at the bottom of the java sea. at the moment they don't know if the plane is one piece or broken up. the official could not confirm the report. reported by "the wall street journal" the plane was turned upside down. mary what do you think of this new information? >> well it is very important. very useful information. and what we want to hear is also that the tail portion of the fuselage is still on. which would give them the black boxes we hope. but the fact that it is upside down. may not be able to tell anything. obviously, if the plane haddynamic stall. it can fall to the earth like a leaf kind of belly first. or it could, you know could be spenting down. that doesn't really matter. once it hits the water, even if it caught one wing or the other could be turned upside down in the crash sequence. but with a large pieces like that you would think that perhaps it did, did fall. belly first. like that air france 447. and, and, absorb some of the impact with the water to have a big piece like that survive. >> mary re

sonar has located wreckage on the bottom of the java sea.s still not known if the airbus is in one piece or broken up. seven bodies were recovered overnight. those bodies include one of the plane's flight attendants. the first two of those bodies are now back there in surabaya. dozens of ships and planes have been involved in the search and recovery operation but that operation has been halted now. in the past half hour they halted that operation due to bad weather. cnn's gary tuchman is live in indonesia for us gary. >> reporter: christine, hello to you, surabaya indonesia, now dusk. an hour ago, the decision was made it was too windy, too murky, too foggy to continue safely with the ships and 30 threatens or so on the sea looking for those aboard the airasia 8501 flight. behind me the crisis center at the surabaya airport. this is where the plane left sunday. 100 family members inside the doors that is not open right now. the public is not allowed inside. what i've seen is family members determined to do right by this missing family member

apparently about 300 miles northeast of jakarta which is central java western java. you know we have been speculating about whether this was brought down as going through a thunderstorm. that was purely speculation. now it looks certain. they found the aircraft. they should recover the flight data recorder and cockpit recorder. they will piece together what happened to the aircraft. the possibly that could have occurred flying into a thunderstorm is that a likely cause, would have been loss of control of the aircraft or aircraft actually breaking up in the severe turbulence and icing conditions there. you know one really has to hold off on deciding what may have happened and wait patiently for the investigators to piece it together. unlike the missing malaysia airline mh-370 we will find out what happened to this aircraft with a high degree of certainty. >> alastair we know the debris was spotted five or six miles from the point of last contact in the air. we also know that indonesian tv has shown pictures of bodies in the water. we are not showing those pictures. wh

right now as gary was saying bad weather has stalled the search in the java sea.t is the monsoon season. and weather has been just a hallmark of this entire deal from this entire ordeal. meteorologist pedram javaheri has got more with what they're facing. pedram. >> they're facing tough weather as christine has been telling you, it has halted search efforts. the about 115 miles, 120 miles away from where first spotted. plenty of active thunderstorms out of the region. the sun sets in about an hour and a half. you take a look at what we have ahead of us late thursday morning. pretty active weather with crews right through the area debris field. you fast forward this through friday morning. repeat performance through that region with a strong line of thunderstorms, again. unfortunately, when you have these thunderstorms, you're going to have strong wind with it as well the deepest red is indicating the strongest winds over the entire java sea. this time tomorrow will be centered right over the debris field. i've done this to the beaufort scale which takes that and t

the wreckage at the bottom of the java sea. we'll talk live with an aviation expert on what we're learning from thf latest discovery. stay with us. thanks. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] fedex® has solutions to enable global commerce that can help your company grow steadily and quickly. great job. (mandarin) ♪ ♪ cut it out. >>see you tomorrow. ♪ ♪ >> indonesian authorities say they've found the location of air asian flight 8501 using sonar. they say it's at the bottom of the java sea, but they still don't know whether the main body of the plane is in one piece. we're joined now by an aviation expert from sydney australia. a lot of conflicting information coming out. we probably don't know everything. what do you make so far of what you're seeing, the pictures and of course the latest information that they might have found the main body of the plane? 4 4. >> robin, hello, yes. there's conflicting information. i do hope i sincerely hope that really is the body of the aircraft that they've located pen they seem to be quite positive about

search and rescue mission over the java sea. let's go to david gle eaferg glea an investigator with search and rescue. now that there's been debris found, some sightings of the bodies, how difficult is its to recover the bodies, recover the debris? >> the operation will -- difficulty will depend on several different factors. the bodies that will have left the aircraft will sink after the couple of days and then resurface, there will be two opportunities to capture the bodies and obviously to troll for them. obviously we have to do this very sensitively. and also, the aircraft is not very deep, the java sea is not very deep so we should be able with specialist lifting equipment, be able to lift the aircraft. hopefully, identified fairly quickly as being this aircraft and then from there the probably sonar search to come up with where the main wreckage is, we'll be using the sonar voice to listen to the pinging. if it has separated from the main fuselage or something we can find them. and then we can pick up all the relevant parts

