airasia's boss tony fernandez has responded to the latest news by posting a message on twitter. my heart is filled with sadness, he says on behalf of airasia, my condolences. after two days of searching, the focus will now turn to recovering what remains of the aircraft. and with that perhaps will come answers about how and why it crashed. >> reporter: we understand that some of the bodies have been recovered from the java sea. in recovering the bulk of the wreckage, it should be fairly straight forward. the java sea is an inland sea. surrounded by a lot of land and as a result, it's not open to the turbulence you might have if it was further out to sea. as a result, it's fairly shallow, so there is the session that the plane is on the bottom of the sea there and that the wreckage is floating above. it should be fairly straight forward to recover a lot of that, and we understand that a plane airasia flight is being organized for those relatives who want to fly out to the crash site. the big question now, of course is why did that plane lose contact with air traffic control on sun

airasia tony fernandez missed his loved ones but struggled to bring hope to a hopeless situation. >> a terrible feeling of loss right now. but i think the indonesian authorities are doing their best now for search-and-rescue. >> the airline has set up an information center at the airport in surabaya where family and friends have gathered. as each hour drags by, they are bracing themselves for the worst possible news. as authorities scramble to find the plane the hunt for answers also begins. families of passengers on board the aircraft will want to know exactly what happened and jeff how it is possible that once again a plane has simply disappeared from the sky. >> jeff: deborah patta thank you very much. the disappearance of the airasia plane comes on top of two other disasters from malaysian-based airlines this year. here's transportation correspondent jeff pegues. >> reporter: never before has commercial aviation in one region experienced so much heartbreak. in march malaysia air 370 disappeared from radar with 239 people on board. nine months later the search continues in the sou

this is from airasia tony fernandez.s your group ceo will be there through these hard times. we will go through this terrible ordeal together and i will try to see as many of you. now also chilling because if you look closely at your screen you'll also see airasia logo is gray so it's gone from red to gray. a chilling move, of course, because all of these people are missing right now. this airliner is missing. and so that's just another touch of what this airline is doing. now, we all remember mh-370 covering it extensively. malaysia airlines having their own tragedy and mystery. they are also going to twitter to send a message. take a look at this. malaysia airlines tweeting quote, our thoughts and prayers are with all family and friends on those on board qz8501. malaysia's transport minister tweeting, we will support our counterparts as they take lead in this crisis under icao protocol. the icao sending thoughts and prayers through social media. so, it's really become this global conversation with a lot of people remem

airasia's tony fernandez has been giving a press conference and he said the pilot radioed in they were facing severe weather and the pilot had 20,000 hours flying experience 6,000 with airasia. he also said he had no news on the whereabouts of the plane. the search for the missing aircraft has been suspended at the moment because of bad weather here in southeast asia. the region has been pummeled by he have rains in recent days causing severe flooding in nearby malaysia. 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

if you talk to the ceo of airasia, tony fernandez, he says, we don't want to speculate. our priority is to find that aircraft and look after the next of kin of the passengers and the crew. >> thank you so much. we're finding out about the people on board the plane. a woman says her fiance was on a last holiday with her family before their marriage. she's one of many family members waiting for word of what happened to someone on board. we'll bring you more of the passengers' stories, 162 souls on board that plane, coming up. and quit a lot,ot but ended up nowhere. now...i use this. the nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release technology helps prevent the urge to smoke all day. i want this time to be my last time. that's why i choose nicoderm cq. . >>> welcome back. i'm jake tapper. as darkness falls upon the sea of java and the search for airasia flight 8501 ends for the night, the families of those 162 people onboard face what can only be described as an excruciating, crying, yelling, demanding answers about how a plane can just vanish. rosa flores is joining us. w

earlier today that purported to show the bulk of the fuselage under the water, the ceo of airasia, tony fernandez, says they have not found the bulk of the fuselage. there's been no confirmation the plane itself has been found but they are still looking. weather has been a problem. it's a problem today. they expect it to be a problem for the next few days. it's is monsoon season and the weather can be very uncooperative. ari, back to you. >> nbc's katy tur in indonesia. back stateside we'll bring in tom costello. we know there's been a lot of unconfirmed reports out there. what are the facts we know so far? >> katy touched on the sonar data and whether it in fact shows where or where not this plane may be resting. the head of airasia says there are no confirmed sonar pings coming from any wreckage. we have to see what daylight brings and the search brings as they continue to navigate through this very difficult weather. what we do know is that they have a pretty good sense of where this plane is simply by the wreckage and the bodies that have been found on the surface of the water. whoa know the

