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 with our team of experienced pilots in and out

of the flight similar laulator. the search area is growing again today, nearly as big as the continental united states. more on all of it tonight starting with our kyung lah reporting from kuala lumpur in malaysia. kyung? >> reporter: the investigation into why malaysia airlines flight 370 vanished took another strange turn today. officials believe the jet's navigation system was intentionally altered, saying someone in the cockpit with knowledge of how it works entered in new coordinates to steer them way off course. it's unclear whether the changes occurred before takeoff or during the flight. police also continued to investigate both pilots, their homes, personal computers and e-mails were all searched for anything suspicious. but so far, nothing's been found. authorities are also scrutinizing all communications between the pilots and air traffic control before that

final signoff of "all right good night." u.s. investigators today say they've reviewed the recordings and found nothing to provide any clues why the plane veered off course. but there was a tantalizing clue. thailand's military said tuesday their radar tracked an unidentified aircraft, thought to be flight 370, flying west back towards the malai peninsula before traveling out of range. the route backs up the belief the plane unexpectedly turned left and continued out into the indian ocean. reconnaissance missions are also falling prey to international bureaucracy. indonesia's reportedly refusing to permit flyovers of its territory, forcing plane that is could be scouting new areas to be grounded. but malaysian officials say they need help. >> this is an enormous search area. and it is something that malaysia cannot possibly search on its own. >> reporter: the two search corridors stretching from deep

into asia, down through the indian ocean, are now being led by china and kazakhstan in the northern quadrants and australia and indonesia in the south. but there's no concrete evidence on where the boeing 777 may be after disappearing 11 days ago. and the clock is ticking. there's a 30-day battery life for the tracking device on the missing plane's flight data recorder. >> and kyung lah joins us now from kuala lumpur. ten days later thailand's military is just now telling malaysian officials they detected an unidentified aircraft? do we know why they didn't release the information earlier? >> reporter: yeah. their answer is as baffling as holding back this information, which really could have been useful ten days ago. the thai government is saying they did see this plane, they saw it happen, but it didn't enter thai air space so they didn't view it as a threat. now, the malaysian government did ask governments in the region to help them detect this

plane. did anyone see anything? the thai government did. not a threat. so they didn't report it because they weren't specifically asked by the malaysian government, so they did not gave specific answer. anderson? >> we're learning today details about u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel's conversation with his malaysian counterpart. he raised the issue of transparency with him. a lot of people obviously have been saying the malaysian government has been less than forthright or giving conflicting information. you're in kuala lumpur. is that how it's being perceived there? >> reporter: oh, yeah. oh, yeah. that's what's driving everything here. because the perception is that there was certainly not any sort of transparency by the malaysian officials who were trying to lead this information. we spoke to a pilot, a former malaysian airlines pilot, and he said that yes, absolutely that the government wasn't being transparent. he was urging people he knows

inside to please be transparent. he says he believes it's gotten better. but that's what's driving all of this. if you look at the local papers, all the false leads, all the reports, under all of this is this sense, a deep distrust of what the government is doing because of how the investigation was handled in the early days, that lack of transparency, aern anderson. >> throughout the hour we'll be putting some of the best minds in the business to work on this new information we have. now we're going to explore possible scenarios in the flight simulator and inside a virtual replica of the 777's electronics bay. first tonight michael schmidt of the "new york times," also former u.s. department of transportation inspector general mary schiavo who represents accident victims and their families and cnn aviation analyst. this information that nbc news has broken tonight that the change in direction was programmed into the computer at least 12 minutes before that final communication. how do you interpret it? again as in everything, there

are multiple intertapretations this. >> i hate to use a common word we all seem to be using, but baffling. to me, 12 minutes prior indicates that maybe there wasn't a problem. but at the same token, it could have been programmed for maybe a being away point and maybe it was a mistaken way-point initially. >> let's run through the options here. at least 12 minutes before the final communication of good night which was a routine good night communication. so if there was some sort of incident on board, a fire on board for instance that they were changing direction in order to respond to this, you would think that they would then have made mention of it in that final communication. >> well, the only thing i can come up with on that is that they were looking at a nonserious problem. and it started to compound and develop into something more serious. so as a backup they may have put in let's say an alternate

