Transcripts For WPVI Good Morning America 20150104 : vimarsa

WPVI Good Morning America January 4, 2015

Head back to school after the long holiday break and the best way to protect them. And who is Paul Mccartney . Thats what they were asking. The twitter storm stirred up after kanye west released a new song, a collaboration with the famous beatle. Wait until you hear how his young fans are reacting. Good morning, everybody. Paula is off this morning. It is, however, great to have elizabeth vargas, anchor of 20 20 with us this morning. Its great to be here with all of you and were going to start with a story we led with yesterday. There are brandnew developments this morning in that remarkable story of a little girl who lived through a plane crash that killed her entire family. She then walked through the woods barefoot and bloody to get help from a neighbor. And were now getting a better sense of her bravery that night and were learning more about her family. How much her father loved to fly and the hours he spent in the cockpit. Abcs gio benitez has the very latest from the scene in kentucky. Gio, good morning to you. Reporter dan, good morning to you. That little girl is now out of the hospital reunited with the rest of her family. Take a look behind me. Those are the woods that she walked through. It was freezing that night. This is the house that she knocked on the door of. A remarkable journey for that little girl. This morning, a new photo of the gutzler family posted by a relative on facebook and now new details about a little 7yearold girl named sailor. The sole survivor of the plane crash that killed her father, mother, sister and cousin. The 7yearold has just come out of the woods alone, scratched up, and i think she was involved in a plane crash. Reporter the plane taking off from key west, florida, friday night, dad in the pilots seat taking the family back home to illinois but just before 6 00 p. M. Local time he reported engine problems losing contact with air traffic controllers. The plane crashing ending up upside down. But nobody seems to have seen it fall from the sky. Faa records revealing the dad at the controls, Marty Gutzler, was an extremely experienced commercial pilot and a certified flight instructor. Police say little sailor, alone, barefoot and bleeding walked through the dark, thick brush and woods following a light in the distance ending up at the doorstep of Larry Wilkins trembling. We thought her arm was broke and her left foot was hurting pretty bad. She was barefooted, by the way. She had one sock. Reporter police saying sailor had to get through hills, creeks, even Railroad Tracks in total darkness. She walked through briars and thorns and very steep you know theres one creek bed that was probably 12foot deep that she walked through to get from point a to point b. The whole time knowing her parents had died. I wouldnt want to go in that woods right now in the dark. Theres no doubt in my mind. Shes a brave little girl. Reporter back home the family is beloved. Marty gutzler and his wife kimberly owned this Furniture Store in nashville, illinois. Their home where all the neighborhood kids would gather. A basketball hoop right out front. Family friends say marty, a longtime pilot, had made that same trip to florida before. He loved flying. I mean, you didnt have a conversation with marty without him talking about flying. Reporter and weve now learned ntsb investigators are on the ground here in kentucky right now. They will see the crash site for the first time today. Elizabeth. All right. Gio, thanks so much. And lets bring in abc news aviation consultant colonel steve ganyard. Steve, you just heard ntsb investigators now on the ground. What will they be looking at right away . Remember that the pilot reported problems with one of the engines prior to the mishap so theyll be looking at the mechanical problems that might have brought this airplane down but we also know they went through a fairly significant area of heavy weather so perhaps weather played a role, as well but these are all parts of the puzzle that will need to be put together. I know you spent the night overnight studying all the flight data from this flight the altitude the speed. What were you able to deduce happened . Again, they were going through an area of weather when the problem occurred so maybe there was a weather factor in there but we saw them also in a very slow controlled descent and then there was a lefthand turn off to the west right prior to going off the radar, so perhaps they were setting up to go in to divert to another airport where they could land safely but about 2700 feet all radar contact was lost. And was that how soon or after was that when the pilot had radioed he was having engine trouble . Where in that descent did that come . Just minutes after that. So this happened fairly quickly. Im sure that there was lots going on in the cockpit. We dont know what other circumstances there may have been. Maybe it was both engines but thats what the ntsb will be there to find out today. Lots going on in the cockpit but Marty Gutzler was an experienced pilot. He was even a flight instructor. He was. But if you think about it, you have a heavy airplane. Its night, youve got bad weather. You lose an engine, even the most proficient pilots would be challenged by this scenario and one little mistake could have led to disaster. All right, steve ganyard, and its still remarkable, steve, isnt it that that little 7yearold girl walked away from that flight. It is remarkable. Its a great miracle. All right. Thanks so much for joining us. In our next half hour well hear from other sole survivors of plane crashes. An exclusive and very lucky group. They are, in fact. Many of them still bearing the scars, both physical and emotional. Well hear from them coming up later. We do move on to those nasty storms hitting as millions are returning home from holiday vacation. Coming soon a blast of some of the coldest air we have seen so far this winter and as always, meteorologist rob marciano is tracking all of it for us. Good morning, sir. Good