New Details on How Boeing Promoted the 737 MAX Jet
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Unions told CNN training for this new plane was completed over a quick iPad course for pilots. Made no mention of the new system now at the center of the two crash investigations. So let's go straight to former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation, Mary Schiavo. Mary is also an attorney who represents families of airline crash victims and has current litigation pending against Boeing. Mary, thank you for coming on with me. With this news here, what is this reporting that Boeing essentially mis-advertised this plane and that pilots were trained on an iPad?</s>MARY SCHIAVO, ATTORNEY & FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATON: Well, I think that it also gives us tremendous insight into what the office of inspector general investigation and the FBI investigation is all about. Because if you recall, some of their subpoenas sought advertising material. And if you are marketing the plane as like the other 737s so it is cheap and easy for pay lol pilots to switch from one to the other, that could be a very material statement. Either it is true or it is not and that might be part of the investigation. And so for pilots to go from a standard 737 to this one without the second part of this problem, without the warning equipment in the cockpit and without knowing about the MCAS was clearly -- I don't think the plane should have been certified without additional training and remember the training and pilots' manuals also have to be approved by the</s>FAA. BALDWIN: So who does this fall on? It is easy to say this is Boeing, this is their aircraft, but at the same time, if airlines are being told hey, you can save millions, here is an iPad for your pay lots and we're not giving them all the information they need to know, and then of course there's the FAA, like who is responsible?</s>SCHIAVO: They all are responsible. Legally, it will be the airlines and Boeing because when the FAA does something, even if terribly ridiculous, the FAA has the defense what is called discretionary function. So the airlines also will be able to say, look, Boeing, we brought with us when we purchased these planes and we placed these orders some of our flight crew, we brought our chief pilot and you never mentioned this system to us. If we knew it was that critical, we might have ordered the warning light or ordered the angle of attack indicator. So I think that the airlines will be saying we were not told this by Boeing especially since Boeing has already admitted they didn't tell pilots. And most airlines don't buy new planes without having their flight teams look at it.</s>BALDWIN: And here is another piece of new reporting, from the "New York Times," that the plane lacked several features because Boeing charges extra and those features could have helped the pilots detecting the erroneous readings. So should those features be optional?</s>SCHIAVO: No, they should not. And by law you have to have those features to have an air-worthy aircraft. If they have vital to the functioning of the plane, then the Federal Aviation Administration should not have certificate fid the plane without these present. But that is the circular argument. Boeing would say this this plane was certified without them. And they have lists of hundreds of options that you can order on an aircraft, everything from additional flight extinguishing equipment to better seats. And unless it is part of the air-worthiness approval, then they don't have to include it in the basic package and advocacy of that argument was hotly debated in the 2001 lawsuit that I worked on for so long because airlines could have added a stronger door with better locks and more safety upgrades and we El-Al ordered those doors. So this is a practice in the industry for a long time.</s>BALDWIN: I can just feel those family members thinking, how did they not have all they needed. Mary Schiavo, thank you very much for your expertise.</s>SCHIAVO: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: The U.S. Supreme Court is under discussion a case so secret security had to clear the entire floor of a courthouse at one point. A closer look at a mystery grand jury subpoena and its connection to this whole Mueller investigation. And teachers lining up execution style hit with pellet guns in an active-shooter drill. Find out what happened after that.