'This Week' Transcript: George W. Bush, Laura Bush, Mohamed Tawfik

George W. Bush, Laura Bush, Mohamed Tawfik interviewed on 'This Week'

ByABC News
July 6, 2013, 5:06 PM
Former President George W. Bush and wife Laura speak with ABC News' Jon Karl.
Former President George W. Bush and wife Laura speak with ABC News' Jon Karl.
ABC News

NEW YORK, July 07, 2013 — -- A rough transcript of "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" airing on Sunday morning, July 7, 2013 on ABC News is below. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARL (voice-over): Crash landing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 214, having emergency vehicles responding.

KARL: A jet down in San Francisco.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible) splashed out, the engine roared, and then we hit really hard.

KARL: What went wrong? We have the latest details on the investigation.

Plus, chaos in the streets. Is Egypt on the verge of civil war? We talk to a top leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, a wanted man in Cairo, then the Egyptian ambassador in an ABC News exclusive.

On the road with president and Mrs. Bush, the unscripted moments, from their latest mission to Africa, and the former president takes on his critics.

BUSH: I'm trying to think of a proper word. Absurd psycho-babble.

KARL: Plus, our own Cokie Roberts on her historic conversation with two first ladies.

MICHELLE OBAMA: You can't find your toothpaste, you don't know where your kids are. That's day one.

ANNOUNCER: From ABC News, "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos. Now, from Washington, Jonathan Karl.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KARL: Hello again. George is off today. Good to have you with us.

This morning we're learning new details, but there are still many unanswered questions about what happened on board Asiana flight 214 in the moments before it smashed into a San Francisco runway, its tail ripping off, the aircraft going up in flames.

Here's what we know right now. 307 people were on board the flight from Seoul. Two are confirmed dead, more than 180 injured. ABC's Cecilia Vega has been tracking all the developments all night. She joins us now from San Francisco's airport. Cecilia, it is just remarkable that so many people survived.

CECILIA VEGA, ABC CORRESPONDENT: Isn't it remarkable, Jon? Good morning to you. And especially seeing that footage of the charred remains once that smoke cleared. We are now learning at this hour more about the people who were on board that flight as well. We learned that the two victims were teenage girls from China on their way to the United States for a summer trip. We know that 30 of the passengers on board flight 214 were children. 61 people on board, American citizens, many of the -- those injured still in critical condition at this hour, recovering in the hospital.

Witnesses describe an absolutely terrifying landing. We spoke to one survivor who said this plane essentially belly-flopped as soon as it hit the runway. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The engine roared, and then we hit really hard the first time. It certainly felt like we were going back up, and then we went back down pretty hard. I was screaming, saying it's OK, help each other, don't rush, don't push, get out, get out, get out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VEGA: Now, overnight, Asiana's CEO denied that this crash was the result of a mechanical failure, and he went public to defend the pilots, saying that they were veterans of flying, that between them they had 10,000 hours, more than that, combined flying experience.

The NTSB investigators arrived from Washington in San Francisco overnight. This investigation, Jon, it's in very early stages. We still don't have a cause yet. What we do know is that so many people who witnessed it out here are saying it's an absolute miracle that this many people survived. Jon.

KARL: Thanks, Cecilia.

Now, for the latest on the investigation, we are joined by National Transportation Safety Board chair Deborah Hersman, who flew out to the crash scene last night.

Thank you for joining us.

Tell us, what have you learned so far, and have you spoken to the pilot yet?

HERSMAN: Well, our team just arrived on scene, actually, very late last night, around midnight. We went out and looked at the accident aircraft. We have not yet talked to the pilot; we hope to do that in the coming days. But we have obtained the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, and they have been sent back to our labs in Washington. We hope that there is good data, good information on those, and we'll audition them today back at headquarters.

KARL: So you've been out there a few hours -- true, it's still dark in San Francisco -- but based on what you've seen at the crash site, do you have any initial sense of what went wrong?

HERSMAN: Well, you know, I'll tell you, one of the things that is so obvious when you go out there is the incredible devastation to that aircraft. You've seen the photos, you've seen the footage. A lot of burn damage to the fuselage, but also we see a lot of damage to the aircraft seats and the interior of the aircraft. We are very thankful that, as a result of this crash, we only have a small number of fatalities and injuries. It could have been a lot worse.

KARL: Looking at what you've seen -- and by the way, it is just astounding to look at that plane and to think that there were two fatalities and no more. But looking at it, does this look -- are we thinking pilot error, mechanical? It seems the FBI almost immediately was able to rule out anything like terrorism.

HERSMAN: You know, it's really very early in the investigation. We just arrived on scene a few hours ago. We have a lot of work ahead of us. We have teams that will be looking at aircraft operations, at human performance, survival factors, and we'll be looking at the aircraft. We'll be looking at power plants, systems and structures. And so we really want to make sure we have a good understanding of the facts before we reach any conclusions.

KARL: So, in other words, way too early to do what the Asiana Airlines CEO did, when he said that there were no problems caused by the plane or its engines.

HERSMAN: You know, we really prefer to base statements on facts, and we've got to review the flight data recorder, the cockpit voice recorder, and document the scene before we draw any conclusions.

That being said, there's a lot of information here for us to draw on. We have crew that survived and we have potentially recorders that have a hundred parameters -- hundreds of parameters on them. And so we are very eager to begin our investigative work, and we will be providing the public factual updates throughout this time while we're on scene.

KARL: All right. NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman, thank you very much for talking with us. Good luck with the investigation.

HERSMAN: Thank you.