Burnett. The United States navy headed to the java sea joined the search for flight 8501 that has just resumed as day breaks in asia. At this hour cnn has learn the guided missile destroyer, the uss samson is on the way part of an International Force that includes some 15 planes and 30 ships. It will be if first of air, sea and underwater assets coming from the u. S. So far still no sign of the missing plane. Four areas were add after the search sunday and monday turned up nothing. Cloudy skies and large waves have hampered the search so far. The plane was an air us about a320. It was en route from surabaya to singapore when it disappeared early sunday morning in the skies over the java sea with 162 passengers and crews on board. The floor is flat muddy and degeneresly no more than 150 feet long. Tonight well tell what you we know about it. And examine the questions investigators are trying to answer. One, how dangerous was the weather the flight flew into . Can the a320, a plane that millions of americans fly every year safely navigate such storms . And crucially now, how hard it will be to find this plane so we can learn what brought it down . While this still officially remains a search and rescue operation, indonesias Vice President admitted that the outlook today is grim. We pray for that but we realize, too, the worst thing maybe happened. Andrew stevens is in surabaya in indonesia where flight 8501 took off. Are we learning anything more about where this plane could be . Reporter still plenty more questions and answers. We know two hours arrest the first of air reconnaissance planes took off. It has been confirmed by the indonesian search and rescue authorities of smoke being detected on one of the islands in the search area. At this stage, nothing can be ruled out. The indonesians said the working assumption is that the plane is at the bottom of the java sea. If there is smoke on an island in the search zone it will be checked out. As you said the u. S. Is joining the hundred. We have the chinese. Theyre sending both ships and planes down to sing more. Others are chepg in to help indonesia in this seven. So incredibly frustrating and so incredibly sad for the people, the victims families who are gathering here at surabaya. Remember 150 of the passengers were indonesians. Many live in the second city in indonesia. They have been taken behind closed doors. The frustration is there is just no news not good news not bad news no news at all as to where the plane may be. That is what is really hurting them. Theyre telling us we just need information. Were getting more information from television than from the authorities here. Very, very difficult all round. The information isnt there to pass on at this stage. The families will be briefed this morning once again. And we sit and wait to get some sort of news from the search area. Most of the people i spoke to experts in aviation say they will be very, very surprised if there is no news of 8501 within the next 48 hours. Still, hard questions about whether it went down if it went down in the ocean or on land. Thanks very much. Piecing together the final minutes of flight 8501 will be critical to locating this missing passenger jet. Cnn is outfront with the latest. Reporter for a while, monitors at indonesia surabaya airport didnt list the status of flight 8501 but rather read go to info counter. The air bus a320 aircraft took off sunday morning with 162 people on board for roughly a twohour flight to singapore. Distraught loved ones first briefed behind closed doors. Linger at the airport, anxious for any jump dates. My fiance and his family were on that plane. They were supposed to be their last vacation before us got married. For our crews, the families the passengers families. Were very devastated. What we know happened is at 5 36 a. M. , the plane took off from surbaya. 36 minutes later, 6 12 a. M. , the pilot asked air Traffic Control for permission to turn left and ascend from 32,000 feet to 38,000 feet to avoid storm clouds. The turn was approved but the request to climb was denied due to heavy traffic. This is the last known communication from the crew. The weather conditions were not good. But further than that we dont want to speculate. A green grab reportedly leaked by an air Traffic Controller good appears to show flight qz8501 rising in altitude but losing speed. Traveling at a velocity too slow to sustain flight. Airasia says at 6 24 a. M. , it lost contact with flight 8501. At 7 55 a. M. , the flight is officially declared missing. The indonesian authorities leading the multinational search effort say the missing plane is likely at the bottom of the sea. So crews are focusing on this broad, yet shallow air, between the islands. No americans are on the missing jet but indonesia has officially asked the u. S. To help find the aircraft. As day three of the search begins rough weather continues to hamper the search efforts and any ping that would help in the investigation has yet to be detected. Inning thanks very much. Now i want to bring in the form he faa safety inspector and safety analyst as well as david gallow the director of special projects. It has been very successful in spotting lost planes in the past. If i could begin with you, the u. S. Is soon going to join this search sending first a missile destroyer, similar participation that they had for mh 370 but say the possibility of Additional Air assets which we know might be key here. How crucial is u. S. Help to a search like this . It is. It depends on where the ships are located, as to where theyre coming from. Were working against the clock with finding the pingers. These are still 30day pingers. We talked about on mh had 370 that they could go to 90 days. So you need best equipment, the best vessels there. Theyre sending in the first of those. I wonder if i could bring you in. Mh 370 was in water four miles deep. The bottom of the ocean, that search area was mountainous. We have a very different search area. 150 feet deem assuming this plane went down in the water as opposed to on land. Flatter, sandier. We