breaking news this morning -- the search intensifies for flight 370. thousands of miles being scoured to find this passenger jet that just disappeared from the sky with hundreds of passengers on board. no trace at this moment. this morning, new questions about the pilots on board. could they have purposely shut down the plane's communications for steering this flight off course? we have live team coverage covering all the angles and the very latest developments from overnight. plus, breaking news in ukraine -- crimea voting to secede from the country and join russia. this morning the world refusing

to recognize the landslide vote. what's next for the people of ukraine, and will russia fight to create an addition to its country? we are live with what you've missed overnight. good morning and welcome to "early start." we are glad you're with us. i'm rosa flores. >> and i'm john berman. 4:00 a.m. in the east, a very early start because so much is going on. we begin with breaking developments in the search for malaysian flight 370. this weekend the search deepened as malaysian officials finally admitted that this jet with 239 people on board was flying for many hours after its crew last talked to air traffic controllers, and they believe it was turned deliberately off course. the search area has expanded again, deep into kazakhstan. that's in central asia. and south into the indian ocean. authorities are now looking into every passenger on the plane and the flight crew. the 53-year-old captain and his

27-year-old first officer. this weekend, both their homes were searched, investigators removing a flight simulator from the captain's home. there are so many questions this morning, more than ten days after that jet first disappeared. we begin with our coverage with jim clancy in kuala lumpur. jim, give us a sense of the latest. >> reporter: well, we've got word from the defense minister, hisham hussein, that there are now 26 countries involved in the search, a lot of them pushing in air assets right now. this is a huge area to cover. everyone knows it. they're trying to push the assets in that make it easier to do. air assets can only do so much, but we've got australia adding two orion surveillance reconnaissance aircraft, we've got new zealand, we have got the republic of korea offering one up, japan offering one up, the united states has two, a sophisticated p-8 as well as a

p-3 orion, all of them looking for this aircraft. meantime, you know, the whole list of passengers being reviewed. they're trying now to go back. they're looking for motive on one hand, but they're looking for evidence on the other. there is no claim of responsibility that we know of, there is no manifesto that's been published. people are at a loss to explain what happened to flight 370. john? >> jim, you mentioned 26 countries now involved with the search, but these are 26 countries very dependent on one country, malaysia, which is, you know, spearheaded this investigation from the beginning, and now there are a lot of questions about how malaysia has handled it, now that a full week plus a few days after the crash, we're now just finding out information they thank you have had for some time. >> reporter: well, they had a meeting on saturday, they had a meeting on sunday. they brought the ambassadors in, they talked with them. they've been asking for all the countries from kyrgyzstan

through thailand, china, all of these countries, give us your radar records. they know that flight 370 was out there. they know that the transponder was turned off. it should have shown up as a bogey, just a blip on radar screens. they've asked them for their raw data during the hours in question to try to determine, does that plane show up anywhere on anyone's radar. now, in the south indian ocean, there is no such thing as radar there to spot it. satellite information is also being analyzed. this is a mystery that confronts not just malaysia, it confronts the aviation industry as a whole, and people concerned about aviation security. and so, people aren't sparing anything. the cost of all of this, the sheer cost of fuel for these searches is mounting by the day. john? >> i think the cost none too high, it could never be high enough for the families of those who, you know, lost people on board that ship. now we have the world watching, and of course, safety a big

issue and concern about what happened to that plane. jim clancy in kuala lumpur, thank you so much. >> as we mentioned, investigators are taking a very close look at the two men who were flying this jet, searching their home over the weekend and asking, why did the captain have a flight simulator for his personal use? sima mohsin has been looking into that story. what are you hearing? all right, and sima mohsin is live with us now joining us with more information on that flight simulator. now, we know that the house of this pilot had been scoured over the weekend. that flight simulator, of course, authorities focusing in on that. what do you know?

