breaking news at the top of the hour. officials have given up looking for a missing asia plane for now that disappeared. happened late last night. we're going to tell you why. plus the very latest from the singapore airport where that plane was headed and where family members are praying for answers. take a look at these pictures, the formal ending to the u.s. combat mission in afghanistan. happened earlier than expected and just a few hours ago. they turned their backs on the mayor of new york. i will talk with an official who lives in the heart where this scene took place. and what the rift means for america's biggest city.

hey there, everyone it's high noon here in the east 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to weekends with alex witt. the breaking news we've been following all day. an air asia plane with 162 people onboard is missing. lost contact with ground control shortly after taking off from indonesia. was on its way to singapore. both countries have launched a joint search and rescue operation. however, that search has been suspended until daylight now. the state department says the u.s. stands ready to assist with that search for the missing plane upon being asked. air asia has released a statement saying the crew had asked for a change in flight path. this to avoid some rough weather in their path. the flight left at 5:35 a.m. local time. they lost contact with is that plane at 7:24 a.m. their time. that flight had been scheduled to land in singapore about an hour later at 8:30 a.m. local time. most onboard were indonesian, 6 of them children. at least one of them an infant.

pope francis has weighed in saying in the statement his thoughts are with those aboard the plane that disappeared. secretary of state john kerry tweeted our hearts and hopes are with the passengers and families of the air asia flight. nbc's katy tur with more on the disappearance of the flight. katy to you. >> reporter: singapore airport has confirmed they have been involved in the search. they went over the sea, searched for about two hours before heading back when indonesian officials called off the search for the evening. it is 10:30 here in singapore right now. they had a good 14 15 hours of daylight to look for that plane. it disappeared around 7:30 local time somewhere over the sea. officials know where and when it went off radar. so they should have a good idea of where it potentially is in that vicinity. but so far they have not seen any sign of the plane. it is an air bus 300. air asia qz501. 162 passengers onboard, five

crew members and two pilots. now, indonesian -- air asia officials say pilots asked to change paths in the middle of the flight. they asked to go to 38,000 feet to avoid some weather. and there was, indeed, a line of thunderstorms in the area. that is the last they heard of that plane before it went off radar. now, it was supposed to land here at 8:30 in the morning at singapore airport. we saw a few family members and friends come here looking for answers. a lot of them have flown in indonesia because the vast majority of the passengers are indonesian. so the ceo of air asia has flown down there to try to give them any answers. so far, though not that much information and still no sign of that plane. they will resume searching, though, tomorrow morning once the sun comes up. alex? >> thank you so much for that. well as we have said there was a lot of stormy weather in the area at the time that plane vanished. the weather channel's mark elliott here to give us a closer look at that. mark?

>> hey alex we continue to monitor the weather conditions that were in play when air asia flight 8501 was last heard from moving over the java sea. the weather a big factor across this portion of the world. it's flying through the area that we shorthand call the itcz. we talk about this during the summer months in the u.s., where we would look for tropical storm or hurricane development. but year round, it is a portion of the world infamous for huge thunderstorms. and these bright red colors are indicative of thunderstorm tops approaching 50,000 feet, far above the flight level of about 30,000 feet that this flight would be going through. another factor right about at that sam altitude, icing comes into play. and that's something that investigators are going to have to look at carefully, as well, to see if icing on the wings of the plane may have been a factor. so the last known location right here as you can see, thunderstorms were near that location and certainly nearby

the flight path. we know that the pilot had asked to reroute because of those strong thunderstorms along the way. so weather a big part of this story. alex, back to you. >> thank you so much for that. so here's what we know about the plane itself. it is an airbus a320 200 series delivered six years ago back in 2008. the plane had about 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights. now the a-320 itself is a short to medium range jet. has a range of about 3700 miles. let's bring in two aviation experts to try to shed some light on what has happened to this air asia flight. ntsb investigator now aviation analyst and anthony roman and faa licensed commercial pilot and former flight instructor. gentlemen, i welcome you both back to the broadcast. we've been covering this story all day. greg, you just heard about the weather in that area. does it give you a greater sense of what likely may have happened here? >> well with the description

