malaysia 370. and what about the pilot sitting beside fariq hamid? zamad shah. >> there were questions whethery was having extra marital relations, whether his marriage was actually in trouble at all, there were questions about his political affiliation to the opposition. >> then there was the flight simulator zaharie had built in his home to practice landings. >> yesterday officers from royal mission police visited the home of the pilot. >> it seemed like a potential lead until investigators declared it a dead end. >> the examination of the flight simulators revealed nothing suspicious for the authorities. >> and nothing came of speculation about his marriage or political leanings. like first officer fariq, zaharie lacked any apparent motive. >> many aspects of the case had been centered on the captain, and the more they looked, the less they found. >> i just don't see any logic. i don't see any reason he would want to be a rogue pilot. >> zaharie's sister spoke out to channel news asia. >> he does not -- he did not have that kind of makeup. >> he g

ten months ago malaysia airlines flight 370 disappeared in flight and no trace remains., three aviation tragedies in one year two very similar. what are the odds? rene marsh takes a look. >> reporter: air asia flight 8501 is the second missing passenger plane in southeast asia in less than a year. it's the third high profile disaster this year for malaysian-based airlines. >> it is eerie, it is unusual. or it's just kind of spooky that this would happen in this area. but we don't know the facts yet. >> reporter: after nearly ten months malaysia airlines flight 370 and the 239 people on board have still not been found. authorities are convinced the boeing 777 crashed in the indian ocean. >> malaysia 370, there's good evidence to indicate it was flown a long long ways and again, most likely as a criminal act either by a rogue pilot or intruder or something like that. no indication of anything like that in this case. >> reporter: just four months later, july 17th, malaysia airlines would suffer another loss. pro-russian rebels are blamed for shooting mh-17 out of the sky us

malaysia airlines you'll remember well suffered two disasters. the first in march 2012 when mh370 disappeared en route to beijing. no trace of that plane has yet been found. if we can take you back to july 2014 that was when the malaysia airlines flight 17 was shot down over ukraine. all 290 people onboard were killed. just a few days later, a transasia airways flight crashed in taiwan. 48 of the 58 people onboard died in that incident. and a day later, all 116 people onboard an air algerie flight from burkina faso to algeria were killed when the flight went down in bad weather. despite some of these grim statistics, though air travel is still extremely safe. in 2013 the accident rate was 0.24 out of one million departures. that actually means less than one accident for every four million flights. earlier, i spoke to an independent air accident investigator based in manchester, and he says that while some people believe that air travel safety is getting worse, that is truly not the case. >> the reality is we've been making a lot of improvements o

malaysia airlines having their own tragedy and mystery.so going to twitter to send a message. take a look at this. malaysia airlines tweeting quote, our thoughts and prayers are with all family and friends on those on board qz8501. malaysia's transport minister tweeting, we will support our counterparts as they take lead in this crisis under icao protocol. the icao sending thoughts and prayers through social media. so, it's really become this global conversation with a lot of people remembering mh-370 and a lot of people questioning why again. >> rosa, one of the things they are doing different than the malaysian flight they do seem to be communicating quite a bit. this is a big difference than what we saw before. we saw it at the airport, that they have isolated these family members, that they were at least trying to give them whatever information they have. does this look like a lesson learned, if you will, from the experience with the malaysian flight that we see so much discussion on social media. we're seeing these pictures now of peo

that's what the malaysia government is hoping he will do when he takes over malaysia airlines next yearsome where between march and may is quh he's expected to start. they have seen passenger numbers fall after twin tragedies after the disappearance of -- and the shooting down in july over ukraine. >> reputation damage is what we're talking about here as well. now, how do you do that? hat's the big challenge. staffing is important. >> staffing a key issue. muler is expected to cut about 6,000 jobs to the carrier. the reason they chose him, according to their statement, is he is a noted turn-around xpert. >> they didn't really have a turn-around, did they? they ceased operating -- if such a bad experiments, never again. >> well, i've never flown sabina. >> i have. >> i'm sure you've been on board sabena planes. he's also worked at russell airlines. he has extensive experience starting at d.s.l., actually. his experience expands from passenger freight to airlines. as of september 15, shares of malaysia airline are delisted in asia. >> let's look at some corporate stories we are tracking t

there would have been some daylight in malaysia in this malaysia situation-right? >> also the pilots would have known what happened to air france. what happened to air france was a lesson to the whole industry and pilots flying on auto systems, sometimes really can't -- don't have the flying ability that pilot inside the old days had to hand-fly the airplane. this airplane, what happens when the pitot static system ices over the auto systems stop working and the pilots now have to deal with an emergency that is a surprise and that could have happened here. >> the air france disaster did bring about changes in training. >> it did. training and improving the pitot system. that was an airbus airplane as well, different model but we'll have to see whether we are looking at a deja vu type of accident. >> there is terrorism in that part of the word. is that a possibility here? >> you can't rule it out. although i don't see any evidence of it in malaysia airlines, that's still an issue that is going on right now, but you got armored cockpit doors no radio call from the pi