>> reporter: yeah, rosa, i've spent the last couple of days outside both the co-pilot's and the pilot's homes. police went inside for a couple of hours. they searched the property. they left holding bags. we don't know what was inside. i questioned them as they left, asking exactly why they were there, what they were looking for and if the pilots are seriously under investigation for being behind the disappearance of flight mh-370. their answer was a simple no comment. we're not hearing much on what they were looking for or what exactly they're investigating. also, you mentioned that flight simulator. i've been speaking to friends of the pilot, captain zaharie, who had built that flight simulator inside his home by himself, and the friend, peter chong, told me, look, this is his hobby, it's his passion. he was an aviation expert, an enthusiast. he liked to bring this home with him. in fact, he invited myself and many other friends over to have a go on this flight simulator. he also talked about how much

this investigation is impacting them. of course, 239 people missing on board flight mh-370. but add a lot of sadness and angst among families and loved ones, coupled with an investigation, there's a lot of tension. this is what he had to say about that investigation. >> i feel particularly affected when they go, for the lack of evidence, you go into theories like questioning his credibility, his terrorism links and issues like that. i think it's a little bit insensitive and unfair to the family. >> reporter: and this is the thing, this is what he told me, that this is a family man devoted to his career, devoted to his family, and he also said, listen, if i was on a plane, i would want captain zaharie flying this plane, because i know if something went wrong, he would make sure we are all safe

before he took care of himself. rosa? >> now, a quick question for you. i know that a lot of attention has been made about the simulator. does this simulator have a memory, so for instance, if there was some simulation of something, that investigators would be able to trace that? >> reporter: we're trying to get more details on this flight simulator and exactly what kind of programs were inside. the investigators say they're still looking at it, rosa. they haven't actually come back to us to tell us what they found. they've had it since saturday. they've rebuilt it, we do know that, at the police station. they've rebuilt the simulator. they're going through it. but we don't know exactly what they've found. they're not releasing that information yet. but what i do know is what peter chong told me, which is that it had various scenarios that captain zaharie liked to practice on -- snowstorms, thunderstorms, landing in difficult terrain, difficult conditions. that's what i do know about this

flight simulator, and that's what he told me, that he enjoyed practicing on, he enjoyed challenging himself. and ironically, he had also told peter chong that, you know what he said was, actually, peter, it's so much easier flying in real life. rosa? >> all right, saima, thank you so much for joining us. interesting pieces of that puzzle when she mentioned that he liked to simulate certain scenarios. >> right. i'm sure they're going through that now to see if he simulated landings on small air strips, islands or something. we have no way of knowing that's what's on it, but that's what they'll be looking for. we do know it took them a week to take hold, take possession of this simulator, which is one of the things that has people wondering about how malaysia has been handling this investigation from the beginning. i want to talk more about that, so let's get perspective from steve moore, a former supervisory special agent with the fbi. he oversaw investigations into al qaeda. he's also a pilot. steven joins us from los angeles. happy good morning, great to

have you here with us, steven. let me start out by asking you about this investigation. we mentioned that it took a week for the malaysians to take possession of the flight simulator. we know, at a minimum, their military, you know, did not track these blips that were crossing the malaysian peninsula as it was happening that day that that flight disappeared. we also know it took them a week to admit publicly that they now have satellite pings showing this vast range where the plane may have been. what does this tell you about the quality of this investigation so far? [ inaudible ] all right, we're having a hard time hearing steven moore here. we'll try to get a hold of him in a second and ask him some of these key, key questions. rosa? >> now, there are three americans on this flight, two children and an ibm employee named philip wood, who was returning to beijing after

visiting family in texas. his longtime girlfriend, sarah bejak told the bbc she's frustrated by the lack of information so far. >> i've received zero communication from the american embassy, zero from the chinese facility. malaysian airlines took about seven or eight hours to contact me, even though i'm the one listed as next of kin. i found out -- i mean, i was -- i mean, the driver was waiting for him at the airport, and malaysian airlines was still showing that the flight was just delayed, but that it took off on time. well, that, you know, made me think it was stuck on the tarmac. so, that was my first thinking when he was only one hour late. and they just forgot to update the flight. but then it was two hours that went by. then i started looking on the internet and i found that online flight tracker that swedish company, i think is where i found it? and there was that first alert, and then i think cnn started

posting the story, it must have been like 8:30, 8:40, and that's what i found. i had just found the story when the movers showed up. and so, of course, i was kind of in a shock system, and then they didn't know what to do, and it was awful. yeah, but malaysia airlines didn't call, and ibm didn't call me. i called them to notify them. i had to call philip's parents to tell them as soon as i had done sufficient verification to realize that indeed it was missing. i mean, it's been quite sorely lacking, actually. >> and coming up in our next half hour, you'll hear more from sarah bajc, including what she believes happened and whether she thinks philip wood is still alive. >> most of the people on that flight were chinese nationals, and their anger at the airline and the malaysian government is growing by the day. pauline chiou is live in beijing with that part of this morning's story. pauline?