that mark gave, one of the big issues that will be looked at in dissecting the weather conditions is mark talked about inflight icing at high altitude. in the recent past we've come across this thing called ice crystal icing, which can play a significant role in causing engine flameouts at altitude. so, of course in the dissection of the weather by the investigators, they're going to be looking at all of the components of that thunderstorm activity. the vertical up and downdrafts, which can be overwhelming for the airplane as far as the structure. it can actually cause a loss of control for the pilots. this icing in-l flight. and, of course if there is any other issue, such as hail. because if hail is in the area then it can damage the aircraft. and it can also cause a significant issue with the airframe. >> okay. anthony, we've been talking about radar, all the technology

that allows pilots on any given plane these days to see what lies ahead. and you have this call reportedly of about a 50,000 foot area of thundershowers. what they asked for was to go up another 6,000 feet to 38,000 feet. the fact that we're talking about icing. is that predictable? i mean you get weather reports, certainly, and study those as a pilot before you take off. >> well it is predictable given the nature of these monstrous storms. these are just about the biggest thunderstorms that you can encounter anywhere in the world? and they have the energy of a small nuclear device. every pilot knows those flight levels you can encounter icing, microbursts, wind shear. and those winds can exceed the capabilities of the airplane and actually, the drive it into the ocean or tear it apart. they can also encounter huge softball sized hail. and that can be thrown out into

clear air up to 20 miles away. and if they were flying downwind of the storm, perhaps even further than that. that can cause all sorts of structural damage and can cause compressor failure in the engines and result in complete loss of power. >> what you're describing is ultimately quite catastrophic scenarios here. so the question to you, greg, with the reports that there was no distress signal, rather, sent from that plane. put it altogether. what anthony's describing and certainly you're familiar with those kind of scenarios, as well. that would make sense why pilots would have been trying to keep that plane up in the air should they have encountered something along the lines of what anthony was saying. >> absolutely. and when we talk about the fact that there was no distress call or any kind of emergency signal like a transponder code of 7700 or something to that effect. whatever event was taking place may not have been perceived initially as a threat, but as

the crew got into the area during the deviation and possibly during the climb to a higher altitude there was an overwhelming event that demanded their full attention and that they were both required, both pilots were required to handle the situation. radio calls and narrations to the air traffic controllers, or even may day emergency call will be the last thing. the primary focus is keeping control of that aircraft. and it may be that they didn't have the ability to get an emergency call off and that there was damage to the aircraft that then further prevented them from doing that. >> yeah. and anthony, i'd like you to put that graphic back up on the screen as you look at where that plane was when it went into some distress doesn't appear there are land masses anywhere near. so if you're encountering something like that catastrophically, does it even help if you have land to get to?

or at that altitude, would it not make a difference? what kind of mass land or water you're flying over? >> well it does help. this aircraft can travel at 8 miles per minute. so you can really boogie on down the road so to speak and get to land rather quickly in an emergency. the problem with this type of northeast monsoonal weather is it becomes completely unpredictable as you're entering the storm area. and thunderstorms can spontaneously develop around the aircraft and actually trap it. >> yeah. greg, i want to ask you about the details released on the information given on the crews experienced. total of 6,100 flying hours, put that in perspective. is that a good amount of experience for an a-320 pilot and co-pilot? >> you have to dissect that a little further in that for 6,100

hours of experience or flight time, we don't know what the background was. we don't know how much time how much time did this captain and first officer actually have in the a-320 airbus. and here in the united states our legacy carriers, they have substantially more flight time than that. this is a new entrant type carrier, low-cost carrier. they don't have a big pilot pool to draw from. so for that airline and that part of the world, that you know is basically relative. they are experienced pilots. the question's going to be what kind of training did they have from the airline to handle these kinds of weather conditions how to make decisions based on these weather conditions. and then how much help did they have from their own airline as far as the dispatchers in providing them the best available weather information for them to make good or bad decisions or a decision to retreat rather than to try to circumnavigate or even go through that thunderstorm line. >> okay. thank you both so much for your insights and expertise.

i appreciate that. we will of course stay on top of this news story and bring you the latest as we get it. but meantime the ceremony a short time ago which ended the war in afghanistan. i'll speak with a member of the house armed services committee about that plus the role of the u.s. troops who will remain there. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. i never really thought i would make money doing what i love. we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side.

