breaking news a tragic end to the search for missing flight airasia 8501. "reuters" reports that rescue teams have recovered 40 bodies from the doomed flight six miles from where it was last seen on radar. crews have found an emergency exit door. aluminum cuttings from the broken-up plane in the shallow waters off the coast of borneo island. the flight data recorder has not been recovered. edrecovered. divers being sent to the site to search for additional bodies. >> a small army of helicopters is flying over the location of the debris which will soon be taken to indonesia for further examination. the distraught family members are being called in to receive the grim news they're huddled against throngs of cameras surrounding the briefing area. the relatives hit with this information that they will never

see their loved ones again. the president of indonesia and the ceo of airasia are on their way to surabaya we want to go to paula hancock, she got back to land minutes ago after being out on a search effort to see the search efforts firsthand, paula? >> well john just speaking to some of the officials here we have new information about what will happen to some of the victims that are now being found at the location. we understand from officials here that they will be brought to this island they will be brought to a port about an hour away from here. the reason they're not going to the closer island is simply because the water is not deep enough to accommodate the navy ship that will be transporting them. we understand that the bodies are being retrieved from the water. it's not clear how long it will be until they come back do

shore. but the trip will take about seven hours. so it will be some time. and of course as you can see, the light is fating now, it's just after 6:00 in the evening, there's not much light left so for the helicopters that are helping retrieve the bodies it will be difficult as well. and in the town about an hour away from here on wednesday, tomorrow we will see the national transport safety commission arriving according to the governmental head of this region that's basically to start the initial investigation. and as we understand it from officials at this point, the debris will go to the airport there and then the victims themselves will be brought to the port. now of course we got the news that the plane had likely been found as we were out an fishing boat with a local fishing crew. on the search and rescue operation, it was a very somber trip back. they were very sad that the plane had necessarily been found. but there was no trace of

survivors at this time. and they said that their hearts were heavy and that they certainly wanted to send their condolences to the families. >> now that there is this debris field, how will it change the operations going forward? will the vessels be able to stay out overnight, stay in the area? when will helicopters be able to get back out over again? >> well some vessels have been staying out, all night, anyway they can't do too much when it's dark. they do have spotlights they are sending all the assets that they need into that particular area. so obviously the more high-tech assets will be very useful for them to try to retrieve some of the victims. but also to try to retrieve some of the technical equipment from the plane that obviously could give them some indication as to what happened. i did ask the head of the search and rescue operation here do you have everything you need? he said at this point they do because their focus is on the

people on the passengers and crew and to make sure that they can retrieve all the victims, then they can turn their minds exactly how to retrieve the body of the plane, if in fact it is in that location. >> grim work for the hours ahead. paula, thank you so much for that some of the families of the 162 people aboard the plane learning the devastating news as they watched graphic images on indonesian television. their response understandably met with tears, and anger. will ripley joins us live with that part of the story. will? >> michaela this is just an awful ordeal that these families have already gone through. many of them just hoping for a mikhail that perhaps there may have been some survivors, which now as the pictures come in and the details come in seems to be impossible. as we're getting report from "reuters," 40 bodies now have been recovered and the families face even more hardship in the days ahead.

because once these bodies are recovered, they're going to be taken to area hospitals where family members will then have to identify these people who are being pulled out of the water after being in the water now for a couple of days or perhaps longer and in the cases of some victims who are yet to be recovered. it's a horrible situation. the families are being kept away from the press and away from the news cameras. but they do have access to the live pictures that are shown on the local news in indonesia where bodies were shown on camera. and people were reacting in horror as they were seeing that. and it's something unimaginable that these families are going through right now, for the families of mh 370, this comes as a double blow this has been an emotional shock for them this week and now they still don't have closure. but these 162 families this is the beginning of closure for them but very difficult times ahead. >> our hearts are with them as

are our thoughts and prayers. the u.s. navy is sending a guided missile destroyer to help other nations in this ongoing recovery effort. our rene marsh joins us from washington to tell bus the u.s. role now that a debris field has been found. >> when we first heard that the u.s. navy was going to be dispatching the "uss sampson" it was a different mission. but things have changed over the last few hours. so more about this ship. you're looking at a photo of it. it has two helicopters on board. the helicopters usually used for search and rescue missions and also cargo lift. what we may see is they will be able to assist perhaps in recovering some of the wreckage that is floating on top of the ocean. we also know that this particular ship does have sonar equipment. however, at this point it is unclear if the specific sonar equipment on board this ship would be compatible with this

specific operation. we know that it's usually used to detect a submarine in the water but could it be used to identify a part of the plane that is sitting on the seabed and be able to identify the plane versus a heap of rocks? it's unclear if it's sophisticated enough to do that. we have reached out to the navy for clarification on that. also we do know that the u.s. could be called in for use of other equipment. now that this is a recovery mission, we know that there will be need for remote-operated vehicle, cranes we could see u.s. companies supply that. at this point, we know the ntsb only monitoring the french investigators seem to be taking the lead on this one. >> the underwater submersibles will be vital in terms of the investigation. rene thanks for that. want to bring in mary sciavo former director engineer for the u.s. department of

transportation and now an attorney for victims and family who is suffer through these disasters and also author of the upcoming book malaysia flights 370, why it disappeared and why it's only a matter of time before it happens again. david i want to start with the most disturbing news the most current news "reuters" reporting that 40 bodies have been recovered from the water this has got to be so difficult for the families. and our hearts go out to them this is now also part of this investigation. when you hear that 40 bodies have been recovered from the water after an obvious air disaster what does that tell you perhaps about what happened? >> there two things we can get from that one is the fact that the bodies were closely located. they hadn't spread out. which would indicate that there is a large portion of the airplane that's intact. it doesn't appear that there was

break-up of the aircraft it appear it is broke up on impact. >> mary is that something that makes sense to you, the idea that the plane did hit the water intact? >> yes. the bodies and the other wreckage that they have so far and the indication that they also believe that the getting of the black box is really pretty much imminent. i think that's pretty safe to say that it's intact and it broke up on water. >> we have seen with their own eyes from some of the witnesses, bodies in the water. also part of the investigation, the door an emergency exit door. pieces of aluminum. these tell you anything? >> well in -- it's too early to tell. i haven't seen all the photos yet because of the fact that they've been edited out at the moment.

what's concerning to me is it appears there's pieces of liferaft. that would indicate to me that these liferaft they don't deploy automatically themselves and the fact that the one emergency door separated by itself may indicate that it was actually ejected from the aircraft and that the emergency raft was deployed somehow. so that gives us hope that perhaps the aircraft did go as one piece and there may have been or may still be some survivors and we can keep hope for that. >> they are out there searching at this time. mary the debris field, the pattern here the objects that you see, what does it tell you then now about what might have happened in the air, about what might have gone wrong, if it didn't break up in the air, what does that mean? >> well it means most likely that the plane was of course as everyone already knows, going through extreme weather. but it does continue to point to some kind of an aerodie dmamic stall. there's a reason that the plane

fell from the sky pretty close to the last radar hit. some kind of mechanical issue, not an aerodynamic stall, sometimes the planes can limp on for hundreds of miles. but on an aerodynamic stall, you fall from the sky where you are. and it does look like a wreckage pattern and the kindwreckage you find from other aerodynamic stall cases that have ended up in the water. >> you have these pieces of evidence you have these images you have this location to start from. where what do do you to track back to find the fuselage? to find the black boxes? >> well one of the things i wanted to touch on first and first clue that i see is the fact that the aircraft is actually back beyond where it had been pinged. in the radar it was found here it turned and went back the other direction, that would tell us one of two things either it was a flat stall at which the

aircraft fell and found its own direction as it picked up air speed and then ended up going back in the other direction. or another thing it might tell us is that the pilot had recognized the risk and was not able to get through the clouds and had made the decision to try to turn around. that's the first piece of the clue. going forward, the first thing to do after the bodies are taken care of. that is the first priority it always is the first priority is to do the respect that are due these passengers and to get the bodies recovered and to look to see if there's any survivors. the second thing you do the most important clue is the black boxes, the cockpit voice recorder and the flight dat recorder. the fingthy i would do is try to get that out there, look for pings, calculating the drift. luckily the drift is in a circular motion it hasn't drifted hundreds of miles off or anything like that. >> in shallow water it should be easier to find than in other situations. mary you deal with families of victims of incidents like this.

what is it like in these moments? it's such a disturbing moment on the one hand to see the bodies in the water to find the debris to know that the plane did go down. but on the other hand there's a closure here that the families of flight 370 don't have. >> i won't call it closure. there's really no such thing, the families tell me. no matter how much time goes past there's no closure. they learn to live with the difference, they have a new identity after the crash, they're the family of an air crash victim and that's with them forever. they're able to go in the work or overdrive mode. search for answers, they want to know what to do they want to know how to honor their loved ones, i can tell you until the last passenger is accounted for and since there is indication that there's a piece of liferaft here a life vest there families will hold out hope until the very end. until once they have the debris field, it's important to work

very efficiently, quickly and thoroughly and they will. just keep at it until every person is identified. for example, twa 800, the one off of long island in the water there was remains from every single passenger identified. >> mary sciavo david soucie thank you very much. they will follow the news as long as they possibly can. michaela? >> we'll continue to track every development on the air asia disaster. there's plenty of conjecture out there about the incident. what do we know for sure? and what's being sorted out? we'll take a look.

thanks. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] fedex® has solutions to enable global commerce that can help your company grow steadily and quickly. great job. (mandarin) ♪ ♪ cut it out. >>see you tomorrow. ♪ ♪ let me get this straight... [ female voice ] yes? lactaid® is 100% real milk? right. real milk. but it won't cause me discomfort. exactly because it's milk without the lactose. and

it tastes? it's real milk! come on, would i lie about this? [ female announcer ] lactaid. 100% real milk. no discomfort. you don't think much about it... you never dwell on how it was made... it's just a blanket after all... but when everything else has been lost, the comfort it provides is immeasurable. the america red cross brings hope and help to people in need every 8 minutes every day. so this season give something that means something.

