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Four Large Objects Found in Plane Search; Mourners Arriving for Wake of Officer Liu; 7-year-old Girl Survives Plane Crash; Dangers of Diving in a Crash Zone; CDC Says Flu at Epidemic Levels; Potential Threats to U.S. Interests in Indonesia; Search for Flight 8501; What Caused Flight 8501 Crash
Aired January 03, 2015 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: New details about the route Flight 8501 was flying. Turns out it was unauthorized. This as four new pieces of the AirAsia plane are located. What it all means for the search.
And saying goodbye to a slain hero. New York City police officers issued a warning as the mayor is due to arrive at the wake of Officer Wenjian Liu any moment. Will officers turn their backs again?
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just really a miracle.
LARRY WILKINS, HELPED SEVEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL: I went to the door. There's a little girl about 7 years old. Crying. Not bad. Lips quivering pretty good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: A 7-year-old girl walks alone through the freezing cold. Just after being the only person in her family to live through a plane crash. Her amazing story of survival.
The NEWSROOM starts right now.
Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thanks so much for joining me.
Four large objects that could belong to AirAsia Flight 8501 have been found in the Java Sea. Searchers detected the metal objects under the water after finding an oil slick. One object is almost 60 feet long. But bad weather posed a major problem once again. And crews were not able to recover any more bodies. So far 30 bodies have been found and recovered. Six have been identified.
David Molko is live for us now in Surabaya, monitoring the search efforts.
So, David, does finding these bigger objects mean crews are getting any closer to the main wreckage? And there's a lot of hope in the Sunday search.
DAVID MOLKO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fredricka, a lot of hope indeed when the sun comes up in about three to four hours from now in Surabaya. Out in the search zone, that's several hundred kilometers northwest of where I am, conditions expected to improve drastically. That is really, really important. We've been seeing waves in the 10 to 12 to 16-foot range. Choppy seas making it really, really difficult for divers to get in and out of the water.
You know, we're told by search officials that up to 90 divers are onsite or on their way. That's a lot of manpower. But if they can't get in and out to do their job, it's definitely going to slow things down.
About those objects, we're told by the head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency that they have some sonar imaging of them. That gives the shape of the object and also lets them know that it's definitely manmade. In some senses we're told that a couple of them may even be metallic. Definitely not natural material. So the priority tomorrow morning when the sun rises is to get divers into the water.
Get a remote operated vehicle that's an underwater robot down to the ocean floor, maybe 100, 120 feet deep, to take a closer look.
The other priority, to continue to bring back those remains. At this point, as you said, 30 bodies recovered. But that's still 133 people that aren't accounted for -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: And is any more being said about this unauthorized route that this plane took?
MOLKO: Fred, the unauthorized route, so to speak, basically, the plane -- AirAsia is permitted to fly from Surabaya to Singapore. That's fine. The issue here is they didn't have permission to fly on Sunday. The license that they had was only for four days of the week. And it turns out that it seems that they have rearranged their schedule, and they're flying Sunday instead of a different day.
The Transport Ministry says that they're launching an investigation into this. That it's a -- it's unacceptable. And to figure out exactly what this means. At this point, an investigation, doesn't have bearing on what happened with the plane and Flight 85 01. Probably not. But at this point -- investigators aren't going to discount anything. They've got to look into it. And just like anything else, it's another piece of information that could be part of the puzzle -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: And David, what is it about Sundays? Why wouldn't it be authorized on a Sunday but then other days of the week it's OK?
MOLKO: Fred, it has to do with -- it has to do with aviation regulations, the licensing, the permissions. When you fly internationally, things get more complicated. It could be -- it could be landing slots in Singapore. You know, there's a limited amount of takeoff and landing space to go around. And that gets allocated among the different airlines. In some places it can be -- it can be fairly competitive.
So it's not necessarily an issue of the day of the week or the schedule, you know. Airlines also change their schedules to fly on days that are more profitable when they can pack the planes full and make more money and not fly different days.
It's more of an issue of not having permission to fly on that day. AirAsia saying in a statement, not to CNN but to local television, they're cooperating with authorities. The investigation here expected to last about week.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, David Molko. Appreciate that. In Surabaya.
So let's talk more now about this issue. Does it matter? And even about new debris that has been found under water. Four large pieces. What can be learned by this?
