andrew stevens, this news that the debris and bodies have been spotted in the ocean about five or six miles from that point of radar contact. andrew thank you. >> andrew talked about the weather at the time of the disappearance of the plane and the crew was asking permission to go over the thunderstorm and go around it. what are the weather conditions in the area now where the debris has been spotted? will investigators be able to search under water soon? let's bring in meteorologist pedram javaheri. he is looking at that part of it for us. what does this mean for the next steps in the investigation? >> good morning. the weather pattern in the next hour and a half is not too bad. around sunrise local time for more storms to develop. i want to show you the debris field location with the ocean currents in the region. ocean currents is six miles east of the track of the flight there is a very eddy formed location there. by my calculations the debris field would move 13 miles per day each of the two and a half days. 55 hours total time since the initial crash there. i would imagine someth

we want to get more on this from andrew stevens. he's in surabaya indonesia. ew these photographs, this information coming from officials in indonesia, what else do you know? >> reporter: well at this stage, we're still trying to firm going back to the source to try to confirm. what we're hearing so far, robyn is that the indonesian air force took these pictures of 10 objects in an area not that far from where the plane was last charted. so it is definitely in the right part of the java sea to be linked to flight 8501. the pictures i've seen there are three pictures. i think we just had two to show you at the moment. one, to me appears it could be a life jacket. it's difficult to tell what the scale of this is. and there's a black ogt in the second picture. it is difficult to say with any degree of certainty what these pictures r but certainly, the acting director general of transportation is talking about the objects. he's describes them as brown square objects, silver rectangular and yellow triangular. ten in all. they were the photographs were taken by an in

andrew stevens, thank you. >> remarkable from the vice president of indonesia live with andrew. a rescue operation. as the hours tick on the hope of finding anyone alive dwindles. it has been more than 30 hours since the last contact with flight 8501. we have paula hancocks joins us with the latest. >> reporter: john we are seeing the search and rescue operation grow. we have seen additional ships and helicopters. the helicopters and planes have come here to the airports on the island in belitung. this is the closest land mass to the area where the plane lost contact with the controllers. this is the area where the helicopters are coming to refuel and briefing and where they should go next. we spoke to the head of the search and rescue efforts here in belitung. i asked him, does he think there could be survivors still. he said if the plane did land in the water, it is very unlikely. if it did manage to crash or land on land there is a jungle area. he mentioned to the east of here. he said it is still possible. the area that they are searching is large. 240 nautical miles by 240

that is where our andrew stevens is right now. he has been tracking the story from the beginning, and andrew you've just gotten some information about where the families are and who they're hearing from right now. >> reporter: that's right, poppy. if you look behind me you'll see a table there, empty table surrounded by cameras, and just behind that table in the main building is a briefing room where there are now dozens of family members seated, listening to officials from airasia. at this stage, we don't know what they're being told whether there is any new information at all at the moment. for several hours now, no word from the searchers that any wreckage or indeed anything has been spotted. they have an area they are searching, it is still quite a wide area and as yet nothing has turned up. but very very difficult for the family airasia has been putting the family members in a hotel here they've been keeping them informed as much as they know. that is very little can happen overnight once the search was, was stopped for the ev

cnn's andrew stevens is live in surabaya indonesia. andrew you spoke with indonesia's vice president for the latest on this search. >> reporter: that's right, john. he was pretty blunt, too. we are more than 30 hours into this search and still no positive sign on what happened to 8501. the vice president saying after 40 hours you would have to say that the chances of finding survivors are very slim. particularly if that plane ended in the water, which certainly looks the no likely scenario. he has been talking to the families of the passengers and the crew here at surabaya airport. this is the crisis central for the entire story, john. he has been telling them that they are doing everything they can. that is all he can say at the moment. there is so little the information to go on. there have been reports of objects spotted by an australia reconnaissance aircraft. i asked the vice president about that. this is what he said. >> there have been reports of objects floating in the search zone. can you tell me do you know if they are linked

cnn's andrew stevens is live in indonesia. andrew authorities are saying they are 95% certain this is the debris. when you look at the pictures it looks clearly like debris from the airplane. we know the indonesian coast guard has crews and men in harnesses and orange jumpsuits retrieveing bodies. >> reporter: that's right, christine. the news started to trickle through. the first pictures we saw were what looked like life jackets. then pictures of emergency slides and emergency doors and pictures of the bodies circulating as well. tragic end. perhaps, though, not an unsurprising end. this is the site of the debris is six kilometers from where the plane had last contact with the ground control. the pilots requested to climb around the storm. it all fitted together. we started to get reports in and by the early afternoon, we had confirmation from the authorities here. as you say, the head of search and rescue say he was 95% certain. the only reason he is not 100% certain is he has not seen it with his own eyes. scenes of heart b

