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New Day Sunday

AirAsia Passenger Plane Missing

Aired December 28, 2014 - 08:30   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with breaking news. And nighttime search at sea now suspended to more than 13 hours now -- we're looking at our clock -- after a passenger jet with 162 people on board went missing in Southeast Asia. Officials say that now large ships with powerful lights are going to continue to try to comb those waters off of Indonesia for AirAsia 8501. But more intensive efforts have now stopped until daybreak. This Airbus A320-200 left Indonesia at 5:30 Eastern last night bound for Singapore. And now Indonesian officials are saying about 45 minutes later, the captain asked to climb above 38,000 feet because of the treacherous weather.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Now minutes later the plane disappeared from radar. And airline officials say they lost contact at 7:24 Eastern although Indonesian officials say they monitored the jet for about another half hour before losing contact.

Now, the flight was due to land at 8:30 Eastern last night and now families understandably -- and we've seen this before -- desperate for any sign of what may have happened to this plane. The saga is unfolding, as you know, less than ten months after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. And despite that massive international search that went on for months there's still no trace of that aircraft or the 239 people aboard.

MALVEAUX: Our CNN aviation correspondent Rene Marsh, she is live in Washington. Rene you have been on the phone working your sources both with Airbus and the NTSB. So first of all, tell us if anything have we learned from Airbus about this aircraft and what they believe has happened and unfolded in the hours?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, at this point we know that this was a pretty young aircraft -- six years old. It was delivered in October of 2008. So a little bit over six years old. Very young when you're talking about an aircraft as far as the standards for how old these aircraft usually are or how long they can essentially fly for before being switched out. This is a young one. We also know from Airbus that it had some 23,000 flight hours. And if you just look on Flight Radar 24 and you look at the date at which this incident happened on the 27th. You can see that this particular aircraft did make other trips earlier prior to this incident -- five other trips by my count there on Flight Radar 24. Obviously those trips happened without any incident.

We also know based on information from officials there that the last maintenance check for this specific aircraft -- everything checked out fine -- that happened just last month. But Airbus is being very cautious with how they are categorizing what happened here. They are not going too far. They are staying very far away from speculation, only saying that they are essentially trying to gather more information and willing to work with investigators.

Right now on your screen you're looking at dimensions of what A320 are -- you can see the wing span there. We can tell you when you compare the A320 to the Boeing 777 this is a smaller aircraft so as you can see there were fewer people on board this aircraft than for example Malaysia 370. Malaysia 370 had 239 people. By comparison this aircraft had 162 people -- so a slightly smaller aircraft. But really the key here is finding the wreckage and as we know the search has halted because they've run out simply of -- they ran out of daylight.

But finding this wreckage will be so crucial because it really will help investigators piece together the big picture of exactly what went wrong and we know something went wrong because this plane was supposed to land hours ago and fuel exhaustion is clearly an issue at this point. So, I heard you asking earlier, Suzanne, is it possible for it to still be in the air. At this point it's just virtually impossible.

So, you know, they really will need to find the wreckage as well as those black boxes to begin to piece together exactly what went wrong here.

MALVEAUX: Rene just to follow up on that and the investigation. We know that Airbus is a French company. Boeing was an American company. The NTSB clearly had a very -- a lead role in that investigation when it came to the missing Malaysian flight. What role will the NTSB take on this one?

MARSH: At this point, it's wait and see. We know that they will most likely be monitoring it at this hour. But we know that the way this works, based on international protocol, is usually the NTSB waits to be invited.

If they are, indeed, pulled into this investigation when it gets to that point we know traditionally what happens is they send a team. Within that team you have investigators who specialize in different areas.

For example, one investigator may specialize in human factors so that person will be looking at possible pilot error. They will be looking at the crew. How much sleep did they get? What were they doing in the hours leading up to this flight? They will talk to their family members trying to get all the information they can about the individuals who were in charge or at the controls.

And then also within the group you'll have an investigator with expertise in the mechanical side of things. That person will know how this aircraft operates, and be able to detect whether something failed on this aircraft.

