as long as you don't give up, justice is possible. good evening. we begin with breaking news. it comes from china, which is especially interested in loca locating the airliner. these were taken on high definition cameras on the morning of march 9, a day and night after the boeing 777 vanished. three images in the open ocean, each showing floating objects. what precisely they are, that remains to be seen, and we should point out there have been false sightings so far. what is intriguing is the

location. according to the chinese, it's within a 12 1/2 mile radius of this spot on the map, which corresponds closely to the point where controllers lost contact with the airliner's radar transponder. this is very preliminary information. it may help narrow down a search effort that grew enormously today. more from pamela brown. >> reporter: these photos released by the chinese. five days into the search, investigators are still struggling to locate the missing boeing 777, or the 239 people on board. again, expanding the search area to 27,000 square nautical miles. >> we need to analyze the civilian and the military data in the east or in the west. >> reporter: 12 countries now assisting with search operations, manning 42 ships and 39 aircraft.

complicating efforts are a stream of conflicting statements by malaysian authorities. military officials appear to be backing off an earlier suggestion that the plane made a turn to the west less than an hour into the flight, recrossing the peninsula and ending up near an island in the middle of the malacca straits. then the military offered another theory, saying an up identified blip turned up on military radar 200 miles northwest closer to the thai island. >> we say it is possible because we are trying to follow it. >> reporter: contradictory statements like these have dogged the malaysian response, leading to accusations of incompetence at best, or deliberately withholding information at worst. contributing to the confusion, it's still unclear at this point who is in command of the

investigation. the government, the airline or the military. and the appearance that none are sharing potentially vital information with each other. foreign powers, most notely china, have criticized the response and say their resources are being underutilized. vietnam scaled back efforts, but changed their minds a few hours later. theories about the flight's fate continue to swirl and investigators are not ruling out any possibilities. including catastrophic mechanical failure or even terrorism. fears the jet's transponders were turned off have spawned new concerns about the pilots. police said they're searching one of the pilot's homes outside of kuala lumpur. meanwhile, families and friends continue to demand answers and pray for their loved ones, frustrated by the lack of information.

>> any hope, however improbable, many of these people will still hold on it to. >> reporter: holding on and hoping their days of waiting will be over soon. pamela brown, cnn. washington. a lot to get to tonight, now that there seems to be more. let's check in with david mckenzie who joins us from beijing. what can you tell us about the street images? any idea why the chinese government released them now? >> reporter: that's the question i want answered. two things bother me, one, why was this released now? and the second is, why are we seeing these images that weren't shared necessarily with the malaysian authorities. they say they took these photographs from satellite, high definition of these three large objects, which were very close to the tracking part when that plane vanished on saturday. it is several days later and this appears to be a significant

lead, anderson. these are large objects. they call it a potential crash site, so it could help narrow the search that has expanded in recent days and it gives some level of hope of closure for the many families here in beijing who have lost scores of loved ones. >> the size of the debris have raised questions from experts, saying the debris is too large given the size of the aircraft. but the chinese seem to be frustrated by the response of the malaysian government. could this be tied to that frustration, forcing the malaysian government's hands in that? >> reporter: that's a very good point. they've called this search sometimes chaotic. they've criticized the malaysians and other countries forgiving out false leads and giving hope to these families here. so it might be that they've waited to release this information until they were sure

of its significant. we should also believe it's significant because of that. the chinese are much more deliberate with these issues, so they would have carefully look t at these images and thought and what they could be before they released them. but because it was several days after they took these images, it's a troubling sign. they have also taken more satellites into that region to look at the whole area to figure out if there's anything that gives any leads to find this plane. certainly significant on the path of the plane when it vanished. there will be ships, airplanes going to that area scouring to see if it is this plane that everyone at this point wants to find it, particularly the families here in beijing. >> we'll talk to a u.s. navy commander who is involved in the search about those satellite images, which they are looking at closely right now. david, thanks. more now on the frustration that we talked about that's been

building on the ground, as well as the possibility that automated messages from the airliner itself could help locate the plane. jim clancy is handling the malaysian things from kuala lumpur. jim sciutto is joining us from washington. another day, no answers, more confusion from these differing account where the plane might have just last been spotted. is there any sense of why things are so inconsistent? this public response has just been ridiculous, it's been all over the place. >> reporter: it has been going in several different directions. the malaysians have been accident on number one, exhausting every single lead. you can bet they will be exhausting the leads they got from china. the chinese ambassador was in the press conference yesterday and today. they're going to be looking at