live for us now from sydney, cnn's andrew stevens. good morning, andrew, what's the latest?> reporter: good morning, john. yes, australian prime minister tony abbott is pushing this line about making sure that everything that can be done, will be done, to make sure this doesn't happen again. those questions you ask, most importantly, how could this have happened? when we know that the gunman lived on the fringes of extremism here in australia. he was well-known to police. he was allowed to have a gun. he had a gun license, and he was not on the terror watch list. these are the questions being asked not only by the prime minister, but by the australian media as well. but, john, i also want you to take a look behind you because this is the scene here in marketplace. not far from the lindt chalk la chock lit cafe. that floral memorial continues to grow. thousands of people -- sort of 300, 400, people have come down to spend their regards, so much, sort of giving their regards and showing their grief with what happened just two days ago. also, we've had family members and friend

we have cnn's andrew stevens joining us live with more. good morning, andrew. >> reporter: good morning to you, john. that memorial of flowers grows and grows. i have been down to have a look. it is quite a poignant scene down there. there are hundreds of people gathered around a circle, an ever-widening circle of flowers. sydney has come to pay their respects and remembrances to what has been a traumatic 36 hours for the people of this city. hostages taken for some 16 hours. it was expected this siege would continue most likely into this day. inside that lindt cafe shots were fired and the police reacted immediately. special police going in with flash grenades and stun grenades and seizing and getting most of the hostages alive. sadly two hostages paid with their lives. we don't know the details officially at the moment, john, but the reports we're hearing is the manager of the cafe, tori johnson, who died, tried to grab the gun from gunman. in the fight for the gun, the shots were fired. johnson believed to be hit by the pellets and died.

for the latest let's turn to andrew stevens live from indonesia. to understand the people are learning the fate of their loved ones. >> you can't imagine, michaela what they must have been going through. they were called in there was a live press conference which has been relayed to them. it was from coming from jakarta. they were taking -- that's where they heard from the head of the search and rescue operations here in indonesia. that he said that there was a 95% chance that the debris that had been recovered or been seen spotted and photographed from that airasia plane just six miles from where the plane last mate contact when the pilots radioed to change their course six miles away. that 95% certain that this debris came from airasia 8501. you can imagine the scene. i was speaking to a man whose friend was on board. not only was his friend on board, but his friend's wife and three children and mother-in-law. a family of six, all on that flight. he said it was, it was hysterical what was happening there. there was his tearics there were people fa

andrew stevens is at the airport there tracking developments. we just heard news about the families will be taken via plane to the search area. in that press conference, what was said? what did you hear? >> reporter: yeah, that's right, robin. this is a request, actually, from the families of the passengers. they want to go across the search zone because they want to pray. and they want to pray because they think that will help find some sort of resolution on what is still a mystery on where this plane is. they have made it quite chelearo airasia that they want this flight to happen. and airasia said absolutely. they will be on an airbus 320, the same type of plane that has disappeared. there should be room for 160-plus passengers on that. they have also invited some media on that flight as well. but that's about all the details we have at the moment. but certainly, airasia and authorities here have been doing everything they can to increase the flow of information to the families here. they just set up a skype link with their headquarters of th

we have the latest from andrew stevens. young barrister and mother of three is heart breaking and the store manager. what can you tell us about them? >> reporter: he was the store manager there. his parents put out a tribute to them praising their beloved tori. there has been outpouring to johnson and both of them because they are the innocent victims here in sydney. it has shocked the city. there is a massive flower memorial. so many people walking past carrying bunches of flowers to pay respects to what happened in that hostage crisis. now, it looks like and we cannot confirm this, there are still no details and police have not talked about it. it looks like tori johnson, the manager of the lindt cafe and one of the victims there, actually tried to wrestle the gun from the gunman. shots were fired inside the lindt cafe and that is what triggered the police response. the police were indicating they were prepared to sit it out for some time. perhaps into today, the daylight hours or longer. shots were fired inside the cafe.

andrew stevens is there and has new information for us now. andrew what are you learning?we're just hearing that malaysia is going to be sending three vessels to help in the search that properly gets under way tomorrow there are big ships in the area with lights but certainly there's no air searching environment. malaysia has had hard hard experience in -- as investigators try to find out exactly what happened to 8501. it's interesting, standings here brian, just in the last half an hour or so we noticed two women going into the building behind me which is the crisis center they are, they didn't want to speak to us they said they were obviously very very distraught so they may be very close friends or family members. so there are people still trickling in here trying to get information. most of the passengers' families have been taken to a hotel nearby they're being shielded from the media, but there are people still coming in in fact one of my colleagues spoke to the brother of one of the passengers and he said that he first heard about what was happening on television, h

. >> we'll go straight to andrew stevens. moments ago he landed in indonesia.at's where the plane was due to take off at 5:30 in the morning, more than 13 hours ago. joining us live on phone. you just landed. give us the mood, give us the sense of what people are saying, what they are doing there. i imagine this is a very difficult time for folks. >> reporter: very difficult time. many passengers here from this city, second biggest city in indonesia. just finished a news conference with the chief executive officer, the founder of airasia. enormously successful budget carrier across indonesia. he said the priorities for him at the moment is looking after families of the passengers and the crew who are on board and refusing to be drawn into anything like speculation as to what may have happened. there have been reports and none have been confirmed that there's some wreckage found. we have not been able to confirm this. al what we do know that just before they lost radio contact air traffic control lost radio contact with that airasia flight that the captain had r

