tweet the show @cnnsitroom. erin burnett "out front" starts right now. next breaking news about missing flight 370. a new report says the plane changed altitude dramatically after losing contact with ground control and that it changed direction more than once. what happened in that cockpit. plus, what it may have felt like in the plane during those dramatic altitude changes and why some families of missing loved ones say they are hoping it was a hijacking. let's go "out front." good evening, everyone. i'm erin burnett. we begin "out front" tonight with breaking news. a major report from "the new york times" says malaysia airlines 370 went through several sarp altitude changes.

it was during this hour exactly one week ago we first found out that plane was missing. we now know its last communication took place an hour after takeoff from kuala lumpur. i'll explain what we're looking at. according to the "new york times" report we have tonight malaysian military radar shows the plane climbing at that turn to 45,000 feet. that altitude is above the approved limit for this type of aircraft. we're going to talk about why that's so significant later this hour. the radar track then shows the plane descending unevilly to 23,000 feet as it approached the highly pop pew rated penang island towards malacca towards the indian ocean. another very significant development is what you're looking at between those -- in those two white boxes. our barbara starr reporting breaking at this hour. the plane then continued to fly on one of two possible flight paths. as you can see a dramatic turn

to the right or toward the left. officials say the plane flew either in a northwesterly direction crashing into the bay of bengal in india or in a southeast direction as they tell barbara starr crashing somewhere in the indian ocean. all told the plane is thought to have flown for five hours after its last transponder contact. the latest information we had was that it was carrying about 7 1/2 total hours of fuel. "out front" tonight our barbara starr and "the new york times" reporter michael schmidt who broke the story about altitude changes. thank you both. when you put your two reports together you get what happened from that turn all the way to what may have been a crash site now for flight 370. michael, let me start with you. how were you able to piece together your part of the story with these dramatic altitude changes? >> well, we're relying on malaysian military radar that was able to pick this up. this was picked up after the plane came off of civilian radar but the thing is the malaysian

government hasn't made it public but they've shared it with the united states and other partners that are looking at this but this is what the malaysian military has picked up and it sort provides for the first time an idea of where this was going. and it raises all these questions. why is it that the plane was going -- was moving in all these different drengs directions and going up and down in such a way. who was controlling it at that point and why was it that that was happening. they're things we don't have answers to. >> right. >> but it provides some insight and it's -- it just makes it all the more confusing in some ways. >> obviously we're going to be spending the entire hour talking about some of those key issues, for example, who was in control of the plane and why it did what it did. barbara, what more can you tell us, again, about when we looked at that picture all of a sudden that plane making a dramatic turn to the right or toward the left? >> well, let me start, erin, by saying, you know, i just talked to some u.s. military officials

who are very aware of these reports by the malaysian radars of these dramatic altitude shifts. what they assess, they tell me they're not terribly surprised by it, that the malaysian military was so far away that it didn't pick up an accurate reading of the plane's altitude. that accounts for some of it. they don't believe just yet that that may be exactly what happened. i think michael is exactly right. this all awaits an investigation. all this have is what the reports -- the initial reports are. they think the military radar was too far away for a pure, accurate reading, but once the plane crossed the malay peninsula and headed out towards the indian ocean, they have based on radar hits and pings, based on all the data that they do have, let's go back to that map, they have plotted two search areas that they believe are most optimum to search.

one of them is a northern search area in the bay of bengal off india now being searched by the indian navy and the u.s. navy and a more southerly search pattern to the southeast, if you will, looking at whether the plane flew that way. that also being searched by the u.s. navy. a lot of nations doing everything they can to look for this. what they are looking for has not changed in one week. any sign of where the plane is. any sign of a debris field on the ocean. >> barbara, we're going to be talking in a few moments to the "u.s.s. kidd" talking about what it is they're looking for in that southerly area that barbara just described. michael, i'm very curious because you know barbara obviously pointing out. the radar stations, at least as we understand them, that found these dramatic changes in altitude were fairly far away from this object. why didn't malaysian officials respond in real time to something like this? i mean, it's in your air space