and that includes, by the way, malaysia malaysia airlines. it's not a discount carrier.s the state carrier for malaysia based in kuala lumpur, but they are facing competition from carriers like airasia which have slashed prices and made airfare open and accessible for all. and now for a lot of people who are considering flying for the first time they're looking at not only the two malaysia airliners that went down this year there was the transasia airliner that went down this year. more than 40 people were killed in that. of course no survivors from mh370 or mh17. and now we're looking at another tragedy with flight 8501. >> yeah absolutely. and airasia, based in kuala lumpur malaysia. and malaysia airlines has reached out in a tweet as well supporting airasia now that they are dealing with what we presume to be a disaster including flight 8501. will ripley for us out of beijing. thank you very much, will. we're going to continue our coverage of course of this story. we have another breaking news story developing. i've just been handed this, excuse me. if this is a littl

malaysia has been particularly bad hit with epic flooding.ed and more than 160,000 people forced from their homes. so 2014 has not just been bad in the skies, jake. malaysia has been severely tested this year. >> elise labott, thank you so much. appreciate it. >>> the mystery and geography have led to easy comparisons between the disappearances of the airasia flight and malaysian airlines flight 370 from earlier this year there are also some distinct differences. for starters the search area for flight 370 was much deeper in the southern indian ocean compared to the more shallow and heavily trafficked java sea. then there are the sizes of the search areas, for flight 370, it was about the size of west virginia ultimately. for airasia, at least right now, it's about the size of west virginia and south carolina combined. of course, it is early in that search. and then there are the circumstances under which both planes went down, such as the weather. it was crystal clear for the malaysian air flight. i'm joined now by mary schiavo. this flight

airasia is a discount airline based in malaysia.s looking after all the next of kin for my staff and passengers. we will do whatever we can. another tweet as your group ceo we will be there through these hard times. we will go through this terrible ordeal together and i will try to see as many of you. a tweet from malaysia transport minister reads deployed three vessels and three aircraft. we've been talking a lot of the mystery of this plane, air safety all of the above but at the end of the day it's about people. 162 people are now missing. and their families are, of course absolutely distraught. talk about your experience with malaysia 370 versus now and the lesson that the government and the company seem to have learned in terms of a quick response. >> reporter: certainly, dana those tweets you just read from the airasia ceo tony fernandez they are remarkably different from the initial response in the hours after mh-370 disappeared. keep in mind this is a very media savvy ceo to begin with. he has more than 900,000 twitter follo

we're also monitoring statements coming out of malaysia from the malaysia's transport minister. he was speaking a short time ago however his statements were not being made in english so we are monitoring that for you. we will go through it and we will bring you any new details that come to us but i want to go back to cnn aviation analyst, a former inspector general of the u.s. department of transpo transportati transportation. mary, good to have you with us. again at this time with so little information there, tell me what you make of what we know so far where the plane was and the fact that there was this 20 to 30 minute discrepancy -- not discrepancy but at 7:24 local time the aircraft lost contact. it wasn't until 7:54 before singapore air traffic controllers were notified. what do you make of that? >> it is very troubling but again with the bad weather and very heavily trafficked area. sometimes air traffic control does not immediately report although they are supposed to immediately report any difficulty. now air traffic controls are confused by the fact that the pilot had

malaysia has seen some of the worst flooding in decades.workers are struggling to reach areas worst hit. at least five people have been killed in the state some flood victims are accusing the government of being too slow to respond. prime minister has cut short a holiday in the u.s. because of that crisis. and the neighboring thailand at least 13 people have been killed there. the government has declared disaster zones in eight provinces. the hardest hit areas in thailand so far are in the south. the provinces are expecting more flooding in the come is hours as water is released from by nearby dam. veronica pedroza is following. >> reporter: in the far south of thailand the dam is now at 99.34% capacity because of the heavy rainfall that we have seen since mid december. its record rainfall and that means that villages downriver from the dam that had already been flooded are being warned that they will be flooded again this time as a result of a human decision, not the natural rainfall. this is the message that we are getting from thai autho

