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AirAsia Flight 8501 Missing; Search for Missing Airliner to Resume at Daybreak

Aired December 28, 2014 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: We have much more just ahead of the NEWSROOM and it all starts now.

Hello. I'm Martin Savidge in for Fredrikca Whitfield. Let us bring you up-to-date on our major breaking story. It's a passenger jet carrying 162 people, and it's gone missing in Southeast Asia.

Here's what we learned. The official search at sea has been suspended for AirAsia 8501 because of darkness. It's now just past 3:00 local time there. The area is a busy shipping channel, and some ships are continuing to comb the waters off of Indonesia in the darkness. But the full search isn't expected to resume until daybreak.

The airbus A320-200 left Indonesia around 5:30 in the morning local time. It was bound for Singapore. Indonesian officials say at one point the captain asked to climb to higher altitude to avoid stormy weather. The plane disappeared from radar while flying at 38,000 feet. And almost the entire flight path was over water.

Families, of course, are desperate for any sign of what may have happened to this plane. And there were no Americans on board.

Almost all the passengers that were on board were Indonesians, but there was one British national, and he has been identified as an energy company executive. He was traveling with his 2-year-old daughter, who is a Singaporean citizen.

It was less than 10 months ago when Malaysian airlines flight 370 went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. A massive international search effort has still found no trace of that aircraft or the 239 people on board.

So let's get to Paula Hancocks. She's on the phone. She's in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Paula, what more are we hearing regarding any investigation or their search effort?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Well, Martin, at this point, as you mentioned, the search and rescue operation is on hold. It's just got to 3:00 in the morning. It could be another two-and-a- half, three hours before we see daybreak here and see that search resuming. Now as you say, the plane when it lost contact with air control,

(INAUDIBLE) Indonesia's air space. It's the Indonesian search and rescue agency that is taking control there. Now, they say that they have some ships. They have two helicopters, and as soon as day break starts, they will resume that search.

But the problem is, they have said that it's a quote "very broad search location for the area that they are looking at, and it's very broad. Now, they go to basically divide this area into four different sections so that they can narrow down exactly where they believed this plane may be.

They say they also may search on land, even though the flight path was mainly over water. There are some islands in this area. And they believe that the last contact was between two particular islands. So they'll be looking on land as well.

Now,. obviously, those in the regions, those other countries are offering support. Malaysia have three vessels. Singapore where this plane was supposed to land has at least one more search plane. And in Australia and India, are also offering assistance as many other countries around the world.

But of course, we have been talking about the weather. Not only the fact that the weather may have played a part in the disappearance of this plane, which has been a point that we don't know, but it will play a part in the search and rescue operation. There have been torrential rain, there have been thunderstorms are very (INAUDIBLE). So obviously, that is going to hind the efforts by the Indonesians -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: And many of us were struck by the fact that, my God, here it is happening again. And I am just wondering in the part of the world where you are now, is there that kind of shock as well? You know, MH- 370, ten months ago and now this?

HANCOCKS: I think certainly there is always shock when there is an airplane incidents like this. Now, the fact that so many hours have passed and still they have no indication of what has happened or where this aircraft is. Inevitably, it's going to draw some comparisons as to MH-370. But it is very different in the fact that this is not an isolated area. This is a very busy shipping route. It's a very busy route for airplanes. It is not a route that's unusual in any way. It's a very common route. The area itself has very shallow water. And as I say, even though most of its flight path water reported, there are island got it around as well.

So it is well-known area which of the sea investigators and to the search rescue operations will work in that favor. But inevitably you are going to have comparisons drawn. It's worth noting, though, AirAsia itself has a good reputation. A very good safety reputation. This is the Indonesian affiliate that we're talking about here. But there will be a slay (ph) people will make that comparison.

SAVIDGE: It will indeed. But we hope the outcome is very different.

Paula Handcocks, thank you very much for that update.

CNN international meteorologist Tom Sater joins us now from the CNN weather center.

And Tom, what do we know about the weather when the plane went missing?

TOM SATER, CNN INTERNATIONAL METEOROLOGIST: This is an ongoing process where for the last four and a half weeks, Martin, covering this at CNN international and our viewers international viewers know we've covered the flooding in Malaysia and Indonesia to Sri Lanka.