>> reporter: john, that's lack of coordination that we just heard sarah talking about in that interview that has had the families of these 154 chinese citizens so angry and frustrated as well. we're going into the tenth day of this mystery, and they shake their heads at the lack of information they've gotten. now, i was inside the hotel today behind me where many of these families are staying, and we saw them at lunchtime, where the hotel has roped off an area of a restaurant where they were eating. they are hungry for information, but they're not getting enough, so you see them checking their smartphones all the time, checking for updates online. they're even asking the media here, what's the latest and what we know. so, that gives you an idea of the hunger for information. now, the atmosphere in the hotel today is actually a little bit more relaxed than what we've seen in the past. yesterday we saw a lot of outbursts against the airline's

representatives. today one relative says that things are a little bit more calm among them because, ironically, there is no news. they're hanging on to any shred of information that gives them a little bit of optimism. for example, the fact that so far, no debris has been found. you're looking at video from yesterday, where tempers were flaring yesterday as malaysia airlines had indicated that even though they're paying for their hotels and meals, they can go home if they want, and the airline will pay for their return journey home. well, many of the relatives had taken that as an insult, so that's why you're seeing this outburst in that video from yesterday, john. >> i think any amount of emotion right now is understandable. and of course, there's a lot of national tension at stake here as well. families have been saying they want the malaysian ambassador to come and answer questions. any progress on that? >> reporter: yeah, that's right, the malaysian ambassador to china has only shown up twice in

the past ten days, and the families here say they want direct contact with someone from the government. they would like this ambassador to come more often. they've also asked for 24-hour access to someone in the government to be in this hotel where they have these daily briefings. so far, that request has not been met. so, the relatives very frustrated as we're going into day ten. we're going to have another briefing in about two hours, so we'll see what kind of information or lack of information comes out of that. >> all right, pauline chiou for us in beijing, where so many of those families are. thanks so much, pauline. and still ahead, much more on the mysterious disappearance of malaysian jetliner flight 370. but first, breaking news out of ukraine. crimea voting to leave the country and join russia. right now, crimea's leader is heading to moscow, an emergency legislative session being held, and of course, the world is watching. we are live next.

all right, welcome back, everyone. we are following the breaking news from malaysia, where authorities have again expanded the search area for flight 370, gone now for ten days.

investigators are looking for this jet from kazakhstan -- that's in central asia -- all the way down into the southern indian ocean, admitting to cnn what we first told you last week, that the boeing 777 may have flown for many, many hours after it lost contact with flight controllers. we'll have more on the search and the investigation in just a few minutes. crimea this morning is waking up to a new reality and new tension between russia and the west. residents there voted overwhelmingly to leave ukraine. more than 96% saying yes in a referendum. president obama called russian president vladimir putin on sunday, promising the vote will not be recognized by the international community. putin, as you might expect, disagrees. and as soon as today, the u.s. could move to impose sanctions on russian officials. michael holmes is live in simferopol this morning. michael, good morning. what's the feeling like there this morning?

