Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

AirAsia Flight Goes Missing Amid Thunderstorms; Airasia Jet Vanishes On Flight To Singapore; At Least 160 People Saved From Burning Ferry

Aired December 28, 2014 - 16:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello. I'm Martin Savidge, in today for Fredricka Whitfield. Let's bring you up to date on this major breaking story.

AirAsia 8501, a passenger jet carrying 162 people, it is gone missing in Southeast Asia. And here is what we know at this hour. Authorities have suspended the official search in sea because of darkness. It is just after 4:00 in the morning local time there now. This area is, though, a busy shipping channel and authorities have asked ships to check the waters off of Indonesia. A full search expected to resume after daybreak in a couple of hours from now.

The Airbus A320-200 left Indonesia around 5:30 in the morning local time. It was bound for Singapore. Indonesian officials say at one point the captain asked to climb higher to avoid stormy weather. The plane then disappeared from radar while flying at 38,000 feet. The path of Flight 8501 was almost entirely over water.

Families have been anxiously waiting for any kind of update or word or news on their loved ones and as to what may have happened to this plane. There were no Americans on board. The NTSB is monitoring the situation from here in the U.S. It says it's ready to send help if it is requested.

Almost all the passengers are Indonesians but one British national has been identified as an energy company executive who is said to be traveling with his 2-year-old daughter who is a Singaporean citizen.

Let's get to Paula Hancocks. She's on the phone now. She's in Jakarta, Indonesia.

And, Paula, what are you hearing there?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Well, Martin, as you say, the search and rescue operation has been halted at this point. It's just after 4:00 in the morning. And it could be a couple of hours before daybreak and we see the helicopters taking off once again.

Now the airplane gets -- lose on track in Indonesian airspace, (INAUDIBLE) Indonesian search and rescue agency that's taking the lead on this. At this point we understand that they now have seven ships and two helicopters looking for the plane and I understand (INAUDIBLE) they say it's quite a very thorough search (INAUDIBLE) the fact that they don't know exactly where this plane might be.

So what they're trying to do is divide the search area into four sections to try and narrow down exactly where it could be. But of course the weather, it could well be an issue. We don't know if it played a role in the disappearance of this airplane but it could well play a role in the search. We've seen some heavy thunderstorms. Visibility is going to be an issue for those planes. The course of the ships out at sea.

Of course, the (INAUDIBLE) is probably high. Also this is an issue that the agency is concerned about quite a bit. That the weather condition could hamper visibility but we do know that they will be starting within a couple of hours, obviously hoping to find information just as soon as they can -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: Paula Hancocks there joining us from Jakarta with the latest from the investigation.

CNN International meteorologist Tom Sater joins us now from the CNN Weather Center.

Tom, what do we know about the weather when this plane actually disappeared?

TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: For about the last four and a half weeks, Martin, we've been watching this area of the world where the storms are the strongest. See how white the clouds are? Our international viewers are well versed of the flooding going on in Sri Lanka, in southern Thailand, the Malaysia and Indonesia.

But for our U.S. viewers, in red is the Equator, from the southern hemisphere and the northern hemisphere we have this convergence of winds. And right now this is extremely tropical where the thunderstorms meet and they build upward. The amount of rain that they are dropping is staggering. We're not talking about thunderstorms dropping four or five inches, which is a big storm. We're talking two, three feet, in two or three days. A month's worth of rainfall in two or three days.

So with the tremendous amount of rainfall, you have to have incredible heights. This is what we know as far as where the plane's last reported position was about 32,000 feet. And looking at some turbulence, we know weather was a little bit of an issue, but again as all the experts have been saying today, you look at it and then leave it at that.

Ascending up to 38,000 we have thunderstorms that were over 50,000 feet high. The higher the cloud tops the more turbulence, the more icing that can occur. You can't fly through this. You've got to fly around them. But where you do not have thunderstorms and there's clear air you have downdrafts. They're called cold spots. And one was reported about eight nautical miles.

This is the estimated position of last contact. This thunderstorm concerns me not just because of its massive size but again this is the Anvil, this is the top of the thunderstorm. It shows you the direction the storm was moving. And it was directly into the flight path here. Possibly having problems. Maybe a cold spot where downdrafts or try to recover somewhat. And then encounter this cluster.