airport that they could potentially utilize. >> but one possibility is they didn't think it was serious enough to actually communicate that. >> correct. may have been involved with working on the problem and a professional flight crew, you're not going to detect necessarily something, concern in their voice or any sort of stress. >> mary, you also as people have been discussing the idea of terrorism, there are codes pilots can give in communications to indicate that there is some sort of attempt at a hijacking. if again this was entered 12 minutes before the final communication, there was no communication -- that final communication there was no indication of any attempt to take over the plane. >> right. and the key words for me are "at least." we've had lots of conflicting stories this week about what times things happened. >> at least 12 minutes. that's a wide window. >> at least. and plus they could have entered it before. at this particular coordinate is there an airport, a wide unobstructed airport? could it be an emergency if you have an emergency soon after takeoff on climb out? what's your alternative airports for emergency?

we don't know when specifically it was entered. what's concerning to me or actually helpful, at the last hand off at the all right good night they didn't indicate any of the hijack codes. so that lessens my concern that they were being commandeered, that there was somebody in the cockpit. you'd have two opportunities to do that, the transponder and verbal code. >> michael you broke the story at the "new york times" of that cold being entered into the system last night. nbc saying this was 12 minutes before the all right good night, how do you read that? to some it makes it even more likely this was a deliberate act. >> yeah. it certainly makes the issue of foul play seem more significant. because bay doing that, what it basically shows is that this thing was already headed in a different direction when they're saying good night. that just really sort of reinforces this whole notion that someone was trying to take it in a different place and take it down. but it still doesn't make sense that if this was a suicide mission, if this was a person

who was just trying to take down the plane, why they didn't just put anyti put it in the ocean and why they took it in the other direction. on everything on this story we learn a little bit but have more questions. i'm still kind of stumped myself. >> mary, the whole suicide thing you say based on past incidents of that it doesn't fit any kind of profile. >> no. i'm not surprised they didn't find anything at the pilots's homes. i've worked on many cases where the pilots were suspect. it turned out to be a mechanical and horrible problem. and i have a saying myself, sometimes an erratic flight path is heroism, not terrorism. and i always remind myself of that not to jump to that conclusion. sometimes pilots are fighting amazing battles and we never hear about it. >> there is also now a report out of local media in the mald ikz ives a number of eyewitnesses say they saw a plane heading in their direction. again these are eyewitness reports from the maldives.

what do you make of it mary? >> i say go look. two scenarios, one a crime one a horrible accident. it doesn't take much to rule it out just like the fishermen's story they saw wreckage there. go check it out. about four hours into the ocean. they could be soon out of fuel. do a fly over. let's rule out the things we know can't be. we know one thing from the thai radio report by the way. the report that came out today they said they did not enter thai air space. does that mean they weren't going north? i think so. >> unless you also -- there was also a report about another plane that had been contacted by authorities in vietnam to see if they could make contact with flight 370. to you that's significant. >> yeah. my understanding is that that airplane was about 30 minutes ahead which is a fair distance. and it's difficult -- the procedure that i was explaining before we went on air was that if the controllers are expecting an airplane at a certain spot, it seemed very compelling to me

that they decided to attempt contact with the airplane. that means, where are they? in other words in their head they're saying, where is this airplane? so the first attempt would be to contact them on the frequency they were designated to be on. then they would attempt on the guard frequency, which is the emergency frequency. after that they would try to relay through another airplane. so it indicates to me that maybe the problem was developing but for that other airplane, it's not uncommon to not be able to contact them as a favor to air traffic control to relay information. so they probably just wrote it off as oh, we just can't get ahold of them. they're too far behind it. >> michael, you've been breaking a lot of stories on this. from what you understand, from your sources, all options are still on the table for investigators. they are still looking at all the things that we are sitting around discussing are things that they are sitting around discussing. >> yeah. i would say the most significant thing, though, is that what law enforcement officials tell me if

this was terrorism this is a completely new paradigm. this is something they've never seen before. there was no chatter leading up to it, no claim of responsibility now. they scrubbed the flight manifest. they looked at all these people as hard as they could. and they've they really haven't found anything. so they say, look, if this is terrorism we've just never seen anything like this before. so that's why i think the u.s. has sort of been on the outside looking in on the investigation in malaysia. because fit was terrorism i think the u.s. would be able to sort of force its way in because they have this expertise on this issue. but otherwise, as we've seen so far they're still not very involved. >> michael schmidt, good to have you on the program as always. mary schiavo as well. captain will stick with us joined by two other veteran pilots bringing years of experience to bear on all the scenarios investigators are looking at. we'll answer some of your questions. follow me @andersoncooper.