you're commending the ceo of airasia, tony fernandez, for using twitter to keep us informed. late last night he tweeted, keeping positive and staying strong. my heart bleeds for all the relatives of my crew and our passengers. nothing is more important to us. meanwhile, you've been debating what defined america in five words. thousands are posting on the #americainfivewords and some are sending tweets like this. you don't love america, leave. this user tweeted, america in five words? yeah, we're still pretty racist. instead of debating race in america, this user snarked that america is a great idea with poor execution. and this rare nonpartisan tweet states imperfect but keeping the faith. speaking of faith, popular astro physicist neil degrasse tyson created a christmas firestorm with this tweet. on this day long ago a child was born who by age 30 would transform the world. happy birth day isaac newton, born december 25, 1642. that tweet on christmas day was retweeted 80,000 times. users debating the resulting accusation that tyson sent that tweet to bash christians. but tys

the ceo of airasia, tony fernandez, is now on his way to surabaya. earlier, he tweeted this short statement "thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. we must stay strong." we are covering this from many angles. we've been talking with analysts for hours now about what perhaps, happened. the last hearing from this airplane that it was trying to vector around a thunderstorm and very very dangerous weather in that region right now. cnn's will ripley is joining me now from beijing, he's among our team who are helping us cover this breaking news because will you were covering the mh 370 story for some time and were there in kuala lumpur and strangely enough airasia is based there in kuala lumpur. the similarities will end there, hopefully, it will not be an aviation mystery like we saw with mh 370. right now we just don't know anything. we do know and i want to start with you on this point, airasia lost contact with that airplane and didn't announce it for several hours. you were saying the one thing that people went through that was so hard to take w

at surabaya, loved ones were comforted by airasia's ceo tony fernandez who flew down only hours after the disappearance. >> we don't really want to speculate until we find the aircraft, we know what went wrong, then we'll look into it and see. >> reporter: a marked difference from the way the malaysia government handled mh-370 which disappeared in march. comparisons between the two flights are seemingly inevitable, but there are lots of differences. 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 presumpti

airasia ceo tony fernandez is on his way to surabaya, indonesia. he tweeted words cont express how sorry i am. >> new overnight michael grimm stepping down days after admitting to tax evasion. he said he made the difficult decision to step down from congress effective january 5th. he had no plans to leave his post representing new york's 13th district. under a plea deal it could face three years in federal prison. protestors filling the police staging a die in after the newly released autopsy reveals police shot an unarmed man three times. >> struggled with an officer who said ford pinned him to the ground and tried to grab i see had gun. family members say that he was mentally ill and harmless. they are suing for $75 million. a day after he was booed and heckled at the nypd graduation bill deblasio meeting today with the heads of five police unions. kelly wright here with the latest this morning. good morning kelly. >> good morning to you as well. in an effort to reconcile with police deblasio is conducting an emergency meeting today with leaders

cnn's poppy harlow. >> reporter: tony fernandez is living the moment every airline executive dreads. >> we are very devastated about what's happened. >> reporter: airasia'sfernandez tweeted more than a dozen times in the hours following the plane's disappearance. this is my worst nightmare. we will go through this terrible ordeal together. >> our concern right now is for the relatives and for the next of kin. >> reporter: the approach of airasia's ceo thus far stands in stark contrast to that of malaysia's ceo after mh-370 disappeared. >> it is a boeing 777 wide body twin jet. >> our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members. >> reporter: but malaysia airlines didn't tell families flight 370 was missing until after it was supposed to have arrived in beijing, many hours after it vanished. and there was the disastrous text message sent from malaysia airlines to family members saying none of those on board survived. malaysia air ceo defended the move saying it was the best way to tell those it could not reach by phone or in person. but it led to some demanding his resignation. >> they are different men with diff

the head of airasia tony fernandez has weighed in. on twitter, he posted or tweeted saying my heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved on qz 8501. on behalf of air asia, my condolences condolences. he said whatever we can do at airasia we will be doing. so wilfred, as europe wakes up very sad news out here in asia. but at least there is -- there's starting to be a semblance of certainty now and for the family members and friends of the people on board 8501 closure can only begin with some certainty of what happened. back to you. >> indeed martin. thank you very much for that update. >>> now, it is the second disappearance of an airplane this year. there are concerns over why the industry struggled to track aircraft even though they come with navigation technology. head to cnbc.com to hear from the experts why it's not always that easy to track and plane. don't forget, you can follow up on twitter, as well, @cnbcworld. >>> let's check in on markets in europe. they finished flat yesterday, despite the issues in greece.

