crimea grounds. and this is coming as the people are deciding whether to leave ukraine and join russia or to stay independent. earlier, russia drafted a referendum, but it was declared invalid, and only china voting to sustain it. and men in matching uniforms burst into the simferopol hotel. nobody was injured. i'm in for don lemon. nothing has come in for the missing malaysian yet, but we have a few focuses on the possibilities based on the best new information that we have right now, and much of the information is coming in as we speak. there is a new time line of event

events. american, british, and malaysian experts are working separately and all now agree that somebody on the plane switched off the critical tracking system while it was still over land and right at that point there. and that is vital, because a calm and normal sounding handoff message was sent from the plane after that point, after the tracking system was turned off, which is extremely mysterious, and on the ground today, police sear searched the homes of the pilot and the co-poe -- co-pilot, and looking at the man test, and officials are trying to learn all they can about the people on that plane. back in the air, if that plane kept flying, it had enough fuel to reach anywhere in western china or the nations of central asia. that is interesting, because some groups in that part of the world have very big problems with china and the west. and quite possibly reasons extreme enough to justify stealing an airplane filled with 239 innocent people. i want to show you the map, because it is so important to the story, before we get to the

guests there, and chad myers and mary schiavo, and this is the arc that you will see behind me where it is possible that the plane may have gone, and it is going to encompass this area of north and central asia, and why is that important. the western part of china inside of the arc at the top is a part of the country that many people of the country want to pull away from china, and that has led to a violent uprising there, and including recent terror attacks. there was a recent knife attack that killed people, and suicide bombing inside of tiananmen square last fall in beijing. and that is one concern here, but not a guaranteed concern that possibly one group from this area might have had the intention or the ambition to carry ott an attack like this. and intelligence officials who have said over the last week have said consistently that the weaker group, the minority of

shen jing province have brought this area back into the area of concern and investigation. and so joining me is former inspector general mary schiavo, and chad myers. and mary, if i can talk to you in light of the new information from the malaysian government saying it is that their understanding that the plane's system was switched off and before the final message of the calm and the warm and the fuzzy good night and thank you, and how significant is that and what does it tell you? >> well, it is not that there a lot of new information, but it is in a new light, and si helpful to the investigation. first of all the fact that the pilot said good night, and he did not read back the instructions from the air traffic controller, and

ordinarily, they would read back and switch to whatever frequency and contact vietnam control, et cetera, and you read it back, and that way that controller knows that you have the right frequency and they can double-check it, and there are accidents where people didn't get the right frequency, and that is why it is important, and this is different, but do the flight air traffic controllers bust pilots for not doing the readback correctly, and no. there is a civility, and i have been wished happy birthday from the cockpit before, and if at whatever point the communications equipment, and the transponder or the acars had been turned off or stopped transmitting and we don't know which it is yet, but if the pilot had been, for example, hijacked or someone else in the cockpit, the pilot could have spoken words or done something, and usually the airlines have a hijacked code and they say, look, if there is somebody behind you, say this or do this and sometimes is it a series of words or dive and climb, a

maneuver, and each airline has this the, but they should have known it long ago, and maybe they can now go back to ream examine and ask others to be sure it is his voice saying those words, and so it is an important development, and help us to sort out, and certainly not pilot suicide, because now we know that the plane flew on for seven hours, and that is a long time if that is the plot. >> yes, you make a good point, mary, it is not what he said, but when he said it after the systems were turned off which is giving new information here, and the new evidence that it was deliberate to take control of the plane. chad, coming out of the map that we described in the top of the hour, and looking at the arc, help explain to us the distance that the plane could fly, and also what that part of the world looks like, and are there places where you could land and two, hide a plane? are there a lot of options for a p pilot trying to take the plane somewhere it is not meant to go. >> well, there are a few in you know where to go, and i will say

