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Investigators Confirm First I.D. of Victim; Bad Weather Hampering Search for 2nd Day; Pilot's Family Speaks to CNN

Aired January 01, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and happy New Year. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

We begin this hour with the crash of AirAsia Flight 8501. The investigators search for answers. The families search foreclosure.

Just a few hours ago, Indonesian authorities confirmed their first identification of a victim. The woman is among nine bodies recovered so far.

After a small break from bad weather, strong winds and heavy rains are again hampering the search for more victims and wreckage. The arrival of monsoonal rain and its unpredictable eruptions of bad weather holding back divers as well and their investigation of a so-called shadow on the ocean floor. Without confirmation that it's the bulk of the airliner, officials say it could take a week to locate the so- called black boxes. Of course, they contain the crucial information that will explain what caused this plane to crash.

In the meantime, search crews have pulled more debris from the water, including two black bogs, a gray suitcase and pieces of stairs. Today, additional search vessels are expected to arrive in the region, including a ship from Singapore with enhanced underwater detection.

CNN's Gary Tuchman has more for you from Indonesia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: From the air and on the water, this morning, weather conditions improving enough to give search teams a small window to continue the arduous task of locating the wreckage, in hopes of finding all the remaining passengers and of getting the plane's critical black boxes.

At least eight bodies have been recovered. Authorities have now identified the first victim. Medical personnel are at the ready to receive more victims. This as new questions are raised about the final moments of the ill-fated flight.

About 35 minutes after takeoff, the pilot asked air traffic control for permission to climb to a higher altitude due to bad weather. That request was denied because of other planes in the area, and that was the last time air traffic control heard from the captain. Minutes later, Flight 8501 dropped from radar. GEOFFREY THOMAS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/MANAGING DIR. AIRLINERATINGS.COM:

This particular flight had an altitude of 36,000 feet and climbing, but traveling at approximately 105 miles per hour, too slow to sustain flight.

TUCHMAN: AirAsia CEO would not confirm reports that sonar equipment may have pinpointed the plane's location. But this morning he posted this tweet, "I am hoping that the latest information is correct and aircraft has been found. Please all hope together. This is so important."

With each revival of remains comes the hope for families wanting the lay their loved ones to rest.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Thanks to Gary Tuchman, reporting from Surabaya, Indonesia.

Now, let's talk about the grim task of identifying the bodies.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is outside the hospital where victims will undergo the first steps of identification.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Well, Carol, just eight body haves been through this hospital, just a fraction of the 162 passengers and crew who were on board. This is the first stop on land for those victims pulled from the waters of the Java Sea.

(voice-over): Sirens in the night announce their arrival. Victims of flight 8501 on dry land and rushed into this hospital at Pangkalan Bun. The next morning, two more bodies arrive. Red Cross and hospital workers take them to a private wing to be prepared for the next stop, identification by distraught families.

The hospital director says he's here 24 hours a day to give the deceased the respect they deserve.

"Because they've been in the water some days", he tells me, "the bodies are swollen, but otherwise they're intact."

Patients look unsomberly, their own ailments forgotten in the face of such tragedy.

Coffins are being delivered to give dignity to those who lost their lives so suddenly.

(on camera): This hospital has never had to deal with a tragedy on this scale before. They have about two dozen caskets at the moment that are being built as we speak. The hospital director says they will have 162, one for every victim of this crash.

(voice-over): Final prayer for each soul, leaders of six different religions take their turn. The victim's religion may not be known but customs must still be observed. "Their time on earth is over", says this pastor, "so many of our

prayers are for the family. We ask God to receive their bodies and give the families strength."

One step closer to their final resting place.

So few victims have been found and treated, so many more still wait to be pulled from their watery graves.

(on camera): It is a very slow process. Of course, the fears now are that those numbers could dwindle even further because of the weather, very bad weather at the site of the crash and is expected to be much of the same for the next two or three days -- Carol.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Paula Hancocks reporting, thank you.

Among the many challenges search crews are up against, bad weather. As I said, strong winds, high waves are hampering the search. Keep in mind, it's also monsoon season. So, how will this play out over the next several days?

