Transcripts For CNNW At This Hour With Berman And Michaela 2

A female haas passenger has become the first victim to be identified and returned to her family. She was laid to rest a short time ago. Indonesian officials confirm nine of the 162 people who were on that flight have been recovered so far. Nine. Also luggage, pieces of stairs and other metal scraps were collected today floating in the java sea. But the horrible weather and rough seas have made these efforts extremely difficult. Right now the search is suspended because of the dark and dangerous conditions. Officials warn that the pinger locaters on those critical black boxes only have 25 days of Battery Power left. Were covering the story from every angle. Andrew stevens is at the new crisis member where family members in surabaya and indonesia. Any update on the shadow of an object they thought they saw in the water . Reporter this looks like it holds the key to the mystery of where the main fuselage is now on the bottom of the ocean and what actually happened in the lead up to how it got there. The short answer is, no, there was no new information. A few hours ago there was a tweet from tony fernandez, the ceo of airasia. He said im hoping the information is correct and the aircraft has been found. He tweeted this out about six or seven hours ago. Since then nothing. With repeated checks of the head of search and rescue saying we still dont know where that wreckage is. Theyre still trying to relocate it. Thats the frustrating part. Obviously the reason for this frustration is almost as if the search crews are having to work around the weather when theres a clear patch. Theres continues bands going through. When theres a clear patch, theyll do what they can. The winds whip up again, visibility drops, wave action picks up and they have to ride it out. They do have the acoustic listening devices. From what weve understand theyve only got one in the water at the moment. Painfully slow. This could continue to sunday. Its now thursday night. But until sunday before they get better conditions. Very very difficult to work in these conditions andrew. What about the identification process on the bodies . One identified so far. Reporter just to give you an idea of the progress on iding the victims as they come in theres been one positive id. That was the flight attendant. She was buried in a simple ceremony a few hours ago with family and friends in attendance at a cemetery close to her house. She was one of two first bodies to come to surabaya for identification more than 24 hours ago. Were told she actually had her i. D. Card on the clothes she was wearing at the time. She had a piece of jewelry with her name on it. So it would seem like it would be fairly simple task in identifying her. They did dna sampling. They or doing this because they have to be so cautious about getting the correct i. D. It is going to be a slow process even once the bodies have arrived here. The family has been asked for photos records if they have them any idea kaiing marks, jewelry or any samples which contain dna to get a match with. Thats what theyre doing behind me at this new Crisis Center. This is a Police Hospital which has been turned over as the disaster identification victim center. Going to take a long time as they come in. Its going to take days before we get start seeing more and more bodies coming in here. Very difficult for those families but new accommodations for them right there behind you. Andrew stevens in surabaya thank you so much. Well talk to you again late they are hour. The u. S. May be sending another ship to help in the search. The u. S. S. Ft. Worth is on standby to deploy to the search area if required. This ship the ft. Worth has a dive team and sonar which could be essential to the underwater search. Want to bring in our senior washington correspondent joe johns. Joe, how can this news vessel, if its asked to go how will the u. S. S. Ft. Worth help . The u. S. S. Ft. Worth is the second ship available to be deployed to the region to assist in the search. Its a u. S. Combat ship originally sent to singapore for a 16month deployment now apparently being repurposed if necessary, for the search and recovery mission. Ft. Worth is one of the newest vessels, on its first mission. Its side scan sonar should be useful for starters. U. S. S. Sampson, a guided missile destroyer is also out there available. The u. S. Has said it would send in aircraft a p8 poseidon aircraft with a very interesting and unique capability. It can do long range maritime reconnaissance. We dont know precisely how they plan to use it but it can be the controller of a fleet of drones as they look at very specific areas of the motion. Its also a war fighting plane. But in this mission, possible that the planes underwater Detection Capabilities could be called into play, including dropping sono buoys to locate debris. We know two dive teams are being offered to help out in the search. I was speaking to admiral kirby from the pentagon and he said theyre on stand bito do whatever the indonesians ask. Theyre just waiting to be asked. Once the wreckage all of it is located, especially the main fuselage a big, big chunk, how do you think they would approach getting that out of the water . First they have to map all the pieces. That of course could be an enormous job, just finding out where all the pieces of the plane might be scattered under water. After that its sort of lifting one piece out by crane and with the help of divers and they try to get it all assembled at least until they find the voice recorders, and that might help them know a little bit more about what happened here. And then they would have the opportunity to take select pieces out as they try to reconstruct the plane to show exactly what happened. Its very complex process. As you know using divers at that depth, it can takt quite a while because they have to use decompression chambers because those divers can only stay down for so long. Joe johns, thanks so much. One other factor thats complicating all this is the weather, extremely heavy seas right now. Lets get a sense of how that is affecting things and how things might change in the coming hours. Lets go to chad myers at the cnn weather center. Chad right now the search is suspended. Its nighttime. What are the conditions like for the divers . Well we have waves about 14 feet. And for even people looking over the deck just looking out there, all youre seeing is big waves and the wind at 20 or 30 Miles Per Hour so big white caps. Looking for white pieces of an airplane with white caps on top of the waves, not a pretty sight. Divers can get down in this weather. Ive been diving with 13 feet above me. Once you get in the water you dont feel that 13foot wave above you, its nice and calm down there. Thats going to be helpful. The water gets turbid when you start to blow 13foot waves all over the shore, you start to lose visibility. You lose the depth of your visibility maybe only five or