Page 4 - Aa 320 News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Plane in particular, how has the series performed in bad weather? >> the a-320 has been in service. it is a mainstay, the fleet has been in service since the mid 1980s. i used to fly one. and spent about six years with it. it is an extremely robust, well-tested high-quality airplane. it is very capable and it has millions upon millions of hours of safe flying. so the airplane is very well known. i enjoyed my time flying it. >> do you know much about -- i guess the pressure, if you will. this was a low-cost carrier and fly a lot throughout southeast asia. with bad weather being in the forecast,...

Sophisticated capability, which is important because of the complicated geographic terrain. but depending on how this search develops, there could be some american involvement. white house officials don't expect a further statement from the president today. however, if there's any formal requests for u.s. help, we'll keep you updated from here. >> for which we thank you in advance, chris jansing. appreciate it. well joining me now, aviation analyst who also served for 25 years as an airline captain for u.s. airways. and i want to make note that six of those years you spent flying the a-320 p...

Around? >> go above. try to climb above it, as it appears right now. they asked for a deviation. however, these type of thunderstorms can exceed the aircraft's climb capability in terms of vertical development. they can actually grow upwards much faster than the aircraft can climb. >> if this plane is cruising at 32,000 feet and anthony, it wants to go up to 38 i understand that an a-320 has a ceiling about 39,000 feet? >> 39 41,000 feet is about its service limit. >> okay. how do you deal with the question, then that the weather channel saying that there were 50,000-foot thunderstorm vertical...

It's an airbus. airbus released a statement while confirming details of the missing flight. airbus is saying that the aircraft was delivered back in 2008. it had accumulated approximately 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights. the a-320 is short to medium range narrow body jet. it can carry up to 180 passengers. it has a range of about 3,700 miles or so. this plane is a very popular plane in wide use around the world. there are 6,000 right now currently in service. joining me via skype, john cox, msnbc aviation analyst who also served for 25 years as airline captain for us airways. what t...

Built airplane. the airplane has not shown any likelihood of metal fatigue, so i don't believe that that will be an issue. there's certainly nothing in the fleet history to indicate that. so with the kind of history, extensive history that the a-320 has had and the maintenance being having been performed on schedule and routinely by airasia, i certainly -- this is something that the investigators will look at but this airplane has a good solid history, based on my experience with it as well well. >> indonesian officials believe the plane went down over the java sea. talk to me about this searc...