everything the chinese have. they're going to be exhausting all possibilities. yes, this does give them the sense you get the impression they're going in several different directions at once. we are searching hundreds of miles off the planned flight path of flight 370. so it's obvious why we're getting that impression. that is what is out there. >> jim clancy, the release of these photos, it really just adds confusion over where the plane might have last been spotted. yesterday, we were hearing reports from some sources, the malaysian government that the plane made a 180, made a complete turn around. is there any sense of why things are so inconsistent? >> reporter: no, there isn't. nothing absolute. but let me pose something here. if this is so significant, these satellite photos, and you can bet they're going to be checked

out. if it's so significant, why isn't it being reported on chinese state media? yes, the chinese are going to be careful and try to make sure these are right before they release them to the international community. but they're not reporting it as a headline. they're not raising the hopes of their own people. i think we're going to have to wait until the cold light of day, anderson, and see what those produce. the malaysian authorities already know they've got a mess on their hands. they've got a lot of fingers in the pie. you see the press conferences, multiple people up there trying to answer different questions. they know they've got to get it right, and they're going to try, try to do their best. i've talked with them. they're determined to do that. >> jim sciutto, we're hearing today word that the engines of the plane transmitted technical data back to malaysian airlines. what are you hearing about that? >> reporter: this is one more confusing, conflicting clue in this investigation. malaysian airlines said the

planes were equipped that sends data. there was a report that rolls-royce said it did receive two data transmissions, one on takeoff and one shortly after takeoff from the engines, nothing abnormal. but rolls-royce hasn't confirmed that to cnn. the see is what happened when the plane lost contact, not just with its transponder but all the other streams of data coming out of the plane. you may remember with the air france flight that disappeared over the atlantic ocean, one clue investigators had, even after they last the plane, they were still getting mechanical updates, in effect, fault messages from that plane, which were one of the early clues as to what brought it down. to our knowledge, malaysian authorities don't have any such information from this plane. why would that be? you would have to have a catastrophic system failure for the plane not to send anything. the transponder, the pilot can

turn off in the cockpit that's a safety measure i'm told, because you have to be able to turn it off in case it was short circuiting. so they have that capability to turn it off. the other systems, it's not like a switch in the cockpit to shut the other systems off. so there had to be something catastrophic and unusual. again, one of those places where you have a lot of questions but no answers. >> jim clancy, we're not hearing from the director general of the malaysia department of civil aviation, he tells cnn that his agency has not received or even seen these chinese satellite images. how is that possible? >> it may be a surprise to them. that's a great question, and i don't have the answer, because the middle of the night here. i don't quite understand why he wouldn't have them. we have a huge chinese delegation here handling that.

the chinese ambassador to malaysia was right there, staring at the general inside that press conference yesterday. we'll just have to wait and see why that happened. but you can bet they're going to see it this morning. >> jim clancy, appreciate it, jim sciutto, as well. joining us is former inspector general for the u.s. department of transportation, mary skiavo. also, david gallow. david, first of all, what do you make of these satellite images released by china? this is one piece of the puzzle. are they too big? some experts say they're too big. >> using by algebra, adding those numbers up, it's close to the full length of the plane. they do seem awfully large to me, and how did they miss them during the aerial search if they

are that large? i am encouraged by the fact that they're close to the last known position. i can't stress how important that is. one of the lessons we learned from air france 447 is you should always look close to the last known position. air france wasn't far from that, and it was within that 20 kilometer circle. but if those pieces are that large, which is odd, how could they have been missed in the aerial search, unless they sank? >> the fact that they're so large, you're saying it's possible they're from a plane, it just raises questions why they were missed. but is it possible that large of a chunk of plane would be in tact? >> it would surprise me, because air france, it was hard to find anything much bigger than a desk. >> really, it broke up that much? >> yeah, it was pretty much obliterated into smaller pieces. those are pretty large chunks of aircraft and it would suggest if it landed on the water, it

landed in a fairly safe way. it was a fairly gentle landing, which brings up a whole other list of questions. we're going to have to see what's reported in the next couple of hours. i'm sure ships are on the scene and aircraft is out there. so we'll have to wait and see and this is one lead that we can't ignore. so we'll soon find out. >> i talked to a naval commander. he said they'll have an update in a couple of hours. mary, what do you make of these images? >> i'm actually hopeful that they are images, because it would end the wondering and start the work. if the plane came down, there have been a couple planes that came down on the water, it is possible. but the most important thing is they can get the naval ships there and start looking for the black boxes. sometimes the simplest