yes. i won't say it is a high probability, but certainly out there. and there is a company called in marset, and at 8:00 in the morning when that plane went missing, it got a ping from the airplane and it let out a ping and got it back and the satellite knows how long it should take to go from one and then back, and that is a distance from here-to-here, a a nd the problem is that there was only one satellite, only one ping, so we don't know exactly on triangulation, and let me show you how that makes a difference. this is the circle, the distance from the satellite which is right here, 22,000 miles in space pinged to this and then back, and this is the area that the plane may have been. if we can find a couple of more satellites, this is what it is going to look like, and we are not going the look at one big ring anymore, but look at the place where the rings cross. if we can get two more satellites to say, hey, i saw that plane, too, and it is right here, because that is where it crosses, but this is what we

have. we don't have two planes or satellites, and all we have is this arc here, and one here and here and we don't have the arc across malaysia, because it is covered in radar and they don't believe it is there anyway. and why the yellow arc? it is not a satellite ping, but it is how far the plane could have gone in the time or the fuel to get to beijing, and that is the fuel it should have had or it goes only 480 miles per hour, and as fast as it could go and you multiply it by the number of hours, and that is as far as it could go, but there is so much space up here and not densely populated space either in parts of the upper peninsula here and talk about kathmandu and the top of the world, and the top of the world, and kathmandu, and k-2 and 100 peaks up here that the plane would have had to fly over. down to the south, the other side of this is a little bit more, i would say intense to find a place to try to land this thing, and if you continue the arc all of the way down here, there is not much land, and i heard you ask this question in

the break in my ear, jim, but the plane was on one of the spot, and something on red on my map, and the plane was there at 8:11 in the morning, and here, here, here, here, and not here or here, but on this line here or on this line here, and if we could get it to triangulate with another satellite, then we would know the cross is here or here sh, and we don't have that, and that is why there is so much square footage. 1 million square miles, the size of alaska, california and texas added together. >> well, yeah, and we do know that the effort is under way now, and we know that the military is looking at the commercial imagery and the government satellites, such as weather sites to look at the ping to triangulate as you say. and mary, can you bring us inside as former inspector general of the ntsb, and what is the situation room for lack of a better term look like now as the investigators are trying to piece together the small pieces

of evidence together, and how are they dividing this up or following the trail? what does it look like there? >> well, in the united states, the way we do it, and the way that the national transportation safety board rather does it is that they have a different group, and a human factors group, and look at the things that the human element, and you know, what would humans be doing, and look at the engines group, and the communications group, anded they break up into different groups and here the most, well, the couple most important groups is the groups trying to even out, and smooth out the discrepancies in the data. the data you have the take it and blend it down and take out the white noise and smooth it out. that group is working feverishly to take all of the information from anyt satellite they can t get, and at least today, we have more clues than friday and the other groups looking at the human factors and the pilots, et cetera. and the other group is looking at malaysia's train, and did they have a hijack code training or a plan in place or if there

was a gun to the pilot's head he or she could signal that something is going wrong without touching any equipment, and maybe good night was the signal, and so each of the groups take it and break it apart, and they each bring the expertise for ward and that is how we solve almost every disaster that we have had. >> all right. we hope that there is that kind of cooperation going on now, with so many countries involved now, and thank you, mary ski yaw voe s and chad myers knows the planet better than anybody at cnn in atlanta. and now over to kuala lumpur, and the last place that the flight crew and the 239 passengers were seen. we have andrew stevens in kuala lumpur today, and daybreak on that side of the world. andrew, officials still not saying the word hijacked, but deliberately taken off course, but not hijacked. >> not saying "hijacked" be but certainly not ruling it out at this stage, jim. you are talking about the human element here a moment ago and this is ground zero for the