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 sunday morning. we know that 42 minutes into that flight from surabaya airport, the pilot requested the ability to move at least a few thousand meters higher in altitude to avoid a heavy bank of clouds that were in the way. it's not clear if he was given clearance to rise in altitude. and the suggestion is that within five minutes of him asking for that request, making that request, radio contact disappeared. so that will be the line of invest

there are literally thousands of islands in the java sea. so you know without any hard evidence i don't really see how they can make that sort of a claim. >> and if the plane hit the water and then sunk why has there been no signal coming from the electronic transmitter? shouldn't that have sent out some kind of beacon? >> technically, john you're absolutely right. it should have. i don't have an explanation of why that appears to have failed. it may well have been destroyed in the, in when the airplane impacted the water. or, it just may have malfunctioned. it may be as simple and as tragic as that. >> one thing we're talking about is that these planes routinely try to fly around thunderstorms. they deal with this weather on a fairly regular basis. and when it comes to the a-320, it has sophisticated equipment when it comes to radar, but not the very latest equipment, but does it sometimes have problems with thunderstorms? ? well, look it's a very interesting point. with particularly in relation o to the radar. if we go back to the 1950s an

the plane is resting at the bottom of the java sea. the families of the passengers have been given the sad news at this point. our coverage is going to continue now at cnn center in atlanta. good night. >> thank for that, don. and hello, and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. >> we are following that news out of indonesia where search crews using sonar have found the main fuselage of flight 8501. >> and it's on the floor of the sea. investigators are hoping to recover the black boxes. >> meanwhile, they continue to find wreckage and bodies. so far they've found five bodies and one flight attendant. >> let's now turn to cnn's gary tuckman. he joins us live from the international airport in indonesia. there's been so much new information in recent hours, but really, still no answers as to what happened. what are families being told? >>> first of all, i want to show you, right here as we're speaking to you, these are family members of people on the plane. and they just came out of a prayer service being held

there have been reports of debris being spotted in the java sea. we know for the last three days a massive search has been under way for that plane that carried over 160 people. andrew stevens is now going to join us live from surabaya in indonesia. you've been there for three days. you've seen. you've watched the family members waiting for any news. how serious, how credible is this new information? >> reporter: well at this stage, robyn it does look more credible than a lot of the information that has come out so far. we're getting it's coming from the acting director general of air transport in indonesia. and he's saying there have been photos of debris in the water off the coastal city in borneo. so that is on the eastern side of the java sea area where the search has been going on. remember this search has been extended into that part as well. what i can tell you at the moment and this is just very very early reports and a lot of it is coming from the indonesian acting director of transport the debris that has been photographed, brown square o

all floating in the east java sea.re have been images of at least one body floating in the water. it definitery ryly appeared to be a body in the search area. the fate of the missing airliner mason be known. 162 people were on that flight from surabaya to singapore when it disappeared sunday. based on the ocean currents this is more than likely related to flight 8501. we're joined now with a closer look with what may or may not have happened in this region and exactly what the search teams are dealing with now as they move into the area. >> absolutely. john this particular location, i just pulled up the currents in the area where we know the possible debris is located, about ten kilometers east of the last known contact with the aircraft. notice the area of blue. that's very slow in the movement of the current, about 20 kilometers per day. the motion going from west to east. but the region is in the weak eddy so about 52 miles, roughly how much this debris has moved in the past 50 or so hours, talking about the last po

it's been confirmed the debris found in the java sea is from the missing airasia plane.ens of bodies have also been pulled from the water. two albanian seamen have died while trying to secure the ferry that caught fire in the adriatic sea. >>> as i was mentioning a couple of minutes ago, the russian opposition leader alexei navalny has been found guilty of fraud. he's been given a suspended prison sentence. three and a half years is the length. his brother was also tried, also sentenced for the same period, but the difference is the brother served his time behind bars. this is alexei navalny. he's been a vocal and fierce critic of president putin. he says the russian government is involved in widespread corruption and he maintains his innocence in this case. he says all the charges are politically motivated. he wants his supporters to go out on to the streets to demonstrate, although in the last few minutes, police in moscow said they will prevent any illegal protests. our correspondent steve rosenberg was outside the courthouse as alexei navalny emerged. >> reporter: wh

