they haven't. we got an e-mail saying bergdahl is not in pre-trial confinement and will continue working at his add minministrateive job at the base in san antonio. >> we have to leave it there. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." tonight, breaking news. cnn french affiliate reporting that helicopters are beginning to air lift the remains of victims victims. why was there no distress call for ten minutes. new details about the men flying the plane at the controls and more breaking news beau bergdahl the army charges him with desertion. he speaks out for the first time

time. good evening. breaking news helicopter crews are beginning to air lift the remains of the 150 people lost when that german airliner crashed into the mountains. this is as the mystery. investigators scrambling to analyze the cockpit recorder. we know voices can be heard on the recorder. what caused the plane to plunge for ten minutes without a distress call is unclear. french officials will not rule out terrorism and we are learning the fbi is scouring the plane's passenger list. covering the story from every angle tonight in washington. we begin with nic robertson. what are you learning about the

efforts to retrieve the remains of the people who lost their lives? >> reporter: very hard area for the helicopters to get into. they have been wenching those recovery teams in. these are the first details we're beginning to get that some of the victims remains have been recovered from the mountainside. not clear how many people have been recovered so far. we're learning details from investigators as well. the mystery surrounding the crash only deepened today as french investigators reveal new details of flight 9525's final moments. 10:30 a.m. local time roughly 29 minutes after take off, the plane crosses close to the french coast. someone in the cockpit radios air traffic control. >> the last message broadcast from the aircraft to the control

center in which it was in contact was routine. >> reporter: 10:31, roughly a minute later, the plane begins its dissent. investigators say it dropped 2,000 feet the first minute. 8,000 feet after three. almost 14,000 within five minutes and that dissent even longer than previously reported. >> the descent lasts roughly ten minutes, a bit less. the last altitude recorded by radar is a bit more than 6,000 feet. >> reporter: 10:41 a.m. just ten minutes after the routine contact, the plane disappears from radar and plows into the mountainside. among the many questions, what happened during the minute

between the routine communication and the descent. why was there no distress call from the cockpit in. >> i think they were incapacitated or for some reason to respond and control the plane. for what the plane did in the final few minutes, i don't think a conscious pilot was doing it. >> reporter: what could have caused the pilots to lose consciousness? two of the theory rapid decompression or a fire in the cockpit. one official speaking to the new york times refuses to rule out terrorism saying we don't have any evidence that points to a technical explanation. we have to consider the possibility of deliberate human responsibility. another said it's not considered the most likely explanation for the wreck. a little more than 60 years ago another airliner crashed into these alps killing all on board.

the crash site less than a mile from flight 9525. >> reporter: it will be in about seven hours daylight here. that's when helicopters will begin flying. we'll see some of the families of the victims arriving here searching for some answers and some solace too. >> thank you very much. at any moment investigators could be hearing the pilot's final words. what they were before flight crashed into the french alps. they are working every moment night and day to figure out what could be heard. what do they need to get from the black box?

what must they get? >> they must hear the sounds in the dockcockpit. they will be listening to everything from background noise to alarms that may be going off to the pilot's conversation. they will help answer the question of what was happening in the moment leading up to the crash. they'll listen to this information in taemgeams of six. they'll listen to the stress in the voice, if there is any. even be listening if there's an intrudesr in the dockcockpit or the sound of explosion. perhaps they may hear nothing. that could mean something as well. could mean the pilots were

incapacitated. we will never hear what ever is on the cockpit voice recorder because they do not release that. we know they will reveal what they heard on the recorders. they are still at this point looking for the flight data recorder which is quite different. that would tell them what's happening with the plane from second to second. were all of the planes systems functioning or were they not. >> erin. thank you very much. i know they're trying to get the data recorder. they found the casing but not the actual recorder itself. right now they have the crucial voice recorder. a panel of experts will be with us through the hour. okay. great to have all of you with us. john let me start with you. right now officials are going

