. >> then at 1:19 a.m., a standard handoff with air traffic control as the plane leaves malaysian air space and enters vietnamese air space. >> malaysian 370. >> the controller here speaking to ho chi minh. he says good night 370. something i would do. >> there was no indication that anything had gone wrong. >> david soucie is a former safety inspector for the faa. so for the first 40 minutes of this flight up to that point everything has been routine. >> mm-hmm, yes. >> everything was routine until now. two minutes after talking with air traffic control, 40 minutes into the flight, the plane's transponder goes dark. >> the plane's transponder is effectively the instrument that sends out a signal to air traffic control. it tells you what height it's at, which direction and what speed it's traveling. suddenly this giant 777 is blind to the world. >> and there's no easy explanation for why it happened. >> either it was intentional and someone tried to turn all those systems off at once or the pilot was unable to communicate, kept from communicating or there was a mechanical failure of s

singapore air traffic control was informed of this loss of contact at 7:54 hours. 7:54 by jakarta airf that and the time lapse? >> the time lapse doesn't sound -- i mean, i'm going to be realistic here. if it lost contact at 7:24, you're talking about a 20, 30-minute gap before singapore was -- i'm guessing in that time when we get the final transcripts what it will show almost certainly is that the air traffic control had had control of the aircraft, would have been calling to the previous one to see if they'd seen it. it would have been calling to other aircraft in the region, have you heard. they would have been calling back to airasia's network operations center. so it's not necessarily for 30 minutes people were twiddling their thumbs. if you look at >> people were making calls backwards and forwards to each other to try and work out what happen happened. they did a pretty bad job on it. however, i can see looking at what you've just said, i am seeing a lot more urgency and a lot more -- can i just bring you up to date on one point. you asked me a moment ago about how many a 320s

human factor specialists, air traffic control specialists, air craft specialists. obviously the manufacturer of the air bus will send representatives and right now i don't know who made the engines but the engine manufacturer will also be on the investigation. the unique thing about the ntsb is they have a lot of talent and they have done more investigations than any other civil aviation accident investigation organization. >> and now before i let you know, this is a question i put to richard quest. let me ask you this, the malaysian transport minister is speaking. he's speaking right now, however, his comments are not in english. we are monitoring those for you. we will bring you the detail as soon as we have digested them. allen, for your part, what is it you want to hear? what is it you'll be looking out for from the statement made by malaysian authorities? >> i would just hope that he would request assistance immediately from the international community, unlike what happened in malaysia 370 where there was several days delay and they ended up looking in the wro

even if the aircraft were to lose all contact with air traffic control. it radar contract, communications not lost today, there are specific procedures to bring those planes down safely at their destinations. >> our skies are going to be much more crowded. his airline travel designed to cope with what we see? >> there are current studies underway and implementation as a result of those long-term studies with regard to new air traffic measures that will be able to handle increased flow. occurs, whereem do we put all of these aircraft on the ground? where are they going to land from? >> what about the tension making air traffic control efficient and making it secure? >> i think we can do both. i am both an investigator and a former commercial pilot and a computer software designer. i have insight into all three specialties. haveir traffic systems never been hacked. it doesn't mean they could not be. but i have seen displays and notices from the aviation authorities around the world that are studying the potential of this problem and already implementing fut

that means there's not enough experienced pilots or air traffic controllers to go around. he investigation? >> well, that's certainly something a lot of people have brought up. indonesia does not have a good record for air travel. many carriers are banned from traveling to the european union, for instance, the largest carrier, lion air, is banned from traveling to the european union. however, airasia is a very different case. it's considered very well managed, has a spotless record. now, has this effect flowed over into airasia? i think it's too early to say but clearly that will be a question on people's minds. >> but, scott, you're only as strong as your weakest link right? let's say the air traffic controllers were not the best right? that's possible. should that be part of the investigation? >> i'm sure it will be part of the investigation, but the thing that we have to keep in mind is for good or ill the pilots are ultimately responsible for the safe operation of the aircraft. and in the united states if i was faced with a similar situation where weather had closed in