and you see an unidentified flying object changing altitude that dramatically, you think you would have done something about it, right? >> yeah. i mean, we only have so much insight into a lot of these things. >> yeah. >> and what has also, you know, confused the americans on this is some pings that came off the rolls-royce engine that was on the plane. that shows that the plane fell 40,000 feet in the span of a minute. when the u.s. looked at that information they said, that doesn't make any sense. that's inconceivinconceivable. but at the same time it's thrown in with the mix with the other information that they're looking at. how do you make heads or tails of any of this. one of the problems that the americans have had is that the malaysians have not shared everything with them and the u.s. government and investigators feel like they're sort of on the outside looking in. hey, we have a lot of expertise here and we, you know, investigatetivelily and air wise, there's just not a lot of communication going on there. >> barbara, before we go, obviously there are still

questions. i mean, the reporting now is it's more clear and more solid than it has been. there's been some real break throughs but obviously there's some more questions. we don't know exactly what we know or don't know but that being said, what are you hearing about motive, about the issue? obviously are you still hearing mechanical malfunction is possible? what are you hearing in the question between whether this was a pilot driven decision or someone else on the plane, some sort of a hijacking situation? >> i have to tell you a week later, erin, u.s. officials are still not any further than they were. not ruling anything in or out. looking at every single scenario. gaming it out. seeing if they carry it to a conclusion in their analysis, does it give them any clues they can start to work on? nothing is certain in any of this. >> thank you very much. michael and barbara there with the very latest reporting. a dramatic and sudden changes in altitude and multiple changes in direction with a plane that flew

for up to five hours after finally losing contact with ground control. joining me now cnn military analyst major general james spidermarks. let me ask you. in terms of motive now that we have these two pieces even with all the question marks that surround the latest reporting, this is a significant break through in reporting from both barbara and michael were saying. what do you think now was the motive, was the intent? what drove this? >> well, clearly in my mind what the largest missing piece in all of this, erin, is that there has been very little discussion, and if it's taking place, we certainly just don't know about it, in terms of the 239 souls that were on that airplane and all the folks that touched that airplane, the ground crew, the air crew, the folks who sold tickets, the folks that worked at the kl airport 24 hours before that thing took off and disappeared. what we need to be able to do is really put some hard core

forensics investigation look in terms of the folks. now if this was taking place in the united states, i can guarantee you we would be all over not just the pilots but everybody who was manifested on that airplane and get into lots of details in terms of where they had visited online, who were their associations, et cetera. we just simply don't know that. >> you're going to be with us throughout the hour. your background, i should make sure our viewers know, counter intelligence in this area. are you surprised that authorities in malaysia while they've had police outside the pilot and co-pilot's homes have not yet searched them? >> very surprised. very surprised. and the way i view this is that there would be an inordinate amount of pressure coming from the united states and others to squeeze their way in, especially from the fbi and from our intelligence agencies, to squeeze their way in to make sure that we can begin to assist completely and open and transparent with the malaysians.

ostensibly that hasn't happened and i don't understand why. >> we'll be talking a lot more about this throughout the hour with the two significant developments in the story. our breaking news coverage continues tonight. we'll take a break. when we come back, flight 370s dramatic changes in altitude. what does that mean when you talk about going from 45,000 feet to 23,000 feet. we have a live demonstration inside a flight simulator next. plus, we'll talk to pilots who have flown the 777 and the families of the passengers speak out tonight. why they are hoping this was a hijacking. (vo) you are a business pro.

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. more on the top breaking news story tonight. huge developments in the flight 370. a u.s. official just telling our barbara starr that radar showed erratic movements of a plane that they believe is flight 370. those movements happening in the early morning hours when the flight disappeared off radar. "the new york times" is reporting that the missing airliner experienced significant changes in altitude after it lost contact with ground control. "the new york times" is saying according to malaysian it went up to 45,000 feet right after it made that sharp turn to the west deviating dramatically from its flight path, which would have been north, and that, of course, is well above the approved altitude limit. we'll have more from a 777 pilot. martin savidge is live in a 777

simulator now. martin, this is becoming the center of this entire story. i guess could you talk about, first, what it would be like to fly at 45,000 feet above the 43,100 foot approved level for this 777 plane? >> yeah. i mean, the real problem we're having here, because we've been trying to emulate in the simulator here what's been reported, it's almost beyond the laws of physics and the physicaling ability of an aircraft to do at least what has been described in the article and described by those radar signatures. we're at 45,000 feet the automatic pilot won't even go this high. the airplane was never designed to fly this high. let me show you the controls we're dealing with here. these yellow lines, one on top, one on the bottom. normally they should be pretty far apart. what this indicates, this aircraft at this altitude is teetering on the brick of disaster. it has to be flown manually to reach this altitude. we should point out that itch

