crews searching for air airasia flight 8501 i shall working to recover red white black objects, spotted in the waters offer bornio islands appears to be a life jacket was also seen. items most likely debris from the plane search teams say. indonesian officials are also reporting they've spotted victims in the water. aircraft from several countries are taking part in the aerial search including australia. >> australia has sent two to an area around the island, as requested by the indonesian authorities. >> in the u.s., now part of the effort, the uss sam many son is joining a growing number of ships, planes, and helicopters involved in the mission, which has been expanded to cover land. the missing plane

air disasters. >> thank you very much. new information about the passengers and crew aboard flight 8501 airasia says the pilot had more thanexperience 6,000 on the air bus 8320. the first officer had 3,000 flying hours with the airlines. of the 162 people on board 137 were adults 17 children and one baby. also on board two pilots four cabin crew and an engineer. moat were indonesian. three from south korea one each from the united kingdom, france, malaysia and singapore. no americans were on board that flight. >>> lots of speculation as to what happened on board airasia flight 8501. severe violent weather may be to blame. we have the latest on the investigation. kelly, good morning. >> good morning to you as well. what you are talking about is right as the search for air yashasia flight 8501 is weather is a factor in the disappearance. shortly after leaving they alerted air traffic control ep wanted to climb higher in an altitude due to encountering intense storms. reports from air traffic control initially gave pilots permission to climb but reversed the decision due to other air traffic in the vicinity. minutes later the

crews searching for air airasia flight 8501 i shall working to recover red white black objects, spotted in the waters offer bornio islands appears to be a life jacket was also seen. items most likely debris from the plane search teams say. indonesian officials are also reporting they've spotted victims in the water. aircraft from several countries are taking part in the aerial search including australia. >> australia has sent two to an area around the island, as requested by the indonesian authorities. >> in the u.s., now part of the effort, the uss sam many son is joining a growing number of ships, planes, and helicopters involved in the mission, which has been expanded to cover land. the missing plane with 162 people on board left indonesia sunday morning headed to sing a poor. it vanished shortly after the plane's captain requested to fly at higher altitude because of bad weather. the request was denied because of heavy air traffic. in addition to weather investigators will look at whether the plane was going too slow. mechanical fame your, and how the pilots may have reacted to an e

air jet in new york with 155 passengers and crew on board. all survived. the captain of the airasiane likely had about the same skill set based on his experience according to commercial pilot and author. >> captain sullenberger would say he would have been just as xenl to perform the miracle on the hudson. >> what we don't sng what happened in the cockpit before the plane went off radar. the includes include the prengs of bad weather in the area and the request to increase altitude radioed to air traffic control which was denied because of additional air traffic close by. what the captain may have done with that information is still an open question. for example, whether the pilot may have tried to disregard the controller's guidance. >> what disturbs me is that did he begin a climb without a clearance from air traffic control? that might be indicative of an emergency problem developing. >> there was also no known communication before it went off radar. not necessarily a radio malfunction. >> we're trained very, very early on to i have a great and navigate and communicate being the

this is the trajectory that we were looking at for flight 8501 asia air -- airasia. fine but we did see in some of the satellite images these huge clusters of thunderstorms that pilots would certainly be very wary of. they would see it in their cockpit on the cockpit radar and would know to avoid that and, dana pilots are trained to know how to land or take off during monsoon but they were apartment cruise altitude looking to somehow get around these towering thunderstorms at around 50,000 feet. >> karen, so fascinating. thank you. i want to pick up on some of what you were reporting on go back to our aviation expert julian gray who is joining us on skype and mary schiavo. julian let me start with you. you heard karen talking about turbulence and the fact that these planes are built to with stand turbulence. anybody who has been on a plane and been in turbulence knows it's very scary. how much is a plane really built to with stand and how much are these pilots trained to deal with this kind of weather? >> well the idea is to not go through a storm but as you said to

air. airasia 8501 was carrying enough fuel for three hours of flight.hortly before disappearing, the pilot asked if he could ascend to 38,000 feet. that request was denied. the a320 is certified to fly up to 39,000 feet. its absolute limit is 42,000 feet. weight, temperature and fuel all play a role in how high the plane can fly safely. in its history, 16 have crashed, nine were deadly, resulting in 656 deaths on the planes or on the ground. the first crash, shortly after the plane started service in 1988. air france flight skimmed the top of frees. the fly by wire system and pilot error were the cause. in 2007, tam airlines crashed in sao paulo. 187 passengers and crew died, plus 12 on the ground. the deadliest crash for an a320, cause, likely mechanical error or pilot error. and who could forget 1549's ditching. on takeoff, the plane collided with a flock of geese. both engines failed. captain sully sullenberger successfully landed the plane on the hudson river. all aboard survived. >>> this latest airline mystery has also taken a toll on the families