eight feet. Kind of a rough day today, we had showers and thunderstorms most of the after none and now camming down as it always does at night. You want it to go the other way. Here in this part of the world, right now at least its not doing that. It gets nice at night and it gets ugly during the day. Were expecting that again for the next few days. I dont think we get better until sunday. Better is still only going to be a relative term. It isnt going to get flat. Were not going to see a glassy sea out there because were in monsoon season. Were in a time with the intertropical convergence zone is right over this area. There will be storms every day. You have to work your way in between them. There we go all the way through saturday. For the next 48 hours, you line it up thats about three inches of rainfall. Rainfall doesnt seem like a big deal over the ocean and its not. If its raining, there are clouds. If the clouds are thick enough theyre low enough. You cant see anything from an airplane. Youre losing visibility from above as well. We did have a Tropical Storm in the philippines that could drop moisture into the area. Not expecting anything here. This is clouds all the way from india all the way back to indonesia and micro nesia. This is right in the middle of where these storms are supposed to be this time of year. It could be until sunday unl until they get enough of a clearing to get the work under way. Thanks for being with us. Ahead for us this hour, piecing together the clues. The subject of clues, newly leaked data shows an incredibly steep incline before flight 8501 dropped from the sky. Does this support the theory that the plane staumd . Post your questions on our Facebook Page or tweet us to 8501qs. vo nourished. Rescued. Protected. Given new hope. During the subaru share the love event, subaru owners feel it, too. Because when you take home a new subaru we donate 250 dollars to helping those in need. Well have given 50 Million Dollars over seven years. Love. Its what makes a subaru a subaru. Thanks. [ male announcer ] fedex® has solutions to enable Global Commerce that can help your company grow steadily and quickly. Great job. mandarin cut it out. See you tomorrow. Huh, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Yeah, Everybody Knows that. Well, did you know that playing cards with kenny rogers gets old pretty fast . You got to know when to holdem. Know when to fold em. Know when to walk away. Know when to run. You never count your money, when youre sitting at the ta. What . You get it . I get the gist yeah. Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Announcer every day across america, excess food is gathered by a network of good people at local food banks, giving hope to millions of children who struggle with hunger. Theyve earned their wings. And you can, too. Together we can solve child hunger. Support feeding america and your local food bank at feedingamerica. Org. At this hour search teams trying to pinpoint the location of airasia flight 8501 in the java sea. Once it is found, the next counting task begins. Every piece of the plane could tell an important story. Aviation experts showed our Stephanie Elam just how this process works. Reporter to find out what brought down a plane. Youve got to bite this a small bite at a time. Reporter investigators look to the wreckage and not just the black boxes for clues. I will never have all the parts, never. But the more parts i get, its like a mosaic. The more bits i can put into the mosaic the better the picture will be the better i can come up with an understanding of what happened. When a plane crashes into the water like airasia flight 8501 that task is a more difficult endeavor. Crash on land is much easier because the parts stay where they landed. In the water youre working with currents and winds. So the pieces wont be where they have the initial impact. The deeper the water, the more difficult. Other accidents that happened in shallow water, we got most of the pieces back. Deep water we have a very very hard time doing that. Reporter take malaysia air 370, the missing 777 is believed by many to be somewhere at the bottom of the indian ocean. By examining other crashes, investigators can deduce what likely happened if the massive plane did crash into the water. In this case the primary energy this wreckage was absorbed by the right front cockpit. It has two jet engines just like the malaysian aircraft. But, in fact its 10,000 pounds versus the 777 which was 600,000 pounds 60 times larger. If it broke up that debris field on the bottom of the sea floor would be massive. Youre absolutely right. This is a wing that crashed into the waut sgler whats important to us here is tracing the front leading edge of this right wing. It looks like it struck some object. In fact this wing hit the water, the water being a very very hard surface when you hit it fast. So if youre talking about a 777 hitting the water, it would be immensely more noticeable. That 777 would be moving at much higher speed than this aircraft here. Therefore, the energy would be greater. Reporter yet even with all the pieces investigators are able to mutt back together if they dont recover the part of the plane that failed in flight the cause of the crash may remain a mystery. Stephanie elam, cnn, los angeles. We want to talk more with retired colonel Ken Christiansen an aviation consultant. Also joining us former faa safety inspector david soucie he has a new look malaysia air flights flight 370. Yes, in that story an aviation expert said how important it is to know the planes speed. Lets talk about an article in the Sydney Morning Herald an analyst claiming to use leaked information saying the airasia jet was like a piece of metal being thrown down. Its really hard to comprehend. The way it goes down is bordering on the edge of logic. This analyst was puzzled by the extremely low ground speed he saw, saying the plane was descending at the same speed as a car on the highway. Cnn doesnt have this information independent right now. David soucie if its true if its accurate what does it tell you about what happened here . Well its hard to say because of the fact that they said ground speed. Ground speed is just simply that, how fast youre traveling over the ground. If you have a 200 knot head wind youll be traveling in an airplane at 264 knots. On the ground speed, only 64 knots. It sounds confusing. You have to subtract. Everything is relative in the air. It has nothing to do with the air. It has nothing to do with the ground. Either the aircraft was so slow it couldnt maintain flight or it can tell you there was an extremely high head wind he was flying into which would appear on the ground he would be going slow. Ground speed in and of itself doesnt tell us enough. We need to know more. Colonel, what about the incline . This article says that the plane appeared to be climbing at an almost impossibly steep lift. Well the steep angle which it appeared the plane could have another