strong human rights element. >> his perspective on the conflicts facing the world in the state of america. on al jazeera america ♪ welcome to al jazeera america, i'm del walters and these are stories we are following for you. >> the image 370 ended in the southern indian ocean. >> reporter: malaysia prime minister saying no one survived on missing airlines flight 370. and washington state, rescuers searching for signs of life in a mudslide that killed at least eight people. and president obama attends a nuclear security summit where the crisis in ukraine tops the

agenda. ♪ returning to our breaking news on the status of missing malaysia airline flight 370, not long ago, about an hour, the malaysia prime minister breaking the sad news he believes it went down in the southern indian ocean and we are following this with randall and tell us what we know now. >> reporter: the news was devastating but not surprising, some 16 days since the disappearance of malaysia airlines mh 370 flight, we now know that the malaysia officials do not think it will be recovered and that is coming from the malaysia prime minister earlier today. >> it's therefore with deep sadness and regret that i must

inform you that according to this new data mh 370 ended in the southern indian ocean. >> reporter: and the search is now taking place in the southern indian ocean, still looking for a confirmed debris field which will allow them to begin the task of going to the bottom of the ocean and finding that flight data recorder with the information that may explain exactly what happened, why did the plane change its course and instead of flying north flew south for some 2000 miles until it apparently crashed into the ocean, del? >> randall pinkston live in washington and more on the southern arc you have heard so much conversation about and

something changed, something changed from searching up north to now searching the south. >> that is based on information data from a uk satellite company that has been supplying the data to the australians and malaysia and said it had to have come down to the southern indian ocean to the middle of the indian ocean and they were looking at several areas totaling 20,000 nautical search and based on further analysis from the uk satellite company what they are saying is that plane must have ended at the southern indian ocean. the last position was in the middle of the indian ocean, west of perth right here and this is a remote location, del. there would be no fuel left. their only determination was that this is the area where that

flight ended. >> reporter: maria thank you very much and joined on the phone by john the former board member of the national transportation safety center and thanks for being with us and joins us by phone, what changed in the data they were looking at to cause them to announce to the relatives that they now believe this plane went down in the southern indian ocean and not someplace else? >> well, most people assume electronic data is instantly readable and identifiable and usable and that's not always the case. you can get a quick read off radar, a quick read off of lots of electronic media but takes time and effort to refine what you are looking at and then you can marry it with other information that you may have, other electronic information and once you match up the timelines to make sure you are looking at the same thing at the same time, that further refines with data

that you have. so that work has been going on virtually nonstop since this event occurred, so it's not surprising that we have started to refine the areas where we want to look and also add in the knowledge of how much fuel is on the airplane and the expected range and allow the stats to come down and narrows you down. >> reporter: john, is there a concern that with malaysia officials who were first being criticized for not being too forthcoming that now they may have pulled the trigger too soon on telling the family members that realistically all is lost? >> well, my personal approach to the accident investigations i handled was to get the information out in the people's hands, the families' and the public. i mean, it's not state secrets, let's get the information out because you never know who can help you. the search is far and wide. and look how long it took for

the ties to come forward with the information they had. in it wasn't widespread press coverage of the event they may never have gone back and looked at their own radar data. so accurate information dispensed timely i think is the best policy. >> reporter: safe to say there are real life decisions they have to make with making arrangements to move on with their lives. >> that is correct. that is correct. they want to know. i mean, through the coverage the families had, they want to know, i mean, if it's bad news they want to know it's bad news and we owe it to them to give them the most accurate information we have and not lock them in a closet someplace and not tell them anything. >> reporter: and, john, you are familiar with this but the international community when it comes to a plane going down does not give up on trying to find the wreckage and explain why. >> because the unknown bugs the heck out of all of us in the technical side of the aviation

operations. we need to know what happened because if we are doing the same things day after day it means we are going to repeat this. so it's very important for us to know the sequence of events that led up to this and make sure that there is no flaws in what we did to help cause it. >> reporter: and, john, before i let you go is there anything at this hour based on the information that you have heard over the last 16 days since this plane disappeared that has been ruled out or in? >> no, nothing is ruled out, guaranty you at this point, nothing will be ruled out for a little while. more facts will come in and they will start working it off the table. but even the things that we have said now we don't think they landed on land, we don't think it went to the north, those are all revisited unless they find physical proof that the area -- airplane is in the south indian ocean but people will look at the other data to see if something was missed.