>>> yes, airasia chief executive tony fernandez is holding a news conference in indonesia, flying thereiately after the plane went miss saying at the news conference the pilot did radio in they were facing severe weather. he also said that the pilot had 20,000 hours flying experience, 6,000 with airasia. he did not have any news on the whereabouts of the plane.

we expect to hear from airasia's ceo tony fernandez soon. we will bring you his comments live as soon as he speaks. first though let me bring you up to speed on what we know. there's a lot we don't know about the situation, here's what we do know. the search resumed about two and a half hours ago over the java sea. that is where communication was lost now, more than 25 hours ago. authorities plan to divide the search into fire sections. so far, there have been no sign of the aircraft, any debris or the 162 souls on board. they were flying from i understand know that to singapore when it vanished. many were headed there to bring in the new year. 155 of the 162 passengers and crew members on board airasia 8501 were from indonesia. the airport where the plane took off in surabaya is the country's third largest airport. it handles some 16 million passengers a year. asia pacific editor is in surabaya right now. he joins us live i know you travelled there immediately when we got word late last night here on the east coast that this happened. you'v

airasia flight departed. andrew you actually just had a chance to talk to the ceo of this company, we have been seeing his tweets what has he said about their understanding of what happened? >> tony fernandezounder of airasia and he held a news conference just outside of indonesia airport right now. he says our priority right now is to look after the family and the next of kin of those people who were on the plane. a couple of points he did talk about, i asked him, one of them was weather conditions he said there was heavy cloud in the area he wouldn't go beyond that. i asked just how experienced the pilot was, 27,000 hours, flying he's incredibly shaken as you can imagine, at one stage during the press conference it was outside, pretty sort of a rush job putting his head in his hands, and obviously a very very difficult time for him as well as the families that are on board. >> we're going to be getting to you throughout the day, as you get more information. thanks for getting there so quickly and safely. renee marsh, you have some new information? >> reporter: just a short time ago, i got off the phone with the ntsb and we have been wondering what their role could be at in point they say

airasia ceo tony fernandez has taken to twitter to update the families of passengers calling this his worst nightmare. he's a very outgoing ceo who acquired airasia for less than 50 cents and now is one of the top. the top-ranked budget airline. yesterday he tweeted saying to all my staff airasia stars, be strong, continue to be the best. pray hard, continue to do your best for all our guests and see you all soon. and earlier this morning about 14 hours ago, he updated tweeting keeping positive and staying strong, my heart bleeds for all the relatives of crew and passengers. nothing is more important to us. now some materials were located near the potential crash area, but that debris is not from the plane. the search-and-rescue efforts continue today on tuesday, and will also continue in four new areas, and i want to bring you developing news as well, cheryl, the indonesian government asked the united states to help out. the u.s. is ready and willing. 87th fleet is standing by ready to get involved as soon as they get the signal to do so. cheryl: curious to hear about the oil slicks

>>> yes, airasia chief executive tony fernandez is holding a news conference in indonesia, flying thereafter the plane went miss saying at the news conference the pilot did radio in they were facing severe weather. he also said that the pilot had 20,000 hours flying experience, 6,000 with airasia. he did not have any news on the wherea

--nat sot-- s/ tony fernandez / airasia ceo : "i apologize profusely for what they're going through. of this company and i have to take responsibility." tony fernandez el presidente de la aerolinea, se disculpo por la tragedia y dice estar preparado para tomar responsabilidad por el accidente. ciento-sesenta-y-dos personas viajaban abordo del avion incluyendo diecisiete niÑos. oficiales han pedido ayuda a cinco paises para agilizar la operacion de busqueda. el gobierno estadounidense esta enviando un buque naval el u-s-s sampson para ayudar con la recuperacion de escombros y victimas. bridge y por si fuera poco, pasajeros a bordo de otro avion de air-asia pasaron un gran susto cuando ertes vientos lo forzaron a hacer un aterrizaje de ergencia en las filipinas. track aproximadamente habian cientoncuenta personas abordo, y gun las tides el incidente ocurrio la noche del lunes, cuando el avion intento aterrizar y se salio de la pista. la nave quedo atascada en un zona fangosa del aeropuerto y la tripulacion activo los toboganes de emergencia. afortunadamente, ninguno de los pasajeros re