explanation is the simplest explanation. that's often what it is, the failure of the plane and some issue on getting the plane down and that's where it would be. let's hope that it can start the real hard work and end the wondering. >> david, at this point, yesterday people -- a lot of people i talked to said it doesn't seem like it would have been a catastrophic failure or incident at a high altitude if the plane did turn around and fly a fair distance without the transponder on. if it is found in this area, that brings back the possibility of some sort of -- something catastrophic happening. >> well, in air france 447, it was a combination of the feed sensors on the outside of the plane and the pilots. so there was -- i wouldn't call that failure catastrophic and the plane landed within a very close radius to the last known position. so again, i don't think we're going to have those answers

until we take some eyeballs on that fuselage or recover those flight recorders, the black boxes. >> mary? >> also, if this was like an air france scenario, again, there was a mechanical problem followed by pilot error, and it just stalls and falls, it's been likened to a leaf, that's where it would break up. it's possible, and for the family's sake, it is hope it is. every piece of information is excruciatingly painful for them. i hope this is it. >> david, what do you make of the communication by malaysian authorities? i keep thinking about those poor families. obviously they want any piece of information they can get. but to have such wildly conflicting one arm seemingly not knowing what the other arm is doing. >> in the case of air france 447 and being inside that command

center, the french were very, very careful with what was released and the way it was released. i now appreciate that, because these conflicting bits of information and contradictory bits of information and confusing bits of information have got to be tearing them apart. this is a horrible situation for them to be in. >> david, appreciate you being on, and mary, as well. let me know what you think. follow me on twitter. coming up next, we'll talk to one of the american commanders on board a search vessel. the latest on what they are doing and how they are holding up. later, we heard about how safe the boeing 777 has been. but we'll tell you about an faa bulletin on the plane that is raising some questions tonight. change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the aerospace industry in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections

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confusion and mixed messages whether the airliner changed course after it stopped sending radar information to controllers on the ground. tom forman takes a look for us tonight. so the debris seen in these new images from china, where exactly was it found? >> reporter: well, this is why this is like a jigsaw piece that doesn't quite fit the puzzle. let's bring in the map here. this flight took off from kuala lumpur, flew up here. we know it disappeared about this spot. and the chinese images are actually from right over here, or about, anderson, 141 miles away from where the plane disappeared. >> we've been talking about the massive search area. this is in the original path the plane took. >> the same general area, and

you can say maybe it drifted over that way, if it would float that long. but again, it's right on the edge of that search area, anderson. that makes it a little troubling to say whether or not this is really the right thing. >> the assets being deployed, what are we talking about? what does the search look like? >> dozens of ships out there, dozens of airplanes out there from a dozen different countries. they have been scouring an awful lot of territory, certainly some of them will be directed to this area now where the water is about 200 feet deep. but in this process, they have to go through an analysis, anderson. the very thing you've been talking about on this show. they have to look at these pieces and bear in mind, not very good satellite imagery. these are quite large, each one of these pieces, if you average them out, it's about half as big as a basketball court. so the question is, can you get pieces that big out of an airplane like the 777? the 777 is a very big airplane, no question about that.

if you were to walk from one side of the plane to the other on the wings, you would walk about 36 feet from wing tip to wing tip, it's about 200 feet. so is there a way that you could tear this apart and reshape it to make three big pieces like that? maybe. but like the search area, anderson, it's right on the edge of possibility, and that's what is fueling a lot of the healthy skepticism right now, even as people continue this grim business of trying to find out what happened to this plane. >> again, so much we don't know. i want to bring in u.s. navy commandy william marks on board the "uss blue ridge" and he joins us by phone. commander, you're obviously aware of these satellite images that show possible debris that might not be far from the plane's flight path.

what do you make of that? >> we're looking at that right now. the initial look at the size, those are as -- they are in those initial images, it's something that our radars would pick up. so we are looking at that right now. we are in planning development at this stage. a couple of initial plans, we're looking at where to move our destroyers and looking at bringing in a second aircraft, a search aircraft into the theater. i do have to tell you, i guaranty we'll alternate and rotate those flights to get double coverage. but it's the best technology we have for searching right now. >> so these new images picked up by the chinese, how close are you to where that debris is,

would you start heading there? how would this work? >> everyone is looking at this right now. i think we're the first ones to have them. but us in the navy, we're looking also. i can't give you a definitive plan, but everything we do will be coordinated. we will not go off riding into the sunset on our own. it's very well coordinated and if a u.s. navy asset is the best to be there, we'll do it. if another country's assets are, then we'll let them do it. so it's not just the u.s. navy here trying to do our open thing. it's very well coordinated. >> in terms of the area where this debris, do you have a sense of how deep the water is there? >> overall, it's not a very deep area. it's relatively shallow water throughout the gulf of thailand. so i don't know exactly where it