>> reporter: former ntsb board member joining us by phone and thank you as always. andrew thomas is covering the events from perth, australia and says it's the aviation equivalent of trying to find a needle in the ocean. >> it's such a remote area. you get in a plane and you fly for 3 1/2 hours before you even get to the search zone. that is the equivalent really of flying from one side of australia to another and look around for two hours is what you get before you are low on fuel and have to turn around and go back. we pushed our luck a bit and stayed in the search area a bit longer than they would and it came over that we were low on fuel and started to head back and we did and had 2 hours 40 minutes actually searching. when i mean searching you are low on the water going very fast, very hard to spot objects. >> reporter: andrew thomas in perth and we are in kuala lumpur where the airline took off, 16

days ago for beijing and they have relatives and waiting for any type of update on the loved ones and have we heard anything from the family members so far? . >> well, there is a bit of shock and disbelief but i suppose also family members have heard from the prime minister and also been informed by malaysia airlines that the flight ended in the south enindian ocean and also have been told that that is very likely that there is no one on board, the prime minister and airline expressed regret and sadness and know there is nothing they can say or do that will help ease the sort of pain. the prime minister in a late-night press conference said investigators using a new type of calculation based on data gathered by the satellite company, british satellite company have been able to narrow down the search location and

conclude the flight ended in the southern indian ocean. prime minister, the malaysia prime minister said this was a remote location without any landing possibilities so the conclusion there is that there were no survivors on board that flight. >> reporter: and, florence, we saw so much anger and so much anguish on the part of relatives waiting for information and frustration with the malaysia government, is there a sense now that some of that anger has abated as time has moved on? >> well, no. we haven't seen that sort of signal coming from families. there is a lot of anger. they have been very upset with what they have seen and described of what they have seen as the slow pace of investigation. now, we are entering this is the third week. and we still have not found the plane. the prime minister came out in announcement to say they have been able to narrow down the location as well as narrow down the search but there is still no

sighting and we sighted what search teams described as possible debris but there is still no real, actual evidence that the plane went down in the southern indian ocean. so many of the families questions are still unanswered. what actually happened to flight mh 370 and deviate so far from the intended flight path of beijing and end up in the southern indian ocean and they want answers to it and do not have yet. >> reporter: and florence is live from kuala lumpur today and thank you and other top stories president obama meeting with world leaders in the netherlands and there to discuss nuclear security but the crisis in ukraine is on the minds and the crisis on ukraine trumping the agenda. >> absolutely. this is the third of these nuclear summits and obviously it's a big deal and a lot of

progress made over the course of the several years and disposing of the nuclear materials and the cold war and echos of the cold war thats that everybody concerned that it's going to dominate the proceedings here in the hague netherlands and president obama got off the plane this morning and netherlands time and met with the prime minister here, prime minister root and went to the rembrant museum in amsterdam and in front of the most famous painting where they said they are united in imposing a cost on russia. the president then went on to a bilateral meeting with the chinese leader p ishing and tal about other things also and the president meeting with 52 heads of state in the hague. but after perhaps the marquis event as far as europe and the united states and the crisis in ukraine are concerned, the president hosting a meeting of the g 7, note the g 7, not the g

8, russia for all intents and purposes kicked out of g 8 and this meeting with the powers of the world to try to figure out a way to come up with a unified, coherent and cohesive response to what has gone on here. >> reporter: thank you very much, coming up, on al jazeera, troops ordered out of crimea and new questions about the crimea economy that are being raised and debate underway and talking about the future of the internet. ♪

