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New Developments in Saerch for Flight 8501; Officer Wenjian Liu Laid to Rest Today; Thirty-Four Bodies Recovered: Nine Have Been Identified; Seven-Year-Old Survives Kentucky Plane Crash; North Korea Lashes Out Over Sanctions; White House: Obama Seeking GOP Cooperation

Aired January 04, 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: Hello, everyone. And welcome to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitefield.

You have been watching the somber and very poignant ceremony, funeral services for NYPD Officer Wenjian Liu. And you still see a sea of blue. Officers from the New York police department and beyond, all line in the streets there in Brooklyn paying their respect.

Liu and his partner Rafael Ramose were shot and killed while in their patrol car late last month. Ramos' funeral taking place last weekend. This weekend paying the respects to Wenjian Liu. Dark skies and heavy emotions taking place for the thousands of family, friends, and fellow officers of Wenjian Liu. Today, it was the time to grief and it was a time to remember the person officer Liu was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WEI TANG LIU, OFFICER LIU'S FATHER (through translator): Today is the saddest day in my life. My only son left me. No word can express my sadness. When I was sick, he took me to see the doctor right away. He called me every day before he finished work to insure me that he is safe and to tell me that I'm coming home today. You can stop worrying now.

PEI XIA CHEN, OFFICER LIU'S WIDOW: He is my soul mate, my best friend. He took pride in the fact that he is NYPD. The caring son, a loving husband. You are an amazing man. Wenjian is my hero. We can always count on him. Again, I thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He would go out of his way to make sure we are always happy. He put pride into our family. Even though he is gone, he will never be forgotten.

JAMES COMEY, DIRECTOR, FBI: His commitment was as strong as his purpose was pure. I am honored to be here today to pay tribute to a fallen peace maker.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK: The Buddha imparted a simple lesson. Train yourself to attain peace he said. That was how detective Liu lived his life. We thank the Liu family for sharing him with us. As their guests we mourn with them. We take comfort in the Buddha's words that even when death comes, the lessons of goodness do not perish.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Thousands of officers from the area and round the country attending the services today to pay their respects.

CNN's Miguel Marquez joining me live now.

And Miguel, the body of Wenjian Liu on its way to a private ceremony.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is. And it is an awesome and inspiring sight to see this many police officers gathered together in order to see him off on that final journey.

I can tell you that the body, the caskets, and the (INAUDIBLE) left here at the funeral home about a half hour ago, but they remain in formation until it gets all the way down towards the end. It must be getting near there soon. They will then dismiss everybody. And that sea of blue will start to wash down the streets and as they start to make their exits.

During this funeral, we -- or service, really, we heard a series of speeches by the mayor who told us a few things about Wenjian Liu. That he loved to fish. This is a guy when he had got a big fish, he loved to share with his entire family. He was an avid fisherman. He also was incredibly caring in his job. The way he approached life, the way he approached his job was one of great caring for individuals. He related a story about an elderly man who had fallen down.

Wenjian Liu who speaks Chinese went to his assistants and just sat with him for hours talking to him. This was a man who wasn't having a physical problem necessarily, but wanted some company, and Wenjian Liu was happy to oblige.

We learned from his cousin, perhaps most importantly of all, that a man that we know as Wenjian Liu was actually known to them as Joe. So this American family, basically, this Chinese family that has become America, this is a guy who trained as an accountant, but wanted to become a cop.

Bill Bratton, the commissioner of the New York Police Department saying though he became a cop later in life. He was in 2007 he became a cop, he was 32 when he was killed. That the pool was just as great for him later in life as it was for someone like Bill Bratton who joined the force very early on.

So a great outpouring of love and respect for this officer. And an impressive site to see here. I'm looking down here. I can see about a half mile down, and you can just see it's starting to break up down that way now, and you can just see a massive wall like a tidal wave of blue and now some of the flags are coming back up this way. It is a very, very impressive site to see -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Miguel, clearly, the hearts were very heavy with the father exhibiting his words and demeanor, the wife and even the cousin as you referred to, you know, who talked about that officer as Joe. But as you look at the sea of blue, can you kind of paint a picture

for us as to how many just civilians, people in the neighborhoods there, who also came out to pay their respects.

MARQUEZ: It is hard to judge. There is a basilica right up the street here, and they had the street locked up there. And I can tell you that the people up there from the neighborhood were along the barricades several deep. It was tens deep.