I'm joined now by former NTSB managing director and CNN aviation analyst Peter Goelz back with us. And Mary Schiavo, also back with us, a CNN aviation analyst and the former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
So let's, if you don't mind, go back to this issue of the licensing. Unlicensed, unauthorized to fly this route.
Peter, earlier you were saying it really is an aside. It's not hugely important. There's too much being made of it, especially at this juncture of the investigation?
PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: No, I think it indicates. It could indicate a lack of oversight. And a lack of capability to perform oversight by the Indonesian Civil Aviation Authority. Mary pointed out in the previous hour that there's been questions about, do they have enough manpower? Do they have enough inspectors to supervise the safety of this quickly expanding aviation industry in Indonesia, and this raises questions if -- are they applying the resources in the right place?
WHITFIELD: So then, Mary, you know, if this is an indicator of maybe a regulation problem, is it also then an indicator of a readiness for that region to investigate, for these investigators to get to the bottom of what happened and why?
MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Absolutely. I think this is probably the tip of the iceberg. And it's amazing that our own Federal Aviation Administration was almost, you know, clairvoyant. They're not usually very proactive or clairvoyant. But when they rated Indonesia, and their newest ratings came out just in December, Indonesia was rated on their safety oversight, on par with Bangladesh.
India was also. And there's only a handful of countries that don't meet the highest standards and Indonesia is one of them. And what that includes are things like do they provide adequate safety information to their airlines. Here we might wonder, did they have adequate weather information? Although the airlines can do that for themselves. And one of the things they fell down in was safety oversight over approvals and certification.
And here that would appear to be the case. They did not police who had approval to fly routes. So I think we'll see much more of this to come in the days, and it certainly indicates a question overall of Indonesian air safety.
WHITFIELD: All right. So there are a lot of investigations ongoing. What preceded that downing of that flight. What caused it. And now of course trying the search and recovery efforts that are under way.
Let's talk a little bit more now about these four items that have been located. Sonar equipment detected these four large items. One as long as 60 feet long.
Peter, what will investigators be looking at to try to discern -- especially if they're unable to, you know, find these black boxes that would give them more credible information, but what are the indicators on these pieces that investigators will be looking at to try and piece together what happened?
GOELZ: Well, the first thing they're going to do today is drop down a remote vehicle that's got a camera on it. It may have retrieving arms on it to get a look and see exactly what it is. Is this the aircraft or is it something else?
An ROV can stay down for hours on end. And it's guided from a ship above. The divers, if they're free divers at 100 feet, they're only going to be able to stay down for perhaps 15 or 20 minutes. And that's not a great deal of bottom time. So the ROVs in the water today will be critical.
Can they get a picture of some of this material? Can it be identified as the missing aircraft?
WHITFIELD: And then, Mary, you know, we hear from investigators about 30 bodies have been retrieved. Maybe six have been, you know, positively identified, but these bodies are also evidence.
What is the information that they're extracting from these bodies? Many, of course, bloated, you know, malformed because of the seawater that they've been in now for five days. But what is the information? What are the indicators on these bodies that will also help piece together what happened to this plane, how did it get go down, et cetera?
SCHIAVO: Right. Well, one would be the overall condition of the bodies, and whether they're clothed or not clothed. A group of three were found still strapped in their seats. That would indicate that the plane broke up on entry into the water and not that they had been able to land on the water and tried to get out.
Obviously, they will also be looking at whether there was water in the lungs and in the airway passages. And that will determine if people lived beyond the impact. And I said, even whether the clothes, the bodies are still clothed or not can give an indication that the plane entered the water in one piece and then broke apart in the water. Most of the persons will have -- still have some clothing on.
WHITFIELD: It unusual, Mary, that some of the bodies have been returned to the family members. Is it too soon to do that since there's still so many questions about what happened?
SCHIAVO: No, that's what they do. As soon as they recover them, they do the forensics on the body and the autopsies, check the airways, check the overall condition. And they take those forensics and do try to return them right away. And Peter was right when he mentioned about sending down the submersibles.
They're going to try to photograph that wreckage and get an idea before they use the divers because if it's a piece of the wreckage, this is part of the fuselage where the humans are, they will send the divers down, it's just terrible work. But the divers will bring them up one by one before they haul off the wreckage because in doing that could destroy some of the remains.