scenario from david is the plane stalled. If the plane was at altitude and then it stalled at that high deck angle or high angle of attack the plane would fall. There is some forward if the vector is going this way, then there is forward airspeed on the aircraft. It would appear it was going as fast as a car, but, in fact it was also falling vertically at over 10,000 feet a minute. This is much like the air france jet when it had a high nose altitude and fell like a leaf. It continued to fall and that fall rate was between 10,000 and 12,000 feet per minute. That only takes four 4 30 from altitude to impact the water. What about the location of the debris field as we know it . More than 100 miles from the point of last radar contact. Would that concur then with this theory . It could. The pilot could have initiated a turn. Dont forget the pilot is going about eight miles a minute through the air. When they are turning and then the winds aloft, it was very violent weather up there. They could have also deviated from course. In two minutes thats 16 miles. They might not have gotten air Traffic Controls okay but theyre allowed to deviate without air Traffic Controls consent. There could be a mixture of him turning, air Traffic Control not talking and after the incident or if there was an inflight breakup, some of the debris field floated down. They still dont have any pings in the black boxes. We understand from Andrew Stevens that he did think at one point they did have one of the locaters one of the sonar locaters in the water. Theyve had a hard time obviously because of the conditions. Are you surprised at this point that we havent heard reports of any pings . Not really. Theyre really not looking for pings yet. How the process works would be the sonar identifies an object. At the point which they identify that object which they apparently have now but we dont have confirmation at that point they start looking for the black boxes. The underwater locater beacons are strictly to find the black box itself. Until that search starts. In other words, they may have found the aircraft broken into enough piece, once youre in that approximate vicinity how do you find whether the boxes broke loose and left the area or still attached to the aircraft. In the case of mh370, we used them for much more than that trying to locate them. We have 25 days left on the batteries. Any reason for undue concern or rush beyond what theyre doing right now . No. Mh370 we were confirmed because we had reliable information that the batteries could have been stored improperly so we would have had less than 30 days. In this case we dont have any evidence of that. We would expect it to go 30 days to as much as 45 days according to the manufacturer. Colonel, i want to shift to the bodies. Its a grim gruesome subject. Nine bodies right now recovered from the water. Are you surprised at all that number hasnt been higher . And the fact it hasnt been higher what might that tell you . The fact that it hasnt been higher can tell you a couple things. If the aircraft actually had an inflight breakup, some of the people could have remained strapped in their seats and when the airplane impacted the water, theyre still in the pieces of the aircraft. So if you had an airplane and it broke in half much like twa flight 800, some people are in the nose section and theyre protected from wind blast as theyre falling down. The people in the back of the airplane where it cracked, theyre subjected to wind blast. You might have a fix of recovered bodies some are clothed and some are not clothed. That will point to inflight breakup. That will also be vitally important to see just how vast the debris field is for the wreckage. So all these things you have to piece together to see what was causal in the aircraft accident. Right now the biggest obstacle is the weather. Thanks so much for being with us. Stick around. Later in the show well have you answers questions from our viewers. Ahead for us this hour, jeb bush with new years political drama, announcing overnight he has cut corporate ties. Could an official announcement for 2016 be next . From the surprised designers. Who came to the rescue with a brilliant fix male designer i love it narrator which created thousands of new customers for the tennis shoes that got torture tested by teenagers. The internet of everything is changing manufacturing. Is your Network Ready . Nine body haves been most people rang in the new year at a party or alone in their pajamas. Not judging. Jeb bush did it by taking a fascinating new step toward the 2016 president ial race. It really does look like he is in or awfully close to it. Why . Well he just stepped down from several of the corporate and nonprofit board memberships that he was on including rayonier Battery Power<\/a> left. Were covering the story from every angle. Andrew stevens is at the new crisis member where family members in surabaya and indonesia. Any update on the shadow of an object they thought they saw in the water . Reporter this looks like it holds the key to the mystery of where the main fuselage is now on the bottom of the ocean and what actually happened in the lead up to how it got there. The short answer is, no, there was no new information. A few hours ago there was a tweet from tony fernandez, the ceo of airasia. He said im hoping the information is correct and the aircraft has been found. He tweeted this out about six or seven hours ago. Since then nothing. With repeated checks of the head of search and rescue saying we still dont know where that wreckage is. Theyre still trying to relocate it. Thats the frustrating part. Obviously the reason for this frustration is almost as if the search crews are having to work around the weather when theres a clear patch. Theres continues bands going through. When theres a clear patch, theyll do what they can. The winds whip up again, visibility drops, wave action picks up and they have to ride it out. They do have the acoustic listening devices. From what weve understand theyve only got one in the water at the moment. Painfully slow. This could continue to sunday. Its now thursday night. But until sunday before they get better conditions. Very very difficult to work in these conditions andrew. What about the identification process on the bodies . One identified so far. Reporter just to give you an idea of the progress on iding the victims as they come in theres been one positive id. That was the flight attendant. She was buried in a simple ceremony a few hours ago with family and friends in attendance at a cemetery close to her house. She was one of two first bodies to come to surabaya for identification more than 24 hours ago. Were told she actually had her i. D. Card on the clothes she was wearing at the time. She had a piece of jewelry with her name on it. So it would seem like it would be fairly simple task in identifying her. They did dna sampling. They or doing this because they have to be so cautious about getting the correct