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Search Continues for Remains of AirAsia Plane Crash; Funeral to be Held for Slain New York Police Officer; Technology For Monitoring In-Flight Plane Malfunctions Discussed; Some Republican House Members Suffering Scandals; White House Implements First Round of Economic Sanctions on North Korea; Company Offers Screening for Diseases for Prospective Parents

Aired January 03, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Fredericka Whitfield. Welcome to the CNN NEWSROOM.

Four large objects that could belong to AirAsia flight 8501 have been found in the Java Sea. Searchers detected the metal objects underwater 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. A U.S. ship is now part of the recovery efforts, the USS Fort Worth arriving in the search area today.

David Molko is live for us in Surabaya monitoring the search efforts. So David, these four large objects located today, not able to be retrieved. What's the hope this Sunday?

DAVID MOLKO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Fredericka. About three hours from first light here on Sunday morning. This is the day that search teams have been talking about pretty much all week. It will be day six of search and recovery. The weather's supposed to drastically improve from what we've seen in the search zone. It's monsoon season here. That means afternoon thunderstorms. It means choppy seas. A change in the weather pattern means things are going to improve.

One of the priorities on their list, search and rescue officials say, is to take a closer look at some of those four objects some 100 feet below the surface. What they plan to do is send down an underwater drone or robot to take a closer look to see if they can actually determine that it's part of the aircraft or not. The thing I have to tell you, Fredericka, about the Java Sea, relatively shallow, busy shipping lane. There are World War II wrecks and other manmade objects on the ocean floor. So although search officials seem to be getting a little bit excited about this, a little bit of caution in not wanting to give the families any false hope that they found the main wreck at this point. But certainly weather conditions supposed to improve enough so that divers can get in the water, helicopters expected to fly, and the search expected to really, really ramp up in the coming hours.

WHITFIELD: And then what about family members, those who are still holding out hope? Many of them spent a lot of time in the building behind you.

MOLKO: Yes, 156 families, Fred, still waiting for answers, many of them coming through the crisis center behind me. Inside about 200 chairs, some big-screen TVs. This is where they can meet with grief counselors, where they can meet with religious officials, and just spend time waiting for the latest news.

I should point out officials here have made it a point, the families are briefed every time before the media is ever briefed. And they've made that a priority. You know, early on in this search effort families first found out about the debris from the AirAsia flight by seeing a news report, seeing a body being pulled out of the water on a local television station. Authorities have really gone out of their way since then to make sure that families are kept up to date in a manner and even have gone to such an extent that yesterday the police chief told us that one family was complaining that one local TV station was being a little too dramatic. It was upsetting them. So they agreed to turn the TV off. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, David Molko, thank you so much from Surabaya, appreciate that.

So bad weather and a limited window of time, two factors working against the search and recovery efforts. I want to bring in Les Abend, CNN aviation analyst and a Boeing 777 captain, and Thomas Altshuler, vice president of Teledyne Marine Systems which develops and produces advanced underwater communications systems. Good to see both of you again. Les, let me begin with you. Will this mystery be solved or at least most of it even before the black boxes would be located?

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: That's a great question, Fredericka. I think so. This is part of the investigation process, slowly recovering fragments, pieces. All is forensic evidence on what may have occurred. The black boxes meaning the cockpit voice recorder and the digital flight data recorder will be very important. But just where the pieces are found, how the airplane split up I think is very -- will start to tell the story.

WHITFIELD: And then maybe, Dr. Altshuler, you can give us a better idea of the kind of technology involved to try to locate more debris, find larger pieces. We know that four large pieces have been spotted but because of the weather, they haven't been able to retrieve them. But what kind of technology is being used to better zero in on this debris and the scope of the search area?

ALTSHULER: So the first thing they're doing right now is using a lower frequency side-scan sonar that's on the U.S. Navy ships there. That gives a low-resolution image of the bottom and can image some of the larger pieces. The next step would be to moving either to a higher frequency side-scan sonar system that could be on a small boat or on an autonomous underwater vehicle. That would give high resolution, really be able to tell the features of the material on the bottom. Or you could put a remotely operated vehicle down with cameras and actually get some images.

But basically you'll go from a step from low to high resolution to make sure that you understand the pieces that are on the bottom.