>> reporter: a bit of a hangover, i imagine when it comes to the reality, rosa, of what to do now. it is the morning after the night before huge celebrations of the result of a referendum whose result was never really in doubt. and now, of course, if they're going to go ahead with this, the russian duma meets on friday to decide whether they accept crimea's decision to join the russian federation. they almost certainly will. today there's a delegation of crimean politicians headed to russia to work out exactly how to do that. you mentioned the fallout from this internationally. eu foreign ministers are meeting in brussels. you can expect them to be discussing sanctions as well. and of course, if this all goes ahead, rosa, you're talking about synchronizing two separate places. crimea gets 80% of its water from ukraine. the power, the gas, the telecoms, the banking, the military. and even if you look at crimea on a map, it's not actually

joined to russia. if you want to get there any other way other than a ferry, you go through ukraine. well, that's going to be a bit uncomfortable now, one imagines. they're talking about building a bridge, but that's going to take a while, and it will probably take a while, too, to build bridges between east and west over all of this. you know, i was talking to an older gentleman earlier who's lived through a lot of changes here in this part of the world, and i asked him what it would be like, and he said, "we will live it and we will see." that's very much the attitude here, wait and see what happens. rosa? >> you know, i've talked to a lot of ukrainian americans here in the u.s., and just covering stories, and a lot of them are worried about their families in ukraine, both in the east and also those who live in crimea. is there a sense there of division? because what i heard was pretty much that a lot of these families, some of them are afraid. >> reporter: yeah, look, in crimea, the vote was overwhelming, and 96% of people are not ethnically russian.

about 55% are. but what happened was a lot of those ethnic craneans, the crimean tatar minority, the muslim minority, they just didn't go out and vote. so, you do have that division here. i've spoken to people here who are planning to leave. they don't want to be russian. they want to be ukrainian. one of the great concerns, of course, is in the center of the country to the east is 8,500 russian troops on the eastern border with ukraine, ostensibly there on military exercises, but we've already seen unrest in some of those eastern cities, not crimea, but in ukraine, places like where there have been pro-russian demonstrations, people saying we want our own referendum, too. and a lot of people in ukraine are nervous about what vladimir putin might do next. why those 8,500 troops are along that border conducting so-called exercises. rosa? >> all right, michael holmes,

the world will be watching. michael holmes live in simferopol. thank you so much. >> indeed. and you know, i have very few doubts that the people of crimea would have voted in the majority, at least, to join with russia, but that 97% figure does raise some questions. free and unfettered elections don't come back with 97% anyway. >> i talked to a lot of people here, and they were nervous. he said, really, for people who are not pro-russian, they're staying indoors. they're not going to go vote, they're not going to express their opinion out on the streets because a lot of them are afraid. >> they clearly felt nervous to leave home. all right, we'll be right back.

welcome back. it's 26 minutes past the hour. happening right now at the oscar pistorius trial in south africa, a gun dealer is on the stand talking about firearms. pistorius bought from him. as the mother of reeva steenkamp makes an appearance in court for the first time in two weeks. she and pistorius reportedly spoke briefly. and as he faces murder charges for shooting and killing her daughter, this days after a former police commander admitted to the mistakes made during the initial investigation, including the theft of a watch from the blade runner's home. next, the breaking news we're covering all morning, the mystery of missing malaysian airlines flight 370. the search is intensifying this morning, expanding overnight.

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at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter.com/offer5. breaking news overnight. the search expanding for a missing malaysian jetliner missing for more than a week. hundreds of passengers on board

vanished without a trace. this morning the search for survivors and the wreckage intensifies as the mystery of the plane's disappearance begins to unravel. did the pilots do all of this on purpose? live team coverage on all of the angles on this developing story, ahead. and breaking news out of ukraine. crimea voting to secede to join russia. emergency meetings under way right now. the question being will the world intervene? what will the u.s. do? we're live with the very latest. a lot going on this morning. welcome back to "early start," everyone. i'm john berman. >> and i'm rosa flores. it's 4:30 in the east. it's 1:30 in the west. thank you so much for being with us. this morning the questions continue to pile up in the search for malaysia airlines flight 370. as the area where crews are looking for that jet grows even wider, north into kazakhstan and south into the indian ocean, this weekend, malaysian

officials finally admitted the jet was flying for many hours after its crew last talked to air traffic controllers, and its turn off course seems to be deliberate. so, authorities are now looking into every passenger on that plane and the flight crew, a 53-year-old captain and his 27-year-old 1st officer. both their homes were searched this weekend. let's bring in jim clancy live in kuala lumpur with the very latest. jim, what can you tell us this morning? >> reporter: well, we're waiting. we've got about one hour to go until we're expecting to hear from malaysian officials once again, see if there's any update. unfortunately, we know that it's unlikely they're going to have anything to tell us, because if they really had a development, we would have been called into the briefing room just behind me at any other time of the day. instead, we are probably going to hear more about the expanding search, about the 26 countries that are involved, about all of the orion aircraft that have been given up to them.