i. D. It is going to be a slow process even once the bodies have arrived here. The family has been asked for photos records if they have them any idea kaiing marks, jewelry or any samples which contain dna to get a match with. Thats what theyre doing behind me at this new Crisis Center<\/a>. This is a Police Hospital<\/a> which has been turned over as the disaster identification victim center. Going to take a long time as they come in. Its going to take days before we get start seeing more and more bodies coming in here. Very difficult for those families but new accommodations for them right there behind you. Andrew stevens in surabaya thank you so much. Well talk to you again late they are hour. The u. S. May be sending another ship to help in the search. The u. S. S. Ft. Worth is on standby to deploy to the search area if required. This ship the ft. Worth has a dive team and sonar which could be essential to the underwater search. Want to bring in our senior washington correspondent joe johns. Joe, how can this news vessel, if its asked to go how will the u. S. S. Ft. Worth help . The u. S. S. Ft. Worth is the second ship available to be deployed to the region to assist in the search. Its a u. S. Combat ship originally sent to singapore for a 16month deployment now apparently being repurposed if necessary, for the search and recovery mission. Ft. Worth is one of the newest vessels, on its first mission. Its side scan sonar should be useful for starters. U. S. S. Sampson, a guided missile destroyer is also out there available. The u. S. Has said it would send in aircraft a p8 poseidon aircraft with a very interesting and unique capability. It can do long range maritime reconnaissance. We dont know precisely how they plan to use it but it can be the controller of a fleet of drones as they look at very specific areas of the motion. Its also a war fighting plane. But in this mission, possible that the planes underwater Detection Capabilities<\/a> could be called into play, including dropping sono buoys to locate debris. We know two dive teams are being offered to help out in the search. I was speaking to admiral kirby from the pentagon and he said theyre on stand bito do whatever the indonesians ask. Theyre just waiting to be asked. Once the wreckage all of it is located, especially the main fuselage a big, big chunk, how do you think they would approach getting that out of the water . First they have to map all the pieces. That of course could be an enormous job, just finding out where all the pieces of the plane might be scattered under water. After that its sort of lifting one piece out by crane and with the help of divers and they try to get it all assembled at least until they find the voice recorders, and that might help them know a little bit more about what happened here. And then they would have the opportunity to take select pieces out as they try to reconstruct the plane to show exactly what happened. Its very complex process. As you know using divers at that depth, it can takt quite a while because they have to use decompression chambers because those divers can only stay down for so long. Joe johns, thanks so much. One other factor thats complicating all this is the weather, extremely heavy seas right now. Lets get a sense of how that is affecting things and how things might change in the coming hours. Lets go to chad myers at the cnn weather center. Chad right now the search is suspended. Its nighttime. What are the conditions like for the divers . Well we have waves about 14 feet. And for even people looking over the deck just looking out there, all youre seeing is big waves and the wind at 20 or 30 Miles Per Hour<\/a> so big white caps. Looking for white pieces of an airplane with white caps on top of the waves, not a pretty sight. Divers can get down in this weather. Ive been diving with 13 feet above me. Once you get in the water you dont feel that 13foot wave above you, its nice and calm down there. Thats going to be helpful. The water gets turbid when you start to blow 13foot waves all over the shore, you start to lose visibility. You lose the depth of your visibility maybe only five or eight feet. Kind of a rough day today, we had showers and thunderstorms most of the after none and now camming down as it always does at night. You want it to go the other way. Here in this part of the world, right now at least its not doing that. It gets nice at night and it gets ugly during the day. Were expecting that again for the next few days. I dont think we get better until sunday. Better is still only going to be a relative term. It isnt going to get flat. Were not going to see a glassy sea out there because were in monsoon season. Were in a time with the intertropical convergence zone is right over this area. There will be storms every day. You have to work your way in between them. There we go all the way through saturday. For the next 48 hours, you line it up thats about three inches of rainfall. Rainfall doesnt seem like a big deal over the ocean and its not. If its raining, there are clouds. If the clouds are thick enough theyre low enough. You cant see anything from an airplane. Youre losing visibility from above as well. We did have a Tropical Storm<\/a> in the philippines that could drop moisture into the area. Not expecting anything here. This is clouds all the way from india all the way back to indonesia and micro nesia. This is right in the middle of where these storms are supposed to be this time of year. It could be until sunday unl until they get enough of a clearing to get the work under way. Thanks for being with us. Ahead for us this hour, piecing together the clues. The subject of clues, newly leaked data shows an incredibly steep incline before flight 8501 dropped from the sky. Does this support the theory that the plane staumd . Post your questions on our Facebook Page<\/a> or tweet us to 8501qs. vo nourished. Rescued. Protected. Given new hope. During the subaru share the love event, subaru owners feel it, too. Because when you take home a new subaru we donate 250 dollars to helping those in need. Well have given 50 Million Dollars<\/a> over seven years. Love. Its what makes a subaru a subaru. Thanks. [ male announcer ] fedex\u00ae has solutions to enable Global Commerce<\/a> that can help your company grow steadily and quickly. Great job. mandarin cut it out. See you tomorrow. Huh, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Yeah, Everybody Knows<\/a> that. Well, did you know that playing cards with kenny rogers gets old pretty fast . You got to know when to holdem. Know when to fold em. Know when to walk away. Know when to run. You never count your money, when youre sitting at the ta. What . You get it . I get the gist yeah. Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Announcer every day across america, excess food is gathered by a network of good people at local food banks, giving hope to millions of children who struggle with hunger. Theyve earned their wings. And you can, too. Together we can solve child hunger. Support feeding america and your local food bank at feedingamerica. Org. At this hour search teams trying to pinpoint the location of airasia flight 8501 in the java sea. Once it is found, the next counting task begins. Every piece of the plane could tell an important story. Aviation experts showed our Stephanie Elam<\/a> just how this process works. Reporter to find out what brought down a plane. Youve got to bite this a small bite at a time. Reporter investigators look to the wreckage and not just the black boxes for clues. I will never have all the parts, never. But the more parts i get, its like a mosaic. The more bits i can put into the mosaic the better the picture will be the better i can come up with an understanding of what happened. When a plane crashes into the water like airasia flight 8501 that task is a more difficult endeavor. Crash on land is much easier because the parts stay where they landed. In the water youre working with currents and winds. So the pieces wont be where they have the initial impact. The deeper the water, the more difficult. Other accidents that happened in shallow water, we got most of the pieces back. Deep water we have a very very hard time doing that. Reporter take malaysia air 370, the missing 777 is believed by many to be somewhere at the bottom of the indian ocean. By examining other crashes, investigators can deduce what likely happened if the massive plane did crash into the water. In this case the primary energy this wreckage was absorbed by the right front cockpit. It has two jet engines just like the malaysian aircraft. But, in fact its 10,000 pounds versus the 777 which was 600,000 pounds 60 times larger. If it broke up that debris field on the bottom of the sea floor would be massive. Youre absolutely right. This is a wing that crashed into the waut sgler whats important to us here is tracing the front leading edge of this right wing. It looks like it struck some object. In fact this wing hit the water, the water being a very very hard surface when you hit it fast. So if youre talking about a 777 hitting the water, it would be immensely more noticeable. That 777 would be moving at much higher speed than this aircraft here. Therefore, the energy would be greater. Reporter yet even with all the pieces investigators are able to mutt back together if they dont recover the part of the plane that failed in flight the cause of the crash may remain a mystery. Stephanie elam, cnn, los angeles. We want to talk more with retired colonel Ken Christiansen<\/a> an aviation consultant. Also joining us former faa safety inspector david soucie he has a new look malaysia air flights flight 370. Yes, in that story an aviation expert said how important it is to know the planes speed. Lets talk about an article in the Sydney Morning Herald<\/a> an analyst claiming to use leaked information saying the airasia jet was like a piece of metal being thrown down. Its really hard to comprehend. The way it goes down is bordering on the edge of logic. This analyst was puzzled by the extremely low ground speed he saw, saying the plane was descending at the same speed as a car on the highway. Cnn doesnt have this information independent right now. David soucie if its true if its accurate what does it tell you about what happened here . Well its hard to say because of the fact that they said ground speed. Ground speed is just simply that, how fast youre traveling over the ground. If you have a 200 knot head wind youll be traveling in an airplane at 264 knots. On the ground speed, only 64 knots. It sounds confusing. You have to subtract. Everything is relative in the air. It has nothing to do with the air. It has nothing to do with the ground. Either the aircraft was so slow it couldnt maintain flight or it can tell you there was an extremely high head wind he was flying into which would appear on the ground he would be going slow. Ground speed in and of itself doesnt tell us enough. We need to know more. Colonel, what about the incline . This article says that the plane appeared to be climbing at an almost impossibly steep lift. Well the steep angle which it appeared the plane could have another scenario from david is the plane stalled. If the plane was at altitude and then it stalled at that high deck angle or high angle of attack the plane would fall. There is some forward if the vector is going this way, then there is forward airspeed on the aircraft. It would appear it was going as fast as a car, but, in fact it was also falling vertically at over 10,000 feet a minute. This is much like the air france jet when it had a high nose altitude and fell like a leaf. It continued to fall and that fall rate was between 10,000 and 12,000 feet per minute. That only takes four 4 30 from altitude to impact the water. What about the location of the debris field as we know it . More than 100 miles from the point of last radar contact. Would that concur then with this theory . It could. The pilot could have initiated a turn. Dont forget the pilot is going about eight miles a minute through the air. When they are turning and then the winds aloft, it was very violent weather up there. They could have also deviated from course. In two minutes thats 16 miles. They might not have gotten air Traffic Control<\/a>s okay but theyre allowed to deviate without air Traffic Control<\/a>s consent. There could be a mixture of him turning, air Traffic Control<\/a> not talking and after the incident or if there was an inflight breakup, some of the debris field floated down. They still dont have any pings in the black boxes. We understand from Andrew Stevens<\/a> that he did think at one point they did have one of the locaters one of the sonar locaters in the water. Theyve had a hard time obviously because of the conditions. Are you surprised at this point that we havent heard reports of any pings . Not really. Theyre really not looking for pings yet. How the process works would be the sonar identifies an object. At the point which they identify that object which they apparently have now but we dont have confirmation at that point they start looking for the black boxes. The underwater locater beacons are strictly to find the black box itself. Until that search starts. In other words, they may have found the aircraft broken into enough piece, once youre in that approximate vicinity how do you find whether the boxes broke loose and left the area or still attached to the aircraft. In the case of mh370, we used them for much more than that trying to locate them. We have 25 days left on the batteries. Any reason for undue concern or rush beyond what theyre doing right now . No. Mh370 we were confirmed because we had reliable information that the batteries could have been stored improperly so we would have had less than 30 days. In this case we dont have any evidence of that. We would expect it to go 30 days to as much as 45 days according to the manufacturer. Colonel, i want to shift to the bodies. Its