the java sea is not very deep.pth is less than much of the great lakes in the united states, only about 100 feet. so you can actually have a scuba diver go down there, you you don't need special robots to go down there. you can scuba, go down there and see what you have to see but because of the conditions -- i flew in earlier today from another indonesian island bali to here and it was very smoggy very turbulent. you could see the waves boiling, it was a big problem. it was clear to me from the air. because of that although planes and ships have been out there, the divers haven't been able to go down and many of the people were talking they believe the only way they'll be able to recover most or all of the bodies is for the divers to go down and do that. as you said, though we had a ceremony today for the first two victims, another ceremony for the next five a total of ten and the work will continue tomorrow on the first day of the new year. >> a sober way to start the beginning of a new year. they want to make su

this after 162 souls vanished over the java sea. air traffic control losing contact with airasia 8501 en route from indonesia to singapore. we are joined live with the latest. >> reporter: yes good morning to you. i'm not surprised that the search has been suspended this time. that whole region has had horrendous weather the last week or so. malaysia has had heavy flooding because of the rains coming in with the monsoon. we understand the plane lost contact with indonesian air control about 12 hours ago now. the airasia flight was on its way to singapore with 162 passengers and crew on board. this flight was an hour into the three-hour journey from singapore when it disapeered from the screens. the search and rescue planed have suspended their search in the java sea because of the bad weather. they said airasia 8501 asked for permission to climb to 38,000 to avoid thick cloud. no distress call was reported or issued by the crew. anxious friends and relatives are gathering at the airports for news of the plane. the ceo aaron hernande

the java sea is relatively shallow.ow important is that in terms of the search and what kind of equipment they might use? >> well, it makes navigation for these vehicles -- if we're using autonomous vehicles, as david will tell you, we see the bottom at the same time we have our fix on satellites. so we know where we are. the first rule of navigation is to always know where you are. when you're dealing with really deep, deep searches that trip to the bottom, half an hour, an hour, two hours, is problematic on navigation systems and it complicates it. there's a lot more equipment and updates from acoustics that you need to give the robot and the robot has to think more. so these tools that we can apply in the shallower water are not as robust as what had been done on air france or 370. they can be smaller. and it's common in the marine industry to look for debris. and you have the diver effect. so you can put divers in. >> now that debris and bodies have been found, is the search area still going to be 60,000 square mile

the java sea. we know the depth is 150 feet. you think that that is helpful for searchers and also what some of the challenges are to searching in this area? >> well the primary search right now is going to be on the surface. if we're talking underwater search you know we can go there, but right now the temperature of the water is so warm that there are outside chances that if people are in the water or in rafts in the water or flotation devices, et cetera that there's survivors. so i think that's the focus. >> yeah. >> if the search goes under water, it is -- it's obviously easier in a lot of ways to look in shallower water just because of time to get to the bottom on a lot of these machines. but it does -- there are a lot more currents generally in shallow water than deep water so it's kind of a tradeoff. >> right. that's a good point. i know that they're using this grid system to do this search at this early stage and that the early stage is critical. every hour counts especially right now when you're hoping to find survivors

search aircraft will be able to resume searches over the java sea.aula hand ccocks is joining us from the staging area. >> reporter: the search has definitely grown in size this monday. we are at the airport on the island of belatong. you can see search and rescue helicopters that are going out and coming back to refuel, have a briefing to figure out where to go next and then heading off. this is becoming one of the staging areas for the search and rescue operation. this island is one of the chosest areas to that last point of contact that the plane had and this is the area that much of the search and rescue operations focusing on. according to one official we just spoke to, the search area is now 240 by 240 nautical miles. a very large area. they are sectioning it off to make sure that there's no overlap, to make sure that they don't miss any areas. they are doing this very systematically. i spoke to the first marshal who says at this point they have not narrowed the search down. >> translator: we are still searching all areas. later, if we get new

that places it over the java sea. the airline says that the pilot had just asked permission to elevate, to fly higher to get around some really bad weather. it is not clear, though, if that was a factor. a full day of search on sunday failed to locate any part of the plane. the search ship remains in the water overnight. they're searching once again now on the water and also from the air. joining me to talk about all of this, again, let me bring in forensic audio expert, paul ginsberg, president of pro audio labs. les abend, flies a 777, also a contributing editor of "flying" magazine. les, this is a question we ask time and time again after mh-370 disappeared. and that is, realtime streaming data, why is it that we still do not have realtime streaming date to so that someone on the ground can no at all times exactly what's going in the cockpit, exactly what is happening? >> well, it's a matter of cost. now, we do have some aspect of streaming data in the form of adsb, automatic dependent surveillance broadcast which