an official says the indonesian air force has spotted debris that may be related to the missing airasia flight 8501. search aircraft are focusing on the area in the eastern java sea where the debris was spotted. and family members have been summoned to a search and rescue head quarters to meet with officials. >>> a top kremlin critic and his brother have been found guilty of fraud. a russian court gave him a suspended sentence. both men have maintained their innocence and they called the charges politically motivated. protests against the verdict are expected later today in moscow. >>> we're learning more about one of the pilots of that missing airasia flight. as joe johns reports, he was a former military pilot before shifting to commercial aviation. >> reporter: as is common in indonesia, he's known by only one name iriyanto. pictures on facebook confirm one of his known hobbies. he is a fan of motorcycles. reports suggest he is a member of a motorcycle club. his daughter posted a picture of him on social media with this message, saying dad, please come back. i still need you. the fam

airasia's ceo says the pilot has logged more than 20,000 hours in the air. so he's an experienced pilot. the company is updating mily members about the search efforts. tori? >> we'll continue to update it as well. thank you, katie. >>> some people who were scheduled to fly on the now- missing airasia plane are feeling thankful they missed the flight. 26 people who bought tickets did not board the plane. a family of 10 all traveling together says they were not aware of the flight's departure time had been moved up two hours. by the time they got to the airport, the plane left and they were negotiating with the airline for refunds when the news came in the plane was missing. >> wow. >>> 8:10. well, the bay area's recent rains are making north bay transit officials take another plan at the plans for the smart train. work on the rail transit project has been postponed. it was supposed to start in san rafael but the heavy rains washed out the rail bid where the tracks are supposed to go. now officials are working on fixing that problem and also preventing more st

quote my heart is filled with sadness for all of the families involved, in qz85016789 on behalf of air airasiaexpress how sorry i am. >> good morning,. >> philadelphia police are finding clues into what caused fatal crash in nicetown. >> impact killed a driver, injured three passengers, "eyewitness news" reporter jan carabeo joins us now from the scene with the latest information. jan, good morning. >> judge you can see from this deadly crash the death this car took, took out telephone pole ended up down an embankment. peco crews have since arrived back on the scene they'll have to replace that utility pole you see there in the road. and if you take a look at the video, you can see what the scene look like late last night, early in morning, as investigators remained on the scene trying to determine a cause of this crash. that horn, still sounding, after the car was crushed police responded to the one car accident just after 10:30 monday night they say this car was traveling north on route one, took the northbound roberts avenue exit, then struck and broke a telephone pole, and then kept ongoin

air traffic controllers. right now there is a crisis center set up. and the search and rescue operation is under way. and now this indonesia airasiarrive at 8:30 hours local time from surabaya. it lost contact with jakarta air traffic control, as i said, at 0724 hours local time sunday. now, singapore air traffic control was informed of the loss of contact at 0754 hours by jakarta air traffic control. these are the new details that i was just referencing. so the plane lost contact with air traffic control at 0724 a.m. the authorities were alerted at 7:54 a.m. so it took a matter of some 30 minutes. the indonesia air information region when contact was lost was more than 200 southeast of the singapore jakarta boundary. some details that were just put out for me. we haven't had time to go through them ourselves to actually make some sense of it. richard, were you listening to that information that was just coming in to us which i'll share with our viewers in real time? 7:24 it lost local -- it lost contact local time. 7:54 before singapore air authorities realized. how do you understand that? >> well, these kinds -- you're talking a

air. airasia 8501 was carrying more than 18,000 pounds of fuel when it departed enough for about 3 1/2 hoursefore disappearing the pilot asked air traffic control if he could ascend to 38,000 feet. that request was denied. the a320 is certified to fly up to 39,000 feet. its absolute limit is 42,000 feet. weight temperature, weather, and fuel all play a role in how high the plane can fly safely. in its history, 16 a320 planes have crashed. nine of those crashes were deadly resulting in 656 deaths on the planes or on the ground. the first crash, shortly after the plane started service in 1988. air france flight 296 skimmed the top of trees during an air show demonstration flight. the cause? the fly by wire sxichl pilotystem and pilot error. in 2007 ten crashed on landing in sao paolo brazil. a reverse thruster had been deactivated. the plane unable to stop crashed into a cargo terminal. 187 passengers and crew died plus 12 on the ground. the deadliest crash for an a320. cause, likely pilot error or mechanical failure. and who could forget the 2009 ditching of us airways flight 1549? on takeoff

air airasia ceo comforting them.hey obviously didn't have much hope the families would survive this. but to see it on a screen without warning is a completely different story so now indonesian tv is being criticized. the worst has been done. that's how you would find out the worst news of probably your life. >> katie, to be clear, it was the indonesia government conducting the press conference not the airline, correct? >> reporter: no, the airline was not conducting the press conference no. it was the indonesian government giving an update to reporters and loved ones watching from a screen in another room and that's where they saw the images of these bodies. so it's better the airline has been trying to keep them comforted and they're actually offering a charter flight tomorrow to circle around the islands, the last known location of the plane so families can pray for their lost loved ones. of course it has not been confirmed officially this is the plane. they say they're 95% sure they found wreckage and bodies. they