But going back to the wreckage, Suzanne, I mean looking at Air France 447 and we've been talking about it a lot because there are some similarities but just to show you why finding the wreckage is just so important. With that crash once they analyzed all of the debris they were able to determine that that plane essentially landed belly down -- essentially intact.

So, you can start to piece things together based on the break up of the wreckage, if there is wreckage, how small are the pieces. It kind of tells you how this plane maybe went down -- very critical information where you're trying to piece it together.

BLACKWELL: Several of our guests have said that all options, all possibilities are still on the table in finding out exactly what happened here because of what happened the weather at that time, three systems coming together at once which we're hearing is not that much of an anomaly, it's quite typical for this time of the year -- weather likely the cause but still many questions.

Rene Marsh there in Washington thank you so much.

When you look at the last 24 hours there over the Java Sea and you understand how there could have been some complications based on weather. We heard from Rene that the NTSB likely will be getting involved although now hard word, no confirmation yet on their role.

We do know from they head of the Pacific Command that there are no U.S. assets involved at this moment searching there. We know the planes have been grounded for the night although the big ships there will continue to stay. They will have their lights on to see if there's anything, any debris that can be spotted, not just the ships that have patched through as part of this popular shipping channel but we've heard from the Malaysians that they are sending three vessels specifically for this search also with three aircraft to continue at daybreak for that aerial search.

MALVEAUX: We also know too that -- we've been speaking to people and they say it could be beyond weather. That it's not just the weather itself but it could be the behavior of the pilot -- something that they might have done in reaction to the turbulence.

I want to bring in our CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation, Mary Schiavo. And, of course, you were with us during the MH-370 missing plane story and how that unfolded. I think that for most -- most people we've talked to this morning we do not believe that we're going to be in this for months still looking for pieces of this wreckage. How do you see this playing out in the next 24 hours?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, I think after Malaysia 370, hopefully officials around the world will have learned the importance of really fast response. We had lots of discussions on 370 about the emergency locator beacon, you know, some go off on impact and some go off on the water. They don't always go off so that's information we don't have yet if there's any emergency locator transmissions.

The importance of getting all of the radar data immediately and sending the assets to search in the last radar transmission and we do know that not everything didn't go down at once. First the radar that went off of radar and then the radio went off about a minute later and then finally the ADS-B -- the automatic broadcasting capabilities went down.

So 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. But they have a lot of clues now that they didn't have in 370 and they know it's vital in the first hours to get there.

MALVEAUX: Mary, we know this is different in the sense that this is a smaller plane and this certainly is a smaller area, the Java Sea, in which this search-and-rescue or perhaps not search-and-rescue but search for this plane will take place. I imagine that because of that it will be an easier task to find this plane and to get the critical information that's necessary particularly to the families who are waiting.

SCHIAVO: Yes. And it's an important thing to know which you've already noted -- a busy shipping channel. So if there is any floating debris at all and I say that's really important in the hours and immediate days after any kind of an accident. In Air France 447 they spotted wreckage within a day or two. And then used that debris field to trace back, they analyzed the currents and literally traced back the debris field to help them narrow in on where they should look. And we'll remember from 370 where they should look to hear the pingers from the black boxes which are going to be important to solve the mystery here because there's no indication that this plane had the capability of 447 of sending messages. The plane itself sent messages to their airline, to its airline to tell it that the plane was having problems.

So, here I think everybody has learned a tremendous number of lessons from 370 and it sounds like the response is going to be very quick. I would expect France to take a role in this. The French BEA will have a big role in the investigation, probably more so than the NTSB which will participate only by invitation.

BLACKWELL: Even as this conversation expands into what happened to this flight, I'd imagine it would re-energize the conversation about some location device or system beyond the pingers, this beacon on this black box. After 370 -- the search for that, I mean it took forever and still has not been located.

