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New Developments In Search For AirAsia Flight 8501; Officers Pay Their Respects To Wenjian Liu; Seven-Year-Old Sole Survivor From Friday Plane Crash; CDC Officially Declares Flu Epidemic; U.S. Embassy In Indonesia Issues Security Alert

Aired January 03, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow joining you live from New York this afternoon.

We have a lot to get to including a new threat against Americans traveling abroad. We'll get to that in just a moment.

But we begin with new developments in the search for more debris from AirAsia flight 8501. The day has been full of successes and also setbacks in that search. Just hours ago, four large objects believed to be from the AirAsia jetliner were found in the Java Sea where weather conditions are very stormy right now. They were discovered within close proximity to one another after searchers spotted an oil slick. We are told one of the objects is 59 feet long. But just a short time later, the search for bodies and debris has halted for the day due to bad weather.

Back on land, two more of the 30 recovered souls have been identified, bringing the total now to six that have been identified. We know one recently identified, a 44-year-old woman, also a 23-year-old man.

And in a disturbing development, the plane apparently was not supposed to be flying that day in the first place. Indonesia's transport ministry claims that the plane was not permitted to fly that specific route on Sundays.

Let me bring in our expert guests to talk about this. Jeff Wise is a pilot and also author of the new book "Extreme Fear." Dan Duke is a retired United Airlines pilot.

Jeff, did I introduce you correctly? Are you a pilot?

JEFF WISE, PILOT: I am a private pilot, not a commercial pilot.

HARLOW: OK, because I never introduced you that way, always a science expert. Bu, so you do fly. You do have that experience as well.

Thank you both for being here.

Let me begin with you, Jeff. So this was a pretty stunning development this afternoon that Indonesia's transport ministry says that plane was only allowed to fly that route on specific, about four specific days a week, not on Sundays. So now they have banned AirAsia from flying that route right now. How significant is this?

WISE: I don't know exactly what this means, but my internal interpretation is that so this company didn't have its paperwork all in order. That's what this means. It's not like, you know, they for safety reasons they weren't allowed to fly this route or something. It just means that there was some permission or certificate that was supposed to be issued, or some form that was to fill out and it wasn't. And why is the transportation ministry now coming forward and saying, they shouldn't have been in the air in the first place?

It sounds like some kind of maneuvering. It doesn't -- I mean, we should not infer that somehow this was some kind of rogue airplane that wasn't supposed to be in the air. It's just that papers weren't in order. And I don't know if (INAUDIBLE), if you could go around to some random company in Indonesia and their papers are going to be in order. I think it might be the kind of place where things are often not completely in order.

HARLOW: But look, does AirAsia does have up to this point of exemplary safety record. They're one of the airlines in the region that's been lauded, frankly.

So let me get to you Dan. The reason I ask this is because as a commercial pilot, this is a region and specifically a route that is very heavily trafficked. So could it be that they were not allowed to fly that route on Sundays because so many other carriers were in the air? We know that there was heavy traffic at the time that this plane asked to elevate its altitude.

DAN DUKE, RETIRED UNITED AIRLINES PILOT: Well, it's hard to guess at this point. I tend to agree with Jeff, it's probably more of a bookkeeping, clerical kind of a mistake than a safety error. I don't think this caused the accident for sure. I think it's just part of the investigation process that's going to determine the real cause of the accident.

HARLOW: How significant, Jeff, do you think it is that now these four large objects have been spotted? That they believe they're from the plane. They believe one is 59 feet long. Just in terms of what it can tell us about what may have caused this.

WISE: Well, listen. If this is from the plane, and these are large sections, this would have to be the final resting place of the airplane. I mean, it might be scattered -- if it broke apart at high altitude, you might have a fairly wide distribution pattern, as we saw with Malaysian air 17. But it's got to be fairly constrained. And so if -- it's a little strange to me, frankly, that they haven't been able to confirm that we started to hear yesterday, that these are significant pieces of the plane. The marine weather forecast for tomorrow is good. So hopefully by this time tomorrow, we will have hopefully ROV images or perhaps even divers on the site to confirm or deny. There's a lot of stuff in this water left over from World War II.

HARLOW: Right.

WISE: So cautious optimism.

HARLOW: Right. I want to keep talking to you guys about this so stand by.