the crash of airasia is renewing questions about air safety in southeast asia. the region has seen five major crashes this year alone. in indonesia since 2010 there have been 13 serious incidents involving passenger planes. four of those resulted in-depth. until now airasia has had no fatalities but on monday indonesian officials said that they would look for ways to improve safety. >> we'll review airasia indonesia to make sure that it's performance could be better in the future. >> since 2010 the number of passengers flying each year in the asia pacific region has jumped to 1 billion with more passengers traveling by air than europe and north america combined. the region now has an an estimated 1600 jets filling the skies and 1600 more are on order. that means each jet needs ten trained pilots. but there are "r" not enough local pilots so they're hiring abroad. a search for pilot job in asia yields 400 response. >> there is increased infrastructure to handle the increased air traffic. some airports don't have enough equipment to determine wind speed and directi

the fourth plane in asia major air disaster that we're reporting about, two malaysia airliners, the transasia airliner and now airasia. >> we'll wrap it up with you, will sense ofince you've covered this story and the other air disasters. what are the key things that people will be looking for and how airasia handles this early on from how mh 370 botched it early on? >> reporter: if there's any lesson learned from mh 370, and you have to give malaysian airlines credit for it the way they handled flight 17. it was much different. but the key for families in this time is transparency. even though frankly, the airline, the government they're not going to have all the answers right now. they're still searching. they don't know what happened. they haven't found the flight data recorders. but what they can do is set up a crisis center, a line of communication with the families. it makes me happy to hear that they have moved the families in the airport away from the media. because frankly, as i saw in kuala lumpur in mh 370, when you have a bunk of cameras and reporters swarming around people who are in one of the most diff

it's almost impossible to imagine the agony for relatives of those on board airasia air flight 8501. the agonizing wait for crews to recover the bodies of their loved ones. cnn's andrew stevens is at the airport in surabaya, indonesia. you've been covering this from the beginning. you've seen the grief that family members are going through. are they getting all of the answers that they need? are they being kept updated in a timely manner? >> reporter: they've being kept updated as much as they can be. but it is an anguished wait for them because at the moment, the weather conditions are so bad that they can't actually continue to bring bodies out. so at the moment only seven bodies have officially been brought from the debris field. and they are still searching for the main the primary fuselage where the plane went down. most of it they think now intact. and that grim scene about 40 meters under the water the fuselage of the plane with people still strapped that theiro their seats inside. the weather not playing its part. so after the shocking news that the plane had indeed crashed i

>> that's right, julia, like airasia, air france 447 and pokovo flight ---both disappeareddisappear edaltitude. just 10% of the flights in the past deck -- what may have happened to airasia is flight 612, that crashed in eastern ukraine in 2006. just like 8501 flight 612 was cruising at 35,000 feet when pilots attempted to climb over storm clouds that extended as high as 50 000 feet. investigators say the plane hit severe turbulence while trying to climb, pushing the plane up so fast, forcing it into a deep stall, causing it to crash killing all on board. air france flight 447 crashed killing all on board. the pito tubes were clogged with ice at high altitude during severe thunderstorms. those are just six major crashes in the past decade due to weather. >> and is so brian, what role does pilot error have or has it played in these crashes? >> well in both the air france and pokovo flights, investigators found the pilots weren't trained a cattily enough to maneuver the plane manually in those high altitude conditions. >> oftentimes when a pilot is trying to get out of a storm, they're r

. >>> the search teams looking for the missing airasia air passenger plane say they have spotted the first potential signs of wreckage. an indonesian helicopter has seen two oily spots in the search area and an australian search plane has spotted objects hundreds of miles away but it is still too early to know whether either sighting is connected to the missing aircraft. the search is centered here in the java sea, that's off the coast of sumatra. the plane's last known position. and these boxes that you can see here is the total search area divided into several sections. the plane was flying from surabaya airport in indonesia to singapore. it's a flight which should have taken just two hours. in the last hour, indonesia's vice president gave us this update. >> there are certain ship operations in the area and 50 airplane and helicopter operations. of course in the sea, especially -- instructions for all our people to do the best and find the planes and the passenger, of course. >> the indonesian authorities have held some briefings for those who had relatives or friends on flight 85

gerald tan has the latest >>> from the air and at sea, an intense search for mying flight airasia qz8501. the air bus a 320 was carrying 162 passengers and crew from the indonesian city to singapore. 32 minutes after takeoff it lost communication with air traffic control. >> i hoped for a miracle, may god save them all. i should have been with them. i cancelled two weeks ago as i had something to do i had two on board, five family members. >> those with relatives have been demanding answers. indonesia's disasters management authorities set up a crisis center at the airport as offers of help from foreign countries pour in. >> translation: the national search and rescue agency the air force and navy have orders we have deployed the fullest extent of resources to find the missing aircraft. >> reporter: there's little information. the plane lost contact as it flew over the java sea, the area was cloudy. airasia said the pilot requested to change course because of bad weather. this is the first major incident for the low-cost carrier whose parent company in malaysia has significant presence a

now we have a fox news alert as we learn the air search for the airplane packed with people missing is suspended. some boats are still in the water. airasia01 lost contact en route froms rabaya to singapore. what is the latest, david? >> reporter: good morning to you. as you said, the air search for the missing plane has been suspended because of bad weather here in southeast asia. the international authorities say some boats are still out looking for it though. now there have been some heavy rains pummeling the region in vent days causing heavy flooding in neighboring malaysia. indonesian air traffic control lost contact with the plane about 13 hours ago now. the airasia flight was on its way from surabaya to singapore with 162 passengers and crew on board. the airasia 320 was and hour into its flight when it disappeared prom the screen. they have been searching the area of the java sea before the search was suspended because of the poor weather. airasia says flight 8501 asked for a diversion in its path due to bad weather. the pilot asked for permission to climb to 38,000 people to avoid thick cloud. no distress call is reported to have

