. . . . . this is "nightline." tonight, rescuers making new discoveries as the search expands for that missing air asia jet. victims, debris, whole pieces of luggage pulled from the watt earl as families mourn lost loved ones. what the wreckage reveals about what may have caused the disaster in the sky. plus contagion. with the flu spreading across the country, vulnerable children are falling victim to another deadly disease. tonight, how one virus left this little boy nearly paralyzed. we're there for his brave battle back. and -- free the nipple. from rihanna to miley cyrus and chelsea handler, why celebrities are standing up for a controversial cause close to their hearts. but first, the "nightline" five.

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offer ends january 2nd. good evening. tonight, that missing air asia plane yet to be found, but the expanding search is turning up

cluls s clues about what would have happened. abc b krbc's terry moran is on the ground in indonesia, where grieving families learned of the news. many still clinging to hope for closure. >> reporter: they had been praying for a miracle. families waiting with hope until live pictures of the wreckage of flight 8501 delivered the worst possible news. today, we found debris indonesia's search and rescue chief said. we confirm they are 100% parts of the air asia planes. families traumatized of bloated bodies of loved ones. their grief was overpowering. one after another fainted. medical teams doing their best to console the inconsolable. here, a woman is told that searchers have found debris and bodies. >> oh, they have?

i'm still hopeful for the miracle. >> reporter: at the airport, body bags were loaded up. the mystery disappearance of flight 8501 now a recovery effort. much of the wreckage believed to be at the bottom of the sea. so far, seven bodies have been found. four men and three women. one flight attendant still in uniform. none appear to be wearing life vests. >> so, there are a couple things that could be deduced from finding human remains with no life jackets on. one is that whatever happened happened very quickly. it was not a prepared ditching. or the other thing is the airplane might have come apart in midair and the wind blast from people falling through space would have taken whatever they had on their bolds off. >> reporter: the wreckage was discovered about six miles from the plane's last known location en route from indonesia to singapore. shapes floating in shallow waters about 100 feet deep. the debris field will offer clues to what happened on that fateful flight. if it is relatively small, that would suggest the jet liner was

mostly intact when it hit the water. a much water field could mean a breakups altitude and pieces scattered as they fell to the java sea. back on the tarmac investigators gathering every item. an oxygen tank. a blue suitcase. the wreckage of a tragedy. we don't know who it belongs to he says. it doesn't have a name. at the crisis center today, we saw first-hand how bodies will be identified. indonesian red cross workers sorting through fingerprints and other personal data of the passengers. they will help bring them home. this young woman was on the air asia plane and this will help you identify her. >> yes. >> reporter: several hours earlier, the indonesian president visited with family members. we all pray for all families to be given fortitude and strength in facing this tragedy, he said. and he vowed to complete the search by air or by sea. i have ordered the national search and rescue agency to

conduct a joint operation to find the plane as well as the passengers and the entire flight crew. the hope is that the locational of the debris will lead them to the all-important black boxes, filled with crucial data. they've got 27 days now before the batteries run out and the conditions have not been favorable. the challenges which we face today until this moment, he says in the evacuation area include the heightle of the waves. what happened to this plane is still a mystery. it started sunday morning. the jet takes off. at it soars to 32,000 feet the plane encounters severe turbulence and weather over the java sea halfway into its journey. the pilot radios in requesting to change its altitude to 38,000 feet. air traffic control tells him not to but he appears to climb anyway. then, air traffic control suddenly loses communication. and by 6:18 the plane was no longer visible on the rail dar, vanishing into thin air.

some are speculating heavy turbulence could have been the cause. >> if you look at the radar, there were num rouls other aircraft out there flying around that day in the general vicinity. it's not one of these things where the weather was so bad they shouldn't have gone. >> reporter: the last time turbulence brought down a plane was in 1966 when powerful winds ripped the tail fin off a british overseas airways aircraft. today, commercial airliners are designed to withstand one and a half times stronger. >> less than 10% of all mishalls occur in the inflight or cruise part of the flight. they were moving around the weather. nothing unusual, we see, of yet. >> reporter: air asia does have a good safety record. and the pilot was experienced. the type of plane, an airbus a-320, is a widely used model. a workhorse in the aviation world. over 11,000 of them have been ordered since its launch and its safety record is on par with other planes its size.

