Man Hijacks EgyptAir Flight; GOP Rivals Gear Up for CNN Town Hall
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me. A hijacker seizes an airliner and the drama ends peacefully on live television. This is one of the last hostages escaping through a cockpit window and scaling down the side of the airplane. Minutes later the hijacker surrenders. That is reportedly him in the white shirt. The man you see being led away there. Officials say this was not an act of terrorism but a man upset over his ex-wife. The flight from Alexandria, Egypt was supposed to be a short hop to Cairo. Instead the hijacker said he had an explosive belt and ordered the flight to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. CNN's Ian Lee is in Cairo with more for you. Hi, Ian.</s>IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. And what we're hearing from this man is that -- or from officials is that this man was very much disturbed. That he had a list of demands. Nothing very consistent. And after they were able to successfully arrest him, they were found out that the bomb that he claimed he had wasn't in fact real. This brings a very terrifying moment for a lot of people, especially those hostages on board that plane. There was a lot of dramatic footage coming out of that. Talking to one of the passengers who was on the plane saying that they didn't really know something was wrong until they were flying over the Mediterranean, not on the flight path to Cairo. And that the stewardess told the passengers that there was a hijacking. They collected the passports of the people. A really terrifying moment because nowadays you don't have these sorts of incidents and peacefully end the way they do. The passengers really breathing a sigh of relief once they touched down in Larnaca. But from what we're seeing right now, from what officials are telling us, both Cypress and Egyptian, is that this is a man who, as they say, is disturbed. Someone who has issues. And going forward the question is going to be, what kind of motivations were behind it and what can they figure out about security going forward.</s>COSTELLO: All right. Ian Lee reporting life for us from Cyprus this morning. I want to bring in our aviation expert right now. Peter Goelz is a former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board. He's now a senior vice president at O'Neill and Associates. Welcome, sir.</s>PETER GOELZ, FORMER MANAGING DIRECTOR, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: Good morning carol.</s>COSTELLO: Good morning. So early on officials publicly doubted that the hijacker really had an explosive belt on. Does it worry you at all that terrorists are also watching this drama play out that they realize they can commandeer an airliner with just a bluff?</s>GOELZ: Well, I think that's a growing concern. I mean, I think the Egyptians handled this as well as they could. The flight crew did. And I think the Cypress did the same. But the question is, did this guy have even a fake bomb that cleared security? And if he did then there is a question of security at the check points. But if he simply he got on board once he was on board and said I've got a bomb, well, then that's -- that's a challenge. But it does raise that question -- Carol. Anybody can do it.</s>COSTELLO: Absolutely. I just want to ask another question about how Egyptian authorities handled this because they held a news conference early on. They got the name of the hijacker wrong. They released the wrong name to the public. The Egyptian president even laughed at the hijacker's possible motive. Watch.</s>PRES. NICOS ANASTASIADES, CYPRUS: In any case it is not something which has to do with terrorism. Always there is a woman in the --</s>COSTELLO: All right. That was the Cyprus's president. But still it was just a strange moment because the hostage drama was ongoing at that time.</s>GOELZ: It was a very unusual moment. And inappropriate to be honest. And the issue is haven't the Egyptians learned anything over the past year and a half after the aircraft was blown up after ground personnel put the bomb on board. One of their flights -- so it's a question of, are the Egyptians taking this seriously? And given how much they rely on tourism you would think they would have a much more professional and serious approach, even to these kinds of events.</s>COSTELLO: OK. Just a question from a person who flies a lot. And I am that person who flies a lot. How should passengers have reacted to this mentally unstable man claiming he had a bomb?</s>GOELZ: Well, you know, that is a very difficult question. You know, ever since the heroes that the Shanksville, you know, tragedy where they tried to take over the plane, and since then passengers have taken things into their own hands. But when you've got someone who says they have a bomb, I think for -- I think for a while you've got to figure out whether that's true and what his motives were. And that he was flying to Cyprus seemed to indicate that this was not an act of terrorism. But boy, that is a very difficult question. And each of us has to answer that God forbid if we're ever put in that position.