. >> they are the victims of the crash airasia flight that was on its way from indonesia to sing porp. air -- singapore. airasia confirmed the bodies and debris are indeed from the missing jet. families sadly of the passengers are watching live on television as recovery crews are being lowered from helicopters to try to get the bodies. there is also debris all over the area and they see a shadow on the sea floor and they believe that is the plane's fuselage. the sea in that area is only 200 feet deep which means recovery operations should be fairly standard. 162 people were on board ed flight. >>> attorneys for boston bombing suspect joe tsarnaev have once again asked a judge to delay his trial. lawyers say they need more time to prepare for the death penalty case. jury selection is scheduled to begin on monday. >>> congressman michael grimm announced overnight leresign from office come january. grimm was charged in april for hiding more than $1 million in revenue from the restaurant he owned before he ran for congress. his announcement comes a week after he pled guilty to one count of tax

right now the search from the air is suspended for the missing airasia flight because of darkness. it's nighttime in the search zone. the plane disappeared with 162 people onboard. it took off from indonesia's surabaya airport and was heading to singapore. nbc 10's matt delucia is following this morning's developments and is live in the digital operations center. what's the airline saying this morning? >> officials and the airline say they are very concerned right now. it has been more than 12 hours since airasia flight 8501 went missing, and hundreds of rescuers have been involved in the search efforts so far. take a look here. we have a live picture from the singapore airport. this is where families have been gathering all night and all morning, waiting for updates from authorities. airasia says the flight lost contact with air traffic control just before 7:30 last night, eastern time. among the 162 people onboard, there are 155 passengers none of whom we're told are americans. this plane is an air bus a-320. the pilot had asked to change course due to bad weather. officials say

still, airasia's flight drawing comparisons to the 2009 air france disaster that plunged into the atlantic after critical equipment iced up in a severe storm. and a flight earlier this summer. planes are designed to withstand extreatment elements like lightning strikes. they are more ruggedly built. the 777 wing estimated 23 feet. and planes that fly eight miles a minute have radar that can track storms hundreds of miles ahead giving pilots time to plan a detour. >> in the very rare case where someone does enter a thunderstorm the biggest issue is hail because of the damage it can cause to the leading edges of the wing the windshield and to the engines. >> reporter: while it's definitely unsettling when you're flying through rough weather, air safety experts insist flying is still the safest way to travel with more than 3.3 billion flying on 38 million flights worldwide. >> we're joined by greg fife a former ntsb investigator. you saw him a moment ago in katy tur's report. i'm going to ask you to put on your pilot's hat. let's look at a typical aircraft weather radar display looking at sto

unlike mh-370 which flew undetected for hours, air traffic control immediately noticed when this flight went missing. airasia had been upgrading satellite tracking systems, but this particular plane was not yet modified. >> this aircraft will be found, it's just going to take some time. >> reporter: now there are more concerns about the weather. it's monsoon season in southeast asia and rain is expected for the next few days. while anguished relatives wait in singapore, the head of the indonesian search effort is preparing people for the worst. our evaluation of the coordinates that we received suggested it is under water, so our presumption is now that the aircraft is under the sea, he told reporters. tonight, more questions than answers and hope for anything but another airline tragedy. as for those other flights that landed safely, investigators want to talk to those pilots to see if they have any insight here. we can also confirm that the u.s. is sending the u.s.s. sampson, a destroyer currently in the south china sea. with its help, lester, this will be the fifth country now combing the java sea for thi

indonesia rescue officials now believe they know what happened to that missing air flight airasia flight. they say based on the information they have, they presume the plane crashed into the java sea. so far search efforts have turned up no sign of debris or wreckage. indonesia has more than a dozen ships, planes and helicopters scouring the area it's believed to have gone down. they're also getting assistance from other countries. there was rough weather when the flight took off from indonesia to singapore. the flight crew asked for permission to increase altitude to avoid storms but no distress signal was ever received from the plane. family members of the 162 people on board the plane have been gathering at airports in both indonesia and singapore waiting for word on their loved ones. airasia had vowed to provide them with the latest information as quickly as possible. we'll continue to follow the story on msnbc. right now it's back to our programming. >>> due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >>> when they see us wearing this uniform, plus the shotgun, they know

