today on getting answers san francisco mayor london breed joins us in the studio as the mayor of shanghai comes to town. we'll check in on her panda plan, the latest homeless count, new drug recovery solutions, and

more. and forget the kindle or reading on your phone. there's a printing press in san francisco. they're making beautiful books the old fashioned way. our media partner, the san francisco standard, has a unique story. but first, they say turbulence doesn't kill except when it does. one passenger is dead and 70 are injured. after singapore airlines plane hits unexpectedly severe turbulence and drops 6000ft. you're watching. getting answers. i'm kristen sze. a terrifying situation on board a singapore airlines jet this morning. the flight from london to singapore ran into that sudden extreme turbulence. and what happened next resulted in a rare fatality, a destroyed cabin and an emergency landing. abc news reporter perry russom has the latest. reporter new video from inside the singapore airlines plane hit by severe turbulence this morning. >> rescue teams carrying out the injured on backboards, loading them into ambulances. oxygen

masks dangling from the ceiling. this dent on an overhead bin. one man on board says anyone not wearing a seatbelt was launched immediately. some people's heads denting bins, others cracking parts of the ceiling outside. this woman wheeled away while holding a baby. the injured triage separated by the severity of their injuries. singapore airlines says one person was killed more than 70 injured, including two americans. the airline is blaming severe turbulence. the flight, taking off from london headed to singapore, was forced to make an emergency landing in bangkok, thailand. the plane is a boeing 777, and a spokesperson for boeing says it's standing ready to support singapore airlines. >> but the general manager of the airport in thailand says the person who died is a 73 year old british man. the doctor have to investigate his body and he's come with his wife. so his wife spoke to the hospital at the time. >> in a statement posted online, a spokesperson for singapore

airlines says they are offering their deepest condolences to the family of the man who was killed. they say they are working with local authorities in thailand to provide any necessary assistance. perry russom, abc news, washington. >> while turbulence is a common occurrence and injuries an occasional occurrence, a fatality resulting from turbulence almost never happens. almost. to understand why it happened this time and whether climate change has made it more probable in the future, and what we can do to minimize our risk, let's talk with abc news aviation analyst john nance. john, always good to have you on. thank you for your time. >> thank kristen. good to be here. >> first, just real quickly. what is turbulence? why does it happen. >> turbulence is air that's moving in one direction or another in kind of a shear fashion. so it's either moving upward rapidly, a column of air or descending or laterally from left to right, or vice versa. and when you run into it at high altitude, it can be very, very difficult to detect in any way

because until you hit it, you don't have any means of seeing it. radar will not give us the information we need on this, i see. >> so how often does turbulence this severe happen? one in how many flights? >> i'd say it's 1 in 1,000,000. actually, we have 93,000, commercial flights over the world every day. and this very seldom happens. and certainly, as you pointed out, there's very, very seldom a fatality. but the problem is that when we do hit it, we're along for the ride for a period of time, whether it be five seconds or 10s or a little more, trying to get out of that patch of air about the time you get control of the airplane, because it's bucking around, you're already out of it. the problem is. well, i'll put it this way. this is why we harp constantly to our passengers. keep those seatbelts fastened whenever you're in your seat. because one time, out of maybe 500 flights in your lifetime, you may hit this. but if you're not strapped in at that moment, it's going to probably have a conclusion you don't want. >> yeah, let's just look at the

video again, the photos from the airplane, because it's like a forensics investigator. >> you can probably make out details because you're so experienced. looking at what happened here in the galley, right to the cabin, to the overhead compartments, to what do you suppose happened during that time looking at all this? >> well, what happens is that and what happens here is that when they hit, whether it was a rising column or a descending column of air, anything that wasn't tied down was in the air in the cabin. and then, of course, came back down when one gravity resumed, that means that the flight attendants, who i believe were serving dinner at the time, were probably the heaviest, impacted by this because you've got heavy carts in the aisle, and now they're literally flying around. so it wasn't just people's heads, denting the top of the, cabin and the, other elements in there. it was literally the carts and the other heavy things that the flight attendants have to use to serve. >> okay. so then what can we do then? right. because obviously, i hear your point about keeping the seatbelt on as much as you