this more than 12-minute window between the programming and the last communication, we're going to take you to the flight simulator so you can see for yourself how simple it actually is to program in coordinates to send a plane off to a different course. plus our exclusive virtual tour below dex on a 777. what it reveals about disabling the one piece of equipment that could have shed a lot of light on what happened. that acars system to the airliner. we'll be right back. i'm beth... and i'm michelle. and we own the paper cottage. it's a stationery and gifts store. anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink. we didn't get into business to spend time managing receipts, that's why we have ink. we like being in business because we like being creative, we like interacting with people. so you have time to focus on the things you love.

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...or a big steak... ...or big hair... i think we have our answer. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. breaking news, flight 370's turn was punched into the program at least 12 minutes before the copilot signed off with malaysian air traffic control and executed later on. what we don't know is why, whether it was foul play or simply a precaution in case of

emergency or if there was some sort of malfunction on board they were trying to find a close airport they could land at. what we do know it would be very easy to do. that's what we want to show you now. we want to head into the cockpit of a 777 flight simulator an accurate down to the last detail. martin savidge and flight simulator. let's start with you, this idea that the turn was entered into the system at least 12 minutes before the all right good night. how does the pilot put the turn into the flight management system? how complicated a process is it? >> reporter: well, if you know what you're doing it's pretty easy. let me point it out to you, show and tell here. this is the flight management system. one of the consoles here. actually three of them right in front of us. but this thing does a lot of things on this airplane. it primarily makes the job of flying for the pilot and copilot easier. think of it really in this sense as a gps, really beefed-up gps. prior to takeoff you would have loaded in all the coordinates

that were necessary, the way-points for this aircraft to go from kuala lumpur to beijing. every turn, every aspect of that flight would be here. however, once in the air you could alter it. you could change it in fact, mitchell, you can point out how simply that's done. >> very easily, martin. this magenta line here indicates the path that the aircraft is on to its destination. this white triangle is the aircraft. we're pretty much next to our route here. that triangle is us. all i need to do to change my route, i need to know where i want to go. i enter that information in the computer here with the keypad. and then i enter it into the flight plan itself. then it tells me -- i would show here i punched one in at the database. it would show me a line. then i would execute that and i would do the turn. so it's very simple. >> let me ask you, martin, how quickly would a turn be executed after entering it into this? or is it just -- is one not

necessarily following the other? >> reporter: i guess there are a couple of ways you could do this. if you did it manually like that and instantly hit the button that confirms you're making the turn, the plane begins to make that motion immediately. could you sort of set it up with an alternate and then hit it later? yeah, you could do that, too. and remember, there are legitimate reasons to change course. >> absolutely. mechanical failure, weather, a sick passenger, all of those are really good reasons to deviate. >> reporter: so it isn't just the fact that because the plane changed course dramatically that it necessarily means sinister intent. it does look rather odd, though, that you've got a plan in there and you say rather calmly all right good night, that doesn't sound like you're you've got an emergency on board. >> richard, that's what raises questions that the copilot didn't say anything about it when he did communicate. >> what's interesting here about what we're seeing from the flight deck here is this 12

minutes, anderson. because deduct 12 minute s minu the last known all right good night and you get into roughly the time when the last acars message would have been sent. so a question for you, martin and mitchell in the flight simulator, if either by the heading knob or by the flight management system a route change was made, would that have been sent out on acars or would the ground have been informed? mitchell, what do you think? >> i don't think it would have, richard. i think that unless you actually made the turn -- if you entered it, i don't think so. i think if you made the turn obviously then yes. >> so in that last communication, there was no turn had been made yet, correct?