WHITFIELD: And while these ships are already in the vicinity and side-scan sonars are already in use, I wonder, Les, if Sunday is offering that window of opportunity because of better weather for divers either to, you know, descend or for other types of technology to be used, conceivably how much can you do in a day if that's the only time you have? And of course that involves travel time to get to the location that they want to pinpoint in the search.

ABEND: I guess I would focus my efforts on trying to locate the CVR and the DFDR initially, but, you know, the visibility, of course, is going to be an issue even if the seas calm down, at least with my experience as a diver. But, you know, if you can get a camera down there, that certainly will help to find some of the evidence and lead you back to why this event occurred in the first place.

WHITFIELD: Would you try to get the divers in the water that quickly, too? I mean, you've got to get them to that area. The seas still might be a little choppy even though, you know, we're being told that the weather conditions are more favorable on Sunday.

ABEND: Yes, I mean, that would be a judgment call on the search and rescue folks. But it certainly would be of great assistance to get divers down there, of course, safely, absolutely.

WHITFIELD: OK. And then what other kinds of technology, Dr. Altshuler, do you think will likely be introduced to this area?

ALTSHULER: It's almost certain that autonomous underwater vehicles and remotely operated vehicles will be used in this. The nice thing about those types of systems is it keeps the divers out of the water until they really are needed. You know, the risk goes up for personnel, and the complexity and timelines stretch out as you put people in the water. But you'll probably be using some type of a pinger locator, which is really a directional listening device to listen to the pings. That will let you zero in on the tail section, the part of the tail section that has the two black boxes.

But as was stated, the forensic evidence is important. So the side- scan sonar imagery will really build a map of what's happened or of kind of the whole picture of what things look like on the bottom.

WHITFIELD: And then, you know, we've heard the discussions about the flight plan and how this airline and perhaps even others are licensed to fly this route on certain days of the week. While this investigation, while this search and recovery efforts are under way, does this mean that this particular flight plan is really not available to anyone at any time right now while this is under way, Les?

ABEND: I wouldn't say that. No, this route certainly is available. This is a heavily trafficked area from my understanding. And, you know, flight plan is just an agreement between air traffic control to fly between point a and point b. So I don't see them blocking this particular route by any means.

WHITFIELD: And Dr. Altshuler?

ALTSHULER: I mean, I think that the actions and the investigation on the water -- on the surface of the ocean and under the ocean really are disconnected with what goes on in the airspace. You know, really what's going on down, you know, at sea level right now is completely different and I don't think it will have any impact.

WHITFIELD: All right, we'll leave it right there. Dr. Thomas Altshuler, Les Abend, thanks so much to both of you gentlemen. Appreciate it.

ABEND: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Coming up, a look outside the wake of slain NYPD officer Wenjian Liu in a very rainy Brooklyn, New York. The city's mayor just attending that private service. How was he greeted? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A live look right now in Brooklyn where mourners have been ling up in a heavy downpour to pay their respects to slain New York police detective Wenjian Lui. Liu was one of two officers ambushed and killed last month. That shooting is contributing to growing tension between the NYPD and the mayor of New York.

Mayor Bill de Blasio arrived to pay his respects last hour. As he walked into the building, police officers did salute him as did the city's police commissioner, Bill Bratton. Bill Bratton urging the NYPD to pay their respects to the mayor. Liu is the second of two officers to be laid to rest. His partner, Rafael Ramos, was laid to rest last week. It was during that service that some of the officers turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio, a silent symbol of anger and frustration towards the mayor's handling of recent community tensions with police.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton issued this internal memo to the force asking officers to show respect at Liu's funeral which will be held tomorrow. Bratton saying this specifically, quote, "I understand that emotions are high. I issue no mandates and I make no threats of discipline, but I remind you that when you don the uniform of this department you are bound by the tradition, honor, and decency that go with it," end quote.

Our Sara Ganim joining us from outside that location in a rainy Brooklyn. Sara, what has transpired there? How was the mayor greeted?

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, just in the last couple of hours, Fred, we've seen lines and lines, dozens of police officers coming to pay their respects to Officer Wenjian Liu. Not just NYPD. We have seen a lot of NYPD. We've also seen, I've seen patrol cars from other police jurisdictions, other departments who are coming here.