mel casado is the one flying this. what would they feel like? >> very, very unstable. almost to the point where they're uncontrollable. akin to trying to juggle while you're on a unicycle. you can think of the craziest analogy possible. >> what would thex[÷tñ passenge feeling? >> very unstable. hard to breathe. close to being unconscious.ñ/÷r if you wanted to kill your passengers, this is a good way to do it. >> now let's push it down. there's no way to tryoquu even a minute.dropping 40,000 feeté it's just -- it can't be done, x2 we're his thing, but going to push the plane as steeply as we can and you'll begin to see there's all sorts of things that start to go wrong. you get the signaling. what is this telling us? >> this is telling us that we're sinking at close to -- this is 40,000 feet per minute

approaching 700 miles an hour. i mean, this is -- the plane would be breaking apart at this point. >> this is where stuff is falling off the aircraft at this point, i mean, major stuff. there could be structural damage that would make it almost impossible to fly, which then that brings us to the next thing, trying to level off. to think that this airplane reported leveled off at around 23,000 feet? it's hard to believe it was still structurally intact to do that. and the g forces alone on the impact of the passengers would be -- >> astronomical. >> yeah. almost to the point of being lethal. >> yes. >> so that's why when you put it through the simulator, it doesn't even seem possible. >> all right. martin, that's just incredible. all right. i think that sort of speaks a thousand words when you actually see that in the simulator. i want to go to a pilot of 777. mark weiss is sitting with me on set in new york. you've flown the 777.

you've watched that simulation. so i guess let me start with -- caveat on this. "new york times," michael schmidt did that reporting. that was based on radar on the ground. meaning those readings may not be exactly accurate which might end up having all of this make sense. right now with the information that we have, about 45,000 feet, that's above the 43,100 level approved, so why is that the level that's approved? what happens at 45,000 feet to the people on the plane? >> what happens to the wing aerodynamically. the air is only so -- think about it being thick. molecules of air. it's supporting the lift on the wing. as you go higher, the molecules of air are further and further apart. it won't be able to support the weight of the aircraft or the weight of the wing. the aircraft is going to basically be on a teeter totter and descend, immediately

descent. 40,000 feet, when you hear something like that going down 40,000 feet in one moment, for myself, that makes me very skeptical that that really is a very accurate report. >> right. we are hearing from the engine maker, that may be an erroneous reading. >> absolutely. >> if it were able to get up there, to your!64+çpoint, then goes back down to 23,000 feet and then it goes back up again and levels off and flies on a relatively straight path as barbara starr is reporting, is that something you would think as a pilot would be conceivable? >> not really. let's just take the premise that even if these numbers are close to where the altitudes would have been -- >> okay. >> -- let's take the idea of how would that have happened? to me it seems like there was incapacitation of some of the crew members in the cockpit. would that have come from a struggle in the airplane? that could fit one scenario, that trying to gain control over that aircraft and pulling back and pushing forward, pulling back, pushing forward, turning,

that's certainly a potential. again, as we mentioned over the past few days, until you get the voice recorder, certainly the flight data recorder but the voice recorder, you don't know who was in the cockpit and who was flying and controlling the aircraft movement. >> you since the beginning have been a proponent of thinking there was a hijacking. marty, what about what mark is talking about, the difficulty of moving altitude so quickly as that was happening, as we know the reporting, marty, is showing the plane was dramatically changing directions, moving around and then eventually settling on what appears at this point to be a straight path. what does that look like from the simulator? >> well, i mean, you know, here we're going to try to show you a sharp turn. the problem is, whats a sharp turn? there's no definition. for a commercial airliner, let's do that, mitchell, let's turn. you can see the rise and it's twisting pretty severely. let's go 35, 40 degrees and