support us at redcross.org

our continuing coverage continues is of the crash of airasia flight 8501. officials in indonesia are all but certain that bodies found off borneo island is that of the missing flight. the discovery pri as measure of closure and expected grief for the families there's still much we don't know. many you have been asking us

questions we want to sift through some of the things we know and don't know with cnn analyst david gallow an oceanographer, he helped discover the wreckage of air france flight 447 and cnn aviation analyst, les abeen an airline pilot and contributing editor for "flight" magazine. the families are learning the reality of this discovery, it brings some measure of closure. let's talk about the investigation and things that we're going to be learning and things we know and don't know. first of all we know in terms of the airplane the pilot asked to increase altitude to 38,000 feet due to weather. what we don't know is how urgent the need was that he felt and why no mayday was called. les, what does that tell you as a commercial pilot about how quickly things may have transpired in the course of events that led to the crash? >> last night i had the opportunity to hear the first

transmissions on the ground they asked for push-back, they asked for the clearance and everything sounded very typical, very nonchalant like we would any normal day. what i would like to see if we can get to the last transmission when they requested the deviation in the altitude change what the inflection of the voice was. if there's any way of determining that. and whether he was just doing that as a result of bad ride that he was experiencing or he was seeing something on the radar. the urgency with reference to the mayday that would be part of that. if the man was dealing with or the crew was dealing with the situation that was very urgent the last people that they want to talk to is air traffic control. they want to control their airplane it's aviate navigate communicate. >> mayday calls will not always happen. correct. >> what we know and what we don't know -- the actions of the pilot as you just mentioned were routine. until the plane lost contact. what we don't know is if any

flight instruments were damaged by weather. you're instrumental in the air france investigation. we know that the instruments played a critical role. what questions do you have what thoughts do you have about perhaps the role of instruments in this? >> well we're going to have to wait michaela. in the case of air france 447, the plane was, found in several miles of water beneath the atlantic ocean. i don't recall looking, what the results were looking at the cockpit instrumentation, certainly they did play an important role. we'll have to wait to see until the fuselage is found and then the cockpit, the shape of the instruments and see what the black boxes tell us the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder. >> and to see if your instruments go out as a pilot -- >> i find that unlikely michaela. i think there was some sort of mechanical situation, was it a

result of the thunderstorm. the man had 20,000 hours of total time. this is an experienced guy. the captain and even the co-pilot is able to they were handling an airplane probably in a stressful turbulent situation, but something went wrong. i feel that something in my gut says that beyond that they were dealing with something else. >> and you don't know what that is? >> i hate to go to comparisons to 447 at this time. because it's way too preliminary in the investigation. >> here's another point that we know. the we know the java sea is a major shipping area and relatively shallow. what we don't know and it's interesting to me is if anyone on nearby ships spotted a plane going down. we have not heard any reports, david, of ships in the area other planes fishermen even we've heard nothing. what do you make of that? >> it's again when you're looking at a map it seems like a fairly small body of water. but when you're out there, it's huge and the horizon is often

five or six miles away. when you're out there it's a big ocean that's out there. >> thanks to all of you who have been participating via twitter. the first question, is there a possibility, les that lightning struck the plane and knocked out communication? how realistic is that? >> it's not likely. airplanes in this day and age are bonded where if there is a electrical charge that hits the airplane it's actually discharged out a wing tip or through a tail a thing called a static wick a wire that comes off some of the extremities of the airplane. is it possible that it could have knocked out some form of the electrical system? yeah it is but i don't see that as being a likely scenario. >> it's comforting to many of us who fly, knowing that an airplane can withstand a lightning strike. david another question from twitter -- we haven't we heard an explanation of why the plane's emergency beacon is not pinging? >> well the ones the there's two sets of them. one of them won't go off in

water. the other one, has to be done manually a system. that would explain it. why there isn't something that's ejected upon impact? is a good question. and i don't have an answer for that that's an airline question. >> that's an airline question to be sure. gentlemen thank you so much we're going to ask you to continue to send in your questions, tweet them to us using the #8501qs. we are breaking down every new detail as we follow breaking news bodies and debris have been recovered, believed to be from flight airasia flight 8501. how the expanded search could have helped speed up the search process. protected. given new hope. during the subaru "share the love" event, subaru owners feel it, too. because when you take home a new subaru we donate 250 dollars to helping those in need. we'll have given 50 million dollars over seven years.

love. it's what makes a subaru a subaru. narrator: this is the storm sea captain: there's a storm comin narrator: that whipped through the turbine which poured... surplus energy into the plant which generously lowered its price and tipped off the house which used all that energy to stay warm through the storm. chipmunk: there's a bad storm comin! narrator: the internet of everything is changing how energy works. is your network ready?"

welcome back to our continuing coverage of the crash of airasia flight 8501. we welcome viewers around the globe and the u.s. so many developments overnight. here's what we know about what search crews have found so far. crews recovering several bodies along with an emergency exit

door. and aluminum cuttings in the ocean. debris found in the water, six miles from where the plane was last spotted on radar. saturday morning. airasia ceo tony fernandes sending condolences to families of victims see vooeia twitter saying his heart is full of sadness. family and friends of the passengers and crew were called in to receive the grim news, several of them were overcome with emotion. for the latest let's turn to andrew stevens live from indonesia. heartbreaking to understand the people are learning the fate of their loved ones. >> you can't imagine, michaela what they must have been going through. they were called in there was a live press conference which has been relayed to them. it was from coming from jakarta. they were taking -- that's where they heard from the head of the search and rescue operations

here in indonesia. that he said that there was a 95% chance that the debris that had been recovered or been seen spotted and photographed from that airasia plane just six miles from where the plane last mate contact when the pilots radioed to change their course six miles away. that 95% certain that this debris came from airasia 8501. you can imagine the scene. i was speaking to a man whose friend was on board. not only was his friend on board, but his friend's wife and three children and mother-in-law. a family of six, all on that flight. he said it was, it was hysterical what was happening there. there was his tearics there were people fainting screaming. not helped either by local television showing pictures of bodies floating in the sea. so you can imagine, you can't imagine just how bad it must have been for them. what we're hearing is that there is an indonesian warship on station. still the conditions have been described as quite rough, the seas are quite difficult.

and right now we're wait for the arrival of the indonesian president to meet both the families and we're expecting him also to speak to the press. a very very sad, sad day for this country. a tragic end to the mystery of flight 8501. christine? >> thanks andrew stevens for that in surabaya indonesia i want to keep the focus on the area where the debris was found, only six miles from the where the plane was last seen on radar and at the southeastern end of the expanded search grid so did expanding the search repeatedly in the last few days help track the debris? here to discuss, former faa safety inspector david soucie. let's talk about where the debris was spotted. when you looks at the debris site in relation to where the flight path of the plane was, how will searchers backtrack to try to find the fuselage? >> you're going to do some drifting and in that area it's

recycling, recirculating, as opposed to mh370, where everything was moving in that direction. it can present challenges to where did goes but at least it constrains the area to where they're going to be looking for the underwater beacons. >> when you see the debris found just 60 miles from where it went from. they covered 13 zones. when you look at the expanded search area, 13 zones, 60,000 square miles, larger than the size of georgia how did searchers find the debris so quickly shall quickly? >> the first few zones was up in the opposite direction where that was, they excluded that area by the fact they had already done the search and found nothing. and they went to the other area. it's interesting to note that that area is behind where they got the last radar. >> behind where they got the last radar. where you're seeing the teal or aqua block is where we've seen the debris and the debris concentrated at this point. >> it tells me there was not an

in-flight break-up or not a significant one at least. because of the location of the deceased and the location of the where the debris is. it's all centrally located. >> when you look at the map and we layer on weather. you look at the flight path and you look at the weather, this tells a story. there were at least three monster thunderstorms. some you know whether experts telling us it would have been difficult to get around it all the way. you see the flight path and the huge red thunderstorms. can you layer it on top to see exactly what it looked like. >> think about what the pilot was looking at he sees this terrible storm in front of him. it's escalating, getting worse. the fact that it's behind the last radar tells me two things, it was either in a flat spin or a deep stall. the deep stall is hard to predict where the aircraft is going to come out. it's not really flying any more it's simply falling and they're trying to get air speed up. >> a stall is going to drop like a rock? >> it can. it can become a flat spin is one

result of a deep stall or it can also they're trained to rock the aircraft until it comes down in a certain direction to get air speed over it indicates to me that either the deep stall made the aircraft came out and exited the other direction, or the other possibility is that the pilot made the decision, the choice to turn around because he realized that it was a higher risk to go through the storm than it was to turn around. even though he might have been in the storm longer it was worthwhile to come back. it's one of those two scenarios. >> when we get flight data recorders and voice recorders we'll know more. we're continuing to follow breaking news, bodies and scatter deed bring from missing flight 8501. will that lead the investigators to the rest of the doomed airliner? ...and neutralizes stomach acid at the source. ♪ tum, tum tum tum...♪ smoothies! only from tums.

get ready for some german engineered holiday excitement. at the volkswagen sign-then-drive event. right now, for practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays in a new volkswagen. like the sporty, advanced new jetta and the precisely engineered passat tdi. ah, the gift of clean diesel. for the new volkswagen on your list this year just about all you need, is a pen. festive, isn't it? hurry in to the sign then drive event and get a five-hundred dollar new year's bonus on select new volkswagen models. offer ends january 2nd.

it's just ordinary fleece but the comfort it provides is immeasurable. the america red cross brings hope and help to people in need every 8 minutes every day. so this season give something that means something.

welcome back to our continuing coverage of the crash of airasia flight 8501. officials in indonesia have confirmed that the debris spotted in the shallow water off borneo island is indeed from the doomed flight that vanished over the weekend. several bodies and emergency door have all been found six miles from the plane's last-known location. now, how can the debris lead investigators to what brought that plane down? richard quest is here with us in studio. so 100% confirmation that this is debris from the plane that likely does not surprise you. >> new york city i mean this is now turning into what one would expect. the plane, the debris is relative to where the aircraft

was last known. the awfulness of picking up and recovering the deceased is under way. you pick up the wreckage. that is now whatever wreckage you can find. and you start to bring in the necessary equipment to find the black boxes. the so-called flight reporters, which as we know are actually orange or red. and you bring in they will find them relatively quickly. this is not going to be a difficult job. in the shallow waters of the java sea. you'll bring in the locators you'll recover them. you'll extract from these the necessary equipment. now i'm, i don't know but i think it may be doubtful that the indonesians themselves will have the technology or the expertise for decoding them. so the black boxes and the data will be sent to a center maybe singapore, australia or europe. >> these were the steps that were so painfully looking in mh-37, the crash earlier this year. there's still questions and no closure for those families. there's no plane.

what you're laying out to me is a textbook plane crash investigation. >> absolutely. and it was interesting over the last 24 hours, as some of my colleagues got more and more why haven't they found the debris? why haven't they done this? well it takes time. as you were showing on the map earlier. it's a large area. but now we've moved into the next very serious, very grave moment where you are looking for the remains. that's the number one priority. to find remains for loved ones. >> there are questions, richard, that could be answered by the black box about what happened. >> not some, the questions. i mean the core questions, we know we have lots of pieces of the jigsaw but on -- on the table. now imagine a jigsaw, that once you push a button all comes together automatically and that's what this box does. you take this box, and there are two of them the flight data recorder which will certainly

have what the controls were doing, what the parameters of the aircraft the way it was being flown. but we will also probably have the cockpit voice recorder and that will tell what you the pilots were saying to each other. >> we're well within it's got a couple of hours worth. we're well within that. >> save for the fact that they don't find this. we feel pretty confident that they are going to find the flight data recorder. if they were not, the puzzle pieces that you talk about, the way bodies were found, grouped together the pieces of debris that were found -- what kind of answers can those give us? >> an enormous amount of information. because you're going to be looking at the stresses and the strains on the metals. how they came apart. it will tell you for example where the plane came apart. where the breaking points were how it hit the ground. all those sort of areas. will be that will tell you what the plane, the stresses that was on air frame at the moment. but this box, is the key that

unlocks the mystery of how the plane was being flown and what was happening on board. >> richard, john and i were noticing this amazing statistic. that when you look at airlines in the asia-pacific region over the past five years, air traffic has grown two-thirds a billion passengers every year. this is a huge rapidly growing market isn't it? >> it is. and i can see where that question might lead someone to suggest safety issues, rapid growth of an industry. are they as careful as they should be? if it had been in some of the newer carriers i might have been more concerned. but this wasn't all right, it's indonesia airasia, versus airasia, the mainline carrier. but airasia is a well-known, well-respected. >> highly-rated low-cost airline. >> unbelievably so it is the core of that area. now there are new carriers and

let's be honest one of the indonesian carriers used to be a called eded batavia. certainly not in the category of an racia but the actual core aviation in asia is nor different than anywhere else and it needs to be worth remembering, all the low-cost carriers tend to be affiliated with one of the bigger carriers as well. >> richard quest, we appreciate you giving us your expertise. to other news trouble for two congressional republicans, one of whom is now stepping down. embattled new york congressman michael grimm says he will step down after pleading guilty to felony tax evasion. meantime representative steve scalise. is receiving backlash after it was revealed that he spoke before a white supremicist group in 2002. >> these are not the type of headlines the republican party wants to see as their, as they prepare to take over congress. but that's right, as you