Now bear with me on this next image. The resolution is not great. This is the visual image and what it tell us, look at the whiter clouds. You can see in this general area, the sun is setting off to the edge of your screen here. So as the sun comes in at sunset, it's lighting up the higher cloud tops. In gray are the shadows back behind it. So we know these are higher. That doesn't really occur where the last position is. So it's reasonable to assume maybe that was the thunderstorm that caused problems.

Again, this is just an assumption. We continue to look at the area. More importantly what will happen in the next 24 to 48 hours. Thunderstorms will be in the region. I mean, they've been here for four and a half weeks now. It's been a terrible month. But these thunderstorms over this are right now are much smaller in size. They're widely dispersed. Heavier rainfall is going to be over the land masses right now. We have a small island here.

And again the sea state, Martin, you were asking about, zero to five feet, which is considered calm. Into these thunderstorms, however, could, you know, really create downdrafts, reduce visibility. We know vessels are in the area and heading in that direction. Sun rises about 5:45 so we're under two hours from that.

SAVIDGE: All right, Tom Sater, you know, another reason is was just knowing in case someone could put an aircraft under water.

SATER: Right.

SAVIDGE: What kind of waves they would face. Thank you very much for that update.

And let's bring in Seth Kaplan now. He's managing partner for "Airline Weekly." And we're also joined on the phone by an A320 pilot, Laureano Bello. He's been flying this kind of plane for four and a half years.

Laureano, let me ask you this. Do you think it's unusual for a pilot to perhaps try to go above the bad weather instead of around it? And I'm not saying they did. It's just that that's an early indication.

LAUREANO BELLO, A320 CAPTAIN: Well, with my experience and knowing the A320, I wouldn't go above that type of cloud. Standard procedure for us is to avoid the cloud. Basically putting the hardest part or the strongest part of the storm, trying to have 20 nautical mile gap. So the practice of going above it, it's not -- it's not what we do. There's so many, many, many reasons, dynamics, the amount of power that the engines can produce.

And with the amount of passengers that they had, they probably were pretty heavy so they were basically at the limit of the aircraft so what we -- I would probably do is basically go around the weather.

SAVIDGE: All right. Seth, let me ask you this. What do we know about this airline? I mean, of course we always want to look at the aircraft. But sometimes it is the airline itself. What do we know about the airline?

SETH KAPLAN, MANAGING PARTNER, AIRLINE WEEKLY: You know, perhaps best summarized in a cover story we ran actually the first time I interviewed Tony Fernandes, the CEO, back about nine years ago, and I actually just looked back now, dug that up, and the headline was, "The Southwest of the Southeast." So at that time a very small airline with grand ambition. Basically trying to style itself after Southwest Airlines. You know, a friendly, simple, cheap but safe airline for its part of the world.

And that's what AirAsia has done. Has grown since that time into a rather large airline for a perspective of about the size of, say, JetBlue or Alaska Airlines in the U.S. Not one of the largest in the world but a sizable airline and one that had an excellent safety record until now. One that Americans, particularly, say, backpackers who head to Southeast Asia and like to hop from one island to the other, they know it.

And business travelers increasingly have depended on it as well, particularly with the woes of Malaysia Airlines, people looking for other options. And certainly AirAsia has often been one of them.

SAVIDGE: Laureano Bello and Seth Kaplan, we're going to continue the conversation with you a little bit later. Thank you both for joining me at the moment.

Coming up, the United States now offering help in that search for the missing plane. We go live to the White House next for more reaction.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Still no sign of AirAsia Flight 8501. If you woke up this morning or tuned in earlier you may have thought oh no, not again, because a plane has vanished. It's now been more than 20 hours ago but so reminiscent of something that happened 10 months ago. The Airbus A320-200 left Indonesia around 5:30 a.m. local time. It was bound for Singapore. President Obama has been briefed on the situation.

CNN's Erin McPike is now joining us from the White House.

And, Erin, I'm just wondering what's the reaction you're getting so far.

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Martin, President Obama, as you just mentioned, has been briefed. He was briefed last night and White House officials say that they will continue to monitor this situation in the coming days. We don't expect to hear from President Obama any time today. They often allow governments that are more deeply involved to react first. But we may hear from him in the next few days. Now we have heard from a senior State Department official who

confirmed that no U.S. passengers were on the flight. There were no U.S. passports used.

