greece. the effects were widely spread. they had been refocused. we need to get surface vessels to the area. the helicopters, as you have been saying are there. they are starting to recover bodies. there is a lot of work to be done there, obviously. the vessels are there. they can continue through the night. the waters are shallow. we are being told around 40 meters. we are trying to independently verify that. if they are that shallow, it will be a much easier task recovering the wreckage and bodies that would be if they were in water. one other thing, christine, the president of indonesia, president bidodeo is due to arrive here within the hour. he will be meeting the family members here. we are expecting him to speak to the press as well. a very very sad day, obviously. a shocked day for indonesia considering 150 of those 155 passengers plus the seven crew from indonesia.
it was over open sea. and if it was in trouble shortly after that, which is the working assumption. there are a lot of vessels working. we re four hours into this search on the second day and still no sign yet. and andrew you mentioned the search it is of course now daylight where you are, which makes searching easier than it has been the last few hours. what sort of efforts are involved? this is a multinational search effort. that s right, michael. there are vessels coming from malaysia singapore is sending an aircraft. australia is also sending a surveillance plane which was heavily used in the search for mh370. and indonesia now, reports of up to 12 surface vessels and helicopters, and reconnaissance planes heading into that area.
around the world. they express surprise we have not had any wreckage identified at all. also we have to take into account today was the first day the search really ramped up. we have 30 surface vessels in the area and 15 aircraft. people i spoke to say we could have news in the next couple of days. enormously frustrating and painful for the families here. the frustrations are growing. they want information and they want it now. the government and authorities at airasia cannot give it to them at the moment. andrewinndrewandrew thank you. more than 30 hours since the last contact with airasia flight 8501. more ships and planes and helicopters ss joining in the search. cnn s paula hancocks is joining
down somewhere not related to where that ping is? the surface vessels that are searching in terms of the black box and the pings will be looking in a distinct area. right. the area we re focusing on today is based on ocean modeling and drift markers, we dropped those several days ago. and it s actually showing that the currents in the area are not moving as much as we thought. so the separation of those two areas is not unusual. right. i understood your point. my colleague richard quest wanted to ask a question, commander. commander, richard here. help me if you can. why do you think, what is the prevailing thinking within the military on why no debris has been found so far? because ultimately, it really does come down to one of two things, doesn t it? either you re in the wrong area or it s not there and it s all gone down. what is the thinking? our job in terms of the
military coordination is not look in terms of the investigation itself. we ll leave that up to the investigation authorities. in terms of the search area that is being coordinated, we re looking in the area of most likely based on the evidence we have available to us for that search area. and likewise for the surface vessels and the submarine in the area that are looking for the ping. so it s credible evidence based on a combination of ocean modeling, drift, and all of the information that we have available to us. we re looking at about 20 original 20 search areas over the past several weeks, commander. are you feeling less optimistic? yesterday i was talking to the u.s. navy, and they said on the show, look, we haven t reacquired the signal. this is the most promising development we had, this possible ping. but they were losing optimism. are you? well, i think that earlier on, one of the australian authorities, the vice chief of defense force noted that it was like looking for a