For out U.S. viewers, let me give you a little bit of an idea of what we are watching. This is the inter tropical convergence zone. This time of year and about two months ago it was up north in India and it slides down. But what we have seen is almost catastrophic. From the flooding that's been occurring, from most indeed t Sri Lanka, 300,000 displaced. In Thailand and Malaysia, over a million people now have been evacuated, and an ongoing humanitarian crisis.

So this has been going on for a while. The tremendous thunderstorms you're going to see here, the bright red or the colder cloud tops, they're dropping two, three feet of rain every two to three days in some cases. That's a month's worth of rain in two or three days, and it continues the next week and after the next week. So the thunderstorms right here -- well, they're no stranger to this and the pilots know this.

This is the current look of a private briefing. What you see in red are turbulence. Now, you can see Australia down to the south here. Keep in mind on the edge of your screen, we are going to slide over to where we have Surabaya and up toward Singapore. It is in this area of red. This has occasional embedded thunderstorms at 53,000 feet high. They are flying out, we know it is 32,000. Can you imagine 53,000? The higher the cloud top, the more turbulence, the more icing.

In between the thunderstorms where you see some clear air, there's down drafts. So it's reasonable to assume at this point, Martin, taking off in Surabaya, this first thunderstorm, at tremendous height, possibly 53,000 feet, maybe 55,000 as some reports are saying, could have caused him to divert this area because this is the anvil right in front. Then you get into a clear pocket where possibly we call them cold spots. It is where the down drafts are occurring.

This is very tough for a pilot. Of course, there are probably white and ugly. Then he is embedded in another cluster storms. So this is the last place of known contact.

Again, it is just an assumption right now that we know weather played a role. But it is more important now for the search and rescue, weather as getting closer, there will be some isolated storms. But they are not going to be as strong, they are not going to be as large, in fact, we are probably going to see pockets of clearing. That's very important.

Coming up a little while, we'll look at where the currents are moving, where the winds are blowing, that if there was a down playing, where would the debris flow move to next?

SAVIDGE: OK. And we're probably still better than the two to three hours before daylight returns to that area.

Tom Sater, thank you very much.

Let' bring back Les Abend. He is a 777 captain, aviation expert.

Indonesian officials say that the pilot had requested permission to climb to a higher altitude, 38,000 feet, because of bad weather. From your expertise and understanding, what is it that tell you about the conditions that he was flying under?

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, as we spoke about before, Martin, it could possibly be a form of aviation. I think it's more of that usually when you go to a higher altitude, it becomes smoother. That's just law of percentages. Deviation, we tend to do left to right, of course. We have the radar that we are looking at. We try to avoid the worst of it, if not avoid it absolutely all of it.

These pilots took off knowing what kind of situation they were encountered. It sounds that they have enough experience to know this area. And the meteorological chart that was shown earlier that folks got to see with reference to turbulence, it's a dynamic event.

So what the scallop circles that were shown may or may not exist at that particular time, and may or may not involve a group of thunderstorms, one thunderstorm, one whole system. But we do have the ability with our on board weather radar to avoid that situation.

Once again, we are speculating that weather is the cause of this accident, and I want to be cautious with everybody that this may not be the case at all. So we need to keep an open mind. We need not focus on one particular thing, although, it may seem obvious. All accident investigators will tell you, never get focused on one particular theory.

SAVIDGE: Which you are absolutely right to remind us. But, you know, we sort of seem to be going back to kind of an MH-370 in that it's 45 minutes into the flight. It's where you are at an altitude where you would anticipate that, OK, you've gotten off the ground. You are flying, and you seem to be flying well. This should be the least dangerous part of the flight, and, yet, something again happened. Does anything strike you as we look beyond weather?

ABEND: Well, I'm trying not to draw parallels to MH-370. And I think some of our experts and analysts and correspondents have indicated that. in this particular situation, we got primary radar and the transponder which is specific in the street to that particular airplane. So there is radar tracks that is going to help if indeed the aircraft is down in the water or land --

SAVIDGE: So what would we see in that radar track that would give us a quick indication of hope?

ABEND: You know, I'm not an air traffic control expert, but there would be as long as power is still available on the airplane, you would be able to see the exact track on the screen and able to play it back digitally where that aircraft might have ended up.

SAVIDGE: So, I'm looking for what, a very sudden decline in altitude?

ABEND: Well, it is possible. It depends upon what happened to that airplane. Let's hope that it was some sort of situation. It was suggested by Alastair in London who is a former pilot that the engines could have potentially flamed out.