We know that JetBlue flew in for free more than 1,100 police officers from across the country who wanted to come to the wake today, to the funeral tomorrow to pay their respects to a fellow fallen officer. We're seeing dozens of people go in. That's amongst within them the police commissioner, Bill Bratton, and also the mayor, Bill de Blasio.

We've seen several, if you just want to take a quick look, several lines of officers in the rain, standing here waiting to go inside, pay their respects. And they come out, and all of them are solemn. Of course this is a solemn day. Much of this scene looks like it did last week for the wake and the funeral of Liu's partner, Officer Rafael Ramos.

Now, what we don't expect to see tomorrow is some of the signs of the tension between the mayor and the NYPD. You can see cars going by here, patrols going by here on motorcycles, Fred. But what we don't expect to see at the funeral tomorrow is some of the signs of the tension specifically that last week at Ramos's funeral. We saw that several NYPD actually turned their backs on the mayor as he was speaking at the funeral. What resulted from that were some very powerful pictures.

And the police commissioner, William Bratton, specifically asked, as you mentioned, in a memo that he released yesterday. He asked that people not -- that officers not do that again tomorrow. He said it took away from the funeral, from the life and the remembrance of Officer Rafael Ramos. He doesn't want to see that happen again tomorrow.

He did say that this wasn't a mandate. This wasn't something that people would be punished for doing, but he felt that a hero's funeral was a place for grieving and not for grievance. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, Sara Ganim, thank you so much. The very somber wake there in Brooklyn.

Coming up, hitting North Korea where it hurts. Our senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta has more on the first U.S. response to the Sony cyber-attack next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Checking our other top stories, a man accused by U.S. authorities of being an Al Qaeda operative has died in a hospital. His family says he suffered health problems. Abu Anas al-Libi was captured in Libya in 2013 and brought to the U.S. He was accused of being involved in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He had pleaded not guilty and was awaiting trial.

A Southwest Airlines jet bound for Houston had to return to Phoenix Sky Harbor airport after takeoff Friday night. A company official says a warning light indicated a possible landing gear issue. The plane had to circle the airport multiple times before landing and going out of service for inspection. Passengers arrived in Houston on a different flight about three hours later.

Actress Donna Douglas has died at the age of 81.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pretty soon me and you's going to take a nice, long walk outside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Douglas was best known for her role as Elly May Clampett on the long running 1960s sitcom "The Beverly Hillbillies." Her family says she had been suffering from pancreatic cancer and died at her Louisiana home surrounded by friends and relatives.

The United States is hitting North Korea with new strict economic sanctions. It's in response to the North Korea's alleged role in the cyber-attack on Sony. Senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta is with the president in Hawaii, joining us now live from Honolulu. So Jim, what exactly is the president hoping for by ordering these new sanctions?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the president is taking care of a serious piece of business as he wraps up his annual vacation in Hawaii, turning up the heat on North Korea. And it's really a reflection of the fact, Fredericka, that the Obama administration maintains that North Korea was behind that hack attack on Sony pictures over its movie "The Interview," and senior administration officials are indicating this is only the beginning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hi, guys. Happy new year, everybody!

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: The new sanctions ordered by President Obama are being dubbed by the White House as broad and powerful, and only the initial U.S. response to North Korea's alleged cyber-attack on Sony Pictures. Senior administration officials say they are aimed at any and all officials of the North Korean government, its political hierarchy, as well as the heart of Pyongyang's shadowy cyber-operation and the money that finances it. Specifically blocked from any dealings with U.S. financial firms, the RGB, North Korea's intelligence operation, it's primary arms dealer, plus a chief defense research and development fim.

In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner the president said his executive order adds to sanctioned already in place and is not targeted at the people of North Korea but rather is aimed at government of North Korea and its activities that threaten the United States and others. The president vowed to hold Pyongyang responsible just before leaving for his annual vacation in Hawaii.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They caused a lot of damage. And we will respond. We will respond proportionally, and we'll respond in a place and time and manner that we choose.

ACOSTA: In an interview with CNN President Obama called North Korea's actions a kind of cyber vandalism the U.S. will be dealing with for years to come.