you are not going to hear a lot about the complaints of the families, and the complaints are growing louder in some cases, more direct in some cases. they're accusing malaysian authorities of not being forthcoming with the truth. and as a result, this entire investigation has been delayed at the cost of knowing where their loved ones are tonight. certainly, malaysian military radar showed the flight going over the malaysian peninsula, leaving the south china sea, going up the malacca strait and toward the indian ocean, but it didn't scramble any jets. had it, this would be a completely different scenario. we might know what had happened to flight 370, but that's all in the past. today the search effort continues. back to you, rosa. >> jim, quick question. there are so many countries involved. there's 11 countries in the land search. there's a lot of ocean. there's 26 countries, like you mentioned, that are part of this

investigation. with so many moving parts, how are authorities prioritizing? >> reporter: well, they're saying that they're giving the same priority to that northern arc as they're giving to the southern arc. but you're right, it is a huge task. they're asking for the raw records, the raw data. already we've had pakistan and india come back and say there's nothing on our radar that shows this. well, that's not good enough, because somebody in charge of the investigation has to themselves look at those raw data records and see if there's any unidentified blip on that radar at about the time when flight 370 could have been there. they're also adding countries. it seems like the list is longer than it should be. they're adding countries like the united states, like france, asking them to furnish satellite data that could further give them clues. there's still a lot of data to search. that is certain. but just whether or not it's going to turn up flight 370,

that's the question that people are asking right now. rosa? >> all right, jim clancy live from kuala lumpur for us. thank you so much. >> so, a lot of this investigation right now, the focus seems to be on the pilots. both were experienced behind the controls of a boeing 777. this weekend their homes were searched, and now investigators are asking why the captain had a flight simulator in his home. they've taken that flight simulator and they are now examining saima mohsin has been looking into that part of the story. saima, what can you tell us? >> reporter: well, i've spoken to a friend of captain zaharie who said this was very much a passion of his, to bring his career back home and practice various scenarios on this flight simulator. he said, look, i don't believe it's anything sinister at all. he used to invite me and other friends around to have a look at this and to practice these different scenarios, whether it be a snowstorm or a thunderstorm, et cetera, things

like that. he painted him as a very normal, average family man, committed to his family, committed to his career. but when i talked about the investigation and how eyebrows are being raised and how the pilot and co-pilot are being investigated, this is what he had to tell me. >> i feel particularly affected when they go, for the lack of evidence, you know, you go into theories like questioning his credibility, his terrorism links and issues like that. i think it's a little bit incensensitive and unfair to th family. >> reporter: so, of course, while we understand that the investigators must take a look at each and every person on that plane, be it crew, be it passengers, at the same time, there are families at home that are going through a terrible

angst, days and nights, waiting to hear about what happened to the flight and those on board. >> looking at every person on board that flight, if only to rule them out as being possibly connected with it. and we understand they are going through the passenger manifest right now. there are reports there was an aviation engineer on board. what can you tell us about that, saima? >> reporter: i've been out investigating exactly this passenger tuned yesterday. cnn have been looking into this passenger. he is 29 years old. i've been speaking to his family, both his stepmother and his father, and the father said, look, i have full confidence my son is not involved in the disappearance of mh-370. let me tell you a bit about him. he is an aircraft engineer, 29 years old, as i said. he's married. he has a baby, just 1 years old. and he was working with a private executive jet company as an engineer, taking care of the

aircraft, and he used to travel around asia, his stepmother told me, sometimes flying from one place to another, based in kuala lumpur, and this time, he had phoned them the night before and said i'm going to beijing on business. that's what we know about him being on board. but of course, as we take a look one more time, through every single passenger on board that flight, because it has been missing for so long, experts are telling us and investigators are telling us that, of course, anyone with any kind of expertise related to flight or aircraft will be looked at with more detail. john? >> all right, our saima mohsin for us in kuala lumpur, thank you so much, talking about investigating going through person by person on board that flight to find out as much as they can. one of the questions is why did they wait a week to get a hold of the flight simulator that was in the pilot's home? to get more perspective on the investigation, steve moore is a former supervisory special agent with the fbi. he oversaw investigations into al qaeda. he's also a pilot. he joins us from los angeles.