. >>> we want to go next to andrew stevens in tacloban. andrew, what's it like where you are?escribe for our viewers the situation. >> reporter: well, just in the last hour or so, isha, the wind speeds have picked up significantly here. and it's still quite heavy rain. the rain seems to come through in bands. but certainly it is not yet sort of the terrifying force winds that were experienced here a little more than a year ago. now, it is going to get worse here, but as we've just been hearing, the brunt of the storm is not going to hit or come too close to tacloban. no doubt there is going to be severe winds here, and there's going to be heavy rain, but at this stage, it doesn't look like there's going to be a storm surge. and this is incredibly significant because you remember tacloban was in many ways the ground zero for typhoon haiyan, the strongest storm that's ever made landfall. and nearly 6.5 million people died mainly because of a storm surge. perhaps six to eight meters high. so this time around when authorities were not clear, when no one was clear exactly where thi

cnn asia-pacific editor andrew stevens took an aerial tour of the island that bore the brunt of hagupit. >> reporter: the reports that we've been getting say the small town of dolores is one of the hardest hit in this entire region. it's about 100 kilometers northwest of tacloban. we're going up there now. there were reports that there were real fears of a storm surge there, but we haven't heard anything from that town. this island sena was hagupit's first landfall where it hit with the highest intensity. we reached dolores 40 minutes later. from the air, it looks battered but not devastated. trees down, houses unroofed, and just north of the town, this resort clearly showing the scars of nature's fury. we were the first international journalists locals tell us to reach this remote town. we've arrived here in dolores. this is the grounds of the school here which is now the main evacuation center of the town. you can see there are originally hundreds of children here who sought safety from the storm. you can also see these downed trees as testament to the sheer power of hagupit. all arou

cnn's andrew stevens is there. andrew, what's the latest? >> well, tony abbott, john, has put a lot of credibility in his domestic policies on securing australia from terrorism. and he's introduced some of the toughest measures we've seen anywhere in the world, anti-terror measures. and so for this to happen on his watch, he says he's determined to get to the bottom of it. when you consider, there does seem to be a fail of the system. given the fact that this is a man who did have a criminal record. who was facing multiple charges, accessory to murder and also found guilty of sending poison pen letters to the parents of the deceased. yet, he could carry a gun -- australia has very tough gun laws as well. he could carry a gun into a cafe into the heart of sydney. and we all know what happened after that. so tony abbott really pushing hard on this investigation. also, john, i'll step out of the frame for the moment, the scene behind me. this is just a short distance away from the lindt chocolate cafe where the assault took place and the death

andrew stevens, cnn,

about half of them from surabaya which is where andrew stevens is now. he joins us from the airport. how has communication can between the authorities and these families? obviously looking back to mh-370 a lot of those families felt like they were left in the dark. >> reporter: there's a lot of anger in mh-370 you're right, anderson. here that anger is not visible, at least not on the surface, but people we've been speaking to are expressing their frustrations with the lack of information. the difficulty obviously, is the fact there is no information, but the authorities can't actually tell them anything more because for the last two days we've had nothing fresh, nothing to go on. what we've been hearing from the relatives is they're getting more information from television reports than they are from the official channels. i've been speaking to air asia about this and they say they've assigned an individual member for each individual family to be their conduit, to get them whatever they can. there are regular updates here. just behind me there's a crisis

andrew stevens in surabaya indonesia and will ripley from beijing. andrew to you first. 11:00 a.m. there. the search area for the missing airasia flight 8501 has expand expanded. if the area they're searching continues to expand this can't be good news. >> absolutely, don. i mean it is still a search and rescue operation, but more and more it's in name only given that if the plane is at the bottom of the sea, which is still the working assumption here, well past 40 hours, even the vice president of this country saying anything after that very unlikely we're going to see survivors. but miracles still do happen. 156,000 square kilometers. that's roughly the size of california. that is the search zone we're looking at. now, you mentioned smoke. smoke has been detected coming from an island within that search zone. they are on their way. search crews are on their way there. we're staying in pretty close contact with the search crews out of jakarta, and they're reporting to us now that they still do not know the source of that smoke. unlikely to be burning off, which is a pretty common