WHITFIELD: And, Peter, does that picture taking take a matter of hours or even days before they try to retrieve or recover any of the items?
GOELZ: Well, the mapping of the whole wreckage field will be important. And that will take days. Obviously, if they see victims that are easily retrievable, they will go down and get them immediately. But we're in this now, if this proves to be the wreckage, it's going to take a number of weeks to get it to the surface and probably to recover and identify all of the victims, if in fact all of them can be recovered. It's still a very tough job.
WHITFIELD: Yes, indeed.
Peter Goelz, Mary Schiavo, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.
And for more information about who was lost on AirAsia Flight 8501 go to CNN.com/impact. There you will find resources and ways you can help the grieving families in this tragedy.
Still ahead, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is about to arrive at any moment at the wake for a murdered NYPD detective Wenjian Liu. New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton arriving just moments ago with the warning to the rest of the men and women in blue.
We'll have more on that when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio arriving just moments ago at the private wake for fallen New York police detective, Wenjian Liu. Liu was one of two officers ambushed and killed last month in Brooklyn. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio attending today's wake and also will be speaking at Liu's funeral tomorrow.
The mayor's attendance prompted an official request from New York's police commissioner, who also arrived at the wake there. He asked members of the NYPD to show respect to the mayor. Demanding that in a memo after many of the members in blue turned their backs to the mayor during the ceremony of Liu's partner last week.
Our Sara Ganim joining us now from outside that wake location there in a rainy Brooklyn.
Sara, was there a salute? Did anyone turn their backs to the mayor?
SARA GAMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you just saw the mayor walk in, Fred. And just before him, we also saw the police commissioner walk in and dozens, maybe even hundreds of other NYPD officers who are arriving here. I've seen patrol cars from other jurisdictions as well. They've been coming in.
I just want to give you a chance to take a look at them walking in. A steady stream of officers walking into this funeral home to pay their respects during the wake of Officer Wenjian Liu.
This is a very similar scene to what we saw last weekend for the wake of his partner, Rafael Raphael Ramos. But what we're expecting tomorrow, the police commissioner here, the NYPD police commissioner, is hoping it's slightly different from what we saw last week at the Officer Rafael Ramos' funeral. Police Commissioner William Bratton issued a memo asking specifically that members of the NYPD do not turn their backs to the mayor when he speaks tomorrow at Wenjian Liu's funeral.
Now taking you back to explain why he would do that, well, there's been some growing tension between the mayor and members of the NYPD over in part his remarks about the decision not to indict one NYPD officer in the apparent chokehold death of Eric Garner. Now, because of those growing tensions there were members of NYPD who did turn their backs.
There were pictures that were taken at that funeral. It was a very powerful image. A lot of people were talking about it. And William Bratton was concerned that it took away from the funeral of Officer Rafael Ramos.
I want to read you a little bit of what he said in his plea to officers to not do that again. He said this, he said, "It was not all the officers and it was not disrespect directed at Detective Ramos. But all officers were tainted by it. And it stole the valor, honor and attention that rightfully belonged to the memory of Detective Rafael Ramos' life and sacrifice. That was not the intent I know, but that was the result."
So, Fred, as I mentioned, there's been a steady stream of people coming in to pay their respect. This is not a public wake. This is a private wake. But we do expect to see many more officers coming. And later this afternoon, there will be a public memorial in Chinatown that members of the community can attend.
WHITFIELD: OK. Sara Ganim, thank you so much, in Brooklyn. Appreciate that.
All right. Coming up, a story of survival that is really difficult to imagine. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just really a miracle.
WILKINS: I went to the door, and there was a little girl, about 7 years old. Crying. Not bad. Lips quivering pretty good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: How a 7-year-old walked away from a plane crash then trekked through the snow and cold for nearly a mile to get help.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. Now to other stories topping our news.
A horrifying New Year's Day crime story covering multiple states. Two Texas men are accused of setting fire to the home in North Carolina after killing a couple inside. Police say Edward Campbell took off in the couple's truck and his son Eric fled in a stolen SUV. Eric was pulled over by two officers in West Virginia. His dad pulled up and began shooting at police. Neither officer were seriously injured. And both men are now in custody.