>> reporter: that's what the information we're getting that yes, there had not been a turn as yet. a lot of this has to do with the acars and what information they got and how it's being interpreted. but that seems to be the way it's going now. >> so because the last acars did not -- >> 107. last acars is at 107. the good night is at 119. i'm sort of hedging that if the nbc report is correct and that was a programmed change, how else is the ground going to know? how else would anybody know that it was done 12 minutes earlier other than if the plane had reported hey, somebody has changed the flight management system. somebody has input something. because we know from the radar operators that the actual turn didn't come until after 119. >> right. again, a lot of questions. martin savidge, richard quest,

mitchell thanks. we're going take an exclusive virtual tour below doedex in a 777 and show you what it takes to turn that communication system off. we're going to show you what it's liked. you might be surprised how easy it is. investigators say they have not ruled out anything as an explanation, fire, pilot suicide, all on the table. the different theories and how each of them raises more questions next. [ female announcer ] you get sick, you can't breathe through your nose... suddenly you're a mouthbreather. well, put on a breathe right strip and instantly open your nose up to 38% more than cold medicines alone. so you can breathe and sleep. shut your mouth and sleep right. breathe right. so you can breathe and sleep.

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welcome back tonight's breaking news reported from nbc lending more credence to the possibility the plane's course change was preprogrammed increasing the possibility of premeditation in whatever happened next. we don't have the answer to that or whether a more innocent explanation is a better fit, some sort of malfunction on board they were responding to. nor do we know whether the plane's acars system failed or was shut off. we know that monkeying around with equipment down in the bay doesn't take a rocket science. this is a panoramic view of the plane's nerve center has that hold the avionics, communication equipment and the acars system. jim sciutto along with ntsb and former aircraft mechanic john

goleo. we're know not showing our viewers any secret information. this is all information that somebody who is very interested in this can find out online and elsewhere. i just don't want to give people the idea we're showing something we should not be showing. this compart participant where the computer maintenance system known as acars, walk us through this, show us what it looks like. every plane is different, but how would someone go about disabling the system? >> reporter: i like you thought it was much more difficult to get here and that once you're here it would be much more difficult to disable systems. but it's really not. first here's how you get here this. little ladder here comes down from the cockpit so you'd open that trap door, walk down the stairs and then you're in the avionics bay here. and here on the right side, circuit breaker board looks kind of like the circuit breakers you'd have at home. simply pulling out one of those black knobs disables the system. all the systems are labelled along here. then on this side of the bay as you get here, these are the actual components. this one, john has told me, is

the component that keeps the cabin pressurized, for instance. up here this is the one where the plane would identify itself to other planes fif it got too close. unscrew these blue nobs and pull the component out that system's disabled. right here within reach climb down the stairs. two ways to disable key systems on the aircraft. >> point out the circuit breaker. point out you can see right here in the circuit breaker where the white ring around it shows the circuit breaker is popped. it takes very little finger pressure to pull that out. >> this one's out that's been popped and this one is in. >> some people have been asking me on twitter and elsewhere why is it designed like this that it's possible to shut down the system? you're saying it's actually designed intentionally to do this kind of relatively easily >> yes. mainly because the airplane is operated by countries all over the world. there's people with less skill base than we have here in the united states that have a desire

to move their people around. so this airplane was designed from the beginning to be maintained and used in countries like china and other countries where they don't have the technical skills and they don't understand english very well. so it's really -- it's almost like a computer for a multinational audience. >> and less aben is with us as well. when we see this it's fascinating to see what it looks like, most of us have never seen on a plane before. you fly 777s, you note plane very well. we still don't know the circumstances of why that acars system or how that acars system was shut down. >> and that's very important. true. but even thousand i might be a little bit more intimate with the systems on the airplane, this is not an intimate part of my knowledge. >> as a pilot -- >> this is nothing a place that i view. a friend of mine after being on the airplane for four years and now retired said he's never been

down there. >> is that right? >> because there's no real need for us to be down there. there's one circumstance that i would go down there and that's simply after a inciden incidents a diagram on where to pull a particular circuit breaker like what's being pointed out here. >> if there was a fire on board or smoke, is that part of the procedure to turn circuit breakers off? turn off the in flight system, to turn off the acars? >> it wouldn't be to go down those steps to do it. it would be something that's done in the cockpit. we have circuit breakers in the overhead panel that might help perform that. most of that are switches as opposed to circuit breakers. that would be a troubleshooting process. if we had a fire situation our objective toys get the airplane on the ground as quickly as possible. >> john, can you show some of the other systems down there. depressurizing, some of the other things that are possible to look at? >> they're tough to see. but collins makes radio gear. you can see here we'll give them a little commercial, collins radios extensively used. hamilton standard makes lots of

