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Hunt for AirAsia Turned into Search-And-Recovery; Learning About Flight 8501 Victims; What Does Debris Suggest Happened to Flight 8501; AirAsia a Rags-to-Riches Story; De Blasio, NYPD Battle Heats Up

Aired December 30, 2014 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Bottom of the hour. Welcome back.

We're just a few hours away from daybreak where the hunt for AirAsia flight 8501 has turned from a search-and-rescue into search-and- recovery. Debris from the Airbus A-320 has been found six miles from the last known location. Along with the wreckage, the outline of what appears to be a plane on the ocean floor there. Also, bodies, at least three of them, according to the National Search and Rescue Agency there. Now, among the recovered debris is a suitcase, scuba tank, and an emergency exit, including an inflatable slide or a life raft just underneath the suitcase here.

Now to the passengers on this AirAsia flight. We are learning little bit more about them, sons, daughters, brothers, fathers, grandchildren.

CNN's Rosa Flores is joining me now.

Rosa, we're hearing from some of the family members, as well.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's very difficult. And as you might imagine, it's an emotional roller coaster for them. A lot of them in disbelief because of the news. And then the manifest of the plane hoping their loved one's name is not on the manifest, and then they realize it's on the manifest, that's the case for a couple in their 60s. Here's what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA ENDANG WIRSAMI, LOST FAMILY MEMBER (through translation): I saw her name on the manifest and wondered if that was really my daughter's. First, I saw my son-in-law's name. I didn't tell my husband because I didn't want him to panic. It was only after I saw my daughter's name and my two granddaughters' names on the list that I told him.

When they explain that not only did they find debris but also found bodies floating in the water, everyone became hysterical, especially the mothers. One mother even blacked out.

Deep down in my heart, all I can do is accept the situation and give this to God. I know this is a big tragedy, but why did this happen to my daughter? I know everyone dies when it's time. But I believe in an afterlife, so my way to cope with my loss, I will pray more often and give this to God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Sometimes the easiest question is the most difficult to answer. And that is why.

I also want to tell you about a little girl. Her name, Michelle Ardy. And I want to show you some pictures she snapped before that plane took off. There's the context of this is heart wrenching. She's on this flight with her entire family, her two other siblings and her parents. She snaps a few photos before the plane takes off and she Snapchats them to a friend. That's how CNN gained access to them. One of those photos, it's a shot of the plane's wing, and it says, "Bye." The other photograph is of her sister sitting right next to her. And, of course, now this entire family grieving that this little girl's entire family was on this flight. I talked to their principal, and she tells me it's a tough time for the entire community, Ana. There's just so many, so many members of this one nation that were on board this flight.

CABRERA: And you see those pictures of the children like that on the plane and it really brings the tragedy home to all of us.

Thanks, Rosa.

Finding out what happened to flight 8501 could be cold comfort for families. Maybe it will provide some closure, help them come to terms with this tragedy. Also, it could help prevent another disaster.

So for more, we're joined by Fred Tecce, a commercial pilot and a former federal prosecutor.

Fred, I know you've also investigated a number of fatal jet accidents as a prosecutor. We only have a few clues so far on this. We know the plane was about six miles from the last known location. There was a suitcase recovered intact, three bodies have been found, all near what appears to be a shadow of a plane under water. Based on this information, what might it suggest to you?

FRED TECCE, COMMERCIAL PILOT, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, the problem, Ana, with this, is, early on, these types of clues can mean different things. For instance, the fact that the airplane was found six miles from the last known contact could be indicative that the airplane disintegrated in flight, nosed over and went straight down. So without anything else, these clues as they pop up aren't very helpful in and among themselves. Once all the pieces are collected and put with the data from the two black boxes that are on the airplane, these clues will become very much more significant.

CABRERA: What will those black boxes tell us?

TECCE: Sure. There's two of them. And they're orange. Is one of them is called a cockpit voice recorder and records all the sounds from the cockpit and indicates where they came from. If it came from the pilot's microphone, the co-pilot's microphone, a remote microphone in the cockpit, they all have channels and noises can be heard. If there was a catastrophic failure of that aircraft, that will make a loud noise, show up on the voice recorder. The second black box, the flight data recorder and does just that. Records a lot of data about the airplane.

How fast it was going, what the altitude was, the engine settings were, the engine parameters were. The air speed, what direction it was going, how fast it was going up or down. All that type of data along with the cockpit voice recorder. What were the captains talking about? You heard this talk. They made a turn to the left. Well, the cockpit voice recorder, you'll hear the two of them talking about why they need to make that turn. Those are the kind of information that will come from the two black boxes.

CABRERA: How essential is time and finding those black boxes and finding the rest of the wreckage in terms of making sure we don't lose any clues?

TECCE: Well, time is essential for the black boxes in the ping in the batteries is only supposed to work for 30 days. Those are the parameters by the manufacturer. However, the data on the black boxes will be there virtually forever, as you may recall from Air France. They didn't find one of them until a year or two years after the accident.