. >> the words of airasia ceo tony fernandez following the disappearance of flight 8501.as been taking to social media several times an hour. here's a tweet from earlier today. he said "keeping positive and staying strong. my heart bleeds for the relatives of my crew and our passengers nothing is more important to us." the sentiments continuing on the company's web site in the wake of uncertainty. the logo changing from a bright today are a more subdued gray. let's talk about how the company and the families are coping. i'm joined by dr. jeff gardere and seth kaplan managing partner for airline weekly. welcome to both of you. i know you've interviewed tony fernandes in the past. give us a sense of who this man is. >> very much in the style of the low cost airline ceo taking on the world. americans, a lot of them familiar with herb kelleher who started southwest. your peians with michael o'leary, the irishman who is sometimes so pro fine you can't quote what he says in a newsletter like ours and tony fernandes very much in that vain. the first time i interviewed him if 200

. >> airasia ceo tony fernandez has apologized for the crash. he promises the company will honor its obligations to the families. i want to bring in our aviation correspondent richard quest. fernandez, he's been out front since the beginning of this crisis. what do you think, richard? how is the airline handling it all so far? >> tony fernandez is one of those ceos that is right out of central casting. he's larger than life. he's very colorful. i've known him for many years, and interviewed him lots and lots of times. but what's interesting here is that it's his first full-scale airline crisis for the airline that's been around for 12, 13 years. and he's in shock like everybody else. but what he's done and it's typical of tony he has come to the forefront. if you look at the tweets he has sent out. first of all, he's a modern ceo, so he's using social media. and what he's been tweeting. this is crucial this one. i as your group ceo will be there through these hard times. we'll go through this terrible ordeal together. in other words, i ain't a c

the ceo of airasia tony fernandez, says pra yy hard, we will be here together, and they will not be stopping>> elon, thank you from -- yvonne thank you from hong kong. >> it is a tragedy for all involved and it especially challenging situation for airasia ceo tony fernandes, who has been frustrated with the lack of information. robert crandall is the former ceo of american airlines. so good to have you with us. from what you can tell from a distance, is tony fernandes handling this situation as well as you possibly can? we needed to remember while asking the question that malaysia, for example, the malaysian government in particular came under criticism for the way it handled the dispense of mh 70. >> i think he is doing all he can. he obviously has expressed his sympathy and concern, as he should. he is -- he has announced that they have appropriate people from the airline. as airlines do, they will put a whole cruel of that crew of people out there to deal with each individual family and be as responsive as possible to the obvious concerns of those people. he is on the scene and prepared t

we expect to hear from airasia's ceo tony fernandez soon.is comments live as soon as he speaks. first though let me bring you up to speed on what we know. there's a lot we don't know about the situation, here's what we do know. the search resumed about two and a half hours ago over the java sea. that is

tweeting this our thoughts and prayers of are with all those family and friends of airasia flight 8501. tony fernandez, he's monitoring all of this him saying i am touched by the massive show of support, especially from my fellow airlines this is my worst nightmare, but there is no stopping. and one other thing that's very telling is if you u look at the facebook page for airasia, it's in gray it's in black and white, that iconic symbol is chilling because their normal colors are red and white, now we ski black and white, we see gray we don't see a banner with that iconic airliner that would normally be there. so, again, a lot of pain on social media, marty, and officials going to twitter and going to facebook to offer their support. >> very interesting, rosa to see how this differs, u it seems greatly to how malaysia responded to flight 370. >> it definitely the is. i think we're seeing a lot of learned lessons and a lot of information being shared and a lot of countries coming forward very quickly and saying we are offering your support, here are our assets even posting on social media, pictures of