. >> let's go to andrew stevens, who is live at the airport. andrew of course everyone now is hoping there will be survivors, but there are now reports there have been victims spotted in the water. >> reporter: yeah there has been images shown of victims in the water. bodies floating in the water, john but no sign of any survivors. but also there is still a lot of rescue vessels that need to get to that area. the chances of finding anyone alive honestly are very, very slim, indeed. the head of the national search and rescue team the main man in charge of the search and rescue here in indonesia saying he was 95% certain that this debris is from airasia flight 8501. the only reason he didn't say 100% is because he actually hadn't seen it with his own eyes. but obviously this is very very compelling evidence. the plane, for all intents and purposes has now been located, or debris of the plane. the rest obviously is under water. it coincides closely to where that plane was last seen was held on radar, last made contact. so it all fits. and as you ca

i want to bring in andrew stevens standing by live in tokyo. think what consumers are aing, andrew are saying, wow, the companies do have much of the control in the recall world. not necessarily the government. recalls are voluntary in the united states. >> reporter: that's right, christine, i think a lot of people are surprised, very surprised, by the reaction by takata basically denying the request to actually do a full recall. we actually spokes to a spokesman at takata today just to find out what the reasoning is behind that. they do say in a public statement that they acknowledge that request, but they're not acting on it. when we spoke to them they said, two things come out of that conversation. first of all, the fact that they say it is the automakers themselves who should be making the request for recall, ngata kata. takata says we will follow what our customers, the automakers want, but we are not going to make the recall. the second thing is they still believe any sort of recall or any action to fix this should be focused, prioritize.

let's go to tacloban where andrew stevens is at. andrew, this is one of the hardest hit cities last year during typhoon haiyan. how has it weathered the typhoon now? >> reporter: i'll have to speak quite softly to answer that because we're standing just outside a catholic church here and mass is currently being performed. but to your question, the typhoon, the storm surge this time around. so we actually, part of the reason for that, the reason for so many people here, they're giving thanks for what could have been but what wasn't in the end. and also you have to say the people here, not only are they traumatized from what happened in recent memory with typhoon haiyan, but also much more aware of how the storm and the effect, and they need to get out of the pathway. that's exactly what they did. there's been no casualty reports. local residents, just to give you an idea how prepared tacloban was this time around. the storm was much weaker than it was last time. >> thank you very much. that's andrew stevens in a church in tacloban whe

andrew stevens live from tacloban. we'll continue to monitor this story and go back to him later on. thank you very much, andrew. >>> now a third straight night of demonstrations was dampened by rain in new york. the protests have spread to more cities. this was the scene at macy's in new york where protesters are demanding that all the police officers involved in the chokehold death of a staten island man back in july be fired. in washington, demonstrators blocked traffic for hours in chinatown. they tried to keep people from getting into the verizon center where there was a pro basketball game. here are things in miami, where crowds shut down an interstate highway. protesters marched in boston, cleveland, dallas and other cities. chicago saw some of the largest protests of the night. although they were not as sprawling as in the past few days. cnn's kyung lah was there and she has the details. >> reporter: here in chicago, the protests have been a bit smaller, but they are still energized. we are right now at the chic

let's get to andrew stevens who is in tacloban. drew this is in many ways a success story after last year, many feared the worse. this time it seems tacloban residents were able to get to safety well before the storm hit. what can you tell us? >> reporter: you're absolutely right. there was a lot of preparation, a lot of planning, a lot of o y cajoling in the days leading up to the typhoon. the best ways to describe it is rushing past tacloban in the end. three to four days before it was due to hit authorities were asking people to leave. many did. last year the biggest killer was a storm surge which accounted for so many of those 6300 victims here in tacloban. authorities and residents were making sure that wasn't going to happen again that they moved quickly, and efficiently away from the vulnerable areas, low-lying areas into places like this. this is the church of redemption and even now 24 hours really after the storm really started to build on its way to tacloban there were still a couple hundred people here not yet prepared t

andrew stevens is in tacloban right now, joining us live. hi, there, andrew, i can see you inside a church. just describe what people are seeing there now? >> reporter: hi, robyn, this is the evacuation center and has been for the past two or three days. and there are still probably 3 or 400 people here. there are sacks of food, cooking implements. dogs and chickens tied up outside. so there is a whole community feel here. and despite the people here, there is also services. in fact, there is one in about 20 minutes now from now. what the people here have been telling me first is really a sense of great relief. relief that the storm was not as bad as it could have been. and certainly not nearly as bad as what happened to this city a little more than a year ago when 6,300 people lost their lives, mainly in a devastating storm surge that came in during the typhoon haiyan. it did not happen this time around. the wind speeds were a lot less as well, robyn, although we do have a lot of rain, the skies are slowly clearing as in the cloud is getting

and now we go to the missing jet from surabaya where it took off en route to singapore, and now andrew stevens is just south of the crisis center, and what are we hearing from the authorities there? >> well it is just after 1:00 in the morning, martin. there has not been much new information that i can the tell you about. and what i can say is that the search resuming at full force, there will be several vessels, and singapore is sending one aerial reconnaissance airline, and we don't know where the offer is going to be taken up yet, but the focus in the next few hours is going to be moving on to the search area, and we had the chief executive officer and the founder of airasia who arrived here a few hours ago and he is saying that the priority is being with the families of both the passengers and of course with the crew 155 passengers on board and plus a crew of seven, and that is where the focus is, and he is not speculating on what may or may not have happened to that plane. lis listen to what tony fernandez had to say about his own personal reaction. >> we are devastated by what has happen

