coming out of moscow imminently right now. >> nick paton walsh watching this important story. that's it for me. thanks for watching. you can always tweet me @wolf blitzer, tweet the show @cnn sit ro. "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. >> next, breaking news in the investigation of missing it malaysian airlines flight 370. the united states asking the malaysian government for more transparency. we also have late details how the flight did go off course. plus, we'll talk to a retired pilot who flew the same triple 777 now missing for 12 days. he knows the pilots and the crew and thinks he knows who did i verted the plane. a new theory the plane was trying to land on a military base used by the united states. what the white house is saying about that tonight. about that tonight. let's go "outfront." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

and good evening, everyone. i'm erin burnett". i want to begin with breaking news. the united states formally asking malaysia for more transparency in the missing flight 370. defense secretary chuck hagel called minister of defense and encouraged the government to share what they know as soon as they know it. so far, the investigation has been full of malaysian authorities withholding key information or denying it and causing more confusion. as for what we do know today, the whole act may have been carefully planned. we have just learned the sharp left turn it the plane made was programmed into the plane's software. a law enforcement official tells cnn the first key turn off the scheduled route was almost certainly programmed by somebody in the cockpit. so who was that somebody? u.s. officials saying an initial search of personal computers and e-mail traffic from the pilot and 27-year-old co-pilot of the

missing plane have found nothing so far to indicate they planned the change. u.s. officials have now reviewed cockpit conversations between those two gentlemen and air traffic controllers and say that they heard nothing suspicious in those communications either. as for the plane itself, the total area now being searched stands at 2.97 million square miles. as you can see by that circle on the screen, that is about the size of the entire continental united states. today, the thy military said it was receiving normal data from the plane till 1:22:00 a.m. six minutes later this he detected another signal, possibly the missing plane headed in the opposite direction. this data now is the second radar evidence that the plane did indeed turn off its scheduled route. jim sciutto has been breaking all details from washington today. a lot of people are saying, gosh, the pilot and co-pilot, wasn't there a sophisticated

simulator at the pilot's home? they have a point of view what was on it. >> this is really important because the pilot and co-pilot have come under public suspicion here. and this shows that the police have done their homework and found no evidence not just in the simulator that the pilot had, for instance, no evidence he practiced this turn to take it out into the indian ocean but also their e-mails, their homes no contacting with extremist web sites. no terror contacts. so that's important. now, on the other hand, more information today it looks like that plane was under control when it made that turn. it raises other possibilities. of course, it could still have been an intentional act of the pilot. it could have been under duress. someone else had knowledge of that plane or there could have been an event on the aircraft that requires them to take that turn maybe to head home in reaction to something that happened on the plane. we've talked about the suspicion, but there is no evidence yet linking them to any

terror link or intentional taking over of the plane. >> jim, all of this though when you add it together, and there are and we're going to talk about it later in the program, there are people who still believe there are mechanical ways that could explain what happened here. obviously a lot of people believe it was deliberate. so, where is the line between deliberaten an act of tearer? >> it's a good question. talk about the act of terror. i talked to intelligence officials and i bother them every day with this question. as more information has come in about this being a deliberate act. they still say we have no established link to terror but still keeping that open. they also don't have other things they normally have when there's been a terror attack. chatter from extremist groups bragging or talking about it with excitement. they've run all these names by terror watch lists and have no previous association with terror. it's several things at this point that do not point to terror. now, it then brings up other

theories what might have caused a deliberate act that is not tearer? could it have been someone else on the plane that the pilots themselves weren't even aware of who caused this em to take this decision? listen, intel officials are still looking. this is what analysts do, keep their minds open. every day they don't find a symptom of that, a sign of that. >> interesting. >> -- it undermines that theory. >> certainly does. leaves open questions about dry runs and their knowledge of chatter. but i know that's of course, the big questions you're working on every day. thanks so much to jim sciutto. i want to go to yong law in kuala lump pur who spoke with an old friend of the missing plane's pilot a man who flew the very same plane that's missing tonight. i flew this plane. >> you flew this plane. >> the missing 777. he says he flew the boeing

passenger jet for malaysia airlines where he was both a pilot and executive till he retired two years ago. the missing airline he says was one of the youngest planes in the fleet. >> i no he that it is more solid than anything else in the world and for it to just disappear the way it is, lots of questions. >> having flown the 777. >> yeah. >> do you rule out catastrophic mechanical failure. >> mechanical failure, it wouldn't be flying silently. it will july of disappear. >> instead it flew for hours no, distress calls before our interview, he was in this hall outside what he called a war room for the military, the airline and the government. huzlan is not an active participant in the investigation but he says any 777 pilot knows the wide bodied jet can be turned. >> how difficult is it to take this particular 777 off course? >> it is so easy. it is so easy. any pilot can do this.