On the left side of the street down here I can see different colors. So presumably, there was a lot of you from the neighborhood here. People from the neighborhood coming up to us because we have been here since very early in the morning coming up to saying how probably were to see this happening in the neighborhood. And so, my sense is thousands in the neighborhood. Certainly NYPD was planning for 25,000 people to show up. They probably had that and more -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Miguel Marquez, thank you so much from your vantage point.

Also, in Brooklyn Sarah Ganim at 56th street and 13th avenue there.

From your vantage point, what have you been able to see, Sarah?

SARAH GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fred.

Yes. I've been along the processional line with thousands of police officers who are standing here outside watching the ceremony as it was going on. They've been standing out here for several hours now. They began ling up at 9:00. Almost more than a mile away is what we're told by the NYPD. That's how long it took, and that's how far they had to be for the NYPD to fit everyone in who wanted to be along the route and pay their final respects to Officer Wenjian Liu.

Just to give you some perspective, I stepped away from the crowd a bit because they're still standing at attention very quietly -- silently, actually. Standing at attention along the processional route. And we didn't want to be disruptive. But I do want to tell you that I was standing out there as those family members were speaking. And they were absolutely captivated by some of the things that were said about their fellow officer, Specifically, his wife. I mean, her speech very powerful, touched everyone in the crowd, captivated everyone who was here. And I just want to let you listen to a little bit of what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: Although, he walked often, he would always make sure to take time for me, his number one fan, his family and his friends. He was always there when anyone needed something. When Wenjian was still working, Wenjian cared a lot for just Chinese community. He wanted to always do his best.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GANIM: She mentioned members of the Chinese community that were mentioned there by his wife. And I have seen many members of the community here along the sidewalks, along side police officers. And they're really mingling and sharing in this grief here together. I saw many officers here from out of town who were ripping off their badges and handing them out to members of the community who were here. Mostly just as a shared sign of a memory of being here today.

We also heard from the FBI director James Comey and from Mayor Bill de Blasio who talks about how painful it was for officer Liu's family to know that he was putting his life at risk every day in this job. How Officer Liu felt the calling to do this work, but it knew to his family was nervous about it.

And so, how every day after work, he would call home to his father and let his father know that he got home safe. Take a listen to what more of what Mayor Bill de Blasio had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DE BLASIO: Detective Wenjian Liu was a good man. He walked a path of courage, a path of sacrifice, and a path of kindness. This is who he was, and it was taken to us -- he was taken from us much too soon. Our hearts go out to his wife, Pei Xia Chen, who married him during months before his cruel loss. To his father, Wei Tang Liu, and his mother, Xiu Yan Li, who have suffered the unimaginable pain of losing their only child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much for your reporting, Sarah Ganim, and our Miguel Marquez there in various places of Brooklyn. You can hear the bagpipes there as many of the officers remain as the procession continues with the body of Wenjian Liu heading to a private funeral service. Let's listen in right now to the bagpipes.

(VIDEO OF OFFICER LIU'S FUNERAL PLAYING)

WHITFIELD: All right, very powerful moment all morning long as thousands continue to pay their respects for the slain New York police officer Wenjian Liu, now detective posthumously. Wenjian Liu, his body on its way to a private funeral service. You heard from a number of people this morning, poignant moment from his wife.

He was a newlywed, married not long before he was slain last month. And then you heard from his dad who also talked about how caring his son Wenjian Liu was, and then you heard from a young cousin who talked about how he referred to and many referred to Wenjian Liu as just Joe.

And you are seeing the breaking up there of that sea of blue. Thousands of NYPD police officers as well as police officers from all across the nation coming to pay their respects to Wenjian Liu.

Also this morning, monks performing during a special private Chinese ceremony at detective Liu's funeral today. They got a glimpse of that tradition during Liu's wake last night with Buddhist chance and the ceremonial burning of paper money.

Joining me right now, Zen Buddhist Brad Warner and CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes.

Brad, first to you, can explain these Buddhist traditions and ritual that is took place at the ceremony?

BRAD WARNER, ZEN BUDDHIST: Well, yes. The Chinese tradition that detective Liu was part of is kind of a synthesis of various Buddhist traditions along with some native Chinese traditions that actually predate Buddhism. So the burning of the ceremonial money is actually something that has kind of been incorporated into Buddhist ceremonies, but isn't really traditionally Buddhist. The chanting would most likely have been a prayer to Ameda Buddha who is supposed to prepare the western heavens for people to go and study the darma in their next life. So that chanting typically goes for about eight hours. I'm not sure if they did that here.