And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is home from the hospital after breaking several ribs and some bones in his face. His staff says the Nevada Democrat fell when a piece of exercise equipment he was using broke. Reid who is 75 was an amateur boxer in college. He is expected to make a full recovery now.
And parts of the nation bracing for the first major winter storm of the new year, 24 states currently under a winter weather advisory. This as millions of Americans head home after their holiday vacations tonight and tomorrow. The snow and a wintry mix is expected to stretch all the way from Chicago to Boston. And in further south, in the Gulf states, there is a threat of hail and tornados.
And this incredible story out of Kentucky today. A 7-year-old girl is the lone survivor of a plane crash that killed her parents, sister and cousin. Also amazing that same little girl, who survived, walked nearly a mile for help. The state police are calling this a miracle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. BRENT WHITE, KENTUCKY STATE POLICE: Once we found the wreckage and the time that we had spent in this wooded area, we were literally amazed that this young lady -- not only survived the crash, but was able to get from the crash location to this house. We're talking about a 7-year-old girl who's just fallen out of the sky. And she was not cold very much. She was in shorts. Having returned from Florida. A T-shirt.
And she walked through briars and thorns and very steep. There's one creek bed that was probably 12-foot deep that she walked through to get from point A to point B. So absolutely, I would believe that it is a miracle. (END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Wow. That is incredible.
Nick Valencia joins me now.
What an incredible story.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just to hear those details as well. Yes.
WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness, that really takes -- makes you take a pause. And then there's new video that we can share.
VALENCIA: Yes. That's right. The NTSB and FAA investigators, they're back on the scene right now. They've got a couple of teams out there working through the crash site just to see what else they could find and determine about this crash.
Remarkable that she survived. We spoke to one guy who helped her out, Larry Wilkins, 71 years old. He's at his house. He's the man that helped her to safety. He's calling her the bravest person that he has ever met.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VALENCIA (voice-over): At home in rural Kentucky Larry Wilkins finished watching the local news when his dog started barking.
WILKINS: I went to the door and there was a little girl about 7 years old, crying. Not bad. Lips quivering pretty good. And she's pretty bloody -- had a bloody nose and the arms and legs were scratched up really bad and she told me that her mom and dad was dead.
VALENCIA: The 7-year-old is the only survivor from a Friday night plane crash. Her mom, dad, sister and cousin dead after their small twin-engine Piper traveling from Florida crashed in the woods of Western Kentucky.
The fact the little girl survived is all the more incredible Wilkins says when considering what she had to do to do get help.
WILKINS: She had just walked three quarters of a mile through very, very rough territory and she was barefooted. She had one sock on her foot and that was all. And she was dressed for Florida, wearing shorts and the like. Just a blouse. No coat.
VALENCIA: Wilkins said the 7-year-old likely spotted a light on at his house and made her way towards it. A Kentucky state police officer who also helped the little girl seemed to speak for most when he said.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean it's just really a miracle.
WILKINS: If you could see the terrain you would realize how incredible it really was. She a terribly brave little girl. I'll tell you that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VALENCIA: Now she is expected to make a full recovery. She suffered nonthreatening injuries. And we learned earlier that she was released from the hospital. We don't know where she is right now. Excuse me. We hope that she's back in the safety of her extended family members.
We also have new photos to show you from the Facebook page of the mother. There are the family members and what appears to be a plane. We don't know exactly if it's a plane or perhaps the same plane that went down. But these are new photos just in from CNN from Marty Gutzler -- Gutzler, I'm sorry, that is actually the father of the little girl who survived the crash.
She lost her mom, Fred, her dad, her 9-year-old brother. And we know from Larry Wilkins, who told me that she has an older sister who -- that's where she may very well be right now. But we know that she is going to be OK.
WHITFIELD: So dad was the pilot. We don't know if this was the image that was taken before this flight.
VALENCIA: Not sure.
WHITFIELD: But dad was a pilot. And it may have been fairly familiar territory for the whole family to get on a plane.
VALENCIA: Sure.
WHITFIELD: Dad piloting --
VALENCIA: And you go through their Facebook photos, and you see that they're a family that really likes the outdoors. They're a family that goes on horseback rides. Spent a lot of time in a plane. They look like a very active family from the Midwest. Very tragic story but this remarkable sort of silver lining.
WHITFIELD: That little girl is something else.
VALENCIA: That little girl. Yes.