a route change and out. >> can we talk about this airline airasia and tony fernandez?reat reputation for safety and for maintenance. he's a good guy. he's sort of like the richard branson of asia. >> around he's a celebrity. >> he is. he held a press conference he did it himself. there are terms on how not to deal with information which is what he's doing. >> how does a plaep this size just disappear? >> that's the key here. i can't rent car without the agency know where i'm driving or how fast. >> nor any of us with our smartphones. you need live 24-hour data streaming to the cloud. that would have solved the problem. they were in a dead zone. deborah hersman talked about it. >> what do you mean dead zone? >> it's not tracked. you can get on the radio. there's not much going on out there? >> does that mean there was pinging? >> pinging is difficult. a different situation. what pinging is if they can find the elt, asuchling it's on the floor of the ocean, they can hear it on sonar, they have to get within five or six hours and there's a better chance because they can a

people your given that nothing definitive has been found yet, but in the meantime the boss of airasia tony fernandez has focus on the people, the 162 passengers and crew on board and their family and friends. >> we don't want to speculate. right now they have been missing for 12 hours and there's a huge sense of aggression here but we'll stay strong. and we our first priority now is to look after the family and do whatever we can in this period. >> reporter: so tony fernandes has airasia listed in trade here today with shares crushed finishing down 8.5% in one session. at one point they were down 13%. before this incident airasia shares were up a fifth year to date. back to you. >> thank you, martin. we appreciate that. thank you very much. a lot of speculation, andrew these are very safe planes. interesting. that part time of the world, we don't -- we don't know at this point. >> we're going to talk to an aviation analyst in a little bit. but you know i'm an anxious flyer, so these kind of situations with an airbus -- >> as we talked about 2014 being one of the deadliest years but not here. not dom

>>> yes, airasia chief executive tony fernandez is holding a news conference in indonesia, flying there immediately after the plane went miss saying at the news conference the pilot did radio in they were facing severe weather. he also said that the pilot had 20,000 hours flying experience, 6,000 with airasia. he did not have any news on the whereabouts of the plane. the search for the missing aircraft has been suspended at the moment because of the bad weather here in southeast asia. the region has been hard hit by heavy rains in recent days causing severe flooding in indonesia. 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 e

--nat sot-- s/ tony fernandez / airasia ceo : "i apologize profusely for what they're going through. he leader of this company and i have to take responsibility." tony fernandez el presidente de la aerolinea se disculpo por la tragedia y dice estar preparado para tomar responsabilidad por el accidente. ciento-sesenta-y-dos personas viajaban abordo del avion incluyendo diecisiete niÑos. oficiales han pedido ayuda a cinco paises para agilizar la operacion de busqueda. el gobierno estadounidense esta enviando un buque naval el u-s-s sampson, para ayudar con la recuperacion de escombros y victimas. bridge y por si fuera poco, pasajeros a bordo de otro avion de air-asia pasaron un gran susto, cuando fuertes vientos lo forzaron a hacer un aterrizaje de emergencia en las filipinas. track aproximadamente habian ciento cincuenta personas abordo y segun las autoridades, el incidente ocurrio la noche del lunes cuando el avion intento aterrizar y se salio de la pista. la nave quedo atascada en un zona fangosa del aeropuerto y la tripulacion activo los toboganes de emergencia. afortunadamente, nin

yes, airasia's chief executive tony fernandez has been holding a news conference in indonesia. he flew there immediately after the plane went missing. he said at the news conference the pilot did radio in that they were facing severe weather. he also said the pilot had 20,000 hours flying experience, 6,000 with airasia. he didn't, though, have any news on the whereabouts of the plane. the search for the missing aircraft has been suspended at the moment because of the bad weather here in southeast asia. the region has been hard hit by heavy rains in recent days, causing severe flooding in nearby malaysia. 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

airasia ceo tony fernandez tweeted his condolences saying in part quote, my heart is filled with sanessf the families involved. >> indeed. here with us now, pastor of coral ridge presbyterian church florida, and grandson billy graham. author of "it is finished: 365 days of good news". >> you look like an undercover pastor. >> i'm going to take that as a compliment. >> i'm not going to be picking you out as pastor. >> good to be here. thanks for having me. >> good to see you again. >> let me ask you, as we begin, how is billy graham doing? 96 years old. >> yeah, doing well. i mean his mind is working well. his body is the body of a 96-year-old, so things are, you know, kind of falling apart. but there is no real serious health concerns. he's doing well. we're proud of him. we hope he's around for another ten years, at least. >> wow. 96 and still -- still sort of getting it done. >> yeah he is. he really is. in fact, my daughter who is with me this morning, went up to spend thanksgiving with him, and she said that as soon as they walked in the door he recognized her right away. which is g

