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Continued Search for AirAsia Plane; Similarities with Flight 370 Disappearance; Rescuing Ferry's Passengers
Aired December 28, 2014 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: a viable location is to do some current models. So yes, by all means, the currents can go in multiple different directions.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like a washing machine.
HARLOW: All right. Tim Taylor, Les Abend, Seth Kaplan, thank you all. We appreciate it.
I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Our coverage of missing AirAsia Flight QZ508501 continues right now.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
HARLOW: Top of the hour, 8:00 Eastern here on this Sunday night in New York City, as we continue to bring you our live breaking news coverage of this story.
We expect to hear from AirAsia's CEO Tony Fernandes soon. We will bring you his comments live as soon as he speaks. First, though, let me bring you up to speed on what we know.
There's a lot we don't know about the situation but here's what we do know. The search for the missing Airbus A320 resumed about two and a half hours ago over the Java Sea. That is where communication with the plane's captain was lost now more than 25 hours ago. Authorities plan to divide the search into four sections. So far there have been no sign of the aircraft, any debris, or any of the 162 souls on board.
Flight 8501 was flying from Indonesia to Singapore when it vanished during very rough weather. Many of the passengers were headed to Singapore to bring in the new year. 155 of the 162 passengers and crew members on board AirAsia 8501 were from Indonesia. The airport where the plane took off in Surabaya is the country's third largest airport. It handles some 16 million passengers a year.
Asia Pacific editor Andrew Stevens is in Surabaya right now. He joins us live.
I know, Andrew, you travelled there immediately when we got word late last night here on the East Coast that this happened. You've been with the family members there at the airport. How are people doing? ANDREW STEVENS, CNN ASIA PACIFIC EDITOR: Well, obviously, a very,
very difficult time for the people of family members involved here, Poppy. It has been -- we've been speaking to a few. They have been looked after by AirAsia in a hotel nearby, and some have been trickling in. They hadn't heard officially from AirAsia about the flight. They'd seen on television and they had come down here to find out what -- just what was going on. And we spoke to those, obviously, incredibly distraught these people. They just don't know at this stage what is happening.
And what the scene here this morning, here in Surabaya, is that we are expecting the families to arrive here. We don't know when in the next hour or so, we think, but this is all very fluid situation. They are going to be briefed by AirAsia, and we are then expecting AirAsia to issue a statement or hold a news conference following that to give us their latest information.
But at the moment, as far as the information, official information, not much has changed here, Poppy. As you've been reporting, the search has resumed, Indonesia has seven vessels, it's got two helicopters, Singapore is sending one of its aerial reconnaissance planes. The Australians are also sending one of their aerial reconnaissance planes, the P-3 Orion. And Malaysia is sending surface vessels.
So this is really getting into full swing now. A lot of it obviously depends on what conditions, what were the conditions are like in the search area. They have identified a search area, it is big, as you say, they've split it up into four grid areas which they're going to be combing. But conditions now will be very, very important to finding the -- when they find anything which could be related to that plane.
HARLOW: And we do know that the weather has gotten significantly better for search and rescue. So that is one bright sign.
Andrew, what about the families? You covered the disappearance of MH- 370, what about now? I mean, what kind of centers for the families have been set up by the airline where they can gather and try to get information and any comfort they can?
STEVENS: Yes, a lot of the family members, we've been told about 70, were the people on the plane, passengers on the plane, were actually from Surabaya. So this has become a crisis center. AirAsia is looking after the families of the people on the plane. And also the families of crew members as well, of course, Poppy. That they have been -- there has been a hotel area set up for them. They've been staying there overnight. Many have come here and then gone home again.
The story -- the people we've been talking to, they're just saying, you know, it's that just like MH-370, they don't know. We don't know what has actually happened. They are hoping against hope but obviously as this goes on 25 hours now, that hope starts to fade. You know, one -- we saw two young teenage girls here very late last night. Very early in the morning. They had come down there with family and these two girls, they were
friends, they went to school in Singapore, both of those girls' parents were on that flight. And they waited in vain for that flight to arrive in Singapore. When it didn't, they came down here to Surabaya because that is where they think they're going to get the information.
AirAsia, at this stage, it hasn't given much more information than we already know in the past 10 or so hours, Poppy, so really, we are now all waiting for an update. Exactly what's going on at the search site while the families of the passengers and the crew are being comforted. We're being told that there's also professional counseling available. Very, very difficult situation for all involved.
HARLOW: Gut wrenching, and you can see the agony in the faces of the pictures that we've been showing us as you've been reporting.