And then there is -- the full ceremony takes about 49 days because there is a belief that the person maintain the kind of connection to this existence for the first 49 days after their death.

WHITFIELD: And this, really, was a blending of Buddhist and western traditions. And of course, there are the traditions being bestowed by the police community.

Tom, if you could, we heard something very interesting from Sarah Ganim during her reporting there in the streets of Brooklyn, talking about how many of the police officers there in attendance, paying respect to Detective Liu, also removed their own badges and handed them over to people in the community.

Is that -- is that something that has become customary, or is that a very unique set of circumstances taking place during today's funeral?

THOMAS FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I'm not familiar with that from other funerals. I think it might be unique to this, but I'm not sure.

I would like to add to the thought that this is a blended ceremony. You hear the bagpipes. This is the world famous emerald society of New York police department. And that's another western tradition at police funerals the playing of the bagpipes. And it's very moving when you first start hearing the bagpipes. It brings out the emotions of hundreds of earlier funerals that you have attended of other police officers.

WHITFIELD: It was somber. It was poignant. It was moving. It was very personal. Yet, at the same time, Tom, you can't help but also take note of the fact that a handful of police officers did defy the request, Brad, from the commissioner Bratton, not to turn their back on of the mayor. And when the mayor spoke during that funeral service, they were a handful of officers that turned their backs to the screens outside.

What is your interpretation of that? If the police commissioner said this is a time to pay honor and respect to the fallen police officer, but what did you interpret from what took place today? FUENTES: Well, I think most police officers, you know, really hoped

that the commissioner's request would be honored because commissioner Bratton has been a stray cop. He has been there. He is a fellow officer as opposed to a politician.

I think that many hope that that would happen today. But what it really shows is that some of the emotions within the police department against this mayor in particular and against just the public discourse that's been going on run deep. And I think people, you know, just don't realize how offensive many of the remarks made by many public officials over the last couple of months have been and how they're taking by the police officers.

WHITFIELD: But is it your concern that members of the community, those were not wearing blue are now going to worry or wonder if police officers don't respect authority from their own commissioner, then is there a lack of mutual respect even involving the civilian community and the NYPD community.

FUENTES: Well, the commissioner's request was, you know, it was kind of a mild request. He just reminded them that in his opinion, honor meant not to air grievances at the funerals, and, you know, but he also included in his request that there would be no discipline, and there would be no other repercussions taken by the department if they chose to do it.

WHITFIELD: Was that a mistake?

FUENTES: I don't think so because I think he didn't want to be in the position of having to take on hundreds of police officers for a disciplinary action. And I think that in terms of the families and the message of this funeral and alt week's funeral, when you see 25,000 police officers respectfully standing for five hours at a fallen fellow officer's funeral, I think that's respect enough as far as the families of the police officers go.

Tom Fuentes, Brad Warner, thank you so much.

And we will be right back with more on the life and death of detective Wenjian Liu.

(VIDEO OF OFFICER LIU'S FUNERAL PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back to the NEWSROOM as thousands continue to pay their respects to slain NYPD detective Wenjian Liu whose body is now being taken to a private ceremony following this morning's very public tribute.

We also want to bring you up-to-date on the other big story that we've been following for you today.

The hunt for wreckage and bodies from AirAsia flight 8501. The search overseas remains on hold for the night due to bad weather there. Today, crews recovered four bodies from the murky Java Sea. That brings the total number of victims found so far just 34.

One of the bodies recovered today was found off Borneo. That suggests currents may be moving bodies and debris. To deal with that, authorities are extending the search zone east now. Nine of the victims found have been identified, including a 10-year-old girl, although there has been an improvement in some of the weather conditions there over the past 24 hours, heavy rain and high winds now continue to hamper recovery efforts.

Twenty aircraft and 27 ships are now involved in today's search.

Let's get right to CNN's David Molko. He joins us from the city of Surabaya where the plane took off a week ago, David. What more can you tell us about today's search efforts and really talking about Sunday's search efforts? You are nearly a day ahead of us east coast time.

DAVID MOLKO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fred. Let's get straight out to the search on as you mentioned in the Java Sea, a lot of difficulties on Sunday.