a grim gruesome subject. Nine bodies right now recovered from the water. Are you surprised at all that number hasnt been higher . And the fact it hasnt been higher what might that tell you . The fact that it hasnt been higher can tell you a couple things. If the aircraft actually had an inflight breakup, some of the people could have remained strapped in their seats and when the airplane impacted the water, theyre still in the pieces of the aircraft. So if you had an airplane and it broke in half much like twa flight 800, some people are in the nose section and theyre protected from wind blast as theyre falling down. The people in the back of the airplane where it cracked, theyre subjected to wind blast. You might have a fix of recovered bodies some are clothed and some are not clothed. That will point to inflight breakup. That will also be vitally important to see just how vast the debris field is for the wreckage. So all these things you have to piece together to see what was causal in the aircraft accident. Right now the biggest obstacle is the weather. Thanks so much for being with us. Stick around. Later in the show well have you answers questions from our viewers. Ahead for us this hour, jeb bush with new years political drama, announcing overnight he has cut corporate ties. Could an official announcement for 2016 be next . From the surprised designers. Who came to the rescue with a brilliant fix male designer i love it narrator which created thousands of new customers for the tennis shoes that got torture tested by teenagers. The internet of everything is changing manufacturing. Is your Network Ready<\/a> . Nine body haves been most people rang in the new year at a party or alone in their pajamas. Not judging. Jeb bush did it by taking a fascinating new step toward the 2016 president ial race. It really does look like he is in or awfully close to it. Why . Well he just stepped down from several of the corporate and nonprofit board memberships that he was on including rayonier Tenet Health Care<\/a> corporation, bark lays. Reporter and court matrix cardiovascular incorporated. If you leave, it must definitely mean youre running for president. Lets bring in suzanne malveaux. You dont quit your jobs that have been paying you a lot of money unless youre awfully serious about Something Like<\/a> say, running for president. Reporter thats a good bet there. He is getting awfully close here. He might have done it john in his pajamas. Making this announcement last night certainly sounds like a new years resolution. Its one thing to do to get rid of business interests so theres not conflict of interest if you become a public official. His spokesperson saying hes devoting the time necessary to explore this return to politics potential return to politics. John he es also done some things that has raised some eyebrows. Lost nearly 20 pounds. He has formed a pac, released 250,000 emails as governor and also writing an ebook. Hes very busy. It was a couple weeks ago that i covered the story and we were talking about it. You have a 61yearold former twoterm Florida Governor<\/a> who posts on facebook. He says i have decided to actively explore the possibility of running for president of the united states. So you can imagine with all the speculation about him as well as hillary clinton, that this is going to be potentially a showdown the possibility of this bushclinton showdown, its got the political world here just spinning. Of course an interesting development, also. The whole political world was spinning for a few weeks before he made the announcement. Once he did, we talked a lot about it. Inevitably it pumped up his poll numbers, now leading the republican field according to the latest cnn orc poll 23 , the first lead in our polling outside the statistical margin of error. It doesnt mean hes going to hold on to it does it . Reporter not necessarily. There are a couple things working for and against him. Hes very popular with the party establishment, he brings in big donors speaks fluent spanish. Governor of the state needed to capture the presidency florida. He faces a lot of criticism from his own par uity. Conservatives see him as too moderate on Immigration Reform<\/a> on education and Something Interesting<\/a> happening this month. Bush has declined an invitation to speak at a political event at the end of the month by the iowa freedom summit. Organized by bigtime conservative representative stephen king who has been on our air many times, one of the most vocal critics of Immigration Reform<\/a>. You a half dozen potential contenders there at the summit. It reflects how important this is iowa as well as the home of the president caucus bush will not be there. He says its a conflict with his schedule. It obviously sets him apart from the rest of the pack. Always very interesting when you see a politician not going to iowa when theyre considering running for president. Suzanne malveaux thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it. Happy new year. In shanghai what started off as a huge celebration with bright lights and music turned into a deadly evening. A stampede at a waterfront celebration crushed dozens of people killing 36. Authorities are still investigating the cause behind this. One witness told Chinese Media<\/a> it started with people chaetsing after coupons dropped from a building. Apparently they thought they may have been dollar bills. The wife of a Georgia Police<\/a> chief is in Critical Condition<\/a> with a gunshot wound this morning. The police chief has been placed on administrative leave. He was just named peach tree citys police chief in october. The town is a suburb of atlanta. Police havent said how mccullums wife was shot. Possible Security Breach<\/a> is sbg bg investigated at chikfila. The fast food chain says its working with Law Enforcement<\/a> involving card payments used at a few restaurants. They didnt specify which restaurants or locations. It says customers will not be liable for any fraudulent charges and they will be provided free Identity Protection<\/a> if a breach is confirmed. A woman went into labor on a Delta Air Lines<\/a> flight from San Francisco<\/a> to minneapolis. They diverted landed in Salt Lake City<\/a> and rushed her to the hospital before the baby was born. The pediatrician on board and the local Fire Department<\/a> pitched in to help. Both the mother and baby are doing fine. Double frequent flier miles, by the way. For us this hour, well go to the Crisis Center<\/a> in surabaya and indonesia for new developments in the search for victims and debris from flight 8501. Stay with us. The Holiday Season<\/a> is here, which means its time for the volkswagen signthendrive event. For practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays in a germanengineered volkswagen. Like the sporty, advanced new jetta. And the 2015 motor trend car of the year allnew golf. If youre wishing for a new volkswagen this season. Just about all you need is a finely tuned. Pen. Hurry