sensitive bladder? try new always discreet up to 40% thinner, for superior comfort. absorbs 2x more than you may need. no wonder more women already prefer new always discreet pads over poise. visit alwaysdiscreet.com for coupons and to learn more. hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington 8:00 p.m. in yemen. and wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we have break news a deliberate attempt to destroy the aircraft.

that's the stunning conclusion from the prosecutor about what led to the crash of germanwings flight 9525 and it marks a shocking twist in the investigation. the prosecutor now says the co-pilot apparently crashed the plane into the french alps on purpose. among the reasons for that conclusion, after the pilot left the cockpit, the co-pilot refused to let him back in even when he was banging on the door and screaming. the prosecutor says that can only be voluntary. >> we can conclude that in all circumstances it's deliberate. at the moment i consider it to be deliberate first of all refusing entry to the cockpit, second maneuvers the lever for loss of altitude it is a thousand meters a minute as if he was landing. way above the mountains, aren't we?

and there's no other airport which could receive an airbus 320 anywhere near. >> officials with the airlines parent company lufthansa say they're speechless that the co-pilot would deliberately crash the plane killing everyone on board, 150 people. what do we know about this co-pilot? he's identified as andreas lubitz 28 years old, a german national. he had been with the airline since september of 2013. let's bring in our senior international correspondent. you just had an exclusive interview with the lufthansa ceo. tell us what he told you. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. i just talked to carsten spohr about a wide range of issues pertaining to this case. there were two main points. one of them was the mental stability of this co-pilot. he said there were absolutely no indications at least to

lufthansa that he might have been mentally instable that he might have had any sort of depression issues. he also said he believes this is what he calls an isolated case. there was no indication of this. this is not an indication that perhaps their system of evaluating mental issues with their pilots might be flawed. however they also said they would re-evaluate it as well. i also asked how he could be so certain all of this was done deliberately with criminal intent. let's listen in to what he had to say. >> apparently after the captain left the cockpit, he tried to regain access were there were knocks on the doors and the door was either kept locked or not opened in the way it was supposed to be and that for sure is a clear indication that the remaining pilot, the co-pilot didn't want the captain to return. >> reporter: so he clearly said

that the co-pilot did not want the captain to reenter into the cockpit. of course then there was that struggle as the captain tried to get entry somehow. he also said the door of that airplane would have been reinforced and all but i am possible for the captain to get back in there. the other thing he wanted to make very clear is that the airline is absolutely devastated that this would have happened. he said that the relatives of the victims of those 150 people who were killed were informed before the media actually was. he does say they are going to be cared for moving forward as well. >> do we know if this co-pilot had undergone any type of psychological screening either before he was hired or during his period as a co-pilot? >> reporter: well, you know what, this is interesting. i talked to him about this as well. he said that while there aren't

any specific tests for mental fitness after you've become a pilot, the entire process of undergoing the training is one that puts cadets under mental strain all the time. it's part of being a pilot. they see what happens when they are in stress situations. they see how good they are at multi-tasking under pressure for instance. so he said the whole process is one that tries to evaluate whether these people are mentally strong. i asked if they might need more safeguards in the future but also with pilots who are pilots already. he said that he believes the system that lufthansa has in place was one that is up to international standards, is one that has worked very well for the company over the past six decades. he also said in light of what happened, they are going to re-evaluate that. he also said lufthansa has a system in place if someone is

flying with someone they believe is mentally instable or any sort of other issues that there ask a process of reporting, reporting anonymously and that you have to report that person. and apparently there were no other issues he had with other colleagues in the past wolf. >> we are told that he did take a period of a few months during his training he took a leave for unexplained reason. do we know why he did that? >> reporter: no we don't. and this was something that carsten said earlier today as well. he did take a leave of several months. he said it was not something necessarily uncommon when people are trying to become pilots. but he said there was no indication or knowledge they had that it would have been due to any psychological issues. this is something that now is a criminal investigation as well and that certainly the past of andreas lubitz is certainly also

something investigators are going to be looking into. probably very specifically that time that he took off during his training and see whether or not it might have had something to do with what happened here in the past couple days whether or not he might have had mental issues in the past that might have been a big factor in him bringing that plane down. >> stand doctors by. this certainly takes the investigation in a new direction and gives a lot to discuss with our panel of experts joining us now, the former managing director of the u.s. national transportation safety board, also tom fuentes is here our law firm analyst, former fbi assistant director, and cnn aviation analyst. and richard quest is our cnn aviation correspondent. peter, let's start with that locked cockpit. we understand why they now lock those cockpits after 9/11 -- after what happened on 9/11.