OBAMA: We're going to be in an environment in this new world where so much is digitalized that both state and non-state actors are going to have the capacity to disrupt our lives in all sorts of ways. We have to do a much better job of guarding against that. We have to treat it like we would treat the incidents of crime in our countries.

ACOSTA: The White House appeared to suggest that the U.S. was not behind that vast Internet outage in North Korea in the days after the president's comments. Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a state "The sanctions are the first aspect of our response." A senior administration official went further, saying the U.S. is not ruling out the possibility that North Korea may have done it to themselves.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And just how much these new sanctions will pinch North Korea's already isolated economy is unclear. Senior administration officials in a conference call with reporters yesterday say they cannot even say whether or not the 10 people who were specifically mentioned in these sanctions even have assets in the U.S. Fred?

WHITFIELD: And so Jim, first aspects of response, so what could be next?

ACOSTA: Well, you know, that was a very interesting turn of phrase there for the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest. And what senior administration officials are saying at this point is that the U.S. is going to start to work with other countries around the world to turn up the heat on North Korea to make sure that this doesn't happen to other big companies and other countries around the world.

And it's interesting, Fred, because you saw sort of a similar approach taken with respect to Russia and its actions in Ukraine. You'll recall the U.S. worked with the other G-7 countries to apply economic sanctions on Russia. And I talked to a senior White House official yesterday. They don't believe that those sanctions were completely responsible for Russia showing a different posture these days, but they do feel like they had an effect and we may see a similar approach taken with North Korea. And I think that is something we may be seeing in the weeks and months to come, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Huh. And Jim, it's hard not to be distracted by the backdrop there, and, you know, the surfers that are getting ready for the waves. We know the president likes to golf. Will he be hanging 10 during this journey?

ACOSTA: You know, the White House -- I have to say, they are somewhat cool to the idea of the press following the president down to the beach and watching him plunge into the surf with the first family. We have been able to watch him out on the golf course. I think he may have broken a record for rounds of golf he's had on this vacation.

WHITFIELD: Oh.

ACOSTA: But, you know, the White House is saying -- you know, and they told us this just this morning, the president is going to be going right back to work when he gets to Washington later on tomorrow. You know, he leaves tonight. And he's going to start working ahead of his State of the Union speech. And Fred, he's got three different trips coming up next week. He's going to be in Tennessee, in Phoenix and Detroit talking about all these various aspects of the State of the Union speech. So the vacation ends very shortly here for the president. And work vacation ends for the rest of us here, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Right. And I know -- that's right. You are working. Work vacation. But I know that you will be with the president every step of the way. So my recommendation, before you leave, great surfing lessons on Waikiki right behind you. Take them up on it.

ACOSTA: I'll send a picture. You got it.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: OK, very good. Jim Acosta, thanks so much from Honolulu. Appreciate it.

ACOSTA: Take care.

WHITFIELD: All right, still ahead, technology exists that lets airlines know when their planes are in trouble as soon as it happens. So why aren't they using it? We'll find out next.

But first, self-learning technology is making today's homes more connected than ever before. In this week's "Tomorrow Transformed" Richard Quest shows us how tomorrow's homes will become smarter and more energy efficient.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We all remember "The Jetsons," Rosie the Robot maid, flat-screen TVs. Half a century later, those visions are not too far off and our homes are more connected than ever. Remotely, we can control our heating or lighting, even our coffee machines.

The home of the future will be smarter and more energy efficient as automation and self-learning technologies cut our energy costs even further.

Technology, like the nest thermostat, which uses motion sensors to learn our daily routine and patterns.

LIONEL PAILLET, EUROPE GENERAL MANAGER, NEST LABS: The savings is massive. On an average we'll save about 20 percent. Nest is about reinventing the home and this idea that objects should do a lot more for you than you do for them. The next step there is the intersection between Nest products and products that you interact with in your life every day.