You know, we've been talking about the weather all week, choppy seas. It's monsoon season. You get afternoon thunderstorms. Things can change out there rather quick. The divers we were talking about did go into the water.

The problem was zero visibility like searching for something in the dark. They were hoping to get a look at the four parts we have been telling you about, the largest one about 60 feet. That's approximately the same as the length of an airbus A320 wing. What they're going to do Monday is try it all over again hoping for better visibility, hoping for improved conditions.

They were also trying on Sunday to put an underwater rob out then with a camera that take a look at those pieces trying to get a closer look and confirm whether or not it was flood from flight 8501. We are not able to do that either because the currents underwater were just too strong.

The good news, Fred, whether conditions expected to continue to improve for the next two days.

WHITFIELD: Well, it was a painstaking process.

So, David, now, how are the family members holding up with news that weather is certainly hampering things, and then there are reports that there may have been some icing on the plane, and that, too, is something that's being further investigated. What kind of response are you hearing?

MOLKO: Yes, Fred. Let's start with that icing report first. Basically, the Indonesian weather agency came out with the report saying based on the conditions at the time and the type of clouds that were in the sky, there could have been, you know, a chance for ice to form. What they also said in the report, though, is this is one idea, one thought they're putting out there by no means was this a conclusion or anything even saying to the point that weather was a cause of this crash. We just don't know it.

Important at this point, though, that every piece of information that's out there is valuable to investigators. Let's look at the families now. You ask how they're doing. Honestly, Fred, from talking to them, they're frustrated. Just with how long this search seamed seems to take. For how long it is to recover those human remains, bring them here, and identify them.

One of the things that happened in the last 24 hours is AirAsia came out and said, you know, we're going to offer you some compensation. This is pretty typical for an airline crash. This is not the insurance payout that will come later, but instead, something to cover financial hardship -- people away from their job, not making money, how to stay in a hotel.

About 24,000 per passenger on board. Some of the families, though, a little confused by this. And saying, well, if I accept this, then I'm accepting that my loved ones are lost. AirAsia says no, that's not it at all. But from some of the family members, including one who has lost four, including two young granddaughters, they can't separate the two. So they're saying let's hold off. The mayor here is stepping up on behalf of the family members and they are trying to work out the details so that the families feel a little bit more comfortable with the offer -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, David Molko, thanks so much in Surabaya.

And when we come back, we're going to talk more about these icing possibilities and the direction of the search now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTINA HINGIS, SWISS PROFESSIONAL TENNIS PLAYER: As a 16, 17, 18- year-old as a teenager I was going through all these maybe also sometimes, you know, difficult times, rebellion and I still had all these unbelievable victories.

My victory in this moment, when I was there and playing and winning. I think for me in this moment when I was there and playing and winning, it was normal and natural. You didn't really have the time to almost enjoy the moment because there was the next tournament, already the next challenge, next opponent.

I have a lot more time now to really enjoy it. You know, look back at the memories that, you know, I had.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In 2014 Sony up in doubles champion Martina Hingis. Let's hear it for them, everybody.

HINGIS: To win a tournament like this, no, after seven years of absence, I didn't expect it. Standing there as a champion again, it was really nice feeling.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back to the NEWSROOM. The latest now on the hunt for the wreckage and victims of AirAsia flight 8502. (INAUDIBLE) have recovered four bodies from the murky waters of the Java Sea. That brings the total number of victims found so far to 34. One of the bodies recovered today was found off the coast of Borneo.

That suggests currents may be moving bodies and debris. To deal with that authorities are extending the search zone eastward. Nine of the victims found have been identified including a little 10-year-old girl.

Joining me now is Mary Schiavo, CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general with the Department of Transportation, and David Soucie, CNN safety analyst, and author of the books, "Why Planes Crash," and "Malaysia Airlines Flight 370."

All right, David, to you first, Indonesian officials reportedly are speculating now that icing may have contributed to the downing of this plane, but officials are telling CNN that that's not credible, so how do you square that kind of information?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, at this point, what we're looking at is contributors, and contributors are something that come down the road in the investigation a little bit. To talk about icing at this point is a little bit speculative.

But it isn't uncommon to incur icing, either as hail or the kind of icing that sticks to the aircraft as it enters and goes through wet areas, but at this point, it's too early to tell, but it's certainly a possibility that it contributed.

