miles to work out what it is they are going to do. usually they make a request to air traffic control which will deviate them from the track, maybe ten miles, to get around the system not above it. the usual norm is to go around the system and get back on track as soon as they cleared the weather. interesting to see what happened since there was a silence after that request and not hearing from them. greg, i want to ask you what kind of assistance the united states can provide in this investigation. right now the ntsb and faa are monitoring events. they don t intend to launch until there s wreckage found. but they need an invitation from the indonesians or whoever is determined to be the lead investigative authority. the ntsc of indonesia is taking on that role that lead role but they have a memorandum of understanding with auzstralia and work well with the singaporeans
you refer to at duration of the plane, how long it s been in use or the kinds of flights it s been in if it s long haul or short haul does that affect it differently? alex i flew this plane for six years as a captain. it s been in service as a fleet-type since the 80s. it s a well-proven design and has not shown a history of metal fatigue. i think the idea of anything along that line is pretty speculative. we don t have any information and if they had a problem and needed to come down once they had their oxygen masks established, one of the things they will do is advise air traffic control that they are leaving their assigned altitude and starting down. that didn t occur here. that s another indicator to me that that the likelihood of an explosive decompression or anything along that line we don t have evidence right now to support that. uh-huh. greg, as a former ntsb
experience there as a former ntsb board member as well as listening to anthony talk about a pretty difficult situation that he had to get through, what do you make of the fact that the pilots were unable to re-establish contact? they put in the request to deviate from the scheduled flight plan. three minutes later, apparently the last sort of communication with the plane was made although that has not been made clear what that communication was. and then one minute later it disappears from the radar. well clearly the pilots were flying the plane and doing what good pilots do which is to ask for a deviation in this case. we won t know what happened or until we get those boxes. and i think, again, we can speculate but we won t know for sure. so i always caution patients in these types of accidents because we can speculate all we want but we really won t know until we get information from both the
asia countries. the ntsb is monitoring the search and stands ready if needed or asked. katy tur has this live report. reporter: an emotional scene in indonesia as loved ones find out that the plane is missing and lost over the sea. i hope for a miracle. the flight was going from surabaya to singapore when the pilot asked to climb to 38,000 feet to avoid clouds. the airasia plane has not been heard from since. there were thunderstorms in the area around the time that the aircraft disappeared. this is the third incident involving a malaysian-based
it s an airasia a-320, flight qz8501. officials say that pilots asked to change paths in the middle of the flight. they asked to go to 38,000 feet to avoid some weather. and there was, indeed a line of thunderstorms in the area. that is the last they heard of that plane before it went off radar. now, it was supposed to land here at 8:30 in the morning at singapore airport. we saw a few family members and friends looking for answers. a lot of them have flown to surabaya airport. so far, though not that much information and still no sign of that plane. they will resume searching, though, tomorrow morning once the sun comes up. alex? katy tur, i appreciate that. let s bring informer ntsb investigator greg feith to join