in malaysia. in kuala lumpur. and seen how it's run. ways -- it's brought aviation to the masses in that part of the world p the core aircraft it has, it has 170 of them, and it is the a-30. it's airbus's short haul plane. it's one of the most successful, one of the safest, one of the best-loved aircraft not only by airlines but also by passengers. it's a flyby wire cockpit. it's extremely modern. this aircraft we're talking about tonight, if it's the one i think it is, you're looking at a plane six years old. so it's not an old aircraft. it's being flown by an extremely reputable airline with a very good reputation for safety. >> all right. our richard quest, cnn aviation correspondent. do stand by for us, richard. we will come back to you shortly because i want to bring in derek van dam, our meteorologist, standing by with more. obviously the question on the minds of many as they hear, derek, that the pilot reportedly requested a change in the route would be the weather. what can you tell us about what the weather was like in that reg

also malaysia airlines tweeted support for asia air. we know they are a competitor as well. >> caller: yes. >> i want to go back to one point. you mentioned ditching. someone has said earlier that i was interviewing, that this airplane the air 320 has some kind of mechanism in order to ditch, to try to ditch. what are the chances we could have seen something like what happened on the hudson, which i know was a miracle. >> caller: yes, it does have a ditching protocol. but the point is it's -- how can i put it? it is it is a last-ditch -- a last attempt, if you like. so you cannot rely on this but let's just assume -- let's be positive about this since we're sounding very negative here. it doesn't seem that it has ditched. the pilot's managed to keep the nose up and glide just like the hudson river inch dipts. they deploy the chute side to side. and the chutes turn into notation areas, rafts, if you like. so the chutes normally come down and you climb on board those everybody's got a life jacket under their seat and they would have put t

one of the worst affected regions in malaysia.s is the city center and as you can see behind me, it's completely under water. now, from the arid a chance to survey the areas outside of the city and as far as the eye could see, the land was completely submerged in water. all you could see was the tops of trees as well as the roofs of many houses that are completely stranded now. no -- very few roads were visible from the air. the roads that were visible were completely cut off from either side by flood waters. this is, of course, making it very difficult for rescue and relief operation to his take place. they cannot reach the worst effected areas by road. poor weather conditions are making it very difficult for even helicopters nothing and drop surprise and evacuate people. >>> in sear syria bashar al-assad's government says it is ready to talk to try to end the four-yearlong civil war. in response to russia's. the syrian government says it's open to preliminary consultations in russia. how course is planning to host talks between

now in the case of malaysia airlines it was between malaysia and vietnam, we'll remember that forever. 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

malaysia is one. the families of victims continue to struggle with their loss. we report from kuala lumpur. >> reporter: a small measure of peace. this man was a crew member on board malaysia airlines flight mh17, shot down over ukraine. >> he is gone. it has been very, very life altering. >> reporter: 298 people on board. access to the crash site, the bodies and their return had to be negotiated by government. for months that followed. it was painful for the families left behind. >> we went through hell. me and my wife - though we had a constant flow coming in, there were times we just wanted to be alone. >> reporter: it was the second major tragedy for malaysia's care. still recovering from the loss of a jet that this gone missing in march, and had not been found. the two disasters befell the company, which had been steadily losing money over the years. less than a month after mh17 was shut down, a state-run investment company announced it was taking malaysia airlines off and put in place a plan including job cuts and a chief executive. the airline has been na

malaysia and indonesia.t holds a 49% stake in its indonesian affiliate. >> the missing plane is an airbus a 320. they have a fleet of 30 of them. >> we take a look at the history with airlines around the world. >> worldwide, more than 3600 airbus 320s are flown by more than 400 airlines, charter companies and private entities. eight american carriers combined have more than 450 a320s in their fleet, amongst the biggest, jet blue with 190. delta and u.s. airways, 69 each. in the short to heed yum range world, the a320 is second only to boeing 737, which has delivered nearly 8,000 of its ultra-popular medium-sized planes. the family includes the a318, 319, and 321. one of its family is taking off or landing somewhere in the world. the missing plane was delivered to airasia in 2008. since then, the airline says it has taken off some 13,600 times, logging approximately 23,000 hours in the air. airasia 8501 was carrying enough fuel for three hours of flight. shortly before disappearing, the pilot asked if he coul

what happened to malaysia airlines flight 370?nn investigates the disappearance in "vanished: the mystery of malaysia airlines flight 370". thank you for joining me and join me back here at 4:00 for "the lead." brianna keilar picks up our coverage of the missing airasia flight. >>> hello. i'm brianna keilar in for wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington and 8:00 p.m. in jerusalem and 1:00 a.m. in jakarta. the mysterious disappearance of flight 8501, the search for the plane will resume at daybreak in roughly 4 1/2 hours from now. here's a look at the latest headlines. the flight for 8501 is expanding. the agency in charge of the operation plans to add four more search zones in addition to seven zones that crews are already focusing on. also, we just learned that indonesia has f