through the voice file that renee is talking about. that's what they have. they have one track. multiple tracks came in. they have one track they can hear at this time. what are they listening for? >> they would be listening for any clue especially with respect to the exchange for the pilots. hopefully they'll have some verbiage between the pilots. if, in fact, it was a voluntary thing. >> david what's interesting is they'll never put the audio out but put out a transcript and say what was said. we did hear today was they have heard voices but they aren't telling us what the voices said. >> that won't be released until it's cleared of any criminal investigation or anything going on. that's private and it will never be released even in transcript

at that point. however, having that information available is incredibly important. you can locate where the sound came from as well. you think about that. >> when i only have one track, what does that mean i'm missing? >> there are other inputs. one track is only one channel of sound. one microphone. that's going to say there was a switch flipped. that's all you'll get from that. if you have co-located microphones you can say this had a higher volume than did this other microphone. you can pinpoint which switch was pushed or the general vicinity. if there's only one channel available, doesn't mean they don't have more. he just said -- >> at this point it was damaged. they could retriever others. richard, if the conversation doesn't solve the mystery here

then you'll need the other tracks? >> if there's a conversation between -- >> at all. >> at all. i'd be astonished if there was a conversation during the eight minutes. if you've got two pilots and you can hear them talking and you don't manage to work out what's happening there's something very serious. the issue is it's an incapacitation. >> it does mean at some point they were not incapacitated. >> to understanding the depth, not only the dynamics between the pilots but what caused what. you're not there yet but you're a long way towards it. you really are. >> anthony, they said today, the ceo said he's very confident

they'll get the second the data recorder which is very important. they found the casing. they didn't find the data recorder but he thinks they'll find it and be able to listen to it. >> thank goodness these are digital recorders. these are the new generation recorders. they are more survivable even if it's out of its case. we're very hopeful that the data will still be preserved. if it's been damaged in in way, as part of my team and my company, we have a series of forensic engineers that can retrieve data from very damaged equipment even water damaged equipment. >> what is the information they'll get off of that? that would have the pressurization every second as one example. >> it would. there's thousands of parameters. they do two things. they not only tell you what the position of the control was but it tells you if the control up rated normally. if you're trying to lift or raise the tail you pull back and you say i'm going to go down

or up it tells back there, it has a sensor that tells you where your elevator went. it also confirm that the movements the pilot made were carried out by the aircraft. >> right. will it be able to tell us the crucial thing. say the pilot started the decan she not descent, it will say whether the pilot kept going. >> this is one of the things that's interesting. it's a different philosophy. you're always on auto-pilot because you're flying a computer. when you're controlling the airplane and asking the computer to do something and it decides how to do it. there's way to cut those off and go to alternate and form of law as they call it direct that you can fly the airplane directly. you're always on there. that means if you push the side stick controller and start a descent, if you don't touch it it's going to keep on until it

hits something or warning system sees something ahead. >> which oddly it didn't see in this case. thanks to all of you. stay with us next fire decompression, catastrophic i didn't mean to failure. if it doesn't intentional, and we'll talk about that later, what did bring down flight 9525. officials are not ruling out terrorism. the breaking news the military charges beau bergdahl with desertion. for the first time beau bergdahl in his own words. plap

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. all 150 on board lost their lives. we're told it was in perfect technical condition. the weather also seem sgly per if he can for flying. there was no distress call. tom, they're trying to figure out what happened. they have this audio file. they say they will get the data recorder. they don't have it yet. what are they looking at? >> one of the things is how that compares to other accidents that

they know about where they know why a plane went down. for example, they might look at something like alaska air. the alaska air crash was a big mechanical failure. there was a large thing called a gateway and it took away the how the plane was pitching up and down. look at what happened with that flight. as they fought to control the plane you could see it pitching up and down until finally they reached to point where they couldn't control it anymore. it plunged some 18,000 feet in a few seconds. everyone passed away. they were dealing with an evolving emergency. tried to make an emergency landing. look at their flight pattern. this looks like people

struggling with the plane that won't do what they want it to. they ran out of time. they hit the water and also everyone died. this was a greek plane where they did have the problem of hypoxia. they have a pressure leak. everyone in the plane passed out according to investigators and the plane flew on autopilot for some time running out of fuel and coming into the ground. look at that pattern. very different. it's sort of a smooth line down to where it struck and everyone was lost there. that is the type of thing they're looking for. they are look at different wrecks where they know the cause to say what did it look like in the final minutes. >> if you take the german wings flights that we know against those three lines, does it measure up against the helios one. >> if you put that one in there you can see it looks a lot like that one.