since 1998, there have been 18 accidents involving these types of planes. it's the same model from what's now known as the miracle on the hudson. in that 2009 incident the plane lost its engines after hitting a flock of geese. all on board survived. flight 8501 wasn't as lucky, and it capped a tragic year for air travel in southeast asia. the loss of the air asia plane follows the still unsolved disappearance of malaysia airlines flight 370 in march and the downs of malaysia airlines flight 17 in july over ukraine. sara's boyfriend phillip was on board flight 370. and she says she knows exactly what the families in indonesia are going through. >> it's the same thing that we went through. the only real differences here is that they've had a couple of answers within a few days period of time. where as we are just kind of still in the state of limbo. >> reporter: watching the search unfold on television, she says the families there have

something we may never get. >> we need closure. until we get some sort of proof, we must continue to hope. it's the only choice. >> reporter: it will be some time before we have all the answers to the air asia crash. after the black boxes and the fuselage are recovered. investigators will need to piece it all together. >> they'll bring in barges things that can pull up big pieces of metal. cranes that will pull up that wreckage and begin to lay it out in a pattern as it sits in the bottom of the ocean. >> reporter: but that process may take years, as it did in 1996, with a twa flight en route to rome crashed into the atlantic ocean. investigators pain stakingly reconstructed the destroyed plane for clues, concluding a probable cause of the accident four years later. back in indonesia, the recovery area is being combed over by 12 helicopters and 32 ships, includes the "uss sampson," deployed by the u.s. >> little comfort for the families still waiting for comfort. the air asia ceo promised to do

everything he can for the victim's families. >> i'm not running away from my obligations. the passengers were on my aircraft and i have to take responsibility for that. >> reporter: the airline plans to charter a flight to circle over the area where the plane lost contact so family members can pray for their loved ones there. that flight is expected to take off on wednesday. for "nightline," i'm terry moran in indonesia. >> our thanks to terry moran for that report. next, what you can do to protect your children from the mysterious virus that nearly paralyzed this little boy. and his miraculous journey to a hard-earned recovery. curling up in bed with a favorite book is nice. but i think women would rather curl up with their favorite man. but here's the thing: about half of men over 40 have some degree of erectile dysfunction. well, viagra helps guys with ed get and keep an erection. and remember, you only take it when you need it. ask your doctor if your heart

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tonight, the cdc has declared a flu epidemic but as hospitals scramble to contain the outbreak there's another disease putting children at risk, and it's deadly. doctors now taking emergency measures to control the terrify terrifying enterovirus. "nightline" anchor juju chang joins a brave 4-year-old who is fighting it with everything he's got. >> reporter: this year's flu season already an epidemic. alarming public health officials and perhaps shaping up to be deadlier than in years past. >> every year, you have to be concerned about the flu. some people say, it's just the flu, but people die from the flu. 15 children have already died this year from the flu. >> reporter: this year's flu vaccine, a mismatch according to officials, leaving near little everyone vulnerable to this season's strain. 22 states reporting a surge of

e.r. viments for flu symptoms. >> flu season is a really difficult time in a hospital. in the emergency room. you can get flooded with patients who come in some may just have the common cold. some are going to have the flu. >> reporter: this is the second round of problems for hospitals. just months ago, our cameras on the front lines at the university of michigan as they battle against another respiratory illness that targeted the most fragile. children. it's called enterovirus. >> how you doing? breathing feeling any better? let me take a listen. take some deep breaths for me. >> >> reporter: dr. marie mozan saw a nasty strain of the enterovirus sweeping the country that in extreme cases caused death. >> we added extra doctors and nurses every day on every shift. and we used or existing doctor staff, our faculty staff, said guys, we have to run an

enterovirus shift. >> reporter: before enterovirus struck, alan was a typical 4-year-old. goofy and playful earlier this year. but just after this night, alan caught a common virus, a fever, a nagging cough. but unlike countless others who recover easily, alan w0u7bd upound up in the hospital paralyzed over 80% of his body. unable to lift his head. >> he's able to stand up because he cannot do that right now. >> reporter: when we first metal land, his days were like this on a feeding tube because his throat muscles are still affected. theparalysis, a nightmare for his mom. >> he was screaming, help me, mom. i'm bawling. i don't know what to do. >> reporter: what's the hardest part been for you? >> seeing him in pain and not being able to move.

>> reporter: the team here at cs children's hospital believe a virus which caused alan's cough may also have caused his paralysis. it comes from the same virus family as polio. across the country, families are dealing with the aftermath of paralysis. clusters in california colorado, then rolling eastward. more recently in texas and fair vous southern states. michigan was hard-hit. >> we now have seven patients that we've seen present with some type of paralysis, either upper or lower extremity. >> reporter: doctors coping with this outbreak as they're trying to crack the mystery of how it attacks. >> as soon as the respiratory settles down, we started seeing children come in with this acute paralysis and people started to link the enterovirus with that. >> reporter: dr. marie lozon saw a spike of enterovirus and paralysis. she started putting the pieces together. >> i cannot speak to call sags.