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at a quarter past the hour more now on the day's big breaking news. air asia plane with 162 people onboard is missing. flight 8501 lost contact with ground control shortly after taking off from indonesia on its way to singapore. both countries have launched a search and rescue joint operation. but the air search has been suspended now until daylight. the state department says the u.s. stands ready to assist with the search for the missing plane. air asia released a statement saying the crew of flight 8501 had asked for a change in flight path. they want to avoid rough weather in their way.

controllers lost contact with the plane. i will be speaking with a man who piloted an a-320 for years in a few minutes from now. meantime america's longest war formally came to an end today in a quiet ceremony in kabul. u.s. troops officially completed their combat mission in afghanistan. nato military forces held that ceremony a few days earlier than expected. so today marks the final days of the 13-year military engagement which began in late 2001. despite the ceremony look the a those numbers. nearly 11,000 members of the u.s. military will remain in noncombat roles. joining me now, a member of the house armed services committee. welcome, sir nice to see you as always. >> good to be with you. >> what does it say to you about a war which began with such fervor? >> well, first of all, those of us that watch this carefully and the thousands of americans that served there are very, very much

aware of it. a lot of -- well 2,385 americans latest count died in that war. and thousands more were injured in one way or another. my first thought goes out to those men and women that served in afghanistan in a way that it's not yet clear what the outcome's going to be. the politics of that country are very very tough. very difficult. i think success is going to be seen on some sort of political accommodation made among the various drives in the area. that has yet to be done. although, at the moment, it's a little hopeful. >> may i ask you, sir. when you mention success. that success, will that be a success that's weighed in the minds of the united states citizens? or is that a success defined for people of afghanistan? how do we measure success? >> well i'm not at all sure there's a clear answer to that. we went there to deal with the 9/11 incident. we took out the perpetrator of that. and we left behind a very very

troubled country. or we're leaving behind a troubled country. over 13 years, it just didn't come together. we're not very good at nation building. we've discovered that certainly in iraq and now in afghanistan. the people of that country are going to have to settle their future. right now, there's political accommodation. they seem to be making progress. although there are very, very powerful tribal factions. the tribe and others who are still at war with the central government there. so success is seen first of all, in did we deal with the terrorism? in that area. the answer i think, is clear, yes, we did. did we wipe it out completely? no, it did more if it did change it's a cancer that spread throughout the entire. well, much of the world, actually. so we still have that issue out ahead of us. but what of afghanistan in the

future? we spent billions, over $770 billion in afghanistan. i don't know. let's just say it's on the margin. >> yeah. let's face it. as you said it's a very complicated answer and not one you're sure you can entirely answer, as well. with regard to the 11,000 members of the u.s. military remaining in afghanistan. does that mean they're out of harm's way? >> not at all. if you're sitting in kabul, you're in harm's way. recent incidences that have taken place there at bagram. no, you're still in harm's way and quite probably american personnel will be accompanying the various afghanistan troops as they carry on their effort to try to stabilize the country. so they'll be in harm's way either at their base on the streets of kabul and other cities, and if they are, and i suspect they will be accompanying the afghan army. >> may i ask you what the troops will be doing? it's described as remaining nato

troops as being those that are training and advising troops as part of the force's resolute support component. u.s. troops though. there are some who may be encountering some sort of combat in their role as trying to root out terrorism, right? >> well, it's not very well defined at the moment. the new acronym to cover the ongoing mission there, resolute it's not going to be clear. i suspect we will continue to go after terrorist cells where they exist in afghanistan and anywhere else in the world one way or another perhaps with troops perhaps with various aerial equipment we have. but the underlying -- we cannot resolve with the military. we can help resolve it with

certain kinds of aids, with education, money to support the government and the educational systems in those countries. and it's not just afghanistan. we're going to be right back into the same situation in iraq which itself is extraordinarily complex given the surrounding countries. iran is now involved going after isis as is the united states. so here we are with what was once considered to be a mortal enemy really working hand in hand trying to deal with yet a different threat isis. >> so isis notwithstanding, sir, you heard the president saying as he was addressing the troops in hawaii on thursday. he said that afghanistan is quote, not going to be the source of terrorist attacks again. so interpreting that because he wasn't specific. did he mean just to the united states? because one can't suspect that he meant to the world. i mean and are you confident that will be the case that the united states remains free from