WHITFIELD: So, Mary, if that is a possibility, would there be a certain altitude that would have to be entertained with that idea of icing?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Yes, David is absolutely right. It depends on the kind of icing, icing that forms on the plane and the surface on the plane. The plane would be able to take that. You know, there's de-icing systems on it.

But what would happen at certain altitudes and as the thunderstorm was building, there's a particular cloud formation and an anvil cloud, and off the end of that cloud it's very bad, can be very bad hail.

If the icing was in the form of the hail ingested in the engine, then what you would see as an engine failure, dual engine flame-out, and that can be very, very difficult to restart. You would have to do a dive and a windmilling restart. That would be hard to do.

The altitude would probably be the fact if the thunderstorm was that high, it would be at the top of the thunderstorm build-out.

WHITFIELD: And then, David, now that we hear that there have been more bodies recovered, one was recovered in the area where it appears it drifted far from the primary search area. I suppose this is to be expected. You know, this is a moving sea, and this is, of course, during a very tumultuous time of monsoon, bad weather. How much more difficult is this going to make this for searchers that they have to deal with currents in a very big way now, and that the scope of their search area has to be expanded?

SOUCIE: It's going to very much complicate the recovery of the bodies because the bodies are typically surface-born so they're moving across the top of the surface due to wind and current. But the main wreckage, the parts of the aircraft that would be located at the bottom of the ocean.

Now those are going to remain stationary for the most part although there are some currents there as well as we witness by the fact they tried to put a robot down there and the current were too bad for the robot.

But we can't forget about that mid-layer. There is a lot of debris that still lies that hasn't gone to the bottom and hasn't gone to the top. It's reached a balance. That's going to be extremely difficult to recover.

WHITFIELD: And so, Mary, what does this mean for the resources dedicated to this search? Does it mean allocating certain types of apparatus to a more confined search area while other, I guess, resources are devoted somewhere else to travel with the current?

SCHIAVO: Well, that's exactly right and at this point, what they are going to find is things are going to start washing up on the shores and beaches.

So they really need to enlist, locals, people need to start watching the areas because at this point that's where some of the wreckage might reach up, and there was another crash in the Java Sea a while back. It was several weeks, and then things washed up on the shore there too.

So not only we need the people out on the sea searching and all the assets they have there, but people on the shore can now help too.

WHITFIELD: All right, Mary, David, thank you so much to both of you. Appreciate it. Now you'll be joining us a little bit later. Thank you.

Meantime, new details now about what happened to a 7-year-old girl after she survived a plane crash in Kentucky. That crash killed her entire family.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Police in Western Kentucky detailed what a 7-year-old girl did to survive this deadly plane crash. The twin engine aircraft went down in a dense forest on Friday. The young survivor, Sailor Gutzler, lost her mom, dad, sister, and cousin all on that plane.

Let's get now to CNN's Nick Valencia with more on this. There was a press conference. We are finally seeing some images of the plane crash site, and this little girl is remarkable.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And during that press conference, we find out just how remarkable she was just exactly what she had to go through. As we talked about all day yesterday, this plane, this small twin engine plane was on its way from Florida to Illinois when it had an emergency midair.

We believe it was engine problems that eventually brought this plane down. The NTSB and FAA are still investigating. Brent White, with the Kentucky Police Department or state police, I should say, talked about how it was so cold, 38 degrees, rough terrain.

You're looking at aerials of that crash site. He said in his interview with this little girl, Sailor Gutzler who survived, the lone survivor of this crash, she said at some point in mid-air, there was an emergency.

The plane ended up upside down and he went on to describe exactly what she had to do to get help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIEUTENANT BRENT WHITE, KENTUCKY STATE POLICE: I was literally distraught by how calm she was able to and the ability for her to give us information, you know? She was obviously distraught, but probably in shock.

After trying to raise her family and get to communicate with her, and I think even touching some of them she indicated she believed that her family was deceased, but that she hoped that they were just sleeping.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: Remarkable for her to even have the wherewithal to see that. They said she was in the woods, Fred, for quite some time before she was able to get over a ridge line. She saw that light on. The 71-year-old that helped her out, and just walked. They said she couldn't have chosen a better direction. If she had

gone the other way, she would have ended up in a lake. She would have gone over ditches, a 12-foot creek.

WHITFIELD: She was bare foot and wearing shorts.