QUEST: Take a smart oven or a fridge that will text you as well as sensors learning our every move. Our homes could have robotic brains, too. COLIN ANGLE, CEO, I-ROBOT: The home of the future has smart

appliances managed by sort of the head-of-household robot designed to be like the butler who took care of your Victorian home back in the day. The technology is invisible and just works. That's what great technology well-executed should feel like.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. We are following every development on AirAsia flight 8501. Here's what we know today. Four large objects were found by sonar in the search area. Indonesian officials say they found the objects after they saw an oil slick. But huge waves, some as high as 15 feet, and strong currents are keeping the divers out of the water. The search has been suspended until Sunday when the weather is expected to be better.

And we also know 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 of those recovered.

So what we don't know yet is why the plane crashed. Investigators hope to learn more from the flight's voice and data recorders. But first they have to locate them. And the boxes are equipped with pingers which send out signals underwater. It's called the underwater locator beacon, in fact, on this image. Miguel Marquez sat down with an expert to find out what it will sound like under water.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The search for AirAsia 8501 narrowing the hunt on for a tiny signal in a turbulent sea minute pings from a device attached to the flight data recorder.

A pinger has a specific pulse. It has -- comes at a specific interval and a specific frequency.

PAUL GINSBERG, FORENSIC AUDIO EXPERT: Correct.

MARQUEZ: But it's still hard to find.

GINSBERG: Yes, it is.

MARQUEZ: Forensic audio expert Paul Ginsburg has simulated what a pinger would sound like undistorted and without any competing sounds. But, says Ginsburg, there is plenty competing for attention at the bottom of the sea.

GINSBERG: A school of fish swimming, currents, echoes from the signal bouncing off different rock formations at the bottom.

MARQUEZ: This signal, he says, is what an experienced operator might initially hear.

GINSBERG: Just as when you're listening to a radio station that's out of your range. MARQUEZ: Ginsberg says because the pings come at regular intervals

and at a known frequency, once they have it an experienced audio technician can clean it up to hear this. We asked Ginsberg to show us how it's done.

We want to put you to the test where we record ourselves on this while this very annoying tone is playing.

When he plays it back, here's what he has to work with.

GINSBERG: In this case, I will attempt to get rid of this tone.

MARQUEZ: Ginsberg analyzes the recording's spectrum, sees the tone, and using his own software is able to zero in on it and remove the excess noise.

GINSBERG: In this case, I will attempt to get rid of this tone.

MARQUEZ: This job, easy -- one noise, and he knew just what it was and where it was coming from. Cutting through the many noises and distortions in the Java Sea is now the consuming mission of search crews on scene.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: So why can't we get real-time streaming data about our flights before, during, and after an emergency or accident? The technology already does exist, but only one carrier, First Air in Canada, actually uses it. CNN Aviation Analyst Mary Schiavo is back with us via Skype. Also joining us by Skype, Matt Bradley is a pilot who's flown the same type of jet as flight 8501. Good to see both of you.

So Matt, to your first. Your company, FLYHT Aerospace Solutions, actually built this real-time streaming technology, right? So you can explain to us how it works.

MATT BRADLEY, PRESIDENT, FLYHT AEROSPACE SOLUTIONS: Yes. We've had the technology since Air France 447 went down in 2009. Specifically for this application, we put a small box on the aircraft, a very lightweight box that connects to the same inputs as the black box. And should the pilot be uncomfortable or should there be an abnormal event that happens, there is a trigger that starts to do two things. It sends a message off the aircraft up to the satellites, down to our base stations, and then out to the airline to alert them that there's a problem on this aircraft. And then it sends packets of data so that the airline can start to look at software on the ground that gives them an animation of what's happening on the aircraft.

WHITFIELD: So what's the price tag with this kind of technology, the use for any airline to adopt this?

BRADLEY: It's $100,000 to buy the equipment and put it on the aircraft. And then in the event that there is an actual streaming event, which as we know would be very rare, $10 a minute for the data.

WHITFIELD: OK. All right, so Mary, if air first -- or First Air, I'm sorry, in Canada is using this, and that's the price tag, $100,000 for the technology for each plane, why wouldn't other commercial airliners adopt this?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, I don't think there's a good reason not to adopt it. But the reasons that have been given for refusing to do this real-time streaming data, and there are many different systems. Some propose that you would have real-time streaming data without a pilot trigger. For example, if the pilot was under hijack or incapacitated or simply didn't want to report that something was going wrong, for example pilot error, the airplane itself would continuously stream the data.