human element if you like, and obviously at this stage, they are focusing very much on the pilot, and the co-pilot and the police are searching the homes of both of to pilots in the last few hours, and taking away plastic bags of evidence, of documents and we don't know what is in the documents in relation, because the police have been quiet about what they are look g f looking for and what i can say and what we do know is that the pilot, the 53-year-old pilot did have a simulator in his home. he was actually a certified examiner of pilots and he was a very, very senior captain in the malaysian airlines and been there since 1981, and described as a complete flying buff, and flew the model planes in the spare time and a pillar of the community as well. a lot of the friends are coming to his defense now, and saying that if there was any sort of incident on the plane, he is the sort of man that they would like to see in charge of the plane. and so what we know at the stage, both of the homes have

been visited by the police, and we don't know what they are looking for. >> and certainly, there has been some tension between china and malaysia that is starting to bubble to the surface, because of the slowness of the investigation, and the chinese government urging the malaysian government to provide thorough and correct information, and are you seeing that tension on the ground as the teams are coming together? because what you really need now is cooperation, and you don't need that kind of tension. >> well, given now how many countries potentially could have been a zone where that plane had passed through, the cooperation is key to this. i feel what is telling is that the chinese ambassador to malaysia is appearing at the news conferences here with the international press. consider, he gets private briefings, and we know that, and yet he still turns up to the news conferences to just be sitting there listening to what is going on, and the chinese have for several days been quite vocal in the concerns about the pace of the operation, about the

fact that there's been misleading information coming out, and the communication channels have been very poor. and obviously, the chinese have a big interest here with 2/3 of the plane was filled with chinese nationals. they are really putting the pressure, externally, and we can see it in the from xinhua the state run news agency that behind the scenes the pressure that would be more intense, and whether it is going to prompt the prime minister to finally come forward with the facts and give the world some sort of a handle on which to make sense of this story. but certainly, the chinese are not pulling back here. it is going to be interesting to see now as the sending down more people to be part of the investigation team, and there is a lot of whispers and rumors about how difficult to get information from the malaysians to the various participants in the investigation, and it is going to be interesting in the

next two or three days to see what the chinese are providing, because they are providing a barometer of how the malaysian government has been handling this. >> yes, 135 chinese nationals on that plane. thank you. and now, there is some focus on the pilots of the flight 370, and now we are digging deeper into what they may be looking for.

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liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? welcome back. i'm jim sciutto in new york. and over the past nine days we have been hearing so many conflicting reports about what happened to the flight 370. the search area is wider than ever and now more clues that the could lead to a hijack iing. i want to bring in richard quest, and explain to the viewers what we know and don't know at this point, but first with the word today from the malaysian authorities that they are convinced that it is deliberately taken over, and

commandeered and not saying hijacking, because they have not said that, but are we closer to understanding what happened to the plane, marginally closer? >> well, we are not closer to understanding what happened, but closer to understanding where the plane is. and although if you look at this, you have got the site of last contact, and the vast area to the north of the search, and the area to the south. >> and to remind the viewers this is because of the satellite data, a ping that places the plane at that point several hours after takeoff. >> and once an hour, the satellite tries to communicate and say, hello, i'm here, and if you do seven hours up, and seven hours down, that is where you are going to end up. but here is why it is discouraging the look at how much space it is. but it is not -- p but they do now, and they have now been able to rule out the south china sea. >> that is right. and this is where they were searching originally right over here. >> correct.

and all of the assets out there are now moved over that way, and they are experienced at doing it. and the people who are doing it, and look, it may not happen this week or next week or the three week weeks' time, but they will follow that path, because they have to. there are 1,100 triple 7s flying at the moment. they have to understand what was the cause and how this came about. >> well, it is two things, because it is not just the arc down here, and this is the presumed path before it hit this arc here, but it is also the e authorities saying deliberate, because that implies a plane under control. >> well, it implies, and it does not imply, but it is saying straight out that somebody was at the helm. >> yes. >> and somebody made the moves. it does not as you rightly pointed out, it does not tell us whether the pilot under duress or the pilot, extremist or the pilot or somebody else with nefarious means, but it merely means that the maneuvers were of a nature that more than

