reless smartphone or tablet from comcast. visit comcast.com/wireless to learn more. shock and sadness follow a deadly plane crash in the french app. alps. schoolchildren and babies among those killed. with the withdrawal of thousands of u.s. troops from afghanistan has been delayed. and convicted killer amanda knox could be just hours away from her next legal battle. hello, and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm errol barnett. >> i'm rosemary church. this is "cnn newsroom." it is 7:00 a.m. in the french alps where recovery crews

are set to resume their work looking for clues in the crash of germanwings flights 9525. german worker have set up a staging area not far from the crash site. >> they've hear recovered one of the plane's so-called black boxes. because the debris is spread over such a wide area and of course the terrain is mountainous, it could take days before they are able to recover any victims. >>. >> translatorranslator: our goal is to get as many victims back as possible. not only the body anything to identify them such as personal belongings which will be scrupulously picked up and taken away. >> airplane employee and the company's ceo health a candlelight vimggil in cologne, germany. all 150 passengers and crew were

killed. german chancellor merkel french president hollande and the spanish prime minister also plan to visit the crash site today. the german business kings plane of headed from barcelona to ducal dover when it crashed. it was in the air for less than an hour when it taxook place. . investigators say the plane is in pieces none bigger than a car. the ceo of lufthansa was able to the devastation firsthand. >> translator: it avenue devastating to see it from a helicopter. it's a very remote area that we have only been able to see from a helicopter. they're very small pieces of debris which lets you deduce the energy with which the energy the plane hit the ground. >> we want to bring in cnn correspondent erin mclachlan

live near the crash site. it is just after 7:00 in the morning. the skperchearch and recovery effort is about to get underway. what do people say about the challenges ahead? >> reporter: >> reporter: the recovery operation was suspended and is expected to begin in earnest today, weather permitting. we're waiting to hear from officials for the exact timings for that. now yesterday in the field that you see behind me choppers were seen taking off for the crash site. we have yet to see any helicopters take off today. the location of the crash site proving to be especially problematic for officials. it's in a remote location. the terrain described there as difficult, accessible mainly by

air which is proving to be problematic, considering the weather conditions a rain and snow hindering these efforts. the conditions on the ground as well described as ice, requiring specialist equipment. we know there are some ten helicopters participating in this effort as well as a military plane. hundreds of police officers and firefighters from france involved as well as well as investigators from france and germany. though france is taking the lead on the investigation. so again, getting to the crash site particularly problematic. getting answers, that's another matter entirely. we know that yesterday they did manage to recover a black box. but no word from official on when we're going to get any sort of information from that. >> yeah. and as you say, the terrain and bad weather offer a mix of

challenges for recovery crews. what are authorities saying about how long this recovery effort will likely take? >> reporter: at this point, that's very much unclear. yesterday, we heard from the german foreign minister. he flew over the crash site, and he described it as a picture of horror. he says that there was wreckage strewn across the entire area. local officials saying the plane has been o bill clinton rated. no -- obliterated. no piece of the wreckage bigger than a small car. human remains strewn some hundreds of meters, as well. so this is looking like it could take a very long time. again, weather permitting as well. time certainly is of the essence for the families of the 150

people that will be on board to get -- on board that ill-fated flight. the goal is to bring the body home. >> an unimaginable tragedy. at the crash site, many thanks to you. let's talk more about the weather conditions and how they very well may hamper the efforts in the 24 hours ahead. our meteorologist pedram javaheri joins us now to talk about that part of the story. the location at which this plane went down is part of the story. i mean the altitude was what you describe as the rain/snow line. how is that going to make it difficult to get to where it is? >> it's interesting. 2,000 mears, 6,500 feet. north of that upstream, where debris is strewn about, y'all see snow. where the organizers officials are organized at there's freezing rain happening over the region. and the altitude at the slopes, 60 to 70 degrees. this is nearly a vertical

incline. already on a perfect day, you've got to rappelling equipment, professional gear to have your footing. now we have ice on the ground. visibility reduced because of dense fog if the morning hours. this is going to be treacherous. we often talk about ocean trashes being treacherous. for land this is as you rougha it gets. we'll show what we're dealing with as far as images coming out the region. again, the altitude in talking about how the debris is strewn about. you see the fuselage. hundreds of meters where you have to glance over the region. again other difficult to stand on a good day. we've had landslides over the region. we typically see rock slides. you consider a plane that potentially it s going upward of 500 miles per hour. 800 kilometers per hour. energy going to be transferred into the mountainside as far as moving rocks. the plane took off from barcelona. this is the weather pattern as it began descending down toward areas around the alps. moving storm activity to the east and south over the track of where the plane was. ahead of it partly cloudy fog,