know your success in helping recover the wreckage of the air night fran off brazil. That was two and a half mile deem. When we look at this search area what we know about it. Proximity to shore, Shallow Waters how much easier does that make the search assuming thats where this plane went down . Yeah. In some cases it is easier. We are closer to the ports so it is not a long transit for the ships to get to the search area or the wreck site. Shallow water does have its challenges the visibility once we get to that level might be hampered. There is nothing easy about Shallow Water but it is easier than going down a thousand miles. And we know the authorities are asking fwort underaware search capabilities. Here we are with a search like this. Good radio coverage. There was communication with the crew moments before the plane disappeared. The plane sent an e. L. T. Yesterday we have no clear idea of where it went down. There was no may day call. How do we find ourselves in this . It has been the question for quite some time. Weve been talking about doing direct data streaming from the aircraft for a lot of years and it is something that has been deficient. Our system has failed us in this realm. These things should be on board these aircraft. They should be telling us exactly where this aircraft is. Theres no reason to be waiting for this. Regarding the elts, if it did in fact hand or crash hand on an island then the emergency transmitters should go off. Whether on hand or water. Actually theyre more designed for hand than water. The elt is. Theres another thing that would go off in water. But the emergency locator transmitter is jarred. When it hits it goes off. Within minutes, it will triangulate the position of the aircraft. To be clear, there was no elt in mh 370. Once it is in the water it doesnt work. Some new info that were learning tonight. If i can mention to you, that airasia was actually jump grading its jets for improved tracking. This particular jet had not been upgraded. This is a top pick we went through with mh 370. Does the industry need fast track changes like this . More consistency, for instance constant data streaming. We know the technology is available. Does that need to happen today as opposed to months years down the line . Me . Or david, the other dated . You david. Yeah. I think so. Im an ocean guy. If people understood how difficult ocean searches are. By now, after air france i thought we had that understood. It is inexcusable to lose one in the ocean. Very difficult to work the site. And the question about, is it worth it. Just look at the anguish and the pain and the loves once of those passengers and tell me it is not worth it to do this now. And also for the sake of the flying public. If you know exactly where it is. You might be able to rescue someone if you get there quickly enough. That most basic question. And it is incredible to imagine were not allowing that opportunity. That thing haunts me quite a bit. That there could have been this could have been survivable. And someone could have been clinging to life. And we dont know until we find the black boxes. Thank you to our two davids. David gallo. Up next airasia why flew into a massive storm. Well talk about what it is like flying into a storm that size with that plane. And what is the Safety Record and is it equipped to face that kind of dangerous weather . And ten people die. Hundred are rescued from a burning ferry. What caused the deadly fire . Ring ring progresso i cant believe im eating bacon and rich creamy cheese before my sisters wedding well its only 100 calories, so youll be ready for that dress uhhuh. You dont love the dress . I love my sister. 40 flavors. 100 calories or less. When heartburn comes creeping up on you. Fight back with relief so smooth. Its fast. Tums smoothies starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. And neutralizes stomach acid at the source. Tum, tum tum tum. Smoothies only from tums. Cnn has learned that smoke has been spotted on an island by an Indonesian Navy helicopter crew. Official are saying a search team is being sent to check that area. Well have more details on this as it develops. This comes as the search for airasia flight 8501 is now underway as day breaks in asia. The uss sampson is on its way to join the search. At least 15 planes and 30 ships are now scouring the waters off indonesias coast for the missing jet. And its 162 passengers and crew. The search has been hampered by severe thunderstorms and high winds. Chad meyers is outfront. We talk about the weather when the plane disappeared. What are the colonel weather conditions hampering the crew . More thunderstorms developing more winds developing. What happens over an ocean when the winds blow . White caps. What are these search teams looking for . White things. So thats where youre feeling it. Right now youre feeling, please dont let the wind blow. Dont make white caps out there. We can see much better. Backing up 49 1 2 hours ago. Heres the may not coming from surabaya. A line of weather to the north. It knew it would be there. Knew it would have to 90 through it. A couple of bumps there. Now were up to 6 06 p. M. Now 6 16. As the plane gets over the most Severe Weather, thats when the contact is lost. 50 to 53,000 foot thunderstorms right in that area. The plane cant fly over that. Planes cant go that high. The black bird can but that plane cant. This is the intertropical convergence zone. Weather like this hams every day over this area. The air come together at the surface. It cant go down. The converging air has to go up. The earth is in the way. The rising air makes thunderstorms, creates strong to Severe Weather. In fact over Hurricane Season it will create severe cyclones typhoons and even hurricanes if it gets far enough from the equator to get the force or spin. This was not that it was just a severe storm. Look at what has happened in the last hour. A line of weather has just developed over where theyll be searching today. But also wasnt there an hour ago. Thats wham when this storm kind of blew up to the north of where the plane was. Go back again. 