it's just a keystroke. a stewardess can turn a keystroke. >> does it take a pilot to turn a 777? >> you just need to know what inputs you need to put into the computers. >> is it possible that then that it's not just a pilot and co-pilot? >> definitely, it is. it is very, very possible. >> what he feels is improbable that the plane's pilot capital zaharie shaw was responsible. the two began their piloting careers together more than 30 years ago. captain huzlan says zaharie has been his usual self-no odd behavior. >> the simplest formula is to me a sad thing being a pilot myself, my own kind. >> how much has this shaken pilots such as yourself? >> i'm just shocked. i'm shocked. >> it's amazing to hear him talk about that plane and how easy it was to turn it. there was a point where he was talking where he said look, a stewardess could do this.

i know he doesn't think his friend the captain was responsible. does he think it was another crew member or i an passenger? >> absolutely he thinks it was someone on the plane, erin. immediately he's turning perhaps to the co-pilot or someone with easy access to the cockpit. why? because of cockpit procedures at malaysia airlines. it's so difficult to access the cockpit. he says standard operating procedure is the door is very thick as it is in the united states. you need a keypad entry and there's a camera. so he believes that it has to be someone who had access to the cockpit. it's also possible, he says, that this may be a hijacking. he says that's a very small possibility given what he knows about malaysia airlines because he believes it would have had to take a number of determines people to breach the cockpit and the pilot would still have four to five seconds to accepted some sort of distress signal.

thank you very much. fascinating new details not only he thought they had four to five seconds to send the distress signal but the door would have been barred with a keypad. it it was unclear whether that was the case on malaysia airlines. perhaps you could come and go from the cockpit. he's saying it was much more difficult to access that cockpit. out front next, live inside a boeing triple 7 simulator. what happens when someone in the cockpit suddenly changes the direction. plus, the search area for the missing jet now the size of the continental united states. we have to start asking the question, will it ever be found? and new theories including one that all the way to the white house today. [ male announcer ] research suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day men's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for men's health concerns as we age. with 7 antioxidants to support cell health.

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and we have new details how malaysia airs flight 370 was put on the new course the night it disappeared, the preprogrammed change. law enforcement official tells cnn's the route was reprogrammed by someone inside the cockpit. it's unclear when that happened. we do have more information on that tonight. u.s. officials say an initial search of the pilot and co-pilot's personal computers and e-mail found nothing to indicate they planned to change course. martin savidge is live in a triple 7 simulator with mitchell. the latest reports we have right now are that that reprogram of

the route happened about 12 minutes before the last communication. that all right, good knight. which again for those saying people in the cockpit knew was going on lends itself to that belief. how easy is it though for anyone to reprogram a flight in the cockpit you're in right now? >> well, we can show you that here in the simulator. it's quite easy. it's another piece of the avionics gear to learn about. this time the fms or the flight management system. it's here. there's one up in the pilot's position and one up forward here. essentially it does a number of things it assists the pilot and co-pilot in flight. the purpose of it being a gps or really good gps. it would be preprogrammed before the aircraft takes off with all the necessary information to get it to beijing which that was the flight plan for 370. but once they're in the air, it could be changed and mitchell, show us how easily that's done. >> very easily. this magenta line on the

navigation display is depicting where the airplane is head. this white triangle is the airplane. if i wanted to deviate from my course, i would have to know where i want to deviate and if i knew that, i would just punch it into the computer here using the keypad. okay? and it -- i'll choose an airport here. we'll go punch in a few key strokes. and we've selected into the flight plan. and now the computer is asking me with had white line, do i want to deviate from this course and go this way? >> telling su ahead of time. >> telling you ahead of time. that's something we would confirm with the other pilot. yes, we want to do it. we go ahead and execute that. now you can see the airplane deviating off its course and taking a new course. >> you can see by the movement of the fake sun on the horizon that we are turning. i should point out, erin, it's not a steep bank not like an emergency turn. if you're a passenger in the