terrorist attacks that will have been generated within afghanistan? >> well, that's what the 11,000 troops are there for. in part to deal with the potential for renewed terrorism arising in that area. but we need to recognize that this is a problem that goes way beyond afghanistan. we find it in yemen, we certainly find it in the isil situation. these are -- this is something we need to pay attention to both militarily and in my mind much more importantly. we need to deal with the underlying factors that cause and lead to people that want to engage in terrorism. some of it is religious. very, very tough. that's been going on for 1,000 years in that area. not going to be able to solve that one right away. some of it has to do with economic opportunity for the younger people in the area. we with know that unemployment among the young is way over 50%. and that then becomes a fertile ground for the kind of terrorism

or kind of activities that we've seen. and so we've got to deal with all of these things. so the economic aid is important important structural aid. we need to keep a military presence, at least at a low level. our troops will continue to be in harm's way. and that's the unfortunate nature of the world in which we're living at the moment. but we're not going to solve it until we get at these other issues. what is the underlying cause for the kind of activities going on? >> sir, thank you so much for your time. we look forward to seeing you in 2015. >> it'll be a pleasure alex. happy new year. >> and to you. the new sign of the climate of mistrust between new york city's mayor and the police.

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common side effects include nausea trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. i'm a non-smoker, that feels amazing. ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. the feelings of betrayal is strong. nonetheless, we come here today to mourn and we'll debate tomorrow. >> a new symbol of protests this weekend of the public rift between new york city's mayor and the police union. on saturday hundreds of nypd

officers turning their backs to mayor de blasio during the funeral of their colleague ramos who was killed with his partner in an ambush shooting in brooklyn. melinda katz is with me now. and with a welcome to you, ma'am, can you categorize or put into perspective how bad this rift is between the mayor and the police? >> there's no doubt that there is a rift happening right now. at the same time though there are vigils being held all over the city. i myself have gone to several vigils. it's amazing the show of support going on out there. but the rift is going to have to be closed. and with time and with the healing process and with union negotiation and just with a show of support by the entire city not just the mayor, but with the entire city that has come together to start this healing process, new york city's an amazing place. we are strong and we are tough. but we also come together as one when it's necessary. i went to the funeral of officer ramos. i'm telling you, it was an amazing, amazing balance between

respecting the police officers and remembering him as the man he was. >> yeah. a lot of your sentiments may be echoed here in what we're going to talk about as the city's police commissioner was on "meet the press" this morning and talked about the need for mutual understanding. let's listen to him. >> as we've been doing in new york deal with the demonstrations in the way they don't turn into police riots, if you will. to allow some breathing room in the sense of allowing people to demonstrate, to vent. and at the same time, showing on the part of the police remarkable strength in the face of great provocation. my cops have been doing a phenomenal job dealing with these demonstrations that you really have to be on the front lines with them to understand what they're dealing with. >> yeah he brings up a good point. a point he's reiterated many times over. but to your mind allowing people the freedom of speech, freedom of expression and yet keeping the city and environment safe while people are allowed to do so. how tough of a balance is that? >> you have to allow for freedom

of expression, for protests. if it were not for protests there wouldn't be freedom of choice workers rights legislation that's passed all over the country. so i -- you have to have this protest that goes on. and by the way, it's healthy in the same way it's healthy that the police express their feelings about what's going on in the city. it's healthy that folks are out there protesting and making sure that we don't backtrack on the conversations we've had. the city has gone through over the last 18 months real substantive conversations about stop and frisk, about police, about communities and about combining the community efforts with the police efforts to make for a safer and more transparent atmosphere. i think those are important discussions that we've had. but, you know with the commissioner said is true you have the police out there, and they are protecting exactly the conversation that they probably either agree or don't agree with. >> there is a conversation though that's coming from patrick lynch and that's the president of the police union and he's been extremely vocal in blaming the mayor for the deaths

of the two officers assassinated a week ago yesterday. even saying there was a, quote, trail of blood leading to de blasio's office. today he issued a statement thanking the public for their support. here's the quote from that. to those who made donations in support of the families with flowers, candles and a kind word, we say thank you. interpret that. is he softening his tone? >> i don't think he's softening his tone. i think anger was high at the time of the deaths and rightfully so. they should be angry. everyone in the entire city in the united states should be angry. make no mistake about it. this man came from his own state, shot his girlfriend was arrested 19 times, came to new york city to kill police officers. he made that very clear on facebook. made that clear on social media. and that is the person to blame for that. i think that the -- i'm hoping that the police have realized it's time to move forward and that it's time for negotiations. and we need to start the healing process.