Air business designs airplanes to operate without engines. So there would be some electrical power available. Maybe not enough for a good transponder code, but at least for primary radar. So that's possible.

SAVIDGE: And just real quick, was this the same plane that pulled off the miracle on the Hudson, the same exact aircraft, the same design?

ABEND: Well, it is not. It is the same model of airplane, an A320. And, yes, indeed, let's keep our fingers crossed for that kind of miraculous things. It's hard to speculate anything at this point in time.

SAVIDGE: Right. But we can't just say automatically it crashed.

Les Abend, I'll wish right along with you. Thank you.

Coming up, we ask a retired combat aviation expert about flying in bad weather and what it could mean for the missing jet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: In just a few hours it will be daybreak off the coast of Indonesia, and that's when the full search operation for missing AirAsia flight 8501 will resume.

Let's bring in aviation expert Dan Hampton. He is retired U.S. air force lieutenant colonel, and we're also joined by CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. department of transportation, Mary Schiavo. We should point out she now works for a law firm that represents victims and families after airline disasters.

Colonel Hampton, let me tart with you. You've flown more than 150 combat missions, so I'm sure you've had to react to a lot of volatile situations in the air. Shortly before air traffic control lost contact with AirAsia, the pilot asked for a deviation due to weather. Does that give you any indication of what could have happened next?

LT. COL. DAN HAMPTON, (RET.) U.S. AIR FORCE: You know, it really doesn't, Martin, and I don't want to sound beige here. But there is so -- the information is so scares right now that I don't really want to leaked any conclusions. It is very normal in any kind of flying, military or civilian, especially commercial air pilot or commercial airline pilots to deviate for weather. They don't want to spill people's coffee. It's not safe. That sort kind of thing.

And you know, for the kind of flying I used to do, it was just good practice to avoid it when you could. So the fact that he deviated, you know, doesn't mean much to me. He was trying to go higher, which means the air is a little smoother. That sort of thing.

At this point, and as Les pointed out earlier, I don't want to just focus entirely on the weather. It seems that that is probably a contributing factor. But there is a lot of other things that that could happened here.

SAVIDGE: And I don't know. I think it will begin (ph). But if you -- have you ever had an opportunity to work search and rescue and efforts to try and locate or perhaps could have down?

HAMPTON: It absolutely. And if you recall from the -- and I don't want to draw a parallel to the Malaysian incident, you know, ten months ago, but that sort of effort is something that they are going to have to do here although it should be easier because there was a good IFF hit on this aircraft. They were in constant radar contact. And they pretty much know where this airplane went down unlike the one 10 months before.

So the search and rescue efforts should be a little bit simpler, weather permitting.

SAVIDGE: And just -- looking down there are on the water from an aircraft, it is not necessarily a perfect view of everything.

HAMPTON: No. It's definitely not. It's a lot harder than people think. Unfortunately, it's not like a bathtub. But commercial airliners all have emergency locator transmitters on them. That sort of thing. And the fact that nobody has been talking about this yet with this airplane means to me that they're not releasing that information, or something else possibly could have happened. Also, the fact that the pilots didn't make a distress call, at least one that we know about at this time, is also a little bit telling in my mind because there were either too busy doing what they were doing, dealing with the problem to make a call which is normal or this is something else, and time will tell, unfortunately.

SAVIDGE: Mary, let me ask you this. Assuming that they will find some debris or find some portion of this aircraft, what could that tell them?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, any piece of debris and the smallest piece from the plane will allow them to do the drift patterns and work back to find where the rest of the plane might be and where to put submersibles and to find the black boxes. And so even the small, you know, one seat cushion could be a huge break in finding this aircraft. And unless it would be very rare for it not to break up if it hit the water. It would be very rare for it not to break up. Particularly from this altitude because it was at cruising altitude. And I worked a couple of cases where they have fallen from that altitude, and it's a big -- the impact breaks up a plane.

SAVIDGE: You heard Dan made reference to how difficult it can be to search from the air when trying to find debris. Is that also a problem that you are aware of, I mean, that it's not always easy even though you're flying over it to see things so clearly.

SCHIAVO: Right. On Air France 447 they have the coordinates. I mean, the plane that particular airplane and airbus, but an airbus 340 was sending messages with the automatic system status, update messaging system. And even knowing exactly where it occurred, it took a while for them to find the wreckage. They have to -- it's stormy weather, and they have to apply the drift patterns. And some agencies and some forces are better using the drift pattern data and calculating back where the drifted pieces would have impacted the water than others.

