great, conditions on the water not great, a little bit hazy, a little bit choppy. the general went out there, we re told to the uss sampson the destroyer, to meet with american officials, thank them for their efforts, and also visited an indonesian ship. we have some pictures of him meeting with the captain of the uss sampson captain foley. ana, this is really an international effort. we re going into day 11 of the search the united states the uss sampson uss ft. worth along with a lot of other countries, singapore, malaysia japan, south korea, all involved in search and recovery effort. the weather, again, putting a big damper on things. it is really deciding the pace of the search at this point. these pictures give you a better idea of what exactly search teams are up against. ana? david, what about the investigation into how this flight took off without the proper licensing or permits on sunday?
we don t know what weather information, what weather data the crew didn t see and how relevant that is to what happened. the airline says the pilots got the documents electronically. but since the crash, indonesia now requires pilots to do face to face briefing with flight operations officers about conditions on the flight path. more than 40 vessels, 20 helicopters, and 97 divers are deployed to the search zone. the uss ft. worth detected sonar of two metal objects but we need to confirm if this is part of the plane. one object about 56 feet long. the other, 14 feet. elsewhere, a life vest. safety cards and bodies recovered, a total of 39 of the 162 people on board pulled from the java sea. muslim religious leaders on a search helicopter pray for the victims. indonesia s military chief now offering to take families to the
the uss ft. worth deployed sonar equipment. we can find things as small as a golf ball or as big as an airplane. reporter: while the investigation is under way another investigation is taking form. should aviation authorities have allowed flight 8501 to take off despite massive thunderstorms? thunderstorms in the united states you wouldn t take off. you d be on the ground at laguardia or kennedy. reporter: today reports the doomed airline s pilots may not have received extensive weather data prior to takeoff. a top indonesiaen aviation official tells cnn it s a matter under investigation and insists the standard is for pilots to be briefed in advance on the weather. and concern airasia was not approved to fly the route from surabaya to singapore on the day it went missing, highlighting indonesia s significant safety problems with controlling its airspace. experts say booming air traffic has made indonesia the world s
be a huge problem. officials came out earlier saying that if the plane is stuck in that mud it is going to be cause huge problems and really delay the recovery efforts, they re going to have to bring in extra equipment. the uss ft. worth was called in to assist. they brought in special pieces of sonar equipment to help map the ocean floor and trying to get a sense as to where this debris is. it s believed or it s hoped that the majority of the bodies will be with the wreckage. three bodies were found an hour ago taking the number to 37 that have since been retrieved. only 9 have been identified but as the days progress and we are now in day nine of the search and recovery operation, the bodies in this warm tropical water are decomposing at a rapid rate so what we are hearing from officials who are working with the disaster victims
and oceanographer david gallagher and timothy taylor and oceanographer eric van sebil. taylors from the uss ft. worth began to search the wreckage site. how does the technology work? the sonar it s side scan sewn sonar that will make a topographical map of the bottom with objects that you can then identify as possible targets and then go down and look at them a little bit closer with the higher frequency. david, is this the best technology to use in this particular setting? yes, wolf it is. i m just not sure what they re using and know some sonars can even find a golf ball. in others you could certainly pick out the windows on an aircraft if they use that kind of technology. it s just not clear which one, which frequency they re using and how they re using it. if the search and rescue