VALENCIA: One sock bare foot, shorts, and a t-shirt dressed for Florida, 38 degrees in Western Rural Kentucky. Thankfully, she found somebody who could help her out. We should mention, she was released from the hospital, and it was her step sister who ended up picking her up. She's now with her step sister.

WHITFIELD: My goodness. What, if anything, are other family members saying about her?

VALENCIA: So earlier we saw just a little while ago a report from NBC that a mother of that cousin, 14-year-old, who was on the plane gave some comments. We were trying to get in touch with her. The family right now is being very quiet. They did release a statement earlier. An attorney released a statement asking for those who wanted to donate to her recovery. There is that out there. Right now, this brave little girl is being heralded as the bravest person that many of those people that came across her path have ever met.

WHITFIELD: She is amazing. All right, of course, we wish her the best especially in such circumstances, the rest of her family who continue to try to hold it together. All right, Nick Valencia, appreciate that. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, those searching for victims and wreckage from AirAsia Flight 8501 are making some progress. We'll tell you how.

Plus, how the weather is still impacting that search, storms, are they letting up, or will they let up any time soon? The forecast straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Overseas the weather was supposed to be a lot more favorable for searchers looking for that AirAsia flight on Sunday. It was to a degree. Remember they are 12 hours ahead. We're into the next day Monday for folks there and the searchers.

Let's bring in our CNN meteorologist, Karen Maginnis, from the CNN Weather Center. And so Sunday, a very narrow window of opportunity for better weather, but it hasn't been optimal.

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No, it's not going to be perfect. We are in monsoon season. This is the ITCZ, the Intertropical Convergence Zone, to try to forecast around thunderstorms in a specific areas would be task that would be fairly daunting.

But we did incrementally see some nicer weather. We weren't looking at the 15 foot to 18 foot wave heights. They were a little less than that. But we did see a fairly brisk wind and as a result, it really turned up the surface of that water is still turbidity in the water.

It's still churning up. The visibility is so poor as you heard earlier in this newscast, but I took a look earlier today, what's going to happen across this search area. Monday, a few showers here and there.

Is it enough for the vessels both on the ocean and in the air to have a problem with it? Well, a lot of these can be very heavy precipitation makers because it is monsoon season.

But going into Tuesday, here's a shower here but later in the day, it starts to clear out and going into Wednesday it looks a lot better. The winds are still going to be brisk. There could be some white caps, but we may not see the wave heights or the wind nearly as bad or the showers. That's the way it appears now -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, a little bitten encouraging. All right, thanks so much, Karen Maginnis. Appreciate that. So for the 59 diving teams finding the flight data recorders is a priority, and it's because the batteries have about just 22 days of power left. Investigators need the black boxes to get a much more clear picture of why AirAsia Flight 8501 went down.

Joining me right now is former NTSB Medical Officer Mitch Garber. He is also the senior managing consultant for ESI. Good to see you. Thanks for coming in.

So 22 days or so with the battery life, but it could be longer because maybe on average the battery life is 30 days, but sometimes it can be 45 days even more?

MITCH GARBER, FORMER NTSB MEDICAL OFFICER: Fredricka, obviously that's a variable, and it can be longer or even shorter than that, depending on the conditions and on the specific batteries. I think in this case, though, the investigators seem to be fairly clear that they found what they believe to be a majority of the wreckage.

And once that's happened, it's quite likely that they are going to find those flight data and cockpit voice recorders fairly soon, weather permitting obviously.

WHITFIELD: So you feel fairly confident, if they've isolated what they think to be the area of where most of the wreckage can be, you feel fairly competent that these flights, these data recorders, voice recorders are in good condition even being submerged as long as they have been?

GARBER: These recorders are really designed to take a beating. They are 3,400 G's, temperatures that would be unimaginable for survival of individuals, and certainly a submersion under water.

The Air France 447 recorders were found years later and would still contain usable data. I would expect that these flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorder would be found and would be in good condition when they are found.

WHITFIELD: Technology and expertise is such that a lot can be learned from just the visual examination of the wreckage of even the bodies to try and get a better idea of what happened to this plane, but there's nothing that can match the information on these data recorders. What kind of information can be extrapolated from it?

GARBER: Well, a lot of times what we're looking for, we find the wreckage, and even examining the bodies as you say, we are finding out what has happened? What do we know about this crash? What we're not finding out so much is why did that happen?