WHITFIELD: Wow. Remarkable story.
All right. Thanks very so much, Nick, for bringing that to us.
VALENCIA: You bet. Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Keep us updated. Appreciate it.
All right. And our coverage meantime continues for the ongoing search for AirAsia. That plane going down. And clues as to why it happened.
Next, Karen Maginnis takes a look at how weather could give crews only a narrow window in their search and recovery.
Plus a look at how crews are turning to technology to help search for that doomed flight.
ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: From the outside, this blue box kind of looks like a port-a-potty but inside it's one of the high-tech ways that could be saving divers' lives in the Java Sea. I'll show you how coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A big development in the search for debris from AirAsia Flight 8501. Four large objects were found by sonar in the search area. One is almost 60 feet long, another 40 feet long. Indonesian officials say they found the object after they saw an oil slick. But huge waves, some as high as 15 feet, and strong currents kept divers out of the water.
The search has been suspended until Sunday when the weather is expected to be better. And when the search does resume, crews will have help from the U.S. Ft. Worth. It arrived in the area today.
Also two more victims were identified. A 44-year-old woman and a 23- year-old man. That is now six out of 30 bodies that have been identified.
And crews are hopeful, improved weather on Sunday will help them make progress.
I want to bring in meteorologist Karen Maginnis.
Karen, 15-foot waves in that search area? What else do we know about the conditions there?
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, this is very typical because this is the monsoon season across this region of the world. But even by their standards, they have seen exceptional amounts of rainfall where the weeks prior to this disaster, we were looking at tremendous flooding across his region.
Well, here's the search area. Right down there it's Surabaya, is going to make this flight, that was the equivalent to flying from New York City to Atlanta. And then this catastrophe happened. We don't know why but there was plenty of weather in the region. And now that they are searching, it's been stop and go, definitely. Both for the vessels in the water as well as in the sky. Because this is monsoon season.
They see these huge clusters of thunderstorms. But look at what happens here. Sunday. No, it's not going to be perfectly clear. It's not going to be perfectly calm. You can see a little bit of a wave. But 12 to 15-foot wave heights. Well, it doesn't look like it'll be that because we're expecting the winds to just kind of flatten out just a little bit more. And certainly, we'll expect some shower activity.
And, Fred, they're looking at winds rather than 25 miles an hour and gusty in some of these thunderstorms. Now we're looking at perhaps the winds down to around 10 to 15 miles an hour. So this is definitely an improvement and gives them the opportunity to find something or more.
WHITFIELD: Well, that's pretty hopeful.
MAGINNIS: It is.
WHITFIELD: Thank you so much, Karen Maginnis, appreciate that.
The search and recovery of Flight 8501 is a very difficult process, made even worse by that rough weather that Karen was just telling us about and CNN's Alina Machado talked to an expert diver about the strains of such underwater searches.
MACHADO: Fredricka, the search and recovery effort for AirAsia Flight 8501 may be going on some 11,000 miles from here in South Florida, but we spoke with one commercial diver who tells us he knows exactly what that process is like.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MACHADO (voice-over): The number of crews from around the world helping search for the AirAsia Flight 8501 continues to grow. And if anyone knows the job that lies ahead especially for the dozens of divers involved, it's Gino Gargiulo.
GINO GARGIULO, PRESIDENT, COMMERCIAL DIVER SERVICES: It's a very somber situation.
MACHADO: The 51-year-old is an experienced commercial diver who says he's helped after recent catastrophes, including the Japan tsunami and the Haiti earthquake.
In AirAsia's case, parts of the Airbus A320 have already been recovered so have dozens of bodies. But rough conditions with waves as high as 13 feet have hampered search efforts.
GARGIULO: One thing you don't want to do is add more tragedy to tragedy. So you don't want any loss of life. You want to take your time, you want to plan it correctly, wait for (INAUDIBLE) conditions to go in there.
MACHADO: The plane is believed to be at the bottom of the sea, in water that is, on average, about 130 feet deep. At that depth, Gargiulo says divers will need to use special gear.
GARGIULO: A dry suit is totally sealed at the wrists, the boots are incorporated in and has a seal that zippers close and it closes at the neck. That way no water gets in there. Then what you have is you have a helmet. This is a 17 super light.
MACHADO (on camera): This is considered a lighter one.
GARGIULO: Yes.