controls on airplanes and some electronics. we sought cabin pressure controller on the other side. we have here control units for certain actuators. the 777 is a digital airplane. it's run by electronics. even connections from the pilot, there's only i think seven cables in the whole airplane for the flight controls. it's a fly by wire airplane with minimum backup. >> here's the traffic alert and tcas as they call it. when you get too close to another airplane. >> there's the cabin controller right here, cabin pressure controller. for the most part these boxes, locations are standardized. but it depends on whose installation you have for your avionics package where they will be located. >> john, can you think of any nonnefarious reason for a pilot or somebody else to go down there and shut systems off? >> they never should go downstairs, never. there's no reason why anyone in

flight in a normal flight would go downstairs. >> even if there's a mechanical problem. can you see a reason why somebody would? >> he's right. i was only referring to after a plane is parked at the gate -- >> even if there's some sort of mechanical issue you don't see a reason to go down there. >> that wouldn't be part of the checklist. unless you can see where the smoke is originating perhaps, you'd get into that galley, we have a way to access into that compartment. and you bring a fire extinguisher down. >> jim sciutto, john goleo, thanks for joining us also. also cnn aviation analyst les abend. he'll stick around. a little later on we've got a lot more ahead. new insight from our panel of seasoned pilots. do they believe that flight 370 was hijacked? we're going to run through the top scenarios that investigators are looking at. and as i said, the frustrating thing -- if you've been following this -- that each of these though possible is --

there's also good reasons why it's not possible, why it doesn't seem likely. so we're going to kind of look at what all the investigators were looking at, talk to a partner of american passenger phillip wood about why she is not giving up hope of seeing him alive again. we'll be right back. 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. feeding your lawn need not be so difficult neighbors. get a load of this bad boy. whoa. this snap spreader system from scotts is snap-crackin' simple -- just snap, lock, and go. [ scott ] feed your lawn. feed it!

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11 days since flight 370

vanished theories have arise risen. tonight's breaking news, nbc reporting that flight 370's turn was preprogrammed at least 12 minutes before the copilot signed off with the words "all right good night." so combine them all and what do the clues tell us? what are investigators looking at? they haven't officially ruled out any of the theories on the table. we're going to spend some time tonight drilling down on those theories investigators are looking at with our experts. cnn aviation analyst, 777 captain with 30 years experience, aviation analyst jim tillman who was a captain for american airlines. he retired with nearly 30 minutes of experience. and john nance, aviation analyst for abc news with more than 13,000 hours of flight time in commercial and air force jets. so let's start with you. one of the theories that a lot of people have been particularly focusing on in the last couple of days is the idea of a fire on board. and the pilot and copilot perhaps trying to make an emergency landing at a different

malaysian airport. what do you make through that, les? >> to me it's one of the more plausible scenarios. i'm not sold on that scenario. but up until the point we got this information which i'm still skeptical about the 12 minutes prior, it seemed to me that having a smokization, getting beyond that last verbal communication with air traffic control, it seems to me that if the crew was trying to handle an emergency, realized they had an emergency what would happen in my cockpit would be i'd say avenue got the airplane. and then the copilot would begin the checklist process. since i have the airplane, the flight management computer would be part of my control. and i without put in that way-point and go to the copilot and verify that he liked what i put in. assuming there was an alternate airport. that's what i would be thinking. and he would say looks good and

i would execute that and start the airplane turning and help him to continue the checklist. >> and i want to show you all the airports that are around, all the possible airports. there are obviously run wasways alternates the plane could have been aiming for. if this nbc news report is correct the change was programmed at least 12 minutes before that final communication, why wouldn't in that final communication the copilot have said something about there's an issue on board, there's a smoke in the cabin, whatever it may have been? >> well, he would have. and that's the thing that's so puzzling here. we're all standing on a stack of assumed facts. and every day they seem to change. but the thing is that there is an opportunity here and a lot of opportunity for something to be said if it happened, anything happened before including smoke in the cockpit. and the turn afterward would make sense if the the turn was back. even if they were having problems keeping control of the airplane because of smoke or fumes, there would have been an attempt to go back to kuala