As far as the wreckage is concerned, time is not a big factor. You know, it's helpful to be able to look at the metal, how did it fail? And to the extent that gets corroded by sea water. That could compromise it, but given that they have some idea where the wreckage is, I don't think time's going to be an issue.

CABRERA: All right. Fred Tecce, we do appreciate that information. Thank you.

TECCE: Thanks.

CABRERA: Now, before this disaster, AirAsia was seen as a success story. More than 10 years ago, it was barely an airline. And the current owner bought it for just a quarter. That's 25 cents. How it got where it is today, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: No sweeping changes are planned for the airline which has become a leader in Asia. Its story is literally a rags-to-riches tale. Paid just 25 cents in a risky business move. Now fast forward some 13 years, a bevy of planes, strong customer satisfaction. Until now.

"CNN Money" correspondent, Cristina Alesci, reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When flight QZ-8501 made international headlines, AirAsia was a local success story. Back in 2001, a Malaysian entrepreneur bought a failing airline with two planes to its name and $11 million in debt. He paid a token price of just 25 cents. Today, AirAsia is one of the biggest low-cost carriers on the continent. Its fleet of 158 planes fly to 83 destinations in 17 countries. And it's celebrated its success with some flare. A former beauty queen turned pilot appears on the cover of its annual report. "The New York Times" called AirAsia a pioneer in 2007 for the low-cost model to Asia.

In its early days, some of the flights cost just a few dollars a seat. The airline's founder, an unlikely partnership that includes a former music executive and a Ryan Air (ph) director, found an opportunity in Asia's rapidly growing middle class. That growth has attracted rivals. There are now nearly 60 low-cost carriers in the region. And that competition hurt AirAsia's financial results in 2014, with the airline clocking one of the worst quarters in the 13-year history.

But now worries about revenue are giving way to worries about reputation. Flight QZ-8501 is AirAsia's first major crisis. And as investigators piece together the cause of the crash, one of Malaysia's biggest success stories could unravel as the world associates its brand new with tragedy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: So, Cristina's joining me now.

Clearly, this is a pretty amazing story in its own right. It has you sort of rooting for the little guy in some degree. Where does the company go from now?

ALESCI: Well, if you want to look at a simple metric, the stock price as a reflection of what people think about the financial health. The stock has taken a little bit of a hit since the crash, down about 7 percent. But let's not make mistake about this. This is a business that generated $1.4 billion in revenue. No one thinks that's going to go away, especially because of the demographics that we spoke of. There's bigger middle class that wants to travel and doesn't want to do it by boat or by train. They want to fly. And they want to fly efficiently and safely. And that's something that AirAsia was able to do up until this point.

Now, you've got to think that the executives at the company maybe are starting to question whether expansion too fast came at too much of a significant cost. The question now comes from the company. There's a lot of introspection. Make sure their pilots and staff is still trained well enough that they could also meet the demand that is coming in for these kinds of -- these airline services which is low- cost airline services are expanding exponentially.

CABRERA: This airline has had a complete clean record when it comes to safety issues.

ALESCI: The problem is this is a brand that was known locally for safe and efficient air travel that had a pretty cool marketing campaign. And now, it's hitting the international stage because 162 people went down in one of its planes. So it changes the conversation about this company. Look at the history of plane crashes and the impact on the airline's businesses. It's very unusual that financially because of these crashes. Usually, it can withstand them because they have insurance, and usually a lot of the insurance will pick up the cost when it comes to settlements and claims to families.

CABRERA: Can you talk about some of these passengers who only have a certain number of options for themselves, too, if they want to travel by air.

ALESCI: They have a lot more options, which is why AirAsia was a little bit challenged the past couple of quarters. There have been more and more low-cost carriers in the region. So you've got to stay competitive. And that's another challenge for them.

CABRERA: Cristina Alesci, thank you so much.

And just ahead, I'll speak with the diving expert about what crews will face under water now that this mission has turned into recovering the wreckage. Which parts of the plane are likely still intact?

Plus, "The New York Times" ripping the city's police department for its behavior, specifically how these officers -- you see here -- protested against New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. This all comes after de Blasio meets with police unions right now. And I'll speak with a former NYPD cop, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: So the mayor of New York was booed just yesterday by cadets at a graduation ceremony at the NYPD Academy. I want you to listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd now like to introduce the mayor of the city of New York, the Honorable Bill de Blasio.

(BOOING)

(CHEERING)

BILL DE BLASIO, (D), NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Congratulations, officers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Now, that show of disdain toward the mayor follows other public acts of contempt coming from New York police, like the mass turning of backs on the mayor when he was speaking at the funeral of murdered police officer, Rafael Ramos, and similar when the mayor held a news conference following the assassinations of Ramos and Liu.