And I want to read to you a comment that we got from that State Department official earlier today. That official says, "The Indonesians and Singaporeans are leading the search for the missing airplane. As we have in the past, the United States stands ready to assist in any way that's helpful." But there has been no request yet for U.S. assistance but there has to be a request before the U.S. can get involved in any way -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: Erin, what about U.S. military assistance? You know, aircraft of some sort, maybe ships in the area that could assist? Does that, too, go through the White House?

MCPIKE: That would absolutely go through the White House. The president would have to sign off on anything like that. Any kind of financial assistance that the U.S. could provide as well.

SAVIDGE: OK. Erin McPike, there at the White House. We appreciate it.

And we are continuing to follow the very latest developments on this story. We'll take a break. Back with more in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Let's get you up to speed on some other headlines making news right now.

President Obama is hailing American forces today at the official end of combat operations in Afghanistan after more than 13 years. In a statement he said, "Thanks to the extraordinary sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending and the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion." More than 2200 American troops lost their lives during the war.

An Arizona police officer was shot and killed responding to a domestic dispute last night. It happened in Flagstaff, Arizona. About two hours north of Phoenix. Tyler Stewart was a rookie police officer. He was just 24. Police say that the man who shot him turned the gun on himself after shooting Officer Stewart.

And check out this new poll on the possible Republican field for 2016. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is the clear leader in the CNN/ORC poll with 23 percent. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is second. Dr. Ben Carson is third. Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee round up the top five but remember none of the front runners have officially declared for the 2016 presidential race.

Our breaking news coverage of the missing Asian airliner continues. Crews will return to the waters off of the coast of Indonesia. At daybreak they'll try to resume searching for AirAsia Flight 8501. Channel News Asia is reporting that the sole British citizen on board

that airline is an Indonesia-based energy executive. And the Singaporean citizen is his 2-year-old daughter.

Flight 8501 left Indonesia at about 5:30 in the morning local time. It was bound for Singapore. The jet had 162 people on board including 18 children with a crew of seven. Seven ships and two helicopters will be or will start searching for that plane within hours. Officials say the search area will be divided into four broad sections of the Java Sea. And they may also be searching on land as well.

Heavy storms have been reported in the area when that jet vanished. Indonesian officials say that the pilot requested to fly at a higher altitude because of the bad weather. And this incident, as you'll remember, comes just 10 months after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished on its way to Beijing with 239 people on board.

Social media, online media can play a pivotal role in getting information out.

Nick Valencia is back in the studio here. He's been tracking the online traffic about the plane.

What people are saying online including those who are executives and those who are just plain old folks like me watching?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Martin, and you would image that there would be a lot of reaction which there is. But this event is not trending worldwide on Twitter. It's not even trending here in the United States.

Having said that, we do have plenty of reaction including the CEO of AirAsia, who just hours after the disappearance tweeted this statement, saying, "Our priority is looking after all of the next of kin for my staff and passengers. We will do whatever we can. We continue to pass information as it comes."

The head of Virgin Air, Richard Branson, a name familiar to many to you at home, also tweeting, but let's get first to the Malaysian prime minister who offered his condolences and calling the president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, saying, "We express our deep concern, offered Malaysia's full support and assistance to Indonesia search and rescue."

Now to that Richard Branson's tweet, the head of Virgin Air. There's a lot about flights and issues and failures with aviation. He's saying, "All of our thoughts with the passenger and crew of #QZ8501 and their families. Stay strong, Tony Fernandes, and all the wonderful AirAsia team."

Now for those of you at home, you want to join the conversation, you can tweet Martin Savidge or tweet myself @CNNValencia. We're asking folks to use the #QZ8501. And we'll try to get some of your comments on the air -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: All right, Nick. Thanks for monitoring that for us. We are continuing to monitor the developments. Daylight will be

returning to the area very shortly and the search will intensify then. More when come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Our breaking news coverage of the missing Asian airliner is continuing. Crews will return to the waters off the coast of Indonesia at daybreak to resume searching for AirAsia Flight 8501. That will be not too long from now.

Channel News Asia reports that the sole British citizen on board is an Indonesian-based energy executive. And the Singaporean citizen is his 2-year-old daughter. Those are the first identities we've had.

Flight 8501 left Indonesia at about 5:30 in the morning local time bound for Singapore. The jet had 162 people on board including 18 children with a crew of seven. Seven ships, two helicopters will start searching for the plane within hours. Officials say the search area is going to be divided into four broad sections of the Java Sea. And they may also be searching on land.