the air and see search has been focusing on an area about halfway into the flight of the airasia jet sunday morning local time when it lost contact with indonesia air krafic control. uss samson joins a search effort today it's equipped with sewn another devices that can scan under water and hadz two helicopters. many families waiting broke down in tears on reports that the wreckage has been cited and airasia ceo is on his way to help the families in response to the citing of debris he tweeted words can't express how sorry i am. >> michael grim stipping down one week after admit to go tax evasion. after much thought and prayer i have made the very difficult decision to step down from congress effective january 5th. this is a turnaround from last week when grimm said last week he had no plans to leave his post representing new york's 13th district. under a plie agreement he could face up to three years in fez federal prison. p sentencing set for january 8th. >>> this after a newly released autopsy reveals an unarmed man was shot by police three times. he was killed august 11th during a

of course, we will be following and watching for developments regarding this missing airasia plane, on airand online at nbc10.com. live in the digital operations center i'm matt delucia, nbc 10 news. >> the disappearance of the airasia plane comes nearly ten months after a malaysia airlines jet disappeared. the search continues for that jet, but so far, investigators have not found any wreckage. officials believe that that plane crashed somewhere in the indian ocean. some say the disappearance of that malaysia airlines jet is one of modern aviation's most perplexing mysteries. >>> this weekend back in the u.s. thousands of police officers including members of law enforcement from pennsylvania new jersey and delaware, gave a final salute to one of the two nypd officers killed in the ambush in brooklyn. a gunman shot officer rafael ramos and his partner wenjian liu while they sat in their patrol car on december 20th. the gunman whom police say was seriously troubled, then killed himself. yesterday, beat cops, park rangers, jail guards, and state troopers from coast to coast gathered at a chu

overnight, audio transmissions from airasia 8501's cockpit to air traffic control surfacing providingingapore but would never arrive. and the task also is before these family members to identify now their loved ones. they're already being asked by police if they can provide documentation, photos michaela anything even something which could have a dna sample on it just so they could match it with people on that plane. i must say, though at this stage, michaela we can't completely rule out the fact that there may be a miracle in 8501 there may be a survivor. it is ohiohighly unlikely given the fact it was 40 hours. that was a big impact, that plane crashed into the sea by all aviation expert accounts but it is not beyond the realm of possibility and some people may still be hoping for that miracle. >> i'm sure there are family members that are clinging to fate and hope. andrew thank you so much for that. the relatives of those 162 passengers and crew aboard that doomed flight left with heartbreak grief and agony this morning. family members fainting screaming, crying once they realized

even before the airasia jet went missing, 762 people lost their lives in fatal air disasters. 2014 wille a record number of low crashes, seven despite the nature of this year's disasters, eight if airasia confirmed to gone down. in 2005, there were 24. >> laura engle thanks very much. jon? jon: 2014 a very big year for news coverage from the midterm elections in this country to international stories like the fight against ebola and isis. so what did the media get right and wrong in the past year? joining us now with their scorecards, a look back at the biggest stories alan colmes host of "the alan colmes show" and tammy bruce radio talk show host and fox news contributor. welcome to both of you. hard to believe we're at the end of 2014 already. give us your media hits and miss. >> not enough coverage of the kardashians. i think we needed more of that. don't get enough front covers of tabloids. how about the fact that the afghanistan war ended over the weekend and almost nobody talking about it, with a yawn after 13 years of the war is literally declared over at least combat operations.

indonesian search and rescue planes have been looking in an area of the java sea before the air search was suspended. airasia said earlier flight xz8501 had requested what it described as a deviation from the flight path due to bad weather. indonesia's transport ministry says the pilot asked permission to climb to 28,000 feet to avoid a crowd. the crew did not issue a distress call. friends and relatives went to both airports for news on the plane. the airline which has its headquarters in malaysia has never lost a plane before but the national carrier malaysia airlines has lost two this year, mh370 which just disappeared and mh17 over ukraine. of course, it is still dark here but as i said, at first light hopefully those planes will be able to go back into the skies at first light and resume is the search. >>> just before airasia flight 8501 lost communication officials say one of the pilots asked for permission to go to a higher altitude because of the bad weather. joining me now is former u.s. deputy assistant secretary of transportation oliver mcgee. oliver, thanks for coming in. whether on weather obvio

. >> there's some disconcerting similarities between the malaysian air flight and airasia. malaysian airlines disappeared within an hour. the airasia flight disappeared less than an hour after leaving surabaya. neither plane sent a diskress call, but in the case of the malaysian airliner it was a clear night. the passengers and crew of airasia 8501 were experiencing very bad weather. the search was pressed in the south china sea for a better part of a week. >> the breaking news here on cnn -- >> cnn broke the news barely 48 hours after the plane had gone missing that malaysia's own military radar showed it was gone from that area within an hour of takeoff. the government had hesitated. critical information was withheld. malaysia airlines didn't tell families flight 370 was even missing until the time it was supposed to be arriving in beijing, many hours after it vanished. families felt deceived. many accused malaysian authorities of a coverup. conspiracy theories exploded on the internet even as officials were belatedly trying to set the record straight because whether coul