does that mean this was an automated flight to the ground? doesn't necessarily mean it but it doesn't take it off the table either. it doesn't look a lot like for example, the alaska air flight with the catastrophic failure. it looks like something else. they will consider all of that against the recording, erin. they hear voices after it's de descending then that will tell them. >> thank you. now our experts back with us. as he points out it looks like a depressurization that's a line on a chart. it's not all the back up data. >> it's a realistic isistic possibility

as is every other possibility. it's too soon to speculate. i can't see any way in which any of us here tonight can hang our hats on a particular cause. i think the nature of this incident is so different, it's so worrying. it's so disturbing because of the external factors that you can't say i'd go for one or the other. >> which is very terrifying and why it's so important. at least they have the voice data recorder. they'll have some kind of information. anthony, on the issue of depressurization. how could that have happened? >> it could be insidious depressurization. in other words, a slow depressurization that's almost imperceptible but there should be cockpit audible warnings to warn the pilots against there.

there could be explosive decompression as a result of some structural failure of the aircraft. everything flies around that's not tied down. it physically feels like it's punched. it's a physical event. if that's happened we expect the aircraft to have defuated deviated left to right. this is indication of some software failure in which there was an uncommanded control descent or perhaps incapacitation of some type for some reason whether through criminal intent by a crew member or passenger or by some other means, mechanical event or cascading series of mechanical failures. richard is right.

>> the issue of the fact this plane descended steadily by not out of control. would depressurization fit with that. if it happened slowly maybe they wouldn't notice it. what would explain a descent that doesn't stop or move? >> when you put a command into this aircraft it's going to go where you tell it to go by that command. when you let go it will continue on that flight path. >> once you start it will go until you physically move it somewhere else? >> exactly. this could be done in two different ways. if it was accidental pushed eded forward and released it would continue on that flight path down. it's not stable enough to say it's auto-pilot though in my opinion it appears there was some drift.

it could be explained by a different mode of the auto-pilot system. if the goal was to maintain power or speed or altitude those all change. >> john besides the pressure you're talking about mechanical failure, you think fire is a possibility. how come? >> i thought it was at first. the idea was based on the supposition they changed course and they did and that was the precursor to the emergency descent. i'm getting more and more convinced we are dealing with an incapacitation. you're going to see a little variance in there. it's unclear whether the

auto-flight system was interrupted by human or not. i don't see any evidence that this is an airplane doing what it's been told to do. that tells me that something happened at the very top. that initial course change that i thought was in the last 36 hours was a purposeful thing, apparently it was purple only in terms of putting the next weight in the airplane. that's interesting as well. >> thanks to all of you. you're not going anywhere. we'll keep talking about this. the last ten minutes of that flight flying directly into a mountainside without a single distress call. what do we know about the two men sitting there at the controls? we'll tell you everything we know and we're learning there were three americans on board that plane including a virginia mom and her daughter. their story ahead.

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this is what is left of that black box and this is the condition it's in after hitting the mountain. this is the most crucial piece of evidence they have. right now very little is known about those two people. they were at the controls. fred is outfront tonight where flight 9525 was headed. fred today we did learn some new information about the captain, right. >> reporter: yeah it was very little but it was a little bit of something. we didn't learn the names of the captain or co-pilot. we did learn from the press conference that was held today by the ceo of lufthansa and german wings that the captain was an experienced man. he had ten years flying experience. all of them also he had about 6,000 flying hours on this particular make of aircraft.