Channel News Asia reports that the . And the Singaporean citizen is -- flight 8501 left at about 5:30 in the morning bound for Singapore. The jet had 162 people on board. The weather was severe. This incident is coming just ten months after flight 370 vanished with 239 people on board.

Heavy storms have been reported in the area when that jet went down. Indonesian officials say the pilot had requested to fly actually at a higher altitude because the bad weather was severe.

This incident, of course, is coming just 10 months after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished on its way to Beijing with 239 people on board.

So what about the Airbus A320 itself?

Our aviation correspondent Rene Marsh has more on the plane and the investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know this is a newer aircraft, roughly six years old. The delivery date, October 2008.

Now, as far as flight time, we're told by Airbus, it has about 23,000 flight hours. It's what you would call a workhorse for commercial aviation. It is a well-travelled aircraft. The safety record for the A320 is pretty good when you consider the millions of flights this family of aircraft has made.

Now at this point Airbus is very careful with the language it is using. It is not dipping into the arena of speculation. They say they are waiting and they are collecting information. They are making it very clear that they are ready and willing to work with investigators once it moves on to the investigative stage.

We also know that here in the United States, the National Transportation Safety Board, they have opened up the lines of communication. They have been in contact with Airbus, the manufacturer of the aircraft. They've also been in touch with the French equivalent of the NTSB and we're also told they've been in touch with the Indonesians. And the Indonesians will likely lead the investigation.

At this point, the NTSB says that they are monitoring the situation. They are ready to provide some technical assistance if they are asked for it. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: All right, Rene, thanks very much.

We should point out that the area where this all happened is about 12 hours ahead of Eastern Time, which means it's about 4:25 in the morning there, which also means it's going to start getting light fairly soon. So let's talk more about the search.

CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us now from Jakarta, Indonesia.

And what do we know about how and when it's going to resume, Paula?

HANCOCKS (via phone): Well, Martin, it could be within an hour, hour and a half. That's when we're going to see sunrise. And this is where the Indonesian search and rescue agency says that they will start looking once again. They said that there was nothing they could do at nighttime. So all the aircraft was grounded.

Now what they have today is at least seven ships from Indonesia, two helicopters. We understand there's a couple of the neighboring islands near where this plane lost contact with air traffic control, also have aircraft that they may be able to send out as well. Looking for any sign of the aircraft.

We have been told, though, by the rescue agency that this is what they call, quote, "a very broad search location." So they are pointing out that this isn't going be easy. They're trying to divide the search area up at the moment into four sections to make it a little easier. And of course the weather could well be an issue. We know that there have been thunderstorms. We know that visibility has been fairly bad from our understanding from this agency.

And there's also high waves. So if you have an aircraft flying quite low to try and find anything on the surface of the sea, it is going to be a challenge for them. And of course this isn't just Malaysia involved. This is a regional effort. We know that Indonesia, as I say seven ships, two helicopters. Malaysia has three vessels. Singapore has at least one more search plane. And Australia and India have also offered assistance. So there really is a concerted effort to try and find out what has happened to this plane -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: And Paula, you know, we should point out that yesterday their time they headed about 12 hours of daylight to search and presumably did do some looking and found nothing, correct?

HANCOCKS: That's right. They have at least six ships out at that point and obviously those ships are still in the area. They don't come back to land. They say that the area they're looking at is broad. They're not just looking in the water. They -- the flight path is effectively all the way up to Singapore over water. But there are many different islands from the way as well. So they say there will be some areas where they are looking on land as well.

Belitung and Bangka are two islands -- in between those two islands is where the last contact was so obviously those two islands are going to be a focus as well. But at this point they haven't found any indication of what happened or at least they haven't publicly told us what they believe has happened.

SAVIDGE: And presumably no one has come forward to say I saw a plane go down, I heard an explosion or any kind of indication like that?

HANCOCKS: There are no credible reports that we have at this point. So obviously we are looking into that. But the main point will be when the aircraft can get up in the air as well and try and see what's on the ground. But ships are still out there but when it is pitch black, it is very difficult for them to see anything at all. And I can't overstate the weather conditions. There are extremely high waves that are going to make things extremely difficult.

Nine-foot wave, we understand from the agency, in some areas which is going to make it difficult for both the ships and the aircraft to be able to see anything that might give them an indication as to what has happened. And obviously with torrential rains which we've had here, even if it's just drizzle, that narrows down that visibility. That makes it more difficult to see anything from air.