air traffic control lost contact more than four hours ago, near belitung island. we understand 150 passengers and crew were on board. air asia released the following statement: we understand it's an a 320200. 125 passengers and crew on board. indonesian media reported 149er three from korea, one from singapore in malaysia. i want to get to jery an aviation analyst. here we have a missing plane, where do we begin with the investigation. >> they've been searching for the aircraft the the weather was going to be a change. and then from there, we go and look at what we can determine from what we find. their impact and that's how the investigation starts. >> so from what you understand what are the difficult weather conditions. >> i'm hearing from colleagues in air traffic control. the aircraft went missing, they had gone through turbulence. how bad, we don't know. that's what we heard. >> who would be in the investigation? >> at the moment it's under search and rescue. it will be the agency. at the moment it's done by the air force at the initial stages. the national i

control is -- and they have all the trained air traffic controllers to manage the industry. >> and are you confident that everything is being done right now to look for the missing air asia flight that all resources have been deployed?airasia flight, that all resources have been deployed? >> the incidents are very different from last we have seen with mh370, but the government of indonesia is trying their best to coordinate between different countries including singapore, malaysia singapore, to make sure that they find the evidence as soon as possible. at this moment the communication between the countries' leaderships and managing the passengers' families is good enough. >> thank you very much for joining us from singapore. >> we're going to take you live to jakarta. joko widodo the country's new president. he has been taking a very personal interest in what is happening with the airasia flight. this is him right now giving a press conference just talking about the government's involvement in the search operation, the government and the army as well and what is being done. a spokesman

if air traffic control has assisted in the search to find the plane?raft has been able to be surveyed at least on radar. and apparently fell off the radar screen very quickly so that will give the epicenter, or the point where they can start the search, unlike the malaysian aircraft we know where this plane went p down. >> the pilot requested to climb, as an air traffic controller and assuming it's weather related, what does that suggest? why climb? >> there was some heavy thunderstorms at the time stretched u up to 40,000 feet as i understand so you have a choice of going over it or going around it. and if you could see that by climbing over it you could reduce the turbulence then i think you request to climb to that 38,000 feet. so you would want to do that rather than fly through the cloud. >> once the aircraft was reported disappeared from radar, what is the protocol what happens, what does air traffic control do? >> well there is a search and rescue protocol every country has one, it involves the civilian military they draft the data which is reco

to go to a manual operation, and there was organized chaos in the skies above london in fact the air traffic system has control over about a 200,000 square mile area of air space. and the issue looks to be a technical problem which is still under investigation. they have ruled out any power outage, but what they are saying is the technical fault is still under investigation. there have been 50 flights canceled here at heathrowe. other airports held off canceling flights. they are going to wait and see if they can clear the backlog. but here really any kind of delay, it's almost impossible to catch up. >> yeah, the knock-on effects are always huge, aren't they? and this affects flights for example from across europe? >> reporter: yeah, most of the cancellations are those short hull flights, people coming in from italy, france, you know, spain, those short-haul flights, and the reason why they will be affected is because they are the easiest to cancel. but with being unable to fly into heathrowe that means the planes, crew, and passengers are now out of position. so the knock-on effect will la

we do know as you say an air traffic control center run by the national air traffic control service had what they are calling a technical glitch. that came about four hours ago. they said they wouldn't necessarily describe that as a computer problem but more just a technical problem and say it definitely was not a power outage. that lasted for about an hour. after that the systems got back up and running but it's had a huge knock on effect. in the first instance, planes coming from europe into london and across the whole of southern england and whales were grounded. they weren't allowed to head toward britain and any of the flights that were flying over u.k. airspace, transatlantic flights headed to the u.s., they were also grounded. now, the flights that were already airborne and headed toward the u.k. were allowed to come but then stacked up in the air there in a holding pattern flying around. the problem lasted for about an hour and as the system started to recover, that's when once again air traffic control went into what is called recovery mode and so what that means is they're now

due to other air traffic in the vicinity. disappeared from radar. further speculation about airasia flight 8501 is that it was flying too slow may have stalled and crashed into the sea due to intense forms. >> it can be really jarring physically it has enough force. we are taught to try to avoid them but not with standing it has happened before. there have been several weather related crashes within the past decade including airasia plane which crashed this year during landing trying to avoid a thunderstorm and a crash in august 2005 during landing due to heavy rain and hail and flight 612 which crashed in eastern ukraine. experts there say flight 612 was eerily similar to airasia. it was cruding at an at actualed in an attempt to climb over a thunderstorm but hit severe turbulence stalled and crashed. until airasia flight 8501 is found there is speculation as to what might have happened such as a catastrophic failure or storm that confused the pilot. >> kel lae wright in washington. thank you. >> asia being accustomed to the