one from malaysia. and one from france. and we know of the passengers on board there were 16 children and one infant. >>> a little more on the airline airasia. on its website the airline describes itself as no frills. constantly looking for advancements that will lead to lower costs but not at the expense of safety. our paula hancocks reported to us from seoul that it is known as a budget airline with a good record. its fleet is made up entirely of airbus a-320 aircraft. the airline flies to more than 100 destinations across 22 countries with its main hub and headquarters in malaysia's capital, kuala lumpur. and this is interesting to us. airasia quickly updated their company pages on social media. both their facebook and twitter page logos, previously just a short while ago they were red. now you can see that circle is gray. there have been no further updates posted on those pages but we'll continue to track any information. we'll take a quick break. more on this mystery from asia in just a moment. >>> welcome back to cnn

kadias malash is in malaysia. >> one of the worst affected regions in malaysia, this is a city center and as you can see behind me it's completely underaward. now from underwater. as far as the eye could see the land was completely submerged in water. all you could see was the tops of trees as well as the roof of many houses that are completely stranded now. no -- very few roads were visible from the air. the roads that were visible were completely cut off from either side by floodwaters. this is making it very difficult for rescue and relief operations to take place. they cannot reach the most needy locations by road. >> the tinder market has been engulfed in flames. in karachi. spread to nearby homes and shops but it is unclear whether there were any injuries or death. pro-russian separatists in eastern ukraine have released four more prisoners nazanin mushiri reports. >> welcomes home these prisoners of war exchanged with hundreds of pro-russian fighters. this is a coup for petro poroshenko a leaders who struggles to unite his country. >> i tell you that as an ordinary citizen have

airasia is malaysia-based. all our viewers remember that it was malaysia airlines plane shot down over ukraine in july. and it's a malaysia airlines plane, again a different airline but based in malaysia plane that went missing disappeared over the south indian sea back in march. still no trace of that. of course the rescuers, the inspectors, the teams both on the sea and on the air are hoping that they can nail this down. hopefully a lot quicker. back to you. >> unfortunately more unfortunate images of grieving families. greg pal court, thank you so much. >> joining me for more, seth kaplan, managing partner at airline weekly. seth, what is your most prominent question about the disappearance of this flight? >> yeah, well, something seems to have happened very quickly. a lot of times when you have an incident like this it is really confluence of several different things. bad weather won't usually bring down a flight by itself is. even a bad decision bit crew or some minor mechanic cal problem won't do it. but

we talked a lot in the wake of malaysia 370. i thought of you and wondered what went through your mind when you first heard about this plane. >> dayeja vu. this is the third time the families of mh 370 have had to live through the emotional rollercoaster when you get news like this. even though it's a different plane, we can empathize at the deepest level what these families go through. it's like reliving it all over again. >> heidi, you helped so many families with situations like this. what are the next few days going to look like for these families? >> for working with families over the years and own experience of being at the bereavement site following flight 800, this is the time everybody is gathering the information and the dna samples. it's a really difficult time to go through that process. not really busy and getting harder as the reality sets in. i remember being at the site and similar to what i've been seeing on tv basically, there's familying wailing. there are families with their heads down and completely quiet an

we know this because in malaysia malaysia, we have seen picture after picture, report after report of the -- these supercells coming out of the itc trkst itcz the it's a very persistent feature, for months even into the beginning of the year. you have to remember surabaya, particularly is about 7 degrees south of the equator, that's just within the rel of that itcz. those thunderstorms start bubbling up you have warm moist air, and you have those thunderstorms between 35,000 and 38,000 feet. those pilots were flying at cruise altitude just about 32,000 feet. requested a divergence to 38,000 feet. mostly that is for the convenience of the passengers so they're not bumping around so much. but also the diversion may have included some other reasons, also when you get up to those particular altitudes, martin we're looking at the potential for sheer, strong winds, also icing, which we haven't talked a lot about, but there are a lot of factors to consider here for the rescuers it looks like water temperature here is going to be about 86 degrees fahrenheit. >> karen maginess thank you for th

everything seemed to be perfectly normal. >> all right, terry, live from malaysia malaysia, thank you very much for updating us. eric? >> well as you noticed, there were dense storm clouds in the area where the flight disappeared. thunderstorms totalled 50,000 feet. that's far above the operational ceiling for an airbus prompting concerns this could be weather related. if that's the case it would not be the first time in recent history. brian yan tis has more from our new york city news room. >> there have been six major crashes over the past decade where weather conditions played a big role. in 2005, two separate planes crashed during landing during a severe hailstorm. in july of this year, a transasia airplane crashed in taiwan killing dozens during an emergency landing in bad weather. four of those flights crashed during takeoff and landing. the most risky part of flying, but two other crashes, airfrance flight 447 and flight 612 crashed in midair and most closely resemble what may have happened to -- maneuver past the storm in high altitude before it disappeared. in august of 2006