but isn't there any procedure if one co-pilot is left inside for that pilot who may have gone to the men's room or whatever to get back inside? >> well, there isn't and that's the problem. this process was initiated after 9/11. and there were widespread meetings and working groups to discuss what was the appropriate response. and the issue was we were facing a new type of terrorist. up until 9/11. pilots were instructed to cooperate with the hijackers. after 9/11 the decision was made we have to arm the cockpit door so it cannot be broached. it was discussed, maybe we should give one of the cabin crew a special code. but there was no way that could be kept secret. it was decided that the lesser of evils was once it's locked, it's locked. >> that's it. unintended consequences in this

particular case. the fbi has been brought into the investigation at the request of the frempbl government. >> right. >> what do they want the fbi to do? >> they would be checking all the databases here in the u.s. no-fly lists, terrorist watch lists. >> for the co-pilot. >> anybody else at the time but the co-pilot specifically now. he also did some training in the u.s. so they would be looking at some places that he traveled. you see a picture of him in front of the golden gate bridge. they would be looking at who was he with did he have a cell phone here in the u.s. then they would run all of the phone numbers they have any other identifying information on him through fbi databases. >> so they learn as much as possible about this co-pilot. this is all based on the information from the plane's cockpit voice recorder. theyed could obviously hear stuff going on inside the cockpit and outside the cockpit. i want you to listen to what the

prosecutor said responding to questions about whether the co-pilot had some kind of medical emergency when he was alone inside the cockpit. >> it does seem that he was breathing normally. it's not the breathing of somebody having a stroke or a heart attack. and he doesn't say anything. not one word. i repeated absolute silence. >> can they conclude from just the recording of the breathing that he wasn't in some sort of medical distress? >> well, you know that's hard to say wolf. i mean it's -- this young man was probably contemplating what he was going to do all that time. it was a short period of time at cruise altitude. it's curious to me why that you know at that moment only a short period of time in cruise altitude the captain chose that moment to get a cup of coffee and took his opportunity then. it almost seemed as that he was

contemplating this and this was an instantaneous decision he made. i want to add to tom fuentes' point. the tsa got involved long before he ever got involved to flight training because he's got to be screened. i'm a flight instructor with small airplanes. if i'm going to fliekt instruct somebody outside the united states, i have to indicate that on the application. they're vetted to some degree. so that is important. but this whole thing is -- as an airline pilot, this hits me right in the gut. it's very disturbing to me. this is not something i would ever have conceived of from any of my fellow crew members. and one of my colleagues has destroyed the public trust and this is so important to really understand and comprehend and especially for the families. i just can't imagine.

>> richard lufthansa officials, they say the pilot did nothing wrong when he went out of the cockpit. let's say he's going to the men's room or whatever that it was okay apparently to leave only the co-pilot in that cockpit. although i understand there are regulations at least here in the united states that one of the flight attendants is supposed to go into the cockpit so there's more than one person in the cockpit at all times. is that right? >> yes. two issues here. the first is whether or not he did anything wrong leaving the cockpit. well the plain was already in cruise at that point. it was a short flight. if you're going to go and take a restroom break, that would be the time to do it before rescent further down route. the u.s. does have a two-person rule. the rest of the world does not. some countries require it others don't. following mh-370 some airlines

insisted on a two-person rule. since this incident norwegian which flies into the u.s. and is a major -- third largest low cost carrier in europe, they put out a statement saying they will now require a two-person rule for their flights. carsten spohr of lufthansa says this is something they will now look at. there needs to be a one size fits all on this. it's ridiculous that some countries have one rules other countries don't. there needs to be a consensus. >> that certainly does make sense. all right. stand by. there's a lot more news coming in. how does a captain get locked out of his own cockpit? will this incident force a change in those rules? plus the families of the victims, they're visiting the crash site today. we're going to go there live. lots happening. stay with us.