air traffic has just been restored in london after a technical failure lead to air space restrictions power outage. >>> iraq's finance minister has told al jazeera the fight against isil is draining the country's economy. he also says the city of mosul is a key to defeating the armed group. >>> sierra leone has imposed a two-week lockdown in the eastern district after health workers discovered a rise in the number of ebola infections. 87 bodies have been buried in this the last 11 days. >>> transport in italy has been brought to stand still after two mayor trade unions organized plans against the government's plan to reform the market. jonah hull reports from rome. >> reporter: a nationwide strike, the latest in a string of recent protests against the most sweeping labor reforms italy has seen in years. the contentious jobs act is the answer to unemployment touching 15%. unless there are major changes, students like these on the fringes of the protest and society, face a grim prospect. only one in two will likely enter full-time work. >> translator: it's clear that our country doesn't

>> you can contact air traffic control. benefit is they've been talking to other aircraft that have gone through the area recently. you may have an aircraft go right in front of you. that's probably why they asked for 38,000 altitude because an aircraft flew through at 38,000 and had less turbulence. air traffic control can provide information. it's putting together a puzzle. it's all information you have to make the best decision. >> you've seen the information out there so far and you investigate why planes crash. your best guess. >> i hesitate to guess. the reason we speculate and try to figure out what happened ahead of time there's a lot of pressure from people in the twitter world and social media saying why do you speculate? so the families are educated about what's going on and we can hopefully help with our expertise and background to help people figure out where the plane is. i don't see a lot of evidence to say the aircraft had a survivable accident or able to survive. if there are survivors, this would be the be

control which was denied because of additional air traffic close by.t 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 last thing. because communicating in this particular circumstance if indeed a contributing factor was the weather, the less people would be able to help you was air traffic control. >> the captain is a former military pilot said to have flown f-16 fighter jets before joining commercial aviation. he is also a husband though his wife so far has declined to make any public statements. the first officer on the may not is from france. according to the french foreign ministry which no

that's according to the european air traffic control network.over london will be shut down. that means closed to air traffic until at least 2:00 p.m. eastern time. of course they're working on the problem but it will take them some time. we'll keep you posted. we're also learning more about interrogation methods used by the cia, including the idea that you have to mentally and physically break down suspected terrorists before you build them up and get information out of them. here's how james mitchell, one of the architects of the cia's interrogation program, describes it. >> it's a little bit like a good cop/bad cop argument. we have a bad cop and a good cop. the point of the bad cop is to get the bad guy to talk to the good cop. so it's not surprising to me a that there's a food fight now because what happens is the democrats and the committee have gone back and said it doesn't look a lot of stuff was gotten by the bad cop and people are saying no, we think the bad cop was necessary to get them to talk to the good cop. that's the explanation a

because of air traffic in the vaw inis tee the air traffic controller resibded that. that-- rescinded that. >> there is a lot of airplanes in the sky and along that corridor. there are 12 to14 flights from that airport. it just means the request to go up to 38,000 feet or whatever it was and the event was a few minutes. >> a short time after that we definitely understand that air asia 8051 actually disappeared. >> yes. that means something happened at some point in time after that last contact. what one would draw from that would be something to do with weather causing that airplane to lose its ability to fly. we don't know what that is yet. at least for the families, god love them, they will have some closure to know this is what happened. >> you forgive me for saying 8051 it is flight 8501. we do know at this point debris has been spotted and as a result they are going to send a helicopter there to bring that debris back. they also stated that they have spotted what appears to be victims. what can we learn from that? can we learn how it might have gone down or what