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers is in the CNN severe weather center with more on that.

Good morning, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: What certainly makes things more difficult out there, waves 10 to 12 feet, you're battling that. You're battling wind at 20 to 30 miles per hour. On top of those waves, all you see are white caps and you're looking for white pieces of a white plane. So, that makes it more just ground -- more like a washing machine in this area, as the winds continue.

Now, the storms weren't as bad yesterday as we had. We had a couple storms here. One big cell right over that black box. That's what we'd be looking at that the entire time.

But right now, things have calmed down. We're right up to current. There are clouds out there, but clear enough to get planes in the sky. The problem is, it's 10:00 at night there. So, there's no reason to put planes in the sky because it's completely dark.

A couple showers around. But things get better when it comes to severe weather or rain and cloud cover, but things get worse when it comes to wind over the next couple days. There you go. For tomorrow morning, things looking up.

But it always looks better at night than it does during the day. During the morning hours storms pop up and then go away at night. We're kind of battling with that.

The storms for the next couple days will not be right over that black box area, that area right there where the searching is going to go on. A couple of inches rainfall, sure, but not the big monsoonal type weather you could see this time of year.

In fact, even the Philippines here, this is Jangmi, that is the tropical storm that moved right through the Philippines. It's called a cyclone or typhoon I get, but it's tropical systems. And it could push some of the moisture down toward the search area.

The winds have been blowing, though, the entire time. They've been blowing in the same direction. So, we get a lot of questions, could this be blowing the debris around? Yes, absolutely. The wind has been coming in from this direction the entire time.

So, that's why we're finding the pieces in this black area here because it's been pushed by the wind in that direction that will likely move that back, the search area back to looking for the plane, away from that box area because the wind has been so fierce, 40 to 50 miles per hour. You can't search in weather like that -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I understand. Chad Myers, thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, despite rough weather, though, authorities are optimistic they'll recover the plane's black boxes. The technology being used to uncover the crucial clues to the plane's downfall next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The first victim of Flight 8501 has been identified as more bodies are recovered from the Java Sea.

On Wednesday, officials say a sonar image appeared to show a large portion of the aircraft on the sea floor. But rough weather has left crews struggling to recover the plane's black boxes.

For the technology used to pinpoint the debris, we turn to CNN's Stephanie Elam.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the first pieces from AirAsia Flight 8501 are recovered, the intense hunt for the rest of the plane continues. For investigators, the plane's flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, otherwise known as the black boxes, may explain what led to this disaster.

But how will searchers look for the plane under water? First, they will likely listen for it.

All commercial airplanes are required to carry pingers -- underwater locater beacons attached to the black boxes. They emit a ping once a second.

James Coleman is a senior hydrographer with Teledyne Recon, a company that makes technology use for just this purpose.

JAMES COLEMAN, SENIOR HYDROGRAPHER, TELEDYNE DESIGNS: A hydrophone is really simplified an underwater microphone. This is the type of device, you're going to put it together in tails and they tow behind the vessel, we'll dip it over the side. They're going to use to listen for that pinger locator.

ELAM (on camera): How far can it hear?

COLEMAN: About five miles.

ELAM (voice-over): But unlike the extreme depths of nearly three miles in the Indian Ocean where Malaysia Air Flight 370 disappeared, the Java Sea is shallow, running only about 80 to 100 feet deep.

While, it is easier to operate hydrophones at this depth, Coleman says there's more interference closer to the surface from waves, passing ships, and inclement weather that make isolating the pings harder.

COLEMAN: This is a spectrum view. This shows the frequencies in the ocean. If that pinger were nearby we see a sharp spike right at that pinger frequency around 30 to 40 kilohertz.

ELAM: Time is not on the investigator's side. The batteries on the pingers only last about 30 days. But if the pingers fail, searchers will likely turn to sonar.

COLEMAN: So this is the sonar, this is what they're going to use to map the sea floor once they have an idea where the debris site is or to search for the debris site if the pinger can't find it. This is going to emit sound.