let's go to andrew stevens, he is joining us he landed just a short time in surabaya that's where the missing jet took off from when i was heading to singapore. and now officials are hunkered down at the crisis center which is just outside of the main terminal. >> reporter: it's just about 11:00 in the evening here and it's just now wait and see, the founder of airasia, the man who put this together an enormously successful budget carrier back in 2001 has also just arrived here and he just in the last hour or so held a press conference he described personally that he is devastated as you can imagine by what has happened every employee of an airline's worst nightmare coming true. he says the priority very clearly for him and for the airline at the moment is to look after and to be with and to give information to when they get it to the families of the passengers and crew on board that flight. he's not speculating at all at the moment as to what may or may not have happened. he's asked a lot of questions about weather, about pilot experience, this is all in the realm of speculation, unt

our andrew stevens is at that airport in surabaya. andrew, the two victims were given that solemn welcome. it will, of course be the first of many. at the same time we have this information from investigators that there could be this possible sonar location of the wreckage although the ceo of the airlines saying it's not exactly confirmed. what can you tell us about where this wreckage is? >> this is very, very frustrating. they can not confirm whether this is the actual primary wreckage, the main fuselage where the investigators, serge groups think most of the passengers remain. it's a very stark image. they say when they find fuselage they'll find most of the passengers buckled in. what they can't say with any degree of certain city whether they've pinpointed the area in the crash zone. it's around the same area where the indonesian air force first saw what they described as a shadow which looked like a plane underwater but at this stage with those weather conditions so bad we've got two more days of these bad conditions by the sound

let's cross over to andrew stevens who joins us from sydney with the latest. ew, it is so strange for something like this to happen in sydney but also for an individual like this who's had a number of dustups with the law to still have the freedom to do what he did. but just give us the latest information. what new information are we learning either about the man behind it all or some of the victims or some of those who are fortunate enough to escape? >> reporter: well, we've been learning little bits about the hostage-taker and also the two who tragically died, errol. where we're standing it moment, 150 meters down the road on the corner is the lindt cafe. that's been taken away and the body of the hostage-taker has been in the cafe while forensic team has been in there for most of the day. that's the case we understand. but details coming up. there hasn't been a lot of information yet from the hostages themselves. now, what i can tell you is that katrina lawson was a mother of three young children, three children under the age of 10 years old. she was a risin

. >> i want to go right now to surabaya where we have cnn's andrew stevens. thank you very much for joining us. how did the families react when they first saw and heard that not just debris but bodies were being pulled from the water? >> reporter: jake i was talking to a man who's in with the families of the passengers and he says it was hysterical outbursts, screaming, crying people fainted as the news came through. but it was compounded -- the pain and suffering was compounded by the fact that they were watching a live news conference in jakarta and they said it was 90% chance that the debris that had been spotted in the previous hours was, in fact linked to airasia 8501. as he was saying that local television was broadcasting pictures of bodies in the water and there were the families of those passengers sitting there watching this. so as the man said to me, it was just hystericalness. you cannot imagine -- they are already suffering the pain the anguish, not knowing what has happened and then to see bodies perhaps of their own loved ones in the water, it'

andrew stevens shows up their up-close vantage point. >> live breaking news for us right here in thehe cbd in sydney. heavily armed police presently converging on martin place where -- >> reporter: this was how much of australia first heard of the country's deadly hostage crisis. as it unfolds just across the street from the seven network studios in sydney. >> the whole newsroom, we just came over to the window. >> the woman you saw in the lindt. >> it will remind me, shaking and i can only think of what was going through her mind. >> reporter: cameraman greg parker says police asked him to stay behind. to keep his cameras trained on the crisis unfolding on martin place. >> back in the police sort of command were then asking for specific shots so we would -- we put on kevlar vests and relocated cameras. >> reporter: he crouched and caught the growing agitation of the gunman. it was not to air but to police hq. they moved to a backup location. >> we've always had a plan. we call it a disaster recovery plan where we might be evacuated so after the initial confusion, police rushing in s

andrew stevens hive ss live for us. let's go to captain ross now. you've had a chance to look at some of those images. what is your take? >> thank you very much for having me. yes, i am in sydney. the three -- they do look interesting. the top one in particular looks to me as possibly a life raft or a life vest. it's hard to know exactly what size these are. the one in the middle could be anything from a black plastic bag to very difficult indeed. the final one, which looks long it does look too solid to be a slide. i don't think it would remain that straight. so, you know as your reporter said a moment ago, i would tend to be a little cautious at the moment in declaring exactly what they are. there are so many shipping containers that go overboard. however, it does look hopeful and the indonesians are taking it all seriously. they'll get a ship there and we'll know exactly what it is within a short period of time. >> does the location make sense to you that this debris is being found about six miles from where the plane was last seen on radar? >> a