Andrew Stevens, thank you, appreciate it.
Well, AirAsia officials do say that pilots on the plane, the pilot and the first officer, did ask to change course to rise up to 38,000 feet, mid-flight, to avoid bad weather. The "New York Times" is reporting that that request was denied due to traffic in the area.
It is still unclear if the weather conditions played any role in the plane's disappearance, but it's important part of the story to understand what was going on in the air when this plane disappeared.
Let's bring in meteorologist, Tom Sater. He's been tracking the weather in the region.
How bad was it, Tom?
TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, to give you an idea, Poppy, of just the weather in the last 24 hours. You've got to look at the last month. Now they are no stranger in Malaysia and Indonesia this time of year for flooding. December is the worst month. But they have never seen anything quite like this month, and it is widespread.
Intertropical Convergence Zone is this highway of instability. Look at this, the bright white. It's the strongest storms we have on any region in our planet. It's been going on for four weeks. This Intertropical Convergence Zone drops down from India's monsoon. And this is where we're seeing unprecedented rainfall totals. The staggering rainfall, we're talking two and three feet every two and three days.
We've had flooding in Mozambique. Sri Lanka, its communities that are inundated a month after a landslide buried 300. Thailand and Malaysia have now evacuated over a million people. Chest high water over several river banks across the area. And then a landslide in Indonesia. On top of that, here's where we expect the plane went down. Look at the thunderstorm, doesn't look like much, but we're going to capture this image for you and give you a better idea.
This is a super cell thunderstorm. We believe is about 53, maybe 55,000 feet. They're flying at 32. This is about 300 miles as the crows fly, for our international viewers, about 490 kilometers from Surabaya to where we lost contact. Not sure, we do know that of course they mentioned the pilot mentioned whether issues, possible turbulence. Where you have the bright red, the higher cloud tops, meaning there's incredible upsurge in the movement of the air mass.
If you hit clear air, you can get icing and downdrafts, maybe trying to recover just in time to hit those cluster of storms. The better picture, though, and this is great news, we haven't seen this in days, is that we're starting to see clearing where the possible lost location of this. Notice all the blue from bird's eye view, you're seeing the surface of the Java Sea. One to 200 feet in depth, unlike in Malaysia Flight 370 in the South Indian Ocean where it's 20,000 feet deep.
This is shallow, it's extremely warm. It's around 82 degrees. The forecast for the next 24 to 48 hours is also fabulous news. We haven't seen this in days. Where we may have a few isolated thunderstorms, but most of the heavy rain wants to stay on the land mass. Doesn't mean there's not going to be a downpour or two. A little concern about a storm off the stream that could produce some downdraft or maybe (INAUDIBLE).
Here's your heavier rainfall. These are winds, if, let's just say, if there is a debris field, if it's even over water, anything sticking above the surface of the sea could get picked on a west easterly light wind. And that's what we're watching closely. Of course weather is just one aspect of this, Poppy, and there's so many questions we don't know.
HARLOW: So many questions, Tom Sater. Thank you, appreciate it.
All right. Well, what we do know is that at least 10 ships and three aircrafts are scouring what authorities are still calling a very broad search location. To better understand the jetliner's disappearance, the challenges that these search and rescue teams are facing right now, let's turn to our experts, Mary Schiavo, CNN aviation analyst, also former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Jeff Wise is also a CNN aviation analyst in a New York-based and psychology journalist, and Christine Dennison is an underwater search expert.
Let me begin with you, Mary Schiavo, we have heard all day long, a lot of people comparing this to what happened to Air France Flight 447, flying from Brazil to Paris five years ago that crashed over the Atlantic. Are those fair comparisons, given the limitations on what we know right now?
MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, I think they're fair comparisons when you look at just what we know. I mean, the initial reports from Air France 447 sounded like this. And when you start any investigation, no matter what it is, investigation of a crime, investigation of an air accident, you have to start with what you know and search through your memory banks to see if it sounds like anything else.
Like any other accident and while Air France 447 considered pitot tubes, this plane has a warning on the attitude indicator. And they're little tubes on the side of the plane that air flows in as well. So the comparison is fair, although the kind of tubes it could be blocked, they're different are different.
HARLOW: Right. They are different. It's a different model, although both flights were airbus planes.
Let me ask you, Jeff Wise. No may day call. No Pan-Pan call which is of a little lesser degree. No distress call. Surprising?
JEFF WISE, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Not really, in fact, in the case of Air France 447, for instance, there also wasn't a mayday call or a Pan-Pan call.
HARLOW: OK.
