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Children. this is a plane that was going back to russia. most likely taking people in egypt on holiday. we get a lot of these sorts of flights coming in here. a tragic way to end their trip. >> ian lee, keep us posted as you learn any new information about this. >> let's talk more about what we do know. cnn aviation analyst, les aben is with us now. he is also a pilot. when you hear ian talk about this flight roughly at 30,000 feet and disappearing from radar and plunging some 6,000 feet per minute, what goes through your mind about the possibilities of what could have been happening, why it w...

Age and stress on a plane, the fitness of a plane overall? >> 1997, that's just about not quite 20 years old. in airplane years, it is really not a lot of time. airlines do what we call progressive maintenance. they continually maintain the airplane. there is a checklist at so many hours, certain things have to be done. it is still a relatively new airplane. the airbus a 321 is the stretch version as we have been talking about on earlier segments and it is the newer version of the airbus a-320 family, very reliable airplane. they fly all over the united states, all over the world. >> okay, les...

Known. by the time he got back he would have seen the altitude selector was in the spot that it should have been to descend for the clearance that they have been given. my understanding it was 21,000 feet. >> got it. les, thank you. next two officers charged in baltimore now saying freddie gray's knife was, in fact illegal and that could change this entire case. we'll speak live with a defense attorney and don lemon next. also, the isis fighter linked to the texas shooter is now speaking. we have all the details for you. you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin.

The captain came back in the cockpit, and the plane landed normally. however, the investigator went on camera today and said he's very very certain that this was lubitz practicing what he then did on flight back. >> fred thank you. let's spring board off of fred's points here. the preliminary report also laid out minute by minute what happened as flight 9525 dropped altitude. it noted how high that plane was when the cockpit door was heard closing. from that point to the catastrophic end, air controllers tried to reach the cockpit 11 times. after those attempts you see how low the plane was wh...

It's a different mission. if you can identify these people early on and intervene, you can do so much to avoid the kind of outcomes we have here. and another thing, les, the reality is that the aviation community, in spite of this accident does an incredible job of managing performance in the cockpit. many many years ago accident investigators discovered that certain personality types were very very poor in the cockpit during emergencies. the personality disorders, if you call them let's say, jerks, you realize that personality renders a flight crew incapable of managing an emergency. so they ...