CNN: Last Words Heard During Flight Distress Call Were ‘Emergency, Emergency’

CUOMO: "All we know on that right now from French authorities is that they did get a distress call and that the last words they're saying they heard were 'emergency, emergency.' And obviously very frightening words to hear in connection with what was going on in the airplane. But David Soucie, we've got you up on Skype now I believe. Again, this is more just confirming what is suspected than it is providing information into how this happened. But just in case you weren't hearing, the French authorities saying that not only did they receive a distress call, but the last words they heard from the cockpit were 'emergency, emergency.' David."

SOUCIE: "Oh, yes, good morning. They are frightening words and what is concerning to me, I was looking at the air speeds, the air speeds of the aircraft before, about 15 minutes before this rapid descent at 3,400 feet per minute that the air speed declined very sharply and then came back up again. So there's something that occurred about 15 to 20 minutes before the accident that gives me some concern. Then it went up to about 450 to 500 knots, and there was a slight depression again in the air speed. It's very concerning to me because the altitude remained the same at this point. Now when the air speed continued to stay stable, but the aircraft then descended so it's very confusing right now as to what could have possibly happened. There is not a lot of explanations for this, other than some kind of engine failure or engine trouble at this point."

CAMEROTA: "David, what does it mean?"[crosstalk]

CUOMO: "Did you get the information about why they didn't squawk? They didn't squawk 7700 which is supposedly a distress signal for pilots. Explain what that means and what does it mean that they didn't."

SOUCIE: "What it means is that at that point they're squawking saying I have an emergency, we have to clear the air space for me to make a maneuver. That's what the 7700 tells the air traffic controllers is that right now, I need all air space I can get. I'm going to have to make an emergency landing. What that might tell me is that he thought at that time he may have been able to make it back to Grenoble airport and at that point could just say 'emergency, emergency,' and not be able to respond in any other way, because if you think about it, the tactile decision to actually reach up and change that squawk to 7700 it takes time and attention. So if that time and attention is being distracted by something else, then of course he wouldn't have time to do that.

CAMEROTA: "David, back to the data that you've been looking at, we know that the airplane descended from 38,000 to 24,000 feet over the course of say seven minutes mid midflight, obviously very unusual You're saying that 15 minutes prior to that, from what you're seeing, that the air speed declined rapidly what might that mean?"

SOUCIE: "Well, it would mean to me that there was either one of two things, either intentionally the aircraft had pulled back its power, which is kind of common, actually after you reach cruising altitude to pull your power back, because you're at max thrust takeoff during the takeoff period. But then after that, you pull it back. But that's not where this occurred. This occurred during the actual climb itself. So it wasn't after it stabilized. It was during the climb itself that there was a rapid air speed decrease and back up again. If you look at the graph, there's a sharp spike in it that says, we slow down. It was pretty significant, there was about 50 or 60 knots just a minute or two and then back up again. So that indicates to me that there was some kind of either intentional move to reduce the power or there was some kind of mechanical failure that caused it to do that. Of course, it is very speculative at this point but the air speed is the prime indicator of something going wrong."