he had been flying it for a long time. we know the amount of a-320 pilots in germany it's a close knit community. there aren't many of them around which is one of the reasons why so many of the pilots felt they were unfit to fly and had been turning down assignments from the german wings company. the company says that it's very well aware of and something they do understand. >> fred, we don't know much about the pilot but you know a little bit. we know even less about the co-pilot. >> reporter: yeah. even less about the co-pilot. absolutely right. it was questioned asked today after the press conference held by the two ceos. the only thing that the ceo said is these were two very experienced lufthansa pilots. it's not must have information.

it is something interesting in there in the fact he said these were two lufthansa pilots. they are trying to avoid anyone saying this crash happened because this was a budget airlines. they're saying these were full on pilots and had nothing to do with the fact this was a german wings flight. therefore, that's one of the things they are putting forward. it's interesting because these are the same company. if you're a lufthansa pilot you can choose to fly for lufthansa or german wings. that's one of the things the ceo is trying to say, trying to rule out this had anything to do with the fact this wadss a budget airline. >> all right. fred thank you very much. a lot of important information in there. they are paid the same trained the same as a full lufthansa

pilot, which is one of the best airlines in the world. he said they were two experienced and trained pilots. that's it. we don't know anything about the co-pilot. for you that raises some red flags. >> a little bit. the one thing is if there's hidden information and my investigations the only time i would hold that information back is if there was some other kind of criminal question or more importantly from my perspective is the regulatory question. is there a regulatory violation. that has to be vetted very closely first like duty time and whether or not he had enough flight hours to be in the seat. >> any sort of something that wasn't totally right not nefarious but not right. >> right. that might delay the release of that information.

>> other than the pilots there were four crew members, 144 passengers. is it possible someone other than the pilots could have been involved? >> it is very possible. we have this armored door leading to the cockpit but i've spoken with several mechanics for major airlines and we know the front lavatory that's to the left, right of the armored door in the cockpit in the first class section, in jet blue it's at the front of the plane, there is no first class. there's no armor in the head leading to the cockpit from the lavatory. that can be compromised. there are many ways to enter the cockpit when the pilot exits. some people can be acrobatic. there are instances in which it's been a crew member. we had it recently within the last year year and a half. a jet blue captain came out of

the cockpit, incoherent screaming about how it was going to be an attack on the plane and he was subdued by the passengers themselves. we don't know. it can be any of the above. >> john they're not ruling anything out. the french authorities have said they don't seem so expect it but they're not ruling that out either. >> absolutely. the bell this rings is we got to say we're not trying to solve this accident we're looking at the things we can understand. secondly you don't rule anything in or out until the investigation is over. thirdly, there's never just one cause to an airline accident. by the way, in the jet blue case he mentioned, that pilot was having an epileptic attack and he's been treated like a criminal ever since. >> a automation the air bus family in general, whether in this case or in general, just

the -- >> the boeing pilots. >> the weakness of a hack. the reality is the cyber attack idea is still farfetched in this situation. if it was nefarious, it wasn't through computer. >> through someone in the cockpit whether sitting there or entering there. >> there were some instances in this particular case where the faa in 2014 in january of 2014 issued warning about hacking through the firewall of the passenger entertainment system into the cockpit. maybe david knows a bit more about that. >> more software hacking. >> this is software. >> in the old of an aircraft those aircraft that are

susceptible are mostly after 9/11. >> thanks to all of you and out there on the west coast, john. the victims of the crash. there were three americans on that flight including a mother and her daughter. breaking news, the military charging beau bergdahl with desertion. he lays out how he said he tries to escape many, many times. and even though their dentures look clean, in reality they're not. if a denture were to be put under a microscope we can see all the bacteria that still exists on the denture and that bacteria multiplies very rapidly. that's why dentists recommend cleaning with polident everyday. polident's unique micro clean formula works in just 3 minutes, killing 99.99% of odor causing bacteria. for a cleaner, fresher brighter denture every day. there's nothing more romantic than a spontaneous moment. so why pause to take a pill? and why stop what you're doing to find a bathroom? with cialis for daily use, you don't have to plan around either.