WISE: When a plane gets into danger, into trouble, the pilot might have so much to do to try to immediately deal with that problem but they just don't have time to prioritize calling into ATC, giving that head's up, and you know, it's just -- the word is fly the plane. When you're in an emergency situation, job number one, fly the plane.
HARLOW: When you look at these pilots, what we know about the captain is that he had 21,000 about hours of air flying, you know, experience, about 6100 hours on this kind of aircraft. The first officer about 2,000 hours. What is the experience level tell you about the people at the helm?
WISE: Well, I mean, that's a lot of experience. And not only, you know, in terms of the numbers of hours is significant, but also the fact that this is a workhorse airplane. It's flying from point A to point B.
HARLOW: Right.
WISE: In this case, a little bit less than two hours. It's -- this aircraft was based in Surabaya, flying back and forth, these kind of --
HARLOW: Through kind of weather.
WISE: Through this kind of weather and as we've just heard, all month long we've had this kind of weather. Pilots flying in the tropics have to be intimately familiar with the threats and challenges of flying in and around thunderstorms. Very dangerous weather phenomenon. Do you slip up once and a while? Maybe so, but these pilots were definitely experienced in flying in this kind of condition.
HARLOW: And this airline has an exemplary safety record up until this point. And that's important to note as well.
Let me ask you, Christine, about the search and rescue operations right now. You were telling me earlier how immensely critical every hour is right now because the water's warm enough for people to survive for a while.
CHRISTINE DENNISON, LOGISTICS SPECIALIST, MAD DOG EXPEDITIONS: Well, it's really twofold, the water is warm enough for people to survive, and of course, you're going to have so many different variables. What are they wearing? Their psychological outfit, do they have the will to live? Are they -- how long they're going to be there?
Again, the fact that the water is warmer isn't necessarily a favorable thing because you have people that are going to get dehydrated that much faster. So it's not -- they're not optimum conditions to be either too cold or too warm. Time is really of the essence in a search and recovery.
HARLOW: And when you look at this in terms of the search effort, what we're seeing is a number of planes, a number of ships. This is mainly a surface search it seems at this point, right, Christine? You wouldn't be using these underwater pinger locaters yet?
DENNISON: Absolutely. Not at this point. At this point, you really need -- you need eyes on the water, you need people that are physically out there looking for something that's -- a person that's bobbing. Again, if they're in flotation devices, if they're hanging on to something, if they are just floating on the surface, any debris. They're really looking to be able to pinpoint something that they can work from.
So as many eyes as you can get out there, the sooner this will move along and hopefully, we will find some answers rather quickly.
HARLOW: Yes. And also, satellite data, that was, you know, a big part of the search in MH-370. Still is. What are the satellites telling us? We'll be watching that as well.
Guys, thank you, stick around because coming up next, we're going to talk about the moments of heartache for the people who know someone on that plane. Parents, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, children, sons, daughters, all dealing with the anguish of waiting to learn the fate of their loved ones. We'll talk about that next.
Stay with us, CNN's special coverage continues right here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: I'm Poppy Harlow in New York, this is CNN's special live coverage of the search for any trace of missing AirAsia Flight 8501.
Let me great straight to Paula Hancocks, she is covering this for us from Jakarta. She is at the airport, about to head out on a flight to go into this search zone.
What can you tell us at this hour in terms of what the authorities are saying in the search, Paula?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, we know that this search and rescue operation is very much back on now. It has been for about two and a half hours. 6:00 a.m. this morning, which is 6:00 p.m. Eastern, that's when the first Hercules plane took off here in Jakarta. Two of them took off, trying to get eyes on exactly where this flight is. And we also know that at least one Super Puma helicopter has been deployed from Jakarta as well.
That will be out over the water for about seven hours maximum, and then it has to turn back these seven hours in all so that it will have a chance to try and see what's out there. It'd be flying below 5,000 feet. And of course these flights, want to get as close to the surface of the sea as possible. The weather conditions obviously are going to be crucial. We know there's been bad weather in the region, and that's certainly going to hamper search operations.
But we did speak to one official who was on one of the ships that's left one of the ports heading to the area. They had the last contact with the flight. And he says the weather's better today than it was yesterday. So that's some good news that they're hoping visibility may actually improve -- Poppy.
HARLOW: Can you tell us a little bit, Paula, of exactly where you're going and what you hope -- hope to be able to find?
HANCOCKS: Of course. I'm going to an island called Belitung. This is going to be in the Java Sea. The flight path of this flight was mainly over water, but there were a few islands. This is one of the closest to where they believe the plane last was when they lost -- lost that contact. And it's really turning into somewhat of a staging area for some of these flights to refuel, for some of these ships to come back to if they find anything.