24 hours, pretty clear skies. And the last three frames. Boom we have more Severe Weather right where the plane, where were looking for it. So this hams all the time. What changes this plane from all the others that fly through this all the time. We still dont know and we wont be until we find the black boxes. Thanks very much in atlantic. I want to bring in the attorney and a commercial pilot himself. And i bring back the director of the special events. They have a record of finding lost planes. Les, i bring you in first. We look at the 55,000 feet high thunder clouds. Youve flown through weather like that. How difficult is it . Is it safe . Let me qualify. I have not flown through weather like. That i avoid weather like that. And it is incumbent upon that to give it a wide berth the best we can. Sometime we get in a situation where this developing weather is so dynamic that we may have to skirt closer than we would like to and it might cause an uncomfortable ride. Thats the purpose of putting on the seatbelt sign advising flight attendants to discontinue service. We know the pilot asked to go higher, to get to safer weather. And it was denied. Youre a pilot in his shoes and they tell you you cant fly higher. Is that unreasonable . Unacceptable . Well first of all, we dont know for sure what that request was for. It might have been just for the purpose of getting, it sounds like maybe he was trying to get away from the weather. In answer to your question yes. The best course of action is to go right or left. It is difficult to judge the height of a thunderstorm. It is a dynamic event. Even if you get on top of it there may still be turbulence. And chad made the point that it went to 50,000 feet. Which is high for the United States but not for that area. I know you think this plane should never have taken off. I think you have to look at it like this. 36 minutes after this plane took off, they were smack in the middle of some of the worst weather i have ever seen. A thunderstorm developing with hail probably ice. Winds which could have approached 75 to 100 miles per hour. Vertical displacement lateral displacement wind sheer. This is a maelstrom of the worst possible ingredients that an airplane would ever want to find itself in. The flight crew on the ground. They get their weather briefing them knew they were headed form. They knew they would have to deal with that. So now 36 minutes into it he says get me up to 38,000 feet. He is denied. They give him a left turn. There were other planes in the area. The issue here is in that neck of the world, you have such dynamic weather, i think it almost creates a tolerance and an acceptance of risk by these pilots who fly through with regularity. Of unacceptable rick. There were a dozen or so other planes that flew through with no problem. Different altitudes. They all take a risk. I think this flight was listening in to the other plaens communicating and thats probably why they want the 38,000 feet. The tops on this were up to 56,000. This airplane probably the surface ceiling is around 38,000 39,000. They would never going to get above it. They never should have been in that situation. And if this were in new york or a local area we fly all the time all of us the three have us passengers planes are grounded. There are delays for winds, for rains which are conditions which are benign. Compared to this. We have a different system in the u. S. We have a system caught metering. The northeast corridor down to florida, we meter airplanes when weather is closing off specific routes. When it does at laguardia kennedy, newark for instance well stop means from departing and slow down the am of planes going through that area. More leeway to avoid . Well they start the process of whether avoidance right on the ground. I dont think indonesia does this necessarily. They may have an informal way of doing it. To answer to respond to it. Those are high thunderstorms but not every cell builds to 50,000 feet. I want to bring knew as well. You took part in the search for another plane that experienced Severe Weather. This is of course air france 447. Flying from brazil over the atlantic ocean. What did we learn from that flight . And what changes if any have been made from that flight to avoid this kind of thing happening again . Well we did learn a lot. And i think in that case it is still being worked out in the courts about the, who was truly at fault. In that case, it was a handoff from the computer flying the aircraft to the pilots. Because of some spurious information from the Speed Sensors on the plane. That was not done very well. In fact it was a fourminute long stall that the pilots put that plane in. We learned that. More importantly, i thought that we learned, never to let a plane go into the water without knowing exactly where it was. And here we are now again, it was five years ago, air france, and weve gone through Malaysian Air and here we are again. And this wont be the last time either. Is it a cost issue . I think the airlines will not make changes unless they are mandated by government. I have an interesting little story. A real quick story. Recently i was at one of the largest Cargo Carriers on the planet watching everything that went on. We started to talk about constant streaming. The one thing streaming of data engine performance. One thing they said to me was we are being pinged too many times while crossing the atlantic. Every time theyre pinged for data theyre charged. So it is all about the money. It is all about the economics. You have government mandating it. It will be done. Without that it wont happen. Bits the bureaucracy. Sure. Folks trying to control their data plans on their cell phones. It is incredible. Thanks very much. Coming up outfront next the missing airasia plane is a plane that millions fly every year. How safe is it . And a fire at sea. Why did it take almost 24 hours to save everyone from this stricken ship . Latte or au lait . Cozy or cool . 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