suggests, but confirms, because the ntsb, and the waib, the british equivalent, and the rest of the world concur. >> and we saw the data showing the left turn heading out this way, and it is over time that the experts studied the radar data which i have been told by the experts that it is more of a art than science, and to weed out the noise, and the same for the satellite data, and hunting and looking for other satellites who might have picked up anything to refine the search. >> and that is important, because now all of the countries, india, china, kazakhstan and australia if it has assets in the indian ocean, and all of the countries that were not previously looking at the satellite data, and tonight, the countries are looking at the pictures and getting their experts. i'm not discouraged in a sense, because this is how you have the

investigations, you have a fact and you follow it down, and more people join in. >> and in is a very watched and surveillanced part of the world, because you have tensions of china and india and afghanistan and pakistan and worried about india. and that means assets. >> yes, and the rail politic of this is that it did not get to india and it did not get up to pakistan or somebody would have seen it, and the assets would have been there. and one other offer, and i have been announcing that if you have a question, i will do my best to answer it. you can tweet me from what we know, and i may regret this, but if there is a question that you want to ask, that is the twitter name@richard quest and i will do my best to answer you individually. >> thank you, richard quest, and always great to have you on. and we will have you back, i'm sure. new attention to the pilots of flight 370. next we will look at the men who flew the plane and why they are under investigation.

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welcome back. i'm jim sciutto in new york. it is being called a game-changer, the revelation that the plane's tracking system was turned off before the cockpit radioed the last words. and cnn has learned that the homes of the pilot and the co-pilot have been raided.

our simone mossa has more. >> reporter: police leaving the home of pilot fariq abhamid. no comment he tells me. earlier the neighbors told me how the community has been in shock, and rallying together to show their support. the neighborhood has rallied together to hold special prayers, this woman tells me, but for the past few days the family has not been here. it is very sad. we really hope that the all of them are safe. this neighbor is friends with o co-pilot fariq's mother. >> we have been doing the prayers and the prayer almost everyday and every night. i pray for her and for him. and i think that she is very --

>> reporter: patience. >> yes, patience. and patience with this problem. >> reporter: and the police have also been to the captain zaharie ahmad shah's home. they say that the home has been search and the source close to the family says they have not been seen since the plane d disappeared. he has a house in this upmarket estate here. he lives here with his wife and a daughter in her 20s. they also have two older sons and a grandchild that friends say he dotes on. the captain is 53 years old with more than 18,000 hours of flying experience. >> captain zawahiri is a very social person. he loves people, and he enjoys the work, and enjoys his job as a pilot. he is a committed professional pilot. >> reporter: i caught up with his friend peter chong, and they

met working with underprivileged children. >> if you were allowed to choose a pilot on board of the plane, i would definitely choose him. >> reporter: why is that? >> i feel confidence and trust in him, because of the joy and the passion in flying, and, you know, if something had happened to this flight, i would think, and in fact, i would believe that he would have made sure of the safety and the welfare of everyone else before he even thinks of himself, and that is the kind of person that he is. >> reporter: much has been made of the flight simulator that the captain had in his home. >> it is a reflection of the love of flying, and again, it is a reflection of the love of people, because he wants to share the joy of flying with his friends. and i have been invited to his house for a few times to try out the flight simulators, and he has always told me that the flight simulator experience is a far more challenge than the real flight experience, because in the most case cans of the real flight would be almost in ideal situations.

>> reporter: but this time, the scenario was very different, and what happened on flight mh 370 remains a mystery that many cannot explain. cnn, kuala lumpur p, malaysia. tortured, heart broken, frustrated -- those are some of the words to describe the families of those on flight 370. up next, we head to beijing to see how they are coping. so i get invited to quite a few family gatherings. heck, i saved judith here a fortune with discounts like safe driver, multi-car, paperless. you make a mighty fine missus, m'lady. i'm not saying mark's thrifty. let's just say, i saved him $519, and it certainly didn't go toward that ring. am i right? [ laughs ] [ dance music playing ] so visit progressive.com today. i call this one "the robox."