compartment, you really wouldn't think much of it, even though we've now deebiated dramatically off its original course. we should point out there are legitimate reasons to do it. just because you do it doesn't mean you're up to no good. >> mechanical reasons, you have weather. thunderstorms. volcano erupts. you have a sick passenger. right? needs to go to the hospital. then you need to deviate. >> this could fit into the area of an emergency in the cockpit but it can also fit into the theory of somebody up to no good. >> it's also interesting watch you and mitchell type those in you were picking an airplane, a three-letter code and anrerouting is that the way it's normally done? so in other words, is it most likely they said another airport, ie another formal destination or is it possible you could have entered a series of different points that might explain its movement? >> first of all, it's not -- you'd have to know what you were doing. i definitely wouldn't know how

to do this. it's not just an airport code. you could put in way points, points in the sky. >> white triangles are all way points. that's a small samples. he can pick any of those and deebate to any of those. >> eventually, you could put in in you have to plan an entire route to go can the whole way. >> until you get an airport. >> is nina lerted when you change the direction outside the cockpit? >> well, if you, if you're just punching in keystrokes, no one is going to be alerted. but they will -- if you're in a radar environment, if you're on radar, they're going to notice you turning off course and challenge that. if you're not in a radar environment, they're not going to know. >> all right. mitchell, thank you very much. martin, thank you. we're going to be back with both of you in a few moments as we go through some of the key theories that are surfacing on what

happened. joining me now is cnn analyst mary schiavo. thank you very much for tab heing the i ing -- taking the time. ip flight 370 that change from the programming was made 12 minutes at least 12 minutes, i should put that qualifier on there before someone in the cockpit said all right, good nooist. the last known communication with the ground. as we've already reported, there was nothing suspect in the communications between the pilots and what was happening on the ground. we now nope that 12 minutes before that finish this flight changed direction. what does that say to you? >> that's pretty significant because in that last communication, that was their opportunity to tell someone that something was wrong. they had an intruder in the cockpit. there is a code that most airlines have a verbal code if you want put in the hijack code in your transponder, there are words you can say verbally to give a clue you've been hijacked. you certainly would have let somebody know if you had smoke

in the cockpit, problems with your controls. you can say, there are two different kinds i have emergencies, a pan pan which means we're in trouble, we don't think we're going to crash but we're in trouble and a full on emergency. they could have declared an emergency. there's a lot of communications you would expect to hear if you're in trouble in those 12 minutes, but there's also the possibility as people have suggested that that wasn't the co-pilot's voice but people at the airlines have identified that as the co-pilot. the pilot not flying usually handles radios. >> if your view, do you think they were -- if that was the only one, we don't know at that point who was talking. there could have been one person in the cockpit at that time? it could have been the co-pilot? >> there could have been just one person in the cockpit. in that particular part of the flight where you're flying, i think chaing routes, going to connect with new air traffic, it would be typical to have both in there. by the way, if one leaves then the other one has to put on oxygen. that's typical if you're up at

the flight level. you're required, you don't have just one in the cockpit without your oxygen on. there are a lot of things that would have to take place if there was just one there. if the timing is correct, we've had changes in timing every day on this information. but if it's correct, it is rather odd that there wasn't any kind of an emergency declared and it would make you suspect maybe someone else is in the cockpit if you don't suspect the pilots being up to something. >> mary, thank you very much. as me points out, you heard what we reported earlier, four to five seconds quoung law was saying that's what you would need to indicate there's a problem. this latest report out there would indicate there were 12 plus minutes of time to do so. next the search area for missing flight 370 is now the size of the continental united states. 25 countries are hunting and still, nothing. plus, the newest conspiracy theories. what the white house had to say today.