But also this, when we talk about the weather, the treacherous weather, that moved in quickly today, forcing a halt in the search for more bodies and debris from that flight, our Paula Hancocks was accompanying a search mission when the call was made. Look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go to the east.

PAUL HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE) shows me the flight plan scouring the southwest coast of Borneo. Plans to reach the AirAsia crash site changed due to the weather. Only aircraft evacuating bodies and debris allowed to risk the so-called red zone.

Officials believe remnants of the plane or bodies may have drifted around 100 nautical miles to land. Dense vegetation and marshes make searching by land unrealistic. Much of this area is barely inhabited. As the weather closes in, the pilot tries to fly around it. But the front is too big.

We're only half an hour into the flight, and the pilot has just decided that we have to abort this mission. He says that the weather up ahead is simply too dangerous. He cannot fly into those kinds of clouds and that rain. So we're circling back, going back to the airport.

Now, for those on board that were going to be looking for debris and also looking for bodies, they barely had a chance to even start their job. And this was just along the coastline. This wasn't even out at sea where the weather is worse.

Back on land, the team refuses to be disheartened. The local police chief tells me, we'll keep going until we find everyone. More victims were flown to dry land Saturday despite the weather. Once cleaned and treated, they're flown on to Surabaya for formal identification every member a loved member of a distraught family, an innocent soul who lost their life in the java sea.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Indonesia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Alright, our thanks to Paula Hancocks for that.

So let's keep discussing this. Back with me, Jeff Wise and also Dan Duke, both pilots.

Dan, you're a commercial airline pilot. I want to show you an image of one of the pieces of what is believed to be debris from the plane that was found. Let's pull it up on the screen so you can see what I'm talking about here. Hopefully we have it. It looks like part of a window from the plane.

We're going to try to get it up for you. But as I ask you this, this is what's been found. And it is in decent condition. Given that, what does that tell you when you see this? Obviously, it has been damaged. But looking at this, what does it tell you?

DUKE: Well, it's obviously been damaged. It's been ripped from the airplane. It appears to be an interior panel of the window. So I can't -- I can't exactly tell from the configuration. And I'm sure there's a part number on it that will tell where it came from in the aircraft. That will probably be more telling of what happened to the airplane than just finding that piece.

I mean, that confirms that the airplane is damaged, if that indeed did come from that plane. And it has all of the appearance of being a window covering, a panel. Not structural, but a panel.

HARLOW: Does it give you any indication, Dan, as to whether or not the plane may have broken apart in the air, or as some are saying, is possibly able to perform a ditch landing in the water?

DUKE: It's too soon to tell with what we know, whether that was a controlled ditching or it broke apart. I think when they find more pieces, they'll be able to tell how dispersed the parts are. If they're all in the same general, it probably broke apart when it hit the water.

The 60-foot-size piece is about -- it's about the size of a wing. So if the wing broke off, that would be about 60 feet long.

HARLOW: OK. Jeff, when we talk about the search for bodies here, one of the things that I keep reading over and over again is that it is imperative that this happened quickly to recover all of those 162 souls because after a few days, we are told that the gases within the body can start to -- that they won't float anymore.

WISE: Right, right. Of course, and for the loved ones, too, of course, you want to recover all of the remains so that that sense of closure, at least, is possible. And also forensically, you know, you want to get the bodies in as good a condition as possible to try to tell drowning, fractures. You know, can you tell a lot about the crash just by looking at pieces of the fuselage, the human body as well.

HARLOW: Dan, let me ask you, as a commercial pilot, having watched this coverage over the last week since this plane disappeared, what is your biggest takeaway thus far?

DUKE: I think the -- my impression is that we're trying to leap ahead of our actual knowledge to determine the cause of the crash. I mean, it's obvious that weather played a significant role. We'll find out once we find the flight data recorders what was going on in the airplane, the cockpit recorders will tell us a lot more. And really, the location relative to the last radar plot, where the debris is scattered. But we don't know all that right now. We sort of have to keep our patience hat on and wait to find out what's going on or what happened.

HARLOW: And don't jump to any conclusions. We appreciate it very much.

Dan, good to have you on the program. Jeff Wise as well. Thank you both.

