Mystery . The National Lead cops worry that its open season on them. A week after two officers are shot and killed in new york a new Police Ambush prompted an allout manhunt in los angeles. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. We begin today with the world lead. It disappeared from the sky, only the people aboard airasia flight 8501 know what happened. And now its feared all of them perished. Thats according to a senior indonesian aviation official who told reporters the airbus carrying 162 souls, 18 of them children is probably at the bottom of the ocean floor. Searchers are racing to find traces of wreckage or oil slicks or anything to lead them to the planes final resting place. The indonesian government has formally asked the United States government to join the hunt. A senior u. S. Official confirmed the request came earlier today. Its still being worked out how involved the u. S. Will get. When the sun rises over the java sea in a couple of hours and day three of the search begins its still unclear what happened to this plane or even where it ended up. In fact, there are many questions about the flights final minutes. Here is what we do know. According to indonesian [ snfld investigators, the flight was navigating its way from indonesia to singapore when its pilot requested a change in altitude to avoid bad weather. That request was denied as thunderstorms lit up that area of the world, the plane lost all contact with air Traffic Control. No emergency beacons, no distress signals, no indication of anything gone wrong. That chasm between what we know and the unknown, that leaves the families and friends of the people aboard this plane in what can only be described as an agonizeing limbo. Cnns david is live in indonesia. Youre about an hour from daybreak there. Whats day three of the search going to look like . Reporter hi, jake. Good morning. Its 4 00 in the morning here tuesday in surabaya. Im just outside the International Airport here where that airasia flight took off about two days ago, lost on radar some 46 hours ago. Definitely getting the sense that momentum is building toward an allout search. This would be the second full day of searching, day two monday we saw about 15 ships and 30 aircraft searching areas of the java sea. Thats according to the indonesian Vice President. The area is increasing now, moving from seven sections to about 11. Its done on a grid system where they can search and check things off. Were hearing local reports that they may actually include parts of land some of the islands a portion of borneo the major island shared by indonesia and malaysia as well. You mentioned the United States being asked for help, chinas getting involved. Malaysia and singapore involved and of course indonesia being the site of this disappearance and also the aircraft being of indonesian origin, also playing a big role in this search and leading it. You get the sense 48 hours in that this is the moment for the searchandrescue operation, the Vice President again telling my colleague, andrew stevens, earlier once you pass that 48hour mark the hope of finding survivors much more difficult. I think what were going to see in the hours ahead is an allout search to try to find some sign of that missing aircraft. David, what is the airline telling these families right now . Reporter jake the families are actually here in surabaya about 75 of them are actually from this city. Others have flown in from around indonesia. Some are staying at homes, some at a hotel. Behind me is a crisis center. Families have come in twice on monday for briefings with airline officials. Theyve been closeddoor briefings so other than catching a glimpse as family members come in and out, we havent gotten a good sense of what information we are giving them. We imagine from what the ceo of airasia, tony hernandez, has said as well as the indonesian Vice President , that theyre keeping them up to date on the search that theyre doing everything they can and kind of working them through the time line. But at this point, what were hearing from officials is they dont want to speculate on the cause. Their number one priority is to find that missing aircraft. Number two, equally important priority is to take care of the next of kin of the 162 passengers and crew members on board at this point. So holding out hope. Well see what the hours of the third day of the search will show in the hours ahead. Jake . David molko, thank you so much. With so few details about what happened it can only be speculated, did wind shred the plane in midair did lightning bring it down did it go into a fatal stall. Here to tell us more about what we do know is cnns rene marsh. What are we learning about the final moments of this plane . 36 minutes after takeoff the pilot was concerned and we know he asked to climb in altitude. Thats when the problems began. Why the plane never arrived at its destination remains a mystery tonight. French crash investigators have been dispatched and experts from air airbus are there to id pieces of the plane if and when its found. Another mysterious disappearance of a plane in Southeast Asia. The whereabouts of airasia flight 8501 and the 162 people on board unknown. We realize the worst thing may have happened. Reporter 15 planes and 30 ships scanned these two areas in the java sea for wreckage. Still no sign of the jetliner. The search expands tuesday. They have a very good idea where it was. Its in a confined area and also in an area where the water is relatively shallow, say 150 feet versus 10,000 or 20,000 feet. So all of those factors, to me make it like i the airplane will be found. Reporter sunday morning, 5 36 local time the airbus a320 takes off from the indonesian city of surabaya bound for singapore, about a twohour flight. 