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so where is malaysia air flight 370? 12 days after the passenger jet disappeared with 239 on board, there is still absolutely no sign of the missing plane. every day, there are different reports of a fisherman there or person there that happened to see it.

they all come up empty. 25 countries are now looking for the boeing triple 7. the search area is 3 million square miles. it's about the size of the entire continental united states. tom foreman is out front with the latest details on the search. when you think about it that way, you realize and the continental united states has areas that look different. this is just sea glinting up at you from the sun. so hard. >> yeah, this is 24 times as large as the air france search area. and that took two years to find the plane. let's take a look what's being considered. they have a lot of resources. they have as much as they can get right now. it took off from kuala lumpur, flew less than an hour and vanished without a trace. look at the huge fleet they have out there looking for this right now. among other things, close to 60 aircraft at work including these. this is a p 8 poseidon from the navy. this plane can fly many, many hundreds of miles every day

searching the ocean surface for any sign of anything. it's a state-of-the-art submarine hunter. it can spot a tiny per scope. it can spot debris if it's out there. they have around 40 ships out there. not only scanning the surface of the water with people looking at all hours but also scanning bemooeth neath the water with various imaging devices to help them close innen on a target. still, it's a lot of territory. that's not enough. they need bigger more hi-tech help than all of that. one of the things they have relied on in the process has been the satellites that we've heard so much about. satellites matter because they're giving data that allowed them to establish those two big arcs where they this might be the southern arc and the northern arc of this travel with the idea that maybe, maybe the plane is somewhere out along one of these arcs. that brings up an interesting point, erin. of the mings the malaysians say they're getting the most help on is analysis of all this data.

this isn't just a matter of digging and looking. it's a matter of looking at what you already have and saying does this geb me a clue where to look next. >> how do they decide where to look next, tom or frankly, i guess this is the question, when an area is, quote unquote, done? >> what they're doing basically is a form of do the mathematics it's called baysian theory. baysian theory be basically is a matter of adjusting your probabilities of where something might be based on every new bit of evidence. that's what has led them, for example to, identify this spot about 2,000 miles off the coast of australia. it's not terribly big compared to the whole search area but it's getting a lot of the attention right now because they put in all this information about the probability that the plane headed south, the probability that it made it this far, the probability that it didn't land somewhere or that it was under the control of somebody else. once they get here though, erin,

still a big challenge. even if they found debris there, they go have to go two miles down on a monthnous ocean floor amid currents. it is an aenormous challenge even if they get past step one and they're still looking for step one. >> pretty amazing.two years to find the air france plane. it was very quick when they found first the life jackets and realized this was the flight. two years to find it. next the mother desperate for answers and why she thinks he's being used as a political pawn. plus is it possible the plane was headed towards a secret military base. the white house was asked about that theory today. imagine if everything you learned led to the one job you always wanted. at university of phoenix, we believe every education- not just ours-

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developing news in the search for the missing malaysia airlines jet. a law enforcement official telling cnn tonight the missing jet's first turn to the west was almost certainly preprogrammed by somebody in the cockpit. before you jump to conclusions there that could have been a pilot, co-pilot or someone else who took it over. all of this is spawning countless theories what happened to the jet and one theory points to a u.s. military base on the island diego garcia in the middle of the indian ocean. jay carney was asked about it today. here's what he said. >> some news reports saying that the missing flight could have

landed in the u.s. military base. diego garcia in the center of indian ocean. do you rule in that or rule out that? >> i'll rule that one out. >> jay did not look like he actually wanted to smile there but at the end he did. look, these theories are out there. but a lot of them are gaining traction with each passing day. out front to talk about it are richard quest, jeff wise a private pilot and aviation journalist, robert guyer, and jim tillman. thanks very much for doing this. jeff, this issue of the diego garcia. obviously, this is something that's pretty much been dismissed as one of those water cooler conversations. there was a reason this one came occupy, right? >> apparently investigators look at the captain's flight simulator. there's been a lot of speculation why he had a flight simulator. they went in there and looked into the computer files. and lo and behold there was

diego garcia logged into among the places he visited. so logical conclusion perhaps, maybe he wasn't to diego garcia. unfortunately it's not in the areas we've now determined it must have been that morning. what's more, they've checked diego garcia and it wasn't there. so that one. >> we would have known it was there, obviously, as richard was saying during the commercial. robert, you know, a lot of people -- this spawns the other set of theories which is could someone have shot this plane down and don't want to admit it? >> yeah, that's very unlike. the whole reason for launching a terrorist attack is to claim credit for it. there's no reason to do it if you don't. >> that's a fair point. richard, i saw this. the tabloids of england are ripe with ideas. >> go on. >> okay. >> go on. i'm not pleased to be doing this because there are so many theories that need to be scotched. >> that's why we're calling this