can, but people do have to get up and use the bathroom. and the flight attendants do have to get up and serve drinks. right. and as you said, they can predict certain things, but the kind that you're talking about, you can't really forecast and you just hit it the air pockets. so what can we do? >> well, what we can do really, at this point in time is accelerate our knowledge of where these things might occur. >> but it's about as much of an art as it is a science. and this is one of the last few areas in aviation safety that we're still really puzzled over how to get to the point of zero. in other words, never having this happen and causing an injury. >> okay, well, this piqued my curiosity. this happened at 37,000ft over a basin in myanmar. so i wonder, are there certain altitudes or locations in the world where this is more likely to happen, more prone to turbulence, severe ones? >> i'll give you a good lawyer like answer yes and no. and basically it's this if you're dealing with the jet stream and we are worldwide and it is getting more intense as a result of global warming, all those

things are true, you have entry points that it doesn't extend below and you have points it doesn't extend above. but the transition when you're going into one can be spots that you'll run into severe turbulence. it doesn't happen very often, but it can. the other is mountain turbulence. and that's not when you're up at 37,000ft. but that's when you're either on approach or coming off of a particular airport that has a mountainous, terrain around it, like colorado, for instance. you've got a potential for, for heavy turbulence, even getting to severe turbulence occasionally. we mostly know how to avoid that and where to avoid it, but it still is a problem, right? >> look, john, you're a veteran pilot, right? when people look at those pictures, they get really scared, especially already anxious fliers. but as a pilot, do you get scared? i mean , do you have any reason? and do you think we as passengers have any reason to be scared in terms of the plane's structural integrity when it experiences something that severe or anything like that? >> well, you said the magic word structural integrity of the airplane. these airplanes can

take far more than we can as human beings. by the same token, i got to tell you, i'm not going to be glib about it when i'm strapped in at 35 or 30 7 or 39,000ft and i decide i've got to go to the bathroom or something, and i get to my feet, i'm well aware that that could be the moment that i'm going to end up crashing through the ceiling. so this is, as i say, one of the last areas that we really have no ability to say. we're going to make sure that never happens to you. we're working hard not to, but by the same token, it's still a possibility with every flight. >> you mentioned. and even before you mentioned anecdotally and our own spencer christian has reported on climate change creating conditions that make, you know, severe turbulence more likely in the future or more frequent. so given that, do you think all our methods and all our planes that were built for a different time, if you will, is it all still going to be fine? >> well, i think it will, because the acceleration of uh- speeds for the jet stream, for instance, is not going to go from 105 miles an hour to suddenly 250 uh- there will be

faster speeds, and there will be more kinks along the way. in terms of where it goes. but those are fairly predictable. it's the unpredictable stuff, mainly flying over a thunderstorm at night. that's one of the most dangerous things, because you may be able to see it on the radar, but you can't see that there's a rising column of air right in front of you that's shooting up. and that's the sort of thing that creates this kind of a turbulent encounter. >> okay, so john, my takeaway as someone who's a little anxious, flying myself is just buckle up. i'm going to be fine. >> right in almost all cases. that's correct. >> okay. john nance, aviation an analyst for abc news. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> all right. coming up we are talking panda diplomacy part two a month after san francisco mayor london breed seals the deal to bring giant pandas to the city, she welcomes some special dignitaries to city hall to mark an important relationship that began when the mayor breed joins us next mayor.

45 years of friendship with china's biggest city, shanghai, and as such, city hall is doing something to celebrate. so joining us live now to talk more about that and the latest initiatives in san francisco and building a better city, is san francisco mayor london breed. welcome. >> thank you. good to see you again. great to be here. all right. >> so you played host to a large chinese delegation back in november for apec. yes. and then you went to china. you got the thing paperwork signed for the pandas, and now you're welcoming some special guests today? >> yes. well, we have the mayor of shanghai coming to city hall. he's already here with a delegation of 20 people. and it's really about celebrating

our 45 year sister city relationship between san francisco and shanghai, renewing our commitment to develop our relationships and to build bridges. and it's great to have him and his delegation here. after they hosted me and my delegation in shanghai. >> why is that relationship with shanghai so important, especially now in the post-pandemic pandemic world? >> well, you know, san francisco is has a population of over 20% chinese. and we have many people who who come from china in different parts, mostly southern china. but the relationship is important because how our city was built, when you look at the architecture, when you look at, you know, the diversity and what people talk about and the significance of san francisco, it does have a lot to do with our relationship between, you know, the united states and china. and san francisco has played the gateway to the asia pacific to enhance that relationship, not to mention business opportunities. tourism, for example, prior to the