ELAM: Yet like hydrophones, sonars work better in very deep water where the search area can be far more broad. But Coleman says in shallow water, the search can move along more quickly.

(on camera): And sonar is just showing us what's at the bottom, right?

COLEMAN: Exactly, and so it's emitting that sound as the sound comes back up the bottom, it's interpreting in order to draw a 3D image of what's on the sea floor and it also generates an image of top-down image of what's on the sea floor.

ELAM (voice-over): That image will help investigators mark the debris field, so the process of salvaging as much of the plane can begin.

Stephanie Elam, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And with me now, CNN analyst David Gallo. He's also the director of special projects for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and CNN aviation analyst Les Abend.

Good morning to both of you. I'm glad you're here.

So, David, I'll start with you, because we're talking about searching underneath the water. Right now, searchers saw this shadow underneath the water. That probably means they're not 100 percent sure they've actually located the plane. So now they're backtracking. What does that mean?

DAVID GALLO, CNN ANALYST: Yes. You know, sonar, it takes skill to interpret sonar images. I was a bit confused they said they saw a shadow. That's not the normal way we talk about things. Normally we talk about targets, not shadows. We'll have to wait and see.

The way that normally is done is that you identify a target and then ground truth it with cameras. That's not possible with these weather conditions.

COSTELLO: Right. They have to identify an object before divers can go down and look, too, right?

GALLO: Sure. In the case of Air France 447, too deep for divers, but we ended up taking 180,000 still images and making one big mosaic of that wreck site so that investigators knew exactly where to go. And ideally, that would be -- that would be the ideal situation here, would be to map the entire wreck site so it can guide the divers.

COSTELLO: We have a few more clues into why this plane might have come down. I want to address those questions to you, Les, because the latest information leaking out is that the pilot ascended steeply, like the plane was almost going straight up in the air, 36,000 feet. But the plane was going, what, 105 miles per hour or something like that and it went into a stall?

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: First of all, that information could be suspect. We don't know what the credibility of that particular information is. That seems a little implausible to me.

Now, 105 knots that was indicated would have been ground speed. So, airplane sense, airspeed in the air relative to what's going on over the wing, you know, that steep rate of climb seems a little unlikely. There are updrafts in a thunderstorm. There are also downdrafts. But, you know, that rate is certainly possible.

But it doesn't indicate to me that there was a 20,000-hour skilled pilot at the controls. If that was happening in my airplane, instinctively we would disconnect the auto pilot and attempt to fly our airplane. So, you know, I -- that data just doesn't seem --

COSTELLO: When you talk about an updraft, what does that do to the plane?

ABEND: Well, an updraft will physically try to lift the airplane. The auto pilot if it's still on, as will the pilot, will counter that and attempt to maintain the altitude.

Now, it gets to a certain point where we're trained in severe turbulent. Turbulence goes from light to moderate to severe to even extreme. But when we get into a turbulent situation, disconnect from the auto pilot, and just flying what we call attitude.

Let's not worry about our altitude, even though it's a clearance thing. Right now let's just worry about how the airplane is upset in relation to the ground. So we just try to control the airplane from that regard.

COSTELLO: The debris that's been found floating on top of the ocean, the bodies largely intact. What does that tell you about how the plane came down? That stall way up at 36,000 feet mesh with the evidence found so far?

ABEND: It's hard to say. If it was stalled all the way down similar to the Air France 447 accident that we've been speaking about, perhaps. I don't under -- you know, I'm not quite forensic enough to understand what happens to the human body at particular angles. But it seems to me that that is a possibility, assuming their definition of intact is arms, legs and things of that nature together.

It could just be the majority of the human remains are together. It's hard to say. But a stall is an aerodynamic function. It's not the engines that stall, but the airplane itself that stalls.

COSTELLO: So, I want to talk more about the debris. David, you also mentioned that the plane's over-the-wing emergency exit door, it was found floating on top of the water. It's designed to pop inward in the event of the crash. AirAsia's door was found outside of the plane.

So, what does that tell you?