theory busters. if you believe one of these, go ahead, be my guest. i don't expect you will most of them. world's first cyber hijack. there are some people whom legitimately believe. did al qaeda hijack, a 9/11 style plot. the cyberhijack, is it possible for someone to hack into the main computer network on a plane? >> virtually impossible. there are a couple ways you get to the computer and reprogram it. from my understanding, just about impossible. yes, there are comes links that allow the ops center for the airline to upload information into the computer and there are maintenance avenues into it. for anybody else, it's just about impossible. >> jim, what do you think about that? when you talk about a dry run and cyberwarfare, up with of the most terrifying things would be for someone who had the ability to hack into multiple airplanes. >> there are lots of theories. i think that's one of the worst.

i don't have any feeling at all that that could happen. >> sounds like his audio wasn't work. did the viewers hear it? >> i heard it. >> he scoffed at it. i heard you both laughing. >> it's one of the worst theories. he said. >> all right. let's move on the al qaeda one. did al qaeda hijack the missing plane? this is one a lot of people believe. how difficult would it be for terrorists given what we now know is that there were no communications from the ground that indicated anything was wrong. there was no communication between these pilots to themselves or anyone else that indicated they had intent to do anything. >> al qaeda has said we wished we had thought of it and we didn't. but it just doesn't jibe. there's ways that a pilot can signal that the airline is being hijacked without a hijacker knowing it. >> the codes, right. >> and none of those happened. what about the theory a lot of people have which is they wanted to take this jet, commandeer it for a future attack.

whether that was to lead it up immediately with radio active material and fly it over a city. >> it's time to have a reality check. >> i believe this one actually. >> it's time for you to have a reality chicago. >> how are you going to land a plane, refuel it, get it back into the air and get it to your ultimate destination without somebody spotting or knowing about it. >> listen, we don't know what their intention was. this is where you and i disagree. you still think it's an accident. i think that listen, the malaysian investigators have concluded this was an intentional act, this was a deliberate plan carefully executed meticulously planned i believe there's a spectrum on the one end you have terrorist activity and on the other the mechanical fault. they are mutually exclusive. there's a spectrum of possibility in this but i don't think you go to that next level

of suggesting they landed the plane. i may be wrong by tee time tomorrow. i do not think it's credible. >> was it robert or jim trying to jump in on that? >> robert. the whole idea that the plane was stolen in order to use it as a beach mass destruction is patently absurd. why would you choose to fly an airplane many thousands of miles an airplane that was full of people that everyone was going to be looking at when you could very easily hijack a plane right near where you wanted to do the attack and do it right before the attack so there wouldn't be any response? it doesn't make low jess tick cal sense. >> polled our viewers, 4% believe it was stolen for a future attack. but i guess my question, robert, would be maybe they needed to test it. i mean, people would say, they wanted to bring it to an area that was friendly to them as opposed to close to a major city where it would can more difficult. i'm playing here to the theory.

>> it's a fair question, but the problem then becomes where do they put the airplane. how do they secret it away. we have such great satellite coverage over much of the subcontinent, the middle east. it would be i think just practically impossible to hide it the airplane from us. >> there's one point we need to make i think. the more incredulous the possibilities with due respect to yourself, but the more incredulous or more outlandish some of these things, the more damaging it becomes to finding the plane, to the credibility of what's going on. because you've got to the sort of stay within the realms of terrorism, of hijacking, of mechanical fault. what's possible? what's likely? what's realistic? but the moment you start looking on islands for planes, and again i could be wrong by tomorrow. >> part of that is the human spirit. everyone wants to cling to the chard of hope even though

obviously a plane this could have landed we would have been aware of it. >> so unlikely. the whole thing is unlikely. we've never seen anything like this before. >> jim, a final word to you. i want to jim, first give you a chance. do you think that there's any chance this could have been a cry run for something? even though there was no chatter? would a would be terrorist have been smart enough to not provide that chatner advance of this? >> no, i don't know that they would or would not. i'll simply say that the longer this thing goes, the less possibility that it was a terrorist situation. the terrorists are smart enough to know if they have an advantage to use, they ought to use it and get it done. one of the great advantages they would have had with this is an airplane full of people, people from all over the world, different nationalities. how do you shoot that down? >> gentlemen, thank you. we're going to keep talking about this because as richard i think aptly put it, you've got the spectrum and over here some of the more outlandish ideas.

