julian bray is an aviation expert based in the united kingdom. he joins me by phone from peter borough, and we thank you, julian for adding your voice to our coverage. we know that there is very little that we do know about this flight except that the last time we heard from the pilot was that they wanted to maneuver from a thunderstorm and descend to 38,000 feet with a thunderstorm though was all the way at 52,000 feet. so what does that tell you, as an expert what they were dealing with in the cockpit at the time? >> caller: well, good morning from the u.k. the latest theory and it's only a theory and it's pure speculation, obviously, is that he might have encountered icing on the wings, and he requested to be vectored to a new flight that could shift the ice. it could be that or a thunderstorm. it's a tremendous storm. the weather map is red all around the area where the aircraft was. so even if he did divert request the deviation, he probably would go into another storm. now these pilots are very very experienced. and airasia is a very good ai

julian bray is an aviation expert based in the united kingdom. he joins me on the phone now from peterborough. we spoke with you earlier. it's interesting if people are just joining us that we have another air disaster in this region of the world that saw the mh 370, which is the biggest, still, mystery, aviation mystery in our history. and now we have this. what do we know about the situation with this airplane? what does it tell you about the weather? all we know right now is that weather is high on the list of probabilities that it could have been a factor. >> caller: yes, and i have had a look at the weather maps and there are three very large red areas on the weather that they were going to fly into. they want to try and fly away from it but i'm afraid looking at the happen, they could have actually flown into another weather system there. there's also the question of icing. the flight may have contracted icing on the wings and it changes the profile of the wings. that is a problem there. he was flying at about 32,000 feet when over when the

julian bray -- it's been flying since the early 1990s.start off by just asking how is the safety record for the airline? >> well, it's got a very good almost impeccable safety record. i think this is the very first incident that they've had. it was actually a loss making airline back in 2001, and then it was watt bought over and the new owner has plowed so much money into, it and he is quite a famous record producer and has a string of hotels and an airline, and he took very good advice in setting up this thing, and he talked to us from easy jet and also sir richard franzen as why the fuselage is painted red. he actually put a lot of money into this to make sure it was an airline to be proud of. >> there are several in europe. one is ryanair. another one is easy jet although easy jet seems to be going slightly up market now. they all have very good equipment, so there's no corners being cut on the actual aircraft and they tend to have very few older aircraft in their fleets. life-like. >> the likely impact on this airline for the future g

. >> thank you, julian bray from cambridge, england. i agree with you.amilies are grieving and they deserve our respect and condolences. thank you. >>> let's see what is coming up on "new day." michaela is joining us on the story. >> as you said, it is really important to remember to focus on the victims and families. we will look at the big story. we are watching and we know the debris was found in the water six miles from where airasia flight 8501 was last on radar. officials telling us they are all but certain this is from the doomed jet. so many questions to answer. how can clues be found to lead to what brought down the plane? how can crews find the fuselage and the all important black box. the families are devastated. we will talk a bit and take a look at images as they receive the news. grief-stricken. the u.s. is sending assets to help. how can the u.s. military be of assistance now? we will talk to a spokesperson from the pentagon with latest on "new day" at the top of the hour. >> thank you. the debris from missing airasia flight 8501 has most

julian bray there, an aviation consultant.ery good sir. >> very good questions that he posed about -- >> gps in the car. >> problem solving so we are not in this mystery situation when these things happen. still no solid answers in airasia 8501. after the quick break we'll have a report on the searching and the waiting. >>> also the ongoing efforts to rescue dozens of passengers still on a burning ferry in the adriatic sea. >>> and welcome back to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm john vause. >> and i'm natalie allen. we want to update you on the two big stories we continue to follow here. >> crews from singapore, malaysia and indonesia are searching for any sign of airasia 8501. the flight disappeared early sunday morning. 162 passengers and crew were on board. the indications so far suggest that the plane is on the bottom of the sea, but that has not been confirmed. and this search remains in its early stages. >>> our other story, more than 300 passengers on a burning ferry have been pulled to safety

aviation analyst julian bray says the weather radar was showing violent thunderstorms across the route at the time. >> any extreme weather condition is a threat and the pilot has to work out whether he's actually going to take the aircraft up. he at the end of the day has the final say as to whether it will fly, but surely he's consulted all the maps he's been given the advice he's been given the weather information. they know where the storms are. >> relatives of those onboard meanwhile have been gathering at an airport, waiting for updates. more than 200 rescuers had been dispatched to look for the plane and its passengers. again, the air search has been suspended, as it is about 9:00 p.m. in that region. but some crews do remain on the water at this hour. live in the digital operations center, i'm matt delucia, "nbc 10 news". >> we'll check back for updates. the disappearance of this airasia plane comes just ten months after a malaysia airlines jet disappeared. investigators have found no wreckage in that case but officials think the jet crashed somewhere in the indian ocean. some c

aviation analyst julian bray says it was likely for the pilot impossible to avoid the storms. >> theyngers somewhat but the ride will be a lot easier. this seems to be a series of red ploch blotches on the map. whichever way the pilot went he was bound to encounter one or the other. >> joining me now from london nbc news correspondent, kelly, what kind of outside assistance is being offered to indonesia. >> a number of neighboring countries are offering help singapore, malaysia south korea, australia, has offered to send a search plane. it is a massive search effort. indonesia deployed eight ships, two helicopters and three airplanes, c-130s from the singapore air force, two will search tomorrow at daylight. three ships from malaysia and a plane. a massive effort to find any sign of this wreckage the problems of course are in this searching. weather is not great, there are heavy showers now. it's night fall very difficult to spot anything at night, although we understand that some of the ships will remain out overnight looking for any sign of this wreckage. most of the passengers on b