GALLO: That's a better question for David Soucie, aviation analyst. But, you know, everything becomes a clue at this point. So, every little bit of debris -- we learned an awful lot from the air France incident about -- from the debris that was found a few days after the tragedy itself, about what happened to the plane.

What amazes me now, Carol, I took a quick look at ships in that area, commercial traffic. There are dozens of ships transiting that area right now. And, you know, in a way they're going through a crime scene at 10, 20 miles an hour. And I'm wondering what they see, because we need more debris from the surface. I'm sort of amazed that we haven't heard more about debris fields at this point.

COSTELLO: Well, supposedly, it's monsoon season. Of course, most of us in the United States don't experience that. What would that be like for those searching in the water?

GALLO: I'm sure it's horrible. I mean, they should see something. I would think that they would see -- there have been breaks in the weather patterns. And I must say, if you look at marinetraffic.com, there's a steady stream of traffic, tankers and cargo ships going from Singapore's Strait of Malacca, through the Java Sea to the east, and they must see something. And I'm just wondering why we haven't heard more about bits of debris or debris fields.

COSTELLO: Well, we keep on them. David Gallo and Les Abend, thanks to both of you, I appreciate it.

Still to come on the NEWSROOM: CNN is granted rare access to the family of the flight's pilot. We'll hear his daughter's tribute next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Friends and relatives of Flight 8501's pilot have been showing up at his home to pay respect and support his family.

CNN's Gary Tuchman was allowed into to the pilot's home. He talked to the people who loved him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN (voice-over): This is what it looks like today in the home of the captain of AirAsia Flight 8501. This is Captain Iriyanto's 24- year-old daughter Angela and wife Widya, his 7-year-old son Arya. This is his father. This, his mother, in a house full of family and friends, a house so full that more people are outside in front of the home, as well as out in the street.

This is a liat (ph), the Indonesian name for the traditional visit made when there is a death in the family.

But Angela still talks in the present tense about a father she adores.

ANGELA ANGGI PRASETYANI, DAUGHTER OF AIRASIA PILOT (through translator): He is kind, wise, and humorous. He's easygoing. He's intelligent. He never raises his voice. He's never angry. I'm very proud of him.

TUCHMAN: Family and friends occasionally glance at the TV that stays on with nonstop coverage of the AirAsia crash.

Pictures of Iriyanto are all over the home, a wedding photo, a picture when he was an air force pilot. He went from the air force to one of Indonesia's airlines for 13 years and moved on to AirAsia six years ago.

One of Iriyanto's friends paying his respects is a pilot for another airline.

(on camera): What kind of pilot was your friend?

PIETER DAORLWOE, FRIEND OF AIRASIA PILOT (through translator): He is a very responsible pilot. We used to be in the air force together. He's very loyal. He's very kind. In his work environment he's very kind to his co-pilot, his cabin crew, his ground crew and all the people who fly with him.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Model planes of jets Iriyanto flew are part of the decoration of the house. His wife says the outpouring of support at their home is invaluable right now.

WIDYA SUKATRI PUTRI, WIFE OF AIRASIA PILOT (through translator): I'm happy so many people are here. It gives support to me and my family.

TUCHMAN: Like so many families of AirAsia victims, there was significant hope of survival among members of this family, when the wreckage was still missing. But Iriyanto's daughter doesn't want to abandon all hope, at least until her father's body is found. PRASETYANI: Of course, I still expect that he's alive but at the same

time, I have to accept the reality.

TUCHMAN: And that's why many of these same family and friends will be back here tomorrow and for days after, offering their support and their love.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, Sidoarjo, Indonesia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Checking some other top stories for you at 25 minutes past.

Twenty-five protesters were arrested when they tried to storm the St. Louis police headquarters. Officers used pepper spray to push people out. Ferguson protests started as a peaceful march to the arch.

About 100 demonstrators took place in a die-in in Boston. The protesters dropped to the ground to simulate the killings of black young men by police officers. All the protesters remain silent. One organizer read the names of some of those killed in 2014.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: Three, two, one!

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: About 1 million people crammed into Times Square to welcome the new year with the ball drop. Revelers did something earlier generations did not. They took their cell phone pictures.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)