update from you, this fire has been contained at this hour. we'll get back to you throughout the evens.ing. thank you, barbie for that. this is cnn breaking news. >> you're in the "cnn newsroom." i'm poppy harlow joining you live from new york 6:00 on the east coast. breaking news on cnn. the commercial airline ir that disappeared from air traffic control screens not only 24 hours ago. as of now that airplane is till missing. here what what we know. it's an airbus 320 operated by airasia en route from indonesia to singapore when all contact was lost. one of the last things the pilot said was that the weather was not good. the visual search for the plane stopped overnight, but notw dawn is breaking and search planes are getting back into the air. they'll start combing the area where the plane was last known over the java sea. here is the human factor. there are 162 souls on that plane. most of them from indonesia. among them 18 children, 1

infant. people around the world are watching and waiting for any word from the search and rescue crews and during this sunday mass today at the vatican, the pope pope francis, prayed for those crews and for the families of the people who are on board and who are missing. this plane was last tracked over the java sea. take a look at this. we're going to pull up a map to show you the part of the world we're talking about here. the plane took off from surabaya second biggest city in indonesia, destination, singapore, just a two-hour flight away. it never made it. let me bring in les, a captain, and mary schiavo. so, les, let me begin with you. when we talk about the search here and compare it to the search for mh-370 you're talking about a smaller area but still a vast region. >> true. >> what some are saying is that the good news is that this is a region that is heavily

trafficked in terms of a shipping route and is relatively shallow. does that help? >> of course it helps. it's going to help with the -- if indeed tom is correct with the meteorological report about the seas calming down you know if we have an unfortunate situation where the airplane is in fragments, they're going to be able to at least locate those fragments quick erer. the fact it is a smaller area, we also have primary radar data from my understanding. so even if the airplane did potentially break apart or drift out without enough power for it to have a discreet code sent out as through a transponder, there's still the opportunity for it to be tracked to a particular position as opposed to mh-370. >> right, because there was more of a lag time in knowing where the plane was. mary to you, we know there was rough weather, severe thunderstorms. those are very typical in this

corridor. the pilots are experienced flying through that. we're often told turbulence doesn't bring planes down. what would it take for weather to put a plane like this in danger? >> well for weather to put a plane like this in danger usually what happens in the accidents i've worked is several things have happened in addition to the weather. there's been very bad weather and then the weather did something to the plane, caused some kind of a malfunction like on 447, the pitot tubes iced over. on 708, there was a problem with the engines and the pilots thought it was a dual engine flameout. the third thing happened. the pilots responded incorrectly to the weather-induced emergency on the plane. so usually it's not one thing that brings down a plane, and for a modern jetliner, a strong big jetliner to be brought down by turbulence, it's rare. there have been cases where planes have had to be scrapped because of the damage turbulence did to them but in almost all cases they got back limped back to the airport. usually it's several things that bring a plane down. >> david gallo, to you, when we

talk about the search and rescue efforts that local media have reported are already under way at daybreak in the java sea, what kind of terrain are we talking about here when you look at how deep it is the ocean floor, how heavily trafficked it is? what are we looking at? >> deep ocean, relatively smooth and flat and probably covered with sediment which makes searching a little bit easier. the depth is 150 feet on average as opposed to miles deep for malaysian airline 370. that's got its own challenges. the kushtcurrents can be higher visibility lower. there's nothing routine about searching in shallow water. >> let me bring -- stay with me all three of you. you want to bring in paula hancocks on the phone with us in jakarta, indonesia. she's about to head out to one of the islands where flight 8501 was last tracked. paula, can you hear me? >> reporter: hello, poppy, yes, i can. >> so tell me about what you're going to do.

i know you guys are notlitary escorts. it's the cnn team. are you going out with search and rescue? >> reporter: well we're heading out to one of the small islands that's close to the last point of contact of this plane. we know it's just after 6:00 in the morning here. the sun is now up. so the search operation has started once again. it was stopped overnight because of the dark obviously the ships were still out on the water, at least seven ships from the indonesian search and rescue agency. a couple of helicopters are heading out. we understand there's more planes also from malaysia and singapore there, including assets into this search operation. but we have been told by the indonesian national rescue agency that it is a very broad search location so they have pointed out that it is not necessarily going to be an easy task to try and track down this airplane.