MACHADO: But it's incredibly heavy.
GARGIULO: Thirty-seven pounds. MACHADO (voice-over): Divers will also be hooked up to a command
center like this one.
GARGIULO: These instruments right here are telling us what the depths of the divers are at. And this is the pressure of the air going through them. The main air, standby air, emergency air, diver one, diver two, diver three, which is your safety diver.
MACHADO: Gargiulo says the divers will probably be under water for up to 80 minutes at a time after which they'll end up inside a decompression chamber to recover.
GARGIULO: You can get down there. And this thing will have jagged edges, torn fuselage, things hanging all over the place. It's going to be dark inside. There are a lot of things for a diver to get snagged on, for his umbilical to get caught up on. To get disoriented. It's not going to look like a textbook situation.
MACHADO (on camera): And then there's the emotional component, right. I mean you know there's going to be bodies down there.
GARGIULO: There is nothing worse than bumping into a bloated dead body in the water.
MACHADO (voice-over): Gargiulo is still haunted by the victims he has helped recover especially the children. Emotions divers in the Java Sea will also have to come to terms with.
GARGIULO: The way you get past it is you say I'm helping the families, I'm helping somebody. I'm putting this to rest.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACHADO: Gargiulo tells us it could take weeks, maybe even months, for divers to finish the job in the Java Sea -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Thank you so much, Alina Machado.
Also ahead, this flu season considered to be especially dangerous. So why isn't the flu shot working?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: The flu virus is already reaching epidemic levels this season. Children and the elderly are at greatest risk. But this year the virus is proving especially deadly for kids.
Here's CNN's George Howell.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One of the most recent flu-related deaths is a 3-year-old girl from Iowa. Her parents say she went from perfect health with no preexisting conditions to becoming severely dehydrated and in pain, then rushed to a hospital in Des Moines where she later died just a few days after showing the initial signs of the flu.
Another tragic case in Minnesota, 7-year-old Ruby Hanson died Christmas Eve. Her mother believed she might have survived had she not had a preexisting medical condition.
DEBRA HANSON, RUBY HANSON'S MOTHER: The flu would have not did her in had she not had Dravet Syndrome. There's no way. She had a seizure, yes. The seizure was caused by the flu.
HOWELL: These latest deaths now part of grim statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showing the flu has reached an epidemic level in the United States. One of the strains making people sick this season has mutated, causing this year's vaccination to be less than optimal for protection.
MICHAEL JHUNG, CDC: The most common virus that we're seeing causing disease right now is this H3N2 virus. When we've seen H3N2 predominate in previous seasons we've seen relatively severe seasons, so it's possible we could have a severe season again this year.
HOWELL: It's being felt widespread in at least 36 states with current influenza levels approaching peak levels we saw two years ago. Doctors are seeing more patients.
DR. RAHUL KHANE, NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, CHICAGO: I was on a shift the other day. I saw about 35 patients. I saw 10 positive flu swabs. And I -- there was a couple I didn't even swab. I just treated them because it's so prevalent. So we're definitely seeing a lot.
HOWELL: The CDC is set to release its latest figures on how widespread the flu bug has become this coming Monday. In the meantime officials still recommend getting a flu shot. Even though it may not completely prevent against it, it may lessen the severity if you get sick.
George Howell, CNN, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right. Joining me right now to talk more about this, Dr. Seema Yasmin, a CNN medical analyst and a former disease detective for the Centers for Disease Control.
All right. Good to see you, Dr. Yasmin. So is it an issue of the flu shot or the flu shot not being effective or is it more the issue of these mutations of the flu?
DR. SEEMA YASMIN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It's all of those things working in combination, Fredricka. Sadly what's also happening is folks are hearing the flu shots not such a great match this year, there's no point in me getting it. So now we have a situation where less than half of all Americans who should have received the flu shot have actually received it and that really makes people a lot sicker.
It's important to remember that, yes, this year's flu shot isn't a perfect match for one of the strains circulating but the flu vaccines protects against three, maybe four different strains of the flu. So it still offers some protection. Still a really good idea to go ahead and get that.
WHITFIELD: And that's the part that's difficult to understand. Not a perfect match but then somehow the flu shot can lessen the severity.
So what should be the expectation if you are that person who says I'm going to go ahead and get the flu shot even though it's not optimal?