air say. >> >>cbkr -- airasia 8501. >> what that to be done to stop the spread of the flu. >>> a taxi driver addison road metro station to capitolÑ heights. two hours later he was found dead in the cab. the crime has a lot of taxi drivers on edge. darcy spencer has reaction from other long-time drivers about the dangers of the job. >> reporter: spoke to a man who has been driving a taxi forcxgy 51 years. the shooting happened right down the streetsh from where he lives and some family members were concerned he had been shot. >> been doing this for 51 years? >> right. >> reporter: never get scared? >> no. >> reporter:e is 80 years old and driving a cab for decades. a cabbie shot and killed just down the street. >> i'm blessed it wasn't me. >> reporter: i fact he got calls from h

indonesia air traffic control lost contact with the plane about 15 hours ago. the airasia flight was on its way from surabaya in indonesia to singapore. had had 62 passengers and crew onboard. the vast majority of those onboard were indonesian. the airbus was two hours into the three-hour journey into singapore when it disappeared from radar screens. indonesia search and rescue planes have been searching an area of the java sea before the search was suspended. airasia said earlier that flight qz8501 asked what it described as a deviation from the flight path due to bad weather and indonesia's transport ministry reports the pilot asked permission to climb to 28,000 feet to avoid the clouds. anxious relatives and friends have gathered at the airport waiting for news on the plane. the budget airline has never lost a plane before. but the national carrier malaysia airlines has lost two this year. mh-370 disappeared and mh-17 over ukraine. it only just got dark here but weather permitting the search teams will be out again at first light monday local time. back to you. >> all r

recovered in the sea search area about 700 miles from where the plane lost contact with air traffic controller airasia senior foreign affairs correspondent joins us with the very latest. >> another crucial day of searching for this aircraft. so far after two days there is no sign of airasia flight 8501. that airplane took off from indonesia airport sunday morning bound for singapore. among the 152 on board, mostly indonesian but other nationalities as well. the pilot asked to fly higher to get around bad weather. it might have made the difference. shortly after that, radio and greater contact was lost. authorities now believe the plane is lying on the bottom of the sea in that region. dozens of ships are coming from several countries and checking out some things they are finding like an oil slick debris. authorities also say it is too early to tell what brought the plane down. air asia has a good safety record. that is why nothing is being rolled out. technical fault, maybe even foul play. no distress signal and other planes were in the area when it went down. little bit suspicious. there are no survi

air controllers lost contact with airasia flight 8501 about 30 hours ago now. 162 passengers and crew on board. let's go now to paula hancocks. she joins us from indonesia where some of the searches are being launched from. and what are you being told about how it's going to be conducted? >> caller: well just in the last half hour we've seen one of the indonesian helicopters take off. this airport here is really where some of the military and search and rescue helicopters are coming to refuel. so it's becoming a staging area. this island north of the capital, jakarta. and it's the island that is believed to be the closest to where the airline lost contact with the officials. so it's believed to be close to where this airline could be at this point. now obviously, the pilots on board are desperately trying to find any sign of this plane. one of them did tell me that they simply didn't really know if they were looking in the right place. in the moment they're heading north-northwest of here towards singapore which is where this aircraft was heading to when it went missing. the most impo

airasia has confirmed that debris found in the java sea is from flight 8501. search crews have also recovered three bodies. 162 people were on board the plane when it lost contact with air traffic control early sunday. here are the latest headlines. airasia officials say the focus now is on the recovery effort. the search area is about six miles from the plane's last known location. analysts say finding the cockpit voice and data recorders, the so-called black boxes, is key to trying to figure out what went wrong. a u.s. navy ship has arrived in the search area. "the uss sampson" was dispatched following a request from the indonesian government. the pentagon says another ship "the uss ft. worth" is also getting ready to deploy. the discovery of debris and bodies is devastating news for the families of the passengers and crew. while watching a live news conference on television relatives saw a body among the wreckage. one woman had to be carried away on a stretcher. hospitals in indonesia are preparing to help identify the bodies being recovered from flight 8501. in the meantime divers and ships equipped with sonar are being sent to the area where the debris was located.

veronica pedrosa as more. >> reporter: from the air and at sea an intense search for missing flight airasia qz8501. the airbus a320 was carrying 162 passengers and crew from the indonesian city of surabaya to singapore. 42 minutes after takeoff the aircraft lost communications with air traffic control. >> i hope for a miracle, may god save them all. i should have been with them i cancelled two weeks ago as i had something to do. i have two friend on board with five family members. >> those with relatives on board have been demanding answers. >> the weather conditions were not good. we don't want to speculate. it may have been more. there was storm clouds and the pilot made a request to change the altitude. that is as far as we know. we don't want to speculate on the weather if it was a contributor. we don't know. let's find the aircraft and do the proper investigation. >> indonesia's disaster management area set up. offers of help from foreign countries poured in. there's little information. the plane lost contact. the area was cloudy. airasia said the pilot requested to change course becau