Now today, the editorial board of "The New York Times" called out the police for what it terms disrespectful acts. The editorial's pretty scathing. Here's a sample, and I want to quote for you: "Mr. De Blasio isn't going to say it, but somebody has to. With these acts of passive aggressive contempt and self-pity, many New York police officers, led by their union, are squandering the credibility, defacing its reputation, shredding the hard-earned respect. They have taken the most brave moment, the funeral of a fallen colleague and hijacked it for their own petty look-at-us gesture. Doing so, they also turned their backs on Mr. Ramos' widow, her two young sons, and others in that family."

Now Gil Alba is joining me on the phone. He is a former detective with the NYPD.

OK, Gil, passive-aggressive, contempt and self-pity. Some tough words aimed at police, especially the union representation. Is this a fair criticism?

GIL ALBA, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE (voice-over): Well, I think it should all be turned around and you can almost say the same thing about the mayor. New York City Police Department and, right now, they know, they feel that there's disdain by the mayor against New York City police. So you go to a funeral where two officers were not shot, they were assassinated. They were in a car and they were assassinated. They weren't even supposed to be there. One was overtime, the other, you know, wasn't supposed to be there, but he volunteered.

These two, they weren't policing. So every officer feels that could have been them. All the families -- a lot of officers at the funeral are looking at this particular officer and saying this could have been me. And this, they're not turning their back on the officer. Cops saluted that particular person.

CABRERA: Let me just jump in here, though. I think, I don't think we're disputing they're necessarily turning their backs on the officer. We're talking about what the dynamics are like between the mayor and the police department and this criticism that police in this situation, in terms of turning their backs and using that forum for a public display against the mayor.

ALBA: Well, that's what they say, display against the mayor. One of the officers, one of the brothers were shot and killed and they're respecting them and they don't really believe the mayor's words and they don't trust the mayor's words. So they turned their back on that. One is a statement of here we are at a funeral and it could be us. Turning that around a little bit. It is disrespecting the mayor, and the mayor has to earn that respect.

CABRERA: What does the mayor need to do to earn that respect in your mind?

ALBA: Well, the mayor needs is to apologize.

CABRERA: Why does the mayor need to apologize? Why does the mayor need to apologize?

ALBA: Well, it seems the police -- he has shown in many ways. And just saying about the rallies and the demonstrations on the Brooklyn Bridge. He says it was alleged. All that. That's just a couple of the things. In saying all this against the mayor or the police department, practically saying blood is on your hands. Those are his men. He has two police officers in the police department. I'm sure he doesn't want anything to happen to them. However, it's bad enough the mayor or the police, they have to get together. Is it going to be easy? No, but they have to reunite and reunite the city. As you can see what's happening out in New York City, 66 percent on the rest from last year. So that's almost like a demonstration itself. They both really have to get together. I think and I know it could be done.

CABRERA: I hear your frustration. We appreciate your opinion. I guess final question, when you look at the bigger picture and the dynamics that are happening and what police officers are doing, the mayor and the dynamics there. There's a clash, but it also underlies the clash that's happening among some members of the community who feel that maybe some members of the police department aren't treating them fairly.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: Is this a time for New York police to look inside themselves about what maybe needs to happen in terms of reform, as well?

ALBA: Well, they've been doing that. But there's good cops and bad cops. I would say a majority are good. But for the bad cop and the incident happened, nobody wants to use police brutality on somebody else. And if they do, they should be out of the police department. You should respect where you work. Respect the people. The more you respect the people, the more respect you return. There's a lot of internal pressures on the cops to give out the rest. All for little things. And this does a lot to the community also, you know, to put against cops. However, the violence and the crime rate in those areas are really low now. New York City's probably one of the safest cities in the world. That's the bottom line is the crime rate. However, yes, there has to be -- there has to be community and the police have to work together without a doubt.

CABRERA: Absolutely. I think everybody can agree on that.

Gil Alba, thanks for your time.

ALBA: Thank you for having me.

CABRERA: We're back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: When the Academy Award nominations are revealed in a few weeks, Roger Ebert may be on that list, not as a critic, but as a star of a new CNN documentary about his life. Here's a sneak peek.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER EBERT, FORMER FILM CRITIC: When Gene and I were asked to work together on a TV show, we said we'd rather do it with someone else, anyone else.

(MUSIC) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The name of our show is opening soon at a theater near you. Two film critics talking about the movies. And this is Roger Ebert, from "The Chicago Sun-Times". And over here is Gene Siskel, from "The Chicago Tribune" and Channel Two news.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gene and Roger were sitting kind of pinioned in director's chairs, looking into the camera very seriously, talking about the movie.

EBERT: "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" just had the audience tearing up the seats with joy and also tearing up a little of my enjoyment of the film. They were applauding during the credits.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was stiff and wooden.

EBERT: When the foreman backs up and tries to make his big points about the establishment and authority --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But there was something there. It was interesting to hear two people who knew what they were talking about talk about a movie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: You can see more of Ebert's amazing journey. Be sure to check out "Life Itself," Sunday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern here on CNN.