mentioned, representative grimm will be stepping down. he says on january 5th. he had at first rejected pleas to step down after he entered the guilty plea last week. now it looks like he's heading out january 5th. now representative steve scalise has a different issue, this issue of him speaking before a white supremicist group in 2002. the european american rights association. founded by david duke the former grand wizard of the klu klux klan and an avowed long-time knee i don't nazi. scalise's group said he didn't know it was a white supremicist group. he said i detest any hate group and the idea that i could be involved with one of them is insuting and ludicrous. one of the issues is that david duke was well known as a white supremicist and steve scalise is

the number three house republican. today new york city mayor bill de blasio will meet with several police union leaders. the move comes a day after de blasio was booed and heckled while addressing recruits at a police graduation ceremony. police union leaders have blamed de blasio for the city's volatile climate following weeks of protests in the eric garner case and the execution of two nypd officers in brooklyn. the u.s. has conducted an air strike in somalia, targeting a senior leader of the terror group al shabab. we don't know if the strike was successful it was carried out by an unmanned aircraft monday. the pentagon's press secretary says there do not appear to be civilian casualties. the strike comes after somali military officers captured a top al shabab military commander over the weekend. we're watching news conference that's happening

right now with indonesian authorities in surabaya about the doomed airasia flight 8501. the ceo of airasia. and the head of the airport authority in is your buyia we'll continue to monitor what they say in the news conference this as the search crews get closer to the site of where the plane went down. what will it take to find the key parts of the data recorder, after this. when you don't get enough sleep... and your body aches... you're not yourself. tylenol ® pm relieves pain and helps you fall fast asleep and stay asleep. we give you a better night. you're a better you all day. tylenol®

y'know what my business philosophy is, reynolds? >>no. not exactly. to attain success, one must project success. that's why we use fedex one rate®. >>their flat rate shipping. exactly. it makes us look top-notch but we know it's affordable. (garage door opening) (sighs) honey, haven't i asked you to please use the.... >>we don't have a reception entrance. ship a pak via fedex express saver® for as low as $7.50.

welcome back. devastating news this morning for the families of the 162 passengers and crew aboard flight 8501 is now that debris has been found, crews can narrow their search for other parts of the plane. notably the main fuselage and the all-important flight data recorder. how can that process be expedited? can it be? mary sciavo cnn aviation analyst joins us former inspector-general of the u.s.

department of transportation and attorney for victims and families after airplane disasters. back with us cnn aviation correspondent richard quest. mary i think let's begin with you, i think the important parts now in this news that the debris has been confirmed to be that of the ill-fated plane, in terms of backtracking to find those vital pieces of the fuselage and the flight data recorder what are the steps? help us understand how this process goes in the next few hours. >> sure. what they do the wreckage that is recovered, where they make a note of the coordinates of the wreckage. and then they plot that against the currents the known currents and there are tables of the currents and the tides and the movements of the ocean, literally of the world. they put those on a big grid it kind of looks like graph paper, except of course each square represents many miles. that's assigned out to the various ships and other ocean-going assets that they have. and each of those takes a

coordinate to search and they just systemically go through it and they check off the boxes, if you will. so they know they have covered all of the areas where the wreckage could be. and they just backtrack working back to where the point of impact would be. and then at that point of course where the point of impact is is where they're going to want to get divers and submersibles and get those assets there as quickly as possible to get those all-important cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder black boxes. >> mary brings up a great point. this water is shallow, this water is only about 100 feet deep so divers could get in there and help with the search. will there be sonar, the locaters? >> yes, well the underwater locator beacons on the fuselage and on the recorders, they will now be transmitting as we know this remember we went through this with all 370. so you will be putting assets into the water to try to hear those locators. but it's not again, in this

situation i don't think you're going to be at the extremes because you're going to find debris. as mary was explaining it will be reverse drifted to where the main debris field is where the fuselage is. once you know where that is, you can then pretty much go down there and find it fiscally. rather than having to put in pingers and all that sort of stuff if they have to they will. but time is on their side a little bit. not much but time is a little bit on their side because the batteries have a 30 35-day lifespan. >> the families are so interesting, they're going through a different experience than the nh370 families who very publicly were getting little pieces of information. were complaining they weren't getting complete information. we're not seeing kind of the hoopla around these families we saw on mh370, there's more

information for these familiar list. you're an advocate for these families what's important for them right now? >> absolutely. every piece of information they can get their hands on. sometimes airlines i'm not saying this airline, but sometimes airlines get real secretive and they try to hide things from the families or they say this is too much for the families we don't want to tell them that. that is seriously misunderstanding families and what they need. every piece of information is poorn. in some crashes in the united states the ntsb holds ourly briefings, the families just want that information and many have said to me over the years, don't hide anything from me don't assume i can't take it i can. >> that's so important, they need that information, investigators need that information. bup let's talk about the reality, richard. we're talking about an area that there were severe thunderstorms, when this crash occurred. we also know that while the waters are shallow. we know it's a busy waterway we know there's been some tough weather and conditions for them

to get there. murky water. talk about some of those challenges in terms of getting to the actual debris. >> well you've got to find it first of all. well they've done that you've got to find the main debris field, well, mary as elgabtegantly said you'll work backwards until you find it and then you go into the water and start searching. in 447, they found the debris field, they found where the fuselage was. but they still had several months before they could find the black boxes. because after, there was so much time had passed the there water any pings from the locators. which of course only go a couple of kilometers they had to search through the ground themselves. in this case i think it's going to be a lot quicker. i think you're going to find they'll recover these flight data and cockpit voice recorders relatively quickly and they will be out of the water before long. >> how long to analyze those recorders? >> once they have them matter

of days. it depends where they send them to. >> send them to london england in. >> it could either go to europe i would imagine singapore has the capability of i don't know. but i would think singapore has the capability of reading them. failing of which would be australia, u.s. france the uk. france is often an important one. because it was an airbus aircraft. >> mary 30 seconds left. in terms of what the families are now going to be helped with what is the process now for them? obviously identification we know they've been asked for photos. give us an idea of the next few hours for them. >> well the next few hours, they will have some chores to do at this point. they have been assigned next will be assigned to get photos there will be some in some many cases like swabbing of saliva for identification. there will be lots of information, they will be taking from them about personal information and then it's different country by country. but the airline should be

seeking from them what they need hotels transportation relatives, other relatives that need to come in. cash and money for interim expenses. literally the airline should be taking care of the families of the victims as if they're families of the airline and that will really go a long way to help both help the image of the airline and really step up to the plate and do what their responsibilities are. >> and help the families in such dire need right now. our thanks to mary sciavo and richard quest as always. we'll have more on our continuing coverage of the crash of airasia flight 8501. that starts right now. debris spotted in the search for missing airasia flight 8501. >> the debris spotted six miles from the plane's last-known flight position. >> a cargo door has been sighted. >> there were bodies in the water. >> the worst possible news for the families of these 162 people. >> i can imagine, unfortunately i know exactly what they're going through and it's horrible.

the searchers have been lowered down by helicopter. to find bodies from the water as well as debris. >> the focus is on the people on the passengers and the crew. >> the most important clue now is the black boxes. >> they'll be able to piece together precisely what happened to this aircraft. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> good morning to you and welcome to "new day," i'm michaela pereira along with john berman and christine romans. we want to turn now to our breaking news -- airasia confirming that the debris found in the java sea this morning is indeed that of flight 8501. crews have recovered several bodies. an emergency door and aluminium cuttings in the shallow water off the coast of borneo island just six miles from where the aircraft dropped off radar. that debris will be brought to land as soon as possible. for closer investigation. meanwhile, divers are being called in to the search site to

look for more bodies or perhaps the rare chance of survivors. >> the families of the 162 passengers and crew, they were called in to receive this news so many of them you can see it right here shedding tears, trying to wrap their heads around. likely fact now that they will never see their loved ones again. some learning the heartwrenching news from graphic images appearing on indonesian television. airasia ceo tony fernandes tweeting out his condolences saying his heart is filled with sadness. we're covering the story from all angles. we go live to andrew stevens live at the airport in surabaya indonesia. >> you join us just after the indonesian president widodo arrived here a few minutes ago. can you probably see part of the presidential group behind us

here. he's gone straight into the crisis center. and is now with the families of the victims of flight 8501. it has been an absolutely harrowing -- harrowing doesn't begin ginn to describe with what the people have had to deal with today, with the fate of their loved ones. the news started trickling out around about noon that debris had been spotted. pictures were circulating which did tend to suggest, showed these were linked to an aircraft and then we had the news from the head of the search and rescue team in the jakarta, the people in charge of the whole operation saying that he was 95% certain that the debris was from 8501. there were pictures also of bodies circulating. in fact while this was being read out, while the news was being watched live by the families a television station was slowing pictures if you can believe it of bodies in the water. that provoked scenes of

hysteria. a according to a man inside. i spoke to him. his friend was on the flight. he his wife three children mother-in-law and also a fiancee of one of the children to give you an idea of the family tragedies involved in this. so and you know so difficult, impossible to explain what they are going through. now the grim task begins john they have to identify the bodies. the bodies are expected to come back to surabaya a police hospital being set up for purposes of receiving the bodies and being i.d.ed. and family members being asked to provide whatever details they can about their loved ones we understand john that on the scene there are indonesian there is the least one indonesian naval vessel. conditions there aren't good but we are being told that the recovery of bodies continue there is. john? >> andrew i understand of president of indonesia is now giving remarks right there in

surabaya. and the ceo of airasia, tony fernandes, by him. any sense of what they're saying? >> i can only imagine that con condolences aren't enough. it's the presence of the president sharing the grief of his citizens. he he is actually doing what he should be doing. he's with his people. 150 of the 155 passengers were indonesian citizens. a lot of them were actually from surabaya as well. as far as we know he has come out and he is now making a statement i believe to the media it sounds like it is in the bahasa language. no doubt he'll be talking about the tragic loss this country has had to deal with and continues to deal with. he is with tony fernandes, as you said, we tony fernandes is the founder and ceo of airasia,

he has been constantly tweeting fer napds, about his own personal heartache and personal pain sending out condolences to the family and trying to basically be with them if you like in their hour of need. so airasia staff are here. there are a lot of airasia staff here who have been tasked to look after individual members of families involved. but again they can only do so much john. this is now a process which is going to gh on for a few days as the bodies start coming back to surabaya it will be a difficult time for so many people. >> andrew stevens in is your buy yarks surabaya. our andrew stevens in surabaya, thanks so much. we want to turn to paula hancocks she just got back to land after being out on a boat to see the search efforts firsthand. paula, i'm curious, what conditions were like when you were out on the water? that gives us an idea of what search crews are encountering.

