ready to fly that aircraft.</s>MARTY AGIUS, BROTHER-IN-LAW OF CRASH VICTIM: You know, they're supposed to have their own accommodations but we can't follow up on that. And that's totally ridiculous.</s>CHERNOFF: Captain Renslow hid his background from Colgan by not revealing two pilot exam failures in his job application. And the crew violated another rule that requires cockpit conversation to be focused on the flight.</s>MARK ROSENKER, NTSB ACTING CHAIRMAN: I am concerned about the winking and nodding that I have seen in some of the policies of the company -- your company and crew members, and I don't believe it is only within your company.</s>CHERNOFF: That winking and nodding by the airlines recognizing that the rules are not being followed to the "T" may be putting us in danger the next time that we step onboard a flight -- Kiran.</s>CHETRY: As you pointed out, they're allowed to live as far from base as they want to and then they have to sort of pay for their own accommodations. How realistic is that?</s>CHERNOFF: It's ridiculous, really. Because we know that the first officer was earning very little money. The airline has actually just corrected the number that they gave in the hearing. They said $16,000. She was earning actually close to $24,000. Still, not a lot of money. She lived with her parents out in Seattle, commuted all the way from Seattle. The pilot came up from Florida. I mean, maybe there should be a rule that people have to live closer to their base of operations, because these people don't make a lot of money. They don't really want to spend the money on a hotel before they start their flights.</s>CHETRY: Something to think about for sure. All right, Allan, thank you.</s>CHETRY: Well, this case is bringing up a lot of questions about the training requirements as well for pilots. Our Jason Carroll is looking into that side of the story. He's going to be joining us with that story in about 20 minutes.</s>ROBERTS: President Obama delivering the commencement speech at Arizona State University last night. And before he gave the graduates some advice for the future, he joked about the fact that the university decided not to award him an honorary degree at the ceremony.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I really thought this was much ado about nothing. But I do think we all learned an important lesson. I learned never again to pick another team over the Sun Devils in my NCAA brackets. It won't happen again. President Crow and the Board of Regents will soon learn about being audited by the IRS. We need young people like you to step up. We need your daring. We need your enthusiasm. We need your energy. We need your imagination. I know starting your careers in troubled times is a challenge, but it is also a privilege. Because it's moments like these that force us to try harder and dig deeper and to discover gifts we never knew we had. To find the greatness that lies within each of us. So don't ever shy away from that endeavor. Don't stop adding to your body of work. I can promise that you will be the better for that continued effort as will this nation that we all love. Congratulations class of 2009 on your graduation. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.</s>ROBERTS: The president gave a great commencement address there yesterday, and making light of the dunderheaded move for them to not give him the honorary degree even though they renamed its largest scholarship program after the president.</s>CHETRY: There you go.</s>ROBERTS: So he gets an honor, right?</s>CHETRY: Exactly.</s>ROBERTS: But what were they thinking of? Just you got to question them, what were they thinking of?</s>CHETRY: All right. Well, also new this morning, Pope Benedict XVI celebrating an open-air mass in Nazareth to a crowd of 40,000. The pope urged Christians and Muslims to reject the destructive power of hatred and prejudice. The bodies of five soldiers killed at a combat stress clinic in Iraq back on U.S. soil this morning. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was on hand for the somber homecoming at Dover Air Force Base. The families of three of the five victims allowed cameras to capture the formal military transfer. Shuttle astronauts about to exit Atlantis. They're headed on a spacewalk, making repairs for the Hubble telescope, putting in a powerful new camera, replacing batteries and tightening screws. We're going to see what the shuttle astronauts told us exclusively about training for the mission of a lifetime. It's 10 minutes past the hour.