and for the healing process to happen, we need three things. we need leadership we need folks from all sides of this issue to come forward, be leaders. and i think pat lynch is trying to do that. we also need a dialogue and transparency. and that's very important as we move forward. you can only understand what we're going to do by listening to people. not just sitting at a table. and i think last but not least, you need time. these are conversations that are decades old. and they're not going to happen overnight. we're not going to fix everything overnight. and so we need time to allow that dialogue to happen. and allow changes to be made. >> new information in search for that missing jet that vanished with 162 people onboard after a break. when heartburn comes creeping up on you... fight back with relief so smooth... ...it's fast. tums smoothies starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue ...and neutralizes stomach acid at the source. ♪ tum, tum tum tum...♪ smoothies! only from tums. it's just ordinary fleece but the comfort it provides is immeasurable. the america red cross brings hope and help to

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both countries have launched a joint search and rescue operation. but the air search has been suspended now until daylight. the state department says the u.s. stands ready to assist with the search for that missing plane. air asia has released a statement saying the crew of the flight 8501. they'd asked for a change in flight path to avoid rough weather shortly after that request. controllers lost contact with the plane. the flight had been scheduled to land in singapore at 8:30 a.m. local time. monitoring the situation from our london bureau for us. so kelly with a welcome to you. do we have any news on when the search will resume? >> we believe, alex, that the search will resume at daybreak tomorrow. but that's weather permitting. it was a very stormy day in parts of the java sea today. low visibility, 1 to 3 miles of visibility. and searchers are looking in this area in the java sea. they spent ten hours looking today and found absolutely nothing. and you can imagine the conditions first of all, you're

looking for parts of a plane, debris wreckage something from the air. then you have this terrible visibility and choppy seas to boot. it's extremely difficult to find anything. offers of help are coming in from around the world, from australia india, the united states. by tomorrow, alex there could be as many as 11 ships 6 planes helicopters, as well involved. but, again, that's weather permitting. >> yeah, absolutely. thank you for the look ahead of what we can expect as daylight resumes there. thank you so much, kelly. well the president is following the situation while on vacation with his family in hawaii. chris jansing is there. so, chris, with a welcome to you. what is the white house's response to this tragedy? >> well the president has been briefed, alex, he's been updated on developments. and a short time ago, the state department confirmed there were no passengers on the flight with

u.s. passports. but the national transportation safety board has offered to help. other countries are reaching out, as well. including malaysia where the parent company is based. and of course the u.s. was heavily involved you'll remember alex in the search for flight 370 which disappeared nine months ago and has never been found. the administration spent millions of dollars, a lot of resources on that. they sent two poseidon aircraft. the navy sent a supply ship with that pinger locater. what we don't know is whether the president has reached out personally. but back in april, he was the first u.s. president in nearly 50 years to visit malaysia. and at the time, he talked about the assistance we were giving which also included some investigative help from the fbi. that's another option. and after arriving here in hawaii, he played golf with the prime minister of malaysia who happens to be vacationing here. so there's this personal relationship. now, indonesia has, unfortunately, a lot of experience in search and rescue

sophisticated capability, which is important because of the complicated geographic terrain. but depending on how this search develops, there could be some american involvement. white house officials don't expect a further statement from the president today. however, if there's any formal requests for u.s. help, we'll keep you updated from here. >> for which we thank you in advance, chris jansing. appreciate it. well joining me now, aviation analyst who also served for 25 years as an airline captain for u.s. airways. and i want to make note that six of those years you spent flying the a-320 plane. the plane we're talking about in this incident and what are its vulnerabilities with regard to ice, hail and the like? >> the a-320 has been in service since the middle 1980s. it's a proven airplane.