now, we know as well that australia and india have offered assistance if it's needed but, of course the main concern at this point is the weather conditions. we know that there have been some substantial thunderstorms. we know that the torrential rain in this area. so of course, the airplane, the aircraft that are going to be combing the surface of the sea will want to be as low as possible and as close to the surface of the sea as possible. that that's going to make it very difficult if you have these high waves we've been hearing about. obviously with rain comes low visibility. so there is a concern that these adverse weather conditions are going to hamper the search and rescue operation. poppy? >> paula, you and your team stay safe when you're going out in this weather. keep us posted throughout the even evening. we'll be live all night on cnn. thank you for that. let me go to you, mary. one thing as we covering mh-370 and the search for the plane we talked a lot about the towed

pinger locaters. is that something search and rescue would use at this time? are we talking about purely at this early stage, less than 24 hours after the plane disappeared, are we talking about mainly a visual search? >> they're mainly doing a visual search of course hopefully aided by a tremendous amount of data from nations who will i hope freely share their radar tracking information. that was one of the biggest problems on 370 in that the radar information that the malaysia government had wasn't shared for four days and they wasted four days looking in the wrong part for the plane, so with good radar coordinates, they should be able to pinpoint in the last radar target hits for this plane, so they'll be doing a visual search get the debris field, if any then use current charts and algorithms to trace back where it would have entered the water if they find the debris field. >> so to you, david, given the fact we know that this plane disappeared at 7:24 a.m. local time how big, roughly, of an area do you estimate that they're looking at or how exact

can we get in terms of the radar information that we do have? >> that's a great question poppy, because you know, one thing that they've got that's a huge advantage is the approximate last known position. to us that was the center of a haystack. now the question is how wide is that haystack? >> right. >> there are clues like primary radar. we haven't heard about akars yet. all of that will help to find how wide. i tell you every minute that that plane stays airborne is another ten miles in radius of that circle and that's exponential and adds up quickly into a huge area. there's nothing simple though on the map it looks like it's very tightly controlled. when you get out there on that ocean, it's a huge sea. >> no question about that as paula was just reporting as well. let me bring in you, les, david used the word akars, for our viewers who are not aviation experts, what does that mean how significant is that? >> the automatic crew reporting -- it's a reporting system.

not only does it provide information to the crew by centering data but it also provides its own automatic data with reference to air speed, altitude various types of parameters. as long as that particular company subscribes to allowing that data to be released to the airline, itself. so that, like dave gallo indicated, that type of information is going to be very helpful, if it's available, of course, in helping. >> to you, david, someone who's an expert at searches in the sea, how important is it to have that acars data? what if we don't have it. >> well the fact they've got the center of the haystack is important, but i think it's important, for instance with air france 447, we knew that the aircraft after the last known position was airborne for about four minutes and that gave us a circle of about 40 nautical miles in diameter so it was a big haystack but at least we

had some bounds on where to look and where not to look. as it turns out, the plane was within about ten miles or so of the last known position so i think that again, we'll have to wait until all the data and evidence is in but i'm sure they'll come up with a fairly good search area from all that. and just like mary said once if -- i'm still hoping for the miracle ending. if bits of the plane or the plane is located on the surface, we'll have to back track that to find the "x" marks the spot on where the plane hit the water. >> we're hoping for that miracle. we've been hearing a lot from the airline and regulators. thank you, all, i appreciate it. quick break. coming up next a look at the passengers souls, 162 aboard flight 8501 and their families praying for their return.