andrew stevens joins us live in tokyo with more. so andrew, i mean, how damaging is that downgrade?o be the fight to the death for shinzo abe, isn't it? >> reporter: it's, it couldn't have come at a worse time, obviously, to have a downgrade on top of news that you are in recession. but i think it is important to note that this downgrade is on the back of mr. abe actually postponing a consumption tax which is due to come in april of next year. and he postponed it because the economy is just not strong enough to bear it, basically. so consumers here will be thankful for that. and the reason moody's downgraded japan was because without that tax, it's going to be difficult for japan to balance the books. so it becomes a slightly beggar credit risk. that means japan is lower than south korea and china now as far as its risk profile, which is not good. certainly, japan's always seen as a very reliable economy. so to have that is certainly not good news for shinzo abe. but really, he's going, rosemary, he's going to the snap elections on the fact that he thinks he can sell the electric st

my cnn colleague andrew stevens is at the surabaya airport right now. andrew, has the new year brought any breaks in the weather for the search teams? >> reporter: it doesn't appear to be so, jake. the forecast for the next 48 hours is still pretty miserable and still going to hamper this search operation in what looks like a significant way. i don't know if you can hear around me the fireworks going off around me. new year's eve celebrations is a big deal in indonesia. and the contrast really is quite striking. you see the fireworks lighting up the sky. people on my left cheering and smiling and taking pictures of each other. in this what was up till about an hour ago, the crisis center that's now moved to a police hospital where the victims will be taken for identification, so much sadness, so much pain here over the past four days. but as far as the search goes, to your question, it's difficult to say there's going to be a lot of progress made over the next couple of days because the weather conditions are set to continue to be very, very bad. strong

. >>> well, our andrew stevens joins us from tokyo with more on what could happen next. and, andrew, the situation here, of course, is when you're looking at these cars, there's very little comfort for those people who own the cars that are at risk here, but talk to us about what the u.s. authorities are likely to do next now that takata's made it clear they are not expanding that recall to nationwide. >> reporter: well, the u.s. authorities can if they wish, rosemary, actually force takata to make a nationwide recall. that is within their powers. and they can also fine takata. but there is a fairly low ceiling on any fine natalie imposed. it will just be $35 million so for a company takata's size even though it's facing enormous difficulties at the moment $35 million does not represent a big issue for them to deal with. what's appearing to be happening why takata has decided to deny the request is that two things here, one, takata is telling us that it's not up to them to call a national recall anyway. it's actually up to the individual automakers. remember, there are no

andrew stevens is standing by in tokyo with more on this. good morning, andrew. >> reporter: good morning, john. yeah, that's right, takata put out a statement today saying they did recognize that the authorities in the u.s. did want them to expand that recall nationwide. they didn't actually rule it out in the statement. but, certainly, they didn't move on and say they would comply. so they really didn't give any indication as to why they weren't prepared to comply. we spoke to the press office here in tokyo, john, and asked them what's behind this. and they said -- they told us that it's really up to the automakers themselves to do a recall. and they would support the automakers. there are ten automakers involved who have these faulty air bags made by takata. it's up to them. they also said that they thought the best way to deal with the recall was to go to the priority areas first, which is those humid states that we've been talking about. florida, hawaii. those states there, where the incidents of these air bags exploding have been much h

. >> season mean's andrew stevens is in surabaya where the victims will make their final journey home. hi, andrew. >> hi, carol. that's right, a very somber moment here when those first two coffins arrived bearing the first two victims of flight 8501. they are believed to be a man and woman. they have not been formally identified yet. that process continues. there are ten bodies now that have been retrieved but really the big issue at the moment is finding the primary wreckage, the fuselage which the authorities here do believe cok still contain many if not most of the bodies still, perhaps, buckled into their seats inside the plane. but that search as you were say saying there is being hampered bailey by the weather here. speaking to our own weather team in cnn, they're saying expect big heavy rain strong winds, waves up to 20 feet swells up to 20 feet. even though the warships in the area can handle those conditions it does hamper any sort of operation. and we don't know. there's no confirmation yet whether that sighting sonar sounding of what the authorities think may actually be t

now andrew stevens is in sydney. he was listening to what the prime minister had to say as well as the new south wales premier. so andrew, a couple of issues that came out of that. first of all, the good news coming from the prime minister there. no intelligence of another threat, but he did say at great lengths that this was in fact a deranged individual and no amount of surveillance may have prevented this attack. >> reporter: yeah, it was interesting. this is almost a double-edged sword, john, because in a sense it's good news that this was just an individual. it's been made quite clear at that conference and preceding press conferences that the hostage taker was acting on his own. time and again we come back to this deeply disturbed individual, infat situation with extremism. deranged. that sort of line to describe the hostage taker. on the other side of that, of course, is the fact that you cannot prepare against people like this. it was interesting. that press conference clearly saying that the terror alert whic