in to the sign then drive event and get a fivehundred dollar new years bonus on select new volkswagen models. Offer ends january 2nd. New developments this morning, the search for victims and wreckage of flight 8501. A female passenger has become the first victim of the crash to be identified and returned to her family. She was laid to rest just a short time ago. I understand knees officials confirm that nine of the 162 people on the flight have been recovered so far. Luggage, pieces of stair and other metal straps were also collected today floating in the java sea, but the weather has been really rough. Rough seas have made these efforts extremely difficult. Right now the search has been suspended because of the dark and dangerous conditions. Andrew stevens is at the new Crisis Center<\/a> for family members in surabaya, indonesia. Andrew what is the latest on the search not just for the fuselage but also the black boxes . Reporter the sad news the bad news is the weather is bad and its going to stay bad. Were hearing this terrible weather will continue through perhaps sunday. Its now thursday evening here. Searchers are having to work between the bands of weather coming through. Were told that in the search zone today waves getting up to four meters 15 feet high. Strong winds, strong driving rain which cuts visibility of course. Divers couldnt get into the water. So they couldnt get into the area where they think their may be that large object which was seen from an aerial reconnaissance a couple days ago. They havent been able to fully locate it and find out what it is. Divers havent been able to get into the water. Divers are still on land. Many of the diving teams still on land because they cant get choppers out to the naval ships in the zone. So john disappointing bitter news for the families as they wait for what looks now for the remains of their loved ones to make their way back here to surabaya. We have said and reported that one victim has already been identified. Andrew i understand she has already been laid to rest. Reporter thats right. She was a 49yearold passenger on that flight. She was one of two, the first two victims brought back here to the Police Hospital<\/a> where we are now, where the new Crisis Center<\/a> is for identification yesterday. Both the remaining arriving yesterday. She was identified more than 24 hours later. Theyve been very very careful in the identification process to make sure theyve got it exactly right. Dental records are being used. She actually had a piece of jewelry, a very easily defined piece of jewelry which helped the identification process. We understand dna was still used there. The remains were handed over to her family in same but solemn ceremony here. The mayor of the citity was in attendance. The remains were taken to her village where she was buried. About 150 people were at the funeral, a simple muslim funeral. She was buried red flowers sprinkled over the grave. Obviously a devastating time for all heifer friends and family. Remember that is the first victim to be laid to rest 162 passengers on that flight 162 passengers and crew on that flight john. So many other families will go through this in the coming days and weeks. Andrew stevens, thanks for being with us. If you have questions about the investigation into 8501 tweet us 8501qs. Well bring in the experts and answer those questions just ahead. Dramatic footage showing north koreas leader kim jongun in command. Is this his response to the interview that caused so much controversy. And well talk about a wonderful film robert ebert. This will change your mind in the way you look at him and open your mind to so many things. Stay with us. You can easily buy and Schedule Services<\/a> from toprated providers. Conveniently stay up to date on progress. And effortlessly turn your photos into finished projects with our angies list app. Visit angieslist. Com today. Happening now, the search for airasia flight 8501 has been suspended because of the dark and dangerous conditions in the java sea. Teams did collect more evidence today including two blag bags a gray suitcase pieces of stairs and other metal straps. Time is of the essence here. The pingers, of course, designed to lead searchers to the black boxes. They have power for about 25 more days at this point before they go dead. Want to bring back aviation consultant and retired air force Lieutenant Colonel<\/a> Ken Christiansen<\/a> and also our aviation analyst david soucie is with us. I want to go to viewer questions. Could the aircraft have suffered a massive decompression rendering the crew unconscious and unable to react . I dont see any evidence that points that that right now, john. That would look completely different. That would be a plane flying on its own for a long period of time. It may be or if it lost control and the auto pilot is off, the airplane would have performed differently. I think were looking at something more specific. We have enough information to rule that one out, i believe. Colonel, this is a question because the plane we know the pilot is asked to fly above a storm, to raise their altitude. How high does a plane need to go to avoid storms like this . In that region of the world, that particular plane cannot top a thunderstorm. Those thunderstorms are going in excess of 55,000 feet with those temperatures and the upward lifting development, that plane isnt even certified to fly that high. The other thing is when the plane continues to climb, the performance envelope of the plane reduces. Its limited on bank angle. You just dont have the controllability at those altitudes that you would at lower altitudes. In addition if theres any turbulent air, that can put the plane into an upset condition or where a plane actually departs controlled flight. David, there was no way to top this storm, going as high as 50,000 feet. There were reports that there were other planes flying at higher altitude. Why could things be better at 34 or 36,000 than they were at 32,000 feet . It has to do with where the hot air and cold air mix and the fact theyre turbulent, changing the places moving. Thats what creates the winds and those sorts of things. If that mixes below a certain altitude. The aircraft that flew through the turbulence before would know its fairly stable. It could be going on at 32,000 feet for example. How you know, the pilots communicate through air traffic and say i was at 38,000 feet ten minutes ago and it was night and smooth. Maybe want to be where the other planes were and perhaps have a safer ride. Colonel, third question from our viewers, why isnt a plane equipped to automatically send distress signals when it as skrends too fast or spins out of control. Thats a good question . I think thats an excellent question. I was on state of the union with Candy Crowley<\/a> and we were talking about this during the malaysia flight. Ive said this before if we can find my iphone from a computer why cant we do this with an aircraft . The