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 excessive ice that got into engines. whate

dealing with something of a greater priority than communicating with air traffic. that's something the investigators will look at. >> right. >> there are cases where they may have acted appropriately. >> that's where the black boxes are so key. if they can find them. john cox, give us a sense of the culture of communication in the cockpit. you remember the asiana flight. there was discussion right or wrong about how culturally acceptable it was to reach certain points of asking for help. whether it be between the pilots and in this case we are talking about mayday or pan-pan calls. what is the threshold before you or your copilot says we better do this. is it high? or oh that you don't want to ask for help or that you are open to asking for help. >> since the late 1970s, the improvement in crew resource management has blossomed many fold. it's been true in every culture. some have embraced the idea of the crew resource management. what that is it formalizes the way this which the team of the pilots function together. in addition, also the cabin staffer or flight at

emergency procedure is that you do notify and then at that point if you declared an emergency air traffic's responsibility is to get rid of everything else in your way. you go where you want to go and they'll get rid of the traffic. but in this case they didn't. and so that's where the problem lies. >> usually it's a domino effect right, mary? because usually it's not just one thing that happens. it's a confluence of different things that happen to cause an air disaster. >> well i agree. and i was suspicious about that because so many things can happen. if he was going ahead and climbing after air traffic control said no you would assume that you had traffic above you. and then that would set off another chain reaction. that would set off your collision avoidance system, and that would do that on both planes which would further complicate things. so it doesn't appear that that went off. so i'm wondering if something was happening to force that climb, some kind of weather condition or something with the planes with the attitude indicators for example. that seemed unusual the pilot would do t

air traffic control does not shut down the flight lanes.y don't shut down the traffic corridors. local airplane authorities, by the way, make the decision on shutting down airports. the air traffic control certainly gives advisories but the airlines themselves and most major carriers have their own in-house meteorological departments, and they help the pilots make those decisions and in the u.s. off they do it propholacticall propholactically. they cancel the flights. but it's up to the airline. >> it's interesting you bring that up. tom, let me go to you. one question i've been getting frequently on twitter today is about what kind of meteorological expertise there is working with these airports working with the airlines telling them what is ahead before they take off? is there any sort of threshold or level? >> well i know les was talking earlier, we were talking about pilots getting briefed. it's up to the pilots themselves. i'm sure mary and the other experts can tell you more about individual airlines or even individual countries, that

the plane and air butt 320 lost communications with air traffic control 42 minutes after taking off. >> translator: we have informed the coastal guards and all ships in the area to be on stand by and to relay information of any signs of the missing plane. we will provide updates of any developments on an hourly basis. >> reporter: at singapore's airport, those waiting for the flight to be to arrive are being given the same scant information. the plane lost contact as it flew over the java sea. the area was cloudy. air asia said the pilot requested to change course due to weather. this is the first major incidents for the malaysia low-cost carrier which has significant presence across southeast asia. but it trails two other malaysian i've areas tragedies this year. both involving the national carrier malaysia airlines. in march mh370 disappeared for a flight from koala lumper to beijing, it's still missing. then in july. mh17 from amsterdam to kuala lumbar was shot down over ukraine killing all 298 people aboard. air asia has never lost a plane before. and a search and rescue operatio

air traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft. there was no distress call. 155 passengers most from indonesia, and seven crew members were on board. >> our concern right now is for the relatives and for the next of kin. there's nothing more important to us for our crew's family and for the passengers' family, that we look after them. that is our number one priority at the moment. >> reporter: two teenaged girls looking for their parents are among those gathered at the international airport here. families are getting briefed at a crisis center set up at the airport, closed-door meetings were held earlier with relatives and airline officials. so basically, brianna, as you see, the frustrations are mounting. this is a search that you can't help but draw comparisons with mh-370 the still-missing malaysian airlines plane. china's now joined this search. australia is also part of it. malaysia is. and the u.s. has been asked to start looking at contributing some sort of sophisticated underwater search equipment. the seventh fleet is stan

plus someone leaked a screen grab of the air traffic controller's radar. here why experts say this image could show something very disturbing about the jet's speed. this is cnn's special live coverage. stay with us. you give... and you give... and then you give some more. but sometimes you get. and so you take. tylenol® cold is strong enough for you while children's tylenol® is gentle enough for them. we give you relief from your cold and flu. you give them everything you've got. tylenol®. . >>> the headlines may not indicate it but when it comes to the number of air crashes 2014 is turning out to be an exceptionally goodyear according to the bureau of aircraft accidents archive. also 2014 is going to end with just 111 crashes. that includes airasia flight 8501. the last time there were that few air crashes was 1927. so the number of crashes is down but the number of people killed a much different story. depending fine of those on flight of 8501 this could become the deadliest year invasion since 2005. almost a decade with more than 1300 deaths. let me tur