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xfinity my account. available on any device. the new york times is siting a senior military official involved in the investigation who is saying one of the pilots was locked out of the cockpit. let me tell you what the news is that they have here. the new york times, there was a very smooth and very cool this is how the investigator describes the conversation between the pilots. then one of the pilots left the cockpit. according to the new york times. here is the quote from the senior military official. the guy outside is knocking lightly on the door and there's no answer. he hits the door stronger and no answer. there is never an answer. you can hear he's trying to

smash the door down. okay. i want to bring in our panel right away on this. the military official goes onto say we don't know the reason why that pilot or co-pilot i want to emphasize we don't know which one left the cockpit. no matter how you look at it this is a very significant development. >> it is. we start off with where they got the information which is the cockpit voice recorder. >> the military official who heard it. >> we know from from the b.e.a. there were voices on it. >> that's the french ntsb. >> that's our starting point. where did they get this from. pilot out of cockpit, tries to get back in banging on the door no response. whoever is on the inside hasn't released the door to open. it doesn't mean nefarious. >> it doesn't necessarily. it could mean two things. one nefarious. the pilot wanted to bring down

the plane or had a heart attack or something happened and he was unable to open the door. >> or he was incapacitated in the cockpit. >> at some point during this the descent starts. >> you put one control and you let it go it's going to stay where you held it. if i put in the input to go down at that angle and let go it will return back to the center burp but it will continue to descent. >> if something had happened to the pilot or co-pilot whoever is on the inside heart take, whatever it might have been the move to descent is that something you would lean or slump to hit or would you have to do that? >> absolutely. >> think of a joy stick. for those that don't understand how the airbus is flown, it's not flown with a wheel, it's flown with a hand joy stick like

a video game by the side. if it's the captain's side it's just here. >> it's opposite. >> the captain will be here and the co-pilot on that side. what i'm saying if whoever was flying the plane or in the cockpit, became incapacitated, even if they slumped forward and pushed it forward, that would create a movement of the aircraft which would not stop until you pulled it back. >> that's the automation of the airbus. let me read the quote again from the new york times the way they describe it. the guy is knocking lightly. there's no answer. he hits the door stronger and no answer. there's never an answer. you can hear he's trying to smash the door down. what do you think when you hear this at face value? >> i've came to this conclusion a couple of hours ago and was reluctant to do so but the idea that if one pilot was in there

and another was outside and the pilot inside violated a no lone zone had a heart attack a seizure, an aneurysm burst, this could be the exact scenario. i find it interesting that's the exact moment at which a change in the computer would have been made which would have caused somebody to lean forward. maybe that's not coincidental but it looks like it. the thing is i don't believe that we had anything add add ver tant. there would have been more manipulation. >> the group here at this moment is leaning toward some sort of medical emergency. >> i think we have to be careful about investigation bias. you have two scenarios. it was intentional by the pilot left in the cockpit or he suffered or she suffered some medical condition which incapacitated them and they --

>> this doesn't -- this raises the question which we don't know is what is german wings procedures to get back in the cockpit. >> i'm hearing this as a person how do you not have a plan for this? isn't there always the expectation someone gets up to the bathroom and something happen to the pilot or something? >> we shouldn't have one up there. it was a no exit zone. >> there should be two people. >> in plane like this where you have a pilot and co-pilot and someone has to go to the restroom you'll have one person in the cockpit. >> there should be a flight attendant in there. >> someone else would come in. >> john brings up a very interesting point and very important point. why didn't that happen? >> because some airlines don't have that policy. >> i'd be surprised if they didn't have it. i'd be terribly surprised.

lufthansa's training program goes beyond the standards. they begin to start upset training as a part of the primary training of the pilots. >> this initial report we have from the new york times is terrifying. there's people in the front of the plane, passenger who is would have seen this happening terrifying to imagine. as we get more information we'll keep following it. next the breaking news out of d.o.d. beau bergdahl was welcomed home directly, his parents met with the president. now he's facing charges of desertion. what the cloud enables is computing to empower cancer researchers. it used to take two weeks to sequence and analyze a genome;