telling us that sonar has located what they believe to be the plane and you have the ceo of airasia, tony fernandeznfirmation they've used sonar to confirm what they're seeing down there is the plane. what do you make of this? often in these kinds of disasters the reporting can be conflicting and it can change and there are a lot of people who have access to a lot of different information. what do you make of that contradiction this morning? >> i think you summed it up well christine. as you well know you've got all kinds of jurisdictions involved. the company, the governments, the fishermen on the water. everybody is saying something. and it's very difficult to sort these things out. in the middle of it. i think what we should take away however is that clearly this site wherever it is is in shallow water. and is something this is not going to be too terribly difficult to find. you know you were on with david soucie a little while ago. when you consider the depth here, 100 feet or 140 feet whatever you can scuba dive at those depths we're not talking about something several thousand feet deep. so t

this plane and this airline, airasia, isn't it part of a story of modernization and globalization in this part of the world. >> southwest of the united states tony fernandez and airasia, did in southeast asia and he did it starting in kuala lumpur and in asia to get over protection and national laws he has expanded that and he has had to do it through -- for example, there's a tie of -- he's looking at one in india, one in japan, and of course there is indonesia airasia. so this airline, yes, it is indonesian by registration by ownership, but fernandez in asia owns about 48%, 49% of it, and de facto they run this airline, it's a hybrid if you like but the most part of this vast group of aviation has taken place. airasia itself has a pretty much perfect safety record. there is not a blemish against airasia. >> you would be wrong to link this to flight 370 that went missing 10 months ago. but as of this moment the search for this aircraft is exactly the same as 370. how so? >> because the plane is missing, it went down over water, you have to have assets heading in that general direction and they have to do the lowe overwater flights, so you've got to get s

airasia flight 8501 is going to now start to take the story into a new phase. obviously, we're in the mourning phase as expressed by the company's ceo tony fernandez. my heart. before this tragedy, this airasia story was about a bold gamble. tony fernandez bought the airline from the malaysian government for 29 cents. 29 cents, assumed the debt. they were old 737's and 250 employees. this is this year's chart, the stock flying high, no pun intended. before the tragedy, it started to fall off right there. the stock started to peak in 2011. over the past 24 hours, it's this chart and other things that have critics say blaming the airline, it is a legend in the airline industry, they have stretched the boundaries of what's possible. redefined a lot of rivals. they have the lowest unit cost. they're a low-cost airline, the world's lowest unit cost. 100% of fuel hedged for the next three years, that is amazing, turnaround time for planes, just 25 minutes. so that means that average utilization rate, 13 hours a day. crew productivity, three times that of their rival, malaysia air. i guess we knew this was going to happen at some point. jim, the company is

airasia's livery. let's go live now to surabaya and the bbc's clive myrie. >> reporter: a press conference is just about to begin involving the president of indonesia, joko widodo, and we understand tony fernandez, the boss of airasia. in the last literally 15 minutes, 20 minutes or so confirming that search teams have now made it clear that the debris found in the java sea is that of that missing airasia plane. let's just hear what is going on. >> translator: hello, citizens all across indonesia. at just about two hours ago, i just come back from the location and from the military. i was close to the location. and have got the information. i can see myself. there were three ships on location. and all the ships this evening and tonight will go to the location. and tomorrow morning, ships and helicopters from navy and air force will be all deployed to the area. i've instruct eded joint operation. to find out the plane or the passengers and the crews. i've instructed all the team to focus, to find the passengers and crews, and secondly i want to thank in appreciation to the team military police and volunteers and all communities for their support given to us to find the missing plane and all the

. >> reporter: brianna, airasia ceo tony fernandez being careful to tell us what they know and don'tisual of what could be wreckage of the aircraft in the java sea. but he cannot confirm that radar picked this up which would be significant. so it leaves many families in agonizing limbo. the bodies of two more passengers from airasia flight 8501 arrived by ambulance, rushed to a hospital to be identified by loved ones. it's the first stop before being brought to the city of surabaya where the flight originated and caskets are received by the indonesian military. so far, few of the 162 people on board have been found. searchers discovered an emergency door and blue suitcase. >> the weather is not looking good for the next two or thee days. that is slowing us down. but they did inform me that the ships are looking to operate 24 hours. >> reporter: now there are conflicting reports from officials about whether a sonar image located wreckage believed to be from the ill-fated flight at if bottom of the java sea. one theory developing -- >> the pilots made an attempt to land the aircraft on

