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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Sonar May Have Found Flight 8501 Wreckage; Seventh Body Recovered Overnight; Sony Hacking An Inside Job?

Aired December 31, 2014 - 05:30   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.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning, the wreckage of AirAsia 8501 believed to be found, search crews using sonar equipment spotted the plane on the ocean floor. Investigators now trying to figure out why the jetliner crashed and they're trying to recover the bodies of those on board. They're facing tough obstacles this morning.

Team coverage breaking down what we're learning starts right now.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. Twenty-nine minutes past the hour.

We welcome all of our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world.

Sonar may have located AirAsia Flight 8501 on the bottom of the Java Sea. It's still not known if the Airbus is in one piece or broken up. Meantime, officials say a seventh body was recovered overnight. Those bodies include one of the plane's flight attendants. The first two of those bodies are now back there in Surabaya.

Dozens of ships and planes have been involved in the search and recovery operation, but that operation has been halted now. In the past half hour or so, they halted that operation due to bad weather. CNN's Gary Tuchman is live in Indonesia for us -- Gary.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, hello to you, Surabaya, Indonesia, it's now dusk. The search would have ended anyway, because it's getting dark outside, but an hour ago, the decision was made that it was too windy, too murky, and too foggy to continue safely having the 30 or so planes, the 40 or so ships on the Java Sea looking for the bodies of those who were aboard the AirAsia flight.

Behind me the crisis center at the Surabaya airport. This is where the plane left on Sunday. Right now between 100 family members inside the building and behind the door that is not open right now. The public is not allowed inside.

What I've seen is family members very determined to do right by their missing family members. They're not crying. They're not shouting and part of the reason is because most of them have come to terms with what's happened but they want to get their bodies back. They want answers. The communication here has been very good particularly compared to the Malaysia air incident ten months ago. I've not heard a lot of people unhappy with the officials here. They're certainly unhappy and sad and emotional about the situation, but the handling in a very business-like fashion because they want their bodies of their loved ones back.

Like you were saying, Christine, about two hours ago, we saw a very emotional ceremony at a naval air base very close to here where an Indonesian Air Force jet landed and an honor guard of Army, Air Force, and Navy personnel from Indonesia led two caskets down the ramp into two waiting hearses.

The caskets were numbered 001 and 002. The first two victims that were recovered from the wreckage they are brought by hearse to a police hospital here in the city about an hour away and that's where they ultimately will be identified.

There's a lot more recovering to do, a lot more identifying. One official telling us, though, that it could be awhile because his belief is he doesn't know for sure, but his belief that the reason they haven't gotten many more bodies because he feels it's likely that many people are strapped into their seats on the bottom of the Java Sea -- Christine.

ROMANS: That must be so difficult for the families. It's so difficult to see those two caskets so beautifully and reverently carried across the tarmac. But still, every one of those families must be wondering if 001 or 002 belongs to them.

TUCHMAN: Yes. No question about that. We're talking about 162 people who were aboard that plane and one other point I want to make to you, there should have been 177 people on that plane. There are papers posted on the wall in front of the crisis center of a list of everyone who is aboard the plane.

And then after the 162, there's a list of 15 additional people under the title no shows. Those are people who whatever reason missed the flight and that includes a married couple and an infant who missed that flight. That's the luckiest thing that's ever happened to them.

ROMANS: Can you imagine the feelings of those people. Is it true that the flight took off a little bit ahead of schedule and that might be why some of the people missed it?

TUCHMAN: Right, what happens was the schedule had changed last week, the plane left two hours before -- you know, sometimes when you buy a ticket for a flight six to seven months down the road, the time changes and the airline usually e-mails you a message.

The airline e-mailed the message. Not everyone got it. They showed up at the airport and they found out the plane was about to leave. And that's why some of them, at least some of them, missed the flight.

ROMANS: That is just those little vagaries of life, you know, just those little things that can be so important. Gary Tuchman in Surabaya, thank you for that, Gary.

So far, searchers have recovered seven bodies from AirAsia Flight 8501. But as we mentioned the search has been halted now due to weather. I want to bring in CNN's David Molko. He's live at a police hospital in Surabaya where the bodies from that plane will be taken to be identified.