morning, dan. This is a powerful storm. Look at it. A lot of moisture streaming in from the gulf of mexico and a lot of cold air coming in behind this thing. All the advisories, winter storm warning for the next 12 hours across Northern New England and winter storm watch for the next system coming in all the while the last 24 hours has been a rough one for much of the country. Overnight, fierce storms sweep through texas, the Northern Plains and the gulf coast. Snow and ice in amarillo, texas, causing wrecks and major problems on the roads. A blizzard in the Northern Plains. Snow and 50mileperhour winds near grand forks, north dakota, made for whiteout conditions. Near pittsburgh, pennsylvania, this salt truck slides out of control right into this house. Icy roads caused this 12car pileup on interstate 90 in albany backing up traffic for miles. Our car didnt get totaled but people are getting injured and its quite serious. Reporter in the gulf coast severe thunderstorms ripped through mississippi and alabama. High winds tearing down trees. At least six reports of tornadoes devastating homes in seven counties. Torrential rainfall and severe flooding in tuscaloosa making travel there impossible. Some Power Outages well across alabama and the threat for Severe Weather will continue today across alabama, georgia in through florida, heavy rain there and then the low itself gets into Northern New England, the back side will bring more in the way of snow through chicago and across parts of upstate new york then comes the cold and the wind so the wind chill advisories for this morning, minus 19 is what it feels like in goodland minus 14 in denver and minus 19 as well in minneapolis. Cold stuff, 80s in florida. The injustice. Rob, thank you. You know winter has fully arrived when were talking about both frigid weather and the flu. According to the cdc, the flu has reached epidemic levels with half of the united states, 22 states seeing high flu activity. At least 15 children have died so far and with kids now heading back to School Tomorrow after the holiday break, we wanted to bring in dr. Jen ashton for advice. Good morning. Good morning. So arent schools like petri dishes at this time . They always are. This year its all about the strain of flu known as h3n2 what is hitting particularly hard especially kids and teenagers. But there are some things that were doing even in my house with my kids as they get ready to go back to school that you can encourage your kids to do to help prevent or reduce the risk of getting sick. The cdc is still recommending the flu vaccine, even though its not a particularly good match, it can offer some benefit. We always tell our kids, wash your hands, keep them clean. The more you wash them, the better. Getting a lot of sleep is definitely helpful. Covering sneezes or coughs with tissues, and if theyre not feeling well, keep them home from school. Its so important. And its not too late to get the flu shot. No, we still have four more months of the flu season. When we talk about the flu reaching epidemic levels, thats a bit of a scary term but doesnt it become an epidemic every year . Pretty much. This is really just a descriptive term that means that theyre seeing more cases, either confirmed or flulike illness, than they would expect to see in a given population over a certain period of time. Now, if you look back to last year, the flu peaked around late december. We dont know yet what were going to see because, again, we still have about four more months left in the flu season, but, again, we have to wait and see. Right now its not looking too good. No, its not so get that shot. Absolutely. Dr. Ashton, thank you very much. You know, also what about pediatric probuy ottie otbioticprobiotics doesnt that help too . That data is still ongoing. More for g. I. Illnesses but when talking about influenza even in a year where the flu vaccine isnt well matched there is some evidence if you get sick your symptoms may be less severe. Interesting. All right, jen, thank you. Coming up next the new progress reported from searchers working to recover wreckage from the airasia plane that crashed in the java sea. Ships with sensitive sonar equipment locating more large sections of the jet. But getting them out is the problem. Abcs Muhammad Lila has the very latest now from indonesia. Reporter good morning, elizabeth. Its now been a week since the airasia flight took off from this airport. Investigators have honed in on where they think the debris is but they cant get to it because of the weather. Investigators say they found a fifth large piece of debris, this one 32 feet wide but the waters are so treacherous, when divers tried to go down, they couldnt see a thing. So far no one, not even the two advanced american ships patrolling the search area have located the planes black boxes but indonesias Meteorological Agency now says weather was the likely factor in the crash saying in a new report the most probable weather phenomenon was icing that can cause engine damage but, of course, until that black box is found, what happened to the plane remains a mystery, and every day that passes, that black box is losing more and more of its battery power. Dan. Muhammad, thank you. The clock continues to tick there. Meanwhile, this morning north korea is reacting angrily to new american sanctions. The white house taking punitive measures after that cyberattack on Sony Pictures allegedly orchestrated by north korea in retaliation for this, the movie the interview. Meanwhile, in may be a bit of image polishing the North Koreans have released this new video of their quote unquote Supreme Leader kim jongun visiting an orphanage. At one point he is oddly seen smoking a cigarette. Well show you that in a few seconds. Lets bring in Abcs Martha Raddatz who is in washington. Martha, so lets start with this angry new rhetoric from north korea. What are they saying and is the white house running some risk of escalation with new sanctions . Reporter well, dan, no surprise. North korea denied any role in the hacking and accused the u. S. Of groundlessly