SCHIAVO: Right. You have made just an excellent point. We thought that the world would react and certainly the international aviation bodies and even the United States bodies would move to require that the planes have the capability or that we develop the capability, actually the capability is already there. It's just that the airlines don't purchase it to have positive tracking and so that when you have something go wrong, the data from the black boxes or the information of the plane is on a continuous download.

So in other words you don't have to go searching in the seas for the black boxes you will know where the plane was and what was happening -- the clues that we had for example in Air France 447. But the oversight bodies have not moved to make any requirements of that. The ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organization has met and has made recommendations but those recommendations have not been put into final form and no nation had adopted those requirements yet.

MALVEAUX: And we're looking at 13-plus hours now that this plane has gone missing. Mary, what are the critical things that you think we need to know in these moments and these hours that might help us realize, you know, what the likelihood is that this could be a good outcome.

SCHIAVO: Well, at this point and this long after the disappearance from radar and loss of radio contact, you know, we probably would have to be wishing for a miracle and miracles, of course, do happen. But at this point with no contact, they need to be searching for any clues and sadly they need to be looking for wreckage at this point because that's going be very important.

But the most helpful thing that many nations could do is to contribute their radar. If they -- instead of wasting time searching vast amount of seas and listening for pingers what they have to do is pinpoint in all the possible radar coordinates so they can go right to the area. That's going to be important because I heard other commentators talk about the possibility of a water landing. That's difficult and unlikely, but if there's any hope they've got to get there and get there quickly.

MALVEAUX: All right. Mary Schiavo, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

You bring up a very good point, and that is the coordination of many countries around the world and their abilities to work with those airlines to find and track via radar where that plane might have last been spotted and been seen. So, Mary thank you very much.

And of course, we're going to have more on the break of this breaking news story, this airline, Asia flight 8501, 162 people on board that plane, that missing flight. More than 13 hours that flight has been missing. It is 8:43 local time, 12 hours ahead of where we are now. And they are waiting for answers to what happened to this plane -- still very much a mystery. We'll have more information after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Welcome back. We continue our coverage of the search for AirAsia Flight 8501, 162 people on board -- 162 families waiting for any word of where this plane ended up flying over the Java Sea when there was a last contact made with the pilot of that plane.

And Peter Goelz is back with us, he's a CNN aviation analyst and former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board. And Peter thank you for being here throughout the morning.

So we know that the search has been halted. It has been suspended temporarily until 6:00 in the morning. So there are a lot of families who clearly are anxious about what they might learn overnight. And this is extraordinary when you think about it how rare this is -- another missing plane in Southeast Asia, very similar circumstances at least in the initial hours that you have a plane literally just dropping off the radar. What do you make of this?

PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, it's clearly just, you know, it's extraordinary. But AirAsia and the Indonesian government and Malaysian government -- they all appear to be stepping up in a much more effective way than in the Malaysian Flight 370 tragedy because in there, there was so much confusion during the opening hours and contradictory statements given. In this case, it appears as though the airline and the authorities are in sync and they really are putting the families first, which is the way to do it.

BLACKWELL: Peter, the Malaysians -- their transportation minister, he tweeted out to that point about the Malaysians supporting. They have now set up a rescue coordination center and, of course, we know they've deployed three vessels and three planes -- planes to get back up at sunrise.

But I wonder is there anything that stands out here that is out of typical protocol if you get into rough weather. We know that the reporting is that this pilot didn't send out this May Day, but beyond that, and maybe that's not that unusual -- anything stand out to you that that's a red flag?

GOELZ: No. There's been some speculation about the speed of the aircraft. And the problem is during the early moments of any tragedy like this, the early information you got to take it with a very skeptical eye. You're not quite sure whether the information is correct or not. It's been my experience that oftentimes the early information is simply not correct.

So I don't think we have enough information yet to begin speculating on what the pilots were doing, where they were headed, why they didn't call May Day. We just don't know. And we've got to wait for the sunrise and get as many resources as we can in the right location dictated by the last signals from the aircraft.