David, we spoke with a psychological counselor a little bit earlier, who was telling us she was dealing with these families. One of the things they were doing is that the families were being asked for identification, pictures, and papers.

And even in some cases, DNA, there are psychological counselors there to help calm them down and help just get those basics from them so they can make this identification process go forward.

DAVID MOLKO, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: That's right, Christine. That's the Disaster Victims Identification Unit or DVI that you were referring to. We talked to the head of that earlier today, and he said, over the past couple of days, family members have been stopping by the crisis center nearby where they're dropping off blood samples, DNA, dental records, photos.

Details about their relatives like what they were last wearing in terms of clothing or jewelry, you know, very, very personal things. We saw those pictures on the tarmac at the military base of those two coffins coming off the plane and being loaded into ambulances.

Here at this police hospital, about 45 minutes ago, an equally sobering scene as the ambulances arrived on this very road that I'm standing and were taken through these gates. That is where the bodies that we presume, they are right now.

Just behind me about 1,000 feet down the road, containers, actually, refrigerated containers, a makeshift morgue, with shelving where they're going to be keeping the remains as they prepare for the autopsies and identification process.

Also some tents set up with about a dozen gurneys and we assume that if the I.D. process and autopsy process hasn't already begun on those two bodies that it will begin very shortly. Just next to where I'm at the hospital is police headquarters for East Java.

And that will become the new crisis center. They're relocating that from the airport where you spoke to Gary, over to here. It's a large auditorium with 250 chairs, big-screen TVs.

And that way, the families can be as close as possible to the hospital where the IDs are happening and waiting. And that's where they'll be waiting for word of their loved ones fate -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, David Molko, thank you for that report from Surabaya. Again, we told you that they have halted the search now because of bad weather.

Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri has got more on that for us on this bad weather that has brought the AirAsia search now for the evening, it is dusk there, brought that search to a halt.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. It's very rough conditions across the Java Sea and over the next couple of days. Active thunderstorms is going to develop as well, but I want to show you the satellite perspective as we have under an hour left of daylight across this region.

Thunderstorms across the northern fringe of the debris field, the strongest storms at this point, well to the north, out of the debris field so that's the good news. But of course, with limited daylight, not much going to be as far as the next hour is concerned.

But the bigger issue comes sometime late Thursday morning. Look at this active line of weather that moves in, 10:30 or so, Thursday morning right across the debris field. This is accompanied by pretty powerful winds and we get a repeat performance come Friday morning as well.

So the next couple of days, some of the strongest storms across this region really going to blossom. I want to show you the wind speeds as they are expected.

Sometime over the next 24 hours, 2:00 to 3:00 in the afternoon on Thursday, wind speeds across portions of the debris field could easily exceed 55 to 65 miles per hour. That translates into wave heights in the open ware waters upwards of perhaps 18 to 25 feet.

So if you get to that sort of scenario, you know, any sort of search operation has to be halted just because of how dangerous it would be to be across some of these areas.

But the ocean currents in this region will also take what is left of the debris field across to the north, the coastal portions of Borneo, the island of Borneo nearby here, the marshy landscape.

So this is what you're looking at, of course, that really complicates the matters when it comes to this pattern over the next couple of days with the rough weather in the forecast. Send it back to you.

ROMANS: All right, Pedram Javaheri, thank you for that. I want to bring in Alastair Rosenschein, former pilot and aviation consultant. What do you make of this breaking news, really in the last hour or so that they've called off that search at this point because of the bad weather, Alastair?

ALASTAIR ROSENSCHEIN, FORMER PILOT AND AVIATION CONSULTANT (via telephone): It's not surprising, anybody who has been in that area, during a thunderstorm, downpour, will know it's quite impossible to even walk down street.

You have to take cover because the sheer weight of water falling is immense. Then you get the downdrops as well. On the sea it will be even more predictable because of very large waves that conform very quickly in these equally conditions.

ROMANS: We know that authorities say there's about 100 feet of depth there. Even though you have this terrible weather right now, they think they know, sonar has found where the bulk of this wreckage is.

So once the weather clears, they know exactly where to search, Alastair. They know exactly where they want to be looking. They'll be looking for the black boxes. Walk me through that process. Walk me through how they're going to find them and where they're located on the airplane.