steve, let me ask you right out of the gate here, you know, the fact that it took a week to look at that flight simulator, the fact that the malaysian military did not follow up on those radar blips the day that they were passing over, didn't scramble jets. the day that it took -- >> just about on, so be very quiet. >> the fact that it took so long to identify those satellite pings. how confident are you in the malaysian investigation? all right, we're obviously having trouble still with steve moore. we'll get back to him again in a little bit. and we continue with this. most of the passengers on flight 370 were chinese nationals, but three of them were americans, two children and an ibm employee named philip wood, who was returning to beijing after visiting family in texas. his longtime girlfriend, sarah bajc, spoke to the bbc about what she thinks happened. >> i'm quite certain that philip

is still alive. i still feel his presence. and logical conclusion -- i used to read sherlock holmes as a kid, i think i memorized all those stories. you know, as improbable as it sounds, all of the facts point to the fact -- to the scenario that the flight has been taken. and you don't go to that excruciating level of planning and self-discipline and resource enablement to take a plane only to crash it with nobody seeing it, right? you're either going to take the plane to do something public with it or you're going to take it for future purpose. so, if that's the case, then it still could have crashed because of some failure in their plan, but just someplace that they're not looking, and i frankly think they're looking in the wrong places, just gut instinct. i know nothing, i'm just trying to think like a terrorist. philip is the only american adult on that plane.

he's going to be a valuable asset for them. and he's smart, very self-controlled, very calm guy, so you know, he won't cause trouble. he'll take a calming approach. and if anybody's going to survive it, it's going to be him. so, i just have to believe that he's still alive. >> bajc says she's frustrated by the lack of information from the malaysians and the u.s. government and the airline as well. and that's just one story of so many. there's 239 people on board, so. >> so many stories, so many families wondering right now. >> and we're continuing to follow all the late-breaking developments on missing flight 370. but first, breaking news in crimea, voting to leave ukraine and join russia. this morning, world leaders meeting and talking about the way out. we are live with the latest, next.

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welcome back. it's 45 minutes past the hour. now to the latest on the investigation into malaysia airlines flight 370, missing now for ten days, going on eleven. authorities are now looking into the pilots, revealing that the last communication from the jet

happened after a data transponder was turned off. and malaysian officials have admitted, the jet may have flown for hours after that last communication. the search area now stretches from the indian ocean all the way north into kazakhstan. we're going to move on to crimea now and breaking news there, because that region is moving closer this morning to becoming a permanent part of russia. voters there saying yes in a referendum overwhelmingly. nearly 97% voting that they want to leave ukraine and join the russian federation. nearly 97%. that is a number almost impossible to achieve in truly democratic elections. russian president vladimir putin is calling the vote legitimate and consistent with the u.n. charlotte charter. president obama says no and warns russia that the only way out of this is through diplomacy. the question is what happens now? joining us from moscow is will anglin, who covers russia for the "washington post." will, thank you so much for being with us this morning. president obama keeps on saying that if russia allows crimea to

join, if crimea does, in fact, secede from ukraine and join russia, there will be costs. what kind of costs do you reasonably think we're talking about at this point? >> well, the european union foreign ministers are meeting today in brussels, and they're talking about sanctions against russia, probably targeted sanctions against individuals who they would see as being responsible for what's happening in crimea. the list could be produced later this week. the united states has the ability to do the same thing. no one has been put on the american list yet, but that could happen in the next day or two. i think that would send a very strong message to russia. some economists here worry that beyond sanctions, it's the signal that gets sent that actually does more damage. it's a signal to investors that, hey, you know, this is maybe an uncertain place to do business. >> and of course, there are people suggesting that vladimir