a typical thing to see. fascinating depict of the vertical profile of the plane as it taxied out of barcelona. within 45 minutes, makes it to up to 38,000 feet. makes it one minute at 38,000 feet then drops toward the crash site. officials going to figure out what happened over the sky where the plane took the rapid descent. was of there an engine fire pressure loss, smoke in the cabin. that will come out over the next couple of days. wednesday looks wet, especially across some of the higher altitudes where the debview strewn about. thursday there's a -- debris is strewn about. thursday there's a brief window where before more clouds come in friday. one day of rough weather. i don't know the threshold to stopping the efforts, but it's going to be rough on wednesday. >> going to take a long time. >> yeah. >> treacherous hours ahead. thank you very much. >> thank you.

spain's king philippe said there were high numbers of spaniards on the flight. officials have yet to connecticutcobbnfirm how many were on board. since the flight went down weeping relatives have been arriving at barcelona's airport hoping for answers. worried family in germany also rushed to the airportment just breaks your heart to see them doing what they can do get information. we don't know anything additional yet. there were at least 7 german on the flight. 16 were teenagers. students returning from a week of study near barcelona. two teachers were traveling with them. two respective german opera singers were on board. germ at chancellor merkel plans to travel later today to the crash site. she had word of resolve and sympathy for those who lost loved ones on the flight. >> translator: this suffering is

incredible of the families. we will do everything to get the help that they need in these difficult hours. >> rosie tompkins joins us live from germany where many of the victims' families are waiting for final word of their loved ones. and rosie, roughly half the passengers were german but there are people from france spain, turkey, colombia and japan. what are we learning from the families of those who are on board? >> reporter: yeah many of those family members headed here to the airport when they heard news of the crash and information only to have their worst fears confirmed that their family member was on board. there's a crisis center here to provide support to family members counseling to help them through this traumatic news as it was reaching them. the airline also offered to fly family members to the french

alps so they could have a chance to be closer to the site. closer to the loved ones that they lost in the tragedy. what more do we know about those on board? as you said in your intro, 16 of these school students that were from the town just 80 kilometers north of here they were returning from a language exchange trip in spain with their two teachers. all of whom died on board tragically yesterday. we also learned overnight of two opera singers from the region who were on board. they been performing at the barcelona opera house. they've been there for a series of performances. one of the two,er the female of the duo, she was traveling with her husband and baby. one of the babies that we know of that died on the flight. more and more tragic details gradually emerging. as you say 7 german nationals is the number at this time. the germanwings ceo cautioned that number could change as more details emerge. >> each and every story is tragic as we learn about the

victims. some germanwings flights had to be canceled. crews weren't comfortable flying. what can you tell us about that and how long many flights will remain canceled? >> reporter: yes, we released -- received a statement from the airline on tuesday saying that on hearing the news some crew members weren't able to travel understandably shocked and saddened as the nation is at the news of their colleague. all the more shocked because germanwing an airline founded in 2002 has never been involved in a fatal crash. the airbus a320 very reliable aircraft. the pilot involved in the crash we're told by the airline had more than ten years, more than 6,000 hours of experience with the airline. so all of those details contributing to the shock. some flights canceled. we haven't been able to get more details about the airline but flights have resumed today as normal.

and more details are coming all the time. errol? >> all right. that's our rosie tompkins live in germany where the flight was meant to land. thank you very much. we have much more on the crash of flight 9525 ahead this hour including a look at some of the theories about what went so terribly wrong. woman: it's been a journey to get where i am. and i didn't get here alone. there were people who listened along the way. people who gave me options. kept me on track. and through it all my retirement never got left behind. so today, i'm prepared for anything we may want tomorrow to be.