turn. another alarm starts to sound. this is telling us, you're really turning too steeply here. the problem is if you push it beyond that point, mitchell, now we start to run into where an aircraft is doing a spiral. an airplane like this was never set to do any aerobatics like that. you're now into what could potentially be a death spiral. again, what is a sharp turn? we've pushed it beyond what an airplane can do. >> as marty was saying, spiral, mark was sitting here making the spiral motion. how hard would it be because, again, i know you're a proponent that someone else might have gone in the cockpit, but how hard is it to learn to turn a plane if you're not a pilot? >> not hard at all, but depending on where you are, what you're trying to accomplish, are you trying to accomplish turning the aircraft with a heading mode

or how are you trying to turn the aircraft? whether therxar(r)plane was on auto pilot, it's not hard to learn. anybody with basic flying skills or a little bit of training could have maneuvered the aircraft to makes a turn. that doesn't mean the person tlieg had very many piloting skills. >> pilots of 777 and martin savidge reporting from the flight simulator. as you can see from this conversation, there are so many more questions. some of the reporting that's coming out but despite the recording on the sudden changes in direction and the altitude shift don't necessarily at this point seem to add up to reality. there are so many questions about where this jet may be. next, family members of the passengers say they hope flight 370 was the victim of a hijacking. tonight you'll hear why. plus, u.s. officials say the flight crashed probably in the indian ocean. we'll be live talking to them on

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breaking news coverage in the malaysia airlines jet which disappeared a week ago. we found out about it at this hour. ten minutes from now a week ago we got the first report. a u.s. official tells our barbara starr shows that radar movements were made from flight

370 on the morning it vanished. those movements were made after it turned. "the new york times" is reporting it experienced those sharp altitude changes right after it lost contact with ground control. the sight of last contact. there were those that were turns and then it proceeded all the way out there past the straits of malacca and turned north or south. for the families of those missing, it's been agonizing in an unprecedented situation. some are clinging to hope that their loved ones have landed somewhere and that they're alive. david, a lot of the family members are there with you. the plane was expected to have landed about this time in beijing a week ago. what are you hearing now from families who had loved ones on that flight with all of these developments? >> reporter: well, erin, these developments have been confusing, frustrating and angering to the family members. as you say, a week exactly since this plane was due to land here in beijing with more than 230

passengers and crew on board and the worst case scenario for many in an airline investigation is hijacking. for the families, that's become the best case scenario. >> translator: this situation has broken my heart. my tears have run dry. i hope the plane was hijacked because then at least there is hope. >> reporter: that hope is really what they're clinging to, but after so many days, of course, erin, it's extremely unlikely that anyone survived what we presume is a crash. all of these theories that perhaps the plane landed and then went somewhere else. the family members here in beijing and around the world who are connected very personally to this flight mh 370, that is for them, that's hope that they want to believe even though logically speaking they don't. counselors say that this not knowing through all these days

is though intriguing to many of us to try and figure it out, for them it's incredibly traumatic. erin? >> david mckenzie, thank you very much. u.s. officials telling barbara starr that they believe the plane once it went north or south in the indian ocean did crash. they are still leaving every possible option on the table and not fully ruling out some sort of a landing. "out front" next we have more breaking news coverage on the erratic movements on flight 370 and a new report shows the plane made those changes after losing control with ground control. did someone seize the cockpit or was a pilot involved? we have experts on hand who are going to talk about that issue and u.s. officials believe the plane flew those two possible paths. where is the u.s. navy searching? they're out in the indian ocean. we're going to go there live next.

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more on our breaking news coverage tonight on the missing malaysia airlines jet. barbara starr says erat dick movements were made by a plane the united states believes was flight 370 on the morning it vanished. "the new york times" is also reporting that the jet which had 239 on board went through several sharp altitude changes after its last known contact with ground control.

cnn has also learned that the plane continued to fly intact for more than five hours after the last known contact on one of two possible -- in two possible directions is probably the best way to say it, either in the northwesterly direction crashing into the bay of bengal in india or in the southeast direction crashing somewhere in the indian ocean. i want to hold this map up for a second while i make two very clear points here. these two areas are in the opposite direction of where that plane was flying. obviously that plane was supposed to fly north over vietnam up to beijing. this shows the plane completely changed direction as going somewhere where it was not supposed to go. obviously they use the word crashed. that's the latest that u.s. officials say it did end with a crash but they are leaving other options on the table at in moment even though they are remote in possibility. "out front" major james spider