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by visiting myrbetriq.com 150 lives lost in the deliberate act. it now seems the co-pilot of flight 9525 quote, wanted to destroy the aircraft. that assessment coming from the marseille prosecutor based on what investigators have found. we know that the captain was locked out of the cockpit after he left for some reason. he could be heard trying to his way through the locked cockpit door. he was screaming. but was the crash planned all along? >> it's too early to anticipate but it's clear that the co-pilot

took advantage of the flight captain leaving the cockpit. could he have known beforehand, i really don't know. >> let's get back to our annualpanel. peter goals is here with me in washington as is our law enforcement analyst tom fuentes. our business and aviation correspondent richard quest joins us from new york. should we really, peter, be all that surprised if in fact the co-pilot deliberately decided for whatever reason to go ahead and take that plane and crash it into the french alps? it's not the first time a pilot or co-pilot has done something like that. >> there have been a number of cases. in 2000 egypt air, the co-pilot flew that plane into the ground. >> off of nantucket massachusetts, killing more than 200 people. >> 240 people.

recently in 2013 a very similar situation was reported involving a smaller plane. but again the investigates indicated that one of the flying pilots was locked out of the cabin and the plane was flown into the ground. in general aviation it happens every year. >> in general aviation meaning private planes. that silk air incident too. silk authorities denied it was suicide. >> that's right. we were the lead investigators. the indonesians invited the ntsb in. we determined that the most likely probable cause was that the pilot had flown the plane into the ground. he had financial and other psychological issues. indonesia never accepted that. but the investigators were quite

confident that's happened. >> how do you prevent that kind of stuff? how do you know if a pilot or co-pilot is having some sort of mental issue and is willing to kill himself or herself, but also kill all the passengers? >> it's a good question, wolf. but let's just say this is not an epidemic with airline pilots. let's assure the public that we don't have these major stress issues where this is something we're considering on every flight. how is it happening? we're hired because we're independent enough to handle a lot of stress and we can deal with a multi-tasking situation. which also involves saying to ourselves, are we fit to fly. i had assigned something that specifically said am i fit to fly. healthy wise in other words do i have a cold or fever, do i have enough rest.

and this can translate unless into the psychological aspect. we police our own because we've been policing our own physical health all these years. we police our own. we're not phycologists. i won't go there. but the bottom line is we know when somebody's having an issue. i fly with some extraordinary people. these folks, even if they're having problems at home are able to come part mentalize. that's why they're pilots and good at what they do. do things come up from time to time like in any professional life? absolutely. and they can be addressed both our union and the company work together to try to get these folks help. every recurrent training we are told about this and reinforced that this is available to us. >> richard, what's your analysis? >> i think you can go so far as to try and protect against the rogue pilot. but you can only go so far. i'm not sure what more you do.

at the end of the day, there is a man or a woman that has their hands on the wheel of the -- or the side stick and at a particular point, they are going to lift that plane into the air or put that plane down onto the ground. yes, there may be moments when they can do it dramatically by getting rid of somebody out of the cockpit and a two-cockpit rule and all those sort of things. if they want to commit suicide in that way, there are ways to do it. there's not an epidemic. we've -- all right, high profile cases. i'm not sure what more you do short of having everybody looking over their shoulder and the -- the essential lack of trust. if you lose trust in your colleague in the cockpit, you will be far worse off than the couple of occasions where this has happened. >> a year ago, mh-370 disappear ltd. no cockpit voice recorder.

we have no idea where that plane is. presumably is in the bottom of the ocean someplace. there was a lot of speculation early on that maybe one of those pilots from mh-370 wanted to do what we just saw apparently happen with this plane in the french apples. this is going to revive that speculation as a result of what has now been declared by the authority in france and germany. >> probably will. i spoke with a senior malaysian police officer who told me again, that to date nothing has been determined about the captain or co-pilot on that flight to ipdindicate any psychological problem. and that may happen in this case. when the investigators in germany examine the co-pilot's hard drives and social media, e-mail accounts, phone calls, who he's talked to what he's said to various friends, colleagues neighbors, they may

find nothing. as miles o'brien said frequently there's no black box inside people's heads in that cockpit. >> if they find them from the malaysian plane, maybe we'll get a clue. >> maybe only a clue. >> we'll see if we ever -- if we ever find those black boxes. not even a scrap yet. obviously that mystery continues. much more coming up on the crash of flight 9525, much more on the victims. also there's other major news. we're watching right now. air strikes in yemen. saudi arabia taking the lead with fighter planes and ground troops but the damage to anti-terror efforts may be beyond salvage. the house homeland security committee chairman congressman mike mccaul is standing by live.