36 minutes later, trying to avoid a violent thunderstorm the pilot asks air Traffic Control permission to turn and climb to a higher altitude. The request, denied. This airplane was not allowed to climb to 38,000 feet initially after the request because there were so many other airplanes in the area. So other airplanes are flying through it. What made this airplane crash . Was the weather so bad at that spot . Reporter or was it how the pilot reacted or Something Else . Those questions remain. About 42 minutes into the flight airasia 8501 vanishes from radar, all contact lost without even a mayday call. An hour and a half after contact is lost the plane is declared missing. I think the time line in this case a, is much better than it was for malaysia 370, and i think its most likely reasonable by the time you get people notified i think that time line is probably fair. Reporter the focus also on the man flying the captain had more than 20,000 hours of experience a social media most thought to be by the captains daughter reads in part dad, please come home i still need you. The captains father told the bbc he last saw him at a recent funeral of another son. Based on the flight path and the last known coordinates, search teams believe the flight 8501 was or is i should say, in the bottom of the ocean. For that reason, indonesia has asked the United States france and the uk for sonar equipment which of course would be used in an underwater search. But when we talk about underwater searches its very complicated. But here we are moving into day three and still not even one trace of physical evidence. Its really bolstering the argument that these planes should be tracked in real time. Rene marsh, thank you so much. Bad weather hampered mondays search and with a long rainy season weather in the search area today, will it look a lot like it did the morning 8501 went down . Thats the question. Showers and thunderstorms are expected in the region again. One of the Key Countries helping with the search is nearby australia which played a big role in the hunt for mh370 earlier this year. The australian ambassador to the United States joins us. Mr. Ambassador thanks so much for being here. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. How is australia going to be helping in the search . Currently helping with aircraft. This is our close neighbor. Were operating the p3s what are those . Antisubmarine warcraft. And theyre american designed. You have stacks of them yourselves. And that one is closer to the South China Sea than it is to melbourne. That gives you the proximity of it from australia. These are waters with which were enormously familiar. The indonesian government seems to be suggesting that they think that this plane is at the bottom of the java sea. When your pilots are out there in these aircraft are they looking only on the Ocean Surface for wreckage or are they also looking at some of the islands around there just in case . Theyre looking wherever they fly. But i suspect at the moment, theyre flying over water. They can fly over land as well. They did that during the phases of the iraq war where theyre operating surveillance patrols on a land basis. So they have considerable surveillance capabilities. But if youre going to find black boxes, thats why theyre talking about the europeans as well. You have the technologies as we found out with mh370, which can hear black boxes. Youd have to be totally confident that at some point in time over the next week or two and particularly if and when those are deployed were oing to find some trace of it. You have to say in the circumstances, be surprised they havent yet seen wreckage. As we were discussing earlier today, your country has a very close relationship with indonesia. Your Prime Minister went to the swearingin of that countrys leader. 155 of the passengers on this flight were indonesian or are indonesian. What are you hearing from the indonesian government . What are they saying to your government . Well firstly, theyve expressed their gratitude to us. I had a chance to have a conversation with the Indonesian Ambassador here over the weekend. Hes a really excellent, excellent man. And he expressed what had been expressed to our Prime Minister a thanks from the indonesian government for the work that were doing in relation to surveillance. We do have a close relationship with indonesian. It is in many ways our most vital relationship. Because its right there. Its there. And its 8,000 islands, ten times the australian population enormous number of indonesian students in australia. Indeed it appears to be at least one of the folk on board the aircraft was a student at an australian university. So its quite a in tourism, its intermeshed. The foreign minister herself has said in recent times she traveled on an airasia aircraft she does travel on airasia. The eu has banned all but five of indonesias airlines. Im wondering if theres concern that the demand for air travel in indonesia has exceeded the capability airasia accepted perhaps from this. Indonesia is a wealthy country. Last year, their gdp surpassed australia. I remember when i was defense minister minister. Indonesias own gdp has passed australias. Their Economic Growth is rapid. With it the demand for the sorts of services that tourism opportunities provide. The air links now between the islands is transforming the internals of indonesia. But is the government and the regulation is it keeping up with the demand . Well i have no reason to think that its not. The indonesians are a serious people and they operate a serious government. Its a democratic government now. So its a government thats constantly being tested. If youre making a mess of your administration there are a lot of people in power who will eat you alive. So theres a pretty they have some strength. This isnt malaysia. This is a more advanced more no no no malaysias advanced. Thats why i was going to say it not you. This is something which i hope very much the americans come to think of things like the Transpacific Partnership they comprehend. Were now in Southeast Asia dealing with totally