marks and john nance. great to have you both with us. let me start with you because there's so much here to talk about now but when we put all of this reporting together, john, we have a plane that turned off of its flight path, started to switch direction dramatically, switch altitude dramatically and then finally seemed to sort of level out heading out and then made a choice. i'm going to go left or i'm going to go right. when you put all that together, let's talk about motive. who would want to do this or could this have happened in any way, shape or form with everybody on the plane being incapacitated or dead and the plane kept flying? >> i think not. i think that's ruled out by the very physiology of it. the aircraft is not going to make course changes. it might make altitude changes but you would see the type of altitude change would not be sharp. if it went up to 45,000 feet after it turned away and off course and it sustained that 45,000 foot altitude which is

above its ceiling for any length of time and there's only one reason for doing that to incapacitate, quite frankly kill, get rid of all the passengers in the back. you depressure rise the airplane and you're on an oxygen mask. and that would explain coming down to a more comfortable altitude. >> this is a technical question, but do masks nod come down to people in the back of the plane? >> even if they come down, those masks are only designed to give you enough oxygen to sustain you without any brain damage from the highest altitude that you're authorized to fly a jet 43,000 feet down to 14,000. they're never designed to stay up there. consequently they'll run out of oxygen at 10, 15 minutes at the maximum. on top of that, there were walk-around bottles that the crew may get on. those are breathable even up to

45 thousand ambient altitude but only the cockpit will sustain for as long as you need it. >> it sounds like you're saying you believe this was not just purposeful in terms of someone taking over the jet but that the decision, a decision, i'm using that word purposefully, to go up to 45,000 feet which i emphasize is a general altitude because it's coming from radar on the ground so it may be off a little bit, but you're saying that altitude, the choice to go above the altitude is very purposeful? >> yeah. i'm saying basically, erin, when you look at this, we don't know. obviously. we don't know. we're speculating. but the thing is, with these facts on the table if they are, in fact, facts they make sense in a very twisted way, and that's the problem. you would not have that kind of an ascent to 45,000 unless you had a specific purpose for it. >> so, spider, what do you think happened? i mean, first of all, i guess, are you in agreement with that?

do you think that that then was a pilot who was on some sort of a bizarre suicide mission or someone else? because i want to emphasize the reporting from our barbara starr, that plane went out on the ocean and made a very sharp turn to go to the left or right as if, spider, it was to go somewhere specific. >> right. erin, i can't challenge anything john said nor would i want to. he's the expert in the field. i'm looking at this from the perspective of what were the motivations of priority this airplane taking off and then when it -- in order, as i said earlier, you want to move the investigation left of when the aircraft kind of disappeared. so what occurred before all of that? what were the motivations of the individuals? and that, erin, is a very, very difficult, very unromantic and hard intelligence and forensics work in terms of all the souls that were on that aircraft, everybody who touched that aircraft. so the fact that it goes to 45,000 feet, that might be an

inaccurate reading. >> right. >> that could be the deviation from the radar signal. that could be wrong. my point is there's this cacophony of speculation and this should be suspected at this point, but let's look at the facts as we know them and let's start with the folks that are on that aircraft and figure out what their motivations and associations are. that's where we need to bend our elbows right now. >> of course, as we've reported, at least it's our authorities the malaysian authorities have not searched the pilots' houses and the two iranian men's passports were righted to smuggling. >> why was that discount snd. >> all right. thanks to both of you. we'll be back. i want to go to commander william marks of the u.s. navy 7 fleet. that fleet is assisting in the search right now for possible debris of the flight. he is aboard the "u.s.s. blue ridge" and joins me on the phone. commander, thank you for joining me. the cnn has the jet making a

decision to turn north or to turn south, my understanding is you have the "u.s.s. kidd" in the southern region there where the search is underway. i know it is light there. what are they looking for right now? >> yes. we have the "u.s.s. kidd," one of our destroyers in the northwest strait of malacca, moving more to the northwest now. just to give you from the fleet perspective, which is the tactical perspective here, the stealth of this operation, how huge we're looking. normally when there is a crisis and you go into search and rescue mode you launch your helicopter. that's the first thing we do. we have mh 16 search and rescue helicopters. their ranges are a couple hundred miles. that's kind of your radius there. well, the scope of this operation is so huge, it's