All right, let's bring this conversation closer to home. Big question a lot of people have, what happens in those busy, busy flight paths when a storm hits and all the pilots want to change course? We're going to take a look at the tough calls that air traffic controllers have to make. That's straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well, the AirAsia disaster is highlighting a growing concern, potentially too many planes flying along the same route at the same time. And when you have a thunderstorm, you have a pilot that could be faced with a disaster, as we saw last week. Although we still do not know what brought this plane down.

On the left, this is what air traffic control looked like as flight 8501, seen right there, tried to navigate, through a crowded route to Singapore. That's nothing compared to what you see on the right. That is what air traffic control was like between Atlanta and New York at that same time early in the morning. You can see how quickly all those planes get up in the air on those early-morning routes.

Joining me now to talk about this, Jeff Wise and Dan Duke, commercial pilot, also joining me now Alan Bell. Thank you all for being here.

Alan, let me ask you this. You have both perspectives, being a former Navy pilot and an air traffic controller. How often do you get in situations where a pilot requests to move up, move down, left, right, and they are not -- they are told that they cannot do that?

ALAN BELL, FORMER NAVY PILOT: Well, the first part of the question is how often does it come up, and it happens every single day, that pilots request to deviate from their flight planned route. I would say it's very infrequent that the controllers are unable to provide that type of service and allow them to deviate the way that they've requested. Normally the pilots have a pretty good awareness of what's going on around them.

HARLOW: Right.

BELL: And they don't ask for things that they don't expect to be approved.

HARLOW: Because when this pilot, when the captain of AirAsia flight 8501, asked to elevate to 38,000 feet, that request was denied because of traffic. And now, some people have said well, why didn't they try to divert around the storm more rather than going higher? But should we be talking about concern that possibly this route is too heavily trafficked? Is that a problem when they're not allowed to move up because of traffic and you've got really, really inclement weather? BELL: Typically it's not a problem. It's more of a financial

consideration for the amount of fuel consumed, especially on the oceanic routes. But the controllers have become very adept at handling the traffic, even in a very busy corridor like you see on the eastern seaboard. There are procedures and regulations in place that allow them to operate efficiently and to control the air traffic very safely.

HARLOW: Dan, let me get to you, as a commercial pilot flying right now, what's your take on that?

DUKE: Well, I think I would agree exactly if you're flying on the eastern corridor of the United States, when you start flying in foreign environments, there's a different -- there's a different procedure. I don't think the controllers are as autonomous. They need to check, and they need to get back to you. And there may be a language barrier. I'm not sure there was in this case. And in this particular instance, I don't think that the captain indicated any emergency necessity to climb to 380, which might have gotten him a different answer.

HARLOW: So Jeff, let's talk about that. As a person who flies recreationally, right, for yourself, you still talk to air traffic control. And I'm wondering, have you ever had a situation where you've asked them to move altitudes, and that's been denied, and also, do you believe as Dan was just saying, if you say no, I really have to elevate, this is imperative, that that changes things?

WISE: Listen, if you declare an urgency or emergency, then yes, they will take care of you pronto. They will clear the frequency for you. You know, I think something that the listeners and viewers might want to know about is there's an entirely new air traffic control system that's being rolled out.

HARLOW: Here in the U.S.

WISE: Called Nextgen, by 2020, there is going to be using this technology called ADSB that's going to allow a computerized system to move planes around much more efficiently. So we're entering --

HARLOW: We're talking about automatically here? Are we talking about computer-generated responses rather than air traffic controllers, humans?

WISE: Well, humans, of course, will still be part of the system and supervising and running it, but to a certain extent, you'll be able to move away from just going up and down this sort of static highways in the sky. It would be much more flexible and be able to respond. Because to get back to your question in the beginning, yes, air traffic controllers are constantly moving people around and saying don't go here. Go over there. You've got traffic coming here.

Even as a private pilot, just flying around for fun on a sunny Saturday afternoon, they're always alerting you to traffic to here or changing your clearance, what have you. HARLOW: So Alan, given that the new system is coming to the United

States, do you think that is a system that should be adopted globally, and if so, will be?

BELL: I think eventually it will be. There are going to be international mandates issued by ICAO to force most of the airplanes that are flying in international airspace to equip with this ADSB system and be part of not necessarily next gen, which is specific to the U.S., but the global community of aviation.

HARLOW: OK. And Dan, finally, before we go to break, your take on that as a commercial pilot.

DUKE: I think if you're talking about whether that will be adopted, it will be adopted for two reasons. It will make flying much more efficient, and it will save money.