malaysia sendingships. the weather is better than it was yesterday when large waves and clouds hampered operations and of course visibility. air controllers lost contact with airasia flight 8501 about 30 hours ago now. 162 passengers and crew on board. let's go now to paula hancocks. she joins us from indonesia where some of the searches are being launched from. and what are you being told about how it's going to be conducted? >> caller: well just in the last half hour we've seen one of the indonesian helicopters take off. this airport here is really where some of the military and search and rescue helicopters are coming to refuel. so it's becoming a staging area. this island north of the capital, jakarta. and it's the island that is believed to be the closest to where the airline lost contact with the officials. so it's believed to be close to where this airline could be at this point. now obviously, the pilots on board are desperately trying to find any sign of this plane. one of them did tell me that the

australia and singapore and malaysia sending ships. the flight went missing sunday with 162 people on board. it was just a two-hour nightflight. despite the ongoing efforts, a top official had a grim message about what may be the airliner's fate. here it is. >> translator: if the target is on land it is easier than if it's an underwater location. because our evaluation of the koord nalts suggest it is under water, our presumption now is that the aircraft is under the sea. >> let's go to cnn's paula hancocks. she has arrived in indonesia where many search efforts are under way. what can you tell us about the it search there and whether they are searching in the water and on any possible land. there are some people that believe that this plane could have landed somehow or gone down on one of the many many islands there in that region paula. >> reporter: i spoke to the first marshal in charge of the search and rescue operation here on the islands, and this has really become a staging area for many of these helicopters coming in. and he ba

malaysia airlines flight went missing. 239 people aboard that flight.ed the massive international search effort. still no trace of that aircraft. >> so joining us by phone are aviation correspondent richard quest. we have a lot of questions for you this morning. we know there were heavy storm in the area, multiple storms, monsoon conditions at the time that this plane went missing. so a lot of people looking at this and said weather could be a factor in bringing this down. was there a possibility, however, because the pilot requested to travel west and to ascend that there was something else besides weather at play? >> at the moment we don't know. but what we can say is, you know, you look for that which is obvious. if there had been a mechanical fault or something else going on, i do expect that on that request for a deviation because of weather, he would have mentioned, the pilot would have mentioned the reason why, the may day, the issue that was at stake. here you have to start with what we know. so what we're seeing now is sort of people starting t

a terrible nine months facing malaysia we begin with deborah patta, deborah? >> search-and-rescue operations for the plane were called off as night fell in the southeast asian region. those operations resumed again at dawn local time. indonesia, singapore and malaysia are all involved in a massive search-and-rescue operation for the missing plane. rescuers spent hours flying over areas of the java sea but the dark and stormy indonesian waters have so far provided no clues. >> the flight time line is also murky. because indonesian and singaporean authorities are reporting different times for radar contacts with the plane. here's what they know so far. the plane took off from surabaya airport in indonesia at approximately 5:30 a.m. local time. for what should have been a quick two hour hop to singapore. but around 6:10 the airasia pilots asked to turn left and climb to a higher altitude to avoid clouds. and indonesian transportation official said the request was denied due to traffic. some time between 6:17 and 6:24 a.m. airasia flight 8501 lost contact with ind

we must help them. >> reporter: eight states in malaysia are currently flooded.t least 14 people have been killed. but many remain stranded in their homes awaiting aid and rescue. >> the initial challenges, of course, it is that area cannot be accessed by road, and of course, we have to use all the aircraft. >> reporter: despite the hardships, the donations keep pouring in. the military says it's working around the clock to get surprise to northeast malaysia, but rising flood waters in nba some parts mean that his this aid may not reach the people who need it the most. ca >>> at least 17 people killed in a glass explosion in china. officials say three explosions destroyed part of the engineering and manufacturing company. >>> a former korean eric effective who resigns after an argument over a bag of nuts has been arrested. she faces charges of violating aviation safety rules. earlier this month she ordered a plane to turn back on the runway in new york after nuts were served in a bag and not on a plate. she's huh apologize today her behavior. hairy fawcett is in