So you know, it's a lot of work to actually find it. But as everyone in the world learned from Malaysia 370, you know, the time, you know the time is quick as it is ticking away. And fortunately, it's doesn't appear that they are losing the -- like four days they lost to Malaysia 370 when the Malaysian military, you know, neglected to tell them they were looking in the wrong place.

So hopefully there will be no misconnects there. And they will understand that you can't say that the coordinates of a civilian aircraft are national security secrets when lives are at stake.

SAVIDGE: Dan, real quickly, before I let you go. Have you ever been caught up in weather where you thought, holy cow, I'm not sure I'm going to make it through this?

HAMPTON: Many times. I went from 35,000 feet to 800 feet one day during the last gulf war. It was -- it's not good. And you are talking about a fighter jet with an afterburner, which, unfortunately, an airliner doesn't have. So, yes, it can be a problem. But, again, we don't know that that is what happened, so I don't want to speculate too much.

SAVIDGE: No, but it's a staggering thought just to hear what you went through.

Thank you very much lieutenant colonel Dan Hampton. And Mary Schiavo, always a pleasure to have you as well.

Next, we take a look at what people are saying about the missing plane online, and believe me, they are saying a lot.

Plus, how the White House is responding.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Still no sign of the AirAsia flight 8501. The plane vanished now some 20 hours ago. The airbus an A320-200 left the Indonesia around 5:30 local time. It was bound for Singapore. We're learning the identity of some of the passengers.

Channel news Asia reports that there was a British citizen on board and an Indonesian or is of an Indonesian-based energy executive. And the Singaporean citizen is his 2-year-old daughter.

CNN's Erin McPike is joining us now for the White House. And I'm wondering just what's the reaction from the Obama administration over all of this, Erin?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN GENERAL ASSIGNMENT CORRESPONDENT: Martin, President Obama was briefed on the situation last night. And White House official tells us that they will continue to monitor the situation. And, of course, President Obama will continue to be briefed.

Now, we don't expect to hear from him today, and often in these situations, the White House will defer to other governments that are more deeply involved. And here, a state department official has confirmed to us that there were no U.S. passports, no U.S. passengers on this flight at all.

Earlier in the day, we heard from the official, now that same state department official also tells us, I want to read this quote to you.

The Indonesian and Singaporeans are leading the search for the missing airplane. As we have in past, the United States stands ready to assist in any way that's helpful.

But as we have heard throughout the day, the U.S. has to be asked first and no ask has been made just yet. One other thing that we will be looking for in the next week or so is a bigger call for all of these global flights to be tracked more closely. After MH-370 went missing in March, there was a bigger call for closer tracking of this flight and the U.S. joined in that call. We expect more of that in the coming week, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Howe things develop.

Erin McPike, thank you for the update.

CNN's Rosa Flores joins us from New York.

And Rosa, you have been tracking things online, meaning on social media. What are the posts saying?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, trending most of the day, the #AirAsia and #QZ8501. A lot of people from around the world sending their thoughts and their prayers to the family members of the passengers on board.

Now, what we're also seeing are airlines taking to twitter, taking to facebook to also show their support.

Take a look at your screen. This is Malindo air. They write on their facebook page, our thoughts and prayers are with the crew and passengers of Asia Air flight QZ8501. We pray for the plane to be found and passengers to be safe.

A lot of the other airlines doing the same thing. Showing their support on their facebook and twitter pages.

Now, we are also hearing from officials from other countries hoping to help in the search. Take a look that the. Singapore's minister of defense, he says assistance is on the way, and he is posting pictures of those assets, of those resources that he is hoping to take to the frontlines. He says RS valor and RS supreme have set sail. They are on their way to the search area to hopefully locate the wreckage or locate and help search for people there.

Tony Fernandes, the AirAsia CEO, also taking to twitter to share some of his thoughts with the passengers and other clients of that airline. He is saying, I, as your group CEO 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.

It is a difficult time, Martin, as you might imagine. A lot of the conversations online are thoughts and prayers. But a lot of people have also a lot of questions.

SAVIDGE: They do indeed. And it is actually at the social media is a great way to have that conversation.

Rosa Flores, thank you.