. >> indonesia promise a safety review of airasia, something the budget airlines ceo, tony fernandez says is a top priority. >> we have carried 220 million people up to this point. of course, there is going to be some reaction, but we are confident in our ability to fly people. >> reporter: relatives still wait for any news, holding on to hope at a crisis center set up to the indonesian airport where the missing plane took off. mark albert, for cbs news. >>> usa today is now reporting an official on site says oily spots and objects spotted floating in the sea are ruled out as being connected to the crash. >>> more than 400 passengers stranded on a burning ferry in the adriatic sea are safe and on dry land. they were rescued in small groups by helicopter and then transferred by cargo ships. the ferry called the norman atlantic caught fire during a trip between greece and italy. a total of seven people were killed. the fire started sunday on the car deck of the slip. >>> lava from a volcano on hawaii's big island moves another ten yards toward a populated shopping center over the weeke

airasia's ceo was quick to reach out to the heartbroken families. tony fernandezheart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in qz8501. on behalf of airasia my condolences to all. words cannot express how sorry i am." earlier this morning, we learned the navy destroyer the "uss sampson" has arrived in the java sea, but what had been its original mission searching for wreckage and possible survivors now turns to recovery. as i said that u.s. destroyer has arrived in the ja is asea helping to search in recovery efforts. crews aboard the "uss sampson are working closely with indonesian authorities to provide any assistance needed. cnn's rene marsh is following that part of the story for us. good morning rene. >> good morning, carol. not only is "uss sampson already in the area. we just got word this morning that a second u.s. ship has been dispatched to the area. we're talking about "uss ft. worth." i want to tell you a little bit about the capability of "uss ft. worth." we know it's a combat ship. it does have a helicopter on board, which would be hand

airasia group. and that's tony fernandez, that's in malaysia. that's the whole group.t's got subsidiaries around the region. they have a total of 170 aircraft. yes, there have certainly be legitimate safety concerns about indonesian carriers. but i wouldn't put airasia in any shape, form or description into that category. >> fair enough. richard quest, thank you so much. >>> turning now to politics, a top member of the republican leadership in the house of representatives is defending a speech that he gave to a white supremacist group back in 2002. what could that fallout mean for his future, for the republican congress? that's just ahead. man (sternly): seriously? where do you think you're going? mr. mucus: to work, with you. it's taco tuesday. man: you're not coming. i took mucinex to help get rid of my mucusy congestion. mr. mucus: oh, right then i'll swing by in like 4 hours... just set aside a few tacos for me. man: forget the tacos! one pill lasts 12 hours. i'm good all day. mr. mucus (to himself): wait! your loss. i was going to wear a sombrero. [announcer:] onl

through monday officials went through -- the vice president of indonesia was there, tony fernandez the ceo of yaishesz, airasia, he went in the with them. the updates on jakarta there was a directs video link set up and they were seeing the press conferences set up there. this was ongoing. when this latest news came that was something they were able to watch in that room privately but also televised across the nairgsnaish. nation. tony fernandez says they will fly anyone up here and put them up the focus is on the bodies and retrieving them. >> this search ongoing. take us through sort of equipment and who is actually involved in these search and rescue operation? i believe many of indonesia's neighbors have also joifned joined in. >> yes absolutely. there's been regional neighbors and outside regional neighbors. aircraft deployed helicopters singapore then joined the search and then malaysia joined the search and this has kind of been tiered over as search area widened and widened. thailand offered services and the united states a destroyer in the area already deployed around here that was being deployed arou

airasia's ceo tony fernandez expressing his condolences saying "my heart is filled with sadness for alls to all. words cannot express how sorry i am." now the somber task of recovering the wreckage the flight data and cockpit voice recorders and piecing together what caused the plane to go down. overnight, audio transmissions from airasia 8501's cockpit to air traffic control surfacing providing little to no clue. the pilots cleared for takeoff from surabaya to singapore 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 real