is a weather incident and we have to wait and watch until until. >> is there any concern about air traffic control in the asia pacific region in southeast asia particularly? because there had been some concerns raised with mh370 as well, in terms of communication with those controllers. >> not only air traffic control, but also the black box, how black box can be in the satellites. and the aircraft flying around the globes. >> are you confident that everything is being done right now to look for the missing airasia flight that all resources have been deployed? >> the incidents are very different. but the government is trying to coordinate between the different countries to make sure that they find the evidence as soon as possible. the communication between the countries' leaderships and managing the passengers' families is good enough. >> thank you very much for joining us. we're going to take you live actually now to jakarta. joko widodo the country's new president. he has been taking a very personal interest in what is happening with the airasia flight. this is him right now giving a pre

sometimes when it's really bad, air traffic control will give you advice. but as far as looking at the radar's concerned, you always try and get around most severe areas. sometimes, but especially in the intertropical convergence zone there is little gap between these thunderstorms. and these thunderstorms can grow at a great rate. so you have a small thunderstorm which barely shows anything on your radar which grows at a few thousand feet a minute and cut you out and come at you from below. it is difficult to avoid the weather. normally aircraft do manage to avoid the worst weather. >> right. >> caller: and anybody who's flown in aircraft and in weather knows it's avoidable. >> it's interesting that you call it more of an art form. and you get that sense when you're a passenger on an airplane and the pilot comes on and says it's going to get choppy or they're trying to vector around stormy skies. how much discretions to a pilot have? we know that this pilot requested a deviation in altitude but is it up to the pilot to get out of the situation and do whate

was still under control of the indonesian air traffic control. the aircraft had undergone its last scheduled maintenance on the 16th of november 2014. aviation analyst jerry surjatsin said the weather in the area was poor. >> from the satellite images, the weather where it disappeared is nod not clear. it's pretty bad weather but not the worst we have seen. that justifies crew of the aircraft to ask for deviations. that could explain what the officials have said in terms of they asked for an unusual route. in aviation terms it merely means they asked for a slight deviation from their normal route due to weather. the other thing we heard the aircraft asked to change its altitude. based on that scan information at the moment we can just say that we know that the weather did affect how they decided what to do with their fight but whether that brought down the plane we don't know yet. >> stay with al jazeera for developments on this story. we will bring you the latest as we get it but let's move on to some of our other top stories now. days of heavy

we've got an air traffic control situation here now. i'm not saying they got -- i'm not even suggesting, natalie, that they got substandard service out of these controllers in jakarta. but certainly we have seen in the past when the country that owns the air traffic control system does the investigation or owns the airline, there is an innate conflict of interest. so i'm just hopeful that president obama will offer the assets of the national transportation safety board, which does more of these accidents than anybody else in the world. there are other groups in other countries, in france and britain, australia, canada that certainly are competent. i'm not suggesting that only the ntsb could do this. but certainly they've got more experience probably than anybody else and i just hope the president will make it clear to whomever, whichever country is named as the coordinating country under the international civil aviation organization rules, that we offer our expertise and we do it quickly -- >> right. because i want to ask you about that

airasia has disappeared and losing contact with air traffic control.ries have launched a joint search and rescue operation. the plane has been missing for 13 hours now. with nightfall, the air search has been suspended, though boats are still in the water and looking for any clues as to where this plane has gone. airasia for its part has released a statement saying that the crew asked for a change in flight path. they wanted to go from 32,000 feet up to 38,000 feet saying this was to avoid some rough weather in their path. we're going to take you back live here and give you a look at the airport singapore. 162 people were on board and that includes seven crew members. 155 passengers. most were indonesians. one person from singapore and another from malaysia. of those passengers 16 onboard were children and one infant. airasia is a low-cost carrier with presence in several south asia countries. the ntsb is monitoring the search and stands ready if needed or asked. katy tur has this live report. >> reporter: an emotional scene in indonesia as loved ones