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our thoughts and prayers are with the people of europe especially the people of germany and spain following a terrible airplane crash in france. it's particularly heartbreaking because it apparently includes the loss so many children some of them infans. >> u.s. president barack obama there reacting to the crash of germanwings flight 9525 in the french app. all 150 people on board were killed. >> the cause of tuesday's crash has not yet been determined. as tom foreman reports there are theories. >> reporter: this descent was somewhat rapid with not so fast that anybody in the cabin would

have necessarily noticed it until they were actually able to the mountains outside the windows. that dispenses one of the theories about what happened that it was a catastrophic failure in the air. that the tail fell off or a wing tore off. if that happened the plane would have come down more quickly in less controlled fashion. the debris would have been scattered over a much wider area on the ground. so if that's not what happened what are some other possibilities? well every analyst we've talked to said look at the flight pattern of this plane. it is a direct descent that seems controlled. 400 to 500 miles per hour the whole time a straight line. no sign of anything unusual happening. that they say would be consistent with the crew trying to get to a lower altitude and deal with some sort of problem. but we still don't know what the problem would have been. and frankly if they had this control, why wouldn't they have veered away from the mountains and gone to some of the airports nearby that they might have been able to reach safely? so that brings up one other

possibility here -- what if they just didn't know that they were crashing? this happens. sometimes pilots have false readings from instrumentation, they don't know how fast the plane is traveling. they don't know where it is in relationship to the ground or simply become so distracted by some other issue that they just lose what's called situational awareness. and by the time they would have realized they were in deep trouble, they had no time left to do anything about it. >> tom foreman reporting there. now for an expert's view on all this captain desmond ross from sydney australia. he has extensive experience in the aviation industry and is a principal in dra professional aviation services. thank you, sir, for talking with us. let's start by this -- authorities, they're trying to work out why this plane crashed. and what we know so far is there was this controlled descent from

38,000 feet that took eight minutes. but no distress call was made. what does that all tell you? >> very little rosemary. i really have difficulties with some of the speculation i'm hearing -- [ inaudible ] they do believe that something catastrophic appeared on the flight deck and the aircraft started a descent. it clearly started a descent. that was obvious from the atc radar. whether the pilots initiated that voluntarily or involuntarily is a big question in my mind. if something catastrophic occurred where a panel you blew out some part of the aircraft and they had decompression, the first thing to do is get down to 10,000 feet or thereabouts. it does look like a controlled descent initially. but if it was a controlled descent, why didn't they say something? i think that point has been made before. we should advise air traffic control not only to let them

know you're in an emergency but to clear other traffic in your way, in the path. >> unless their attention is so focused on trying to ensure the plane doesn't crash. >> yeah. i have a problem with this -- that concept. but the -- there's so many warning bells and alarms on the a320. and that particular aircraft was fitted with pretty much up-to-date latest avionic suite. it had just come out of a major -- very extensive engineering inspection. it had come out on monday, i believe. literally the day before. so if that's correct, the crave should have been in tip-top condition. one of the things that will have to be inspected now are the maintenance records. they'll go through those with a fine tooth comb to make sure everything of done according to the book and that no errors were made in the maintenance part of the process. the pilots then took the aircraft up knowing that it had

been fully maintained. something that's happened at 38,000 feet -- as far as kploefb decompression -- explosive decompression, you can't rule out the possibility of a terrorist bomb. it's a possible. although they're treating it as an accident at the moment. the aircraft obviously hit in one piece and broke up because as somebody else said just before it is not scattered over a wide area which it would have been had it broken up at high altitude. it hit the ground at high speed and totally disintegrated. why didn't the pilots put up -- i suspect they were incapacitated. >> right. of course, we don't know. we have to emphasize that to viewers across the globe. at this point, we do not know what happened. your sense is that this was some sort of catastrophic event. but you're not sure what that may have been. there has been talk about the problem of rapid descents for the airbus.