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. we'll get back to the breaking news on that plane crash. much more information coming in right now. horrendous information. but there's other news breaking right now just coming in to cnn including this disturbing development. a united states army national guard soldier and his cousin now face charges of conspireing to provide material support to isis. both men were arrested yesterday. our justice reporter is joining us with the latest. this is disturbing information. tell us what we know. >> very disturbing. hasan edmonds is 22-year-old specialist with the army national guard.

he was arrested trying to get an board 00 flight going to cairo. he knows the government is looking for people going through turkey so he decided to try this route instead. his cousin 29 years old is also charged in this case. according to the justice department what he's accused of doing, he was planning once his cousin left the country, he was going to use his army uniform to try to attack a u.s. military facility in illinois. >> how did this guy get on the investigators' radar? >> it looks like what happened they noticed some postings online. so an fbi undercover agent contacted hasan edmonds and decided to start a conversation over which is period of several months they describe plots to try to join isis and carry out attacks both herein spierd by what they saw happen in paris, by the way, and also try to join

isis. i should note that in the last 18 months the national security division at the justice department has prosecuted or is prosecuting 32 people for traveling or trying to provide some kind of assistance to terrorist groups. 18 of those have involved isis. >> and this particular case army reservist. he was going to use his military background experience to try to help isis battle against the united states. >> right. exactly. that's disturbing allegation here. >> we're going to get more. the chairman of the house homeland security committee, we're going to get his reaction as well adds the dramatic escalation and now a full-scale war unfolding in yemen. saudi arabia and other arab countries they are moving in they're fighting proxies backed by iran. this is an escalating and very dangerous situation. major: here's our new trainer ensure active heart health. heart: i maximize good stuff like my potassium and phytosterols

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duh. try credit karma. it's free and you can see what your score is right now . i just got my free credit score! credit karma. really free. we'll get back to the coverage of the deliberate downing of flight 9525 in a few moments. i want to turn to another important development unfolding right now. this one in yemen. saudi arabia leading a major coalition in yemen launching air strikes against the shiite houthi fighters. they're planning to send 5,000 ground forces in the coming

days. they're leading this coalition of mostly gulf arab states. united states secretary of state john kerry spoke with his counter parts in the gulf states today. he told them that the united states supports their efforts and will provide what's described as logistical and intelligence support to this major saudi led military movie. they come after the elected president was forced to flee his palace in southern yemen when rebel forces swarmed the area. here's a breakdown of the battling groups. the elected government took over after arab spring demonstrations led to the departure of the then president. the iranian backed houthi rebels once confined to parts northwest of yemen, now they have joined forces with army units still loyal to the former president. then there's aqap.

that's a key regional terror group that wants to launch attacks against the united states. add to that a growing isis presence that's been detected. this is clearly a mess to put it bluntly. let's bring in congressman mike mccaul. i want to get your reaction to what evan perez our justice reporter reported. the arrests of two more americans including one u.s. army national guard reservist apparently seeking to go off to egypt and head over to syria, hook up with isis. what do you make of this? >> it's very disturbing to see our national guardsmen going to join the enemy in syria and his cousin plotting to attack a military base in the united states. we have that isis kill list that's been out there. and remember, just last week u.s. air force veteran was

arrested for trying to go join the enemy and isis in syria as well. this is a strangs development of our u.s. military personnel wanting to join isis. the fbi and homeland security officials have been able to detect and destruct and stop these potential plots. >> i know you and other homeland security experts here in the united states you're really worried about aqap in yemen given their track record and wanting to attack targets right here in the u.s. how does it affect the u.s. ability to deal with these terror threats? >> the administration called yemen the model of counter terrorism policy. i think that model failed and imploded. now we're seeing where the shia militants have tried to take over yemen. aqap runningimpunity.