the new focus for the search crews and international agencies looking for the missing boeing 777 is this, what was happening on the flight deck before the jet vanished from every scope watching it from the the ground, and here is one working scenario, the plane may have flown this pattern, northwest over china and possibly into central asia, and turkmenistan,

and over to western china, and that is where some of the groups have strong political can and ethnic problems with china and the west. and some analysts believe that is where they could find some value in taking the plane, but it is just one of the theories. it is a hard time of the scenarios. the families are hoping for any word for their loved ones, and we know it has been a long wait. david joining us, and it has been a painful eight days for the families, and you are seeing them at the hotel, and how are they coping with the eight days and the theories floating around now? >> well, it is difficult, jim, for them to cope, because as the days pass on and the hope is dashed, and then it comes back again for them, at least in their eyes, it is extremely tough. the prime minister press conference when he announced that will there is maybe or believe that there is deliberate action in the plane's

disappearance, that for many families was in fact, giving them a glimmer of hope. >> translator: i hope that this is a hijacking, because they are of loved ones. i hope that they are alive no matter how small the chance is. i have not slept for days. we are grateful for the help from the so 34 kmany countries. >> reporter: and jim, i have heard it from many family members, and it shows how desperate the situation is, and can you imagine that you were in a scenario that you hope that your loved one has been hijacked and that is how the families are dealing with in this days as it stretches on in beijing and around the world, jim. >> and dave, how about the tensions of the governments and the slowness of the information coming out from malaysia, and you have a strong statement from the chinese government pushing

malaysian government to investigate and get answers more quickly, and are those real tensions, and are you seeing them are there? >> well, i think that they are real tensions. they put on a three-pronged attack as it were on the malaysian government here from china. one from the foreign ministry say saying that quote time is life, and they need to demand quicker answer answers and quicker investigation, and also from the ambassador in malaysia giving the pointed comments and the latest from the official state media here in china, and jim, saying that they have needed s massive efforts, and that those efforts have been squandered, and so, yes, there is no love loss between china and malaysia at the best of times on the government-level, and because china has a huge amount of passengers on that plane, and all of the families, there is a lot of pressure on the chinese government for there to be a resolution of this. it seems like they have been taking it out on the malaysians, and certainly, a great deal of finger pointing on all sides,

and this is all getting a little bit messy as the days go on, and every one wants to know what happened to this plane. >> and the long wait and the agonizing wait for the families who are waiting. and danica weeks told cnn's piers morgan that life without him is overwhelming. >> i just can't unnerve. as time goes on, and i'm not deluded by the fact that as it goes on there is less and less chance of find iing out anythin. but, because there is no, no finality to it, i can't give up. >> and a sad twist there, paul left his wedding ring and watch with his wife just in case something was going to happen. i want to leave jeff guard guar

associate professor, and you have a minuscule hope that they are safe somewhere, but we don't know what happened, and how do they cope? >> well, this is why we call it the horror and the hope. there is a glimmerf hope, and certainly as the days go by, the certainly, the family members are getting very, very frustrated and angry with the government, and that is happening that the family members are bonding together, and they are kept together in a room for the most part when they are getting the updates. i would hope that they are giving, that there are grief counselors there, and even though we don't know what may have happened to the passengers, but it is a roller coaster of emotions, because they are getting the very fantastic theories as to what is going on, and it is just really, it is so unsettling that they just can't get just some basic, basic information that would give them the hope. >> and maybe that information is

not there, right? i mean, everybody is so confused. >> exactly. >> and i imagine that there is a protective thing here to direct the anger, and justified inarguably, but some protection for that. >> yes, and if through that frustration and anxiety and the anger, it is now easy to start pointing fingers at others and looking at others, and then you could look at others and take away the focus from what you are feeling from separation that they are having, and so it is a difficult situation for them. this is one of the great mysteries, air nautical mysteries of our time, and to be on the other end of that, they don't know what to experience, and what to think or what to feel. we have not seen too many of these situations like this. >> and i want to run a story for you, and it is a difficult and painful story, and i was living in beijing and i have friends there who are neighbors of one of the missing couples, and a couple who left the two children behind and the grandparents have