And of course they are hoping for survivors still at this point. So what they're doing is that they have the ambulances on standby at this particular island just in case they do find some people who they can bring back. So it's really a staging point for the search and rescue operation. And of course, the officials are saying they're not only looking over the sea, they are also going to be searching on land because, of course, there are some islands dotted along the Java Sea there. And so they say it is possible that they may find something on land as well.
HARLOW: Yes, and we're hoping for a miracle in this.
Paula Hancocks -- Paula, you get to it, please let us know when you get there, how things look on the ground. Thank you for that.
And of course in addition to the search, we are focusing on the families, the human story, what all the people waiting for those 162 people on board are going through right now. They are hoping for any news, any update on this missing plane.
Let's go straight to Nick Valencia, he's been following the families and talking to some of the people waiting for these passengers on board Flight 8501.
What do we know, Nick? NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, Poppy, at this
hour, all intents and purposes, a waiting game for the family of -- the family members of the 162 people that were on AirAsia Flight 8501. 162 people, which includes 155 passengers and seven crew.
And here is the nationalities of the passengers and crew. You see there off the top. Majority of them came from Indonesia. Others from South Korea, you have people from Malaysia, Singapore, and two from Europe, United kingdom and France. And local media in Indonesia has been reporting the name of Remi Plesel, who is the co-pilot of this AirAsia flight that appeared.
We also hear from reports there on the ground that French authorities are playing a big part in collaborating with the Indonesian government to try to locate any bit, whereabouts of this plane that went missing overnight. It is an agonizing wait for so many people.
One of those who had a fiancee on the plane spoke to a local media at the airport, and she talked to the local reporters there about how she found out the plane went missing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LOUISE SIDHARTA, ENGAGED TO PASSENGER: I listen to the radio, a local radio, and they said that his plane was missing. That's all, and yes, it was supposed to be their last vacation before us got married. It was to be his last vacation with his family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VALENCIA: You hear her say there that he was supposed to go on vacation. There was going to be the last trip he took before they got married. Another heartbreaking story coming out of this is a British national who is an Indonesia-based energy executive named Choi Chi Man. He was flying with his 2-year-old daughter who is a Singaporean national. Their whereabouts along with all of those who were on this plane, unknown at this hour. But that search has continued -- Poppy.
HARLOW: Nick Valencia, thanks for the update. We appreciate it.
VALENCIA: You bet.
HARLOW: Because that's what this is all about, the people.
VALENCIA: Absolutely.
HARLOW: The people waiting and those souls on board, 162 of them.
All right. AirAsia's CEO has met with these grieving families and telling them look, our top priority is you. He has assured them there will be a proper investigation as they search for this aircraft. The airline is also offering what little comfort it can, providing food and hotel accommodations for those passengers' relatives.
Let's talk more about the human element of this with psychologist Jeff Gardere. And Jeff, it is surreal to be covering this. Ten months.
JEFF GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Again.
HARLOW: Again 10 months after MH-370 disappeared, still not to be found. When you look at this, that airline -- the representatives did not meet with the grieving families right away and that caused a lot of anger, there was some misinformation out there.
GARDERE: That's right. Even riots broke out.
HARLOW: Right. And a lot of -- a lot of distrust that continues towards that airline and how it was handled. Do you think that the families are being treated, as far as we can tell, in the right way this time?
GARDERE: I would think that Tony Fernandes who heads up AirAsia has done his homework, immediately. And learned lessons from MH-370.
HARLOW: 370.
GARDERE: And is going to make sure that those mistakes are not repeated by AirAsia. And so by saying he's going to meet with the family members or actually meeting with them now, this is already such a proactive step. It's a major step in making sure that they're getting information as quickly as they can get it before the media gives it to them.
HARLOW: Before we get it.
GARDERE: Exactly.
HARLOW: SO the family learns from the airline, not from us. What about the fact that when you think about this, this is the third disaster involving a Southeast Asian airline this year.
GARDERE: That's right.
HARLOW: In 2014. Can you talk to me a little bit about the psychology -- the psychological effect it has or could have on travelers in the region?
GARDERE: Well, in the region, and that's a great question. In that region. Of course, we know with MH-370 just disappearing, one being -- another one being shot down in that --
HARLOW: Over Ukraine.
GARDERE: Over the Ukraine. And so this, some people may feel well there's a lot of bad luck. A lot of bad spirits having to do with flying in that particular region.