But the excuses have been everything from it would overwhelm the satellite capability, which others have shown it's just not possible, to the pilots have complained that they don't want Big Brother watching them. By the way, the law is clear you do not have a privacy interest in the cockpit. And the cost -- the cost is always the reason given by carriers that they do not want to spend the money to put this equipment in the plane and that they don't want the data charges if you did continuous download. By the way, IKO has said that perhaps as many as 20 percent of the commercial passenger jetliners already have the capability as did Air France 447.

WHITFIELD: So Matt, I imagine you or other representatives of your company are having this kind of dialogue with airliners all the time as you try to propose you need to have this material. What's the response you get from them as to why they say no?

BRADLEY: It's such new technology that they are -- that they're warming up to it. What we think the tipping point will be, given that the number of incidents that we've had and the benefit that the technology can provide not only in an emergency but also real-time data for the efficiencies in fuel and in maintenance, what will happen -- and we're very confident that this is going to happen -- is that some CEO of a major airline will decide that it may not be a revenue stream like an increased baggage fee or an in-flight entertainment system, but passengers want this kind of protection on the aircraft. And they'll step up, and they will say we've got it. So that when you send your daughter, father, grandmother on a flight, you know that they have the best chance of getting the best data with the latest technology to protect them en route.

WHITFIELD: OK. And then Mary, you know, if the tipping point or if a tipping point were to be more accidents of this caliber were to take place, there are assurances that a lot of these airlines can offer to traveling passengers, right, that this still is considered rare. Yes, there was the mysterious disappearance of the Malaysia flight last year, and now there is this mystery surround this AirAsia flight, but won't airliners still say it is relatively rare that we are having a hard time finding an aircraft when it goes down?

SCHIAVO: Yes, they will. And that's why it's very important for nations like our own Federal Aviation Administration and others like ours to say that this is an important safety feature. And remember, it does more than just tell you when you're about to lose a plane. For example, I worked many cases where the pilots were doing an in- flight troubleshoot. They had trouble on the plane and they were trying to verbally describe back to their base. And in one case they had to call the manufacturer. This would give them real-time information and they could find out what was going on. In one of the cases I worked, they did exactly the wrong thing to troubleshoot and the plane went down. Here they would have real-time information. So there are safety, there are security ramifications, but I think it's the government that has to have a regulation that says we are going to do this in the future and phase it in over time.

WHITFIELD: Fascinating technology and certainly fascinating conversation. Appreciate it. Mary Schiavo and Matt Bradley, appreciate your expertise.

BRADLEY: Thanks, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Coming up, winter is hitting 24 states with a hard blast of cold, wet weather. Travelers, guess what, they're stranded on the ground and in the air in so many cases. We'll show you where this storm is hitting and where it's going after that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which paper do you want?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The Golds may look like a typical family. But look closer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at me. Look at this.

GUPTA: Six-year-old Eden can't walk, talk, or do most anything a girl her age should be doing. She has a progressive neurological disorder called Mucolipidosis Type IV, or ML4. It's a rare genetic disorder more common among Ashkenazi Jews, people of Eastern and Central European Jewish descent. Eden's development stopped at 18 months. Doctors say she'll be blind by age 12 and will probably not live beyond early adulthood.

CAROLINA GOLD, MOTHER: Every dream that we had for our daughter was just ended with one phone call.

GUPTA: The Golds thought they were thoroughly screened for genetic diseases before they got married. Their first child was born healthy.

CAROLINA GOLD: My doctor tested me for a total of eight diseases, and Randy's doctor tested him for a total of two diseases. Neither one of our doctors tested us for ML4.

GUPTA: The couple didn't want other families to suffer the same fate. They started an online education and screening program for genetic diseases common among Ashkenazi Jews. At-home screening kits are mailed out and a genetic counselor delivers their results over the phone.

RANDY GOLD, FATHER: J-Screen's mission is to make sure parents know that they should be screened for genetic diseases before they get pregnant. We can provide them information on how to have healthy children of their own.

GUPTA: Just like the Golds, who added another daughter to their family.

RANDY GOLD: Eden is here for a purpose. She saves lives every day.