kept the kids and haven't told them the story, and keeping them away from the news to protect them. how could you possibly, and in is too early to say, but how would you present that news to people who are too young to understan understand? >> well, danica weeks who you just had on talking about her missing husband is talking to the kid, because they are asking about it, and all you can tell them is that we just don't know right now, and daddy, mommy is miss missing, but we are going the pray. and now spirituality comes right in here, and you have to be hon west the children, because they know much more, but you have to speak in their language and more than anything else, and this is the important thing, jim, the most important thing is to just listen to what it is that they have to say. >> my kids want sharp answers and answer their questions. >> it is honest to say, that we don't know, but we are praying. >> and jeff, i bet that some of

the families wish there was someone like you to be there to help them through it, and i know that we will come back to you as this goes on. and we are getting questions from you, the viewer, as you watch the plot thicken in this airline mystery. we will attempt to answer some of the questions from you coming in through twitter after this. must be a supermodel, right? you don't know "aarp". because aarp is making finding the career you love, no matter what your age, a real possibility. go to aarp.org/possibilities to check out life reimagined for tools, support, and connections. if you don't think "i've still got it" when you think aarp, then you don't know "aarp". find more surprising possibilities and get to know us at aarp.org/possibilities

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everyday, a little bit more information, but no hard answers, we wanted the give you the opportunities to ask us question questions and perhaps questions that we have not answered in the broadcast and so i sent it out via jim sciutto, and is s-c-i-u te te o, and -- s-c-i-u-t-t-o. and so chad myers who knows the satellites so well, and one question that is so interesting to me, and the question is from lee jenna tyler, are they able to triangulate any cell phone from anybody on board? they are talking about the triangulating of the satellites, but can they do it for the cell phone if it is still on. >> and i know i have tried to get a cell signal in the airplane, and at 40,000, it won't go down to the cell tower, because you are eight miles high, and you can rarely get a signal from the tower that is more than eight miles away, and

we don't have any information of the cell phone triangulation or one ping that could mean that the cell phone were confiscate ed or smashed, but right now, there not one bit of evidence from the malaysian government that any cell phone was pinged yet. >> and a reminder to the viewers that we look at the map that is behind me, and similar to the one to your left, if you are out over the indian ocean, there is no cell towers over there, and it would be difficult even if you could get a signal over land. and this search area, and you have done a great job of explaining, chad, that it is not just on the arc, but because of the fuel range, you are talk about a big slice here, and talking about the million square miles here, and you have used the statistic before, and that is a large area of searching over the ocean, and the fairly unpopulated areas up hee, and a reminder, and many of them without cell towers. >> and at lee michelle asked me, what is that red line? is that a flight path? no, that is where the ping

happened, jim. the flight could have been going this way, and then ping, this way, and ping. it does not mean that this is the path of the plane nor is this the path of the plane, but just happens to be on the line at 8:11 a.m. that is what that mean lines means. >> and that is a fantastic reminder, chad. it again shows how big the search area is. and this is another question from twitter and the only one we have time for, but could it have sh shadowed another airline to avoid detection? the slip screen so you would be confused with them and not getting two lifts, or is the satellite data clear enough to pick it out? >> it is possible, and it is dangerous, because of the jet wa wash, because they are big planes and the primary radar would say, what in the world was that? that was huge and that was not just some 727 that flew over me or an md 888, and it is large,

and it is possible that it is military movie mania where you have five helicopters in the big clu clump, but all of the sudden, there is as they fly on the land there is only showing up one. and remember "top gun" five bogeys and when they split up, you could see them all, and remember, they could shadow on the radars, but i highly, highly doubt that happened here. >> and chad who knows the satellites and the meteorologist, and thank you for the questions as well. this is something that we will come can back to, because there are questions that we are not thinking of and happy to have yours as well. tweet them to me at jim sciutto, s-c-i-u-t-t-o on twitter. and now passengers did board the plane using stolen passports raising red flags, but they those two passengers are not linked to terrorism. coming up, we le take you to the black market of passports. [ male announcer ] hey, look at you!