HARLOW: Right.

DUKE: So I think it will eventually be adopted. How soon, I don't know.

HARLOW: We'll be watching. I think you said, Jeff, it is not coming here till 20 --

WISE: 2020. (INAUDIBLE).

HARLOW: We're a ways away.

Jeff, Alan, Dan, thank you all very much. We appreciate it.

Stick around because next we are going to get to your questions. I have been on social media this week seeing all of your tweets. So keep sending us your questions about AirAsia flight 8501. Tweet us at #8501QS.

Back after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: It is another somber weekend for the New York City police department, a sea of blue again surrounding a funeral home. Like last weekend, it is the wake for one of the two police officers ambushed and shot dead in their patrol car. Fellow officers are paying respects for detective Wenjian Liu. His funeral and his burial scheduled for tomorrow.

One thing the NYPD does not want to see is a repeat of something that happened last Saturday. That was the day that Liu's partner, detective Rafael Ramos, was laid to rest. Twenty-five thousand people in attendance at his funeral service. Some of the uniformed officers turned their backs when New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke at the funeral.

CNN obtained an internal NYPD memo from NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, insisting and asking police officers not to do that again. I want to read you part of that memo.

It says quote "the assassination of detectives Liu and Ramos was an attack on us all. As a cop, one who lived and worked through the assassination threats of the 1970s, 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.

Detective Wenjian Liu was 32 years old. He came to this country with his parents when he was a young boy. He joined the NYPD in 2007, and his family said his Chinese language skills came in very handy on the force. He was also a family man. He had just gotten married a few months ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the typical time for both of our families, but we will stand together and get through this together. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: A friend of his said that Liu was fond of saying "I know that being a cop is dangerous, but I must do it. Did I don't do it and you don't do it, then who is going to do it?"

Again, the funeral service for Officer Liu will be held tomorrow in Brooklyn. He will be laid to rest in the same cemetery where his partner Officer Rafael Ramos was buried last week. We'll have full coverage for you, of course, here on CNN.

And more large debris believed to be part of AirAsia flight 8501 has been found today. We will get the latest on the search. That is next. Please send us your questions. Tweet us at #8501QS if you question is about the disaster. Our experts will answer them coming up in our next hour. Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well, crews searching for debris from the crash of AirAsia flight 8501 have found four large objects believed to be from the jetliner, the largest piece, 59 feet long. Those parts located by sonar within the priority search area after an oil slick was spotted in the water there on Friday.

Let's go straight to Surabaya, Indonesia where our David Molko is with us. He has been covering this throughout.

Let me ask you first, David, what do we know about the objects, the pieces that were found?

DAVID MOLKO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Poppy. Less than two hours now until first light Sunday morning here in Surabaya. This is going to be day six of the search and recovery effort.

And about those objects, you know, this is the day search and rescue officials have been waiting for. They've been talking about it all week, a day when the weather will finally get better, they say, and they'll be able to actually hopefully recover more human remains and debris.

About those objects, the largest one of the four, 60 feet, put that into context, the length of an airbus A320, roughly 120 feet, the wingspan also 120 feet. The head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency said he believes they're from the aircraft. The sonar images that they have gotten by scanning the bottom of the sea floor there lead them to believe that they are not -- that they are manmade objects, I'm sorry, not natural objects, and they want to take a closer look.

So the plan at first light is to put divers into the water, presumably, in that area, but also put an underwater drone into the sea to take a closer look at the ocean floor about 100 feet down and perhaps a very promising lead, Poppy, in the hours ahead.

HARLOW: And David, as they search for the wreckage, they also a very urgent search for the bodies, for those 162 people that were on board. I know that 30 have been recovered so far. How is that search going o and frankly, how are the families doing there?

MOLKO: Yes, 162 people on board, Poppy, 162 families, you know, looking for answers. Six identified. That leaves 156 families who have been waiting, many of them here at the family crisis center inside police headquarters and at the police hospital behind me.

It's been difficult. It's been a long waiting game. You know, just a few hours from now, we're looking at the one-week mark. That's when these passengers were going to the airport to take this flight to Singapore. Many were families, you know, traveling for the New Year's holiday. You look at the passenger manifest, you talk to families, and it was two, three, four, five, six, even seven people from the same family, traveling for a celebration together.