enjoyed my time as the captain on the airplane. we flew it in all weather. it is a very maneuverable airplane. it has absolute state of the art electronics, both weather radar and systems on the airplane. so the pilots of an a-320 are prepared as anybody in the sky to be able to deal with inclement weather. and pilots professional pilots deal with thunderstorms and inclement weather regularly. it's part of the experience that you gain as a pilot. so the deviation requests are absolutely normal. the altitude the airplane service ceiling is 39,000 feet. then the computers onboard will tell you at a push of a button what altitude capability you have for the specific weight and temperature that you are. so if they requested 38,000 feet that they know that they can get there safely with the profit margins. so other than the fact that there was not a call to air

traffic, which says that whatever occurred to them occurred fairly quickly. everything else that i can see says that this was a normal flight up to the point where whatever occurred did. >> here's the part that i find confusing, john. because i'm a frequent flyer. and i can't tell you how many times i've been sitting in a plane and the pilot comes onboard and says we are anticipating rough weather coming up in about ten minutes, we'll ask you all to be in your seats. but once we put the seat belt signen o on, you're going to stay on. with the kind of technology how could they not have anticipated this what's being described as a column 50,000 feet in the air of these kinds of monsoon-like, you know, horrific storms? and just know much earlier to stay away from them if weather has played a cause here in this incident. >> you have to understand while there may be a few 50,000 foot

cells, there are a whole bunch of cells that will be much lower lower. and there are clusters so that a jet moves at about 8 miles a minute. and when you deviate around you deviate around those clusters. you do not fly through them. and this is exactly they have on board weather radar that shows the amount of precipitation which gives the pilots the ability to see areas that they want to avoid. it is highly likely. it's probably -- b probable that these pilots knew and had a plan of how to avoid this area of weather. and so what went wrong is something that we -- when we get to the flight data recorder when we get the cockpit voice recorder, we'll understand that. but onboard technology was such that it is all likelihood they knew the weather was there. and they knew enough to avoid it. and what went wrong from there, we'll have to wait and see. >> the situation being they

asked for a deviation in the flight plan three minutes later was the last sort of communication, whether it was a ping or something seen on radar with air traffic control. a minute after that it dropped off of the radar. so talk about what may have happened there. >> well i think first when you have people that are releasing information, they have varying degrees of technical expertise. we don't know exactly what they mean when they said it disappeared off of radar. does that mean that the secondary system that has the data block including the ground speed and altitude, is that what dropped? was it the primary return of the primary radar? is that what dropped? it has onboard a more sophisticated device known as adsb. and did that drop off? so there's some questions the investigators have. and those of us in the aviation safety business. we need to understand the exact

definition before you can draw any conclusions. because losing 36,000 38,000 feet in one minute is not likely. so there's a lot of questions here that we need to understand to make sure that we all are working on the same definitions. >> all right. john cox, we appreciate your insights, expertise and perspective. thank you very much. how search crews will use gps as they comb the oceans for signs of that missing jetliner.

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waterford. congratulations, guys. these are beautiful things. and these are only small representatives of what you've got going on with this ball. it's remarkable. >> absolutely. >> what is different about the design about the ball? >> this is a ten-year series. this year's the gift of fortitude. and it's something we all need. it's that pillar of strength that character, that determination, that grit to move on. in your daily lives and everything that happens all around. what it really does. we communicate the sentiments that gift every single year. and on time square, everybody stops for that moment in time. stopping bringing the people in your lives that you love into your surroundings and having that piece of crystal in your hand. that gorgeous design for the great wine, champagne, enjoying the moment. >> as a master artisan, when you're interpreting fortitude how does that translate from the concept, the description you gave through to the crystal? >> comes from the designers.

we have a core team of designers. we call waterford ireland the factory, the mother ship. we're still here strong global iconic, bigger and better than ever. and it becomes this beautiful design, this sentiment. >> the gift of fortitude and imagination, you talk about that. how long do these take to design and implement? >> we really start a whole year in advance. come january 1st, 2013. >> couple days off and that's it. >> not even. >> okay. >> a lot of thought put into it. we're so honored to be part of these great celebrations. this is really the pinnacle for us, the new year's eve celebration. so communicating, what we think is about the human spirit and the strength and the fortitude of it. we think it's a great way to share with the world. >> you're going to start

planning for this event, what maybe a week into january. it takes a minute or so for the ball to drop. >> it does. look at all that. it's extraordinary. what happens to all of the crystals afterwards? >> well we do replace about 10% of them. so the gift of imagination is on the ball right now. we'll put 288 of the panels on there. it's about 10% of them. and then the other panels go into the vault, so to speak. so we sort of save those. the last time we utilized the old panels was we put them in the 9/11 memorial museum. they go to special places we don't sell them we keep them they're historical pieces for the waterford crystal. >> you mentioned it. it's a company that's been in effect for 231 years. >> but even my background i'm a second generation craftsman. designed and made and you turn it into this irish gem that's used every day. and one of the things i remember, my mom always says step away from the waterford.