andrew stevens thank you so much from surabaya for us. as these families wait for word on their loved ones, investigators are hard at work trying to figure out what caused flight 8501 to crash. cnn's tom foreman is looking at all the factors at play in this investigation. one of the big focuses here is going to be the flight path, tom. >> absolutely. they want to find out if anything unusual happened in that little bit less than an hour that the plane was flying. and then critically what led to this plane disappearing from radar there and then showing up here in the red area where they found the debris? 60 to 120 miles is now the estimate of where this debris is from there. that's a big range even though a lot of wild currents are going on out here, what made that happen? that's going to involve three levels of searching in the ocean. the first one, what we're hearing the most about right now is the surface of the water. all the debris they find on the surface of the water is important to the investigation, probably not the most important

. >> andrew stevens is "outfront" live in indonesia where the flight originated. a tremendous amount of progress the first signs of debris and bodies. what is the latest now as another day of search begins? >> reporter: jim, this is the grim basically aftermath of an air crash. we are at the sur a baya airport and i've counted ambulances lined up to wait for the bodies to come back and transported to a police hospital where the identification will take place. but the conditions we're being told are rough, it is still rough out there. that shadow of the plane, such a crucial part of the puzzle finding the actual main part of the plane, they can't relocate it. that is what we are being told about 15 minutes ago. so that is a focus. search today. obviously as finding bodies as well. but it has been an absolutely heart-rendering past 24 hours for the families of the passengers and the crew on board that flight. take a look. a grim recovery operation is now underway in the waters off indonesia. there is rescue teams working to retrieve bodies and debris from the wrecka

so far, searchers have found no sign of the plane with 162 people on board as we hear from andrew stevens, authorities are fearing the worst in this latest aviation mystery. >> reporter: grim new details as the search for 8501 continues. indonesian authorities leading the rescue think the plane is likely on the bottom of the sea. based on coordinates of the plane's last transmission. here at surabaya airport, it's become crisis central. the distraught family members were briefed here earlier today behind closed doors. monday marks the first full day of searching since 8501 disappeared early sunday morning. so far, the plane has not put out any signals that could help pinpoint its location. instead, crews focus on this very broad search zone over the shallow waters of the java sea where the plane was last tracked. the airbus a-320 took off from surabaya. rough roughly an hour later, it vanished en route to singapore. the pilots encountered severe storms that may have contributed to the fate of the passengers and crew. >> usually it's not one thing that brings down a plane and for a modern

our andrew stevens has been there as well and has the latest. >> we're now several hours into the second day of searching for missing flight 8501 and still no sign of where that plane may be. just behind me here at surabaya airport, the first media briefing of the day, and officials here are going through the assets which are currently being deployed from several countries now, several ships and aircraft now involved in that search. and just before this news conference started, the families of the passengers were also briefed by airasia officials. that was close to the media. but being able to see at least the reaction on the faces of some of those families they were grim-faced showing very little emotion to what they were being being toldtold. there was a press conference in jakarta where it was suggested the plane is at the bottom of the sea. that's focusing on the fact of where the plane's last known coordinates were and where it could have gone from there. and also taking into account the weather conditions. however, this is not confirmed. it's still very much a search and rescue mis

let's bring in our asia pacific editor andrew stevens with the latest on all of this. i'm wondering if you could update us on the crime scene itself. all of this finished not too long ago. has the suspect's body been removed? have they continued to keep it protected? what's the latest information you have? >> reporter: errol, as far as we know the body has not been removed. the actual coffee shop is up the street just on the corner. forensic teams have been up there pretty much all day and as we understand it they are still carrying out their investigations at the actual crime site. around the rest of the city, close by that crime site which is still very much cordoned off an impromptu area where people can pay their respects to the people who lost their lives and to this horrific incident in sydney. a memorial site has sprung up and just standing here for the last two hours you're struck by the number of people walking past with cafes of bouquets, a city of people in shock. many say they are shocked but there is also a core of resilience if you like. the people i've b

so we could see this international effort widen quite considerably from here. >> andrew stevens in surabaya in indonesia, covering that aspect of this tragedy for us. thanks andrew. >> very important point that it's not confirmed, that they say they assume that the plane is at the bottom of the sea. >> the interesting thing, the authorities have handled this so much differently to mh370, and it makes you wonder they wouldn't have said that if they didn't have reason for it. >> they do say early, but incomplete data. the key is going to be understanding from those analysts that will be joining us over the next couple of hours, what data they have that led them to this conclusion that this air asia flight is now at the bottom of the sea. >> let's try to get a better understanding of the plane's disappearance, also the challenges of the search. we're joined now by the former inspector general of the aviation department mary shafo, great to have your expertise on this. when you look at how the authorities have been handling this so far, in terms of their interactions with the families what they