And of course, we know what happened to that fateful flight, or we know now that it has crashed. The question, how long it will take authorities to recover the rest of those human remains. We know from Saturday weather conditions were poor. Waves of about up to 15 or 16 feet. No divers in the water. No helicopters flying. I know families here are hoping that things change in just a few hours -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Absolutely. David, thank you for the update and thank you for your reporting on this throughout. I know it has been gut- wrenching, especially to be there.

Thank you, David. Appreciate it.

All right, we're going to have much more coming up on the AirAsia flight all afternoon here on CNN including those questions that you're tweeting to us. Our experts will answer some of those, next hour.

Also this, a late-night plane crash here in the United States killed everyone on board except for one person, a young girl who not only survived the crash but managed to get herself to safety.

Our Nick Valencia is following that story for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At home in rural Kentucky, Larry Wilkins finished watching the local evening news when his dog started barking.

LARRY WILKINS, KENTUCKY RESIDENT: I went to the door and there was a little girl about 7 years old crying, not bad, her lip was quivering pretty good and she was pretty bloody, bloody nose, and her arms and legs were scratched up real bad. And she told me that her mom and dad was dead.

VALENCIA: The 7-year-old is the only survivor from a Friday night plane crash. Her mom, dad, sister and cousin dead after their small twin-engine piper traveling from Florida crashed in the woods of Western Kentucky. The fact the little girl survived is all the more incredible, Wilkins says, when considering what she had to do to get help.

WILKINS: She had just walked three quarters of a mile through very, very rough territory. And she was barefooted. She had one sock on her foot, and that was all. And she was dressed for Florida, wearing shorts and a light -- just a blouse, no coat.

VALENCIA: Wilkins said the 7-year-old likely spotted a light on at his house and made her way towards it. A Kentucky state police officer who also helped the little girl seemed to speak for most when he said --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just really a miracle.

WILKINS: If you could see the terrain, you would realize how incredible it really was. She's a terribly brave little girl, I'll tell you that.

VALENCIA: On Saturday, the 7-year-old girl was released from the hospital and is expected to survive her non-life-threatening injuries.

Nick Valencia, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Alright, Nick, thank you.

I want to read you a statement we just got in from the attorney for the family. Let me read you this in full. It says, "the Gutzler family mourns the loss of Marty, Kim and Piper Gutzler as well as sierra wilder." Remember, they were the four people that died on the crash. It goes on to say, "we are devastated by this loss but are confident that they rest in God's loving arms. We ask that you respect our privacy at this difficult time. Please pray for us, especially for Sailor Gutzler." what that tells us is that that little 7-year-old girl, her name is Sailor. Alright, a deadly flu epidemic here in the United States, and we have

not even hit peak flu season. We're talking to one of the most renowned infectious disease experts, Dr. Anthony Fauci. He will joins us live to talk about this. It's very serious, after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well, a 17-year-old girl in Minnesota came down with the flu, and one week later, she was dead. She is one of 15 children in this country who has died from the flu so far this year alone. Her name, Shannon Zwanziger. She passed out in her mother's arms. She never regained consciousness. Her parents rushed her to the hospital. That is where her heart stopped beating.

Now, the CDC officially declared a flu epidemic this week. I want you to look at this map. According to the CDC, flu activity is widespread in every state you see highlighted in yellow. A CNN medical analyst says this year's flu vaccine, only about 61 percent effective.

Let me bring in Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of allergy and infectious diseases. Thank you for being here, sir. Appreciate it.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Good to be with you.

HARLOW: So let me ask you this. When you spearheaded, I was saying to you during the break, we know your face well. You were all over the television in terms of treating some of the Ebola patients who came back here in the U.S. You said even at that time you warned that the flu is likely more dangerous for people here in the U.S. Do you feel like health officials here didn't anticipate the problem with this year's flu vaccine soon enough? And do you also believe that it is only about 61 percent effective?

FAUCI: Well, first of all, I don't think at all that the health officials didn't anticipate it. We certainly, the CDC and WHO, anticipated very well the seasonal flu. What happened is that when you decide what vaccine to put into the vaccine package that you have, you make that decision in February. And in February, it looked like one strain of the h3n2 was going to be prevalent. And as it turned out, right about the end of March and into the summer, it became clear and when we got hit this fall and winter, that that was not the strain. So that the vaccine does not protect. In fact, it isn't -- it doesn't protect 67 percent. So it's the other way around. It only protects about 30-plus percent.