HARLOW: Because we know the statistics, and that is that flying is incredibly safe when you look at the numbers.
GARDERE: But it has not been so safe. HARLOW: There.
GARDERE: For that region and there, but people need to travel, and people will continue to travel. I think they certainly will be a little bit more nervous given the time of proximity of these particular flights, but, if thing goes smoothly, hopefully this will not happen in the future, in this particular way once this plane, hopefully it will be found. People will get some more confidence. And I think that's what Fernandesis trying to do.
HARLOW: Yes. And promising a thorough investigation once hopefully they recover the plane and hopefully survivors as well.
GARDERE: Yes. Absolutely.
HARLOW: Jeff Gardere, thank you for being with me.
GARDERE: Pleasure.
HARLOW: I appreciate it. Well, so many questions for those families. You've been asking a lot of questions, too. We all have a lot of questions. Here's one of the questions that we got here from you, our viewers. If the plane was able to make a landing on water, how long could it stay afloat? It's not unheard of, it happened right here in New York City on the Hudson.
Stay with us, this is CNN's special live coverage as we continue to follow the search for this missing airliner.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. This is CNN's continuing special live coverage of the urgent search for a missing passenger jet. A jet carrying 162 people. We have been asking for questions about this latest mysterious flight disappearance. Questions that you have for our panel of experts. Please keep sending us your questions, go to Twitter use #8501qs.
Let me get to our panel.
Christine, to you first, as someone who specializes in underwater search, can you talk to us about how if this plane was able to land safely on water, like we saw here on the Hudson River with that U.S. Airways flight, what's the difference between that and a plane coming from 32,000 feet in a very tumultuous body of water?
DENNISON: I think first of all, personally I don't think that's very likely. And I don't think, and I think that we would have a debris field. I just - I'm very hopeful, but at the same time, I think given the conditions, given the altitude of which this plane was flying, it wouldn't have, in my opinion, and I'm not an aviation expert, a very likely scenario. That's not to say that we may have some survivors. That we may have a rescue effort under way that will prove very fruitful. There are just so many variables, again, I go back to what they're doing at the moment is sort of putting everybody in place for that likelihood, which means they are again gathering the troops. They - it's very political, I'm sure they're trying to take as much help as they may need, should we find debris, should we find survivors. They're going to have act very quickly as soon as they spot something and start following those leads to get the optimum results in this case.
HARLOW: And as you said, the hours, each hour is so critical at this early stage.
DENNISON: Absolutely.
HARLOW: It's 25 hours now since this plane disappeared from all radar. Let me go to you, Seth Kaplan, looking at the weather, the weather pattern that we saw, and that has significantly improved since this plane disappeared. How is that going to affect signals? Any signals from the plane?
SETH KAPLAN, MANAGING PARTNER, AIRLINE WEEKLY: Yeah, and it's - again, there's so much that we still don't know, but, you know, most of, in terms of signals, most of that, most of that works in terms of instrumentation, and again, we are keeping these parallels to Air France flight 447, really the impact of anything could have been particularly on, you know, what the pilots were seeing. When we look at that crowd we see that the pilots didn't realize what was happening, they, you know, they thought they were climbing, they were not. And so, so really, that's going to be the bigger impact here is in terms of instrumentation, probably what the pilots were learning, you know, air crafters (INAUDIBLE) fast that signals in all kinds of bad weather, but again, just so much that we don't know at this point.
HARLOW: Yeah. So many questions. And want to be careful not to jump to any conclusions or any assumptions. We are still waiting for a possible press conference, coming from the CEO of the airline waiting to see what information they may have for us. As we wait for that, let me go to CNN aviation analyst, Mary Schiavo, when you look Mary at the severe weather situations, can you walk us through the conversation that the captain and the first officer would be having with air traffic control because what we do know is that they requested to elevate from 32,000 feet to 38,000 feet. "New York Times" reporting that request was denied because of heavy traffic. So, what would that conversation include?
DENNISON: Well, with air traffic control, fairly short. They can also ask for weather advisories. But there's many other places to get weather advisories, and probably one of the best sources, depending upon the organization at the airline that supports them is also with your own carrier. You get weather -- you can get weather updates and information from your own carrier and you can get advisories en route, but you're constantly checking the weather. So, from air traffic control, you would simply have a very short conversation. You would ask permission to climb to flight level 38, 3,800 and, you know, they would say, in this case they said no and the reason is so much traffic. So, you wouldn't have a lot of conversation with them. It probably was some conversation about the weather and the weather conditions and they probably would have asked where can we go to get out of this, out of this turbulence and air traffic control probably responded, you know, nowhere. You know, we're full and everyone is reporting this turbulence at all flight levels.