And we'll continue to follow developments on this missing aircraft. We'll be back with more in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Still no sign of AirAsia flight 5801. The plane vanished now some 20 hours ago. We are learning the identity of some of those who were onboard. Channel in Asia reporting the British citizen on board is an Indonesian-based energy executive and the Singaporean citizen is his 2-year-old daughter.

Flight 8501 left Indonesia at about 5:30 in the morning local time bound for Singapore. The jet had 162 people on board, including 18 children with a crew of seven.

Officials have left some ships in the water to comb the area off Indonesia for that plane. But the more intensive efforts are on hold until daylight returns. And that's one official say seven ships and two helicopters will search for the plane.

Heavy storms had been reported in the area just when that jet vanished. Indonesian officials say the pilot requested to fly at a little bit higher altitude because of bad weather. This incident comes just ten months after Malaysia airlines flight 370 vanished on its way to Beijing with 239 people on board.

Joining me by Skype our aviation correspondent Richard Quest. And we also want to bring in Seth Kaplan. He is from managing partner for "Airline Weekly."

Richard, let me start you off. You know the CEO of this particular airline. You know him well. And it is in cycle because, of course, this is the airline right now trying to deal with the horrible event. What's he like?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Tony Fernandes is your classic airline CEO and that he is larger than life. He is gregarious, he is charming, he is witty. He is everything you really expect from an airline CEO. And I think what you see in the last few hours is how he has risen to that reputation.

Within hours, he has come out to make a statement. He has tweeted already. But his concern, and he said quite clearly, it's not what happened, it's for the next of kin for those on board, for the crew members' family. And he said specifically I will be there for you. And so, here we have a CEO. And you know, very much in the same mold as (INAUDIBLE). These CEOs that built the airline. The airline is in strict of being linked with their character.

Tony Fernandes also, of course, is the chairman of Queens bar rangers (ph) and the football club in England. So he is well-known. He is well-liked and I think what we are seeing from Tony is exactly this, I'm going to lead from the front and describe this which he calls this was nightmare.

SAVIDGE: OK. And I get it, you know, he is charismatic and he obviously, knows how to communicate. But I think -- is there a concern that this was a, you know, a low fares kind of airline. Could he have also been someone who might direct cutting some potential corners?

QUEST: No. No.

Look, AirAsia and its subsidiary, AirAsia have been around for quite some time without incident before now. And not only that. It has grown to be, and you know, it is the southwest of Southeast Asia in the way it is grown. And Tony is as I have talked to him many times about this, you know, where the cutoff point comes when you are dealing with the low-cost carrier. It is a very large airline.

Now the subsidiary we are talking about here is Indonesia AirAsia of which they are on 48 percent and effectively they love it. And so, it is not a Malaysian airline. It is an Indonesian carrier. And I think what you are going to be looking at in the hours add, you know, it's too soon to speculate the cause until we know it.

But keep in mind, the core facts, Martin, you and I been over. The weather, the climb, the pilot saying I'm going to climb and the way and the low speed which is being reported that he was doing with.

SAVIDGE: All right, I want to bring Seth in the conversation.

And Seth, let me ask you this. You know, many Americans may say, hey, this is was an airplane that happened in the part of the world that I am never or seldom ever going to fly. But in fact, that aircraft is widely used here in the U.S. So what are we going to be looking for? We, I mean, NTSB or other investigators monitoring here?

SETH KAPLAN, MANAGING PARTNER, AIRLINE WEEKLY: Yes. Well, obviously any sort of issue that that relates more to the aircraft itself hand to how the situation was handled, but, of course, the greater concern oftentimes these situations that, of course, as has been noted over here. But it too far too early to speculate exactly what happened that, you know, very often, some combination of perhaps something going wrong mechanically, but then also not being handled all that well. It brings to mind the France crash back 2009, off to coast to Brazil.

Again, not speculating if that's what happened, but would bring more comfort if perhaps there were some crew error involved rather than something to do with the aircraft itself. But the A320, an excellent operating record over the years. And AirAsia itself, an airline that has nearly 200 of these. For perspective, you know, you are talking about an airline almost, say, the size of, JetBlue in the U.S., and that kind of airline that a lot of leisure travelers, including U.S., backpackers and other people in Southeast Asia, when they go there, they do rely on this airline, an airline that is, as Richard said, has until now, an excellent safety record.

And if anything, Martin, I would say that an airline like AirAsia in its part of the world has particularly had to battle the perception of, you know, how safe is the budget airline? Here in the U.S. we take for granted southwest and rather safe airlines. But over there, they've had to change minds, and they've done a good job of that so far. Obviously, a big blemish now on that record.