And of course those airplanes are going to have to fly fairly low, as well as the helicopters, to try and see something but of course with those highways, that brings its own risks as well. So the weather conditions really are far from ideals for the search and rescue operation.

SAVIDGE: All right, Paula Hancocks, thank you very much. Reporting from Jakarta, which is now why we turn to Tom -- I'm sorry, I was going to turn to Tom Sater. That's not correct.

We turn to Les Abend. He is a 777 pilot. We're also joined by the international meteorologist Tom Sater.

And, Tom, you know, because we heard Paula talking so much about weather there, just give us a quick snapshot of what we know of the forecast for those that might be searching today.

SATER: Well, we're going to see isolated thunderstorms. There's no doubt. This region of the world has had more adverse weather than any other region in the world for the last four and a half weeks. We've seen the inundation flooding. And millions have been displaced. Instead of looking at an animation, which is kind of tough to see in all the borders here, this is a snapshot. And we're concerned about the massive size of this thunderstorm.

Keep in mind, how it's kind of pointed at one angle. That is the top of the thunderstorm. The redder the color, the colder and higher the clouds are in reports of 53,000 to 55,000 feet moving in the direction of the flight path.

So again, where you see the reds you have got updrafts where you have some clearing downdrafts so it obviously can create a turbulent picture. It is very difficult to understand.

At this day and age in high-technology, and of course, the information highway, why this part of the world we have problems getting some weather reports even any kind of observation.

So without paying too much attention to the missing data, you can see how warm it is, 77 degrees getting up to the 80s. I'm more interested in the satellite image. This is current.

We do not see the high clusters of thunderstorms in this region where we last have contact. We do have pockets of clearing. Now granted it is about 4:30 in the morning. Sunrise is about an hour and 15 minutes.

So this is good news right now where we may have the high seas are where you see more of the turbulent weather. But these thunderstorms, Martin, are firing up so fast, it's hard to contain.

Now another thing too is when we look at the winds. They are very light. You could see the heavier amounts of rain staying on land masses. So if there is a debris field, we can assume that it would follow the direction of these light winds, but so far the sea state is good in most locations and I'm sure this is their concerned area right now.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: OK, Tom, hold that thought right now. Let me bring in Les Abend and talk to you. You know, we talk about pilots, of course, they get briefed about the weather before they take off. How much can you be prepared and plan for bad weather?

LES ABEND, 777 CAPTAIN: Well, you know, weather situation and convective activities, we call it for thunderstorms. It's a dynamic event. We can be prepared just by looking at the appropriate charts. We have a lot of tools before we even leave our operations area to look, see what movement is, just as all sorts of pilots do.

Once we get airborne then we use airborne weather radar. And on the A-320, this is a sophisticated piece of machinery, there is an art form to try and determine where the worst turbulence maybe.

And I find it interesting that Tom says that the highest weather is shown red. When we see red, we see danger. That means to us that the highest form of intense rainfall and potentially turbulence.

SAVIDGE: And Tom, I wanted to ask you, you were talking about the monsoon season and this year, though, you said in particular, it's been remarkably stronger than what, previous years? SADER: It is almost becoming unprecedented, Martin. We've got disaster areas declared in parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, all the way up to Southern Thailand not on this map, into Sri Lanka where millions of people have been displaced.

And this is just been occurring in the last couple of weeks. Our international viewers have seen the video. I do have a question for Les. Obviously the quietest that we have seen because it's 4:30 in the morning, but what time do pilots show up before their flight?

And if they do get brief, do they brief themselves because in these clusters of red here showing possible turbulence for pilots, we have down in the area occasional embedded thunderstorms, 53,000 feet and that does include our area, 50,000 to the north.

Is it up to pilots themselves to brief themselves? He knows this region well. But do they do it themselves or does it depend on the country's rules and regulations?

ABEND: Tom, it's a great question. In this day and age, we do. We brief ourselves. We do it by looking at the computer data that has been provided for us by the airline. We know how to access that data.

You know, the days of having an official weather briefing at the airline go through and give us a blow by blow isn't there so much. If we have questions, we certainly call our dispatcher and they bring in our weather forecasters.

But for the most part, I would say 90 percent of the time we're looking at the situation on our own and you know, make the determination at that point in time to see whether we're going to be affected on our particular route.