it vanished over the java sea.the final communication, the pilot asked for higher altitude due to bad weather, but was denied because of air traffic above him. officials suspect the plane is at the bottom of the sea. that is the early conjecture. there has been no confirmation and the country's vice president claims this is a search and rescue operation. ships, planes, helicopters all searching while families anxiously wait for answers. >>> other news this morning, north korea is blasting president obama and firing off a personal insult for the internet out ages and releasing "the interview." sony scored big this weekend with more than $15 million from digital downloads of the film. they have plans to expand online distribution. now a u.s. lawmaker is suggesting north korea may have had help from china in hacking sony pictures. >> you cannot talk about north korea without talking about china. you need a heart to heart with the chinese. i cannot imagine anything like this happening in north korea without china being

destroyer has arrived at the java sea helping search and recovery efforts. crews aboard the uss "sampson" are working with thesian authorities to provide any assistance needed. rene marsh is here with that part of the story. >> reporter: we just learned from the pentagon that a second u.s. ship has been dispatched towards the region. we're talking about uss "fort worth." you are looking at images of the ship. we know it usually carries a helicopter on board. it is a combat ship. however, this helicopter on board will be very useful as they continue to recover wreckage off of the surface of the ocean. also dispatched and already in place is uss "sampson." we do know it usually carries two helicopters so we believe that that would also help in the effort of recovering wreckage off of the surface. however, the pentagon confirming today that at this point the u.s. contribution is what you're seeing right now, those two ships. but we are not ruling out that it could expand once the search goes under water. take a listen. >> we have the destroyer the uss "sampson.

it went over indonesia out to the java sea and northwest. but highly traveled airspace. this is not the south indian ocean. there are planes crisscrossing these pieces of water every hour of every day. so that there will be good or should be good radar telemetry of what was going on and the last known reporting and that's what they will be analyzing overnight. >> we think back to 370 last point of contact was quite some distant from credible search areas. do you think this plane if it indeed went down is not in the java sea, it's somewhere else in that neighborhood? >> at this point to suggest to speculate or to even contemplate, victor, another 370 situation would be counter intuitive to every plane incident i ever covered. the plane is normally, you know, i'm aware that on the night they find it in the gulf of thailand and they didn't. but there's no reason to suspect at this point -- they have a really good idea where the last known part of the aircraft was. now the transponder was on and still transmitting information. they will be able to work out pretty quickly whe

searchers spent the day over java sea.ministry say ships will use search lights to spot signs of wreckage. stunned relatives of the passenger are in a waiting area. the plane carried 155 passengers including 17 children and a crew of seven. vast majority of those aboard are indonesian. others are from south korea, malaysia singapore, the united kingdom and france. as we continue with our breaking news coverage we're jind by aviation expert julian gray and cnn aviation analyst mary schiavo. let's start with the weather and our meteorologist karen mcginnis who has the latest on the weather now and what search-and-rescue officials have to deal with there. >> what we're looking at right now is what we call a future radar. what they can expect as far as precipitation or thunderstorms, looking ahead in time. this goes for monday and into tuesday. this is the java sea. that's where the last transmission was or the lost aircraft. you can see there's kind of an effect. we got the daytime heating and thunderstorms start to build and

lost contact with air control over the java sea, from the indonesian city of surabaya. the pilot had asked to change the flight pattern because of bad weather. from 32,000 feet. the a-320 took off indonesia juwanda international airport lost contact with air traffic control, 32 minutes later. ron bosch, thank you so much for speaking with us. explain how in your it unusual it is for a pilot to request a deviation from course which was the situation in this case? >> it's a not uncommon event. the aircraft was at its initial cruising altitude of 32,000 feet. the fact that it's in the tropics there where there's a lot of buildup of cloud and a lot of thunderstorms in that region. so the actual requesting a deviation from track is not uncommon. and as far as i understand, the pilot had indicated to air traffic control that the request for deviation was as a result of weather on the direct track. so not an unusual occurrence. but these are modern aircraft and they are fully equipped to deal with this type of weather. >> and ron take us through the emergency procedure that wo