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it's unbelievable but we do not know what's happened yet, so we'll wait until the accident investigation to really find out what's happened. our concern right now is for the relatives and for the next of kin. there is nothing more important to us for our crews, family and for the passengers' family that we look after them. that is our number one priority

at the moment. >> that was the ceo of airasia saying the families, crew, passengers of the flight 8501 all 162 people are the airline's top priority. we are expecting to hear again, from him in just about an hour and a half. we'll bring that to you, of course here on cnn, as soon as we can. let's talk more about this because this is really the most important thing. the human factor. these 162 people for their loved ones it is an agonizing wait for answers. they've gathered across the region including in indonesia where the plane took off. let's go straight to our nick valencia he has the latest for the passengers on board, and we'll talk to daniel rose, the attorney representing families affected by aviation disasters. clinical psychologist jeff gardere joins me as well. nick you've been following this all day. what's the airline doing to keep the families abreast of what's going on? >> they established a hotline for the families a 24-hour hotline. we spoke earlier to the man

operating the hotline. he said they've been busy. let's get to the numbers of the plane, giving meaning to those numbers. 162 people on this flight. qz8501. here are the nationalities and how it breaks down. a majority of those on this plane, this includes passengers and crew they were from indonesia, 1555 3 others from south korea, 1 from malaysia another from singapore, one from the united kingdom and one from france. that french national local media in indonesia is reporting that his name is remi emanuel placel, confirmed to be the plane's co-pilot. we know from local media and others reporting that french authorities are working in close collaboration with the indonesian government to try to locate this plane. on to the uk national another name that has been confirmed. he was an indonesian-based energy executive. his name was choy chiman traveling with his 2-year-old daughter who's one of the youngest passengers on this plane. right now the families of all of those on board awaiting these agonizing moments as you

mentioned, poppy. this is the most difficult part the unknown trying to find the wreckage of this plane if it exists or trying to find the whereabouts of exactly what happened to this airairsia flight. poppy? >> can't imagine it. daniel you've had to work with these families after their lost loved ones on crashes. we don't know what happened yet. when we talk about the airline thus far, are you impressed with the past 22 hours of communication with families there's been more communication after mh-370 disappeared? >> that's fair to say. it's still early on. time will tell. i think we all remember what difficulties malaysia air had after mh-370 and for a while, still, after the initial crash. >> is it legally -- you're a lawyer. is it legally sometimes these airlines feel like we don't want to say the wrong thing, so we're not going to say anything? >> i don't think it's that. nobody is really asking them even to give the ultimate answer

about what happened just yet. they just want information. you know what was the last thing they knew, what should the family do where should they do? basic stuff like taking care of the immediate needs of the families getting them to a location keeping them abreast. you know liability or what caused the crash should not even be on the radar screen. >> jeff to you, can you talk about the importance from a psych lmological standpoint to these families of hearing first every little detail as small as it may be from the airline rather than from us the media? >> absolutely. they want to know that they're the priority so they want to have that direct connection with the airline, with tony fernandes, talking with them being there for them. also if they're hearing it from the media before they're hearing it from the airlines, then it speaks of some sort of incompetence or some sort of a cover-up then they don't trust the airlines and that's what fernandes wants right now. he wants them to know he's concerned about the families concerned about the crew.

they are the priority right now. >> we are broadcasting not only here in the united states but globally right now on cnn international as well. so for family members that may be watching or friends who know someone on this flight what can they do most to be helpful but not intrusive to those loved ones? >> well they should certainly get in contact with them but also protect or understand respect the space that they may need, but they have to make themselves available, whether it's by telephone, whether it's by e-mail just letting them know that we are with you in spirit and many of them are praying right now. to pray along with them. to reach out. to let them know, whatever is needed they will be there for them as the airline should be doing right now, too. >> daniel, who are the key questions that families have when they have come to you after incidents of plane disappearance, plane crashes, et cetera? what are the biggest questions that they have about what to do and about their legal rights and responsibilities? >> well, you know, it really all

flows from what happened and that's the main question that's on everybody's mind and will be for some time until you get certain answers, but from the answer to that question, what happened flows certain legal rights and the conversation naturally really follows a certain path based on what we learn factually was about was it the aircraft was it the pilot, was it air traffic control? something like that. and, you know, this is a situation that generally no family has ever been in or contemplated being in and want to understand how the system works and get the answers from all sources as we talked about, and, you know lawyers are one of them. >> yeah absolutely. all right. daniel appreciate it. jeff and to nick thank you, all. we're going to continue our special coverage of airasia flight 8501 after a quick break.