we get more now on the standoff, the victims and a country in mourning from cnn's andrew stevens. >>ter: a bed of hundreds of flowers blanket martin place, the site of a deadly police standoff that claimed the lives of two hostages. each bouquet a tribute to the bravery here. >> this has has been an absolutely appalling and ugly incident. that's the only way to describe it. >> reporter: we're learning about the harrowing story amidst this terrifying ordeal. after a firestorm of gunshots rang out in the heart of downtown sydney, authorities still piecing together what set off the chain of events, forcing heavily armed police to storm the lindt chocolate cafe freeing the hostages inside. >> they made the call because they believed at that time if they didn't enter, there would have been many more lives lost. >> reporter: some have has t said 34-year-old tori johnson, the cafe manager, may have grabbed the hostage-taker's gun but authorities wouldn't comment on these accounts. shots were heard from the street. during the struggle, johnson was killed. 38 year katrina dawson, a lawyer and

cnn's andrew stevens is in sydney. a bed of flowers each a bouquet a tribute to the bravery here. >> this has been an absolutely appalling and ugly incident. >> reporter: we're learning more about the harrowing story amidst this terrifying ordeal. after a firestorm of gunshots rang out in the heart of downcity, heavily armed police storm the linde chocolate cafe, freeing the hostages inside. some said 34-year-old tori johnson the cafe's manager may have grabbed a hostagetaker's gun but authorities wouldn't comment on those accounts. shots were heard from the street during the struggle, johnson was killed. 38-year-old katrina dawson, a lawyer and mother of three, also died. johnson's family said in a statement, "we are so proud of our beautiful boy, tori, gone from this earth, but forever in our memories as the most amazing life partner, son, and brother we could ever wish for." for nearly 17 hours before the crisis ended, hostages remained on edge, visible through the cafes windows forced to hold a black flag with arab

let's go to andrew stevens live in sydney. andrew, what do we know? >> good morning, alisyn.e very heart of sydney that was under siege. the gunman chose an area which the banks, the financial heart is right there. and there were two deaths as we now know. and we're starting to get a picture of what happened in those fateful final moments. take a look. a bed of hundreds of hundreds of flowers blanket martin place, the site of a deadly police standoff that claimed the lives of two hostages. each bouquet, a tribute to the bravery that occurred here. >> this has been an absolutely appalling and ugly incident. that's the only way to describe it. >> this morning we're learning more about the a harrowing story amidst this terrifying ordeal. after a firestorm of gunshots rang out in the heart of downtown sydney, authorities still piecing together what set off the chain of events, forcing heavily-armed police to storm the cafe freeing the hostages inside. >> they made the call because they believed at that time, if they didn't enter, there would have been many more lives lost. >> som

andrew stevens, cnn, sydney. >>> ahead for us at this hour, bill cosby's wife speaks out.this mean for all the allegations against bill cosby? stay with us. (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. wouldn't it be great if hiring plumbers, carpenters shopping online is as easy as it gets. and even piano tuners were just as simple? thanks to angie's list, now it is. we've made hiring anyone from a handyman to a dog walker as simple as a few clicks. buy their services directly at angieslist.com no more calling around. no more hassles. start shopping from a list of top-rated providers today. angie's list is revolutionizing local service again. visit angieslist.com today. that's why i always choose the fastest intern.r slow. the fastest printer. the fastest lunch. turkey club. the fastest pencil sharpener. the fastes

andrew stevens is in surabaya indonesia. will ripley joins us from beijing. and cnn aviation correspondent richard quest here with me this evening in the studio. hello to all of you gentlemen. i'm going to start with you, andrew. reports of smoke we have seen, that has been seen on an island in the asia air flight 8501 search area. what do you know about the smoke? >> don, that's the key. within the search zone. remember this search zone continues to widen rather than focus down at the moment. so the authorities really are looking at every possible angle on where this plane could be. reported smoke from a small island on the eastern -- excuse me on the western side of that java sea closer to where i'm here in surabaya. what we know so far is smoke has been reported it has been confirmed by the search and rescue authorities. they are sending people to investigate. they're still on their way at this stage. but as i say, don, this search area grows ever bigger. 156,000 square kilometers now split down to over 13 zones. as they just try to find out what happened

we begin in surabaya indonesia with cnn's andrew stevens. andrew, give us the latest. >> reporter: brianna, as you say, dawn is just breaking here in surabaya. and the search aircrafts will be back in the air in the moment now. they have about an hour to get to the search zone which has now been extended. but so far as we head into day three of the search it's been a very fruitless and frustrating effort in the search ongoing. a massive search operation is under way to locate the missing aircraft with 162 people aboard. officials say 30 ships and 15 planes and helicopters are now searching for airasia flight 8501. its last known position was over the java sea. large waves and clouds initially hampered search efforts which began on sunday. >> it is not easy of course in operation in the sea, especially in the bad weather like this. >> reporter: seven zones. >> reporter: patrolled monday but there was no sign of wreckage. four additional areas are now included in the search zone. indonesia' president is asking for patience from the families of