airasia. the eu has banned all but five of indonesia's airlines. i'm wondering if there's concern that the demand for air travel in indonesia has exceeded the capability airasia accepted perhaps from this. >> indonesia is a wealthy country. last year, their gdp surpassed australia. i remember when i was defense minister minister. indonesia's own gdp has passed australia's. their economic growth is rapid. with it the demand for the sorts of services that tourism opportunities provide. the air links now between the islands is transforming the internals of indonesia. >> but is the government and the regulation is it keeping up with the demand? >> well i have no reason to think that it's not. >> the indonesians are a serious people and they operate a serious government. it's a democratic government now. so it's a government that's constantly being tested. if you're making a mess of your administration there are a lot of people in power who will eat you alive. so there's a pretty -- they have some strength. >> this isn't malaysia. this is a more advanced more -- >> no no no malaysia's advanced. >> that's why

in the aftermath of the malaysia air disappearance this year airasia wants to get it right. >> the worst feeling one could have. we stay strong for the families to ensure we could look after them even after this incident. >> reporter: among the other assets the u.s. is offering indonesia what are called pinger locators, they could help find the black boxes the data recorders that are installed in the plane, and they could help solve the mystery of this crash and ensure a bit more the safety of future air travelers, lou? lou: greg, thank you greg palkot from london. >>> in this country turning to the obama administration and left wing assault on law enforcement, new york city mayor bill de blasio today met with new york police department and union leaders behind closed doors. their face-to-face meeting cams at largest and most diverse police department is bracing for anti-cop protesters. they plan to storm the times square new year's eve celebration tomorrow night. fox news correspondent david lee miller with the latest for us. >> reporter: new york city mayor bill de blasio met with the

. >>> the air search for missing airasia plane called off because of the weather. dive teams are still searching the water searchers have not found the fuselage in the java sea. prince george's county police investigating a murder in capitol heights. a man was found shot to death in a cab. >>> chilly high temperatures in the upper 30s. a little bit breezy at times. for tomorrow similar. plenty of sun. a little bit breezy once again. and a high temperature of 42. best chance of rain late on saturday. melissa, what's the latest? >> volume nice and light. indian head. we have a crash slowing things down. th closure in waldorf shut down totally. alternate is crain highway. >>> thank you for starting your morning with us. last show of 2014. >> woo-hoo! >> okay. we want tew year. if you're headed out tonight, please be safe. >>> good morning. breaking news. officials believe they've located the wreckage of that air asia passenger jet on the bottom of the ocean floor. this as the first bodies arrive from the crash site. and new questions arise about the plane's final mome

vanished into thin air. 162 people mostly indonesians, all gone. airasiat of malaysia has had a good safety record and the pilot was experienced. >> 13 years. >> reporter: of course the harrowing question remains. how could something like this happen? >> a bomb could go off, you could end up flying into a thunderstorm. until we find something of the airplane and know where to look for the black boxes it's just a puzzle. >> reporter: many are calling for realtime gps monitoring and the international regulatory commission is studying the idea. but monitoring a plane miles in the air is much more difficult than tracking a cell phone. >> we need to look for other days to do it. one of those ways is satellite so we always have an idea in relative terms where an aircraft might be anywhere in the world. >> reporter: all of this is eerily similar to the malaysia airlines flight 370 which went down in march. but there are marked differences between the cases of flight 370 and this one. >> both have disappeared but they disappeared in very different places very diff

indonesian air transport authority holding a news conference and they were updating the efforts to find this missing plane. family and friends have been waiting for answers at the airport in singapore. airasia says flight 8501 lost contact with air traffic control just before 7:30 last night eastern time. among the 162 people onboard, there are 155 passengers none of whom we're told are americans. the plane is an air bus a-320. the last communication was over the java sea, and there was no distress signal. the owner of airasia also just tweeted earlier for everyone to maintain optimism and positive thinking. as we mentioned, the search has been suspended for the night, as it is about 7:30 p.m. in that region. of course, we will keep you up to date on any new developments. live in the digital operations center i'm matt delucia nbc 10 news. >>> the disappearance of the airasia plane comes nearly ten months after a malaysia airlines jet disappeared. the search continues for that jet, but so far, investigators are not found any wreckage. officials believe that that jet crashed somewhere in the indian ocean. some say that disappearance of the malaysia airlines jet is one of modern aviation's mos

air crash. how has the airasia crash impacted you? >> yeah.ave unfortunately full knowledge of what many of these people are going through. what everyone affected by this crash is going through. there is literally an unspeakable experience. there simply are no words. the fact that bodies have been found as traumatic as that is, will in the long run be a good thing because what's most difficult -- our crash occurred 60 miles off nantucket and it was many months before any fragments or possessions of my father and stepmother were recovered. it's helpful to have something to bury. that's what enables you to move on. i think right now there's a more urgent aspect to this situation for passenger families and that has to do with the treaty that governs this particular crash. indonesia airasia who was the operator of the airplane and indonesia is not a signatory to the montreal convention, which is deeply unfortunate because the montreal convention stipulates roughly $170,000 per passenger strictly liable which in many cases is paid almost immediatel