it's all about celebration, all about that moment. and everybody has a celebration coming up in the next number of weeks and months. why not have one to present. perfect. >> something you may have made for us. >> you keep it and pass it on. >> that's true. tom brennan, thank you very much and i appreciate your time as well, thank you so much. and you guys good luck and new year's resolutions. hope you've got a bunch of them. >> happy new year. >> thank you, to you, too. searching for the missing air asia plane, the technology crews are going to be using to do that next.

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53 past the hour with an update on this breaking news. the air asia plane with 162 people onboard remains missing. flight lost contact with ground control shortly after taking off on its way to singapore. both countries have launched a search and rescue operation. however, the air search has been suspended until daylight. joining me now, patrick tucker technology editor for the defense one website. patrick, with a welcome to you.

what is the next step in the search in terms of technology. what will they be using, of course with the mh-370. we heard so much about the blue fin unit that was able to go to great depths under water. this was traveling over the java sea. do expect that to be brought out for this, as well. >> they probably won't need to do a lot of deep undersea exploration to find this. we have a pretty good idea of about where the plane went down. what they might use is the aircraft communications addressing and reporting system. it's a machine on planes that actually transmits data to the ground. it's primarily used for maintenance. so it's something that ground crews use to understand what happened on the plane. in the case of mh-370 it was turned off. in this case it probably wasn't. so you could use that to help find this plane. and also once the cloud cover clears, you could use satellite data. because, again, we have an approximate understanding of about where this plane went and then you would use high definition satellite data or high resolution satellite data to see debris or pieces of the

plane in the water because you know about where you're looking. so it could be useful there. >> what about gps? i mean most of us know this as a navigational tool. you've got it in your cars or on a cell phone and the like. take us into the information if you're using global positioning. >> we understand it's something that helps us find our way around. maybe we're a little bit worried about the data it sends out. but the way it traditionally works is your receiver in your phone doesn't receive signals from the global positioning satellite network overhead. doesn't actually send any out. so an airplane pilot will use gps to locate the plane on a map map, but that information isn't typically broadcast to air traffic control. we still rely on radar, actually, which is a world war ii technology. we're trying to change that. one of your previous guests mentioned the broadcast system. and that can be very useful. the problem is that you have to have a lot of other routers and

sensors in place for that to work. they're building that in the gulf of mexico. it takes a gps signal off a plane, bounces it around to a buoy an oil rig and that helps air traffic control locate the plane in space there. there's not something like that between indonesia and singapore. >> how confident are you that technology can locate this plane in the next crucial 24 hours? >> oh, perhaps i shouldn't be, but i'm actually pretty confident this case is not going to play out like the mh-370 case. we have -- >> because the depths is that what it is? >> well, we know from pilot communication to ground control about where the pilot experienced the bad weather and how that might have affected the plane. and we also know when communication shut off shortly after that. so with mh-370 communication was lost and the plane continued to fly for hours and hours and

hours. and we don't think that's the case here. it's a much smaller search area. i think we're going to find it. >> let's hope you're right. thank you so much for that. that is a wrap everyone of the sunday edition of "weekends with alex witt." up next, "taking the hill," have yourselves a great day and a happy new year to all. did you get chips for the party? nope. (ding) cheese plate? cheese plate. no, i made something better. you used the oven? boom. pillsbury crescents. make the holidays pop. i take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn. because it

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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 to "taking the hill." in minutes, i'll tell you about a big day in afghanistan for the u.s. military. but first, let's go to alex witt for the latest breaking news on the missing jet liner. alex? >> thank you so much patrick, for that. well, everyone, we've been talking about it all morning, it's a missing air asia jet with 162 people onboard. flight 8501 lost contact with ground control shortly after taking off from indonesia. it was on its way from singapore. both have launched a joint search and rescue operation. however,