putin has bitten off more than he can chew here. what are the risks for him in allowing crimea to join russia? there are some people suggesting he would automatically have to start negotiating with the government in ukraine, a government which he doesn't recognize. >> well, he might have to do that. i think there are a couple of risks for him. one is that there are some quiet voices here wondering just, you know, what value is crimea to russia? it's going to be an economic burden, but on the other hand, this is a country that was just willing to spend $50 billion on the winter olympics in sochi, so it can probably handle that part of it. there's going to be, of course, a lot of blowback from the west, a lot of anger, and at some point, moscow will have to deal with the authorities in kiev. i guess the question is whether they're going -- they meaning the russians -- are going to keep the military pressure up on ukraine or whether, if they take

crimea, they'll be willing to start doing some real negotiating. >> yeah, what happens to those troops right now, not far from the eastern border of ukraine? that seems to be one of the key questions. all right, as you said, diplomats meeting right now to discuss the possibility of sanctions and more economic actions. we will wait to see what they do. will englund, thank you for being with us. really appreciate it. now to our other top story this morning, the search widens for a missing malaysian jetliner and the investigation now focusing on the pilots. we're breaking down the very latest live after the break.

keeping a close eye this morning on the search for malaysian airlines flight 370. the jet's been missing now for ten days. today a search is widening from the indian ocean all the way north into kazakhstan, that after authorities admitted that the jet continued to ping a satellite for hours after its last communication with air traffic controllers. now they are looking into the pilots, searching their homes this weekend. so, we want to talk about that with alster rosen shine, a former pilot, now an aviation consultant, in our london studio this morning. alastair, let me ask you this, they have the flight simulator from the home of the pilot. how unusual is it to have a flight simulator in your own home? and what kind of details might they be able to find on this

piece of equipment? >> well, many pilots who are interested in aviation will, indeed, have a flight simulator at home, whether it's microsoft flight simulator or some such similar thing. this particular pilot had a rather more sophisticated system, but it's entirely possible it was for perfectly innocent purposes. however, having got this equipment, it is possible, of course, to plan possible scenarios, and the suggestion here being that he may have hijacked his own aircraft and practiced the flight using this equipment. so, obviously, the authorities will be looking at the recording data on his hard drive there to see whether or not that is the case. >> now, this is rosa here. one of the things i'm fascinated by is that malaysian officials said that one of the pings could possibly be from land, kind of making the suggestion that this plane could have landed. so, one of the things is, could this, in fact, happen?

could the flight be landed and go undetected? >> well, if the aircraft has landed, it would -- and there's still power, you know, electrical power to the aircraft, either provided by the engines or ground power unit, then it would continue issuing radio pulses. of course, it's possible to land this aircraft. there are any number of air fields on the route to, certainly off to the north and northwest. to do it undetected is something completely different and particularly hard to do. it's not a scenario which is -- whilst it remains plausible, it is somewhat unlikely. >> alastair, there is a report from the "new strait times," a newspaper from the region right now, reporting suggestions that the pilots were doing something called terrain masking, flying below 5,000 feet over land. explain to me why someone would do that. >> well, if you're trying to avoid or to minimize your radar

profile, then you will, indeed, fly low and map the terrain below 5,000 feet or over the bay of bengal, where there is no radar coverage, an area i know quite well. but you know, we are here moving towards suggesting it's deliberate hijacking, an attempt to avoid detection and land somewhere for nefarious purposes. there is no evidence this is the case. i am still fairly confident that this is actually something more normal, more like some sort of technical failure, a scenario i'm quite happy to talk you through. >> alastair rosenschein, we'll talk about that next hour, you're coming back and we'll talk about what possibly could have gone wrong in your eyes with this plane. there is so much more to discuss, the mystery of flight 370. we will discuss all the possible scenarios right after this.

breaking news this morning, the search intensifies for flight 370. thousands of miles being scoured to find this passenger jet that's just seemed to disappear from the sky. now new questions about the pilots on board. could they have purposely shut down the plane's communications before steering the flight off course? we have live team coverage covering all the angles with the

latest developments from overnight. plus, breaking news in ukraine. crimea votin t