pandemic, we were at $1.2 billion in economic, opportunity cities because of china, tourists from china and business opportunities. and now we're at about 633 million from last year. >> so you got 50% of recover. >> we have a lot to recover. so we need to enhance that relationship. but also there are people that have a connection there. so we are we are grateful to have this opportunity to renew our commitment for 45 years. >> all right. well, i want to talk about the pandas that, you know, you went to china to secure. of course, there's a whole fundraising thing and there's some obstacles with regard to the board of supervisors, some are expressing that, hey, this is kind of a distraction from budget problems , and others feel like there may be a conflict of interest when it comes to raising money and which departments can do the ask, right. what's your thought on that? >> well, my thought is just to think about the history of san francisco. i mean, dianne feinstein, when she was mayor and we were at risk of losing the cable cars, she raised private dollars to help keep the

cable cars rolling on our heels. and public private partnerships are a critical part of helping with our homeless recovery, our youth programing and everything that we need to sustain san francisco. so anytime we raise money, we have to go through a process through the board of supervisors, and i think there's some politics at play. unfortunately but my hope is that they will approve it so that if there is a request by me to raise resources for this purpose that we're able to do so. but we also know complete transparency, paperwork, all of what we need to do, making sure they're not people that do business with the city and their conflict. so there's a lot of checks and balances in place to make sure that there isn't anything inappropriate that's happening. as a result of it. okay. >> you mentioned the word recovery. i know you were busy today. one thing that you went to was the opening for a new transitional housing program, right? >> yes. it's called her and it is meant to serve women who have children who are in recovery and

need a place not just for themselves, but to have their children as they go through this process. wraparound supportive services. ms. counseling, child care and all the needs that women have that might be a little bit more unique than what men need. and it's a very safe, comfortable environment where these women are supported and lifted up. and i'm really so grateful and excited about what this is going to do to help women who are in recovery in san francisco. >> all right. we got some happy video from, pictures from this morning, look, last week you pointed to the biennial point in time homeless count, right? it shows a 13% decrease. i think, in people living in tents and on the streets from 2022. but the san francisco standard has an article saying that, hey, the people homeless in the city not just living on the sidewalks, has actually risen by 7. is that looking at people who may not be visible to the counters on the night when they were counting? how do you square those two numbers? >> kristen, thank you so much

for asking. because san francisco has increased its shelter capacity by 66. so sheltered homelessness, they count any of our shelters, including a facility like the her facility we opened today. they are they are counted as homeless because it's shelter. so shelters identify as homeless. or if someone's living in their car that's, you know, considered homeless. so our sheltered homelessness has gone up because we've increased our capacity. but our unsheltered homelessness and street homelessness has gone down the things that people seem to care about the most, like when you see those ten encampments, when you see people laying on the sidewalks, when you want to see, you know, people get the help and the support they need. what you see visibly is where the problem is. and as we increase our shelter capacity, we are naturally going to increase sheltered homelessness. so i think there's a lot of confusion out there. but we do count people who are even within our shelter system as homeless until we're able to transition them into something more permanent,

like maybe permanently supportive housing, affordable housing, or something that allows for folks to live more independently, even if they're getting support from the city, i see. >> okay, thanks for helping us out with that. yes, look, another big issue. i know merchants on valencia street in the mission have not been happy with that center bike lane. some feel like it's cost them business, and they've launched a new petition to ask you to remove sfmta director jeffrey tumlin. first. do you agree with their assessment that that center bike lane has been a business killer? and second, would you consider their ask of you to consider either asking him to resign or otherwise? >> yeah, well, i'll start by saying no, i will not consider, you know, any feedback around personnel related issues, the city, you know, i won't discuss whether i'm going to hire or fire someone. that's just not anything i've ever done publicly. but i will say that the city is changing, and we need, as a density, as an urban environment, we need to be open to more transportation networks

and different modes of transportation, including protected bike lanes. in the case of this center lane, what we have done and what the department has done, they've gone from business to business because, you know, it's clear that there's an issue with the center bike lane. and so they are making some adjustments to address the issues, especially because we know this has impacted the merchants. but there are trade offs because we have these shared spaces that are spaces that are provided to the merchants that they use for their businesses as well. so we have to make sure that, you know, people understand that there are trade offs when we make adjustments. and, you know, ultimately we're going to make the adjustment. but i don't think we need to go that far to start calling for the firing of someone. and i just have never and will never, go there as it relates to department heads in the city, i will always try to allow anyone who is leaving, or i'm asking to leave to leave with dignity and won't use them in that way. >> okay, the transition period is always hard. yes. okay. look,