serious operation in those countries. Great strengths, educationally and industrially. And so i have total confidence the indonesians could handle this properly once the wreckage is sighted. Ambassador, always great to see you. Thank you. We know areas of flight 8501 was in the path of bad weather before it disappeared. We know a pilot asked air Traffic Control to change course. But what happened after that . Did the plane get hit by lightning . Did the plane maybe malfunction . The scenarios that the investigators and the experts are considering, next. She inspires you. No question about that. But your erectile dysfunction that could be a question of blood flow. Cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be Ready Anytime the moments right. You can be more confident in your ability to be ready. And the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. Do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. Do not drink alcohol in excess. Side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. To avoid long term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. If you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips tongue or throat or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. Ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30tablet trial. 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. Welcome back to the lead. Im jake tapper. More now on our world lead and that grueling search for a passenger airplane that disappeared on its way from indonesia to singapore with 162 people on board, 18 of them children, including one infant. An expansive search effort has yet to uncover so much as a speck of debris. So for now, investigators are left piecing together clues based on the planes last transmission. Cnns tom foreman joins us to show us how theyre sorting out what may have gone wrong. Reporter one of the things they have to look at here is weather. And they have to talk about weather because weather is so often a factor. Look at the flight path of this plane as it took off and flew less than an hour and look at the weather system it was flying through as it went missing there. Tremendous, horrible storms under way. Why could that make such a difference . Lets blow it up and look at it closer. If you think about this plane flying through a storm system a big storm system out here one of the first things many people ask about is lightning. Could lightning have brought this plane down . There is plenty of lightning going on in the area. Is that capable of bringing down a plane like this . It may be but its highly unlikely. Heres why. A modern plane like this is meant to be hit by lightning because they know its going to happen. The skin of the plane is made to conduct that lightning along it and then expel it off the wingtips and off the tail. Even if it penetrates and ruins some system on board the plane, not likely to bring the plane down. What about the idea of this storm simply blowing up all around this plane bigger and more robust than anybody imagined and creating tremendous turbulence up there . Could this actually tear a plane like this apart inflight . Again, not likely. These planes are made to take tremendous stresses. There could be the problem of incorrect maintenance at some point. So maybe you have a flab or control on the plane that does get torn off and under these extreme circumstances takes the plane down. But, again, not very likely. Thats why theres so much focus on the question of whether or not the plane simply stalled. Did it run into such severe changes in atmospheric pressure that at one moment it was surging forward, the next part it was being yanked back and it suffered a separation from the air flow. What does that mean . That means when a plane is flying through the air, it is the flow of the air over the wings, over the tail over the body that gives it lift and lets it overcome its own weight and makes it fly. If there is enough turbulence enough of a shakeup in that, or if you lose so much speed that the plane basically is not pushing forward fast enough to maintain that air flow then the air flow can separate from the body of the plane and in that way, one of the better comparisons i can come up with is if youre driving down a wet road and your car separates from the road your tires are no longer grabbing on you really dont have any control and its very hard to get that control back. The same thing can happen to pa plane like this. And if an experienced pilot is not at the helm who does a very good job and even an experienced pilot may have trouble, that plane may have a hard time getting that control back. And in that circumstance jake a plane like this could go from 32,000 feet to in the water in maybe 45 seconds or less. Horrifying thought. Tom, thank you so much. If weather is to blame for the flights disappearance, that raises other questions, such as why, according to the wall street journal, nearly a dozen other planes managed to fly through that same region at roughly the same time without incident . Im joined now by cnn aviation analyst les and jeff. As far as we know the missing airasia flight was the only one in that area to request a new flight path on sunday morning. Could this flight have encountered a dangerous weather event in that area that somehow the other flights in the area avoided . Absolutely, jake. This is a thunderstorm environment thats dynamic. Its constantly involving thunderstorms, being created or being built or dissipated. In this particular case more than likely with the mass of weather that was shown by tom foreman just recently, its obvious this was a building system. So it could have been very very different than other aircraft its analogous to driving down the westside highway and you encounter a pothole. You know its in a particular lane. But imagine if that westside highway moved constantly in three dimensions. Jeff this question might seem naive. But i think there are probably a lot o