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the military has announced it's charging beau bergdahl with desertion. swapped for five taliban prisoners last may. for the first time tonight, we hear bergdahl describe the torture he said he endured during nearly five years in captivity. ed lavandera is out front. you've been covering this story for years from where beau bergdahl is from all the way across the country. what is he saying now in his defense defense? >> reporter: this is unexpected. we had a statement from the

lawyer and the various documents beau derg call's attorney released including a 2 page decision in beau bergdahl's own words what happened in captivity. in the first three months, he was chained to a bedspread eagle and blindfolded tortured shackled and chained inside cages for months on end. some of the shackles causing severe wounds that never healed. at one point he writes i was kept in constant isolation during the entire five years with little to no understanding of time. i was told i was going to be executed. told i was never going to go back. told i was going to die there. he also talks about beau bergdahl made 12 attempts to escape. one of the significant ones came toward the end of the first year of his captivity. when he said he was able to be on the run for nine days. without food and only putrid water to drink, my body failed on top of a short mountain close

to evening and some moments after, came i was found by a large taliban searching group. after, he was tortured and beaten once again. erin? >> now, in addition to desertion, eddy he's facing other charges as well. so what are they? could he face the death penalty? desertion, that is desertion of your nation. there is nothing greater. >> reporter: right. and that's, so there's the desertion charge and second is misbehavior before the enemy. that's actually the more serious charge which could come with a possible more severe sentence of life in prison. one of the letters in the statement released by beau bergdahl's attorney outlines in great detail why the case they will make this is undue punishment for beau bergdahl, who spent already five years in captivivity and undergoing great deal of physical and psychological therapy. of course as you've heard, we documented over the last few

months many of the soldiers that served with beau bergdahl believe he's a deserter and a traitor and want to see him punished fully. >> they believe this from the very beginning. important to say in a lot of these cases, they've been vocal for the entire five year period. ed lavandera, thank you very much. now outfront our political analyst view josh rogan. in addition to that reality, right, which is a lot of people said he was a deserter from the beginning. the army no person goes left on the field. we'll bring him home. do our own investigation. but the president put his face on this. made a huge deal about getting his release, public rose garden announcement with his parents, getting five taliban commanders in exchange for beau bergdahl and here's what the president and his national security advisor said at the time. >> and he wasn't forgotten by his country. because the united states of america does not ever leave our men and women in uniform behind. >> he served the united states with honor and distinction.

>> susan rice he served with honor and distinction. that's what he said and now charged with desertion. isn't this a problem for them? >> it is and an ongoing problem for the white house for two reasons. one, despite the fact that there were a lot of people involved in the negotiation and implementation of this it was president obama's decision. he knew it would be controversial. both because he was trading taliban commanders but some of the facts of the capture were widely known inside the intelligence and defense community and in the press. so the president took a risk and by standing in the rose garden he put his name to that risk and will answer for that. now we face the prospect as beau bergdahl goes for serious charges, set to be released from house arrest on may 1st. we'll be watching this unfold as these five commanders are released into the wild. there's already been reporting some of them intend tried to return to the fight. so the president will have to

answer continuing questions, both about whether or not the trade was worth it and second about why the administration crazed beau bergdahl when they knew or should have known the circumstances of his disappearance were controversial. >> given they knew and wouldn't have come out as aggressively as they did at the time. barbara starr, as josh points out, reported. at least one of them is tied to militant activities. we'll be right back. introducing preferred rewards from

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thank you so much for joining us. set your dvr to record "outfront" to watch us anytime. "ac360" begins right now. good evening. thanks for joining us. we have breaking news. it truly change everything we now know about the crash of germanwings 9525 with 150 people on board including three americans. reporting in the new york times, citing a senior military official and evidence from the airbus a 320 voice recorder suggesting one pilot had left the flight deck prior to the crash and was unable to get back into the cockpit. the times quoting the official, an investigator saying quote, the guy outside is knocking lightly on the door there's no answer. and then he hits the door stronger and no answer. there is never an answer. you can hear he's trying to smash the door down. joining us on the phone, retired airline captain jim tillman. joining