>> well michaela we were further west than the location we're talking about here. but certainly conditions were fairly good when we were out. twaes a little choppy but the visibility was quite significant. there was only a little bit of rain really nothing to talk about. so visibility would have been good as well from the air. and clearly as you can see, the aircraft did spot parts of the debris. so it was the weather did hold and that was conducive to the search-and-rescue operation. as soon as we did hear the reports that in fact the location had been identified the fishing boat we were on turned round and came back to harbor it was just a local fishing boat that had offered to help. just showing community here want being to be part of this. and as you can imagine, the mood coming back to the harbor was very somber. these fishermen were not only trying to help with the search

and rescue operation, but they are fellow indonesians and certainly most of these passengers and crew on board this flight were inds meia as well. one man part of the fisheries ministry was on board to try to find the debris said he was extremely sad, he was relieved it had bern found. but sad that there was no sign of survivors. >> the bulk of them were from indonesia indonesia, it's going to hit the nation very hard. any hope the familyies had of some sort of miracle vanished overnight. the news was met with grief and pain from families who were there for the announcement. we turn to will ripley for more. will? >> michaela perhaps even the hardest part for the families begins. they have to wait for the victims to be recovered from the water, taken to area hospitals, which we know are preparing right now for the very sad and difficult process of identifying

the bodies. we know that already steps have been taken, families were asked for photos. they were asked for dna samples. to assist in the identification process. but when you are pulling people out of the water, who did not survive an accident that have been in the water for a couple of days it is very grim task. we saw it here in asia. in south korea off jindao with the ferry disaster and these families are going to have to at some point confirm the worst. that the people that they said good-bye to and got on flight 8501 are now the people that are going to be arriving in area hospitals for identification. a very very tough time ahead for these folks. >> it certainly is will and our thoughts and prayers are with them. there's help from the united states arriving today. but now that the debris and some victims have been spotted, what will the american role be? rene marsh joins us live from washington to explain this.

good morning, rene. >> good morning, john as you said overnight this has turned into a roofer co-rfr mission. we know the u.s. navy dispatched the "uss sampson." on board there are two helicopters, usually used for search-and-rescue operations and a cargo lift. this may be helping in the recovery of wreckage spotted on the surface. this ship also has sonar equipment. it's unclear at this hour whether the sonar equipment on board is sophisticated enough to detect let's say crucial part of the aircraft on the seabed. that sun clear. we've reached out to the u.s. navy for clarification on that we do know the indonesians officially asked the united states for help as it relates to sonar equipment. that will be critical. we know the heavier parts of the aircraft will be sitting on the

seabed. so they need equipment to detect those pieces of aircraft. also the black boxes. they could ask the u.s. for the toe pinger locater used for mh370. the ntsb monitoring the situation, but they're willing and ready to help if needed. >> rene marsh in washington thanks so much. our next guest, john know all about these sorts of investigations, they are both former heads of the national transportation safety board. jim hall and debra hersman joins us. deborah is now president of the national safety council. so glad both of you could join us unfortunately you have far too much expertise in matters such as these. deborah i'll start with you since you're here. we talk about the location of this debris. not far from that last known communication with the plane. about six miles. what does that tell you? things happen fairly quickly for this plane? >> it tells you that things happened fairly quickly. it gives you some confidence that the things that we knew from past investigative

activities finding the last-known location of the plane are very important. i think the 370 investigation really threw people off. and i think -- >> it changed our expectations really didn't it? >> it did. it made people question a lot of the things that had worked for us in the past. but you follow those protocols, you follow those procedures. you know where the last radar hit. where the last communication was. and what the crew might have communicated at the end. that will help you walk things back to be able to find where the aircraft could be and the best search pattern to look for. >> and jim, that's a very good point. that deborah makes is that you know we learned sadly we learned from these tragedies and from these crashes. this it would appear, has gone sort of i hate even saying this. it's sort of a textbook investigation in terms of a few days after the crash debris is found and now the tough work begins. >> every investigation is different. this one i believe will underscore the need for floatable black boxes and

emergency locating transmitters. the technology that's available in the military. as well as for cameras in the cockpit. a recommendation that was made in 1999 when i was chairman of the ntsb. >> deborah, that's a good point. he talks about those calls and recommendations being made in '99. calls for further technological advances which we know already exist after mh370 went away. do you think this will increase the calls, once again? or do you think we might be closer to having some of those technologies implemented? >> i think certainly in the hours before the aircraft a was found, the pressure was again mounting for better tracking better surveillance of aircraft. we have the ability to know where aircraft are in real-time and for them to be sending information directly to ground and to other stations about their position, about what's happening. and i think there was a lot of pressure after 370 to make that

happen. and i think not finding the aircraft until today, that was another pressure that was operating. but jim raises a good point -- there's a lot of new technology out there. whether it's video in the cockpit to really see what was going on. or recorders, deployable recorders, or simultaneous transmission there's more that can be done to improve safety. >> the flight data recorder the all-important missing piece right now. obviously the priority is recovering the bodies so families can get closure and begin the burial and funeral process. but the flight data recorder is going to provide answers. tell us how quickly we could see information once it's in our hands, in the hands of authorities that they can download the information and crunch through what happened? >> for sure the next 24/48 hours wrong belong to the recovery operations. looking for those bodies to be able to support the families. but the investigators are going to be looking for the location

of those recorders. we're looking for really redundant recorders, making sure we have good data both on the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder we're looking for two hours on the cockpit voice recorder and potentially hundreds of parameters on the flight data recorder. they pull those out. the most important thing is really to preserve that evidence. to not damage it. as you're removing it and you're getting it out of the water, making sure you keep it wet so that you don't lose the data that's on there and so that it can be dried in an appropriate manner to be read. >> i know it's conjecture, jim but at this point we know where the debris was spotted, the troubles the pilot was said to be trying to get around in terms of the incredibly large thunderstorms, some 50 kilometers wide in some estimates. did it seem to be that was a dangerous area or time to be flying? or did it seem to you that there was something else that went wrong with this flight?

>> well we really don't know. and the recorders hopefully will tell most of the story. but that's why cameras in the cockpit are so important. it will give us an idea a visual idea of the conditions the crew was facing and the actions that they took in regard to trying to safely maneuver the aircraft. and of course again, i underscore the fact that this is an unacceptable amount of time for a rescue to hope to have survivors alive and that's why i'm so for and have always been for these deployable recorders used in the military. >> deborah, we saw the ceo and the president of indonesia speaking at a news conference. i was thinking about the fact that there has been you know the families always want more answers. it has been fairly transparent for them. the families have been given a

fair amount of information from what we can tell on the ground. i imagine there's a challenge for investigators weighing how much information you come public with. how much information you sort of keep to your own until you can confirm did and double-check. how do they make that balance? it must be very delicate. >> you know many places there are protocols established for how you deal with the family members. in the u.s. we make every effort to brief the family members first before information is shared with the media. everyone is facing a really difficult challenge in an environment like this. and i think particularly when they didn't know where the aircraft was, and they didn't know much they didn't have a lot to share. but i think everyone learned from the 370 experience to really put those families first. and to keep them in the loop. even if you don't know a lot. to let them know what you know. >> we can only imagine a that the finding of this debris from this aircraft is only making worse the knowledge for the families of flight 370, that they still have no answers.

jim hall deborah hersman, we thank you for your time and expertise, thank you for joining us here on "new day." we know the u.s. navy has been called in to help in the crash of airasia flight 8501. what's the role they'll play? we'll talk live with pentagon press secretary rear admiral john kirby, next. sir, we're going to need you on the runway. (vo) theraflu starts to get to work in your body in just 5 minutes. (vo) theraflu breaks you free from your worst cold and flu symptoms. (vo) theraflu. serious power.

welcome back to cnn's coverage of airasia's flight 8501.

the "uss sampson" is expected to arrive at the debris field later today. airasia confirms the debris field is that of the missing jet. the question is now that the debris has been found, the first pieces of it how can the u.s. be of help? we want to bring in pentagon press secretary rear admiral john kishy. thank you so much for being with us. to that question now that this debris has been found, what do you see the u.s. role to be? >> well first let me express on behalf of all the men and women of the defense department our deepest condolences to those affected by this terrible tragedy. we know there are hundreds of families going through just an unspeakable ordeal our hearts go out to them. as we've made clear, we're ready to help in any way that we can. we've assisted in these types of searches before unfortunately, so we have experience in this. we have a destroyer, the "uss sampson" is on station now as of this morning and she will be prepared to assist in any of the

surface recovery efforts that are going on right now. the debris field that kind of thing. i'm not aware that she's participated in any of that yet. but she's on station now and red ready to help. and we have another ship prepared to deploy from the region from singapore, the "uss fort worth" that ship can be ready to sail in a day or two. we're preparing aircraft i'm sorry, search aircraft maritime patrol aircraft that can get on station to help map the debris field on the surface. once the aircraft has been found on the bottom it's not too terribly deep the nave does have salvage capabilities that could be could come in handy as well. all that's a little bit further down the road and we're not at that point yet. >> maybe not too much further down the road at this point with the first sightings of the debris. they'll work backwards, is any of that underwater capability part of the "uss sampson," part

of the destroyer that's on site? >> no the sampson doesn't have that kind of equipment on board she was dispatched quickly yesterday to get on station as fast as possible from other duties she was performing. so she has not benefitted out with any of that equipment. >> this does show the changing nature of this operation. the vessel you have right there was to aid in the surface search, which really they've had a breakthrough overnight with the spotting of the debris. the air search does continue the united states is willing and able to take part in that to try to piece together the debris field and the "uss fort worth" could be heading out any time from singapore. what are the capabilities that the u.s. has to help with the underwater search when they will be called in to perhaps find these black boxes? find the fuselage at the main crash site? >> as you may recall with the malaysia flight 370, we provided some toad pinger locaters underwater sort of passive seen ivive

sonar devices. s this could be brought in. we've got no request for that right now but we're certainly preparing ourselves for the event eventality that they could be used. and we also have side scan sonar, to help try to find debris on the bottom surface of the ocean. so that could be of use. if they find the wreckage and it's 160 feet it's not as deep as what we dealt with with malaysia flight 370 if they find the wreckage then side scanning sonar won't be of much help. but it is a capability that we have that could be used. >> these are capabilities that we're all too familiar with the terminology that we grew used to with the search for flight 370. in terms of coordination the massive international search and recovery efforts what has the u.s. learned in dealing with malaysia that may be brought to bear here off the coast of indonesia? >> one of the things you learn

in an operation like this is the need for good communication and coordination with your partners and to make sure everybody knows where they fit into the scheme of things. we're very much willing and able to support. we know we're not in the lead on this and we'll work through the state department and through the embassies in the region to provide the support that they need. we want to help and we don't want to hinder any of the efforts at all. but you learn the importance of everybody bringing to this effort what they're capable of. every country, every nation that participates has unique capabilities and we want to focus on those we can provide. >> this is the second time in less than nine months that we're talking about an effort like this. are these things that the u.s. military trains for, finding vessels under the sea like this? >> absolutely. the u.s. navy is competent and capable and must be. we have a fleet of submarines of our own we need to be prepared to come to the assistance of.

the navy is very competent in search-and-rescue operations. >> have you talked with the "uss sampson" over the last 24 hours? >> i've not communicated directly with the sampson, however i've been in touch with our operations center at pentagon who has been in touch with the pacific fleet ohio headquarters we know she's on station now. i don't know that she's participated in any recovery efforts, but she's standing by and ready, as well as her whole crew to do that. >> the "sampson" on site. admiral john kirby, always great to have you with us. search crews have now recovered debris from flight airasia 8501. several bodies of those on board have been recovered as well. there are still many questions surrounding the incident. our experts are going to tackle some of your questions, straight ahead.

thanks. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] fedex® has solutions to enable global commerce that can help your company grow steadily and quickly. great job. (mandarin) ♪ ♪ cut it out. >>see you tomorrow. ♪ ♪ in my world, wall isn't a street... return on investment isn't the only return i'm looking forward to. for some every dollar is earned with sweat, sacrifice, courage. which is why usaa is honored to help our members with everything from investing for retirement to saving for college. our commitment to current

and former military members and their families is without equal. start investing with as little as fifty dollars. narrator: this is the storm sea captain: there's a storm comin narrator: that whipped through the turbine which poured... surplus energy into the plant which generously lowered its price and tipped off the house which used all that energy to stay warm through the storm. chipmunk: there's a bad storm comin! narrator: the internet of everything is changing how energy works. is your network ready?" so ally bank really has no hidden fees on savings accounts? that's right. it's just that i'm worried about you know "hidden things..." ok, why's that? no hidden fees from the bank where no branches equals great rates.