HARLOW: Wow.

FAUCI: So that doesn't mean you shouldn't get vaccinated, Poppy. Vaccines can still be very helpful because of cross-protection. So I think people should be wary, don't take the fact that it isn't a good match this year as an excuse not to get vaccinated. Vaccination can be very helpful.

HARLOW: So 100 percent people should get it even though it is not as effective as people would have hoped? FAUCI: Absolutely, because it's effective against the h1n1, although

that's not circulating very much now, as well as some of the "b" influenzas. And even though it doesn't match with hvn2, you can get enough cross-protection and boost of already existing immunity that it could be beneficial. It may not protect you against infection but could certainly prevent you against serious disease, hospitalization and other complications.

HARLOW: All right. Doctor, stand by because I want your reaction on the other side of this. We talked a bit about the widespread, how widespread the flu outbreak has been and how deadly it has become this year. I want us to take a look at a piece from our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, about this new way to track flu hotspots. Look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DOCTOR SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's amazing how much more we know about how to predict flu. What they're trying to do now is predict the flu very much in the way that you predict the weather.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hurricane season.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: NOAA is predicting a below-average season.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Many parts of the state were under a hurricane warning early Thursday.

GUPTA: I know, all kidding aside, we don't always get the weather right, but this is pretty interesting. They use mathematical modeling to sort of predict where flu virus is going to be most dominant. But then they look at realtime data. And the realtime data is fascinating. People for searching for flu on Google, for example, and they assimilate all of that information to give what you are called hotspots.

But they can go even deeper than that. This is a particular project that comes out of the Columbia school that you can actually figure out which week is going to be the worst in your particular city.

New York City, January 10th. That's going to be your week. Look, if you're a parent, you may be more likely to keep your kids home from school if you think they seem to sick at all. You may be more likely to cancel play dates.

But also for hospitals, they could be anticipating more patients coming in. So leading more surge capacity, more beds available, having more medications, flu vaccine, things like that on standby. By this is sort of where we're headed with regard to predicting when it's going to get really bad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: All right. Sanjay, thank you for that. Back with me, Dr. Fauci. So we haven't even hit the peak of flu

season yet. If I'm a parent of a young child, because children have been especially prone to this season, I'm saying how bad can it get?

FAUCI: Well, you don't know, Poppy. You really can't predict. It certainly is going to be a significant season. It's not going to be -- it's certainly worse when you look at the tracking than it was last year. It tracks a little bit more on the 2012/2013 season.

But one of the things that you can do is that even if you don't know when it's going to peak or in what region of the country it's going to peak the way Sanjay was just saying right now is just get your child vaccinated.

And if you particularly have a child, depending upon how young the child is, or a parent or someone who's in the risk categories, and the risk categories are very young children, pregnant women, people who have underlying diseases like diabetes, heart disease, asthma and people over 65, if they do get the flu, hopefully they won't, if they get vaccinated, but if they do get the flu, it's important on get them on the anti-flu medications that we have now because that can help to prevent the complications that are more likely in those people who are at higher risk.

HARLOW: That is a great point. The young woman we were just talking about in Minnesota, she had a preexisting condition, a disease. And her mother said I don't believe she would have died from this if she hadn't also had this preexisting condition. The flu exacerbated it.

FAUCI: That's it, yes.

HARLOW: What else can parents do?

FAUCI: Well, like I said, vaccination is the most important thing. And then after that, if the child does get sick, if it's someone with a preexisting condition, make sure you get them to a physician right away so they can get started on one of a couple of anti-flu medications that can actually have a major impact on preventing some of the complications.

But also, for children who are not infected, is that they should stay away from people who are obviously sick. They should obviously wash their hands frequently, which is a very simple, low-tech way to prevent getting infected. And if your child is sick, don't send them to school. If you're sick, don't go to work.

HARLOW: Right. We always say, wash our hands. Don't go to school or work if you're sick. But it is the number one thing.

Finally, quickly, doctor, before I let you go, the CDC set to release new stats on Monday. Are you getting any indication of what those are?

FAUCI: Well, I think we're going to see a continuation of what we're seeing right now. I won't anticipate what they're going to say. I don't know. But I would not be surprised if you continue to see the upticks that we're seeing right now. There's 36 states have widespread activity. I wouldn't be surprised if that increases over the next week or two.