ROSENSCHEIN: OK, well, first of all, I'm speaking from experience from what I've read in previous reports of this nature while it's outside of my field of expertise as a pilot. But what generally happens here is that they will have already informed those looking for the black boxes in which section of the aircraft they can be found and how they can be removed and what they look like.

In fact, they're fluorescent orange or yellow. They'll be in a bright color and they should be relatively easy to remove. Bear in mind, we don't know what the visibility is or the water or the current. But the surface condition is also very important.

And whether the aircraft is intact or has broken into several parts, which can complicate matters. They may or may not need lifting equipment to raise the aircraft up because if it's turned on its side in such a way that the boxes can't be reached easily by divers. Then they have to recover a whole section of the aircraft in order to get to those boxes.

ROMANS: And what we will learn on those boxes, aside from what is happening mechanically, the avionics of the aircraft, we'll also hear the voices of these pilots and the crew. From the pilots' perspective, we'll be able to hear just what kind of a fight these men had on their hands in the final moments of this flight.

ROSENSCHEIN: Well, to be exact here, we, that is the public, will not be able to hear and rightly so. It will be the investigators who will listen to that. And these can be quite chilling listening to these last voices on a cockpit voice recorder, but it will indicate what the pilots knew or did not know what was happening on a flight.

It can be quite confusing when things go horribly wrong, situational awareness and having to control the aircraft outside of the normal flight might well be the case that it can produce some quite chilling results.

ROMANS: I can imagine. Alastair Rosenschein, thank you again for your expertise this morning.

The tragic crash of AirAsia Flight 8501 not only affecting family and friends of those on board, also the families of those on board missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. CNN's Will Ripley joins us with that part of the story in about 15 minutes.

AirAsia's CEO speaking just moments ago about today's search for the plane, refuting claims that the wreckage has been found. You'll hear from him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROMANS: We're following breaking news. Search crews using sonar may have found the wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8501 on the bottom of the sea. That is what investigators are saying. Grief-stricken families were informed of that by Indonesian officials.

Overnight, the body of a seventh victim was retrieved from the water. The first two of those bodies have been brought back to Surabaya for identification. Right now, the search and recovery operation has been halted due to bad weather.

Now just moments ago, we heard from AirAsia's CEO, Tony Fernandes. He spoke to reporters and he's dismissing what investigators are saying that Flight 8501, the wreckage may have been found. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY FERNANDES, AIRASIA CEO: Search and rescue teams have been doing a fantastic job. They're narrow egg the search. They're getting more comfortable getting to know where it is. There's no confirmation, no sonar, nothing, some visual identification but nothing confirmed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Visual identification, he says, but nothing confirmed. Fernandes said bad weather is expected to continue for the next few days. That, of course, will slow, it will hamper this search and recovery operation.

Publicly, the Obama administration still blaming North Korea for the cyberattack on Sony Pictures and says North Korea likely had some help. But cyberexperts are now telling the FBI that it is possible the Sony hack may have been an inside job. Let's get more on this from CNN's Pamela Brown.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Christine. FBI officials we've been speaking with are adamant that the initial assessment that was publicly revealed that North Korea and solely North Korea is behind the unprecedented Sony hack is still the case.

Officials say their view has not changed. Even after FBI agents in St. Louis met with cyberexperts with a security firm called Norse. And this firm launched its own investigation, and they claim they found evidence that it was actually an insider job.

That a disgruntled Sony employee who had been with the company for ten years and was let go last May was actually the one who used the administrative credentials to take over the Sony system and actually played a role with the hackers, who called themselves "Guardians of Peace."

But the FBI officials we've been speaking with say that that what they presented was essentially misinterpreted. That it was just a narrow part of the investigation. This was not the company in the private sector that was brought in to help with the investigation. So, this company was not on the frontlines of what was going on. So FBI officials say the conclusion they reached was from not only their own intelligence, but also intelligence from other agencies within the intelligence community and the U.S., as well as the Department Of Homeland Security and foreign partners.