tell us about this area of the java sea and walterter conditions there. >> the java sea where the searchgoing on it is shallow. shallower than most of the great lakes, actually. an inland sea. 20,000 years ago during the ice age. this was forest. it is really different environment from where, for instance the search of mh-370 has been. also different from air france and atlantic ocean went down. but the problem that the search team is now facing is the monsoon season. this plane couldn't have gone down in a worse time of year all most. there is really big wind. there is choppy waves. the shallow seas are notorious for just comply katemri complicated waves and steep crest. really hard to work in. the other thing. the rain brings down the sentiment. the sentiment floods into the ocean. makes it murky. muddy. hard to see. to it's not very clear water anymore. makes it much more difficult to work in this water. >> eric, it is it isn't a remote area. heavy shipping. traffic. happens there. fishing. many people live nearby. live nearby on the coast. what impact if any, will this have on the se

." >> with debris in the java sea confirmed to be for the missing airasia claim, salvage will resumertly. they have recovered wreckage, although the head of the search has not confirmed. the flight was on its way to singapore through surabaya in indonesia when it disappeared on sunday. the multinational search effort focused on the area where the plane last made contact with air traffic controllers. tuesday's discovery took place at the karimata strait around 100 kilometers south of the port where debris and bodies were recovered. among the wreckage, what is believed to be an emergency escape slide and luggage. for the latest -- >> these grainy objects floating on the java sea are almost certainly bits of the missing airasia flight that disappeared sunday morning. the most compelling evidence is what we cannot show you -- bodies of passengers floating nearby. this indonesian helicopter crew recovered at least one of them. the official announcement confirmed what many feared but also knew was all but inevitable. >> the plan for airasia now is to ensure we work with all the regulators

this morning there was a sense of urgency as another body was recover ed from the java sea and brought a shore by helicopter. the head of indonesia search and rescue agency says so far seven of the 162 people who were on board have been recovered. >> the airplane lodge has not been found yet. today we have recovered seven bodies which include four male and three female bodies. >> the operation is continuing but rough seas and high winds prevented divers from searching the crash zone. singapore is sending two underwater beacon detectors to help find the plane's black boxes. wreckage from the airasia plane was first spotted yesterday. there are reports that one of the bodies found nearby was in a life jacket. one pilot has suggested that could mean the plane stalled and then came down. the head of the airline wouldn't speculate on the cause. >> this is the airline's worst nightmare after 13 years of flying millions of people. it is the worst feeling once it has. we stay strong for families out there to insure we can look after them. >> for relatives of those on board, the hope of some mi

in case of this it's over the java sea, it's -- we know roughly where it should be. it's a question of getting those planes and ships -- i heard in an earlier program, i heard peter talking about the java sea, the south indian ocean is thousands of feet deep, the java sea is 200 feet deep. if this plane did come down at 38,000 feet there will be a large debris field where it's pretty clear that that happened and relatively easy to find that which remains. >> did 370 change the way we talk about these incidents? we now talk about planes vanishing going missing, where in the past didn't we talk about them presuming to them to have crashed? >> 370 was put on to the table the very concept that you won't know what's happened and you won't know wrote the plane is. and brian, you raise a very good point, because besides amelia arehart, it's almost unthinkable that you wouldn't know where the plane is a modern airline. 370 put that into the domain. so now it is a legitimate question who say will we find it? people who cover these cases, vanishing is unique. this is different

it's the java sea. the so the recovery process shouldn't be too hard. they shouldn't know what happened with the plane until they recover the black boxes. unclear if they'll be spread out. the debris field could be quite big. a heartbreaking morning on the east coast. a heartbreaking day here in southeast aasia it is probably the air asia flight they're finding in the java sea. >> to be clear, the family members found out from local tv as they showed pictures of bodies on the surface of the water? >> that's what we're lead to believe. you know, we thought we learned the lesson for mh 370 when they sent a text message out saying there were no survivors for the plane, which they haven't found. it seems to be the case they found out at the news conference. or if they didn't find out at the news conference, they were at the news conference when they showed bodies on the screen. the sensitivity seems to be lacking. especially when you consider how asia handled this. the ceo went down there to comfort finallyamilies. they're going to charter a plane, tomorrow

let's have a look at the satellite picture now around the java sea. this is obviously an area of southeast asia. you can see the thunder storms in the last day or so. what's happening is from day-to-day it changes a little bit. this general envelope, whole patent of the storm pretty much remains the same. that's not going to change quite some time. it depends whether we get a gap in the storms. that gives slightly better conditions for the aircraft that's out there now. this is the forecast the next few days. i want to show you. see winds colliding here that causes storms to brew. another thing that's happening towards the north here that's the tropical storm. what it's doing is shunting a lot of winds and causing them to collide with winds from the south. this is an area of bad weather that's pretty much going to stay stationary for the next few days. winds aren't desperately strong but within the thunderstorms we get the gusts of wind and reduced visible. there's a chance by the weekend or so the winds ease a little bit and perhaps the storms going