over here here mechanical failure. one experts believe there was aboard the flight and even with all these things that seem to add up to a hijacking, that mechanical error adds up. plus, why a heart broken and angry mother took malaysian airlines to task today. [ male announcer ] at his current pace,

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we're going to back in our flight simulatener a moment. first, anderson has a look what's coming up. >> we're working on new details about the last moments before all communications were lost with flight 370. as with many developments in the investigation, new details raise even more questions. we'll talk. over our panel of experts and continue with the theory that someone went down into the plane's belly to disable the communication system. former aircraft mechanic and national transportation safety board member john goalia shows us what it's like inside. you'll be surprised how easy it is to turn off that acar system. we'll also talk with sarah. her partner phillip wood is one of three americans on flight 370. we'll get her perspective on the philosophy information and how she's holding up with all this changing information day by day

all at the top of the hour. >> and now, back to the theories about exactly what we're hearing. some of the conspiracy noerpz martin savidge is here with the flight simulator. richard wise. will they suggested there was a fire. a lot of people say how would that be possible. he said a veteran pilot would be taught to find the nearest airport. they might have turned that plane and started to turn dramatically left to try to head back to kuala lump pur. he says the loss of the transponder makes perfect sense in a fire. you're in the simulator. does that add up? >> certain aspects of it, definitely do add up. i was covering the valujet crash. i know the effects of a fire on an airliner. the most likely way the crew is going to become aware of a fire like in your home, in your office, there is a fire detection system pap.

it's a series of bells that go off. it's a series of lights that begin to illuminate whether it's amazing if it's a fire in the new jersey, a fire down in the cargo hold, if it's the apu, down in the wheel well. any number of compartments are immediately identified. i mean, if it's in the engines, what do you do? >> we have these levers. we can discharge foam, anti-require fee regardant. >> say it's the cargo hold or the wheel well. >> they have automatic systems, as well. >> automatically. it's not like you have to make it go? >> yeah, exactly. >> so i mean, then, if you're starting to talk about something maybe back in the passenger cabin, attendances with fire extinguishers. right here in this cabin, same thing. extinguisher will be nearby. that's how you would deal with it. >> richard? >> the problem with the theory of the fire is this. this is from air france 4467. and what happened when that he

incident happened on air france, 24 automatic messages came out automatically. >> from the plane. >> from the plane via the acar system. if we asked the pilot there if there was a fire in that wheel well or on that plane or in that cargo, and that flight deck lit up like a christmas tree with warning lights, the acar system if it wasn't disabled would have sent one of those warnings, wouldn't it? >> absolutely correct. yes, it would have. and who knows, maybe it did and for all we know, right? >> it is possible that somehow it got incapacitated. i think richard's right. the acar system was functioning we think at that time and it would be sensing things as subtle as temperature changes in the areas where these fires could be started. yes, in theory that would be reporting something which apparently was not received. >> jeff? >> there's an even worse problem with this theory which is that the idea is that this is an attempt to kind of salvage the

idea that it was an accident, no the an intentional act. the idea being that they got disoriented, they pulled their nav equipment and made this head together left. they were heading for this island. the problem is once they -- and then they became incapacitated and went off into the ocean. the problem is after they turned. went to a way point, turned. again at another way point. very meticulously following these airways and so at no point were they headed towards the southern ocean. >> one more problem with this theory. there were several other airports after the initial turn in over the south china sea before lan cowie they could have gotten to. >> favorite theory, richard. >> i'm not going down that road. >> jeff will. >> yes, my favorite theory, i don't know but it has something to do with an intentional act. they have a plane, passengers, more than 150 chinese nationals.

muslims, something involving grievances. >> some part of that will probably be right. some part of it. >> he doesn't think so. >> i'm keep agopen mind until we have more facts. >> all right. thank you both ver onboard flight 370 are desperately waiting for information, hoping for a situation where there could have been hostages, where their loved ones are alive. it has been 12 days since the disappearance of that plane. hundreds of chinese family members are refusing to leave a beijing hotel hoping for news from malaysia airlines. one woman could barely control her emotions. [ speaking foreign language ] >> translator: we only have one child. we are respectful chinese people. it's hard to control your

