Emergency Landing in New York
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Let's get straight to this breaking news here on this afternoon. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Here's what we know. This United express plane, it was leaving Chicago's O'Hare Airport just a couple of hours ago. It had to be diverted to Buffalo, New York, and made this emergency landing after a passenger lost consciousness. So let's begin with what we know. Jean Casarez is with me here. And we're now hearing from the FAA, Jean, they're officially reporting it was a pressurization problem.</s>JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We just got that in. A pressurization problem. But here's what we know. It was United Flight number 5622. It left Chicago this morning at 9:32 a.m. It was bound for Connecticut. And it made that emergency landing in Buffalo, New York, at 11:40. We originally heard because a passenger lost consciousness. Now we are hearing that there was that pressurization problem. We are also learning from Flight Trader 24 some more information. And this is according to them. That there was steep descent of that aircraft. And it took from 38,000 feet to 10,000 feet in about three minutes. But what we're learning now, one person, loss of consciousness. So that emergency landing was made in Buffalo. That person was treated with emergency personnel. They were released. And now the issue is 75 more passengers getting to Hartford, Connecticut.</s>BALDWIN: OK, stay with me, Jean Casarez, as you get more information. David Soucie, one of our aviation analysts, pilot, joining me now. And, David Soucie, a couple - a couple points here as we're getting all this. Number one, when you hear pressurization problem, what does that tell you?</s>DAVID SOUCIE, CNN AVIATION ANALYST (via telephone): Well, what it tells me is that the pressurization inside the cabin has gotten above what is normally able to breathe for a passenger. So the descent that they described just now would be indicative of a loss of pressurization and the aircraft getting down to 10,000 feet as quickly as possible, where the - where the passengers would be - have breathable oxygen and normal pressurization. So that does indicate that there was that lack of pressurization. What's concerning is that one of the passengers did lose consciousness and we don't know yet enough to know whether that was from the fact the - that they had lost consciousness due to the lack of oxygen, if they didn't put their mask on, as was directed, I'm sure. That could have been part of that. But that - we'll wait to see what happens with that passenger.</s>BALDWIN: And again, it could be one, it could be more, but right now CNN is reporting one passenger who lost consciousness.</s>SOUCIE: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: And again, just to be clear to everyone, this plane landed safely in Buffalo. They're working to transport those 75 passengers and get them on their way. But back to the point, if this plane is cruising along at 38,000 feet - so, again, 38,000, dips down to 10,000 in three minutes. And when we're talking about pressurization issues at that altitude, what - what could possibly happen to lead to that?</s>SOUCIE: Well, there's a couple of things that could lead to that. One of them would be the safety valve or the pressurization valve that regulates the amount of air that goes outside of the cabin. That can cause that to happen. The other thing that might happen is in the pressurized section of the - of the cargo section, if a door is not secured properly or if it does come off in flight, then I've seen that - we've seen that happen before as well, where the pressurization drops quickly. Now, it could just be precautionary as well. If pressurization was simply not maintaining the pressure that it's intended to, as you cruise to that altitude and you start losing pressure, then you would still react in the same way because you don't know if it's going to be, you know, a sudden depressurization or what we call an explosive depressurization or if it's just going to be a slow decompression. So, either way, you would make those precautionary measures. So it appears that the pilot acted appropriately no matter what happened on board.</s>BALDWIN: To your point about the cargo section and possibly a door, I'm just glancing down at my e-mails because we have a little bit more from the FAA filling in some of the gaps here. When asked about reports of an open door midair, the FAA spokesperson says they're investigating but cannot confirm.</s>SOUCIE: Right.</s>BALDWIN: David Soucie, stand by. Mary Schiavo, let me bring you in as well. As an investigator too, looking at this, when you hear all these just few, few details - I mean this is - this is just happening. How do you read this?</s>MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, two important points. And David's absolutely right. If this is a situation which was first reported that there was a door opening in flight or lack of a door seal, it's extremely rare but extremely dangerous. There have been flights in the past where the opening of a door in flight has actually brought down the plane. And because there are warning devices on the doors before they, you know, taxi and take out whether that door is properly secured or not, this would be one of those situations where the FAA should issue an emergency air waves directive and these planes should be grounded until those doors can all be inspected because that is a very, very rare and very, very dangerous event and it would indicate something seriously wrong with the plane. No warning lights about the door before takeoff. If it's a lack of pressurization in flight, again, we all harken back to the Payne Stewart event, and David's right, it could be an outflow valve. It could be a number of things that could lead to that. But that would, of course, cause the planes to be inspected too. But if it's a door failure, hugely dangerous, hugely important.