indonesian search and rescue says its 95% likely debris spotted off the coast of borneo from air asian flight airasia flight 8501 believed to have run into storms from the java sea. >> the airplane should be in the immediate area. >> so sitings every debris we had yesterday which were a thousand miles away. >> this sounds as though this may be the aircraft. >> those initial sitings by search teams included an oil slick, objects in the water and smoke coming from island near indonesia. but none of them led to the plane. tuesday, crews spotted some other debris in several locations within the search zone. authorities started investigating the photographs looking into a patch of debris, and trying to determine if it indicated flight qz8051 that crashed and sang. as to what happened to the plane shall avenue aches experts say conversations between the pilots and air traffic control don't paint a very good picture. >> there is a principal here, aviate navigate, communicate in that order. nobody outside the plane is going to help you. you got to involve your problems on your own, at the bottom of the chain

airasia flight 8501 lost contact with air traffic control shortly after the pilot requested a new flightath to try to avoid thunderstorms. meanwhile hundreds of relatives have gathered at airports in indonesia and at it's destination, singapore waiting for any word about their loved ones. >> reporter: good morning from here. yes, the search resumes very shortly. i'm not sure if you can hear in the background. we have the call to freyr the local mosque so that means we're getting close to daylight. ships and airplanes from several countries have joined in the search just as they did in the missi missi missing malaysian flight. families are gathering in surabaya and indonesia. airasia set up special counselling centers for them. but the problem is they have no information. it's really frustrating. i've spoken to a few people involved in this operation. it's very frustrating that nobody really knows what happened. after the last contact, there was nothing else. no sign of transponders or any other locating devices on this plane like the flight in march. >> terry, thank you for the very late

one more note about indonesian air travel, many of their airports lack wind shear detect equipment, probably not an issue in the airasia flight 8501 crash because it was at 30,000 feet and yet one more thing that makes indonesias air travel less safe. >> the rough weather suspected of playing a role in the downing of flight 8501 has also taken its toll on malaysia, more than 200,000 families have been forced from their homes because of severe floods. some areas in the northeast have been cut off from electricity 10 have died. >> lets turn back to kevin our mean. >> walk us through what a monsoon is. >> it's the reversal of winds seasonally and can mean increased precipitation. in this part of the world in april through september the rain is up to the north most of indonesia would be very, very dry. but as this comes back to life here, we would see rain starting to move dawn here towards the south and he can see in this particular case, that is where we are going to be picking up that very heavy rain, the flooding, as well as most of the thunderstorms across that region, so it is normal this time of year, but we had som

airasia flight 8501 took off from indonesia. it was heading for singapore. now the last communication between the pilot and air traffic control was made at 6:18 a.m. local time. when the pilot asked to climb to 34,000 feet to avoid clouds. will carr is live in los angeles with the latest. do indonesian authorities believe weather played a part in the aircraft's disappearance? >> reporter: well, julie, no distress signals or beacons have gone off to this point to indicate a crash. right now they say they are not making any assumptions. here's what we know. the plane was actually over the java sea when it lost communications with air traffic control. that's an area that sees a lot of air travel on a daily basis. there was bad weather in the area before communications were lost. it's monsoon season there so the storms can be especially violent. there's lightning and strong winds. but this is the type of plane an airbus a320-200 that's built to fly in rough conditions. >> anything could have happened. systems could have failed. deicing systems could have failed. there could have been excessive ice, abnormally exce

indonesia air traffic control lost contact with the plane over 12 hours ago. the airasia flight was on its way from surabaya indonesia to singapore. it had 167 people on board. the vast majority of those were indonesian. the airbus 320 was on its way over the java sea when it disappeared. it's been looked for so far without success. they expect to go out at first flight again. >> david piper, thanks very much for the update. we'll be following that story and morale day. now to the rest of our program, the singaporean began took after two police officers were shot and killed while sitting in their police cars. suddenly, there was lots of impassioned debate over who else was to blame. >> we've had four ms. of propaganda starting with the president that everybody should hate the police. >> you know, what we've learned over the years is that when someone like al sharpton injects himself into rationally contentious situations, people tend to get killed. >> you blame the mayor and others. t not what we need. i have instructed our attorneys. last night, i began receiving threate

air traffic control lost contact with the plane over 12 hours ago. the airasia was on the way from end deniro to singapore. it had 162 passengers on board. the vast majority were from indonesia. it disappeared three hours into the journey. the search and recuse planes have been looking for it in the java sea but expect to go out at first light again. >> thanks, david piper. you can get the latest from the scroll at the bottom of the fox news screen. now the rest of our program. the deaths of michael brown and eric garner had revenge killings with two police officers being killed. >> we have had four months of propaganda starting with the president that everyone should hate the police. >> what we have learned is when someone like sharpton injects himself in racially contentious situations, people get killed. >> to blame the mayor and others is not what we need. i have instructed our attorney last night i began receiving threatening phone calls and hate. >> are the media flying an inflammatory role and what about the mayor de blasio attacking the press and our spe