HARLOW: Christine, when you look at that -- this area, the Java Sea, very busy waterway this region, where it is suspected, that the plane went down, are you surprised at all the crews at this hour, they had about 12 hours yesterday of daylight now, we are about three hours into the search this morning, as far as we know, nothing spotted yet, does it surprise you at all? Given how busy the corridor is?
DENNISON: Not really, because they were battling terrible weather as we understand yesterday, and it's getting better as we speak. So at that moment in time when they had people looking, you probably had very high waves. A lot of wind, rain, it would have been very difficult at that point. Again, they're still under way, there's still searching, we have better weather conditions. All these play such an important factor in the success of a recovery of a search effort. And sometimes you really -- you can't fight Mother Nature. You have to work with what you've got.
HARLOW: Yeah, that's true. But it is good to know that the weather's gotten a bit better now for search and rescue operations that are under way as we speak. Seth, to you, Les Abend, the 777 pilot that we've had on all night, made a point earlier saying look, when you talk about Airbus, Airbus versus Boeing, for example, Airbus is a much lighter aircraft than some of its predecessors, its competitors, and his take was that it is affected a bit more in turbulence. Not to say it's any less safe, but that it's a bit more effected, a bit less flexible than some of the other aircraft in turbulence. What are your thoughts on that given this was an Airbus A-320?
KAPLAN: Yeah, it's certainly important to emphasize. Of course, a very safe aircraft overall.
HARLOW: Right.
KAPLAN: You know, we've all, most of us flown on it numerous times. But yes, certainly, you know, physics matters in the end. I mean not to oversimplify, but, you know, there's no question that the heavier an aircraft is, again, it's not even so much aviation as pure physics, yes, a lighter aircraft is impacted. All else being equal, more by turbulence than a heavier aircraft. Again, all that within the context that this is a very safe aircraft.
HARLOW: But, can you just clarify for our viewers, because we keep hearing over and over, turbulence doesn't take planes down, right? Generally.
KAPLAN: Yeah, you know, usually when you have these incidents, it's typically a confluence of several different things. You have again, just, we just looked at Air France 447, you know, by no means, the only good analogy, but a decent one based on what we know so far. You had bad weather, you've had perhaps some mechanical issues related to the bad weather. Those tubes that basically, you know, long story short, we are giving bad readings in terms of altitude, and then pilots, the investigation found perhaps making bad decisions even in the context of that information. So yeah, you know, I myself was wondering most turbulent flights I've ever flown on just about a month ago. And, you know, you - it's uncomfortable, but you know in your mind that yes, as long as, there are so many redundancies basically in place that a whole lot has to go wrong, and it usually doesn't for the plane to go down.
HARLOW: Yeah, very good point. All right, thank you guys, appreciate the expertise. Very much, stay with us as we continue to cover this live special coverage of the missing airline, AirAsia Flight 8501.
Coming up next, planes are designed to handle lightning strikes. They really are, but AirAsia, this flight had some specifically rough weather. We're going to talk to the CEO of a company that tracks specifically those lightning strikes and how bad it was. That's straight ahead on our special live coverage of missing AirAsia flight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: All right. As we continue our live coverage here, breaking news of the search for AirAsia flight 8501. I want to let you know that we have just heard from the U.S. Navy saying that their seventh fleet, that is in the Pacific region, is standing ready to assist in the search for this missing airliner. It's been gone for about 26 hours now off radar. They have not -- there has not been a request for help from the U.S. Navy, but the seventh fleet, again, standing ready to assist as needed.
In aviation circles, these are dreaded words about any airplane, status unknown. Too often that means something has gone terribly wrong. The status of a Malaysian passenger jet right now unknown. It is about as I said 25, 26 hours since they last lost contact with that Airbus 320, it just dropped off the radar. Reporters on board search planes over the Java Sea say crews are flying and they are looking, this is mainly a visual search on the water and from the air right now. Also, unknown the fate of the 162 people on board passengers and crew members who took off on what was supposed to be a short flight, just about two hours to Singapore. And never made it.
One thing that we do know is that the captain of that flight wanted to adjust his altitude. Wanted to go higher to dodge some bad weather. Wanted to go up to 38,000 feet, of course, investigators want very much to know if the weather played any role in what happened to this flight. Let me bring in Bob Marshall. He founded Earth Network, it's a high-tech global weather monitoring company. Bob, I was fascinated reading some of your comments earlier, talking about what you do know about the storm that this plane went through or tried to go around, simply because of the lightning strikes that you recorded there. What do they tell us?