why would a plane automatically go into a controlled descent, and when it does what do pilots need to do if they're not incapacitated? >> it wouldn't go into an automatic descent. it would have been a question of them initiating the descent because of a problem that needed them to get done. from that altitude could you can't breathe at 38,000 feet. they have to get down. they would have started the descent, and it looks like it was under control as has been pointed out because it went in a straight line. we really are speculating. until we can bet some information from the flight data recorder which i understand has been recovered and which has been recovered, they will be examining right now. they won't sleep. someone will work on that 24 hours a day until they get information information. there's also a report which i don't think is -- has been recovered. that's important also to hear

what they were talking about. once that's on the table we have real understanding of what has gone wrong here. >> indeed. as you say, one of those blobses has been retrieved -- black boxes has been retrieved. it would be investigated at this time. we know the recovery crews, search and recovery crews are getting ready to go out and start that as the day begins there at the crash site. all right, many thanks to captain desmond ross for joining us. and of course again, emphasizing we're just going through all the possibles here as we try to piece together the little we do know about this tragic event. many thanks to you, sir. there's another big story we're following for you. thousands of u.s. troops in afghanistan will have to stay longer than planned. details behind this change of course after the break. the promise of the cloud is that every organization has unlimited access to information, no matter where they are. the microsoft cloud gives our team the power to instantly deliver critical information to people, whenever they need it. here at accuweather we get up to

10 billion data requests every day. the cloud allows us to scale up so we can handle that volume. we can help keep people safe and to us that feels really good. know about this tragic event.

welcome back everyone. rain snow and ice threatening the search for clues and bodies after tuesday's deadly plane crash in the french apps. >> these are still early hours. so far no one knows why germanwings 9525 went into a descent after slamming into a remote mountainside. authorities say none of the people on board could have survived the impact. tragedy struck en route from barcelona to dusseldorf. several nationalities on board, but nearly half were german

including 16 teenagers returning from a student exchange in spain. u.s. president barack obama says nearly 10,000 u.s. troops will remain in afghanistan through the end of this year. the announcement came as mr. obama met with afghan president ghani in washington. >> the summit originally planned to cut the number of troops by more than 4,000 by the end of this year. however, mr. ghani pushed for a slower troop withdrawal. >> this flexibility reflects on our reinvigorated partnership with afghanistan which is aimed at making afghanistan secure and preventing it from being launched to -- being prepared to launch traffic attacks. >> the flexibility provide for 2015 will be used to accelerate reforms, to ensure that there are national security forces that are much better led, equipped trained, and/or

focused on their fundamental mission. >> mr. dejuany is expected to speak before the u.s. congress latered with. let's bring in our senior international correspondent, nick paton walsh, live with the latest on this. there you have it. more u.s. troops staying longer in afghanistan. it would suggest as president ghani alluded to there that the afghan forces are not prepared to take over fully any time soon. >> reporter: i don't think it's a question of the afghan national security forces being able to match the job that 100,000 sum and nato troops were ever on here. obviously they are less equipped. they're facing the taliban insurgency that has emboldened after years of fighting here. they have attrition rates of their own where the numbers unwittingly yielded tens of thousands from the rank in the past couple of years or so. it's obviously an

extraordinarily complex task. what we heard from barack obama yesterday of a bid i think for the white house to have their cake and eat it to some degree. a key tenet of barack obama's foreign policy has been "i will end the wars in iraq and afghanistan." he ended the war in iraq pretty quickly partially because the iraqi government didn't want to u.s. troops there with some form of legal immuniti. we saw what happened as a result of that. and they're now using drones and air poush to push isis back from areas where the iraqi security forces were not able to feel. i think there's a fear given worrying sign of isis trying to get their tencles into afghanistan that the white house certainly don't want to be seen to be doing something similar in terms of precipitous departure in afghanistan. what was announced yesterday does not significantly necessarily change the playing field here. an extra 4,300 u.s. troops for the maximum more of 12 months isn't going designeesively change the battlefield. yes, some will be training, some will be able to assist the afghan security forces in getting better at their jobs.

but the key issue i think is the symbol. it says potential at the allows the obama administration as well to say we did not cut and run in afghanistan when they were worrying -- there were worrying security signs. at the same time, barack obama was key to point out and echoed by ghani, too, combat operations are finished for americans. by the end of 2016 those troops will be inside the u.s. embassy compound. that almost hasn't changed. it's just as barack obama said the pace of the drawdown has shifted to the right. that's the complexity here. it's a bid for the white house to be seen to be doing something while not also changing their promise of bringing this now over decade-long war to an end. >> and you get the sense that the sum administration feels that mr. ghani is more cooperative and more consistent than his predecessor hamid karzai inskin on things the u.s. thought they had agreed. that he disagreed with.

live for us from kabul, nick paton walsh. thank you. we'll take a short break, coming up on "cnn newsroom," more on the crash of flight 9525. we will tell you about the airline german germanwings, the planes they fly and their reputation for safety. plus we're learning more about those who lost their lives on the flight including these two acclaimed opera singers.