Oh, my goodness.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Six inches of snow and still falling in Amarillo, Texas. Texas is one of 24 states getting hit with a giant arctic blast. Plows were out in force trying to clear the roads, but in many cases the ice was simply too much. This storm is hitting air travelers hard as well. American Airlines canceled nearly 300 flights out of Dallas- Ft. Worth. That's a major hub for Americans.

This is hitting the U.S. as so many people are trying to head home after the holidays. Roads and airports jammed with travelers. It's a real mess. People are getting to know each other rather well, aren't they, a lot of face time together. Karen Maginnis is in the CNN Weather Center. You kind of have to make the best of a situation when it's bad like that.

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is miserable. About 55 million people, 28 states, Fred, expecting the misery to continue not just in the short term but also in the long term. Those 28 states stretch all the way from Washington state and Montana into Texas, Iowa, across the Great Lakes into that northeastern corridor. We start out looking at winter weather advisories. Kansas and Wichita, it started out this morning in west Texas. There was an icy mixture. They had trees snapped. The roads were miserable.

Look all the way from Omaha into Des Moines and Chicago, then towards Detroit and into the Great Lakes, winter weather advisories as well as winter storm watches. But in Pittsburgh, they're saying that the ice has been so bad there, and also into West Virginia, they are really struggling on the roadways. So take it easy. It is going to be very dangerous out there.

From New Orleans all the way up to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, we're expecting severe weather. And indeed, there's a tornado watch that goes until 6:00 p.m. local time. We've seen some high winds across southern Louisiana and into Mississippi. This is all making its way to the east. And don't think this is just going to stay rain the whole time, kind of a merging of weather systems eventually pushing towards the east. And then -- and then the arctic air is going to plunge those

temperatures like you have not seen in a long time. You may make it to around zero in Chicago on Wednesday.

But take a look at New Hampshire. This was in Ashland along interstate 93 -- 35 cars managed to mix it up. There was also a semi involved in this. There were 12 people transported. One person still considered in serious condition. And they said this snow squall happened in a second, Fred, and their visibility was gone.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. And you can see there was a fire involving the impact of a couple of those vehicles. Oh, that's bad stuff. Thanks so much, Karen. Appreciate it. Everyone be careful out there.

All right, checking on our other top stories now. They're calling it a miracle in Kentucky, a seven-year-old girl the lone survivor of a plane crash. Her parents, sister, and cousin all dying, but then the girl walked away from the wreckage. Nearly a mile she walked in freezing cold weather. And she found help when she knocked on a door.

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LARRY WILKINS, TOOK IN SEVEN-YEAR-OLD PLANE CRASH SURVIVOR: I just got through watching the evening news, the local evening news, and walked in there to get on the computer on Facebook and whatever and see what was going on. And before I got -- sat down, that's when the little dog started hollering and barking. And I opened the door, and there she was.

If you could see the terrain, you would realize how incredible it really was. Barefooted and seven-years-old, that's the incredible part, that she was amazing to me.

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WHITFIELD: That is amazing. The NTSB and the FAA are investigating the crash.

And the music world is remembering country hall of famer Jimmy Dickens.

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(SINGING)

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WHITFIELD: Dickens died of a heart attack Friday in Nashville. He was known for his colorful rhinestone-studded jackets and self- deprecating humor, also making fun of his own short stature. The 94- year-old coal miner's son got his start in radio before joining the Grand Ole Opry in 1948.

Straight ahead, the painstaking process of finding out why that plane crashed. The clues can be anywhere, even in the smallest bits of debris.

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WHITFIELD: If searchers don't find the black boxes from AirAsia flight 8501, then what? No doubt it makes the crash investigation more difficult, but not impossible. Like something out of "CSI," detectives can take parts of wreckage and turn them into answers. Here's Stephanie Elam.

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STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: To find out what brought down a plane --

MICHAEL BARR, INSTRUCTOR, USC AVIATION SAFETY PROGRAM: You've got to bite this at a small bite at a time.

ELAM: -- investigators look to the wreckage and not just the black boxes for clues.

BARR: I will never have all the parts, never. But the more parts I get, it's like a mosaic. The more bits I can put into the mosaic, the better my picture will be. The better the picture the better I can come up with an understanding of what happened.