emergency locater transmitter is very good. The underwater locater beacon is very good. But we really need a popcorn trail or a trail of that airplane that continually transmits its position right up to the point where you lose all electrical power. These items can be autonomous and installed in the aircraft. But there has to be regulation paths to do this. The airlines because of their shareholders and everything theyre not going to self initiate that. Thats why you have aviation policy. I think between the malaysia crash, certainly the air france crash and now this one, i think theres enough momentum and pressure for regulation change on this. In fact david, the airasia fleet is being upgraded with some more Realtime Tracking<\/a> options. This plane had not been changed yet. This specifically what this viewer is skl about is some equipment frnths if there is some massive disruption or you hit the water really fast, beacons that automatically go off at that point. There are some, but theyre inaccurate. You have emergency locater transmitters activated by deceleration. This aircraft didnt even have the satellite imagery. It is something with a low fare carrier not having the frills. Theyre not really frills. Somebody wrote me about something we talked about before. One of the things they found in the water is the emergency exit door. Thats led people to ask a lot of questions. Did someone pop the door to try to get out . Just because you see an emergency exit door floating in the water, does that mean necessarily that someone had to open it . That in itself doesnt. Its the other evidence that shows to me it mostly was, and the reason that is theres no other debris around it. In order for that door to be on the outside of the aircraft it has to have gone through the structure. In order for that to happen, the structure had to break into pieces. The structure is floating industrial. If that were the case where it broke ap past we would find other evidence. The ocean is not smart enough to filter out the things that only have to do with that emergency exit door. There would be other things there. David soucie colonel Ken Christiansen<\/a> always a pleasure to see you. Thank you so much. Ahead, north koreas prop canada machine gears up after the release of the interview. Kim jongun appears to be flighting an airplane. Whats that all about . Later a documentary about a truly brilliant man, roger ebert. Well look at the fascinating last few months of his life in a fascinating new project in cnn films. Stay with us. Go to aarp. Org possibilities to check out life reimagined for tools, support, and connections. If you dont think ive still got it when you think aarp, then you dont know aarp. Find more surprising possibilities and get to know us at aarp. Org possibilities. The film at the center of so much controversy will be available to 55 million more americans. Sony reduced the interview. It will cost you 5. 99. If you want to pay much much more than that you will also get the chance. The film will be released in hundreds of theaters across the country starting tomorrow. The subject of that film rnths north korean liter kim jongun gave a new years address today. He said that he would be willing to speak with south to be hard at work trying to counter the film showing kim jung unpiloting a plane. Dramatic footage released by the regime shows the north Korean Leader<\/a> sitting in a cockpit, reviewing the checklist, and powering down the runway appearing to lift the jet smoothly into the sky. Kim, supervised by a copilot, miraculously appears to land the plane with one hand. North koreas Propaganda Machine<\/a> in overdrive to portray kim as in control after u. S. Release of the interview. Is that real . Which the regime called a mockery of his dignity. I think they want to give that impression to the world that they are strong and invincible but beneath that is a great deal of insecurity insecurity justifiably based on the economic situation, based on the fact that the whole political regime is built on a system of lies. North koreans cant see the comic story of a plot to assassinate kim. You want to kill kim jongun . Totally. If a south korean activist has his way, attack on sony. Weather north korea was truly behind it president obama still promising payback. I do think that the cycle of provocations with north korea is inevitable i certainly believe that the movie helps us speed up that process. The leadership transition even though it is two years old in north korea, is still far from complete. If the leadership feels so insecure about a hollywood movie that makes fun of of course i think in the beginning it was very even if its speaking of honest, clearly as we were talking about before. One of the most haunting parts of the film for me was when you explore death with him and he embraces it he says hes excited for this part of his life the dying part. Yeah for me, what i loved about that was not only his sort of spirit in the face of death, but also its a statement about his life. How have you kept your spirits up . I have zeroed in on my work. When im seeing a movie or writing a review that makes me feel good you know how they talk about being in a zone when youre doing something youre good at you get in the zone. It sort of pushes your troubles to the back of your mind. I think that roger probably early on kind of grasped that his life was like a movie in a deep and interesting way. Sometimes its a comedy sometimes it was a drama, sometimes it was an adventure, and sometimes it was a tragedy. It is an extraordinary documentary makes its tv debut this weekend. Please watch, set your dvr right now, sunday night it airs at 9 00 eastern right here on cnn. Thanks for watching us at this hour legal view begins after a quick break. Get ready for some german engineered holiday excitement. At the volkswagen signthendrive event. Right now, for practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays in a new volkswagen. Like the sporty, advanced new jetta and the precisely engineered passat tdi. Ah, the gift of clean diesel. For the new volkswagen on your list this year just about all you need, is a pen. Festive, isnt it . Hurry in to the sign then drive event and get a fivehundred dollar new years bonus on select new volkswagen models. Offer ends january 2nd. Hello, everyone im Deborah Feyerick<\/a> in for ashleigh banfield. Welcome to legal view. It is dangerous, pain staking, High Pressure<\/a> work and search teams frustrated by bad weather would like nothing more than to get on with it. New years day produced few new discovers. You wouldnt know it from scenes like these, but weather over the search zone was once again terrible, sending helicopters home and keeping divers onboard their ships. To date the remains of 9 of the 162 passengers and crew have been recovered and eight have been flown ashore. One woman has now been identified. She was pulled from the sea on tuesday. 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