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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Search For AirAsia Flight 8501: Debris Found; Reaction From AirAsia Families

Aired December 30, 2014 - 05:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning, debris spotted in the search for missing AirAsia Flight 8501. Investigators say they are 95 percent certain it is from the vanished jetliner.

The families of the 162 people on board reeling from this news, reeling from the news that bodies are now being pulled from the water by the Indonesian coast guard. Live team coverage breaking down the big story begins right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to EARLY START, everybody. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It's 32 minutes past the hour. We welcome to our viewers here in the U.S. and around world. Let's begin with this breaking news, the head of Indonesia's search and operations now says it is 95 percent likely the debris spotted floating on the surface of the Java Sea is from missing AirAsia Flight 8501.

Bodies of the victims are being retrieved from the debris field on the surface. That plane disappeared three days ago in stormy weather while flying from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people on board. Indonesia's president is due to meet shortly with relatives of the victims.

CNN's Andrew Stevens is live for us in Indonesia. So Andrew, in this country, in the United States, at least, people are waking up to the news. Bring them up to speed. Reset the table for us. What is the very latest on what officials know there?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, let's start with the search getting underway on day three. We started getting news around the middle of the day that debris had been spotted by the Indonesian Air Force. That debris spotted in three areas did look like it belonged to a plane.

There were clear pictures sent out showing life jackets and showing other objects in the water. The pictures also went out that we are not published, bodies in the water as well.

We did not get confirmation. It is looking increasingly likely until the middle of the afternoon where we have the head of the Indonesian search and rescue operation saying he is now 95 percent certain that the debris was indeed from AirAsia 8501.

The only reason he said 95 and not 100 percent is that he did not have his own eyes on the scene. You can imagine where I am in Surabaya airport where the crisis center is, where many of the family members have been gathering at the scene as that was announced.

It was a closed-door meeting. They had live television on taking the press conference from the head of the search and rescue team. The local television station was playing out pictures of bodies in the water.

And I spoke to one man who was inside that room with the families. He, himself, has a close friend on that flight together with his wife, three children and mother-in-law, six members of one family.

He said when those pictures started to be shown, when the information came out that it was 95 percent certain, he described people fainting and screaming and crying. He said horrible heart breaking scenes.

So, really, we now know the mystery of what happened to or at least where it ended up. On the seabed as the Indonesians have been predicting since yesterday, that is the working assumption. We don't know what happened in the final few minutes.

A clue to the obviously though is the plane was found just six miles from where it last had contact with ground control when the pilots were asking to deviate the flight to get around bad weather, trying to get over the top or around the side.

They were denied permission to rise to get up to 38,000 feet because there were planes above them. They turned left. That was the last we heard. As you say, bodies are now picked up by the Indonesian coast guard. Assets in the search, 40 ships involved.

Two or three dozen planes and boats heading to the area to start to reel in the wreckage and look for the black boxes and look for the cockpit voice recorders. That sort of thing now becomes a recovery effort to find out exactly what happened -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Andrew, thanks for that in Surabaya, Indonesia where the daylight is running out. A lot of activities behind you as investigators try to piece through this.

For a closer look at where that debris has been spotted and the weather conditions facing searchers right now, let's bring in meteorologist, Pedram Javaheri. He joins us live. Good morning, Pedram.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. Yes, you know, tough story, of course, for a lot of people when you think about this, six miles east of the flight track, the last known location. At this point, 20 minutes of daylight left in place.

We are watching pretty active line of thunderstorms develop and work its way in that direction. I do believe these storms will make their way through the debris field in the next hour or so. Again, close to sun setting.

You imagine that operation there would be halted for the evening. In the area where the debris field has been spotted, we are in a very weak eddy current. Meaning the currents here are kind of moving in a circular fashion by my calculations about 13 miles per day.

You calculate the 55 hours after the plane went down, you are looking at about 32 miles of movement for the debris field and it looks like it would keep the general rotation in the next couple of days. The depth across this region is 40 meters or about 130 feet deep.

You go down below and you talk about a silty area. Clay-like silt down at the bottom of the ocean so although it is shallow, it will be difficult as far as removing some of the objects on the sea floor with the dense layers of silt of it.

When you think about shallow areas, it has disadvantages. Currents are stronger in shallow seas than the depth of the Indian Ocean. You have more thunderstorms developing around Wednesday morning at sunrise. We have an active band of weather moving in the debris field on Wednesday.