radar a little less than halfway on its route to singapore, and the pilot made one transmission too air traffic control asking to change the flight plan due to clouds. family and friends of passengers are desperately awaiting any new details on the fate of the plane and their loved ones. >> our grandchild was going to singapore for a holiday, but the accident happened. you know it's a plane accident i only ask god for a miracle. i hope not only my family will be saved, but everyone on board. >> david piper is live in bangkok tie land with the very latest. so david what is the latest? >> reporter: as you can see, dawn has broken monday morning here in asia, we are 12 hours ahead of new york and as expected, the air search has resumed now, it was suspended overnight because of bad weather, but we understand from indonesian transport ministry that the planes have gone out, also from malaysia and singapore, to try to look for the plane. overnight, boats were out in the area of the java sea, but they found no trace. they're looking and they're looking half u way between surabaya where the plane orig

if air traffic control said no it's very odd that you would do it. i was wondering if at that point they were experiencing weather that gave them unbelievable up or down drafts and had to fight for their lives against tough weather. >> right. if they were being forced in a certain direction. mary peter, david, stick around. we'll talk with you more at this hour. >>> still to come we have a closer look at this storm. the pilot appears to have been trying to avoid it. >>> plus, airbus, the maker of the missing plane is jumping in to help find this flight. the new numbers of those rescued and killed after a fire tore through a ship stranded on frozen waters. (vo) nourished. rescued. protected. given new hope. during the subaru "share the love" event, subaru owners feel it, too. because when you take home a new subaru we donate 250 dollars to helping those in need. we'll have given 50 million dollars over seven years. love. it's what makes a subaru a subaru. >>> let's get more now on a second day of searching for the missing airasia jetliner has turned u

indonesia air traffic controllers lost contact with that plane at 7:24 a.m. now, the flight had been scheduled to land in singapore at 8:30 a.m. local time. live picture now from the singapore airport where a help center was set up for the families. three south koreans, one person from singapore, one from malaysia. 16 of those onboard are children. there was also at least one infant. air asia is a regional low cost carrier with presence in several southeast asian countries. president obama has been briefed on the situation. the ntsb is monitoring the search and stands ready to help if requested. katie tur is joining me on the phone. i know you got there a short time ago. what can you tell us? >> reporter: everything that you just covered, alex. we're standing outside of this relative holding center. there's about 47 friends and family inside. they are distraught but they've been sheltered from the media and currently they are getting what little information that officials have to give them. as you said, this happened around 7:24 local time this morning and ri

just as we go on-air here we're told the air space over london is opened up. but that traffic volumes are being restricted in accordance with capability. that's from the national air traft service here in the u.k. that run the air space. it's the froufl here. just some detail the airport to the north of london said it's having problems. to the south of london having problems. it is accepting flights but flights aren't taking off. most crucially heathrow airport to the west seems to be having problem fl problem. there are some reports there are no flights leaving or landing at heathrow. the numbers there around 1300 flights air transport movements they're called. a few years ago the numbers from heathrow airport. 82 airlines serving 180 countries. as tom will tell you, tamron, heathrow is a crucial hub for flights leaving the united states trying to get to europe, trying to get to the middle east it will quickly be causing huge problems for many passengers. >> what will we know on the best day heathrow is a mad house. a complicated airport. let's get back to the issue of the po

faa lacks training, tools and procedures air traffic controllers need to manage operations. faa also lacks databases to analyze data from current u.s. operators and a severity base for incident reporting. data from faa's test sites will provide critical information related to certification, air traffic control and technology i discussed earlier. all of these can inform decisions when advanced progress. other important and much-needed steps include publication of the small rule and developing an integrated budget document that clearly identifies funding requirements in the near and midterm. in conclusion, uas will be and remain a front and center issue that requires significant management attention. it remains uncertain when and at what pace u.s. technology can be fully and safely e integrated into our air space. now is the time to build on the knowledge base to make informed decisions, set priorities, identify critical path issues and develop the basic regulatory framework for integrating technology into national air space system. we will continue to monitor progress on thes