</s>COSTELLO: Peter Goelz, thanks for your insight as always.</s>GOELZ: Thank you, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: All right. On to politics now. Three candidates, one stage. Hours from now, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich make their pitch to voters during CNN's town hall in Milwaukee. Vying for support ahead of next week's critical Wisconsin primary, all of this as the Grand Old Party is looking more like a big old brawl. CNN's Phil Mattingly live in Milwaukee with more. Good morning.</s>PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning, Carol. No shortage of issues for the three candidates to delve into tonight and no doubt that they certainly will. Whether it is personal attacks, whether it is their wives, whether it's Donald Trump's foreign policy, which really over the last couple of days has been flushed out in a way that we haven't seen before. All of that is on the table and no time like now to do it. Only seven days before the next crucial primary.</s>MATTINGLY (voice-over): All three GOP candidates converging on the battle ground state, Wisconsin, for tonight's CNN town hall, a week before voters head to the polls in the high stakes primary. Republican frontrunner Donald Trump receiving a hostile reception Monday. Protesters demanding Trump cancel a rally later today, saying to, quote, "keep hate out of our state." Popular Wisconsin conservative radio host Charlie Sykes who has endorsed Ted Cruz also giving Trump the cold shoulder.</s>CHARLIE SYKES, CONSERVATIVE RADIO HOST: Mr. Trump, before you called into my show, did you know that I'm a #neverTrump guy?</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That I didn't know.</s>MATTINGLY: An opening act for a state with 42 delegates at stake and a strong anti-Trump movement.</s>SYKES: Here in Wisconsin we value things like civility, decency and actual conservative principles. So let's possibly make some news.</s>MATTINGLY: Trump continuing to defend his campaign's attacks on Ted Cruz and his wife Heidi. Again blaming Cruz for a super PAC ad in Utah that featured Trump's wife Melania.</s>TRUMP: He owes me an apology because what he did was wrong. He sent out a picture to people in Utah.</s>SYKES: No. Well, actually he didn't. And you know that he didn't. You know that it was a super</s>PAC. TRUMP: I know he knew about it.</s>MATTINGLY: In an interview with CNN's Sunlen Serfaty, Cruz laying down another challenge to Trump.</s>SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We have heard that you want to debate Donald Trump one-on-one.</s>SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes.</s>SERFATY: Why?</s>CRUZ: CNN has two town halls back-to-back. An hour with me. An hour with Donald Trump in the exact same location. We should make it a debate. Let's make it a two-hour debate. Let's combine our events.</s>MATTINGLY: And Ohio Governor John Kasich attacking both of his opponents on their foreign policy positions.</s>GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We got one guy saying we should patrol Muslim neighborhoods and the other one saying we should have a religious test. It's not good foreign policy.</s>MATTINGLY: All while Trump threatens to sue over delegate allegiances in Louisiana. A state Trump won but Cruz could walk away with more delegates. The Texas senator brushing off Trump's litigation threats.</s>CRUZ: Who cares? He can threaten whoever he likes.</s>MATTINGLY: Now, Carol, Donald Trump taking to Twitter to reject Ted Cruz's challenge to a one-on-one debate but really does have an extensive public schedule in the state over the next couple of days. This coming after about a week of not having any public events at all. Really underscoring that he has work to do if he wants to do what he's been doing over the last couple of states and that's win Wisconsin. Ted Cruz with very good numbers in the state. John Kasich really zeroing in on a number of congressional delegates -- congressional districts where delegates will be allocated from. There is a lot of ground to move in this state right now for these three candidates, just kind of making clear that tonight is a very important event in advance of the Wisconsin primary, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: All right. Phil Mattingly reporting live from Milwaukee. Thank you. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, if you thought Trump's interview with the never-Trump host was awkward, wait until you hear what Trump said about Heidi Cruz during that call.