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as authorities search for the clues of the missing malaysian airlines airplane, there is one concrete fact, two men boarded the flight with stolen passports, but we don't know if that played a part of what happened to the flight 370. zain asher is going to take a look at the market of stolen passports and how it is being

combatted? sh. >> it can take weeks or a few hours, depending upon the quality of the passport that the forger is making. >> reporter: tony spent 15 years forging passports before he was sent to prison in 2009. >> i just gently picking the edge of a passport and now you can start to peel the passport back. >> reporter: and here he is changing the name on the passport the mine. >> anything can be faked and somebody made this passport and that means that it can be repeated again. you can see how close through to the picture we are here. >> reporter: he says that approximately 40 million passports are reported stolen since 1992. and many of them are similar enough to the original bearer. >> even if you look a little bit like that person, it is good enough. >> reporter: others end up in the hands of the counterfeiters. >> there is a huge market for the stolen paz passports, and it

is huge. on a daily basis, average fraudster will buy five or six. >> reporter: but he says that the account that the passport is going to raise more flags than a stolen one, because they have implemented new security measures to prevent it. so a fake passport might have 11 eagle holograms where the real ones have 17. and look at how it changes color in the ultra violeolet light. >> we are trying to increase our security. >> reporter: two men boarded the malaysian airline with two

passports stolen in 1999. >> border security officials all over the world can read the data and validate that you are who you say you are. >> reporter: and many countries in the developing world are still behind in implementing them. >> we have seen a lot of the new electronic passports coming in that have made forging a passport much more difficult, but of course, every system has its weaknesses. >> reporter: and tony says that back in the day for a top of the line passport it would be around $8,000. and he has mended his way s as got out of prison in 2010 and now helps company recognize stolen and fraudulent passports. if you have a stolen passport, you must report it immediately, because the last thing that you want is for it to end up in the wrong hands. zain asher, cnn. and new details on the story

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i'm jim sciutto in new york and we want to give you an important update on another story we are following here, the situation in ukraine. hours before a po ten sally explosive referendum in crimea, the military is on the move there. they say that 60 russian troops and helicopters assisted by three armed vehicles passed into the border of cry himcrimea, bu reports of gunfire. they say they repelled the troops, but the border guards say they are still there, and this comes as the crimean residents decide to leave ukraine and join russia or stay independent. earlier they wanted to draft a

referendum to declare it invalid, and 15 members supported it and china abstained. tension tensions are rising on the ground as 30 heavily armed men burst into the hotel room of the capital simferopol crashed in, and they said it was a training exercise, but nobody was hurt. and now back to the missing la lay shan flight, and one thing to be hope ful for the search going on, there is no evidence yet that the plane crashed. small comfort, but better than no comfort for the families there in malaysia and china. a new working theory is emerging this evening presuming that the boeing 777 was forced into silence, and that it may have been taken in this direction towards western china or the countries of central asia, and the plane carried enough fuel to

get that far, and it is part of the world where some of the extremist groups have political and ethnic struggles with the governments of china and the west. i'm jim sciutto in new york, and the coverage of the mystery of missing flight mh 370 continues. >> thank you, jim sciutto. i want to begin with the breaking news here in the news of the missing flight mh 370. barbara starr is saying that the focus of those in the cockpit are being responsible for the deliberate missing jet. and now an official is telling us that the focus is now in the southern indian ocean. look at this, and this is as abc news is reporting that the abrupt left turn off of the original flight plan was preprogrammed and raising a lot of questions tonight about whether that was a rogue pilot or hijacker in the cockpit. i want to get stht