SAVIDGE: Certainly is. but right now the focus is on finding the plane and the passengers. And maybe both could be all right.

Seth Kaplan, thank you very much. Richard Quest, as always, thank you for your personal insights.

Our coverage of the missing AirAsia jet continues.

Next, how weather may have played a role in the plane's disappearance and what is the forecast for the search when it begins in a few hours?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Let's bring up-to-date though major breaking story. The AirAsia 58101, a passenger jet carrying 162 people has gone missing in Southeast Asia. Here's what we know.

Authorities have suspended the official search at sea because of darkness. It is about 3:40 a.m. local time there right now. The area is a busy shipping channel, and they have asked that ships check the waters off of Indonesia. Meanwhile, the full search is expected to presume after day break a couple of hours from now.

The airbus A320-200 left Indonesia around 5:30 a.m. local time. It was bound for Singapore. Indonesian officials say at one point, the captain asked to climbed higher to avoid stormy weather. Flamed and disappeared from radar while flying at 38,000 feet. The flight's path was almost entirely over water.

Families are very anxious waiting for any news of what might have happened to the plane. And there were no Americans onboard because almost all of the passengers are Indonesians. But one British national had been identified as an energy company executive, and he was traveling with his 2-year-old daughter who was a Singaporean citizen.

CNN international meteorologist Tom Sater joins me now from the CNN weather center.

And Tom, what do we know about the weather when that planes went missing?

SATER: Well, what we do know is sunrise is about two hours, Martin. So we are going to know a lot more and there will be scattered thunderstorms in the area, maybe not as strong as we had in the last 24.

This is flight radar 24, online service. These are flights that are in the air right now. Surabaya down to the south. Singapore up here toward the northwest. The java sea is extremely shallow, 100 to 200 feet. Beautiful

beaches, (INAUDIBLE) water, in fact, valley is not too far, just to the east of Surabaya. But it will see this start to pick up as hours continue to unfold. We will get into daylight.

Thunderstorm activity is reasonable to assume and we always talk about weather first when we have an airline the disaster or mystery like this. And even though it was reported, there were some issues here, we take a look at the thunderstorm activity. This is an infra-red image. So the brighter reds are the higher and colder cloud tops.

But here is another image. This is water vapor. Look at the symmetry and the size of this thunderstorm. And then watch how it just washes out which tells us a couple of things. Tremendous strength, and incredible amount of water with this, but to rain itself out that fast means tremendous amount of energy was dropped from the sky. Down draft, incredible amounts of water, all hitting the surface. So that could have been a big, big issue.

When we look at the area now of concern for the next 24 to 48 hours, this is what we know. In the next 48 hours, there will be clusters of small thunderstorms, maybe showers. Some with lightening. Not as large as we've seen expect for on land masses. This is our last known contact position. We have the little island here, Palao (ph). This is Kalimantan (ph), this is part of Malaysia. But when we look at this area and we know that well off toward the northwest is the gulf of Thailand, we watch now the currents.

Let's take a look at the winds at the surface because this could play a role for search and rescue teams as they look for possible debris. If visibility is OK, these smaller white lines are lighter winds coming in from the gulf of Thailand through the strait here, but a more of a west to easterly fashion here are as more of a currents which would make you seem to think that this is the direction that the waves would be pushing any debris.

So again, we're going to watch this, and I know that they're watching this now all of the crews, the rescue and research crews there that are going to be out here in search and watching the coastlines as well.

I've been asked to show you temperatures to give you an idea how tropical this is, these temperatures and the java sea here, are about 82 to 88 degrees Fahrenheit. For our international viewers, it's 28 to about 32 degrees Celsius. It's extremely warm. The air temperatures are warm as well.

The bigger problem we have if we have them, thunderstorms develop out of nowhere sometimes, Martin. Will reduce visibility and cause turbulence for those flights, of course, that are above the water. Vessels should have an easier go of it. And of course, there are already on their way there.

SAVIDGE: And when you want to think about the sea state? Do we know the sea state.

SATER: No. In thunderstorms right now, we are going to see some choppy cease right now because we have a very light wind coming from the northwest. This general area seems to become, that can help also with visibilities because usually when you have the (INAUDIBLE) you don't have thunderstorms. Most of our models want to show the heavier downpours occurring over the land masses, which is very good news.