BOB MARSHALL, FOUNDER, EARTH NETWORK: Yeah, what we do know is that there was a significant number of lightning strikes in and around the path of the AirAsia flight. And, you know, one of the difficult things in any weather scenario is having enough data to really know what's going on and being able to determine whether you're going to fly into danger or not. And in that area of the world, there's just not a lot of data. So, you know, we've seen a lot of the satellite imagery and it's interesting and it certainly shows a pretty massive set of thunderstorms that was approaching the area, but it doesn't give you a very much precise information. And that's really the beauty of the lightning data, as it really pinpoints where the most dangerous parts of thunderstorms are.
And our network definitely indicated that there was some significant lightning activity which means there's significant thunderstorm, and that means there is really a convection and turbulence. And that's really what the danger is.
HARLOW: So, obviously we don't have video of the lightning strikes in this storm as of yet, but I do want to roll some video for our viewers that you provided to us here at CNN from a storm in Dallas. In March of this year. As you look at this with me, tell us what's going on here and how you know that that is similar to what was happening right around this plane.
MARSHALL: Again, we can't say for sure that this is similar to what was going on around that plane, because we don't have enough data, but in this storm, this is a severe thunderstorm. And what you're seeing is just explosions in the atmosphere. You see the clouds billowing up, and that's huge vertical motion in the atmosphere, moisture and rain and hail, and that's not the kind of thing that any pilot wants to fly into.
So, and obviously what you see in the video is that there's a tremendous amount of lightning associated with the storm. So, you know, what the NTSB and many other scientists have said is that, you know, what you should do is measure that lightning because it's the lightning that tells you very precisely where the most severe elements of the storm are. It's really not the lightning that is so dangerous to an aircraft, aircrafts are designed to withstand the lightning, but it's, you know, when you get into that chaos, the, you know, can you imagine flying a plane at 500 miles an hour and running into hail.
HARLOW: No.
MARSHALL: I mean I've experienced hail one time in my car, and it's frightening. And if the plane is going up and down, and the issue is, it's the chaos and confusion and the cockpit that often causes the issues here.
HARLOW: You know, I've been on a flight that was struck by lightning, and it actually knocked out what's deemed the gyro, right, or something that helps us with navigation.
MARSHALL: Right.
HARLOW: So, that to be fixed, but the plane itself could still fly fine, and that's an important point you make, that planes can fly even if they're hit by lightning. Given what you know about the storm system over Indonesia 24 hours, it go - was it bad enough to say ground flights in this country or do we just not know?
MARSHALL: Yeah, I mean at this point, Poppy, I don't think we know. I mean, you know, our network is good enough in that area of the world where we know there was thunderstorms in the region and we know that thunderstorms could have impacted, you know, the flight path, but we don't even have enough data to know how severe that storm was. So, and I can't say whether flights could, you know, should have been grounded in that scenario, but that's really why, you know, in the end, you know, we live in a high-tech world today. And the key is to get this technology deployed to where, you know, we can get this information in the hands of the pilots so they can make good decisions and keep everybody safe.
HARLOW: Yeah, and I mean I do want to point out again leading up to this AirAsia exemplary safety record, this captain, a lot of experience, many hours of experience as well as the first officer of this plane doing everything obviously that they could, and we continue to follow this search for this missing airline really tragic situation, Bob Marshall from Earth Network, thank you for that, appreciate it.
MARSHALL: Thank you.
HARLOW: Well of course, when we heard about the missing plane, many went back and they thought how could this happen again? You thought of Malaysia Airlines, MH-370, another airliner that simply vanished. Are there lessons from that tragedy to help investigators this time? That's next as our special coverage continues.
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HARLOW: I'm Poppy Harlow in New York, this is CNN's special live continuing coverage of a vanished jetliner. It vanished over Southeast Asian waters and it is the second time that a plane has vanished in that region this year. Back in March, Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 went missing with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board. No wreckage, no call, no trace, just radio silence and questions many never have gotten answers to. So are there similarities with this latest disappearance of flight 8501 and what lessons have been learned from MH-370?
Jim Clancy takes a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are some disconcerting similarities between the AirAsia flight and MH-370. But there are important differences as well. Flight 370 vanished from civilian radar less than an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur. The AirAsia flight, likewise disappeared from tracking screens less than an hour after departure from Surabaya. Neither plane sent a distress call, but in the case of the Malaysian jetliner, it was a perfectly clear, moonless night, the 162 passengers and crew of AirAsia 8501 were experiencing very bad weather. What sensationalized the case of the Malaysian jetliner's disappearance was that the search was pressed in the South China Sea for the better part of a week.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The breaking news here on CNN is the mystery of flight 370.