i think this development in the saudis in collaboration with nine other arab nations to go in and stabilize and take out this threat is a positive development. and what i think it could be a role model for counter terrorism in the region particularly against isis as we look forward. the reason why the saudis are going into yemen. it's right in their backyard but also it's the shia militant. that's iran in their backyard not because aqap. i think again it's a positive development if they can stabilize the region. the threat to the homeland is clear. aqap the premier external operation force in the middle east is running free without any ability on our part to monitor. the arab nations can go in and stabilize this, perhaps we can have greater monitoring on the ground intelligence footprint

which we're lacking right now. >> i think you're right i think the saudis backed by the united arab emirates and kuwait and egypt, all these other arab states their real concern right now is that iran that they see as a bitter rooil right now will have this foothold right on the arabian peninsula. >> they're also concerned about the presence of iran in iraq and possibly syria as well which is why we're having a hard time getting their support against isis as we speak. yemen yemen, it's right south of saudi arabia and it's in that -- that peninsula. so they are very concerned about the presence of shia militants, iran in their own backyard. that's why for the first time they're standing up and acting and protecting their own backyard which i think again is a positive step. if we can look at that model of cooperation of arab sunni nations against sunni extremists

and also shia militants have them provide the ground force while we provide air support and special forces to wipe out and destroy these terrorists. >> i'm sure you've seen those reports, mr. chairman that the u.s. left behind in yemen for the -- what once considered yemen military $500 million worth of military equipment at various air bases including in the capital and a lot of that equipment now in the hands of these houthi shiite pro iranian rebels. how worried are you about this dwoemtd? >> well, i'm very worried because it's a failure of foreign policy has now turned over a lot of our capability to the enemy. we had the same thing happen in iraq when they went into mosul and took over -- the iraqi army

folded and they took over a lot of our hardware and technology. same thing happened in yemen. that kind of capability turned against us particularly aqap hell bent on attacking the west and the united states particularly. could be a dangerous situation to the homeland. >> mike mccaul is the chairman of the house homeland security committee. thanks for joining us. thank you. later today, the saudi ambassador to the united states will be my guest in the situation room. that's coming up 5:00 p.m. eastern. the saudi ambassador to the u.s. he announced the saudi military move into yemen last night. we'll talk about what's going. still ahead back to the other top story. a heart breaking trip for the families killed in flight 9525. their journey to the crash site made so much more difficult after learning their loved ones died because of the co-pilot's deliberate acts. we're going to have a live report.

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updating the breaking news this hour. officials now say it appears the co-pilot of germanwings flight 9525 crashed the plane

deliberately. that based on the cockpit voice recorder. the co-pilot refused to let the pilot back in even when he was banging on the door screaming, let me in. he also says the co-pilot initiated the plane's descent from 38,000 feet to 6,000 feet. the prosecutor says all that was done on purpose by the co-pilot. those shocking revelations coming as grieving friends and families go on an emotional trip to the crash site. we're near where the families have gathered. how did they hear this terrible news today that the co-pilot took that plane plane down deliberately? >> well it was the french prosecutor himself who met those families as they arrived in marseille airport. at least two flights have come in bringing relatives from the

german side and the spanish side. before the french prosecutor met the press, he received up to 200 relatives and told them the news first. he said he owed it to them to keep them up to date with every new detail. of course the french prosecutor was under pressure to give out as much detail as he could after leaks overnight in the news media gave way of some of the details of the explosive new material. he said that many of the relatives expressed disbelief. he said that they did not have the words to express their surprise that this investigation had taken this kind of turn. he said then he was bombarded by multiple questions asking technical questions and legal questions as well. families trying to -- to come to terms with just how this could

have happened. and then of course the reaction from the press as he then went and dropped his bombshell publicly, even among the press, dropped jaws and shaking heads. many just could not believe the explosive remarks that the prosecutor was making wolf. >> it was amazing. we were watching it live right here on cnn. do we have an update on the teams scouring the mountain side right now looking for the remains of the people on board that plane? >> yes absolutely. again, the prosecutor going into quite a lot of detail about that. first of all, he said that the recovery of the bodies had begun yesterday afternoon. he also went onto say that because of the speed that the aircraft hit the ground death would have been instantaneous and of course we already know that they're not necessarily looking for whole bodies but body parts. on that the prosecutor had some

strong words. he said recovery teams were recovering remains bit by bit, one by one, and bag by bag. and as that recovery is done those body parts are loaded onto a stretcher, they're taken to a morgue area on the side of the mountain. and that is where the process of formal identification and declaration of death is done. what he also said describing the area as very dangerous and very mountainous said that investigators were working in teams of two accompanied by experienced mountain guides. that enabled many teams to fan out across the mountain side and they were looking and marking any spots where they found body parts or significant parts of the plane as well. but he said it was a task that is going to take a long time. at one point in the press conference he said recovering all the bodies could take several weeks. he then went on and gave a

little bit more precision and said perhaps by the end of next week or the following week most of the >> yeah and the french prosecutor with the chilling words with the cockpit voice recorder before it crashed said they could hear people screaming inside the plane, inside the cabin. we'll check back with you, chilling information. much more on the deliberate crash in the french alps. our panel of experts are with us. stay with us. ...corrects for lane drifting... ...and if necessary, it will even brake all by itself. it is a luxury suv engineered to get you there and back safely. for tomorrow is another fight. the 2015 m-class. see your authorized dealer for exceptional offers through