HARLOW: Dr. Anthony Fauci, great to have you on the program. Thank you, sir.

FAUCI: Good to be with you.

HARLOW: All right. Well, their fights over films were legendary, and those disagreements between Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel did not stop on the set.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think in the beginning, it was very difficult. He sat in the back row. Roger had his favorite seat. They left without saying a word to one another.

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HARLOW: A professional and personal relationship filled with tension and competition. Behind the scenes with the film frenemys "Siskel & Ebert." their amazing story next.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here I am at the little popcorn shop a half a block from the screening room where I see all the movies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the Chicago theater on State Street.

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HARLOW: Legendary film critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel had a complicated relationship on convenient and off screen. Perhaps they were the original frenemies. For decades, Siskel & Ebert, their clashes were televised weekly as they passionately argued over movies and Hollywood directors. Now the late Roger Ebert may get an academy award nomination for a movie he never even reviewed.

CNN debuts the fascinating documentary "Life Itself" tomorrow night, 9:00 p.m. eastern.

With me here to discuss is a very special guest, Matt Zoller Seitz. He is the editor in chief of rogerebert.com. Thank you for being with me.

MATT ZOLLER SEITZ, EDITOR IN-CHIEF, ROGEREBERT.COM: Thank you for having me.

HARLOW: I watched this film last night. I knew we'd be talking to you. It was heartbreaking for me.

SEITZ: It is. HARLOW: But it was so beautiful as well. It is a fantastic film.

And you know, when you look at the relationship between Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, it was very, very complicated. I want you to watch this clip from the film and tell me a little bit more about it on the other side.

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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 fumble you until you agree with him. And he used to say, alright. Gene, OK, you're right. Got it.

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HARLOW: Since you knew Roger Ebert after Gene Siskel died. He died at 53 years old. What did Roger Ebert say about Gene?

SEITZ: He was always -- he spoke about him pretty much in the way that this documentary depicts their relationship. He was very fond of him, had no illusions about him, as I'm sure that Gene had no illusions about Roger, but it was a relationship that was very much like brothers, at least that's how he would describe it to people.

HARLOW: It is the way that Gene Siskel's wife -- widow described their relationship is even though there was all of that tension, in the end there was love between them.

SEITZ: Well, there was love between them. And I think for me, the important thing for people to know, is that it was based on mutual respect, and it was based on intellect. And it was based on shared knowledge of film. And that arguing you see was not fake. It was a real thing. And I know that other critics at the time would say, who didn't like them, would say, it's all a put-on. They're just putting on a show. But that was a real thing. They really did disagree, and they really did get in those arguments because they were passionate.

HARLOW: Because in the in the documentary, if you watch this tomorrow night on CNN, you see the outtakes what didn't make air of these arguments and retake and retake. It is fascinating. I also find it so moving how when Roger lost his voice, he found his voice in a way.

SEITZ: He really did and amplified his voice. And that's a very hard thing to comprehend. When you think about how hard it is to get through a day when you're sick, when you have any kind of an injury, anything like that and people understandably can't produce, I mean, they have to take time off. Roger had to occasionally take a little time off when he had no choice, but he remained prolific up to the end.

HARLOW: Logging and talking through his computer.

SEITZ: Well, and I said to him one time I wrote him and said, Roger, I don't understand how you write so much. How is it physically possible for you to be running a Web site and writing these books, appearing at film festivals and still do all that stuff. I said, what's your secret? And he said, I spend more time writing than most people spend not writing.

HARLOW: There you go. I know you wrote a piece, a very moving piece called "the most important thing Roger Ebert ever taught me" and it revealed a touching moment. You wrote, -- that he wrote, you amaze me with your energy and love of what you do. How did he affect you?

SEITZ: Well, you know, do you have a day. It's amazing. Well, he taught me how to speak to people. He taught a lot of critics how to speak to people. I think a lot of people who really paid attention to what he was doing understood that a journalism teacher always tell their students, a lot of them do, take the thing that you would say to a friend over a coffee or beer and put that in the story because that is the real interesting thing to put in a story.