we welcome our viewers in the u.s. and around the world. we continue to follow our breaking developments. here's what we know so far. crews are recovering several bodies along with an emergency exit door and aluminium cuttings from the ocean. the debris was found six miles from where the plane was last spotted on radar. pentagon spokesman rear admiral john kirby just told us a second ship the "uss fort worth" is

being deployed to help in the effort. relatives and friends of 162 passengers and crew were called in to receive the grim news. they were overcome understandably with emotion. for the latest on all of these developments, let's turn to andrew stevens, live from indonesia where the country's president just spoke. what did we learn from what the president had to say, andrew? >> we learned first of all that there are three indonesian naval vessels on site now. the president flew over the debris field. and obviously at quite a low altitude. he said there were three ships there. he described the conditions as foggy with high waves. two to three meters he said. but of most importance to people listening to him here let me set the scene for you. the president arrived for you, he spoke briefly to the members of the families of people who were on flight 8501. then came out and spoke briefly

to the press and has now gone back in once again to be with those families. and what he said he said that his priority is for the evacuation in his words of the passengers. basically the recovery of the passengers. from 8501. and he said what he what he had told the families when he went in to see them. was that he felt the loss. we all felt the loss he said and we should all pray for us he said to be given strength. strength in this hour of terrible anguish, of terrible pain for families of 150 indonesians on board that flight. there were another five of different nationalities plus the seven crew members. a very very difficult time now. particularly here in surabaya there is the crisis center. the families are still locked in with the president as we understand behind me. the grim task of identifying

bodies begins at police hospital being set up here for the remains to be returned here. interestingly, the president as far as we know did not speak of survivors. obviously we can't rule this out. but it is very very unlikely. the bodies will be returned here for identification. families now just in the last couple of hours, officially being asked if they can provide photos documents, anything perhaps, something they could match a dna test with. so it's going to be a very difficult few days here michaela. >> such painful time for those family members. andrew stevens, thank you for that. while the debris discovery brings a measure of closure in the search there's much we do not know. many of you have been sending us questions using the #8501qs. let's talk to our aviation

correspondent richard quest and david gallo. the first question for you, david. why is it easier to find an iphone than it is to find a plane? do they have not more than one tracking device in what do you make of that? >> the case of the iphone is that there are so many of them and we have cell towers all around and you know there's a system set up so that they can be found. that's not so true i think the technology exists to track the planes. but the system has not been put into place yet. it's a good question and you'll hear an awful lot about. >> we heard a lot about it in mh370. >> there aren't a number of cell towers all over the ocean. you won't find your iphone over the java sea. >> good point. >> but live streaming data is expensive wirks can't the black

box send streaming data if there's a serious altitude or pitch adjustment. that's a question. why in an emergency, could the black boxes not stream data to authorities. >> the technology exists there's a huge debate in the aviation industry over exactly how it should move forward. what information you should send. how frequently you should send it. >> is it expensive? >> expense is one reason. that -- but that's not the only reason. with the sheer number of planes in the sky at the moment. there isn't the satellite capability, there isn't the bandwidth for all of these planes to be sending all of this information. so the industry slooking to get an agreement over what's necessary and what should be sent. >> does the airline industry want it or is the airline lobby against it? >> the airline lobby is not against it. the idea is that it's against it on the grounds of cost is nonsense. but you take an airline like

delta or american or united, they've got to think first of all we've got to put it on the aircraft it costs a couple of million dollars, you write it off as a capital cost. but then you've got do run the system. have you got enough bandwidth on satellites? what do you do with all this information? so it's a question of getting the right form l.a. now are they moving fast enough to come up with a solution? no. is probably the answer. >> david gallo, a question from somebody on twitter. who is responsible. specifically about the weather. in terms of avoiding the thunderstorm. is the pilot responsible for avoiding the thunderstorm? or is that something that air traffic control is responsible for? it does appear as though weather was a very big factor here. >> right. and i've heard several times now by other analysts saying that it's the pilot has the primary responsibility for the safety of his passengers. and then he can rely on air traffic control to help him out. but that's initially the pilot's responsibility to do what he can to save himself and those

passengers. and richard will have more to say about that as well i'm sure. >> when you look at those, when you look at the maps of the flight path and the weather, a huge big thunderstorms, one of them i think 50 kilometers wide. >> the pilot has the responsibility to pay attention and to notice where he's flying. he has or she has the absolute control to say to air traffic control -- i need to do this now. now, if they then declare an emergency, air traffic control clears everybody else out of the way and they go about it. by ultimately the pilot. >> in terms of storms, are other airlines considering totally avoiding flights during stormy seasons? >> no you look at the storm and you decide or collectively the meteorologists along with the safety officers at the airline, can we fly flew thru this storm. can we fly round it? in the u.s. it's very common to have delays. as it is in asia as well.

>> flight delays because of stormy weather. >> no pilot is going to willingly knowingly, foolishly take their aircraft into a deadly storm. but these things happen womenly and circumstances change. >> david gallo, your thoughts on that for a moment here. here you have a lot of stormy weather in the region. we don't know by the way, we don't know what causes this plane to come down it could have been something very different. we just don't know. the early indications are the last word from the pilot was he wanted to climb, he was denied the clearance to climb because he wanted to try to get over this storm. >> sure that's the best evidence we have so far and we're going to have to wait until the black boxes are recovered and the data is analyzed to find out what actually happened. i've been in that area many times and been on planes around and in those kinds of storms not in the worst of storms. but many times we sit on the runway or avert a storm like

that. just what richard said. i think it's pretty typical. we'll have to wait to see what happened to this particular flight. >> a question on twitter. if the plane crashed six miles from the location of last contact, the viewer wants to know why did it take so long to find the debris. three days it's a big ocean. >> it's a good question one of the things we learned with air france 447 was to focus around the last-known position that's why in the last few days i've been saying let's start there, that's the place to start. it's hard to understand if why they would have missed the debris field in that area. but they did. you know it is a big ocean when you get out there and we just heard that the seas were rough and we know it's been foggy and the visibility difficult so it's one thing to say sitting back -- but when you're out there on site it becomes a very difficult issue when you're actually trying to observe in those kinds of weather conditions. >> richard? >> and as david said it didn't take that long. i mean they could have got there. by the time you physically have

got to get a boat and a plane safely to that location in the manner where you're not going to endanger yourself and everybody else. you remember you can't just throw everything into this thing. it's got to be coordinated. for everything i've seen so far, in this particular example, or this particular case seems to be textbook. >> richard quest, david gallo, nice to see both of you. we'll continue to answer those questions all morning long. you can tweet them to us using the #8501qs. we'll take a closer look at the technology that could be key in finding the debris. you give... and you give... and then you give some more. but sometimes you get. and so you take.

tylenol® cold is strong enough for you while children's tylenol® is gentle enough for them. we give you relief from your cold and flu. you give them everything you've got. tylenol®. [ male announcer ] when john huntsman was diagnosed with cancer, he didn't just vow to beat it. i vowed to eradicate it from the earth. so he founded huntsman cancer institute. ♪ ♪ everything about it would be different. ♪ ♪ it would feel different. ♪ ♪ look different. and fight cancer in new and different ways. with the largest genetic database on earth that combines 300 years of family histories with health records to treat, predict and in many cases, prevent, cancer.

[ huntsman ] we made it welcoming and warm with a focus on beauty serenity and getting on with life. [ male announcer ] huntsman cancer institute is the only cancer hospital in the world designed by a patient, with the vital understanding that cancer moves fast. and we have to move faster. to learn more or support the cause, go to huntsmancancer.org. ♪ ♪

welcome back to breaking coverage of the crash of airasia flight 8501. search crews looking for the fuselage and the black box of the missing plane. one tool that will be used will be submersibles gary tuchman explains how they're huge help to investigators in underwater searches. >> the names are intriguing what they have potential to accomplish is amazing, the orion, the triton xls, the dorado all autonomous underwater vehicles and remotely-operated vehicles -- auvs and rovs. >> it's not a problem for a rov to pick up a black box and put it in a basket. >> this triton rov is based in florida. and then the auvs, which are not connected, this is the orion, owned by the u.s. navy run bay

company called phoenix international. vehicles like this send sound signals to the sea floor which paint a picture of what's on the bottom. then there is the rema 6000 also an auv. the team from woods hole massachusetts has had dramatic success, locating the wreckage of air france flight 447 two years after it crashed in the atlantic ocean. the discovery only possible because of this auv. the initial shot of the air france debris. >> they can go up and down mountains up to 40 degrees in slope. they are very stable. so you get really good data. almost all the time. >> another auv that could be used the dorado bantsed at the monterey bay research base in california. >> this is good to 6,000 meters deep and inside we have all of this sonar electronics. >> the other option is manned submarines or submersibles.

this vehicle that resembles a spaceship is a manned submersible called the johnson sealink based in florida. this sub located wreckage in the atlantic ocean after the tragic explosion of the space shuttle challenger in 1986. this sub is about 24 feet long, 1 11 feet tall. and it has enough oxygen and emergency provisions on board for people to survive under water for up to five days. this sub is retired. other subs that could go even deeper could be brought into action along with auvs and rovs. gary tuchman, cnn, los angeles. fantastic stuff there, gary. let's get more on the underwater technology and how the u.s. is helping with the search. from tim taylor sea operations and submersible specialist president of tiburon subsea systems, he owns and rents these auvs and rovs.

has reached out to help in this search. you were instrumental in mh370. good to have you back with us. let's talk about this area to brings you up to date the red area you're see sgt original search area. about the size of the state of georgia to give us an idea of how big the area is and then we know this is the area in yellow where the debris was first spotted. what does that tell you when you look at that area and talk to us about the conditions of what this is like out there? >> well obviously where they find the debris may not be exactly where the plane went down. they're going to have to find more debris as much as they can and develop a search pattern for where the plane possibly is. >> in terms of a search pattern. let's look in here. you've got this technology we just had a great look with gary tuchman in his piece. a couple of tools that you've used in the past. you've talked about with us here.

rovs, and auvs. let's look at the rovs, these remotely operated vehicles. why are they key and how do they help? >> remote operated vehicles are able to go down and stay down. versus humans at depth. they're limited, they can't make it to these depths. even at the shallower depths are great tools because they can sit down there 24 hours a day. >> lights on change operators on the ship. one guy can come in start running, the other guy can go back to his rack get some sleep. so you don't have the human element involved. >> and they can do camera they do photography as well? >> they are limited in scope as far as they'll go down and they'll take pictures and they can do work and they can search a little bit. but the uavs, the toad sonar systems, are the ones to look for the debris fields map that. >> further capability of this they have the robotic arms that can collect debris.

>> yes. manipulate the arms and they're all controlled by joysticks on the boat. you basically fly this thing like a video game. find your stuff, pick stuff up and put it in trays and bring it to the surface. >> and the autonomous underwater vehicles are not connected to the ship correct? >> correct. >> they operate remotely. >> correct. >> the tell us about the key aspects of this. >> the industry hates to think of them as drones they're not piloted by anybody. but in the larger text of the world, it's drone revolution. these things run on their own, they scan the bottom underwater they're taking pictures or radar, they use sonar, sound travels through water. so they shoot sound out and are able to get images off the sound. by running patterns back and forth they can take large swaths of pictures and we can look for debris and narrow down on that take higher-resolution sonar images and eventually cam ras

and bring the rovs back. >> it's amazing the technology we have. and no toad pinger locaters. we don't have to use that? why. >> you do want to use toad pinger locaters but we do not need the huge systems for flight 37. because the pinger doesn't weigh much. but when you drop it down two miles or three miles, it's steel cable and electrical power and telemetry that weighs and it gets huge. so these smaller systems, we have hand-held systems and pingers on our robots. if we happen to lose a robot. we can put a pinger off the side of the boat and find it ourself. they're common. >> this area is the size of the state of georgia, it's a heavily traveled shipping route. we also know that there have been other incidents, disasters, sunken ferries and passenger ships, the battle of the sea of java happened here. there's a lot of debris already under there. how complex will it make their search efforts?

