bella dinh-zarr is the nominee to take over after the departure of deborah deborah hersman a step down early this year. dr. dinh-zarr this a compelling personal life story that includes escaping vietnam as a small child. the ntsb plays a role in highway aviation and transportation safety or i look forward to hearing from dr. dinh-zarr about how she would perceived prayer tie should she be confirmed. finally dr. carlos monje spin on its assistant secretary for the department of transportation. i had the opportunity to meet mr. monje last month. i'm pursued the secretary's time and seeing first-hand the host of the transportation challenges that exist in south dakota and i'm glad that mr. monje was able to come to south dakota. among other things we will be asking mr. monje about his views on issues regarding changes in the department's tiger grant review process as we approach the expiration of the map-21 extension that runs out on may 31 of next year. thank you again madam chair for holding this important hearing and i look forward to hearing from our witnesses. >> thank you senator th

deborah hersman, the former chair of the national transportation safety board.really appreciate your time today. >> thank you. >>> coming up a closer look at how pilots regain control of a plane that's stalled and is falling out of the sky. >>> also one of the biggest unanswered questions, why was there no distress call from the airasia jet's cockpit? you're in "the situation room." it's just ordinary fleece but the comfort it provides is immeasurable. the america red cross brings hope and help to people in need every 8 minutes every day. so this season give something that means something. when it comes to medicare, everyone talks about what happens when you turn sixty-five. but, really, it's what you do before that counts. see, medicare doesn't cover everything. only about eighty percent of part b medical costs. the rest is on you. [ male announcer ] consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans it could really save you in out-of-pocket medical costs.

jim hall and debra hersman joins us. deborah is now president of the national safety council.ould join us unfortunately you have far too much expertise in matters such as these. deborah i'll start with you since you're here. we talk about the location of this debris. not far from that last known communication with the plane. about six miles. what does that tell you? things happen fairly quickly for this plane? >> it tells you that things happened fairly quickly. it gives you some confidence that the things that we knew from past investigative activities finding the last-known location of the plane are very important. i think the 370 investigation really threw people off. and i think -- >> it changed our expectations really didn't it? >> it did. it made people question a lot of the things that had worked for us in the past. but you follow those protocols, you follow those procedures. you know where the last radar hit. where the last communication was. and what the crew might have communicated at the end. that will help you walk things back to be able to find where the aircraft

. >> jim hall and deborah hersman, both former ntsb chairmen earlier with us.orld where there's an app to find your phone, a gps to track down your car, many wonder why it's not easier to find a plane. we know it's not a direct comparison but it's a notion worth considering. the technology exists. why hasn't it been implemented? some experts say it comes down to cost. would you pay for a safer flight? tweet me. we'll talk more about your passenger rights tomorrow on our program. >>> ahead at this hour passengers likened it to being aboard the "titanic," hundreds of people trapped on a burning ferry. a survivor speaks out about that nightmare. >>> and ahead, what's ahead for republicans in the new year. return on investment isn't the only return i'm looking forward to. for some every dollar is earned with sweat, sacrifice, courage. which is why usaa is honored to help our members with everything from investing for retirement to saving for college. our commitment to current and former military members and their families is without equal. start investing with as l

deborah hersman talked about it. >> what do you mean dead zone? >> it's not tracked. 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 actually narrow the search. >> we now have three airline disasters in this part of the world in the past year. how many of these dead zones are there that we're not tracking? >> more than you can imagine. other most of that area it's a dead zone. it's not tracked. but if you had live streaming of voice and data you'd no exactly where they were, how they were talking, what they were thinking. >> certainly seems like we need live streaming. >> it's not that we don't have the technology. it's there. >> in just a few minutes peter will answer questions on flight 8501 on our facebook page. >>> for the second week sports pros honor officers gunned down in their cass. giants coach tom coughlin and singer darlene love who performed

one of the things when you talkeded about deborah hersman. she was putting out information. problem is that it fueleded so much speculation. she was provideing information off the voice recorder well before it was vetted by thorough investigators. you cannot do that. you cannot run an investigation and feed the media frenzy. at this particular event, it looked like airasia got it right. they were controlling the information. they were providing it in a timely manner to families and then something happened. something broke down, and all the sudden the families watching tv -- >> what broke down? >> well it was the government. if i'm going to break the press under family assistance here in the united states and the foreign family assistance act, you brief the facts first before you provide any information to the media so that they understand this is what we have and this is what we're going to go with. and you control that information. and then provide it to the media. in this case they were briefing the press. giving them information about the bodies and debris and all the sud