I think much of Wednesday, beyond 1:00 in the afternoon, much of it is a tranquil day across this region. Wednesday, not a bad day with weather. Thursday, the active line of weather line up around sunrise. Thursday is quite wet. Seas could see swells of 10 to 12 feet, winds 50 to 60 miles per hour as well.

That pattern continues into Thursday afternoon. So you look at the long perspective of this and it will be windy and wet. At this point, John and Christine, Wednesday may be the better day of the next couple ahead of us.

BERMAN: We will get that work done fast. Pedram Javaheri, thanks so much. The families of those on board, the 162 people on board AirAsia Flight 8501, they are getting this devastating news that the debris spotted in the ocean almost definitely from the plane. The bodies are being pulled from the water.

CNN's Will Ripley joins us live from Beijing to talk about the families. Good morning, Will.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Asia, John and Christine, sadly, we have seen so many families go through heartache and pain and frustration and anger. That's the situation right now with AirAsia Flight 8501. It was the case with MH-370. It was the case with MH- 17, a plane that went down in Ukraine, but also based in Southeast Asia and Kuala lemur.

We are getting more response now from some of the stake holders, including Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia. He put out a couple of statements via Twitter that I wanted to read for you.

One is he says, "My heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in QZ-8501. On behalf of AirAsia, my condolences to all. Words cannot express how sorry I am." He also said, "I am rushing to Surabaya. Whatever we can do at AirAsia, we will be doing."

We certainly hope that includes continued support for these families during this difficult time. The coming hours and days are going to be excruciatingly difficult for the families who came to Surabaya and have been waiting near the airport and waiting in hotels hoping that there would be good news.

That perhaps the plane went down on land and possible survivors. But now, these people are going to have to identify their parents and their children and they will need a lot of support in the days ahead. It's a horrible situation.

BERMAN: Difficult days ahead. Will Ripley, thanks so much.

ROMANS: We are continuing to follow the latest on AirAsia Flight 8501 all morning long. Investigators are 95 percent certain what you see there is debris from the vanished jetliner. Our live team coverage continues as we learn more about what has been found and the next steps.

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ROMANS: We are continuing to follow the breaking news this morning on the missing AirAsia flight. An Indonesian rescue official says it is 95 percent likely the debris spotted in the Java Sea is from 8501.

We can report bodies are being retrieved from the debris field by the Indonesian Coast Guard. Some family members are said to have fainted when investigations gave them the news.

The plane with 162 people on board vanished while flying from Indonesia to Singapore. I want to bring in aviation expert, Julian Bray, live via Skype from Cambridge, England.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning, this evening there in Indonesia where this is still taking place because rescue has just a few moments really left of daylight. This recovery has moments of daylight.

From the pictures you are seeing and from the details we are learning from authorities, what do you make of what happened to this flight?

JULIAN BRAY, AVIATION EXPERT: Well, I think it is still down to the weather. I think the big suspect has to be the huge thunderstorm. In fact, there were three of them. Aircraft need a vacuum. Vacuum formed on top of the wing to lift the aircraft.

With the weather conditions like that, I think possibly and it is pure speculation, there was no vacuum on top of the wing. So the plane plummeted like a lead balloon into the ocean. It would have broken up. It would not have stayed in one piece.

It is very, very sad. They are already recovering bodies. It is 100 percent confirmation that the aircraft did actually go down which is about ten kilometers from the last known position, very sad. My condolences to all concerned. ROMANS: Yes, it is incredibly sad. Families are just receiving this news in the last couple of hours. They are understandably distraught. Julian, we are looking at the pictures of the Indonesian Coast Guard member descending from a helicopter down to the surface of the ocean.

That is where they have found bodies and they are retrieving those bodies, we can report that. Tell me what we need to know to look at now to figure out what exactly went wrong.

You think that the aircraft because of the weather lost the vacuum around the wing? What will the pieces of this aircraft tell investigators?

BRAY: Right. They have to do now is recover the flight recorders. There are two of them, one at the front and one at the back. That will give them a clear indication of what actually happened on that aircraft in the run-up to the terrible tragedy.

So, once they get that, they take it back to a place to decode it and they can replay everything there. There is also a lot of in-flight avionics going on. They have flight data up to that moment. Unfortunately, no one can control Mother Nature.

As CNN identified early on, it could be a weather issue. There were three large red blobs, huge thunderstorms, one was 50 kilometers across. It is absolutely impossible to go through something like that and come unscathed. Some people suggest that the wings may have been iced up. That is a distinct possibility. That of courses changes the profile of the wing.