MALVEAUX: And Peter, we just heard from Mary Schiavo who said that the most important thing that people could do now while it's dark over there and we're just in this waiting mode, this holding pattern is for people to figure out through radar tracking that plane where that plane was. How do you coordinate those countries -- Indonesia, Singapore, United States, the NTSB obviously might get involved -- to get that kind of critical information very quickly?

GOELZ: Well, I mean the Indonesian government has run major accidents investigations before. They should know what the protocols are. But, obviously, you need to reach out to all of the countries, all of the assets in the area and ask for immediate feedback, did anybody have this plane on their radar either as a primary or secondary return? Did any other aircraft or vessel see anything? And you've got to get that information out. It's got to be coordinated.

BLACKWELL: All right. Peter, thank you so much. We appreciate your insight. We're going to be getting back to you later in the morning. And, obviously, we're going to be following this breaking news story throughout the morning -- this missing plane, 162 people on board.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: If you're just joining us we are, of course, following the disappearance of AirAsia Flight 8501.

MALVEAUX: We want to go straight to CNN's Andrew Stevens. Just moments ago he landed in Surabaya, Indonesia. That is where the plane was due to take off at 5:30 in the morning, more than 13 hours ago -- joining us live on phone.

You just landed there. Give us the mood. Give us a sense of what people are saying; what they are doing there? I imagine this is a very difficult time for folks.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN INTERNATIONAL (via telephone): And it's a difficult time, awful time for so many families here in Surabaya. Many of the passengers were from this city. In fact it's the second biggest city in Indonesia. We just actually finished a news conference with Tony Fernandes, he is the chief executive officer, in fact he's the founder of AirAsia -- an enormously successful budget carrier which operates across Asia.

And he very clearly said that the priority for him at the moment is looking after families of the passengers and the crew who were on board and refusing to be drawn into anything like speculation as to what may have happened. There have been reports and none of them have been confirmed that there's some wreckage -- some wreckage have been found. We certainly have not been able to confirm this. There've also been reports that weather may have played a role in this.

What we do know is that just before they lost radio contact, air traffic control lost radio contact with that AirAsia flight that the captain had radioed in asking for a change of the flight plan, basically he wanted to take the jet up another 6,000 feet because of bad weather. I asked Tony Fernandes what he knew about conditions on the route. He said it was bad -- that's all he said. It was cloudy and bad but he wouldn't speculate as whether that had any actual role in what (inaudible) Flight 8501.

But there are many people here gathering at the (inaudible). We haven't seen family -- they look like they have been taken inside to an area away from the media obviously. We've also been told that there's similar scenes in Singapore where that AirAsia flight was headed.

(CROSSTALK)

MALVEAUX: Do you know if the CEO, has he been able to talk to some of those family members? Do you know, has he reached out to them and talked to them directly?

STEVENS: He has been talking to them here as far as we know. And he's just arrived here in Indonesia. His home base is in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia so he has only been on the ground for a couple of hours here. We understand he has been speaking to people which he certainly hasn't been talking about what has been said -- very difficult time for the family. You can imagine what they are going through and also it's the worst nightmare for any airline CEO.

BLACKWELL: All right, Andrew Stevens there at the airport in Surabaya, Indonesia. Andrew -- thank you.

And another breaking story we're keeping an eye on. Rescue efforts now under way to try and reach passengers on this burning ferry between Greece and Italy in the Adriatic Sea. At least 150 people have been rescued. This is new video. You can see just how difficult this must be. It's unclear what started the fire. But officials say it appears the blaze started in the lower deck.

MALVEAUX: That ferry was traveling to the city of Ancona. Now this is a joint Italian-Greek rescue operation that's under way but heavy winds in the area hindering their rescue efforts making it very difficult.

We're going to continue to follow that breaking news story as well. We're going to have more for you at the top of the hour, but it is a very busy, busy news morning.

Of course thank you as always for starting your morning with us. We appreciate it. We're going to try to get as much information about that missing plane.

BLACKWELL: Yes. The breaking news coverage continues here on air and at CNN.com.

We're going to hand things over now to "STATE OF THE UNION" with Dana Bash. It starts right now.