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are you watching "cnn newsroom." i'm rosemary church. >> i'm errol barnett. let's check the headlines for you this hour. rain and snow could complicate search forein the french alps. a german airbus a320 crashed in the french alps killing all on board. one of the two black boxes have been recovered. u.s. president barack obama says nearly 10,000 u.s. troops will remain in afghanistan through the end of this year. the summit originally planned to cut that number down by more than 4,000. mr. obama says he still plans on pulling out virtually all u.s. troops by the end of twik. u.s. lawmakers and administration officials are dismissing reports that israel spied on the u.s.-led iran nuclear talks. the "wall street journal" story accused the israeli government of leaking details of the negotiations to lawmakers. an israeli official calls the allegations utterly false.

to germany, the crash of germanwings 9525 is more than a loss of life, it's a blow to national pride. >> germany enjoys a good reputation when it comes to technology and safety. as we show, many germans are finding this crash difficult to understand. >> reporter: germany tonight is in a state of sadness and a state of mourning and also of course, in a state of shock, as well. this is a cup that pride itself on high technology its ingenuity and of course all of that extends to the sector of airline safety as well. that's one of the reasons why so many german politicians have come forward. angela merkel is going to head to the crash site tomorrow. the german foreign minister was already at the crash site today circling above in a helicopter describing the gruesome pictures that he saw there. in the early stages after the crash happened, it's all about the victims in germany. one of the things that germanwings has done, it's put

in place a crisis center here at dusseldorf airport. this is the place where that doomed flight was supposed to land. and of course many of the relatives of those who were killed on this flight have come here. they can receive psychological counseling here and the same thing that's happening in dusseldorf is also happening at barcelona airport a place where the flight originated. one of the other things the germanwings leadership said it will do is it wants to put in place what they call a contact center where it's offering all of the relatives of those who were killed the possibility to be taken to the vicinity of where this crash happened simply to be closer to the place where their loved ones were killed. now of course within this larger tragedy, there's also other tragic events that are moving this nation. one is the fact that there was a class of schoolkids also on board this plane. 16 who were coming back from an

exchange in spain then and two of their teachers were killed on the flight. also two opera singers here from the dusseldorf area. one traveling with her small baby. that's only one of two babies that were also killed on this flight. et from fred pleitgen cnn, germany. our meteorologist pedram javaheri is back with a close look at the conditions facing recovery crews. pedram of course, the terrain is difficult. but also this worsening weather is a very big challenge. >> you know it's a slow-moving storm system. unfortunately, typically you see storms across the mediterranean have a west-to-east movement. move out of the region. unfortunately the storm system drops into the iberian peninsula. you can pick out the center of circulation, pushes into morocco, gradually overal. the moisture pushes toward the crash site. at these elevations, there's the location. we got a break in the action thursday morning into thursday afternoon. plenty of wet weather across wednesday and low clouds as

well for the better part offed with as well. that's why we -- of wednesday as well. that's why we think the operation will be hampered. the plane going down at 6,500 feet or two meters. upstream, we'll see snow showers. downstream a lot of organizers are there. it's going to be in the way of rainfall. in between, freezing rainer a erer -- rain a possibility. one thing worth noting. the plane comes down in the rain/snow line in the western-facing slope. in this part of the world, this system you go to the eastern side of the slopes the snowfall picks up in intensity tremendously. had this plane gone up 2,000 to 3,000 more feet the crash location snowfall would have been from a few inches. what they will see today. to possibly over two feet the next few days. certainly the search efforts here could have been hampered considerably when it comes to how much snow comes down upstream of the region. here you go. this is what the debris field looks like. notice a lot of it funnels toward the lowet points in the areas downstream of the crash

zone. we have data here showing us what happened as far as the air speed and, of course altitude within 45 minutes reaching up to 38,000 feet. the safest area you want to be as far as cruising altitude. that only lasted one minute. the air speed was at about 400 knots which equivolate from the 500 miles per hour. the altitude drops 30,000 feet in eight minutes. the air speed does not drop much. there's little in the way of large scale debris even though it was coming down gradually over the region. >> such a mystery as to why that happened. >> so horrendous. >> another mystery in the aviation world. >> thanks. we are learning more about the 150 people who were on board that flight including the two acclaimed opera singers we've mentioned. >> they had just wrapped up a series of performances in barcelona. the bass baritone has been