. >>> and tony fernandez, the ceo of airasia has released a statement on twitter reading in part my heart is filled with sad nsa for the families involved. words cannot express how sorry i am. we'll have more on this breaking news from indonesia when we come back. >> you're watching cnn. >>> a nurse who was the first person diagnosed with ebola in the uk has arrived at a london hospital. she traveled sunday from sierra leone to scotland. she was hospitalized the next day. >> under uk protocols, she's been admitted to a special unit. nick rosen joins us live now outside that hospital. if that's anywhere she's going to be that's the place. they've successfully dealt with one ebola patient already. any update on her condition? >> reporter: not so far. what we know from the hospital is she's in the high level isolation unit, a unit set up in 2006 designed for the isolation treatment of people with infectious diseases. william pooley a medical worker who was in west africa caught ebola, was brought back here and successfully treated several months ago. this new patient, a woman, she is the fir

. >> reporter: indonesia promise a safety review of airasia, something the budget airlines ceo tony fernandez says is a top priority. relatives still wait for any news, holding on to hope at a crisis center where the missing plane took off. markable for cbs news. >>> the most recent loss of the airasia plane comes on top of the still unexplained disappearance of flight 370 back in march. >>> gaithersburg residents turned out to support ken game mel and his young daughter era bell. his wife and their two young sons were killed when a small plane crashed into their home. a company called pump it up hosted a fundraiser for the family people donated gift cards and books for game mel and his daughter dc police have shut down a bar where five emwere stabbed. it happened in mcfaden's restaurant. so far no arrests had been made. we are told the victims suffered serious injuries. police chief cathy lanier ordered mcfaden's closed for 96 hours. the closure order is set to expire on new year's eve. >>> the tension continues to rise in new york city between the police department and the mayor. police com

. >> we know that the ceo of this company tony fernandez, the ceo of airasia is traveling to surabayaed a few moments ago. he tweeted to all of my airasia all stars, be strong, continue to be the best, pray hard. continue to do your best for all our guests. i'll see you soon. he's en route to surabaya. let's get to our cnn meteorologist. karen, the weather in this area, we understand not just one thunderstorm but a collection of storms could quite possibly what caused this plane to go down. >> it was a torrential down pour but this is typical for this time of year. they are in the monsoon season. this is surabaya. here is singapore. you can see a couple thunderstorm clusters right there and right there. so definitely these pilots need to be aware of this. but they're also trained to go around the thunderstorms or to maneuver or to request diversions when this kind of activity is in the area. this is the monsoon season. it is in the intertropical convergence zone meaning the ittz, an area where we start to see a lot of tropical activity. the water is very warm here. and when you get mo

. >> families learned more from twitter with air asia ceo tony fernandez saying airasia indonesia regretsz8501 from surabaya to singapore has lost contact. before communication was lost, pilot asked for permission to get to a higher altitude. >> it's possible the playboy was in distress. the pilot's reaction will be looked at. >> authorities say there were clouds in the region but did not want to speculate if severe weather played a role in the plane's disappearance. airasia's iconic logo going from red to gray changing more than a color, but the mood. >> as rescue teams are activated, and family members rush to take a glance at a flight manifest posted at the airport, perhaps hoping their loved one somehow missed the ill-fated flight. >> thoughts and players have been circulating on social media all day long for those family members. the other thing that people are asking how is it possible that we can trace a cell phone down to the block, yet a plane can be lost? rosea flores cnn, new york. >> well let's bring in captain desmond ross a former pilot and aviation security expert who joins

tony fernandez is keeping families informed. he's the former host of the apprentice asia. he bought airasia for 25 cents and turned it around. facing a much tougher challenge. poppy harlow reporting. >> reporter: tony fernandez is living the moment every airline executive dreads. >> we're devastated about what's happened. >> reporter: airasia ceo since 2001, fernandez tweeted more than a dozen times in the hours following the plane's disappearance. this is my worst nightmare. we will go through this terrible ordeal together. >> i'm concerned right now for the relatives the and for the next of kin. >> reporter: the approach of airasia's ceo thus far stands in stark contrast to that of malaysia airlines and its ceo known as a.j. after mh-370 disappeared. >> it is a boeing 777 wide body jet. >> with all affected passengers and crew and family members. >> reporter: but malaysia airlines didn't tell families flight 370 was missing until after it was supposed to have arrived in beijing, many hours after it vanished. and there was the disastrous text message sent from malaysia airlines to family members saying none of those on boar