>> that's part of the next step. once you put the sonar down get the images and you have to go down i.d. hits and locations, because trash or old world war ii artifacts and parts of the planes can look very similar. it's a process, you take the big picture, you go down and narrow it down and get the little picture and you send down cameras and make sure it is what it is. once you narrow the crash site. it's much easier probably it's going to be in that general area. but could be a lot, you find a lot more. you find the airplane. >> priority is the debris and the people. >> absolutely those families need closure here. tim good to have you again with us. the question is what show could have caused this crash that brought down airasia flight 5801. we're going to bring you the latest developments ahead.

thanks. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] fedex® has solutions to enable global commerce that can help your company grow steadily and quickly. great job. (mandarin) ♪ ♪ cut it out. >>see you tomorrow. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] are you so stuffed up, you feel like you're underwater? try zyrtec-d® to powerfully clear your blocked nose and relieve your other allergy symptoms... so you can breathe easier all day. zyrtec-d®. find it at the pharmacy counter.

welcome back to "new day." we'll have more on the crash of airasia flight 5801 in a moment. michael grimm new york congressman plans to resign after pleading guilty felony tax evasion. it's a change of heard for grimm after saying he'd serve after being reelected in november. another representative is facing backlash after it was revealed that he spoke before a white people is supremacist organization in 2002. >> this is not the headlines the republicans want as they take control of congress. representative grimm is stepping down january 5th next monday after this guilty plea. that may be one heading ending

for the gop and the other problem with representative scalise, number three republican at the house. he did speak at the 2002 event before the group called the european american unity and rights organization or euro for short. he was traveling as a state representative speaking to anyone who would listen about his opposition to a tax increase on middle class families and that he simply didn't know that this group had any links to white supremacist ties but e.u.r.o. was founded by david duke the former grand wizard of the ku klux klan and an avowed long time neo-nazi. skeef scali se e tolls the ""new orleans times-picayune"" he did not know it was a hate group. "for anyone to suggest i was involved in w a group like that is insulting and ludicrous." that's the response we've seen from the representative. he said he did not know the group was white supremacist.

he wouldn't have spoken to them if he had. the question is how could he not know about david duke's long history of white supremacy? another headache republicans have to deal with in the come days. >> athena jones, thank you. mayor bill de blasio will meet with union leaders with an effort to ease tensions between city hall and the nypd. de blasio was booed and heckled addressing recruits at a police graduation ceremony. police blame him for the volatile climate following weeks of protest in the eric garner case and assassination of two nypd officers in brooklyn. >> the first person diagnosed with ebola in the u can, is now in a london isolation unit. the woman had been working with save the children in sierra leone and flew back to scotland second woman who was in west africa is being tested.

the risk of transmission from the first patient is extremely low because she was diagnosed early. she was a nurse working there as a volunteer. >> all right, christine thanks for the headlines. more of our corrage of the flight downed in the java sea, when we come back. these ally bank ira cds really do sound like a sure thing but i'm a bit skeptical of sure things. why's that? look what daddy's got... ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!! growth you can count on from the bank where no branches equals great rates. sir, we're going to need you on the runway. (vo) theraflu starts to get to work in your body in just 5 minutes. (vo) theraflu breaks you free from your worst cold and flu symptoms. (vo) theraflu. serious power. narrator: these are the tennis shoes skater kid: whoa narrator: that got torture tested by teenagers and cried out for help. from the surprised designers.

who came to the rescue with a brilliant fix male designer: i love it narrator: which created thousands of new customers for the tennis shoes that got torture tested by teenagers. the internet of everything is changing manufacturing. is your network ready? in my world, wall isn't a street... return on investment isn't the only return i'm looking forward to. for some every dollar is earned with sweat, sacrifice, courage. which is why usaa is honored to help our members with everything from investing for retirement to saving for college. our commitment to current and former military members and their families is without equal. start investing with as little as fifty dollars.

it's just ordinary fleece but the comfort it provides is immeasurable. the america red cross brings hope and help to people in need every 8 minutes every day. so this season give something that means something.

so ally bank really has no hidden fees on savings accounts? that's right. it's just that i'm worried about you know "hidden things..." ok, why's that? no hidden fees from the bank where no branches equals great rates. airasia confirming the debris found in the java sea this morning is indeed that of flight 8501. >> the debris was spotted six miles from the plane's last known flight position. >> the passenger for has been targeted.

>> it was hysterical people fainting screaming. >> the searchers have been lowered down. >> the most important clue now is the black boxes. >> they'll be able to piece together precisely what happened to this aircraft. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com welcome to "new day," tuesday, december 30th. 8:00 in the east i'm michaela pereira alongside john berman and christine romans is here as well. we welcome our viewers in the u.s. and around the world. airasia is confirming debris found in the ja pa vava sea belongs to missing flight 8501. rescue teams have recovered bodies and debris six miles from when the plane was last on radar. right now they have recovered

serl bodies and emergency exit door and aluminum cuttings from the plane. divers are being sent to the site to look for additional victims. indonesia's president said a short time ago a full search will continue to go on. >> it is getting dark over the search zone but helicopters have been flying over the location of the debris which will soon be taken to surabaya in indonesia, the airport there, for further examination. the family members of those on board the flight were called in this morning to receive the news. you can see these images here very duff to see, so emotional hearing that there is now this information on the fate of their loved ones the debris the bodies found in the ocean. we are covering the story from every angle. we want to begin with andrew stevens live on the ground in indonesia, good morning, andrew. >> reporter: good morning to you, john. the president of indonesia has just left and he has been visiting the families here and

saying that "we are praying together to give us all strength in this hour of darkness." it has been a truly devastating day for these families. confirmation that flight 8501 had indeed crashed into the sea. pictures shown publicly on local television of bodies bodies which would be related to people who have been gathering around waiting for information they could get about their families. harrowing doesn't really begin to describe what the families have been going through. breaking this morning, a devastating discovery, airasia confirming a number of bodies passengers of airasia 8501 found floating in the ja is asea. the victims and bebrie some six miles from the aircraft's last known location. >> i think the debris field confirms a catastrophic event. i expect that the plane fuselage

probably split in two. >> reporter: officials say the debris found belongs to the missing airasia flight 8501. searchers locating the debris in at least three separate locations but so far, no survivors. heartbreaking end to the three-day search for the plane. relatives of those on board the plane in anguish over the news screaming, crying. these loved ones set to fly over the search area wednesday aboard a specially chartered airasia flight to pray for their loved ones. it's unclear if families will move forward with that flight. airasia's ceo tony fernandez expressing his condolences saying "my heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in qz8501. on behalf of airasia, my condolences to all. words cannot express how sorry i am." now the somber task of recovering the wreckage the flight data and cockpit voice recorders and piecing together what caused the plane to go down.

overnight, audio transmissions from airasia 8501's cockpit to air traffic control surfacing providing little to no clue. the pilots cleared for takeoff from surabaya to singapore but would never arrive. and the task also is before these family members to identify now their loved ones. they're already being asked by police if they can provide documentation, photos michaela anything even something which could have a dna sample on it just so they could match it with people on that plane. i must say, though at this stage, michaela we can't completely rule out the fact that there may be a miracle in 8501 there may be a survivor. it is ohiohighly unlikely given the fact it was 40 hours. that was a big impact, that plane crashed into the sea by all aviation expert accounts but

it is not beyond the realm of possibility and some people may still be hoping for that miracle. >> i'm sure there are family members that are clinging to fate and hope. andrew thank you so much for that. the relatives of those 162 passengers and crew aboard that doomed flight left with heartbreak grief and agony this morning. family members fainting screaming, crying once they realized their worst nightmare had been realized. will ripley in beijing, almost too much to even imagine isn't it will? >> as we're just hours away from new year's eve, michaela this was supposed to be not only a week of celebration for a lot of people flying to singapore to celebrate the new year but this was also supposed to be an end to a very difficult and tumultuous year in this part of the world in asia where there were two airliners from kuala lumpur based malaysia airlines the crash where more than 40

people died in that and in this last week this flight that was bound for celebration is ending here in the java sea and there are now hospitals preparing to identify these people these bodies that are going to be pulled out of the water in the coming days. family members have already been asked to bring pictures offer dna samples, but this is going to be a very very difficult time for them because they will have to identify their loved ones who they put on a plane, said good-bye expecting they'd be safe only to have it end up like this michaela. >> hopefully the airline is providing them with some counsel let the record also show ors and assistants they'll need those in the coming days hours and even months. grief takes its own time will. thanks so much for that. u.s. help is arriving at the search area today. one ship is closing in. we've learned in our last hour here on "new day" another ship is just being deployed. now the debris and victim's

bodies have been spotted and located, pardon me what exactly will the u.s. role be? rene marsh joins us live from washington. we know as we heard rear admiral kirby the u.s. is not taking a lead role in the investigation but we're will to assist >> yes, we are and we are ready to assist on all fronts if need be. i just was in communication with the ntsb. they tell me they continue to monitor the situation. we do know that the engines on this aircraft manufactured and designed by ge an american company, so they say they are specifically waiting to see if they will need any assistance as it relates to the engines when it gets to that part of the investigation, but back to those ships, the u.s. navy we know now has deployed a second ship. this is the "uss ft. worth." it's been deployed from singapore. it is a combat ship. we do know that based on what is onboard, we know that there are

high speed boats. we also know helicopters, which would be very useful in the recovery process of the wreckage on the surface. we also know that "uss sampson" is already in place. it is already on the scene. again, both of these ships and the crew on board they're ready to assist in recovering wreckage also they have the capability of salvage as well. so they will be able to essentially pluck all of that wreckage from the surface and bring it aboard. at this point, we know that as far as the black boxes, that is going to be critical. we could see that a request is made for that toe pinger locator that we saw in flight 370 to detect those pings, very critical in piecing this all together michaela. >> all that technology is certainly going to be of assistance. rene, thank you for that. john? >> thanks so much michaela. joining me now, deborah hersman, president of the national safety council, former ntsb chairman and mary schiavo, former

inspector general of the u.s. department of transportation and also attorney for victims and families who do suffer through these airplane disasters. deborah, thanks so much for being with us. we have seen these pictures now of debris in the java sea, we've seen a door, emergency exit door aluminum siding and pictures of helicopters pulling a body from the sea. now that you have these pieces what's next? >> well i think the first priority is really for those families and i know you all have been talking about that a lot. this is really a difficult time for them and so it's that recovery and the identification of remains and again, holding out any hope that there might be a survivor. we have had crashes where there are sole survivors on occasion and so we do want to continue to look for survivors, if that's a possibility. but for the investigators, they are going to be really trying to

identify the debris field, the spread where the first pieces started to shed and where they might be located, but the most important evidence for them will be those recorders, the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder. >> mary the debris is just six miles from the last known point of contact. what does that say? >> well to me that does suggest that the plane came down after some sort of aerodynamic stall, either a combination of weather and pilot error or weather, pilot error or mechanical issue. because this is so close to the last known radar point, it suggests that there was not an in-flight breakup. the pieces in that case tend to be flung much further or much wider debris field, and of course it remains to be seen there's the initial number of bodies but it seems to be in one area and contained so i think it probably hit the water intact. >> what are the complications of getting all of this debris given that it seems to be in an area six miles to me sound like