a navy destroyer headed to the java sea.the not knowing what happened that can be the hardest. so difficult. three days the families have been waiting, wondering. finally we've received word of some debris and potential bodies being found. may bring obviously heartache to the families. yet, some comfort to know if their family members were on board. >> there were earlier signs as well that turned out not to be the case. we were keeping an eye on what we thought were oil slicks that turned out to be shadows. you hear reports of debris being spotted. it's a -- a big body of water. it could be all kinds of things floating around. they feel confident new they have found some wreckage to this plane. we got word from our reporter on the ground there who's been visiting spending time with the families who have been collecting and waiting in one spot there. be sure to stay with abc as we find out the latest on the search for wreckage. our next updates will be on "america this morning" and "good morning america." >>> london's gatwick

debris and bodies have been recovered in the java sea off indonesia. so far dozens of bodies have been seen and be on that their way back to surabaya for identification. qz8501 went down in the java sea on sunday. was carrying 162 passengers and crew on board. few hours ago there were scenes of despair as the family came to grips with the fate of their loved ones. let's now go to scott heidler who i believe can join us from surabaya. so scott we know that the operation to try to recover the wreck and and the bodies are ongoing now. how long do you think that's going to take? sphwhrits a >> reporter: well, it's a 24 hour operation. it's about a thousand kilometers from the airport where the aircraft took off and about 10 kilometers where it dropped off communication with the tower. they are able to focus on that. we know there are two indonesian navy vessels helping to retrieve the bodies. we know we can confirm that there have been at least six taken from the water probably more. those will all then be coming here to the airport. there's going to be a

the java sea is much smaller. it is only 151 feet deep. if the plane did go down there it will be much easier to find. tracy: the pentagon is ready to hope but hasn't actually got involved. four countries are in deep. indonesia where the flight originated. it provided most equipment. sing poor where the plane was headed. australia provide ad rescue plane that spotted objects and the oil slick we spoke about. there were 155 passengers on board the airasia flight. one passenger from singapore and one from malaysia. and south koreans and one british passenger. the bulk of the cabin indonesian, 149 on board. there were no americans on the plane. it was the first commercial airline to have fly by wire. i flew military tactical jet. called the f-18. that is what i flew in the military. talking about fly by wire technology essentially what that means, you are a pilot we fly more simple airplanes where cessna would put in control input and directly connect to a surface control to make the change. in fly by wire technology that input goes into a co

luggage and bodies spotted in the java sea just 6 miles from the plane's last known location. now, below the surface, a dark shadow that could be the plane. this discovery confirming the worst fears of the families. in fact the wife of the captain speaking to cnn indonesia in the heartbreaking moments just after finding out the wreckage had been found. >> i must be strong and tough, and i'm here for my children and their future. so i must be strong and open with this situation. >> when the sunrises over the java seas in a few hours, search planes and divers will be out on the water searching for more wreckage and more victims. and it's not just the navy that will be out there. paula hancocks has been aboard a fishing boat as the crew heads out to search for the wreckage. >> the search and rescue operation is over for this particular boat. it's a local fishing boat that we've been on and it just shows how the local community all wanted to rally together and to try and help the efforts to find this missing plane. and certainly, the mood on the way back to harbor as opposed to on

the plane encounters severe turbulence and weather over the you've java sea. requests to change altitude to 38,000 feet. air traffic control tells him not to. but he appears to climb anyway. >> the captain of an airplane is like the captain of a ship. he is directly responsible for the safety of that aircraft and the safety of the passengers on board. so if he needs to move that airplane and put that airplane somewhere, he is not going to ask permission, he is going to do it. >> reporter: air traffic control suddenly loses communications and by 6:18 the plane was no longer visible on the radar. vanished into thin air. 162 people mostly indonesians, all gone. airasia, based out of malaysia has had a good safety record and the pilot was experienced. >> 13 years. >> reporter: of course the harrowing question remains. how could something like this happen? >> a bomb could go off, you could end up flying into a thunderstorm. until we find something of the airplane and know where to look for the black boxes it's just a puzzle. >> reporter: many are calling for realti