almost beyond the capabilities of even this international force. now fortunately the u.s. navy, we have a poisodeon fleet. that's the most advanced patrol aircraft. that has a nine-hour or so flight time. that range is upwards of 1,000 miles out. >> and that -- obviously i know you're hoping that will make a significant difference here, but let me ask you. this is the tough question but i have to ask it. it's been a week. people are saying the only things that really would be floating would be make seats, maybe life jackets for now. how long do you keep looking? >> great question. you know, at first the way you look at it in that navy is that first 72 hours is critical for survivors. they can go without food and water that long, pretty much on

sheer will power. after that it's anyone's guess so very close coordination, every day we look at what we can do. we have to watch very closely. we have 700 sailors out here, young men and women of the u.s. navy we have to watch the fatigue level. >> right. >> we also have to watch the fatigue on our equipment. so it's hard to -- a person can't operate continuously for 24 hours. neither can a piece of equipment. we have a chaplain out there, grief counselors out there because it's vehemently and physically challenging. >> commander marks, thank you very much. we appreciate it. we hope everyone on that ship is all right but has the ability to find that missing flight. still to come, we're going to show you what a significant altitude change would have looked like. again, as we know, these were

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breaking news coverage continues in the search for the malaysian airlines flight which disappeared one week ago at this hour. a u.s. official tells our barbara starr that radar movements show erratic movements happened. they tell barbara they believe the jet likely went down in the indian ocean hours and hours away from where it was supposed to be flying. this is classified analysis which shows it may have taken one of two different paths. tom foreman is "out front." tom, this latest reporting that we have, how did officials determine this is where the plane would be? it was supposed to be over here and now they're saying it was possibly all the way over here. >> what they're trying is a brand-new idea here to use technology that isn't really meant to tell them this information. remember, this is the flight path. here are the search areas. here are the expanded areas out to the west, to the bay of

bengal and out here to the indian ocean. think about this, people on the sea for many years have looked at the stars to figure out where they are. this is reversing the process in a sense and using a star in this case, a stationary satellite, geostationary satellite meaning it's always above the same spot on the earth. acar, this satellite reaches down to earth and it sends a signal. light this up. it's an electronic handshake with the airplane on the ground. it sends a signal, the airplane answers with a signal and then everything is green, everybody's happy because the satellite can communicate with the plane. an hour later, it does the same thing. this happened five times in the course of the time after the plane disappeared from all communications, five times the satellite said, is there a plane down there like this plane? five times the plane answered and then it did not answer.

this satellite is not designed to tell you where these planes are specifically, but if you reverse that process that i was describing of somebody at sea looking at the stars and using a sectin to figure out where they are, if you reverse that trigonometry, i'm going to use this to give me an idea where the plane would have been an hour after its last successful handshake, you wind up with these areas. that's why the u.s. is focusing so much here, erin. >> tom, thank you very much. i want to bring in commercial airlines pilot, les aban. let me start with you. we've been talking a lot. people prior on this hour have talked about hijacking, pilot suicide as things they thought were realistic. you're putting this thing together. dramatic changes in altitude and you think it was possible it was

a mechanical malfunction? >> i'm very skeptical with the data still. when you're talking losing 40,000 feet or dramatic amounts of altitude, it's impossible to me, which amounts of altitude, it's impossible to me. which means that the data if it was coming from the engines there's a possibility that that data was corrupted, maybe by an icing situation, even though we're saying that it was clear air. we don't know. i'm talking about a situation from the engines itself. because the engines have as we talked during the break have a similar system to the airplane itself. >> the pitot tubes which were in a different part of the plane though, correct, responsible for the crash of air france flight 447. >> they contributed to the crash. >> you're saying the dramatic changes in direction could have happened because the flight crew what so busy dealing with something else.