♪ chicago's blue line commuter train went off the tracks during the busy commute and the train plowed across a platform and scaled an escalator. dozens of people reporting minor injuries and none of them said to be life threatening, ntsb has

been called in. turning to washington state just north of seattle search crews continue to look for my signs of life in the quick sand-like mud from the deadly landslide on saturday, 8 people are dead and 18 others are missing in a rural community not far from the town of arlington and we are there and concerned about the missing and the safety of the crews. what are the risks involved in this search? >> well, del, it's a very fluid situation out there. we are talking about an area that is about a mile square and 20 feet deep, 30 feet deep in places of a gooey and shifting sand, mud, rock and free combination and construction debris from the houses that were blown away and you have a very dangerous situation there. when you look at the before and after pictures of this slide area, in the north cascades of washington state, you see really an indication of the power of

this thing. i talked to the governor last night jay ensley and flew over it and says it came blasting out of the mountains and a shoulder of the mountain that collapsed away, across the river and continued up hill, over the highway, blowing through a neighborhood and up into houses beyond the highway. just amazing power. and the video from the scene really shows you what the rescue crews are dealing with. they were back out at first light today and we understand there was some limited search overnight as well. but it's just complete wreckage in there. at this point they are backing off the number of 18 unaccounted for. that is still official but the officials here are now calling it a fluid number. we don't know whether that could go up or down but we should all be prepared for an even greater loss of life here in the north cascades of washington state. there have been no miracles here in the last 36 hours, del. >> live from arlington,

washington and thank you very much. crews scrambling to contain a massive oil spill, a barge and a tanker collided leaking thousands of gallons of oil and brandon is in texas city, texas and what are they doing at this hour to try to contain the spill? >> well, del, you have some 400 people, we are talking state, federal, local agency, non-profits, volunteers are all working together, working to clean this mess up. as you can see over my shoulder, that blue and white ship there, it's called a skimming vessel so one of the tools used to get this oil out of this area. there are many in the water at the time. officials are also using what is called boom. they have some 90,000 feet of what is essentially a barrier, some kind of wall they use to try to block off pockets of oil. they are using all of this combined again to try to clean this mess up but they have quite the task at hand, understand the

waterway is 50 miles between houston and the gulf of mess -- mexico. >> is there danger to the shore bird habitat located in that area? >> well, yeah, as you mentioned this place is a very popular bird habitat and what you can see is over in this area, i don't know, you probably wouldn't be able to tell it but there is orange boom, it's kind of blocking and strategically placed with keeping in mind efforts are there to keep these birds out of harm's way. they are doing all they can. but i am told you have a handful of birds, as many as ten, that was the number last count that have been effected, five of those i'm told died but five others are being rehabilitated. >> reporter: al jazeera. >> another thing that is working in that ir -- their favor is there was a strong north wind in the area that pushed some of the

pockets of oil out of this area which again is a popular bird habitat. >> reporter: thank you very much, my apologies for cutting you off early and brandon in texas city, texas. ukraine's prime minister ordering its troops out of crimea today and more signs of russian control over the region is essentially a done deal and jennifer glasse is in sevastopol and it appears the russians are taking over crimea base by base. >> that's right, del. this morning the latest base is in eastern crimea, that was a marine base and they had taken part of the base but a few ukraines were holding out and went in with flash bombs and firing weapons and not a lot seen in this conflict and taking over the east. in the weekend they took the ship and flew the flag after all other ships had fallen and on

saturday the airforce base a half an hour outside of town here, the biggest airforce base in crimea then too they sent an armored personnel carriers and fired weapons in the air, heavily armed, ground troops went this and took the base back from the ukraine forces who had stood their ground, the troops had become a symbol for the resistance here because early on in the occupation they marched unarmed on armed russian troops with nothing but their flag demanding to get their post and jobs back and so they had been in a standoff for nearly the entire three weeks but no one left standing, one or two bases left, del. >> reporter: what happens to the ukrainian military and their families who are still left behind in crimea? >> well, we are just hearing from kiev that the acting president alexander in kiev is ordering the army and families here to get out of crimea. they have been waiting for some

orders for a long time and hearing about the order in kiev they have not got the order on the ground in crimea. a lot of the families have been harassed, have had problems and worried they live in navel housing or were living on bases and pushed off the bases. for example the folks from the military base they lived on the base and living with friends and in hiding and frightened and not sure what the future is and where they will go and there are rumors that ukraine forces are being arrested as traitors and a real concern for them because they don't have much access to ukraine news and we are expecting in the next day or so a lot of the ukraine families to move back to ukraine proper. >> reporter: live from sevastopol and russia racing to bring them under the kremlin umbrella and it's not easy when it was last week they voted to break away from ukraine and nick spicer has the story from there.