we are getting reaction from malaysia airlines.malaysia airlines because of their two disasters, mh-370 and mh-17. they now have 537, passengers or crew 537 people either missing or confirmed dead. their tweet just says our prayers are with families and friends those aboard flight 8501. may you continue to stay strong during this difficult time. john and christine. >> will you get the sense airasia has learned lessons from malaysia and how to deal and interact with the families grieving and just want answers. >> reporter: yes. you saw that with the ceo tony fernandes and meeting personally with the families and continuing to tweet very openly and transparent. making sure the families were kept away from the media so scenes like the ones during 370 with the wailing in front of the camera were not seen. that situation if surabaya right now. the families are able to talk and given that opportunity. christine, you were mentioning the airasia versus malaysia. they are competitors and financial situation for the airline. the brand of any

nowhere else on earth is seeing rougher weather than in malaysia and indonesia. pilots i'm sure show up ahead of time, try to get briefed and there were turbulence reports that showed in this general region expect embedded thunderstorms at 53,000 feet. when you're flying at 32,000 53,000 is a wall of turbulence and water. now, we're starting to see this picked up just a little bit. the good news i can share with you, poppy, and the others is etch though this was the time we lost contact, you can see this tremendous thunderstorm sliding in this direction, these pilots sometimes have to run on, you know visually what they can see. obviously there's some turbulence you try to get around these, but the better news is we're looking at an improvement and that's very important right now because when it comes to vizsibilityvisibility if i can show you the radar, this is something very new now. as we get in close, the thunderstorms disperse. this is fabulous news right now. i mean, a bird's-eye view is showing if we get sunlight, sea fog will burn off. this is the best ne

we are talking about a much smaller area than in the malaysia 370 accident. we've got, it appears, perhaps better radar coverage. we do have obviously some indications of deviation of the aircraft but we don't have the type of deviation that everybody was speculating about in the context of 370. >> you have an interesting influx here or conflagration, i should say of interests here. you have european built plane an airbus. you'll probably have american investigators at least to some degree. they'll probably ask for our help. and different nations involved which in the past has been a recipe for conflict. >> it has. i think we saw in malaysia 370 that the sort of geopolitical issues in many respects pushed the investigation to the background with the chinese and malaysian government. all with legitimate interests with passengers on board. i don't think we have the same mix present here. we have 155 malaysianens on board. under the international convention certainly it is quite clear that the malaysians take it the lead on the investigation. and they're quite e

and the tools they have are the same tools we talk about in the malaysia crash, the twa crash.y all of them at some point here. it's not just a matter of looking down to see it with divers. the water level in this area is about 100 feet or so. this is easily in the range of divers. but they'll also use pinger locaters to find out where the flight data recorders are and any sort of underwater robotics they want to look through the wreckage, to retrieve some of the wreckage. they have a lot of tools as their disposal here. they will probably deploy all f of them as they try to collect every piece of this plane that they can, along with all of the victims. >> do they use the divers and submersibles at the same time? >> not everything is created equal down here. recovery of the bodies is important. the recovery of things like the flight data recorder is very important. but this process could drag on for some time. i mentioned tw-800 that went down off long island. we're talking about ocean currents that can move things around. twa-800 went down over this kind of water. they collect

you take malaysia airlines it's been around decades as an airline.founding of the state. so there's not an issue there. if you're talking about is fast-growing airlines like airasia in that part of the world, again, i don't necessarily see that. this captain had 20,000 hours and 6,000 on type. >> what can you tell us about airasia? we've been talking about it being a budget airlines. in the break we were talking about the ceo, who's really been out in front and communicating. what can you tell us about airasia? >> the analogy i would give is it's the southwest in southeast asia. the u.s. carrier southwest. it started the low-cost model. tony fernandez took a little airline that was going nowhere and was going bankrupt. >> he's the president. >> yes. he took it over, managed to get the government to allow him to do it. he's fought every battle to get that airline into the air. and it's huge. and it's got subsidiaries in indonesia and in thailand and in other places. and he's got 160-odd a-320s with hundreds more on order. and he's got a long haul low-

malaysia 370 had 239 people. by comparison this aircraft had 162 people. so a slightly smaller aircraft. but really the key here is finding the wreckage and as we know the search has halted because they've run out simply of -- they ran out of daylight. but finding this wreckage will be so crucial because it really will help investigators piece together the big picture of exactly what went wrong and we know something went wrong because this plane was supposed to land hours ago and fuel exhaustion is clearly an issue at this point. so, i heard you asking earlier, is it possible for it to still be in the air. at this point it's just virtually impossible. so, you know, they really will need to find the wreckage as well as those black boxes to begin to piece together exactly what went wrong here. >> rene just to follow up on that. we know airbus is a french company. boeing was an american company. the ntsb had a lead role in that investigation when it came to the missingle malaysian flight. what role will the ntsb take on this one >> at this point it's wait and