SAVIDGE: Les Abend and Tom Sader, thank you both for your professional insights. We will be back with more on our coverage of this missing aircraft in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: We'll have more on that missing Airasia jet in just a moment, but first the latest on a tragedy that is playing out at sea. Italian firefighting vessels and Greek crews are trying to put out a fire in a ferry off the coast of Greece.

A passenger onboard said that it seems like the Titanic and that people are dying of cold and suffocating from the smoke. Their feet are burning from the intense heat that's coming through the deck.

We are joined now on the telephone by journalist, Barbie Nadal, who is in Rome. Barbie, you know, every time we check in with you, I always keep hoping you are going to tell me that a rescue ship has pulled alongside. What is the latest now?

BARBIE NADAL, JOURNALIST (via telephone): Well, we've got 190 people have been taken off of that ship, 287 still remain on the ship. There was one truck driver -- this ferry was filled with semi-trucks that are going to be traveling from Greece up through Europe.

One of these truck drivers, though, that was rescued off the ship said that he -- that the trucks were so packed in the parking bay of the ship, packed like sardines, is the word that he used. And the roofs and the cabs of those trucks were scraping against the roof of the ship.

And his fear, of course, he is not a professional, but he is a truck driver, who has parked in the ship, his theory was that the spark from the movement of the rough seas is probably what ignited that fire, which is going to come to a lot of question about -- trucks and things like that were on the ship as it was traveling in rough seas and things like that. But the rescue operation is still ongoing.

We heard from the Italian Navy that they are not going to be moving the ship until they get all the people off of the ship. They say it is just too dangerous. The ship is burning out of control right now that it's too dangerous to try to move that ship anywhere until they get all the rest of the people off the ship.

There is a big Navy ship right now in action. This is one of the Navy ships that have been involved in so many migrants coming in across the Mediterranean. They've been able to quicken the pace the rescue. Of course, they have a lot more experience in rescuing people off of boats in trouble.

So they have been able to move things along at a much faster pace than we've seen throughout the day. But there are still 287 people on that ship, been out there for 15 more and 16 hours now on the burning vessel, very cold, very scared, panicked, and waiting to be rescued at this hour.

SAVIDGE: And the crew, have the passengers been reporting on what the crew has been doing either to help or maybe not?

NADAL: Well, in this particular situation, much unlike the Costa Concordia cruise ship that wrecked off of the coast of Tuscany three years ago now in January, the commander of this particular ferry seems to have been in control of the ship.

We have heard people, a lot of women, children, and elderly people have been rescued from the ship, who have said that he was in control, that he had the situation, you know, trying to calm the passengers, trying to keep everyone in a certain area. Trying to lessen what is obviously the panicked situation.

But still, until the ship -- until the people are off the ship and until the ship -- the fire is out, it's still a very fluid situation and by no means is the story over yet.

SAVIDGE: No, not by any means. It's going to be a very long difficult night. Barbie Nadal, thank you very much for that update. We will be back with more on that story and continue to follow the aircraft that is missing in Asia in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SAVIDGE: Let's get back to our top story now, the disappearance of Airasia Flight 8501. Daybreak is expected about 45 minutes from now and that is when the search is expected to resume in full force. But first let's look back at the events that got us through this point. Here's our Rosa Flores.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's an agonizing wait for answers for the families of the 162 people on board Airasia Flight QZ 8501.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My fiance and his family were on that plane. It was supposed to be their last vacation before we got married.

FLORES: The monitors at the airport not showing the status of the flight from Indonesia to Singapore instead reading "Go to info counter." Families learn more from Twitter with Airasia CEO Tony Fernandes saying, "Airasia Indonesia regrets to confirm that QZ 8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact at 7:24 hours this morning.

Before communication was lost, the pilot asked for permission to climb to a higher altitude and deviate from the planned route.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: It's possible that the plane was in distress. The pilot's reaction to a problem with the plane in bad weather will be looked at and it will be a significant factor.

FLORES: Authorities say there were clouds in the region, but did not want to speculate if severe weather played a role in the plane's appearance. Airasia's iconic logo going from red to gray, changing more than a color but the mood.

As rescue teams are activated and family members rush to take a glance at a flight manifest posted at the airport perhaps hoping that their loved one somehow missed the ill-fated flight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: Thoughts and prayers have been circulating on social media all day long for those family members. The other thing that people are asking how is it possible that we can trace a cell phone down to the block yet a plane can be lost? Rosa Flores, CNN, New York.