SAVIDGE: OK. Yes, indeed. Tom, thanks.

The missing AirAsia jet is, of course, the second airliner to go missing this year. Nearly ten months ago Malaysia airlines flight 370 disappeared over Southeast Asia in March with 239 people on board.

Nick Valencia is here in the studio. He has been looking for comparisons with the latest of what we know of the current plane and MH 370. There are some similarities, but it's not a total match.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, but it seems as though it is like here we go again. We're hearing from so many of you at home. If this sounds eerily family, it's because ten months ago, as Martin was saying, another flight in the same area of the world MH-370 went missing. So we decided to look at these two flights, these two airlines and see where the similarities and comparisons ended.

Let's bring up a map and start. Now, MH-370 departed from Kuala Lumpur on its way to Beijing in early March. And you see that just towards the upper part of your screen there. AirAsia flight departed from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore right there at the bottom of your screen.

Now, both disappeared from radars and made no further communication after that moment. These two airplanes are slightly different with MH-370, having more room for passengers, 239 passengers, versus 162 passengers and crew on AirAsia.

Also, both of these flights, you bring up that map one more time. Lost contact relatively soon after departing. MH-370 lost contact about 1:19, QZ8501 losing contact about 6:17 this morning. And that's pretty much where the similarities and comparisons in there. You may be wondering about that flight MH-370. Where is it? Has anyone spotted any debris, any wreckage? We know in August that the Australian government reached out to a Dutch company to help with the next phase of the search. The so-called under sea search, and we know that the Malaysian government is also playing a big role in this. Both earmarking a lot of money, Martin. $60 million from each government to go forward with this search. Now, they had an optimistic estimation that they would continue or

finish, I should say, their scouring of this priority zone in the Indian Ocean by May of next year, 2015. But that was only if they didn't have any technical problems or hiccups with the equipment that they were using that turned out not to be the case.

They are having some problems. The delays have pushed back the search. Now another plane in the same part of the world, Martin, missing.

SAVIDGE: Just really is a very striking. And we should point out that MH 370, they are searching for remote area. Current aircraft is a very heavily traveled area.

We see the point. Thanks very much.

VALENCIA: Thanks.

SAVIDGE: And we'll have more on the search for this missing aircraft and those on board in just a moment.

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SAVIDGE: We are going to have more on the missing AirAsia jet in just a moment.

But first the latest on a tragedy at sea. The Italian firefighting vessels and Greek crews are trying to put out a fire that is on board a ferry off the coast of Greece. The passengers on board say it seems like the titanic. And that people dying of cold and suffocating from the smoke and see there also burning from the heat of the fire.

Joining us now on the phone from Athens is journalist Elinda (INAUDIBLE).

And Elinda, what's the latest?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (via phone): Well, we have news that a Greek passenger has died on board the Norman Atlantic, the ship in question. And it depends on the man got trapped while trying to leave this ship in the panic.

From a total of 478 passengers and crew originally on board, over 300 people remain on the ship while more than 170 others have been rescued. Now, most of those rescue remain on ship that are taking part in the operations, while at least nine people have been transported to Italy by helicopter. And they have been taken to hospital there while they're being treated for hypothermia and very mild injuries.

But overall, there are reports that they're well in their health. The Greek authority has said that rescue operations will continue throughout the night. Though, severe weather conditions are really not helping. Authorities have said that they expect the weather to improved within the next hours. And this has been the problem all along. I mean, the rescue ships and helicopters, the operations began very early, but because of the really difficult weather conditions, the really severe winds in the area, it's been extremely difficult to get access, to get anywhere near to the passengers in order to be able to evacuate the ship.

For their part, the passengers on board continued to call Greek TV stations. They're asking for help. They are asking for support. They say that they are cold, they are by now shivering, they are choking from the smoke. And earlier today there were reports some people were saying that their shoes were melting from the heat.

It is not entirely clear if the fire has been completely put out. It's difficult to tell simply because there is so much smoke. It has certainly been contained. It is a fire that appears to have started in the lower deck, a car deck. But we don't yet know the exact causes of the fire. And by now it has been over 15 hours since this ship caught fire in the early morning hours. And it is completely dark by now and you know, these hundreds of passengers remain stranded on the top deck of the ship and authorities have already warn that they start with looking at the very long night ahead.