stirring up bad blood and showing what they call an inveterate repugnancy and hostility towards the north. But the spokesman from north korea says this will only harden its resolution to defend the sovereignty of the country. The reaction is fairly muted and somewhat familiar so i think so far the tension has not been raised too far. Are these sanctions likely to do much damage to the North Koreans given how isolated they already are . Well we dont think any of the people involved in this round of sanctions has anything to do with cyberattacks and, of course, we know there have been all kinds of sanctions on north korea. This is just one more round and the u. S. Wants to be careful not to cause pain to the north Korean People who are already suffering so much. The white house has made it clear this is just the first round of payback for the cyberattacks, so well have to wait and see. Yeah, maybe theyll get kim jongun to stop smoking in orangeages but good luck. Martha, thank you. We appreciate that and we should say Martha Raddatz will have much more coming up later this morning when she hosts this week right here on abc. What a bizarre picture. It is. Go see some kids one in a long line of by saar bizarre pictures. Very true. Lets turn now to Ron Claiborne with the other top stories developing this morning. Hey, ron. Good morning to you, elizabeth and dan, sara. We begin with the Boston Marathon marathon suspect on trial and jury selection against djoker Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will start tomorrow. A motion to postpone it was rejected. If convicted he could face the death penalty. 2013 bombing killed three people and wounded 260 others. Thousands of Police Officers from across the country are expected for todays funeral of the second nypd detective ambushed and murdered last month. On saturday hundreds of mourners packed a brooklyn funeral home for the wake of wenjian liu. The 32yearold officer was shot and killed along with his partner rafael ramos while they were sitting inside of their patrol car. Overseas now, a major rescue operation underway right now after a huge cargo ship capsized off the coast of scotland. You can see the end of the ship sticking out of the water there. The eight members of the crew are missing. The ship registered in cypress was carrying cement. And another ship, this one carrying cars, ran aground off the Southern Coast of england causing it to heavily list as you see there in that photo. This was saturday night. The coast guard helicopter was called in. 25 of the ships crew members were safely taken off of that vessel. And president obama returned to the white house this morning after a twoweek vacation in hawaii. I envy him. The president spent his last day wouldnt you rather be here with us. Well, thats my second choice being hawaii. He spent a few hours at the beach visiting a cemetery where his maternal grandfather is buried and he also hung out with pearl jam rocker eddie vedder. What . If you can do it why not . Actually theyre neighbors. I didnt know that. Dozens of passengers finally on the ground in San Francisco after being stuck on a plane overseas for nearly 28 hours or at least part of those 28 hours and it all began with fog that shut down the airport in abu dhabi stranding the passengers on their flight for 12 hours. The flight was packed with children, seniors and hundreds of other passengers who some say they expected a little better from that swanky airliner. They kept telling us that we were going to leave 15 minutes from now, 20 minutes from now, 30 minutes from now for 12 hours. Everybody was fighting with each other and the flight attendants were fighting with us and we were fighting with the flight attendants. The airline apologized for the ground delay. Abu dhabi, by the way, is a dry country so probably didnt have alcohol on board all that time. Well, thats probably a good thing apparently. They were already fighting sober. Exactly. And finally the story of a california woman playing postchristmas santa or so it appeared. This woman tried to come into her house, her house, by going down the chimney. Ooh. She got stuck halfway down. You can see her legs there dangling. Oh, no. Firefighters funny now, probably not for her had to break down the brick wall. Took them two hours to pull off that extensive rescue. The father of her kids says she was able to call him from her cell phone while stuck inside of that chimney, and a man also that man, the guy, the father of her children also nearly fell off the roof trying to get her. She finally got out with minor scratches and a lot of soot. I know youre going to ask me why was she trying to get into the house through her chimney . I dont know the answer to that. This is after christmas. This is after christmas. The caption of that is youre never going to believe where im at right now. Im stuck in the chimney. Get me out of there. Thats one of the most bizarre stories. We got more. Plenty more. Well, coming up another bizarre case of a woman accused of making believe she was a lawyer and even handling cases in court. She needs her own attorney now to help her answer some serious charges that include identity theft. Abcs aditi roy has more on how her story unraveled. Answer the question. That is enough. Reporter on how to get away with murder, viola davis plays annalease keating, a notoriously skilled criminal defense lawyer. This Morning Police say this utah woman, carla carbo, went to criminal lengths to show off her courtroom skills, but since shes not a lawyer and has no legal training, carbo allegedly stole this womans identity. Reallife lawyer Carla Stirling even defending an accused thief. Listen to her in court trying to get a felony plea deal reduced. We amended the felony of third degree to a misdemeanor class a. He understands the pleading agreement. Lawyer or not, it worked. But that plea deal has since been voided after she landed in legal trouble herself charged with fraud and forgery for posing as stirling. The lawyer whose name and license she allegedly used for the scheme. Im

© 2025 Vimarsana