search and rescue teams from indonesia, singapore, and malaysia spent several hours sunday searching for any sign of the plane, an airbus a320. but as night fell, officials halted the search until morning. the united states, the united kingdom, australia, south korea, and india have all volunteered search and rescue teams. >> ( translated ): i heard many rumors from people and i said the rumors are not true that the plane has been found and wreckage has been found-- this is not true. >> reporter: tony fernandes, chief executive of airasia, a budget carrier based in malaysia, also cautioned against speculation. >> we do not know what's happened yet, so we'll wait for the accident investigation to really find out what's happened. our concern right now is for the relatives and for the next of kin, there is nothing more important to us for our crew's family, and for our passengers' families, that we look after them. >> reporter: airasia has had a clean safety record since the company began operating in malaysia 13 years ago. the plane that went missing had undergone maintenance just a mo

you can expect the concentration there, clear skies in the principal malaysia and thailand. you can see virtually no cltion at all. evencirculation at all. may be of more interest if we jump north a little bit is the bay of bengal. development that might again cause a tropical cyclone. those thunderstorms are moving slowly north if they develop into something then something to watch. i think if nothing else happens rain will fall in the eastern side of the plateau in odicia and in bangladesh. it's not quite as cold as it was in delhi, those are the rains to watch in the bay of bengal. >> thank you very much. four years ago myanmar was in turmoil. what's in store for country in the coming year? france louie takes a look ahead at 2015. >> it's a very different myanmar now compared to pre-2010. in the past few years the country has been going through a transition. from military rule to civilian government. no longer considered a pariah state, everyone's been flocking back in. tourists and foreign investors. but for some the reforms don't go far enough. >> translator: it is true

he has persecuted the leader of the opposition in malaysia. he has reenacted old colonial era law, so-called sedition laws. this is the guy the president decides to have golf with. i'm outranged. americans should be outraged hand thea is doing photo ops with our commander and chief. >> the optics are not good. are we making too much of this because i think it's inappropriate for president obama to be with someone like this that has such a horrible record. >> my colleague is actually down in hawaii with the president over his 16-day vacation and wrote about this today. wrote about the outrage the malaysian people felt about their prime minister being seen golfing with president obama while they have this flooding back in malaysian shah. what the deputy prime minister of malaysia said though listen, is he human, he deserves a break. i have got it under control. that sounds quite familiar. we hear that a lot when president obama is away or when president obama is on the golf course. listen, is he a human being, he needs his time to decompress. ge

but it trails two other other malaysian aviation tragedies both involving malaysia airlines in march70 disappeared with 239 people on board. that plane was never found. then in july, mh17 from amsterdam to kuala lumpur was shot down over ukraine killing all 298 people on board. air asia has never lost a plane before. veronica palos dos pedrosa. >>> scott is in the airport where the plane took off from. scott. 2:00 in the morning where irrelevant, so what is actually happening there right now? >> reporter: we know that it's just a lot of anxious waiting quite honestly. some family members are still here. this is where the air asia aircraft left from 21 hours ago. there is a crisis center inside the terminal but they have put up plastic chairs and a at the present time outside because the people who came here to get more information, they were just -- the numbers were too great to hold them inside that room there. so right now a lot of anxious waiting. again it's been over 21 hours since the aircraft took off here. search and rescue operation on his sunday, they came up with nothing. n

think back to what we had with malaysia air. ships involved.me of the most sophisticated planes in the world searching for submarines involved. the bluefin-21. sonar boys. all could be deployed. but something to bear in mind. when you talk about the areas that we're dealing with right here this is all on a geographic formation called the shelf. everything you see here is one of the most shallow seas in the world. in some places this may be only 75 feet deep. at most maybe 150, maybe 200 feet deep within diving range of scuba divers. so the truth is a lot of the search from taxpayer people can look down through this clearwater. all these amazing assets out, there we don't know what will be deployed there because honestly we don't know what's needed. first of all flying over shallow waters looking for debris looking down in the water to see if there's a sign of large airplane with an insignia they have to do that first. you mentioned it being a rescue mission. that becomes a matter of semantics. whether it's a search for wreckage or any hope peop

. >> that is right, and it is horrible weather around southern thailand and north of malaysia, this isatellite picture and border and this is malaysia and 177 millimeters of rain in 24 hours and just on the other side of the border 162 millimeters of rain, you can see this massive cloud which has been making its way across the gulf of thailand pushing across the region and more of that to come over the next couple days and caused major problems, you see flooding has been pretty severe here and lots and lots and many burst the banks and you can see people chest deep in the very high waters here and has caused big problems and we do have further heavy rain to come and look at saturday's picture and there you go and running across a similar area and more heavy downpours coming in across the region and doesn't get any better as we go into sunday, really is a case of spot the difference, the wetter weather will continue to drive its way further westward and easterly pushing across the region and spotting rain in the southern regions and the same system conveying its way on the way to thaila