And the FBI did lay out part of their case about why they reached the conclusion they did. But we're told that that was just the tip of the iceberg, as this investigation continues, the FBI could release even more information backing up their case -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Pamela Brown, what an interesting story there. We have not heard the last of it, I'm sure. I want to take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY," Michaela Pereira joins us now. And Michaela, I know there are so many developments this morning in the AirAsia Flight 8501 story.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Certainly there are, Christine. You'll be joining me as with Poppy Harlow. The three of us will look at the developments overnight in the crash of AirAsia Flight 8501.

We were told overnight that the wreckage had been found. Now officials, though, are backing off that assertion slightly. They still believe from sonar imaging that objects located at the bottom of the Java Sea are from the wreckage of the plane.

So now, of course, comes the difficult and painstaking task of recovery. It continues. But today search crews had to call off search and recovery efforts due to inclement weather.

There's so much to look at as we watch these two bodies brought to the home court where they will be laid to rest. We're going to cover all the latest developments for you and answer some of your questions also about the crash, a lot of questions from viewers. That will happen on "NEW DAY" at the beginning of the hour.

ROMANS: The families of those on board AirAsia Flight 8501 devastated. As you can see those pictures there, two victims' bodies were recovered and are being sent home. The heartbreak also hitting home for family members of another downed airliner that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Breaking news this morning. AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes refuting claims that wreckage from 8501 has been confirmed. He says there is no sonar image and no confirmation.

Overnight, the body of a seventh victim was retrieved from the water. The first two of those bodies had been brought back to Surabaya for identification. The search and rescue operation has been halted because of bad weather.

It's hard to imagine what the families who lost loved ones on AirAsia Flight 8501 are going through, first the discovery of debris and bodies. Now the plane itself, is it on the bottom of the sea? Investigators said they have located it with sonar.

The CEO of the company says it hasn't been confirmed just yet. Still some confusion there, but this tragedy has also re-opened some emotional wounds for others in the region. CNN's Will Ripley is looking at that.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, this tragedy is not just affecting those in Indonesia, the immediate families and the community that are suffering so much right now, but it's also affecting people all around this region.

People are following it very closely. It's front page news on pretty much all the major papers and news channels here in China and throughout the Asia-Pacific region. And there was one regional network caught in a very disturbing situation for a lot of viewers.

They were simulcasting a local Indonesian television station when graphic images showing a half partially clothed body floating in the water were shown on live TV. We've talked about how it was extremely upsetting to the families in Indonesia who are watching that signal live.

But that signal was also shown live via this regional network here in China, it was shown in Malaysia, it was shown in Australia, very upsetting to a lot of people here who are following this so closely.

I've been talking to the MH 370 families. And I was sitting yesterday with Steven Wang, a young man whose mother was on board Flight 370. He told me he was hoping for a miracle for passengers on AirAsia 8501.

He was hoping that perhaps there might be some survivors. It was during our interview that the news came in that in fact the debris had been found and bodies pulled from the water -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Will Ripley, it must be so emotional for them. We're going to follow the latest on recovery on AirAsia 8501 all morning long, but first, millions of Americans soon getting a raise. An early start on "Your Money" on the last day of the year next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: All right, let's get an EARLY START on "Your Money." U.S. stock futures are slightly higher after a lower close yesterday. A perspective on this last trading day of the year is another incredible year for stock investors.

The Dow topped 18,000 for the first time in history this month. The S&P 500 will finish 2014 with double-digit gains up almost 13 percent for the third year in a row. This bull market is the fourth largest in history.

And it's been on this run for more than 2,000 days now. Most experts polled by CNN money think stocks will rise in 2015. The average guess, more than 8 percent.

ROMANS: More than 3 million workers are getting a New Year's raise. On January 1st, 21 states in Washington, D.C. will increase their minimum wage. New legislation raises the hourly rate for 11 states and the rest are bumped up through inflation.

The largest hike is South Dakota, $1.25. Florida gets a 12 cents boost. After this New Year's increase 29 states will have a minimum wage above the federal rate of 7.25.

Uber is expecting New Year's Eve to be the busiest night ever. The car service anticipates 2 million riders tonight. But how much more will customers have to pay? Surge pricing folks the company is known to raise prices when in high demand. Last year someone tweeted out a five-mile ride that cost $265. The company expects the highest fares to be the 12:30 and 2:30 a.m. tonight.

Investigators believe they have found the wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8501 on the ocean floor. "NEW DAY" starts right now.