filmed with the dusseldorf opera house since 1996. he's performed on stages all around the world. earlier a colleague and friend spoke with our anderson cooper. >> i'm so sorry for your loss. >> it's been difficult for all of us in dusseldorf. the main problem is as grown-ups we know sometime this will happen to all of us. but the sadness with which it happens is hard to describe -- i can describe only as stagger. >> what kind of guy of oleg? tell us about him. >> the oleg i knew of a very sensitive person. an easy-going professional and very nice and caring friend.

and he used to take all situations with a certain calm that's actually eradiated a little bit of conflict for everybody around him because that's the way he was. very very easy going and very sensitive with people. >> i understand he performed in more than 30 operas traveled the world for work. as a singer as an opera singer what was he like? >> that's right. well paris, zurich london los angeles, chicago, vienna, you name it. everywhere where there was a big opera house, he was there. and he's been singing through

his career very big tleels are demanding. talking about the father in hansel and gretel, otello we're talking about high-caliber things. people in general sometimes ask where do we hide the microphones. the thing is we sing without microphones in front of 2,000, 3,000 people. i remember there was a scene in which he interacted with me as he was singing, and i was always -- the entire production i was kind of amazed. and how he was able to project it like laser beam to the public was surprising. >> i'm sorry for your loss. and i appreciate you spending time with us to tell us a little about o leg.

thank you. >> thanks to you. >> listening to one of the friends of one of the opera singers killed in that. malaysia airlines knows the loss germanwings is experiencing all too wellam tuesday, it tweeted its condolences. >> you see it's been re-tweeted a few thousand times, it reads, "our thoughts and prayers go to the family and friends of those on board flight 9525. we are with you, germanwings. #staystrong." we'll be right back. 80% of the poor in africa are rural farmers. 96% of them are doing rain-fed agriculture. they're all competing with each other; they're all making very low margins making enough to survive but not enough to get out of poverty. so kickstart designs low cost irrigation pumps enabling them to grow high value crops throughout the year so you can make a lot of money.

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and earned a shiny new office upgrade. i run on quickbooks. that's how i own it. translator: i saw the plane at low altitude for two or three seconds. as soon as i saw that i sensed it was going crash. >> translator: i was doing odd jobs behind my house. i saw a plane passing by. i said it's a bit low. when i discovered that a plane had crashed, i thought of this right away. >> witnesses there to tuesday's deadly plane crash in the french alps. officials do believe all 150 people on board were killed. the airline itself germanwings, has a good reputation for reliable and safety. jim boulden has more on the company's history. >> reporter: this is a photo of the actual germanwings plane in

dusseldorf last april that crashed in the french alps. germanwings started in 2002 as a budget carrier. it's now part of europe's lowest airline group as it became wholly owned by german national carrier carrier lufthanza in germany. they operate some 180 routes with 0 aircraft. many of the routes were moved to the low-cost wing and have some flights from another airline, eurowings. germanwings carried 16 million passengers in 2013 when it was expanded and rebranded in july of that year. germanwings flies from dusseldorf cologne, bonn hamburg, stuttgart, all mid sized regional cities around the country and from berlin. it also flies to north africa turkey and main european cities such as london, paris, amsterdam amsterdam, and barcelona. carrier uses mainly airbus a31 s and larger a320s.

the single aisle workhouse planes favored for shorter routes. and are on the whole considered safe and reliable aircraft. the pilots of lufthanza and germanwings have staged strikes in recent years as the company has attempted to revise pay and conditions to compete with europe's bigger budget airlines. unlike other budget airlines germanwings is a member of an airline alliance. in this case star alliance through the parent lufthanza. it also has higher priced business class tickets that allow passengers to use lounges and also has its own frequent flyer program. jim bowelen, cnn -- jim boulden, cnn, london. wee much more coverage of the crash of flight 9525 on our website. you can log on to cnn.com for the latest developments on the investigation and the information on how you can help. still to come for you this hour decision day for amanda knox. while the accused waits in the

united states an italian court is just hours away from what could be a final ruling in the killing death of meredith kercher. plus a bus ride ends in a frightening fashion, and its passengers are thanking their lucky stars. woman: it's been a journey to get where i am. and i didn't get here alone. there were people who listened along the way. people who gave me options. kept me on track. and through it all my retirement never got left behind. so today, i'm prepared for anything we may want tomorrow to be. every someday needs a plan. let's talk about your old 401(k) today. look! this is the new asian inspired broth bowl from panera bread. our hero is the soba noodle. (mmmm) which we pair with fresh spinach (ahhh) mushrooms (yes)