. >>> also, more than 100,000 people are fleeing major flooding in malaysia. we'll have a weather report for you live here. also the red carpet gig can be far from glamorous, did you know. we'll have a behind the scenes look from one of cnn's own. welcome to viewers in the u.s. and around the world. i'm natalie allen. happy holidays to you. we begin this hour at the box office where sony pictures controversial comedy "the interview" is a hit. the film earned $1 million christmas day playing in only about 300 theaters across the u.s. sony originally planned to release the film in 2,000 to 3,000 theaters. sales figures for online viewing on sites like youtube and google play aren't in yet but one blog says "the interview" has been shared illegally about 750,000 times. meantime, north korea which tried to stop the film, has issued a statement denouncing the release of the interview" and paula hancocks joins us now live from seoul, south korea with more about what they had to say. paula? >> well, natalie, we know that pyongyang was not going to be happy with the f

we are talking about malaysia right here, as well as the northern part of malaysia, also parts of thailandre seeing that very heavy rain. massive thunderstorms right now are going over that eastern part of -- northeastern part of malaysia. we're watching that carefully. this time of year, the tropical moisture movers closer down towards the equator and the equator's down right here. until we get towards the spring time then the moisture will lift a little more towards the north. there's one other factor that we're going to watch carefully. right here in the philippines we have a tropical storm going over the philippines now. that is going to move into the south china sea. we're going to have to watch that carefully because once that movers to the west, that's going to start to enhance the rain showers and the thunderstorms across that region. now, the track is a little uncertain but does show that it's going to make its way down toward the southwest and over the next four or five days, that could really enhance and make some very dangerous a bad situation much, much worse. >> it is not ove

malaysia where the airline is based, astronaut, and singapore joining indonesia in its search.is sending a destroyer, the "uss samson." and south korea and china are expected to join in tomorrow. there's at least 18 ships and 29 aircraft. two sets of underwater locater beacon detectors will also be used to scour the seabed. while so much of what happened in this plane is shrouded in mystery, here's what we do know. sunday morning the jet takes off from surabaya indonesia. the plane encounters severe turbulence and weather over the you've java sea. the pilot 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. vanis

this is not another malaysia 329. they'll find the wreckage of this plane very quickly, probably today. in fact, there are reports already that wreckage has been spotted in the java sea off one of the indonesian islands. those have not been confirmed yet but they are coming in from several different locations. >> john, we were talking to lea gabrielle earlier about when you have these type of storms. obviously pilots fly in storms all the time. they go around them. they go over them. but when you have something like this, she mentioned that if she saw that radar, she as a pilot would have probably turned around. when you look at this radar map and you see what's going on there, you know one question us laymen have as passengers is why would you fly into that? >> again they should not have if in fact that's what it turns out to be. i'm looking at a satellite photo taken of that area at the time the plane went down and it is really horrific. i mean there are some black cells embedded in red. when you get black thunderst

now this is the rainy season for thailand and malaysia., for southern thailand, it peaks in november. it starts to dissipate into december. but we still have several weeks left of more rainfall. in fact, you can see on the latest satellite loop across this region just wave after wave of rain there is the border of thailand and malaysia. in fact, average rainfall for the month just shy of 600 millimeters across northern malaysia. well received 518 millimeters from tuesday to thursday. so almost an entire month's worth of rain in a period of three to four days. malaysia again also in the midst of its rainy season. right smack-dab in the middle of december. this is our precipitation forecast going forward into the next 24 to 48 hours. more rain in the forecast, leading to the possibility of additional flooding near the border. and upwards of 50 to even 100 millimeters of rain, leaving more scenes unfortunately like this. all right, natalie, errol, that's all the time we have. back to you. >> all right, derek, thanks very much. >>> egyptian go

it trails two tragedies this year both involving the national carrier, malaysia airlines. in march mh370 disappeared from kuala lumpur to beijing, with 239 on board. that plane was never found. then in july mh17 from amsterdam to kuala lumpur was shot down over ukraine, killing all 298 people on board. airasia has never lost a plane before >>> well earlier we spoke to independent aviation analyst chris yates. >> i think with the passage of time from the aircraft losing communication with air traffic control to now, there's zero chance that the aircraft could still possibly be flying. and now it's a search operation perhaps also a rescue operation, we don't know for sure whether the aircraft broke up on hitting the surface of the water. it seems likely it has. and it seems likely that there is great loss of life. but having said that they will then be looking for the transponders, for the aircraft. a full search will continue for as long as it takes to identify where those pieces of wreckage are. and then lift those pieces of wreckage to the surface and read off the data th