</s>BALDWIN: OK. And, Mary, when you hear that it was at 38,000 feet, drops all the way down to 10,000 in three minutes, I'm just thinking about the 75 people on board and I'm wondering, what would that feel like?</s>SCHIAVO: It would feel like a roller coaster.</s>BALDWIN: It would?</s>SCHIAVO: When you're going - coming over the top and you're going down. That is - that is far greater than the rate of descent for this plane. Obviously, the plane could withstand it. It's beyond the envelope of what you need to do. So you know that these pilots knew they were in a very grave and very serious situation. Obviously they still maintained their oxygen or were able to get their oxygen masks on quickly enough to fly the plane. That's also hugely, you know, fortunate that they were trained and able to do that because they, too, could have been subjected to this loss of pressurization and affected by it. So, all in all, given the severity of the situation, it's fortunate they got the plane on the ground in one piece and that everybody apparently is going to be fine.</s>BALDWIN: Thank goodness. Les Abend, let me just bring your voice to this - to this conversation, a 777 airline pilot. And I'm wondering, what's happening from the pilot perspective? What's happening in the cockpit when all this is going down?</s>LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST (via telephone): Yes, good question, Brooke. And I'm just getting preliminary information also and there's an indication that it's a door. I find that hard to believe from the standpoint of these doors are plug - what we call plug-type doors and they - just by virtue of beginning the takeoff, starting - starting off really from the gate, the airplane</s>BALDWIN: And that would be the roller coaster feeling that Mary Schiavo was just addressing, that feeling in the pit of your stomach for those three minutes for all those passengers on that plane. David Soucie, let me go back to you, because I'm hearing corroborated among all of you that it just seems highly unlikely that it could possibly be a door. So back to one of your other possibilities, saying it could have been the safety valve. Can you explain - explain that for me.</s>SOUCIE: Well, the safety valve, or the outflow valve, there's two different valves in there. The outflow valve regulates pressure inside the aircraft. So you have a constant flow of pressurization air coming from the engines, excuse me, into the cabin on this aircraft and it's just regulated as far as what altitude. Now, remember, altitude and pressure are what maintain the breathability of the air. So this outflow valve then controls how much pressure is inside the cabin. So you're maintaining that cabin pressure at a normal 8,000 feet or 10,000 feet at the most. But - so that would make it regular air. Now, when this outflow valve fails, let's say that it gets plugged up, it can over pressurize the air - the cabin so there's another valve called the safety valve. And although it's normally closed, in this situation where the outflow valve fails, the safety valve would open and release that excess pressure, allowing it to be normal inside the cabin. Now, what's happened in the Payne Stewart situation, what happened with that airplane, when, of course, it - everyone was incapacitated, is that safety valve failed. And it - when the outflow valve fail and then the safety valve didn't do its job properly, then it caused the pressurization problem in the aircraft and everyone perished on board. In this case, there was time for the pilots to make corrective action, if that was indeed the problem. And I think that that would be more likely a problem, as Les had mentioned, most of the doors are plug- type doors where they're from the inside to the out. So it would be very difficult for them to open. Although in this particular model of aircraft, there is an external cargo door that - that closes and is - does maintain pressure. And we've seen that door fail, the seal on that door fail before. And when that seal fails, it can cause a slow decompression but nothing explosive or extremely rapid.</s>BALDWIN: OK. OK. So a lot of possibilities that could lead to this pressurization problem.</s>SOUCIE: Certainly.</s>BALDWIN: Les and David and Mary, thank you all very much. We're going to stay on this. Again, if you're just joining us, there was a pressurization problem on board this flight that had left Chicago heading to Hartford, Connecticut. They had to divert to Buffalo, New York. One person - at least one person unconscious. And so we're working to figure out exactly what happened and what happened to the rest of these passengers here. Stay with me for more on that. Also ahead, new developments in the deadly arrest of a suspect in Baltimore. We will take you inside a police transport van. That is what 25-year-old Freddie Gray was placed into after he was arrested. And we have brand new video of that incident. Stay here. This is CNN's special live coverage.