not a big area. is that a hard area to search? >> well i won't say it's not a hard area to search but it's a more compacted area to search and because of the conditions on the java sea and the depth of the water being much less than on for example the indian ocean, they will have a more efficient time in gathering it up. the only complication might be you mentioned a couple seconds ago about the toe pinger locator. right now they need as many helpful assets on the water to collect the bodies as quickly as possible. the toe pinger locator can sometimes pick up other signals. i think probably now they'll emphasize getting the bodies and then bringing in for example the toe pinger locator if they need it. >> the recovery first. deborah, you emphasized the need to deal with the families in a sympathetic, empathetic way. in this company, airasia has seemed to be doing that the last few days and we hope they do

that in the days ahead. as someone who has led these investigations before how delicate is it to talk to the families to tell them everything they want to know everything that they need to know while doing the investigation at the same time. >> you know it's not hard because it's the right thing to do and i think it's about making the decisions to share the information with the family make sure again you've got to maintain your credibility, and so it's making sure you've got the facts correct and sharing them in a timely manner with the family and in this media frenzy that everyone is involved in is making sure that people feel that they're respected, and that they're protected. some of these shots, and i'm glad that you're not showing them but some of these shots are really hard for families and there are people who have been involved in crashes all around the world who are seeing these things and it is bringing up feelings again for them and so you know we've got the 370 that's still missing. >> mary based on what we've seen so far with the emergency

exit door with the bodies that have been recovered at least two right now, what questions pop into your mind now? what are the answers that you want in terms of this investigation? >> well i think everyone will be focusing on the fact that the emergency exit door was free and was floating free. i have seen other crash sites though where the emergency exit doors popped out or there were slides that had been deployed and their flotation devices. twa 800 off the coast of new york has flotation devices but that didn't mean people got them on or had time to get them on. in many cases those things come apart as the accident aircraft breaks apart in the water but we certainly want to know that. >> i think we're eluding to the exit door people might think someone popped it someone tried to escape. you're saying it may not necessarily mean that. >> that's right. but that's certainly something that can be answered and of

course the cockpit voice recorder will be clear as to whether anyone was ordered to prepare for a ditching. >> deborah, i want to have a final thought from you about going forward now, safety in the air industry or helping with further investigations. this idea airasia is upgrading its fleet with more real time trackers to locate flights. this plane did not have that real time tracker. do you think the industry needs to make these changes and do you think they will? >> you know what? the one thing that's constant is change and technology continuously evolves. the airline industry has to evolve and they have to adapt and keep up with technology. all of us really have that demand on us no matter what we do. i think the pressure is high on the aviation industry right now to get into a really sophisticated tracking system. this year has been a bad one for them and they need to move forward. >> all right, deborah hersman and mary schiavo thanks for being with us.

appreciate it. michaela? all right, we'll continue to track developments in the search for flight 8501. we'll take a look at what might have gone wrong up in the air as we learn more about what's being found in the ocean and what is next in the investigation. the holiday season is here, which means it's time for the volkswagen sign-then-drive event. for practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays

in a german-engineered volkswagen. like the sporty, advanced new jetta... and the 2015 motor trend car of the year all-new golf. if you're wishing for a new volkswagen this season... just about all you need is a finely tuned... pen. hurry in to the sign then drive event and get a five-hundred dollar new year's bonus on select new volkswagen models. offer ends january 2nd. well, a mortgage shouldn't be a problem your credit is in pretty good shape. >>pretty good? i know i have a 798 fico score thanks to the tools and help on experian.com. kaboom... well, i just have a few other questions. >>chuck, the only other question you need to ask is, "what else can you do for me?" i'll just take a water... get your credit swagger on.

become a member of experian credit tracker and find out your fico score powered by experian. fico scores are used in 90% of credit decisions.

good to have you back with us for our continuing coverage of the cash of airasia 8501. search crews are focusing on the area where body and debris has been recovered overnight. airline officials say they were from the missing flight. the debris was only six miles from where the plane was last seen on radar, the southeastern end of the expanded search area which had been expanded several times. so was this widening of the search zone what helped track down the debris?

let's ask cnn safety analyst and former faa safety inspector, david soucie author of "malaysia airlines flight 370: why it disappeared and why it's only a matter of time before this happens again." sadly it looks as though something has happened. david, let's talk about, we're here on the map and it's good to look at what the investigators will be looking at what the searchers are looking for and what they looked at. this red area is the debris site and sort of the main search area if you will. how do they backtrack to find from the point where the debris was found to find the main fuselage? >> it is interesting, not like mh370 where it had the continuous flow. this area is circular, floating in a circle. >> the currents? >> yes, because it's more shallow and the way that it's on that shelf there, it's actually rotating within that area so the search and tracing it back

i don't have that technology in my mind but that experts will be able to trace that back from what i'm told. >> should there be signals coming from the flight data recorder? >> yes. >> should those be being received? >> no because in the water you have to be in the water to hear what's going on in the water. it can't transmit out of the water into the air. at that point it's necessary to get the tpl, the tow pinger locator, hit it over the top. they may not need that device because they can hadhand held surface indicators >> over the side of the boat if you will? >> exactly like the chinese did in 370. >> let's zoom into the search area we know this was expanded into some 13 zones. over 60,000 square nautical miles, larger than the state of georgia just to give people a perspective. by all accounts we hear some of our experts are saying the textbook investigation in terms of how this has quickly sort of come about to find debris. >> yes, it is textbook but i don't want to go and say this is

textbook everything is normal because there's no accident that's normal. >> i suppose not. >> when you talk about textbook you're talking about the procedures that were used to get there. >> and the speed, too. this is pretty standard right, is it not? a few days in? >> this is what we expected in mh370 and air france 447 but this one is did. from that perspective yes, it is fairly standard as far as how it was gone about. now from here forward you don't want to anticipate it's going to be that smooth. >> that's what i was going to ask you, seven nations contributing to the effort. >> exactly. >> that is a challenge in and of itself. >> delegated to the french authorities, the french who are really handling the investigation and for the first time in a year almost now, we have an investigation not just a search. so we have debris we have deceased we have something to tangibly put our hands on which is really going to help the families understand what's happened. no less painful certainly but at least there's a bit of closure, you never get closure from

something like this but you have a bit from there. >> we'll talk about that, we have people unfortunately later on in the show who are the survivors of families who are lost at sea in these kind of crashes. let's look at the flight path and the weather. we know that weather was certainly a situation here. >> definitely. >> we know the pilot had asked for permission to rise in altitude to get around some of these horrific thunderstorms. >> exactly. >> this is awful. chad myers was telling us it's pretty standard for this part of the world. >> yes, hurricane katrina, all these hurricanes that we've always talked about, this is where they're born. this is where they start. >> you know the person at home is going to say it's not safe to fly through that. that terrifies me as a flier. am i wrong? >> it's vulnerable to the area but changes so quickly if you take off and see that it's clear, there's a lot of ways to know what's happening and in fact, it's indicative of this because of the search zone of where they found the aircraft was behind where it had already

been where the airplane had already been. that could tell us is one it stalled and fell out of the sky this direction and at that point it's a little uncontrollable so you don't know if it could have come back this way. the other alternative the pilot decided it was too risky to continue flying through some of the clouds. you see how difficult that is and you see the peaks, so he has to try to figure out how to get through the clouds and make the best decision he can, one of which might have been turning around going back the other way. >> give know confidence to get back on a plane again. you said the plane stalled and full out of the sky. lot of things have to happen for that to occur, correct? >> they do. what is critical in that realm is the perception of the pilot as to what's going on and the pilot has to rely on ooms. he has to know and rely on instruments to know i'm showing that this is going on it right now and react appropriately to that. it's that communication, giving that information from there, perceived properly by the pilot and then interpreted and then mitigated by the pilot.

the pilot has to take action. >> and the plane has to respond to the pilot's commands. >> there you go full circle. >> and that's why when we talk about what could have gone wrong here it's generally not one thing. >> no in my experience there's never been just one thing, even if it goes all the way back to decisions made by management about training and things like that. it could go that far back. >> that airline has had an impeccable safety record. >> and tony fernandez who took over in 009 runs with an iron fist. he knows how to run an airline. he's run an airline, it's run very well that way. this is anomalous thing that happened. it's not something that should make people afraid to fly. it's something that is extremely rare and it's something that has never really happened before to have an inflight turbulence take an aircraft down if that's what happened.

>> david susie, alwaysoucie, thank you. so many questions lingering. what went on board that flight. what do we know and what don't with he know? we'll separate fact from fiction, coming up.

you're driving along, having a perfectly nice day, when out of nowhere a pick-up truck slams into your brand new car. one second it wasn't there and the next second... boom! you've had your first accident. now you have to make your first claim. so you talk to your insurance company and... boom!

you're blindsided for a second time. they won't give you enough money to replace your brand new car. don't those people know you're already shaken up? liberty mutual's new car replacement will pay for the entire value of your car plus depreciation. call and for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch to liberty mutual insurance and you could save up to $423 dollars. call liberty mutual for a free quote today at see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance.

good to have you back with us on "new day" watching our continuing coverage of the crash of flight 8501. we welcome our viewers from around the globe and here in the united states. we are following our breaking developments airasia officials saying bodies and debris recovered in the java sea are from the missing plane flight 8501. crews recovering several bodies along with an emergency exit door and aluminum cuttings from the water. that debris found six miles from where the plane was last spotted on radar. pentagon spokesman rear admiral john kirby telling us here on "new day" a short time ago a second ship the "uss ft. worth" is being deployed from singapore to help in the search. the "uss sampson" is already on scene and assisting. relatives and friends of the 162

passengers and crew members were called in to receive that fwrimgrim news of the debris and bodies found. they were understandably overcome with emotion. for the latest let's turn to andrew stevens live from indonesia. andrew i'm curious if we've heard or you've seen evidence of airline officials or other counselors coming in to comfort and support those family members. >> reporter: we've been told that they have here they have deployed for the past two or three days michaela that airasia has assigned its own team members to individual family members here in surabaya that the local authorities, the police and others have brought in trained psychologists, trained counselors to help deal with the grief, deal with dealing with the unknown and put a lot of emphasis on getting that information through to the

family as quickly as they could, slowly been ramping that up as i've been going along. yes the families have been receiving professional help that we've been told about at least, it doesn't, it helps but it doesn't begin to ease the pain that they would be feeling now, now that they know that 8501 has crashed in the sea, and bodies are being recovered. we had the president here just a short while ago and he said that all indonesians needed to pray with the families to give everybody strength over this very very difficult time. we also had tony fernandez, who is the ceo the founder of air airasia and he's been very public with his feelings tweeting a lot and he described when the first plane went missing as his worst nightmare. listen to what he had to say at the news conference earlier, speaking from the heart. >> the only slight benefit is that for the people in there,

there is some closure. this is a scar with me for the rest of my life. >> reporter: tony fernandez, just to put this quickly in context, tony fernandez, michaela built this airline from scratch, from the ground up. he was a music executive, and decided he wanted to run an airline. flamboyant figure a lot of people liken him to richard branson. if you cut him, he bleeds red and white. he was the one-man marketing team behind the rise of airasia. one of the biggest fleets across this entire region. so he is very very close to this and he is very very personally affected by all this. he is grieving along with everybody else. it's a very difficult time not only here in surabaya but across the country as 150 indonesian families come to grips with the fact that airliner has crashed. >> and they're very vocal supporters saying they admire the way that ceo is handling this horrifying crisis in direct

comparison to the way malaysia airlines handled their crisis when the mh307 flight went missing. andrew stevens thank you for that. christine? >> thanks michaela. even with the debris recovery there's still so much we don't know notably what brought it down where y it fell out of the sky. many sent us questions using using #8501qs. an oceanographer who helped track the wreckage of air france 447 and les abend, a commercial airline pilot and contributing editor for "flying" magazine. gentlemen, thanks for joining me. we do know les, the pilot asked to increase the altitude that was the last contact we had with him. he asked to increase the altitude to 38,000 feet due to weather. what we don't know is how urgently he felt the need to get above this storm and we don't know why no mayday call was made.

