The search for answers. First, how we got here. Sunday in the city of surabaya the flight takes off for singapore with 155 passengers and 7 crew members on board. The flight time is usually a little more than two hours, but indonesian Officials Say at 6 12 a. M. Just 36 minutes into the flight one of the pilots radios air Traffic Control requesting permission to change course and climb to a higher altitude to avoid bad weather. Heavy thunderstorms are reported in the area at the time. The turn is approved but permission is denied to climb to 38,000 feet due to traffic in the skies. This is the haas time anyone on the plane would be heard from again. Just 12 minutes later at 6 24 a. M. All contact is lost with the aircraft. There is no distress call. At 7 55 a. M. Flight 8501 is officially declared missing. The last known position over the java sea between the islands of belitung and borneo. Were devastated by what has happened. We do not know whats happened here. Reporter indonesia is
Airasia Officials Say the focus now is on the recovery effort. The search area is about six miles from the planes last known location. Analysts say finding the cockpit voice and data recorders, the socalled black boxes, is key to trying to figure out what went wrong. A u. S. Navy ship has arrived in the search area. The uss sampson was dispatched following a request from the indonesian government. The pentagon says another ship the uss ft. Worth is also getting ready to deploy. The discovery of debris and bodies is devastating news for the families of the passengers and crew. While watching a live News Conference on television relatives saw a body among the wreckage. One woman had to be carried away on a stretcher. Hospitals in indonesia are preparing to help identify the bodies being recovered from flight 8501. In the meantime divers and ships equipped with sonar are being sent to the area where the debris was located. Cnns Andrew Stevens reports on the search for answers and for more