Most people don't do that, they try to write in a more formal way like it's, you know, the rock of ages, like it is going to be carved in a tablet. Roger didn't write that way or speak that way. He spoke to you like a person. When you read his stuff, you felt like it was Roger was having a conversation with you. That's what he taught me. And also to send people a nice thought for no reason at all, which is something Roger did for everybody who knew him.

HARLOW: You know, someone who -- who we will all remember. It is a beautiful movie. Quickly, thumbs-up, thumbs-down for "Life Itself." How would Roger Ebert rate the movie about his life?

SEITZ: Well, I always say the only thing that Roger would have said is stop telling people what I would have said. So I wouldn't speculate on that. But I will say that I -- even if I didn't know Roger, I would love this movie.

HARLOW: It is wonderful.

SEITZ: It's really touching.

HARLOW: All right, tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. here on CNN.

Thank you, Matt. M Good to have you on the program.

SEITZ: Thank you.

HARLOW: All right. You can see, as I said, "Life Itself" tomorrow night 9:00 p.m. eastern right here only on CNN.

Coming up after a quick break, a new travel warning for Americans, where is it taking place and why? What is the U.S. embassy saying? We will tell you next.

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HARLOW: The U.S. embassy in Indonesia today issuing a security alert for Americans in the city of Surabaya. There is a potential threat against U.S. associated hotels and banks there.

Let's bring in CNN intelligence and security analyst Bob Baer.

Bob, I'm very surprised when we saw this, you know, cross that it was in Surabaya and they are saying they don't have any knowledge of whether or not there is a connection between this and the AirAsia flight which, you know, would disappeared after taking off from Surabaya. What is your take on this?

ROBERT BAER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, that's one remarkable coincidence. Of course, in the AirAsia flight there's no evidence that it was brought down by terrorism. That's yet to be determined. We find the black box we'll know. But it looks like weather to me.

But on the other hand, when they issue one of these alerts, you have to take them seriously. They did before the Bali bombings in 2005. Both the Australians and the Americans, the state department issued the warnings. And indeed in October there was a bombing. So, they don't do this lightly. On the other hand, they may not have any more details than the ones they've put out.

HARLOW: So, the state department, like you just said, not giving any details at least to the media or to the public on the nature of the threat, but serious enough that they're telling us about it. Based on your experience as a former CIA officer, do you have any sense of what kind of threat this could be, an intercept, how it could have been obtained?

BAER: Well, Poppy, exactly. An intercept is a fragmentary conversation which will relate to Surabaya, relate to Indonesia in some way. It's very difficult to make head or tails up, but it is serious enough that there's an obligation of the United States government, it's called the duty to warn, to tell people. And, you know, you should avoid hotel lobbies where a lot of Americans, American tour groups, American airlines and the rest of it. I mean, I've always taken these things seriously. And I would too if I were in Indonesia.

HARLOW: Quickly before we go, Bob. Just tell us about the region, Surabaya, Indonesia, is there any pre-existing big threat to Americans in that region that you know of?

BAER: Well, it -- Indonesia's largest Islamic country in the world and there are Jihadi groups there. There are some members who have been in Syria and Iraq and have come home and there's always been a threat there. It's a very, very small minority. But nonetheless a few people can do a lot of damage.

HARLOW: All right. Bob Baer, thank you. Appreciate it. We will talk to you later on this evening.

All right, turning back now to the search of missing AirAsia flight 8501, heavy winds and rain are making it difficult still in the recovery effort, however, conditions are expected to be improving very soon.

Here's Karen Maginnis. KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Poppy, for over a week now, we've

talked about all of that monsoon really interrupting the search for this plane. So as we look into the next 24 to 48 hours, there has been a definitive improvement. So for searchers, both on the water and in the skies, it looks like we're not going to see those huge clusters of thunderstorms that have really impeded their progress. It looks like Sunday going into Monday improvement. Doesn't mean things are going to be completely clear. It doesn't mean they won't run into a few showers. But the overall weather picture is sharply improved from what we've seen over the last six and seven days where we've seen heavy rain, rough seas.

You have to remember it's only about 100 feet deep where they're searching. So maybe with a little bit of sunshine, maybe with the winds just kind of easing a little bit, they had been gusting up over 25 miles an hour. Now we're looking at 10 to 15 miles an hour. The seize for running about 12 to 18 feet, now it looks like those are going to be a little bit more calm. So this is good news for the search. It is good news both to the vessels on the sea and in the air.

Back to you.