YASMIN: It's not optimal. It provides about 60, 61 percent protection against the flu, but you know, when I speak to doctors, they say that's so much better than having zero protection. This is a really deadly disease. When we think about the vaccine, we think about protecting ourselves. But actually when you get the flu shot, you're protecting your family, you're protecting people in your workplace and your whole community.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
YASMIN: So it still offers a good amount of protection against some of those other strains that are going around this year.
WHITFIELD: So in your interview, who still is most vulnerable? Who really should not hesitate in getting a flu shot?
YASMIN: Flu is really bad news for younger kids and older adults. And also anybody that has pre-existing medical conditions. We think about respiratory diseases like asthma. But also diabetes puts you at higher risk of getting really sick with the flu. And even obesity. People who are obese and who get the flu ends up a lot sicker, can even end up in hospital. And are more likely to die from the flu than people who start off healthy.
WHITFIELD: And then we heard that doctor who was in George Howell's piece when he talked about, you know, he knew for sure somebody had the flu and then he offered treatment anyway.
What kind of treatments are we talking about for flu? I thought this was kind of one of those viruses that just had to work its way through your system and on its way out on its own? But what are the treatments available?
YASMIN: So we're thinking about anti-viral medicines, things like Tamiflu, for example. What the CDC is saying because this flu season is shaping up to be a pretty bad one they don't want doctors to hesitate. And in many years what we'll say is, looks like you've got the flu but as you said it will run its course, you will be OK, have lots of fluids. But because this year looks so bad, CDC is telling doctors out there don't hesitate. Use those antivirals early on within the first 24 to 48 hours of symptoms.
WHITFIELD: And those antivirals are for adults, though, not for children?
YASMIN: Some children can use them. It's important if you have a kid who ends up with the flu to take them early on and see their physician.
WHITFIELD: All good advice, Dr. Seema Yasmin. Thank you so much. And Happy New Year.
YASMIN: Happy New Year to you, Fredricka. Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Hopefully we'll all stay well.
YASMIN: Stay healthy.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you.
All right. A police chief calls 911 and then tells them this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was shot twice accidental?
WILLIAM MCCOLLOM, PEACHTREE CITY POLICE CHIEF: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who shot her?
MCCOLLOM: Me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Hmm. We'll have more on that extremely unusual call from a police chief admitting to shooting his wife.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. Checking other top stories this afternoon.
According to a 911 tape, the police chief of a city near Atlanta said he accidentally shot his wife while he was sleeping with a gun in the bed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCOLLOM: I'm the chief of police. It's -- the bed -- the gun is on the dresser.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. OK. You're the chief of police in Peachtree City?
MCCOLLOM: Yes, unfortunately. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You said it was an accident?
MCCOLLOM: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was shot twice accidental?
MCCOLLOM: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who shot her? MCCOLLOM: Me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How did you shoot her.
MCCOLLOM: The gun was on the bed, I went to move it, put it to a side and then it went off. I've got the door open for them. Oh, my god.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's your name, sir?
MCCOLLOM: How did this happen? Will McCollom.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were you asleep outside, sir, when it happened?
MCCOLLOM: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: William McCollom's wife is in critical condition in the hospital. The chief has not been charged but is on administrative leave while the shooting is investigated.
Here's some of the other stories we're following. John Hinckley will not face new charges in the death of former President Ronald Reagan's press secretary. James Brady's death last summer was ruled a homicide three decades after he was shot when Hinckley tried to assassinate President Reagan. Hinckley had faced charges related to Brady's shooting during his 1982 trial but was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
And two Apple customers are suing the company for more than $5 million, claiming false advertising over iPhone's storage space. Apple's new software takes up three gigabytes of storage space on an iPhone 6. That's 19 percent of the phone's 16 gigs of advertised space. The plaintiffs say it's deceptive and misleading to the average customer.
The U.S. embassy in Indonesia has issued a security alert after learning of a potential threat against American interests in the Indonesian city of Surabaya.
Erin McPike joins us now from the White House with more on this.
What are you hearing, Erin?
ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, we've gotten a few new details from the State Department, but first let me read to you from that security alert from the embassy.
They say, "The U.S. embassy has been made aware of a potential threat against U.S.-associated hotels and banks in Surabaya, Indonesia. The U.S. embassy recommends heightened vigilance and awareness of one's surrounding when visiting such facility."