the pilot asked air traffic controllers to ascend a full two minutes went by and air traffic control again contacted the plane but by that time, the plane was gone. is a two-minute window a long period of time? is that unusual? >> well, not if the air traffic controller was dealing with a lot of traffic, trying to clear open some space to get the one plane out of trouble, you couldn't send them into the path of another, not only would it risk a midair their collision avoidance equipment would have gone off and planes would have taken action to deviate and the air traffic controller would have had to sort that out as well. it could have been obviated had the pilot declared an emergency and the air traffic controller would have had to direct his or her attention to that flight immediately, and given that pilot whatever that pilot needed. i think whatever happened happened very quickly, and there just wasn't time after that. i suspect the pilots were also fighting to save the plane at that point. >> let's talk a little bit about the pilot, peter, he was very experienced, a former f-16 f

an air traffic control computer glitch is to blame for the problem.ations to last into today. >> absolutely. for what they had there for

air traffic was waiting and saying i can't clear them to that altitude yet.ey called back and said now you can go to 38,000 feet. there was no response. >> no response. what does that say to you? >> they didn't even have the authority to make that climb. >> but they did? >> we believe they did. we don't know that for a fact. it's been reported it was 36,000 at 101 miles per hour. that was a screen capture leaked out from air traffic control. we don't know that for a fact yet. it appears to me based on information and clues we have that indeed it was the case. >> so because of that, we don't know how big of a search area it is? >> right. >> they pinpointed an area roughly. >> really roughly. >> they're expanding it tomorrow. we've learned of the seven search areas, tomorrow on wednesday, when the light resumes, there will be 11 search areas. i understand it's to the west and south of where they've been searching. >> right. they've gone quite a bit of distance to the west. in that area that was 56,000 square miles, now they've expand had the and added two or fo

that's what air traffic control is all about. but the depth and diameter of a radar of air traffic control can only show so far ahead of the airline or airplane. so what they need to do is the pilots need to rely on the onboard system in the belly of an aircraft or the nose. this is supposed to give the piloting several minutes warning so they can divert and move that aircraft around thunderstorms like this so they don't feel the effects of turbulence. remember turbulence isn't necessarily what causes these planes to crash. it's often the pilot air after they fly through turbulence that causes engine seizure. >> one international pilot fold me a few moments as that hail can cause the radar to be inoperable. so if they're just relikeying on ra radar, that can be ominous. >> ice sticks to everything. if you have an aluminum body ice can stuck to that and restrict airflow and engines, not a good thing. >> thank you again. earlier in our coverage we heard from our own aviation correspondent richard quest. he called to say how airasia

an air asia flight heading to singapore has lost contact with air traffic control. there were up to 162 people on board. in the past hour an air asia spokesman said that the last location the plane was at sea. searchsearch and rescue operations are under way. and let's move on to other news now. to serbia will bashar al-assad's government say it's open to preliminary consultations in moscow. they hope to host attacks between syria and syrian divided opposition, but it's unclear who will be taking part. the head of the syrian national coalition said that without some kind of blueprint there is little to bring opposition groups to the table. >> russia does not have an initiative. what russia is calling for is a meeting in moscow without any specific suggestions. >> air force has stepped up airstrikes in the northern province of aleppo. the airstrikes have killed more than 50 people in the past three days including seven children. jets targeting areas controlled by the islamic state in iraq and the levant in a nearby city. and government jets have also hit the town of d

air traffic controllers. >> we have to be higher before their 31st birthday. required to retire at 56. that's why the job market keeps going on. >> reporter: running the aviation program at state university. she has two reasons for the stark demand. if f.a.a. is catching up on hiring after last year's sequestration and the 14,000 current controllers close to retirement, having been hired after massive layoffs following a strike in 1981. the f.a.a.'s hiring fan calls to add 1500 new controllers by 2015, over 10,000 in the next decade. in the past, two key sources provided the f.a.a. the military and 36 schools that made up its collegiate training initiative. schools like long island dowling college. >> focus. situational awareness and multitasking. and you have to have a person who's not going to panic. >> reporter: top graduates of these programs typically earn spots in the f.a.a.'s training program but there's no longer preferential treatment. now the application process is open to the public who must meet certain qualifications and pass a biographical test.

the indonesian air traffic control facility and the singaporean air traffic controllers. how much time did the piles get approval for deviation request because of weather and change altitude? >> can i ask you that because it was two minutes, i believe, between his request, the pilot's request to climb and receiving the basic denial of the request. is that too long? >> we'll have to wait and see. it isn't terribly long, but two minutes would seem like an eternity when you're facing weather threats ahead of you and you would want to deviate as rapidly as possible. that's one of the things that need to be investigated. and we need to look at how well the air traffic control system operates and how it organizationally works and how good the human performance and was what the culture is and where the best practice is and was efficiency promoted and was this a rigid more bureaucratic system that lacked flexibility and those will be important things if this turns out to be a weather-related event and i should say in almost every accident it's never the result of a single failure

