Federal Inquiry Under Way in Staten Island Ferry Crash
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hey there, everybody. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING. Six a.m. where we sit - or, we're usually sitting. But standing this morning.</s>RICHELLE CAREY, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.</s>HOLMES: In Atlanta, Georgia. Hello to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.</s>CAREY: And I'm Richelle Carey. And happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Moms rock. Thanks for starting your day with us. Don't they?</s>HOLMES: Moms do rock.</s>HOLMES: And happy Mother's Day to Mom. I'll give you a call later, I swear. We're going to start though in Texas - excuse me, Kansas, actually. Kansas is where the Defense secretary came out yesterday with some strong words that are certainly going to get the people in the halls of Congress and the Pentagon a little worked up. He's talking about major cuts in the military budget. He also took some questions yesterday from military spouses. We'll tell you exactly what he has ahead of him. It's going to be a challenge trying to get these cuts through Congress.</s>CAREY: Absolutely. And also, we're going to be following up on that ferry crash that happened yesterday morning. Lots of new information. Federal investigators are checking it out. Turns out 36 people were injured, and people kept saying that the ferry sped up. They're thinking there were mechanical problems with that. And this is the same vessel involved in that deadly crash back in 2003 when 11 people lost their lives. A lot of information to get to you. But first though, we're going to take a look at some of the headlines. The tsunami watch has been lifted hours after an earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia. And yes, Indonesia is among 14 nations that was devastated by that horrible tsunami back in 2004. Two hundred thousand people were killed. Well, this morning's quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 So far, no word of any injuries. And damage is considered relatively minor. Supreme Court watchers say the countdown begins tomorrow. President Obama is set to announce his nominee any day. This will be the president's second pick for the high court. Now, this nominee would replace Justice John Paul Stevens. He is retiring. And the nominee, of course, has to be approved by the Senate. And we're going to keep you posted on that. And later this morning, the president is scheduled to deliver the commencement address at Hampton University in Virginia, the first president to speak at that school's graduation since George H.W. Bush did that about 20 years ago. And yesterday, the first lady, Michelle Obama, she was the commencement speaker at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.</s>MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY: I wish for you the kind of trials that help you discover your life's work and give you the strength and the faith to pursue it. I wish for you a life lived not in response to the doubts or fears or desires of others, but in pursuit of passions and hopes and dreams that are all your very own.</s>CAREY: Mrs. Obama follows in the footsteps of civil-rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King. He spoke at the historically black college back in 1958 -</s>T.J. HOLMES: Well, we turn to New York now, where the probe is now under way. Federal investigators are looking into that crash of the Staten Island Ferry yesterday. Thirty-six people, at least, injured yesterday morning when that ferry slammed into a pier. Authorities say the vessel apparently suffered some sort of mechanical problem. The captain says as the ferry approached the pier, he was unable to pull back the throttle to slow this thing down. He sounded the alarm to warn the passengers of a hard impact that was coming. Not clear exactly how many heard that alarm, or even if they heard it, understood exactly what it meant. Now, the routine alcohol test of the crew - those were done, show there were no issues there, no problems. Also, there were drug tests that are still being evaluated. Now, this is the same ferry - listen to this - back in 2003, this same ferry was involved in a similar crash. Eleven people were killed then. Same thing, the ship plowed into a pier. The ship did have a multimillion-dollar rehabilitation before it was put back into service.</s>ROBERT SUMWALT, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: We felt that since there had been a previous accident involving the Andrew J. Barberi, we wanted to come back and see if there any reoccurring issues that - that may have been left over from that. Yes, I don't have any reason to believe that that is the case, but I think given that this - this very vessel has been involved in an accident, we - we told the Coast Guard that we would to take primacy of this investigation and they - they agreed. So - so that's why we're here.</s>HOLMES: Well, federal investigators are expected to spend up to a week at the crash site. CNN national correspondent Susan Candiotti picks up the story for us.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The 20-minute ferry ride from Manhattan to Staten Island was routine, until the captain couldn't break. It was about a minute before he pulled into the dock.</s>DUANE FOREST, PASSENGER: All of a sudden, I heard a series of buzzers. And then I heard someone say, 'Red, red, red.'</s>ALICIA EASON, PASSENGER: If it wasn't for the ferry worker yelling, 'Brace yourself,' we wouldn't have known. I mean, it literally happened -- he said, 'brace yourself,' and we hit.</s>CANDIOTTI: Hitting the deck hard enough to blow two holes into the hull on each side, about 17 feet above the water line. Investigators say the ferry was churning ahead at full speed, just under six miles an hour when the throttle appeared to fail. Emergency crews were on the scene quickly attending to the injured. Of the 250 passengers aboard, 36 were taken to hospitals, most with minor injuries. After a week that included an attempted car bombing in Times Square, tourists aboard the ferry were especially rattled.</s>SHEILA FORREST, PASSENGER: You know, all the stuff that you hear goes on here in New York, and you're thinking, 'Oh my gosh, what's happened now?'