emotions when you might have lost your loved ones. we just need the truth. don't use them as political pawns. >> political paunts. david mckenzie is live in b beijing this morning. david, you've been talking to the families and seeing this emotion up close. what are they saying? >> reporter: well, erin, those emotions are so raw as you can imagine as these days stretch on. they just don't know what to believe. they don't believe the malaysian government, don't believe at times the chinese government. sometimes they do feel like they're being pushed around as pawns. certainly they want to know any bit of information they can. as you heard from that woman, she says i have one child. that child's on that plane. i don't know if they're alive or dead. they're looking for this information because for them it has very real consequences. when we talk about a plane flying up to an extreme height and dipping down potentially to evade radar, they are asking the

airline on the scene at that hotel, does this mean if it goes up high is high family member going to asphyxiate in are they still alive? they need to know this information because they want to know if they still can have hope. but as the days stretch on and this mystery kind of deepening rather than gets more obvious, it's just terrible for those families. and now that they've expanded this to more than 2.2 square million miles, that was in fact very depressing news for them. because they feel that they're getting further away from a resolution, not closer to it. erin? >> and more than 150 people on this plane were from china. this is obviously very sensitive for the communist party. they're not used to these kinds of questions. >> reporter: well, that's right. and this anger that's coming from all these family members who obviously at this point have a very strong moral voice on this issue, at the moment it's directed towards the malaysian government and the airlines.

but at times i've heard people saying where are the chinese authorities on this one? why aren't they comforting us, giving us more support? if that anger shifts direction towards china that's a very big problem for the communist party here which is always looking to manage the message. erin? >> david mckenzie, thank you very much. next the other developing story we are watching tonight, a major land grab. and possible military action. live to crimea. way to get your fiber. try phillips fiber good gummies. they're delicious, and a good source of fiber to help support regularity. wife: mmmm husband: these are good! marge: the tasty side of fiber. from phillips.

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swinging today moving forward futurecast to take over crimea. today holding a rally in red square after formally reclaiming crimea for russia. put continue announced to the crowd the crimea is returning to the home harbor. so far he has not blinked at president obama's move barring some officials and their allies from getting visas to the united states. he signed a treaty with crimean leaders. the treaty requires approval by russian's parliament but that is a rub stamp and will happen at the end of the week. vice president joe biden responded. >> reporter: they have tried to justify a land grab including what was said today. but the world has seen through -- has seen through russia's action and has rejected the logic -- the flawed logic

behind those actions. >> nick paton walsh is in crimea toight. and nick, president obama obviously threatening sanctions against some in the political sphere but none of the really wealthy owe oligarcs. are they hurting putin and having an impact on him? >> reporter: no, not at all, clearly. in fact, they'll respond with their own kind of sanctions back against the west, perhaps. we saw no sign in that speech he gave today, 50 minutes, of anything other than him trying to reclaim perhaps the former soviet glory russia once knew. he said how if you crush a spring too much it will eventually rebound strongly. so i think the suggestion, erin, this is part of even a broader scheme to try and re-establish russia as a great power to the east of europe. and today inside crimea we saw really quite how quickly some

people seem to be moving to flush out the last remnants of ukranian influence here. the first fatality of ukranian soldier. his captain injured, shot in the deck supposedly by armed men in masks thought to be russian troops who came towards the base. many concerned that we will see the remaining ukranian troops and bases here come under increasing pressure. one base i was at today saw russian troops move against it, no shots fired but increased pressure for the ukranian's inside to surrender. >> nick paton walsh reporting live in crimea this morning. tomorrow on outfront much more on our continuing coverage of flight 370. the question we've all been asking how does the 777 vanish from the radar. we'll go tomorrow into the state-of-the-art facility where today's top technicians are trained to track flights.

that's tomorrow on" outfront." thanks for watching, "ac 360" starts right now. good evening, everyone. breaking news tonight that could lend credence to the theory that malaysia airlines flight 370 was forcibly taken. the turn made was not only programmed into the 777's flight computer but punched into the computer at least 12 minutes before the first officer made his last radio contact with air traffic control. 12 minutes before the routine words from the flight deck all right good night. the implication if true is deeply important. because again if true it would cast doubt on the notion of pilots programming the turn because of some kind of emergency. it could suggest premeditation. now, there is also a more benign interpretation that the crew preprogrammed the turn as part of a normal contingency plan to be executed in case of mechanical problems with the plane. that's the latest on many key developments today. we'll focus on it th