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plane crash. what we know so far is that germanwings flight 9525 went into a sudden descent before slamming into a remote mountainside. none of the 150 on board could have survived this. >> the plane had been making a routine flight from barcelona to dusseldorf. nearly half of those on board were german including 16 teenagers returning from a student exchange in spain. now to another story we're following. amanda knox's future hanging in the balance once again. in the coming hours, the supreme court will rule on whether to uphold her conviction in the 2007 killing of her british roommate meredith kercher. >> the fate of knox's former boyfriend, raffaele sollecito, will also be decided. cnn looks at the possible outcomes. >> reporter: after more than seven years of legal wrangling, italy's high court will again decide the fate of amanda knox.

experts say the odds are not in knox's favor. >> i did not kill my friend. i did not wield a knife. i had no reason to. >> reporter: the supreme court can either uphold last year's conviction or overturn the decision. it's a decision that for a second time found knox and her then-boyfriend raffaele sollecito, guilty of murdering 21-year-old british student meredith kercher. a third suspect, rudy gadet, was trialed and sentenced to 16 years in jail. knox and solecito have long preached their innocence saying gadet acted alone. >> as the case progressed, the evidence that the prosecution has claimed exist against me has been -- has been proven less and less and less. >> reporter: the florence apple at court found the 2011 ruling that acquitted knox and solecito to be absent of lodgerflation rig or. it sentenced --them to time been

bars but that's not final unless italy's high court signs off. >> frequently supreme court confirms the decision of the court of appeals. so in this case it should mean the confirmation of the sentence. >> reporter: a confirmed sentence means police will immediately arrest solecito an italian citizen. he will begin his 25-year jail term. knox remains in the united states and italy could request her extradition. experts say politics would be a loyal factor. >> italians will have to determine whether or not they want to ask for extradition under the current obama administration or wait and will see who's elected. she'd be better off fighting an extradition trial, extradition process in the united states than wondering if some basis point hunter's going to try to get her on an international arrest warrant. it would be an unsettling time. >> reporter: under italian law, the statute of limitations on

extradition is double the sentence. so the court would have over 50 years to make that decision. the high court may also overturn the latest guilty verdict in which case there will likely be another appeal trial. while the handling of the case has sparked outrage in the u.s. this kind of legal ping pong is normal in italy. experts say the system is meant to ensure the rights of the accused. cnn. and when the court makes a decision, we'll certainly bring that to you. now for a lucky escape for passengers on a bus in brazil. you've got to the stunning video that's been spreading on line. >> during a flood, their bus got stuck in the mud. but no sooner did the travelers make it to safety than a large sinkhole suddenly opened up on the road and swallowed the bus whole. floodwater then washed the bus awaya away away. unbelievably no one was hurt. terrifying journey. >> got out just in time. did they get a refund?

not sure. >> i'm sure they pursued that. you have been. whatting "cnn newsroom." we appreciate you being with us. >> stay with us, we will be back with much more on the crash of flight 9525 after this. the real question that needs to be asked is "what is it that we can do that is impactful?" what the cloud enables is computing to empower cancer researchers. it used to take two weeks to sequence and analyze a genome; with the microsoft cloud we can analyze 100 per day. whatever i can do to help compute a cure for cancer, that's what i'd like to do.

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rescuers prepare to resume the search for victims and answers in the crash of a germanwings flight as many ask what happened during those final eight minutes. amanda knox braces for a ruling on her murder conviction in italy. the first declared republican to run for the white house makes a surprising admission about obamacare. hello, and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm rosemary church. >> i'm errol barnett. this is noourm. -- this is "cnn newsroom." it is daylight in the french alps where search and recovery efforts are set to resume in the crash of germanwings flight 9525. rain snow and fog in