SAVIDGE: Yes. Let me ask you this, Elinda. I mean, it looks horrific by the image as we are seeing here. How about the captain and crew? How they have been behaving and handling this emergency?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, the captain, it was reports that he has been taken to hospital in Italy, but those are not confirmed reports. In the beginning we were hearing at least from the Greek side, but we didn't have too much cooperation from the captain side. Most of the crew is on board the ship. So that side of things remains a bit sketchy. The information has not really been very straight forward particularly concerning the captain.

SAVIDGE: All right, Elinda (INAUDIBLE). Thank you very much for the update. They will continue to follow this.

Meanwhile, President Obama is hailing American forces today at the official and of combat operations in Afghanistan after more than 13 years. In a statement, he said thanks to the extraordinary sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending, and the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion. More than 2200 American troops lost their lives during the war.

We will return to our coverage of the missing aircraft in Asia right after this.

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SAVIDGE: Let's get back to our top story now, the disappearance of AirAsia flight 8501 on the way from Indonesia to Singapore.

Joining me now on the phone is Alan Diehl. He is a former air force accident investigator. Thank you for joining us.

And as an investigator, what is the first thing that maybe comes to mind in this incident for you. ALAN DIEHL, FORMER AIR FORCE ACCIDENT INVESTIGATOR (via phone): Well,

similarities with another incident earlier this year, Martin. Air Alger was flying, and not an airbus, but an older Boeing aircraft. They were also deviating around weather. And unfortunately, and that North African case, the aircraft broke out in flight.

Now, we can all hope that that didn't happen with AirAsia. That's, you know, the bad news, potentially bad scenario, obviously. There is another one that's a good one. And that is because the airbus is equipped with what is called a ditching switch. Remember the Sully Sullivan landed in the Hudson. He didn't have time to activate the ditching switch. Actually he makes -- it turns the fuselage in essence into a boat. It makes it water proof. If they got the aircraft down on the water safely, it should be floating and we can only hope for that, Martin. We don't really know what the status of the aircraft is.

SAVIDGE: Yes. And obviously, we prefer to focus on the latter example you give of the former. What about the issue of lightning? I know you have talked about the turbulence factor. But lightning, could a single bolt of lightning or lightnings somehow bring down an aircraft?

DIEHL: Martin, it has happened before. It's very rare. They are designed to withstand lightning. But we are talking about a heavily computerized aircraft. The equipment is shielded, but it can happen. You also have to think about things like hail. Hail has brought down a jetliner before, not far from Atlanta there back 1977. We had an older McDonald Douglas aircraft make a forced landing because both engines ingest of hail.

Just conventional icing, no hail, but icing on the wings. You can get yourself at the severe icing conditions. Of course, we all remember the Air France over the south Atlantic where the air speed sensors iced stop on the airbuses. Those sensors have been replaced, we are being told. So hopefully it's not a scenario like the Air France tragedy over the south Atlantic with a bigger model of airbus.

SAVIDGE: We heard there were reports that the pilot had requested to climb and gain altitude, maybe, I don't know, to get over a storm. But some of these storms go far higher than the average aircraft civilians can fly, correct?

DIEHL: Absolutely. And incidentally, Martin, I'm a former NTSB investigator also. And yes, you were talking about thunderstorms over 50,000 feet. He has at 32,000, have to inform them he was going to climb to 6,000 feet to 38,000. He was deviating. Obviously, this man was -- this man was obviously looking at his on board radar trying to deviate around whatever he saw that looked threatening.

SAVIDGE: And lastly, no emergency distress call. And also, no emergency kind of signal coming from the aircraft itself once down -- well, wherever it may be down. Why may that be?

DIEHL: Well, pilots get very busy especially if you're in heavy weather. I happen to have a airline pilot license. I don't fly an airbus. But you can get very busy. And you know that the controllers can't really help you. You are going to have to -- you and your co- pilot are going to have to solve this.

So it is not unusual. They don't always make a may day calls, even when they are in severe situations. And of course, you're talking about the ELT, the Emergency Locator Transmitter, did not activate. We done know why that happened. Best case scenario is they got it on they got it on the water and they're bobbing around kind of like Sully Sullivan was, except for a lot more hour because we are able to shut the switch off the controls the openings and the bottom of the fuselage.

SAVIDGE: I certainly you are right. Alan Diehl, thank you very much. By the way, he is the author of the book "Air Safety Investigators." Thank you very much.

DIEHL: You're welcome, Martin. Thank you.