. >>> no sign of an airasia airplane that disappeared over the java sea. ftc and greek bailout. >> from london to sid any to san francisco, journalists and the world have stopped work and called on egypt's government to set our colleagues free. it was a year ago today that al jazeera'saljazeera's peter greste, mohamed fahmy and baher mohamed were arrested and imprisoned. andrew simmons has more. >> al jazeera's doha headquarters parking an anniversary we find hard to absorb. reporting arrests of three of the network's journalists in cairo. then 12 months behind bars for just doing their job! right across the world there were newsroom vigils, protests outside egyptian embassies. associate them with what egypt described as terrorists. all charges against correspondent peter greste, bureau chief mohamed fahmy and producer baher mohamed were false. baher's wife speaking from her home in jeement spoke of frustration. >> my life is wrecked and those of our children. in prison for a year for no justification or crime. >> peter greste's parents had spent crimples

at 32,000 feet over the java sea. the pilot wanted to go to 38,000 feet but an indonesia transport official said the request denied because of traffic. at 6:24 a.m., air asia said radar contact was lost. mark rosenker is the former chairman of the national transportation safety board. how often is weather a factor in plane crashes? >> weather can be a serious factor, but it is never the single cause of what ultimately created the accident. accidents are always a chain of events. >> reporter: in addition to weather, investigators will also look at air speed, was the planeti going too slow, mechanical failure, and how the pilots may have reacted to an emergency on board. the airlines said the captain had more than 6,000 hours flying the airbus a320 and the co-pilot had 2,200 hours of flying experience with the airline and air asia itself has a good safety record. the search for air asia 8501 comes nine months after malaysia air flight 370 dropped off radar with 239 people on board. investigators believe that plane was d

e rescue workers were at all night with search lights over the java sea.aren mcginnis is at the flight center and we will have an update with her in a moment, but first, this sis what was said. >> we don't want to speculate more but h therethere was storm clouds and the pilot had made a request to change altitude. and we don't know whether weather was the cause, but let's find the aircraft and do the proper investigation. >> and karen mcginnis at the severe weather center, and karen, you heard the ceo talking about the weather, and you rare the expert on the weather, and what do you make with first, what happened and how severe the weather problems were at the time that the plane went missing. >> what we are looking at is kind of a compilation of the enhanced satellite imagery. this is the java sea and this is surabaya and you get above here and this is the south china sea. this is the thunderstorm clusters associated with what is now the monsoon season, and this is the enhanced moisture between november and december and the beginning of the year. and when

they were found in the java sea. along with the debris, officials may have spotted the plane's shadow underwater. >> relatives of those onboard break down when they hear the news a lot of them watched the news on television. they had gathered at a crisis center at the airport in indonesia where the flight originated. victims' bodies will be sent to that airport for identification as they are recovered. john joins us now. obviously a very difficult time for those families. >> it's impossible to know what they're going through this is an extraordinary experience and unfortunately doesn't happen that often but when it does like this, it's very, very bad. now this debris is being found from airasia flight 8501. we know that, confirmed in the past hour. an indonesian navy vessel is recovering bodies, at least 40 have been picked up close to the plane's last known location in the java sea. >> this video shows debris retrieved from the sea today. it's being flown from the waters off the island of born yo. teams have been fr

this is the java sea. there was another plane that went down there, i guess it was a couple of years ago, and it took several weeks before they found it and they found it finally by some wreckage washing up on the shore and then they were able to back track and find it. so it wouldn't be the first time that a plane went down in the java sea and it was difficult to find. that being said since they have the radar where the last communication and the last radar hit came from i do think they will be able to you know narrow in very soon and very quickly and of course there's always the possibility that it is on land. >> christine, i know you have worked with families who have lost loved ones in crashes some of whom never have all the answers that they hope to learn. what do you tell them? >> it's very hard. i worked on search andnd found a submarine going back 70 years where you have the children that are now in their 70s still waiting for answers, and one thing that i found in knowing them and interviewing the

possible wreckage floating on the java sea. even though relatives still held out for better news. >> we still have hope. we cannot lose hope. >> reporter: it was just after 5:30 in the morning the nearly full airbus a320 jetliner took off from the surabaya airport heading northwest to singapore. over the java sea, it encounters heavy weather, turbulence. the pilot radios he wants to turn and climb significantly from 32,000 feet to 38,000 feet. its last contact. five minutes later, 41 minutes into the flight, the jet disappears off radar. >> it's much too soon to widely speculate. one thing here last night that was not present in the malaysia 370 disappearance is bad weather. >> reporter: the malaysian businessman who started this low-cost airline tweeted, this is my worst nightmare, before he flew to indonesia. >> we don't want to speculate. there's a deep sense of depression here. we'll stay strong. >> reporter: the airline and airplane have a good safety record. the pilot experienced. among the 162 on board, 16 children, pass