>> they are now ruling russian style too. people here are registering to get russian passports. the happiness and high expectations are hard to miss. the concerns do linger this retiree tells me. >> translator: they say the pensions will double but that is only true if the prices stay the same. i don't know what the pension would do if the pensions and prices go up but i think it should all workout. >> reporter: to administer crimea along russian lines kremlin is sending in top officials from different ministries, defense and interior and fsb, federal intelligence agency. and in highly symbolic move clocks on march the 30th will advance by two hours to moscow time. this young couple leaving from a maternity ward has just found out they are going to be

parents. the birth of a new crimea as they see it is another source of joy and now concerned about rumors that the baby bonus to families will disappear. she says of course the russian government will pay and it will be more than before. her husband says russia supports young families and no doubt everything will be fine. a big change will be the shift to the russian currency and the ruble starting in 2016 with a ukraine with the grynva as legal tension and what will happen to pensions and salaries or money given to a band and possible source of discord in the future but they appear happy with promises that moscow is making. >> reporter: and that is nick spicer reporting and coming up, on al jazeera america, meeting in singapore and there to discuss how the internet will work in the years to come.

♪

welcome back to al jazeera america, i'm del walters, here are your headlines at this hour, following breaking news, about an hour ago malaysia prime minister talked about the flight that crashed in the indian ocean and satellite data suggesting the plane went down in that area. president obama is meeting with other world leaders today in the netherlands and there to discuss nuclear security but the crisis in ukraine tomorrowing the minds and the interim government saying it will withdraw troops from crimea, russian lawmakers say the military presence threatens the lives of the military and they look for life in the quick-sand like mud from the landslide saturday in washington state and 8 are dead and 18 missing in the rural committee of ozzo, 50 miles north of seattle.

and we have to talk about another big storm here that will impact the east coast and it has not developed yet so over the next 24 hours we will watch it develop. the area of rain moving along the gulf coast combined with snow in the northwest and they come together and rapid intensification is what we expect as the storm develops off the southeast coast and that is tuesday morning. deepening low pressure as it moves up the coast but looks like it's pretty far off the coast where the major impacts are around new england and hour by hour between tuesday and wednesday, as pressure really drops and here is the cold air with the heavy snow just off the coast really effecting parts of massachusetts and new england where the heaviest snow is expected and the lines are close together and with the snow we have a gusty winds and high pressure to deep low pressure and this is the cold air moving in but another storm east of the rockies will bring warm air

behind it and not a long stretch of cold air. the cold air coming in tuesday and wednesday but by wednesday evening warm air returns from the south across the southern plains all the way to the dakotas. this is light snow from washington d.c. to philadelphia and heavy around new york but the heavy snow is around new england and the purple in maine and tip of massachusetts there is about 6-12" of snow expected. 1-2 from philadelphia and 6-12" from tuesday to wednesday. low temperatures coming in behind the storm, bitter cold air is what we are expecting and temperatures trying to get a little warmer out west, del. >> reporter: thank you. they are meeting in singapore to discuss the future of internet domain names and the first talks since an announcement earlier this month the u.s. will hand over control of domain names such as .com and org and controlled by a variety of groups from it professionals to nongovernment organizations.

thank you very watching al jazeera america, i'm del walters in new york, "inside story" is next and check us out 24 hours a day going to al jazeera.com. >> it's the inside story. hello, i'm ray swarez. with each passing year, the toll from alzheimerss rising. more americans die from the disease and more