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CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK
Shuttle Tragedy Has Taken NASA Investigators to California
Aired February 5, 2003 - 05:39 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The shuttle tragedy has taken NASA investigators to a new debris site in California. That's where they found some of the first pieces that came off Columbia as it began to disintegrate. In the meantime, in Texas and in Louisiana, the debris removal has begun.
David Mattingly has more on that for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just something very strange in the sky.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just seconds after these final images of the space shuttle Columbia were captured over Dallas, Texas, 911 calls pour in to Nacogdoches County.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Something just went down a few minutes ago and I've been trying to call the sheriff's department.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yea, ma'am. We're trying to get a hold of it now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Was it an airplane or...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't know.
MATTINGLY: The calls reveal confused and worried people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it blew up. I don't know how, but it...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand, ma'am.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... an explosion we heard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Well, that's what we think we heard, but we're not really sure, ma'am.
MATTINGLY: What they didn't know was that pieces of the shuttle were raining down around them, thousands of them across hundreds of square miles. And now, days later, the collection of that debris is at last gaining momentum. Seventy high priority debris sites in Nacogdoches County were cleared on Tuesday. More than 800 still to go.
SHERIFF THOMAS KERSS, NACOGDOCHES COUNTY, TEXAS: We have recovered some substantial or located some substantial pieces, including a section of what appears to be one of the wings. It was about six to seven feet in size. That's in the process of being recovered as we speak.
MATTINGLY: National Guard hazardous material teams are testing and collecting hundreds of individual pieces, this one appearing to be some kind of hatch. But concern continues to grow for the pieces they won't find, those taken illegally by souvenir hunters.
(on camera): It's a problem law enforcement is taking very seriously. The first criminal warrant, according to the Nacogdoches sheriff, is on the way, with an arrest to be made by federal authorities.
David Mattingly, CNN, Nacogdoches County, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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