>> well the problem is you've got other air traffic on other routes going opposite directions and aty at similar altitude. there's only so much leway you have to go around that route? this is a busy corridor. indeed that problem does exist. >> got it. les and allestair, thank you very much. next an expert on the airlines who fly in asia. >>> a passenger jet carrying 162 people went missing in southeast az wra. yes, it's happened again. here is what we've learned. the official search at sea has been suspended for air asia 8501 because of darkness. it is the middle of the night local time. the area is a busy shipping channel, and the boats will continue to comb the waters off indonesia. the full search isn't expected to resume until day break. the airbus a- -- it was bound for singapore. indonesian officials say at one point the captain asked to climb higher to avoid heavy storms. the plane disappeared from radar while flying at 38,000 feet. almost the entire flight path was over water. families are desperate for any sign of what could have happened at the aircraft. there were no ameri

the air traffic control system for example. you're right that there's no question that yes, now various forms of technology exist, as we heard, of course during the whole aftermath of mh-370 technology in that case wasn't being utilized to its full extent. really that's what it comes down to. you have to retrofit aircraft, for example. something that exists that has come into the marketplace, it doesn't mean that it is on every aircraft or utilized at every airline. it's still unclear here exactly what might be able to help the investigation. >> and, les, do you want to jump in on that because it's been ten minutes since mh-370 and what's it going to take? >> well it's going to take mm-370 apparently. i think it's coming. your previous guest has made some good points with reference to you know the technology exists, but implementing the technology putting it in the airplanes takes some time. and we have to get past some of the archaic infrastructure that we have set up with reference to air traffic control being done exclusivel

s two air traffic controllers.the british government called the failure unacceptable and is demanding a full investigation. the glitch does not appear at this hour to have put any passengers at risk. joining me now is nbc news correspondent tom costello. so, tom, a computer glitch can shut down the skies over london? >> yeah. what we know is this was some sort of an air traffic control sequencing glitch. they say it is not related to any sort of a power outage and they do not believe it's any sort of a security or hack attempt. something quite simply they think went wrong with the software somewhere. at this hour london heathrow, london city airport, gatwick are showing delays between three and a half to five hours for arriving flights and about the same for departing flights. even dublin is affected by this because of the tremendous backlog now that we've seen systemwide, not only in the u.k. but of course in ireland and extending across the continent in europe. so dublin reporting delays for both departures and a

and the indonesia air traffic control say that the pilot requested to climb because of storms. almost the entire time the plane is e over water eover water. the family is desperate for what happened. almost all of the passengers were indonesian nationals. there were no americans on. the u.s. is available for assistance if that request comes in. this is ten months after malaysian flight hm-370 is still ongoing ark and there is no trace of that aircraft or the 239 people on board. and rosa is joining us now and you are tracking the social media, and i can imagine what people are saying regarding this flight. >> well, thoughts and prayers are pouring in from all over the world in every corner. people want to express thoughts because of the reminder of mh-360 and people say, i can't believe we lost another a plane in this day and age. we are seeing a number of things marty, but people are going to social media to assimilate information and hopefully to help. i want to show you this statement released by the singapore minister of defense, because this is some of the assets that he h

>> reporter: imagine if they shutdown all air traffic over the southern part of england. you can imagine what would happen there. we have had chaos in the skies over london. as you note the breaking news in the last five minutes is the airspace is open again but there is delays all over. there was a power outage, a computer glitch, it has been described in a few different ways at the air traffic control center for southern england and that forced heathrow to cancel all incoming and outgoing flights as well as three other airports in the london area. and that caused planes to be either stacked up on the runways or circling around and around the area. we saw a larger map of europe and saw the planes wanting to head into europe and that means transatlantic planes could have experienced difficulty as well. the latest word we are getting is the airspace is open again. that implies the air traffic control problem is fixed but we don't have conformation of that. we are told there are delays at airports. probably big delays and it will take several hours to iron it out and that m