you are always a big cheerleader for the bay area sports teams. i don't think there's a jersey that you don't own. yes. and so you've been pretty excited about the valkyries. the golden state valkyries, talk about what you think that's going to do for the city. >> so first of all, they've had over 7500, season and ticket purchases, the women a year before they start playing, they have not they won't even start playing until next year. and people are so excited that women's sports is really taking root. and growing up, i didn't think that the possibility of a woman playing professional basketball was even something to think about, and it's a natural part of what young girls can grow up thinking, that they have an opportunity to participate in the wnba. this is transformative, and to see it directly here in the bay area. i am excited, i'm really proud, and i'm looking forward to the valkyries playing at chase center all right. >> with your purple hoodie on. yes. >> and it actually says breed on

it. >> oh, oh, custom i love it. >> i love it all right. >> marilinda brito, it's great to see you. thanks for the conversation. thank you. we'll be right back. but when we come back, we'll talk about celebrating a legacy of san francisco business. we'll take you inside the printing press and book binder that's been forging beautiful books for 50 years. why it's moving and why it's art

yes, ahh!! mom: what is going on with you? get out! andy! get out of my room! get out! mom: andy. fight! fight! i didn't say anything. yes you did. ♪ (ominous music) ♪ ♪ (ominous music) ♪

bur in this age of e-books, our media partner, the san francisco standard, got a look inside the presidio location that's housed this printing press for decades, right before its big move to a new location at fort mason. joining us live now with more on her story, the standard's arts and culture reporter, julie zagar. hi, julie. >> hi. thanks so much for having me. >> i'm excited to talk about this because arion press has been designated an irreplaceable

cultural treasure. is that right? >> that is true. and there really is no other place like it in the country. it's the last remaining vertically integrated press, which means basically all the press operations are housed under one roof. >> from what to what? like what exactly? what are all the things they do? and they've been doing it. i know for 50 years. yes, yes. >> so they actually create the type that prints the book. so i mean, literally pouring the molten metal into molds to cast the signature custom type that will print the book, and then they print the book on this incredible, 50 year old miller press that's unlike anything you've ever seen. there's only one other still in operation in the country, and they print it on the printing press there, and then they also bind it there and create the covers there. so everything is done in house, under one roof, rather than farming out to various industrial plants, different

stages of book production. >> okay, so this is not mass production. it must take forever to make one book and they must not be able to make that many in a year. >> yeah. so there's only three books a year that they publish, and actually they're only doing two this year because of the move. as you mentioned, they're moving from the presidio to fort mason. so they had to cut back the schedule a bit this year. so yeah, they really limited it to only three titles. but each title gets such extraordinary care. it's really unbelievable. >> wow. i mean, i guess what are some of the, you know, most folklorish ones that they print in the past and what are they printing now? >> so they just are printing right now. octavia butler's science fiction masterpiece, kindred, which is a really moving tale of enslavement. they also are publishing this year aesop's fables. so an even earlier classic. and they've published lots of literary greats like edgar allan poe's

collected short stories or steinbeck's sea of cortez. and a lot of these editions, especially the deluxe editions, which is the highest edition you can get. the most expensive one will have sort of signature details included, like for example. so the sea of cortez book by steinbeck actually has wooden pieces from a sailing vessel that steinbeck was on, and that wood is incorporated into the cover of the book. so just again, this level of detail that is just almost fanatical, it's really incredible. >> so do they do it by commission? like, does someone say, this is what i want and then they do it, it's actually driven by the artist. so this is another really important piece of arion press is that it's very artist driven. so they have, you know, a number of artists they work with. they're always looking for new artists, really, you know, art world luminaries that work with the press who will say, oh, i'd love to

reprint a copy of this book or i'd love to work on this title. and so they found in the past that when the artist drives the decision making, it helps create the best. >> so how much does a book cost? >> yeah. so an individual book can run, you know, $1,300 if you buy it on its own. but most of the books are sold by subscription in meaning you buy, you sign up to buy all three titles of the year. and that can cost $2,400 for the fine print edition. but for the deluxe edition, which is, you know, includes, say, the whole wooden box from steinbeck's sailing vessel that costs $10,000 a year for three books. so this is really, you know, very, for people who truly love books. but i will say that you can also access arion press books at different lending libraries. so for example, the mechanics institute in the heart of downtown san francisco has a whole collection. nice. well

julie, we unfortunately have to go. >> but all this great information is in your article. and folks, you can check it out, including why they're having to move now,ut bhey'll continue doing their

tonight, we have breaking news just as we come on the air tonight. the images coming in right now. the tornadoes touching down. the harrowing video. we'll show you in just a moment. also, this deadly turbulence slamming a passenger jet. many passengers violently sent into the ceiling. the flight from london to singapore. a passenger possibly