What was going on in the cockpit? What were the pilots thinking about? What kinds of things were they are having to deal with at that time? What information did they have in order to deal with whatever was coming their way?

WHITFIELD: Even if something so sudden, just on a dime, something changed, and the pilots were powerless or they weren't even able to communicate something, those data recorders will be able to dictate some of that information?

GARBER: We should be able to see some of that information. We may not getting everything that we want and it depends on this particular data recorder, a lot of those now, a lot of the cockpit voice recorders will have independent data, independent power sources.

So they'll go on even though the power may be shut off to the aircraft. It may be power to the microphone and to the cockpit voice recorder. Some information may still be obtainable from that, even in the absence of power to the aircraft itself.

WHITFIELD: All right. Mitch Garber, thanks so much for your expertise. Appreciate it.

GARBER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, still ahead, North Korea blasts the United States for those new economic sanctions. Erin McPike is following the conversation -- Erin.

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, some lawmakers on Capitol Hill are saying the administration isn't going far enough to punish North Korea. More on that after the break.

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WHITFIELD: North Korea fires back at new strict sanctions by the United States in retaliation for the cyberattack on Sony. The communist nation is calling the sanctions, quote, "repugnant and hostile."

CNN's Erin McPike is following the story from Washington. So how was the White House responding with the president back now?

MCPIKE: Fred, I've reached out to the White House this morning and they say they have nothing new to say about North Korea today. It seems they don't want to get in a back and forth over this very thing.

This idea that North Korea is saying that the U.S. is stirring up that (inaudible), however, an influential Democrat in the Senate, Bob Menendez, who had just been chair of the Foreign Relations Committee says that the sanction says don't go far enough.

Now, he has also reached out to Secretary of State John Kerry and has asked whether they will add North Korea to the list of state sponsors of terror, and he says that he hasn't gotten a response yet, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, and the president, his vacation over now from Hawaii, what's topping his domestic agenda as a new Congress is sworn in this week?

MCPIKE: There are three big things that he thinks he can work closely with Republicans on and White House spokesman, Eric Schultz, spoke to our Jim Acosta when they were in Hawaii about this. Listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ERIC SCHULTZ, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: They look like corporate tax reform to make sure that our tax code is fairer and simplier. Infrastructure that would help create jobs and its trade deals, which would help open up new markets to American manufacturing. These are areas where Republicans have been supported in the past, and that's why he is eager to work with Congress to get those done.

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MCPIKE: Now, President Obama is also hitting the road this week. He is going to Michigan, Arizona, and Tennessee to sell that agenda. Now, meanwhile, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, who will be coming in as the majority leader, sat down with CNN's Dana Bash, and he talked about how the president can work with Republicans. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (R), INCOMING MAJORITY LEADER: He needs to talk to us, and that's good because when the American people elect divided government, they're not saying they don't want anything done.

What they are saying is they want things done in the political center, things that both sides can agree on. And in the conversation last week we talked about the things where there may be some agreement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCPIKE: But the very first thing out of the gate is the Keystone XL pipeline, and Republicans say they have the 60 votes to pass that. Then the question becomes will the president veto that? Then if he does, can Republicans get together with some Democrats and have 67 votes to override that veto?

That's still an open question. And if that happens that's obviously getting the year started on a very confrontational way -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Erin McPike, at the White House, thanks so much.

Tonight on CNN, a very special look at someone who was a staple in so many of our living rooms for decades. Siskal and Ebert became household names with their thumbs up or thumbs down movie ratings.

And the film critics enjoyed years of on screen camaraderie. That wasn't the story behind the scenes as we learn in the CNN film "Life Itself."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Roger is an only child. He was used to getting his way. Absolutely and he could be a real big baby when he didn't get what he wanted. Gene, on the other hand would just go in there and pummel you until you agreed with him. And until you said, all right, Gene, OK. You're right. Got it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It wasn't a game with him. He saw something, he wanted it to happen and he made it happen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gene was very good at reading Roger's day book upside down. As soon as he saw L.A. and the date, he knew what films were coming out. He knew a big star that Roger would be going out to interview.

And that's all it took for him to make sure that he got the interview before roger got it. Fumes you could almost see coming out of roger's head, you know, gene had done him in again, that rascally rabbit.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: "LIFE ITSELF" airs tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

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