SAVIDGE: It will be day brake soon in Indonesia. Hopefully that will literally shed some new light on the search for Airaisa Flight 8501. Let's bring in aviation expert, Dan Hampton. He is a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel.

Colonel Hampton, you have flown more than 150 combat missions so I'm sure you've had a chance to react to a lot of volatile situations in the air. We know that shortly before air traffic control lost contact with Airasia, a pilot asked for a deviation due to weather. So what exactly would that mean? LT. COL. DAN HAMPTON, U.S. AIR FORCE (RETIRED): They have weather radars just like we did. He can plainly look outside and see what is in front of him. It's not really unusual at all to deviate for weather. I mean, airliners do it all the time. They don't want to spill people's coffee, cause turbulence, that sort of thing.

Airliners don't maneuver that well so they have to do it well in advance. So I don't see anything strange about that as we discussed earlier what I do find a little peculiar is that there was immediate distress call made or at least one that we haven't heard about.

Again, I don't want to jump to the conclusion that the plane crashed, but if it did, there should have been emergency locator transmitters going off. None of that has either happened or been released.

SAVIDGE: Right. It's possible that maybe we just -- some of that has happened and we haven't been informed yet officially, but I get your point on that. You were also recounting a weather incident that you went through.

And I think most of us, you know, as the flying public think, well, it's a big plane. It can handle anything up there in the atmosphere, but not necessarily so, right?

HAMPTON: No, that's not necessarily so. And again, I don't want to speculate, but if you're assuming that the airplane suffered some sort of catastrophic failure and went down somewhere, which is one of the possible assumptions, you know, it's not without precedents.

And the Airbus 320 at least in my opinion doesn't really have that great of a record. I think there have been over 20 losses since it began flying. I don't want to draw parallels to the Malaysian flight because that's different.

But the thing that happened similar to this was that Air France Airbus 330 that went down in 2009 off the coast of Brazil, and the problem, not a problem, but the thing with these airplanes is they're heavily run by computers on the inside.

In the Air France's case, ice had formed over some of the external sensors and was giving an erroneous air speed reading in the cockpit. The pilots reacted incorrectly based on what they were seeing and the airplane stalled.

I'm not saying that's what happened here, but given the weather conditions, it's possible, all right. Then, you know, as you mentioned there's thunderstorm. There's a turbulence.

There is a lot that could have happened without any further information thought, it's kind of tough to speculate on.

SAVIDGE: Let's switch to something else, which is that is the effort to try to find the aircraft wreckage or people on board. When you're flying in an aircraft looking down in the ocean, it's not as easy as people might think, right? HAMPTON: No. And you have to remember that if a plane and again, assuming this is what happened and I'm not convinced yet that it did. But if something catastrophic happened and that airplane came apart, you know, 6 miles up in the air.

The debris field is going to be fairly large, very large. In the case of Air France, the Air France flight I mentioned, it took over two years to recover the black boxes and other equipment just because of where that thing went down.

This is a little bit different. This is a shallower. We have a pretty good idea where the plane lost contact, but even so you're talking about a large area that they are going to have to search.

SAVIDGE: And visualizing, looking down on the ocean surface, do you want a cloudy day, a sunny day, which is better?

HAMPTON: You know, if it was me, I'd always take nice clear weather and sunny skies. Things that are on the surface can be reflected a little bit later that way. And a lot of stuff that is partially submerged, which is the case with a lot of aircraft accidents.

It's easier to see if the water is calmer and more translucent. You get dark stormy days. The water reflects the clouds. You know, it's dark like, dark above, dark below, it's really difficult to see. That's why they have all of these electronic backups on board and things that we can theoretically to find it.

SAVIDGE: True. It's not just relying on human vision.

HAMPTON: Not eyeballing it.

SAVIDGE: How fast would it be ideally to do a search?

HAMPTON: You want to go as slow as you can so you can stay up the longest and cover the widest, you know, possible area and I was not a search and rescue air force expert. I was a combat pilot, but I still had to do it occasionally.

SAVIDGE: Talk about that experience you had because it was quite remarkable. Talk about the weather experience. The impact this had on a very advanced airplane as the one you were flying in. You nearly went down.