>> what may have been happening, something was occurring in that e and e down below the galley where it was disabling the electronic guts of the airplane and they were having problems controlling the airplane. >> john, your point of view, though, that the erratic maneuvers and altitude suggest some sort of struggle in the cockpit? >> les could be right. but it is a very low probability in my view. continues to deteriorate in terms of probability with the things we're learning. doesn't mean it couldn't be mechanical. i just think that's a very low possibility at this point. >> john, where do you fall given what we know about how the plane was moving in terms of whether this was driven by the pilots of the plane or somebody else who came in and incapacitated or directed those pilots? >> again, total speculation, but my money right now with everything that we supposedly know, if it all is factual, is internal or external hijack.

internal meaning the pilots already flying the plane or external somebody burst into the cockpit. we've got positive control here and a twisted rationale from being at 45,000 feet and even at 29,500 if that's an accurate altitude vf 4 altitude between flight levels. it makes sense. >> les, quickly before we go, if this was someone trying to take this plane somewhere else and then land this plane, obviously the u.s. government is now believing that it crashed into the ocean. but trying to land it. do you think we know about the erratic movements that the person in charge would have known how to do that? >> i doubt it very much. you're talking about landing a very sophisticated airplane in possibly remote areas to cover it up. where are they going to cover it up? what's the motive behind this? they would have to have more flying skills than i think was demonstrated. to do what might be on that data. >> thank you both very much. >> and he's right.

motive is really one of the problems here. >> motive is one of the problems. as we try to figure out what might have happened an why someone might have wanted to do this. we have emphasize there hadn't been any increased chatter from known terrorist groups to support that. one woman is still looking for closure tonight 60 years after her father's plane vanished. with 29 million meals donated. drive to end hunger teams with local agencies to reach the hungriest among us. if you don't think feed the hungry when you think aarp, then you don't know "aarp." find more surprising possibilities and get to know us at aarp.org/possibilities. still running in the morning? yeah. getting your vegetables every day? when i can. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] could've had a v8. two full servings of vegetables for only 50 delicious calories.

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a disappearance of flight 370 isn't just weighing on the families of the passengers onboard, it's also causing the surviving family members of other plane crashes to relive

their tragedies. this woman's father's plane vanished 60 years ago. she still can't find the closure she needs. kyung lah is out front. >> reporter: 64 years later and the pain is still there for darlene lar sohn. 64 years ago he was flying home to his wife and children after a business trip. on june 23, 1950 he boarded northwest orient flight 2501 heading to minnesota. it never made it, vanishing somewhere over lake michigan. >> i was awoken by my mother's crying. she did her best to try to tell me what had happened, that my father was gone and would not be coming back. >> reporter: flight 2501 was at that time america's worst aviation disaster. the plane, except for some bits of human remains, was never found. the cause never determined. the 58 passengers never recovered. >> it's hard to concept because you don't have something to hold

to. like a funeral or a casket or a grave. i was certain that he was wandering around the streets of chicago with amnesia, and he would one day realize where he was around come home. >> reporter: therein lies much of the mystery, why was this plane so far off its course. >> this author has interviewed more than 200 family members of the passengers from flight 2501. >> they don't understand that it really happened. it's hard to conceive of an accident killing a loved one if you don't have their body. the mystery of what happened to flight 2501 is a mystery that's plagued these people for now 64 years. >> reporter: haunted by the family's stories, she and a search team have been hunting lake michigan for the plane's debris. >> finding that plane on the bottom of the lake would provide the final answers. that's what we hope can happen

with the malaysia airlines accident. we need answers. answers that the families of flight 2501 never got. darlene larson and her six siblings grew up without their father. her mother never remarried. asked that her ashes be spread at the suspected crash site in lake michigan so she could find her husband in death. a single grave site where some of the unidentified human remains are buried marks the loss of all aboard the fateful flight. the living still coping. >> it's an eerie thing just wondering, wondering, and just not knowing what actually happened. >> reporter: so while most of us are riveted by all the ins and outs of malaysia airlines, darlene larson said she can't bear to watch it saying it is too traumatic and too familiar. >> kyung, thank you very much. the human toll of this, david mckenzie reporting with families hoping for a hijacking because it left open the possibility of some sort of a miracle.

as our breaking news coverage continues we'll give you the latest here we have. the united states using unprecedented technology along with malaysian authorities to determine where this flight is, they say it was pinging back and forth to satellites up to five times, one time an hour. they never got that sixth ping. that is why they believe at this time that it flew on for about five hours after losing contact with the ground. as flight 370 vanished there are striking new developments that could finally point to some answers. we're talking about new pieces of information about what happened to the 777 after air traffic controllers lost contact with signals from its radar transponder. pentagon correspondent barbara starr reporting on a classified analysis of electronic and satellite data suggesting the airliner made a left turn then flew either northwest into the bay of bengal or southwest into the