ROMANS: Julian Bray, thank you for your expertise this morning from Cambridge, England. I agree with you. The only thing we know for sure is these families are grieving and they deserve our respect and condolences. Thank you, sir.

I want to take a look what is coming up on "NEW DAY." Michaela Pereira joins us now. She is following this story as well. Really the only story this morning -- Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": It is and as you said, it is really important to remember to focus on the victims and their families. We will look at the big story. We are watching and we know the debris was found in the water 5 miles from where AirAsia Flight 8501 was last on radar.

Officials are telling us they are all but certain this is from the doomed jet so many questions to answer. How can clues be found in the debris that may lead to what brought down the plane? How can crews find the fuselage and that all-important black box?

As we mentioned, the families of course are devastated. We will talk a bit and take a look at images that they were finding as they receive the news. Grief-stricken.

The U.S. is sending assets in to help. How can the U.S. military be of assistance now? We will talk to a spokesperson from the Pentagon. So of course we'll have all the latest developments on "NEW DAY" at the top of the hour. Christine, John, you'll be joining me both.

ROMANS: Thank you, Michaela. The debris from missing AirAsia Flight 8501 has most likely been found. That is the breaking news we are following this morning. Will underwater vehicles be needed to help in the recovery effort? We will talk about that after the break.

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ROMANS: The next grim task for investigators to be finding AirAsia 8501's black box recorders and fuselage below the surface of the Java Sea. CNN's Gary Tuchman has a look at some submersible vehicles equipped to do just that.

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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The names are intriguing, but they are potential to accomplish is amazing. The Remus 6,000, the Orion, the Triton, they are all autonomous underwater vehicles and remotely operated vehicles, AUVs and ROVs.

MARTIN STITT, ROV SUPERINTENDENT: The black box and not a problem at all for an ROV to pick it up in a basket and recover it.

TUCHMAN: This is the Triton XLS ROV based in Florida connected to a ship by an umbilical cord. There are the AUVs, which are not connected. Orion owned by the U.S. Navy and run by a company called Phoenix International.

Vehicles like this sends sound signals to the sea floor, which paint a picture of what is on the bottom. Then there is the Remus 6000 also an AUV. The team from Massachusetts is already had dramatic success locating the wreckage of Air France Flight 447 two years after it crashed in the South Atlantic Ocean.

The discovery was only possible because of this AUV. This is the shot of the Air France debris captured by the Remus 6000.

MIKE PURCELL, WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION: They can go up and down mountains that are up to 40 degrees and slope. They are very stable so you get really good data almost all the time.

TUCHMAN: Another AUV that could be used? The Dorado based at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California where CNN's Stephanie Elam visited.

The other option is manned submarines or submersibles. This vehicle that resembles a space ship is a Johnson Sea Link based in Florida. This sub located wreckage in the Atlantic Ocean after the tragic explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986.

(on camera): This sub is 24 feet long. It is about 11 feet tall. It weighs about 28,000 pounds. That has enough oxygen and provisions aboard for the people to survive under water for up to five days.

(voice-over): This sub is retired though. Other subs that can go deeper can be brought into action along with AUVs and ROVs ready to assist if asked. Gary Tuchman, CNN, Los Angeles.

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ROMANS: All right, breaking news this morning. Investigators revealing they are 95 percent sure they have found the wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8501. Holding up pieces of luggage recovered from the water at a press conference.

Reuters reporting 40 bodies have now been recovered as the Indonesian Coast Guard sends its guardsmen down to pick up the bodies. Live team coverage is next.

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ROMANS: We are following the grim news that investigators believe they found the debris from AirAsia Flight 8501. Looking at the effect on the company, of course, the company that flies that airplane, the stock of the airline is up a little bit this morning.

Yesterday, the stock fell 8.5 percent. There are worries the missing plane disaster could scare away future passengers. Of course, airlines operate with very thin profit margins, any drop in travelers could have a big financial impact.

The search has many wondering why can't we track an airplane's exact location. The technology exists. Companies like flight offer real- time tracking plus a live stream of information from the cockpit to the ground when something goes wrong.

So what stopping airlines from using this technology? Experts say it is simple, it's money. If it is not government mandated, airlines generally won't pay up.

Breaking news this morning, bodies are being pulled from the wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8501. We are continuing to follow this breaking news. "NEW DAY" takes it from here.