CLANCY: CN broke the news barely 48 hours after the plane had gone missing that Malaysia's own military radar showed it was gone from that area within an hour of takeoff. The government had hesitated. Critical information was withheld. Malaysia Airlines didn't tell families flight 370 was even missing until the time it was supposed to be arriving in Beijing. Many hours after it vanished. Families felt deceived, many accused Malaysian authorities of a coverup, conspiracy theories exploded on the Internet, even as officials were belatedly trying to set the record straight. Because weather couldn't be a factor for MH-370, many of those theories centered on terrorism, although no link to terrorism was ever uncovered, it was too late, and whatever information was released by Malaysian authorities seems contradictory and meaningless.
Most passengers were Chinese nationals and ?hina took the unusual step of allowing their families to take to the streets in protest. AirAsia appears to have learned lessons from the MH-370 tragedy and move quickly to inform families. Indonesia's transport ministry also responded, a passenger manifest and load list were online within hours. Critical questions remain, in the hours and days ahead, radar records and search efforts may yield answers for the families of AirAsia flight 8501.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: The final similarity, neither plane had the kind of GPS locater so many experts advocated after the disappearance of MH-370. Nearly ten months later, that may be the lesson we haven't learned. Jim Clancy, CNN.
HARLOW: Jim, thank you so much for that report. Also, some information we're getting just in here to CNN, we are being told that families in Indonesia are having a closed door briefing with the airline at this moment. We're going to take you live in just a few minutes, straight there to our Andrew Stevens with the report. So, stay with us for that. Quick break, we'll be back on the other side.
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HARLOW: All right, we'll have more of our special live coverage of the search for missing AirAsia flight 8501 straight ahead. But I also - I want to bring you some more important breaking news as we continue to watch and monitor the search for this plane at the top of the hour, we will go live to Surabaya, where families are being briefed by airport authorities and Eurasia officials, but first, as I mentioned, another really critical and tragic breaking news story that I want to bring you from overseas as well.
At least one passenger has died after a fire erupted on a ferry off the coast of Greece. The ferry was going to Italy and the fire has since been contained, but the weather conditions have really been making those rescue efforts very difficult. The number of people rescued has risen, thank goodness, 190, you still though have hundreds of passengers on board waiting to be rescued, one of the survivors compared this to the Titanic disaster, saying people are dying of cold and suffocating from the smoke.
Let me bring in on the phone journalist Barbie Nadeau, who is in Rome. She's been following this throughout. So, Barbie, is it the case that this fire is at least contained at this hour?
BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR (via telephone): That's right. The Italian Navy is telling us that the fire is contained, it's not out yet, they've also said that they have taken 197 people off the ship that leaves 280 people left on the ship, in really, undesirable conditions I have to say. They have been out there now for 23 hours, as the ship has been burning, they're out on the open deck. The ship itself has been sprayed with water all day long which includes the passengers. There are many of them suffering from hypothermia right now as they're trying to lift them off one by one with helicopters that have the capacity to work at night.
At first light, they'll be able to bring in some of the bigger helicopters they were using earlier. Right now they can only lift off maybe one, two people at a time when the bigger helicopters are back in play, they'll be able to lift off maybe five, six at a time. Still though, that's going to take a long time to get - 280 people off that ship and into safety.
They've also started to try to bring some of the people that they've saved into shore, but they had yet another problem in trying to reach the port of Brindisi in the south of Italy and in the province of Apulia. The ship that was going to be bringing the first 50 survivors had to be diverted to a port in about an hour from where they hoped they'd be able to make landfall because the seas are just so rough. That it gives you any kind of indication of what the conditions they're working with are overnight. Hopefully by morning, the weather will clear a little bit and visibility, of course, is very bad because of the intense smoke from the fires, a number of oil rigs in the bottom of this ferry, and those have burned and they're trying very hard not to move the ship too much to get that fire going again. Just they need to keep the fire contained, get the people off, and then they'll determine what they can do with this ferry, wehther they bring it to Albania, which is about 13 miles from where they are, or whether they bring it all the way to Italy, which is about 35 miles.
HARLOW: Barbie Nadeau following for us, the breaking news there of that ferry, still burning in the sea between Greece and Italy. Appreciate it, Barbie. Thank you very much.
I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Our coverage, continuing live coverage of missing AirAsia Flight 8501, continues right now.