i'm not saying the enterovirus brought about the paralysis, but you can see where the link came. >> reporter: but as disturbing as the growing number of paralyzed children enter roeovirus was, in a handful of cases, proved deadly. >> there have been cases of children having enterovirus and dying. that is true. but we have more children die every year from inflew when sae. >> reporter: dr. lozon says the enterovirus is now over. while it is impossible to predict the intensity of next season, she says make no mistake. it will return. doctors are still learning from kalgss they are treating months later. how much longer do they think it will take? >> they haven't really told me that. >> reporter: twice a day, alan gets physical therapy, where he's strapped to a gurney to retrain his muscles. his mom sails his feerms are as much out of frustration as pain. >> okay? we're going to count to five.

we're going to count to five and we'll be done. one, two, three, four, five. >> reporter: it's tough for a 4-year-old to understand why he can no longer play with his little brother. but amild the frustration and pain, there's a glimmer of hope. how much progress have you seen so far? >> well, he already is really able to move all of his extremities against gravity, so that's super good news. and he has a lot of head control now. he's actually starting to be able to sit on his own. >> reporter: and his dedicated medical team can't answer the ultimate question will he walk again? will he full little recover? do you see him running around you know gaining that kind of strength again? >> it's difficult to predict, for sure. i definitely think we'll get him moving again. we'll probably get him moving on his feet. but if he's running the same also his peers is not as positive about. >> reporter: though there's little known about ways to prevent enterovirus, dr. lozon

says, our best defense is common sense. how viral phonetic should we be right now? >> i think that a measure of common sense always makes sense. we have viral surges every year. and now enterovirus is just another of the viruses that we've seen. i think we cover our cough. we use good hand hygiene. you would never send your child to school feverish and coughing their brains out. if we do that we're going to get through this. >> reporter: vigilance is key. but rather than panic, she says we should guard against the ones we can protect against. after months of treatment and therapy, just before thanksgiving, a long awaited homecoming. being home for the holidays may be the best medicine. alan continues to show progress. a small miracle. alan's recovered enough muscle tone, he's starting to walk again. a few small steps for alan. one giant leap of determination. for "nightline," i'm juju chang in ann arbor, michigan.

next from the red carpet to her music videos rihanna can be counted on for red hot looks that fire up controversy. and now, more celebrities are joining the campaign to free the nipple. [ female announcer ] a 3d white smile has the power to captivate. that's why shakira uses... crest 3d white with whitelock technology, removing up to ninety percent of surface stains

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reyan that is always a stunner, but her barely there ensembles don't frequently fly on instagram, where men can expose their chest, but those of the fairer sex cannot.

now, celebrity crusaders are the demanding equality saying it's more about just the right to revail. here's abc's sara haines. >> reporter: it's the fight for the right to bare almost all. celebrities going viral by going topless. taking instagram to task for banning images of nude female breasts. miley cyrus and chelsea handler joining rihanna on the online breast liberation movement. using #freethenipple to protest what many are calling a double standard. topless men on instagram, no problem. topless women? no way. >> celebrities want attention. and they want to back a certain cause. and this particular issue marries the two perfectly. >> reporter: instagram's policy restricts some nude and partially nude photos. rihanna was so upset by what she

thought were booby trapped rules, she quit the site for months. famous nipple slips from nickyi minaj to jennifer lawrence were once seen as embarrassing. but now, it's all about making a statement. 2014 has been a year of going sheer. reyoon that made her nipples her number one accessory at the cfda awards. instagram pulled two of handler's photos. the site took it down but she posted another on less restricted twitter. perhaps her october tweet best sums up her take on the controversy. "taking this down is sexist. i have every right to prove i have a better body than putin." for "nightline," i'm sara haines in new york. >> looks like the ball is in

your court, instagram. and finally tonight, we're signing off for 2014 but make sure to tune in tomorrow night, for "new year's rockin' eve," beginning at 8:00 p.m. right here on abc. ryan seacrest will host the year's biggest stars including taylor swift. that's live in times square for a truly rocking celebration. thank you for watching abc news. tune into "good morning america" tomorrow and, as always, we're online at a b krbcnews.comabcnews.com. good night, america. [dramatic music] [cheers and applause] >> yo! yo! oh! oh! oh! oh! oh! hello, and welcome to millionaire! i'm terry crews. some of you might know me from brooklyn nine-nine but today it's all about millionaire! [cheers and applause] today's returning contestant

is living in his father-in-law's basement. he is only four questions away from $1 million, so i think it's time he found his way out. from babylon, new york please welcome bryan mcmullin! [cheers and applause] ahh! >> [laughs] >> we're color-coordinated today. i like this. >> that's how we do. >> i like this. well, listen. what would you do when you get to the $1 million, my man? >> first, i'm gonna hug you. [laughter] then i'm gonna hug my wife. [laughter] and then we're gonna go somewhere that's gonna have sand that's gonna have fruity drinks, that's gonna have umbrellas in them. and beyond that, i don't care. >> well, can i go too? >> you--of course. of course. the hug--of course. >> i'll come with you, man. >> i'll slip an airplane ticket right in your pocket. that's no problem. >> listen. you are now in round 2. you have banked $65,600.