</s>CANDIOTTI: Coincidentally the same ferry was involved in a 2003 accident that left 11 people killed. Its captain was convicted of manslaughter. He admitted being on medications that made him sleepy. Citing a series of mechanical failures over the years that led to action, a New York congressman is calling for a closer look.</s>REP. MICHAEL MCMAHON (D), NEW YORK: Every time a Staten Islander or visitor gets on a ferry, they should feel safe and confident, and this does raise some alarm bells. Ferry officials bristled when asked about this boat's maintenance record.</s>JAMES DISMONE, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, STATEN ISLAND FERRY: It is maintained in accordance with the highest standards of the American Bureau of Shipping and the United States Coast Guard. It is fully maintained.</s>CANDIOTTI (on camera): There will be an investigation into what caused a sudden mechanical failure that for about two hours shut down ferries that normally handle about 65,000 passengers daily. Susan Candiotti, CNN, Staten Island, New York.</s>CAREY: That broken well head in the Gulf of Mexico, still gushing oil. BP's first attempt to cap it didn't work. And blame it on something called hydrates. Let's try to explain what that is. They're ice-like crystals that ended up forming inside that four-story dome that engineers were hoping would put an end to all this. Hydrates are lighter than water, so that means that -- that the dome is floating, makes it very difficult to maneuver. They could also plug up attempts to siphon the oil. We're talking 210,000 gallons a day still gushing. BP says fixing this problem, just that problem alone, could take at least two days before they could even proceed with anything else. A BP official talked about this problem.</s>DOUG SUTTLES, BP CHIEF  OPERATING OFFICER: We were placing the dome over the leak source. A large volume of hydrates formed inside the top of the dome, requiring us to move the dome to the side of the leak point. The dome is currently sitting on the seabed while we evaluate options to deal with the hydrate issue.</s>CAREY: And BP officials had already said that this might not work because they've never tried it at a depth like this, 5,000 feet. And now golf-ball-size balls of tar are starting to wash up on three miles at that beach off of Alabama. We're talking about Dauphin Island. A woman who found the stuff says it looks like tree bark, but it has a liquid consistency. In her words, it is definitely oil. This tar is now being examined to determine if it came from the leaking oil well. CNN's Brooke Baldwin is in Biloxi, Mississippi. And Brooke, We know that you went to the islands and scooped up some of that water to test it. What are the results?</s>BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. So we went out to the Chandelier Islands a couple of days ago. I scooped up what looked like just an orange goo and I put it in this water bottle. So we went up to Micro-Methods. It's a lab in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and they extracted this. Can you see this? Final answer: It is indeed oil. Listen.</s>BALDWIN: All right, Harry. We brought you our mix of what we thought was oil and water. Was it oil?</s>HARRY HOWELL, LAB DIRECTOR, MICRO-METHODS INC.: Actually, it was. I showed you the extraction we did yesterday, and what you have in your hand is --is the concentrated material that came out of your sample. And we injected it in our machine, and we were able to identify the concentration of oil.</s>BALDWIN: And so this is this teeny, tiny bottle. And this is what you extracted, and this is the oil. And was it pretty potent?</s>HOWELL: Yes. It was the highest sample we have - we have gotten into the laboratory.</s>BALDWIN: The highest sample?</s>HOWELL: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: Highest potency?</s>HOWELL: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: Are you surprised?</s>HOWELL: Yes. Yes, I am a little surprised. But many of the samples that we have gotten up to this point, of course, were pre- contaminant samples. So I'm - again, I don't know where you took the sample, but obviously, it was in a - in high contamination.</s>BALDWIN: Took it off the Chandelier Islands near a popular fishing spot near a pelican nesting area. I know you're no marine biologist, but this cannot be good for the wildlife.</s>BALDWIN: And I'm trying to hold up this teeny tiny vile of the oil organics that was extracted from what we scooped up in the chandelier a couple of days ago. And you heard Harry - you know, he said this was the most potent extraction that he had received over the course of the last few days. We took this and we had a conversation with an - a marine oceanographer, and he actually told me there are already reports of shrimp that have been pulled out of these waters and had to be tossed out simply because they weren't damaged on the bottom, but as the shrimpers cast their nets and they'd pull it up through the top of the water, this stuff coats the shrimp, meaning it's no good.</s>CAREY: Exactly, and that's going to...</s>BALDWIN: T.J., Richelle.</s>CAREY: Thanks, Brooke. And of course, that's going to cost the livelihood of - of a lot of people that make a living off of that water. Brooke, thank you very much. Appreciate it.</s>HOLMES: Well, we're going to turn some weather now, and our Reynolds Wolf is keeping an eye on things, including some snow.</s>HOLMES: Snow in the springtime. Where is this happening, Renny?</s>WOLF: Basically, if you look at the bottom of the screen, it says "Duluth, Minnesota." That's where they have had some of the snowfall.</s>HOLMES: That's why you put that up there for me?</s>WOLF: We - we do what we can.</s>HOLMES: On the screen?</s>WOLF: It - it's called "simplification," is what we refer to it as. Guys, seriously, we had a little bit of that up in Minnesota, parts of Michigan. Even in upstate New York, you may see some snowfall this morning. Sorry guys, I got the goofies going on. We could see more snowfall today, mainly up in parts of, say, extreme northern New England, but also a chance of severe weather as we get into Monday. We're going to talk about that coming up in a few moments. You're watching CNN SUNDAY MORNING. See you in a few.