is, but overall this is not very deep water. i'm watching cnn to try to get a better view of where this is. >> so you're watching cnn to look at those images to get a better view of them to find out where they are? >> that's correct. but i should say, we have very smart people here, so i personally am looking at cnn, but we have other people reviewing all the information. >> commander marks, a lot of people appreciate very much what you're doing and we wish you the best to all the people under your command. thank you. >> thank you. up next, how confusing this can all be. this is one of the satellite images released by the chinese. coming up, a photo from over the weekend that looks similar but dismissed by officials. also tonight, the families seeking answers. we're learning more about those on board, fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers.

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welcome back. tonight's breaking news is about flight 370, adding new confusion to the story. we've seen and heard a lot of different images and reports. you know this. remember there was this aerial photo that surfaced over the weekend that showed what officials said was debris from the flight.

officials then said it was not from the flight. these were taken on march 9 and they look pretty similar. of course, it depends on the distas at which they were taken. richard, what do you make of all the -- the back and forth on this? >> the reality is we don't know. but we have to hope that it is, because frankly, this is the single best clue that we've had since this thing began. we've had numerous twists and turns. these pictures were taken 48 hours or so after the incident happened. those currents are moving in the right direction. there's a difference between the proposed flight line of the plane and where this debris was found. >> jim clancy raising the question that chinese state media is not reporting this. does that mean anything?

>> there are political reasons taking place in china at the moment that may put that in perspective. i come back to this point, we have nothing else to go on, anderson. this is it. that and some peculiar reports that puts this a couple hundred miles in the other direction. >> jop, what do you make of these images? >> they're three large objects but it looks skeptical to me. they're just too big to be pieces of the airplane. they're 70 feet by 70 feet across. the fuselage of a 777 is only 20 feet across. so if the size is right, of course, maybe the satellite is miscalibrated or something like that. but it makes me skeptical that

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test.

they said they're still looking for people. they don't know exactly how many people are in there, but nine people, as many as nine people unaccounted for, on the right of your screen, if you look, that's the medical examine's van. we saw them pull a body out and they have been bringing whatever it is they find, and if it's a body into the medical examine's van and put the body in the van and taking it away. there were cars that were parked here, nypd, towed those cars away that were on the street. nine people unaccounted for, three people dead so far and they're still searching for more. anderson? >> don, thank you very much.

let's get you caught up with more stories. an expert testified in the trial of oscar pistorius. he said the evidence shows he was not wearing his prosthetic legs when he shot his girlfriend steenkamp. and president obama today met with ukraine's interim prime minister who told the president that ukraine will "never surrender." 7-year-old josh hardy have won their fight to get a pharmaceutical company to give hem the drugs to help him live. he will become the first patient in a trial to fight a virus. anderson? >> deborah, thank you very much.

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five days in and we still do not know what happened to flight 370, perplexing to everyone. but for loved ones, the mystery

is obviously deeply personal. it's appalling. it's not where is the plane, but where is my father, my child, my friend? as we continue to cover the investigation, we remember that this is a story about people. the 239 people on board and the countless others who love and miss them. day five of the search and rescue and still no clear answers on the missing. >> each time passes i fear that the search and rescue becomes just a search. we'll never give up hope. this we owe to the families. >> frustration and anger is growing with some of the families. despite the frustration, some families still hold out hope for their loved ones. rodney and mary were looking forward to booking first-time grand parents after their return home to australia. they were traveling with their

long-time friends catherine and robert, who were also among the missing. rodney's mother told the newspaper, there's always hope, though her hope is fading very fast. this womman's friends and fans e left comments online. her mother told reporters she's praying her daughter is still alive. "my daughter will come back, she has to come back." two indonesian brothers were also on the plane. both men have young children.

>> there's a feeling of loss. because the plane has. been found, we still hope we'll be together, the way we were before. >> some families cling to hope, all wait desperately for any news, and resolution to what happened to their loved ones. thank you very much for watch g watching. "piers morgan live" starts now. this is cnn breaking news. >> this is "piers morgan live." tonight breaking news. you're looking at what may and i emphasize may be left of flight 370. a tiny dot in the middle of a satellite image from china. the malaysian air force is on its way right there right now. the chinese say it shows what they believe are three floating objects. they're bigger than they look. biggest about 79 feet by 72 feet. in the right place, close to where contact with the plane was lost, where the south china sea meets the gulf of thailand. this could be a very big clue. the families who havbe