ELAM: But when a plane crashes into the water like AirAsia flight 8501, that task is a more difficult endeavor.

BARR: Crash lands are much easier because the parts stay where they landed. In the water, you're working with currents and winds, and so the pieces won't be where they had the initial impact. The deeper the water, the more difficult. We have other accidents that happened in shallow water. We got most of the pieces back. But deep water, we have a very, very hard time doing that.

ELAM: Take, for example, Malaysia Air flight 370. The missing 777 jet is believed by many to be somewhere at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. By examining other crashes, investigators can deduce what likely happened if the massive plane did crash into the water.

BARR: In this case, the primary energy of this wreckage was absorbed by the right front cockpit. It has two jet engines just like the Malaysian aircraft. But, in fact, it's 10,000 pounds versus the 777 which was 600,000 pounds, 60 times larger.

ELAM: If it broke up, that debris field on the bottom of the sea floor would be massive.

BARR: You're absolutely right.

ELAM: So this wing here, this is a wing that crashed into the water.

ANTHONY THOMAS, DIRECTOR, USC SAFETY AND SECURITY PROGRAM: What's important to us here is tracing the front leading edge of this right wing. It looks like it struck some object. But in fact, this wing hit the water, the water being a very, very hard surface when you hit it fast.

ELAM: So if you're talking about a 777 hitting the water, it would be immensely more noticeable.

THOMAS: And that 777 would be moving at a much higher speed than this aircraft here. So therefore the energy would be much greater.

ELAM: Yet even with all the pieces the investigators are able to put back together, if they don't recover the part of the plane that failed in flight, the cause of the crash may remain a mystery.

Stephanie Elam, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And President Obama's vacation in Hawaii over tomorrow. And Monday, he loses the luxury of dealing with a Senate controlled by Democrats. We're taking a look at what 2015 looks like for the president next.

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WHITFIELD: All right, President Obama heads home from Hawaii tonight. And on Monday, the GOP will take charge of congress. But while Republicans now control both the House and the Senate, they also are facing challenges within their own ranks. One congressman is resigning, another is taking fire amid reports that he spoke to a white supremacist group back in 2002. CNN's Erin McPike is in Washington with more.

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, Republicans may be starting out the year in a weaker position than they had hoped with these two controversies, but they are still prepared to fight the president tooth and nail over the Keystone XL pipeline.

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MCPIKE: Republicans in Congress celebrated two months ago with sweeping Victories in the midterm elections. But they'll be kicking off the new year weaker than they planned after a pair of embarrassments from the two GOP House members.

The number three House Republican Steve Scalise is managing fallout after news this week he accepted an invitation a decade ago to speak to a white supremacist group. And Congressman Michael Grimm announcing he will resign after pleading guilty to tax evasion.

DOUG HAYE, REPUBLICAN POLITICAL CONSULTANT: I think they're still in a position of strength.

MCPIKE: But the new headaches come as Republicans plot their first moves now that they'll control both house of Congress next week.

MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Just to give you some examples that won't surprise you, things like approving the Keystone pipeline which would put a lot of people to work almost immediately, trying to do everything we can to push back against this overactive bureaucracy of the current administration that's created much job loss.

MCPIKE: But that could set up a confrontation with the president who has vowed in the past to veto such bills.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think there's been this tendency to really hype this thing as some magic formula, and to what ails the U.S. economy. And it's hard to see on paper where exactly where they are getting that information from.

MCPIKE: And soon after, immigration. Funding for the president's programs for the Department of Homeland Security runs out in February.

HAYE: That's certainly where we could see a big confrontation. When the president acted unilaterally on immigration without consulting Congress, it sent a real message that this president is going to act alone, that he wasn't going to work with Congress. And the problem with that is we have a Republican House and Republican Senate now that can send things to the president.

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MCPIKE: So you may be asking where are the areas of common ground that the president and Republicans can agree on. Well, they have talked about trade and also tax reform that's a big-ticket item that Republicans hope to achieve in the coming year -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Erin McPike.

Thanks so much for you joining me today, this Saturday. I'm Fredericka Whitfield. Our news coverage continues with Poppy Harlow right now.