it was less than 24 hours ago that the pilot of airasia flight 8501 was last heard by air traffic control in indonesia speaking really of turbulent weather, asking to fly higher sparking what is now a massive search for this plane, its passengers and crew. a total of 162 people most from

indonesia, were on board. the search resumed about an hour ago when day broke there. while we wait for word on that search my panel is going to answer some of your questions because we're getting a lot on twitter. you've been sending us your questions. tonight please continue to do so throughout the evening. let me bring in mary schiavo, les abend, and david gallo, the director of special projects at the woods hole oceanic institute talking about the search efforts. also with me tom seder. let me begin with you. this is a question over and over on twitter viewers writing in why are these planes allowed to fly with such severe thunderstorms versus here in the u.s. some of them say we see many of those flights delayed or canceled canceled but this is an area with a lot of these storms so they're asking why are they allowed to take off in situations like this? >> because the aviation nations of the world, ours included allow the airlines to make those decisions.

air traffic control does not shut down the flight lanes. they don't shut down the traffic corridors. local airplane authorities, by the way, make the decision on shutting down airports. the air traffic control certainly gives advisories but the airlines themselves and most major carriers have their own in-house meteorological departments, and they help the pilots make those decisions and in the u.s. off they do it propholacticall propholactically. they cancel the flights. but it's up to the airline. >> it's interesting you bring that up. tom, let me go to you. one question i've been getting frequently on twitter today is about what kind of meteorological expertise there is working with these airports working with the airlines telling them what is ahead before they take off? is there any sort of threshold or level? >> well i know les was talking earlier, we were talking about

pilots getting briefed. it's up to the pilots themselves. i'm sure mary and the other experts can tell you more about individual airlines or even individual countries, that have to deal with this but briefing yourself i mean you can see the line -- let's look at the cluster of thunderstorms. nowhere else on earth is seeing rougher weather than in malaysia and indonesia. the pilots i'm sure show up ahead of time, try to get briefed and there were turbulence reports that showed in this general region expect embedded thunderstorms at 53,000 feet. when you're flying at 32,000 53,000 is a wall of turbulence and water. now, we're starting to see this picked up just a little bit. the good news i can share with you, poppy, and the others is etch though this was the time we lost contact, you can see this tremendous thunderstorm sliding in this direction, these pilots sometimes have to run on, you know visually what they can see. obviously there's some turbulence you try to get around these, but the better news is we're looking at an improvement and that's very important right now because when

it comes to vizsibilityvisibility if i can show you the radar, this is something very new now. as we get in close, the thunderstorms disperse. this is fabulous news right now. i mean, a bird's-eye view is showing if we get sunlight, sea fog will burn off. this is the best news we've had in 24 hours. >> i'm very glad to see that. it's interesting you point out that those thunderstorms, ceiling of 53,000 feet. this plane, the ceiling where it can fly is 40,000 feet. there's no getting above that storm. here's another question that we got in from jim. he asked us "why are we not hearing about the emergency locator beacon? has it been heard?" paul let me go to you, an audio expert that deals with incidents like this. do you have an answer for that? >> it's my understanding that we have not heard anything from the elt as yet. they're triggered by saltwater and by g-forces and so on but i think the conditions have been so rough and we don't know the

way the airplane impacted the water, if it did, to see whether -- >> they could be knocked out in really rough water, really rough seas? >> it's possible but they are made to withstand pretty rough, rough seas and so on. by the way, the a-320, it's my understanding, is the same type of aircraft that sully sullenberger landed on the hudson however, we have night and day conditions. >> yeah. that is the case right, les? >> a-320s. >> it absolutely is. >> all right. more questions, more of your questions answered by our expert panel after a quick break right here. ♪ ah, push it. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ push it. ♪

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back with our continuing coverage of that airline that disappeared, airasia flight 8501. we continue to c