as a pilot, how quickly were things unraveling do you think, given that information and that lack of information, and how hard he must have been fighting to keep this plane flying because he didn't make a mayday call. >> i think you saw a situation unfolding and it could have been as simple as just he wanted a better ride for his passengers he was experiencing we would call perhaps moderate chop it's uncomfortable for people uncomfortable for us and the climb in conjunction with the turn gives me pause for concern that the last resort we want to do is climb, because we know we can't always top these thunderstorms cells so that gives me a little pause for concern and then the fact that the last contact happened so quickly, that means there were some urgency which may be an indication of some sort of mechanical indication issue that they were dealing with and air traffic control is not going to help them through that. >> navigating stormy weather is routine for pilots. >> absolutely. >> what is he doing, asking to go up he can't go up trying to

find another way around. >> in his brain he's processing what alternatives he has, so when he was denied the request, that's not untypical. very often we say unable that we'll give that to you in a few more minutes or few more miles. >> sure. >> so he's saying okay what's my next alternative, and that's probably what was happening and then something may have gone wrong mechanically. >> david, some of the things we know and don't know there's so much we don't know but what we know is the actions of this pilot, david, were routine, until that weather, until that weather call, very routine flight until all contact with the plane was lost very clear. we don't know if any flight instruments were damaged by weather. we haven't seen what those black boxes, the datard roh recorders say. the you were part of the air france investigation and they were getting bad information from their instruments, weren't they? >> there were is ensource outside the plane, the airbus

330 and air france 447 needed information on air speed and altitude that it got from the outside of the plane. the computers got confused with the information they were getting, some icing involved. they were in light to moderate turbulence but in the similar situation, and the interesting thing about that is that then they got into trouble they became preoccupied what was going on in the cabin, trying to get that plane to where they thought they were actually flying and out of a bad situation and they never did. >> right. >> there was no time in there, if you listen to the transcripts to do any sort of communicating. they were just trying to save the plane and the passengers. >> trying to save the plane and the passengers and we'll be able to here in this case what the pilots were saying and see what the sensors were saying. les, what challenges would the pilots have faced if their instruments were damaged? >> i don't know if you necessarily have damaged instruments. you'd get erroneous indications which would be conflicting and as dave gallo referred to with

reference to air france 447, they were getting horns and sirens and all this electronic indication and this becomes very disconcerting and you have to establish what is my airplane doing and it takes some time to do that especially when the airplane was doing just fine prior to getting to that situation. >> also what we know and don't no the java sea is a major shipping channel, where this plane went down. it is relatively shallow. we don't know if anyone on nearby ships spotted a plane going on. les, do you think investigators will be talking to traffic in the area trying to find out what anybody saw, if anything? it was terrible weather we should point out, too. it might be no one saw this go down. >> absolutely. this is part of the investigation process. they will utilize witnesses, there will be a committee that takes witnesses statements in addition to the standard thing of structures committee, engine committee, all these committees will assemble together as part of an accident investigation. >> les abend, david gallo, thank

you for your expertise this morning. michaela? >> it's all important to remember the families the families of the 162 people on board, airasia flight 50818501 the families are grieving. we'll speak with two women who had loved ones aboard airlines that went down or are missing the crash of twa 800 and the disappearance of flight mh37 o.

(vo) nourished. rescued. protected. given new hope. during the subaru "share the love" event, subaru owners feel it, too. because when you take home a new subaru we donate 250 dollars to helping those in need. we'll have given 50 million dollars over seven years. love. it's what makes a subaru a subaru.

. welcome back. we'll have more on the crash of airasia flight 8501 in a moment. but first some of today's other top stories. new york congressman michael grimm plans to resign after pleading goilitiy to felony tax evasion. it's a change of heart for grimm, who had said he would serve after being reelected in november. meantime another representative facing backlash after it was revealed he spoke before a white supremacist organization in 2002. athena jones in washington with more. athena? >> good morning, christine. these are not welcome headlines for the republican party as they prepare to take control of this new congress but representative grimm is stepping down resigning on monday january 5th, after pleading guilty to these charges. announced the decision after speaking with house speaker john boehner, so that's one headache that may be ending for the gop. then you have representative

steve scalise facing a different kind of problem, the number three republican in the house, so he's a key member of the republican leadership and he has said that he did speak in 2002 to this group, the european american unity and rights organization which turns out is a white supreme cyst group founded by david duke former grand wizard of the ku klux klan and avowed neo-nazi. scalise told the times-picayune he was not aware this was a hate group. new york mayor bill de blasio will meet with union leaders in an effort to ease tensions between city hall and nypd. he was booed and heckled addressing recruits at a police graduation ceremony. police union leaders blamed de blasio for the volatile climate following weeks of protests in the eric garner case and the

assassination of two nypd officers in brooklyn. protests are expected in moscow after vladimir putin's biggest critics was convicted in a politically charged case. he won't have to serve any time behind bars but his brother will oleg was convicted and immediately jailed on a three and a half year sentence prompting an outburst in court from alexsei. putin is now going after opponents' family members. u.s. conducted an air strike in somalia, targeting al shabab. the press secretary say there do not appear to be civilian casualties. the strike comes after smolie military officials captured an al shabab military leader over the weekend. the families of 162 people aboard airasia 8501 learned the

devastating fears they had the most. we'll speak to two women, who know all too well the pain of losing a loved one in a plane crash. i know i have an 810 fico score, thanks to the tools and help on experian.com. and your big idea is hot dogs shaped like hamburgers? nope. hamburgers shaped like hot dogs. that's not really in our wheelhouse... you don't put it in a wheelhouse. you put it in your mouth. get your credit swagger on. become a member of experian credit tracker and find out your fico score powered by experian. fico scores are used in 90% of credit decisions. in my world, wall isn't a street... return on investment isn't the only return i'm looking forward to. for some every dollar is earned with sweat, sacrifice, courage. which is why usaa is honored to help our members with everything from investing for retirement to saving for college. our commitment to current

and former military members and their families is without equal. start investing with as little as fifty dollars. [ male announcer ] this is the cat that drank the milk... [ meows ] ...and let in the dog that woke the man who drove to the control room [ woman ] driverless mode engaged. find parking space. [ woman ] parking space found. [ male announcer ] ...that secured the data that directed the turbines that powered the farm that made the milk that went to the store that reminded the man to buy the milk that was poured by the girl who loved the cat. [ meows ] the internet of everything is changing everything. cisco. tomorrow starts here.

>> welcome back to "new day's" continuing coverage of the crash of flight 8501. crews have recovered bodies and debrises in shallow water off the coast of borneo.

the families received the devastating news this morning, they're reeling trying to digest the news that their loved ones won't be coming home. we're joined by two women who sadly understand that plain all too well. sarah bayjack's and heidi snow lost her fiance on twa flight 800 in i believe 1996 her loss inspired her to start access a non-profit that provides grief support for those who have suffered or lost loved ones in the air disaster the author of "surviving sudden loss: stories from those who have lived it." ladies you have lived it you are living it. i credit you both with such strength and passion for being willing to speak out. first of all, heidi, i have to ask you, right now, help us understand what those families as we watch their grief, raw emotion play out, help us understand how they're beginning to try and process this

information. you've been there. >> right, and this definitely brings us all back to day one, all the people who have called access for help over the years, every time these incidents occur. we are walking with them. we remember, we're grieving with them and i remember all too well-being at the family assistance center and this is the point where they're starting to ask for dna samples and asking for photos of their loved ones and some people are still in a state of disbelief, and some people are starting to accept that their loved one is gone and this transition is a very difficult time as well. i remember watching the debris on the water, and that is where they are right now in the atlantic ocean, and it's really difficult to transition from holding onto hope to now having to start to accept reality and go through the motions of giving information about your loved ones defining their specific details about them what they looked like and that kind of

information that they now have to start giving forward to officials, and that process is very difficult and i know that everybody goes through it very differently. >> sure. >> some people have a hard time accepting it. >> sarah, i can imagine for you, this is ten months into your grief, into your processing this information. having seen this played out firsthand, this must feel surreal for you. >> yes, on the one hand it's so incredibly familiar and i mean my heart is just breaking for all of those families right now, but on the other hand i'm almost a little jealous in a way, because you know at least they have this ability to put some closure to it and the authorities have acted promptly and have kept everybody informed and it's such a different experience that i've seen play out over the last couple of days compared to what we've had

to go through, the families from 370. you know we're still in limbo. there's still no evidence as to what happened to the plane. >> i immediately thought of you, sarah, when we learned of this news especially when the debris was found and i imagined what was going through your mind and i think many of us can understand why you might feel envious and jealousy. these families are going to get some closure, and you're still essentially in limbo. >> yes, i mean all of the 370 families are in limbo, and many of them it's not just an emotional challenge, right? the inability to put closure to something, and to give up that hope but also many of them are in very serious financial challenges and legal challenges because there was no death certificates and there's no compensation going and you've got women with children and no bread winner coming in and it's just a horrible situation still. >> so talk about that a little

bit, heidi, in terms of the support that you provide, because you both speak of this need for closure. we need that emotionally to help us grieve and to move on but also sarah just mentioned there's certain things some financial matters that need to be settled, things paperwork that needs to be addressed. >> right, and certainly that's a huge part of the process in the long run for the families affected by airasia. it's certainly not on the forefront for them yet, but they're definitely going to be having to address that and all the families affected by aviation there are so many different phases and steps to this and also for airasia families the process of getting remains back getting their loved ones back and that can take a long time and in sarah's case there are a lot of legal matters and things that have to be addressed since it's already been confirmed their loved ones

are not coming back. both cases are extremely difficult, and it's really helpful to have other people who have been there before to help guide them and that'swhat we do at access. with the malaysia families a good mentoring group for them are 9/11 families who never got remains, never got the opportunity to receive anything and only that they know their loved ones is gone is time it's the same thing with sarah and those affected by the malaysia incident. >> sarah, we watched how some of these families unfortunately we're hearing they were clinging to news reports for information and you've mentioned to us before that oftentimes some of the families were doing the same thing for mh370. i wonder we as journalists areage ishs to coverare anxious to cover the story and anxious to show compassion to the survivors or family members that were lost or missing. how about that? when you saw that some of the families were receiving this news for the first time does it

make you concerned about that process? >> yes and no. on the one hand it's heartbreaking. >> go ahead, sarah. >> sorry. on the one hand it's heartbreaking to watch, and it's an invasion of privacy, and honestly publicity aggravates the grief, but on the other hand the world needs to see that and in order for people to take this seriously and stand up and demand changes in aviation industry to provide more protection you know with he need people to be angry and to see that. so i'm happy that the media has continued to cover this in the way they have. >> all right, heidi snow sarah bajc, our thoughts and prayers are with you. heidi, sarah, stay strong we hope answers come for you and other family members of mh370. thank you for your time. >> thank you, michaela. cnn's breaking coverage of the crash of airasia 8501

continues with carol costello after a short break.

-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good morning i'm carol costello. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. darkness falls and the last glimmer of hope fades. debris found overnight off the coast of borneo is the wreckage of flight 8501. crews recovered at least one body but hospitals are facing for the grim task of identifying the remains of the 162 people on

board. the "jakarta post" detailing the final