it crashed likely in the java sea. has never been located is suspected of crashing in the indian ocean which is very large and of course very deep body of water. now let's get a check on a few of the morning's other headlines. former president george h.w. bush is spending another morning in the hospital but a spokesman says he could be back home soon. the 90-year-old was admitted to houston methodist hospital tuesday after suffering short ps shortness of breath. last year he spent two months in the hospital with a cough but in june he celebrated his birthday by skydiving. >> creek and italian helicopter crews worked into the night to air lift passengers off this burning ferry adrift in the ark dri -- adriatic sea. it caught fire early sunday morning. 329 people have been evacuated but 149 passengers and crew remain stranded. strong winds and rough seas are making it difficult for rescue boats to approach. four injuries are reported and one man did die trying to evacuate the ship. stay tuned for morning joe for more cov

this debris spotted in the java sea is almost certainly from the plane. we are hearing some of them fainted when they heard this. we will go to break and get some of their stories right after this. [ male announcer ] this is the cat that drank the milk... [ meows ] ...and let in the dog that woke the man who drove to the control room [ woman ] driverless mode engaged. find parking space. [ woman ] parking space found. [ male announcer ] ...that secured the data that directed the turbines that powered the farm that made the milk that went to the store that reminded the man to buy the milk that was poured by the girl who loved the cat. [ meows ] the internet of everything is changing everything. cisco. tomorrow starts here. thanks. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] fedex® has solutions to enable global commerce that can help your company grow steadily and quickly. great job. (mandarin) ♪ ♪ cut it out. >>see you tomorrow. ♪ ♪ >>> it appears all but certain the mystery around what happened to airasia flight 8501 has been solved. indonesian rescue official says it is 95%

the java sea is actually quite shallow. means there si a much greater chance that the signal from the position indicator will be detected. >> reporter: the man in the eye of the storm right now air asia boss and chairman of q.p.r. football club. >> reporter: the search for flight qz8501 resumes on and in the java sea at first light. >> ifill: there was no suggestion of foul play in the air-asia disappearance. ten months ago, malaysian airlines flight 370 vanished on a flight to china, with 239 people on board. investigators believe it was deliberately diverted and went down in the indian ocean. no trace has ever been found. emergency crews today completed rescuing 427 people from a greek ferry that burned off the coast of albania. at least ten others died. fire broke out yesterday on the ferry's car deck, not far from the island of corfu, between italy and albania. video from the italian navy showed crews lifting passengers from the upper deck of the vessel onto rescue helicopters. the operation was hindered by driving rain

this is java. this is surabaya where the plane took off. it was heading in a northwesterly direction toward singapore. and this green circle is the area where the last point of contact took place. i'm going to advance the slide just a few hours to show you how quickly these thunderstorms formed across this region. that shading of red and deep oranges indicating the coldest cloud tops of these supercell thunderstorms. again, they can range anywhere from 30,000 to 40,000, even 50,000 feet at times. this is important. let me explain why. we've tracked the path of this particular missing airline, or airplane, i should say, just before it lost contact with the airports in singapore. keep in mind the altitude was roughly 32,000 feet. this is important because we've also noticed on some other websites that there is a turbulence forecast that gives actual current continuations at the time that the airport went missing. and what we're finding is reports that this storm cell was towering over 50,000 feet in the air. so this altitude of this plane did

there are large ships that are stationary on the java sea that have big lights.ey can turnt lights and try to get a sense of what they see. what is happening in the sky where they might be able to see something? >> whether we were looking for the first malaysia flight and just how difficult it is to look for an item or debris over a wide expanse of ocean, well this isn't that kind of coverage area. you still have to remember this is a broad area. weather is a factor. because we looked at this precipitation that is typical this time of year even the aircraft in the sky, they have to watch out for this kind weather as well. turbulence doesn't bring an aircraft down. it may be a pilot reaction to the turbulence. it may be perhaps it got too close to a thunderstorm. there could be so many variables. there is a weight and balancish would you aircraft as well. if they're on the ocean waters it could be rough. but we are typically looking at the seasonal tranigs of the winds coming out of the northeast because this is typically just kind of in that intertropical converg