Now what we also heard from a State Department official is that whenever the U.S. government receives credible, specific and non- counterable threat information, they have an obligation to share that information with U.S. citizens. They also say that so far they don't know of any kind of direct connection between the AirAsia flight and this threat.
We also don't know from the State Department yet how serious this threat is. We also don't know where it's coming from or what the specific threat is -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: And now what about those who are traveling to that part of the region? Any warnings that they are receiving?
MCPIKE: Well, they're not discouraging travel from the region. What the State Department is saying is to enroll in the STEP program for travelers, essentially that means when there are any new warnings or any updates to this, they will alert travelers, you know, by text message, e-mail, that sort of thing.
We also know that as recently as October of 2014, the State Department has been issuing warnings in Indonesia because of some al Qaeda-linked groups. But that the Indonesian government has been cracking down on that.
WHITFIELD: All right. Erin McPike, thanks so much. From the White House.
All right. Officials investigating the crash of Flight 8501 are looking closely at the violent storm that the jet encountered. They are also looking at the other planes that were flying in the area.
Straight ahead, we're looking at what all this says about the possible cause of the crash.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Two more victims were identified today in that AirAsia flight. A 44-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man. That means six out of 30 bodies have now been identified. Indonesian officials say they halted further recovery today because the weather is so bad.
CNN's Paula Hancocks got a look at the mission firsthand aboard a helicopter.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: One of the coastline.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: To the east.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Go to the east.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hariyadi Mapan (ph) shows me the flight plan. Scouring the southwest coast of Borneo. Plans to reach the AirAsia crash site changed due to the weather. Only aircraft evacuating bodies and debris allowed to risk the so-called red zone.
Officials believe remnants of the plane or bodies may have drifted around 100 nautical miles to land. Dense vegetation and marshes make searching by land unrealistic. Much of this area is barely inhabited. As the weather closes in, the pilot tries to fly around it. But the front is too big.
(On camera): We're only half an hour into the flight and the pilot has just decided that we have to abort this mission. He says that the weather up ahead is simply too dangerous. He cannot fly into those kind of clouds and that rain, so we're circling back and going back to the airport.
Now for those on board, we're going to be looking for debris and also looking for bodies. They barely had a chance to even start their job. And this was just along the coastline. This wasn't even out at sea, where the weather is worse.
(Voice-over): Back on land, the team refuses to be disheartened.
"The local police chief tells me we'll keep going until we find everyone."
More victims have flown to dry land Saturday despite the weather. Once cleaned and treated, they're flown on to Surabaya for formal identification. Every number a loved member of a distraught family. An innocent soul who lost their life in the Java Sea.
Paula Hancocks, CNN, Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And when AirAsia Flight 8501 crashed, there were many other flights traveling in that same area. Also in the sky, fierce storms. But the other planes made it through that rough weather.
Here's CNN's Tom Foreman in Washington with a look at what those flights and the storm systems can tell us about what might have happened.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The skies above this part of the world have been growing steadily more crowded in the past few years. A lot of competition with different airlines there. So when this plane was flying along at 32,000 feet, and he encountered this great big storm, he had company out there. A storm about 200 square miles, 52,000 feet up in the air, really towering up there, could be producing big winds out there, 70, 80, 90 miles an hour, who knows? Microbursts, all sorts of issues.
We know, though, that he wasn't the only plane. At the time that he disappeared, there were at least these five other flights somewhere about 2,000 feet above and within 124 miles. That may seem like a long distance, but for planes traveling this fast, it's not that long of a distance. So the determination was that he could not rise into that airspace. And he definitely wanted to. He was at 32,000 feet, had requested to go up to 38,000 and had been told he could not. There was an approval right near the end of about 34,000 feet to let
him come up some. It's not clear whether that was fully communicated to the plane or not or if the plane had already disappeared. But all of this at least supports the theory -- and it is just a theory -- that at some point this pilot felt like he had no choice, and he started trying to very dramatically ascend to try to get out of the trouble of the weather around him, and in doing so, maybe stalled the aircraft.
Just a theory right now, but this is not a theory. We know he was at a lower altitude than he wanted to be in the midst of this storm.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right, Tom Foreman, thank you so much.
The next hour of the NEWSROOM starts right now.