HAMPTON: And it does happen. And you know, fighter jets fly obviously quite a bit different than airliners. We don't fly most of the time straight lines from point A to point B, and we've got a lot of excess thrust and power that we can use to get out of the way of bad weather.

Airliners typically go from point A to point B because they have schedules to meet and it saves gas and usually they can handle this just fine. I got caught in probably the worst weather I have ever been in in my life.

It was not anything that showed up on a weather radar. It wasn't anything that was expected and it just happened, you know, in a matter of seconds. And that's exactly what could have happened to these guys.

I mean, you look at clear air. You aimed for clear air, but clear air often can cause ice to form. There is very violent turbulence. You know, those airliners have big long wings. They don't well in turbulence. So there is a lot that could have happened. I don't want to speculate too much until we know more.

SAVIDGE: Right. Lastly, as you were caught up in that experience. Did you send a mayday or did you make a radio transmission?

HAMPTON: No. There wasn't time for that and that's kind of what I'm getting back to with these guys. The fact that nothing was made, if in fact nothing was made and they just haven't released it means that these guys were totally engrossed in what they were doing so whatever happened, happened fairly badly if you follow my meaning here.

Again, I'm not saying there was a catastrophic mechanical failure or anything like that, but usually with two pilots in the cockpit, one of them is going to be able to get out a mayday time permitting, but if they are both occupied in trying to save the airplane and that isn't going to happen.

SAVIDGE: Right. Lt. Col. Dan Hampton, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

HAMPTON: It's a pleasure. Thanks.

SAVIDGE: We will be back with more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Let's bring you up to date on our mayor breaking story. We are less than an hour away now from daybreak in Southeast Asia. That will be a critical time. That is also where a passenger jet carrying 162 people has gone missing.

Indonesia's National Rescue Agency said seven ships and two helicopters will begin searching for the aircraft as soon as the daylight returns.

The area off the coast of Indonesia is a very busy shipping lane and authorities have asked the vessels to check for any signs of the aircraft overnight. The Airbus A-320-200 left Indonesia about 5:30 local time, that's in the morning, bound for Singapore.

Indonesian officials say at one point, the captain had asked to climb higher to avoid stormy weather. The plane disappeared from radar at 38,000 feet. The path of the Flight 8501 was almost entirely over water.

Anxious families have been waiting for any news on what might have happened to this plane. There were no Americans that were reported to be on board, but the NTSB is monitoring the situation from there in the U.S. and says it's ready to help in that search effort if it is called upon.

Earlier, I had a conversation with Peter Goelz. He is the former managing director at the National Transportation Safety Board and I asked him what kind of help the United States might provide as the search for Flight 8501 continues.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER GOELZ, FORMER MANAGING DIRECTOR, NTSB: It is not likely that the NTSB would have a major rule in this investigation. It is a French manufactured plane. The engines are a consortium led by the French. There were no American citizens on board.

So the NTSB will play a technical support role if requested by Indonesia, but the Indonesians are going to be reaching out I think to both the Malaysians and the French perhaps the Australians to help them investigate this tragedy.

SAVIDGE: And once again, it seems that we are looking into the aircraft disaster in which there was no distress call or distress signal. Why would that happen?

GOELZ: Well, part of it is the pilots are trained to fly their aircraft first when they are in a tough situation. If they are in an unusual situation, they are flying first, navigating second, communicating third.

But the reality is, is as has been reported previously, it is inexcusable that we are not tracking the aircraft that have significant transoceanic flights on a close basis.

The search and rescue people, they need to be going out before dawn to a targeted area. If they knew where they were headed, they will find this thing very quickly, I'm sure. But they need more help.

SAVIDGE: We say that but of course, we went through all of these nightmares with MH-370. They still continue to try to locate that aircraft and this happened, you know, at the beginning part of the day in that part of the world and I believe they search for about 12 hours and found nothing, does that suggest something?

GOELZ: Well, it may suggest that the initial information that the Indonesians had was fairly incomplete. Now they've had a full 24 hours now to gather all of the available radar data from all of the available sources.

They should be able to put that together along with any satellite data and have a more precise location on where to target their search. Hopefully that's taken place.

SAVIDGE: Hopefully it is. Peter Goelz, thanks very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Our thoughts and prayers are with the passengers and crew and their families of Flight 8501. Thanks for spending part of your day with us.

I'm Martin Savidge. The next hour of NEWSROOM begins right now with Poppy Harlow.