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throughout the morning and in the afternoon we've been asking viewers in the united states and around the world to submit their questions for our panel. let's bring in peter, tom, less and elizabeth cohen. let's get to the first question. does the rate of descent tell you anything? if the co-pilot was determined to crash? >> we don't know. >> they could have gone down. eight minutes it took them to descend 38,000 feet and crash into the alps. they could have done it more

quickly. good question. miranda asks why don't we have live cam ares on planes to when we detect something wrong we can help the innocent and take over and help? >> the airlines don't want it. i don't know one that shot 149 people at one time. >> that could be live sent to some place. we've got the technology. they have to do it. less a question for you from bob. why is the second black box -- this is for you les -- so hard to find if pinging like it's supposed to? could the pinger be damaged? >> well the pinger is used primarily for underwater situations. in this particular circumstance it would have been the emergency locater transmitter because of the impact with the ground. back to the camera situation, that wasn't going to help this airplane. having a camera in the cockpit,

nobody else could have intervened but the crew members. that's kind of why we're not in favor of it. it doesn't really add to safety. >> might give us a better explanation of what went wrong. as a result you learn from will lessons and avoid those down the road. that's the other side of the argument. >> true. >> let me get another question for his getting. laura asked is it not possible the co-pilot was medically unconscious? >> a lot of people are wondering this. the authorities say the co-pilot deliberately manipulated the buttons in order to make that descent. they say that action "be voluntary." >> new cars stop themselves before a crash. why isn't there technology to prevent a plane from landing anywhere but the run way?

>> we've seen great advances in the use of drones discussions about pilotless planes particularly on cargo flights. i think we're a decade a we're from that technology being testable in the air. >> here's a question for you tom. is there a possibility the plane was hacked and that the co-pilot was framed? >> i think the problem with that is that you couldn't hack the door to be locked. you couldn't hack to keep the pilot out. as far as deliberately changing the trajectory of the plane to go do you think and fly into the mountain i don't see how you could hack that or prevent that from being undone if the co-pilot didn't want that to happen. >> here's a question for you les from michelle. plane was presumably full of fuel. why wasn't there a fiery

ex ex explosion unupon impact? >> the plane literally disintegrated. the fuel didn't have time toimpacted the terrain so quickly. >> what about under the influence of medication and other drugs? how often do they go through screening? >> some go through annual and some do it twice a year. what's interesting is they don't have formal psychological screenings. the family doctor that does the physical is supposed to look at them. are they act ago strangely? doing anything bizarre? unkept? they're supposed to ask about drug use, are you feeling anxious or depressed, thinking of committing suicide? there's no formal screening.

>> do they routinely look at major carriers take pilots and co-pilots and do drug screenings? >> i can't speak for european carriers but can for united states. we do random screening at this point in time. it's random at this point, alcohol and drugs. >> peter has a question for me wolf. it's a serious question. where do we go from here? >> i think this is going to be a wake-up call particularly on the medical and psychological screening area. as our correspondent indicated, often times they go to family doctors to get their screening. it's got to become more sophisticated and independent. >> as you pointed out to me what we're learning to me could potentially be a game changer. we'll have more coming up later

in the situation room as well as throughout the day on cnn. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in the situation room. much more on the breaking news. once again the ambassador to u.s. will be joining us as well. cnn news center coming up for international viewers. for viewers in north america, "newsroom" with brooke baldwin starts now. >> thank you so much. we'll take it from here. good to be with you on this thursday. i'm brooke baldwin. this is breaking news coverage. stunning revelations on the information of the downing of the plane. we are told the co-pilot deliberately crashed this plane into the steep slopes of the french alps. the audio file revealing the chilling moments the captain who left the cockpit momentarily is heard banging on the