lumpur or to the nearest airport, not to turn off to the west as it did and then to have several course changes. those course changes are what tell me that regardless of what happened this was not an in-flight emergency, this was purposeful. >> so you're saying, john, that if the crew had been overcome or was dealing with some sort of mechanical issue, there would not have been those course changes? >> i don't think there would have. those course changes it could turn out were not the correct information. we've had other russian pulled out from under us in the last number of days. but if they did change course very severely a numbers of times before the straits of malacca that is not indicative of an airplane out of control. on top of that we've got the situation here where the turn to begin with whether it was programmed before or not was off in the wrong direction. if we had a fire, remember swiss air 110 it progressed, would

burn through oxygen hoses, get more intense and i think we would have lost the airplane there and then. >> les? >> we don't know if indeed it happened where the equipment was that was starting to shut down. so different things would have happened depending upon where the origination of that fire was, assuming that it was in that e and e-bay we saw earlier, the avionics bay. but as far as the turns once again i agree with john nance that it seems a little suspicious that there were a bunch of turns. but where were the bunch of turns if that's accurate information? >> and again, we have to look at all this. how accurate is that information, that radar information that we've been getting? >> true. but beyond that let's just say that the airplane continued to that way-point that was entered. it may very well have been an airport. they've been overcome by the smoke, the fumes, that airplane once it hits that way-point it just continues on a heading. now you still have the fire progressing. what's the airplane going to do? we're in unchartered territory.

>> jim tillman, let me ask you this. i got a tweet from a viewer, francis tweet add question could a plane with an on board fire remain in flight for six to eight hours with or without pilots? >> yes, it could. when you start thinking in terms what a fire is on an airplane, particularly an electrical fire, it's not necessarily big flames. it may very well be smoldering and smoking. and as big as the threat to you is the fact it's throwing out toxic fumes as opposed to burning through something, whatever. it could take place over a period of time, and if you're not really careful and right on top of it and get an oxygen mask on, you can become incapacitated pretty fast and make a lot of bad decisions before you pass out. >> i keep coming back to though, and if this is an emergency situation maybe we shouldn't be looking at any sort of rational light of day. but wouldn't the copilot have said something in that final communication rather than just okay good night. >> he not only would have said

something, anderson, he would have said something in his oxygen mask. there's a special sound. because the microphone is in the oxygen mask. to the best of my understanding, that is not what the air traffic controller heard at the very last. if i'm wrong about that we will be able to tell. that's a very specific sound. >> let's look at the idea of some sort of hijacking or the plane being forced to land somewhere. that's obviously one of the other scenarios. cynthia tweeted a question, could it be hidden in a hangar somewhere? less possible but unlikely? >> highly unlikely. where do you hide a 200-foot and change airplane? it seems very unlikely to me. >> a lot of people would know about it. any plane landing would probably be picked up by a country's radar. there's even issues of people's cell phones, passenger cell phones. wouldn't they be able to be traced somehow unless those phones were somehow disabled? >> assuming there was cell phone

coverage there. i wouldn't hold license on that one. if the intent was to capture the airplane, was the intent to take off from that particular landing strip also. that would have to be selected quite carefully. john, what do you make of the idea of terrorism? whether a crash or some sort of landing? >> the landing isn't impossible but it certainly is a very very low level of probability. i agree with that entirely. i'm more concerned with the possibility of a rogue or wanna-be terrorist who might have taken over this airplane. we don't know if there was somebody riding in the cockpit. so far the profiles we've had of both the pilot and copilot do not indicate a high propensity for a murder suicide, although humans are humans and we can't necessarily read the surface stuff. but there's still a lot that we don't know here. that's putting it mildly. so it's hard to say. if i had to vote i'd say it's probably at the bottom of the ocean. by the same token, nothing really is impossible at this point. >> jim, there have been pilots who have committed suicide but basically they've turned the plane just nose down and just

gone into the water gone into the ground. this is a plane, jim, that continued to fly apparently. >> yeah. if he wants to commit suicide he doesn't have to fly halfway across the indian ocean to do that. he's got lots of opportunities prior to that to do it. and i have to tell you something. i don't underestimate a person who wants to take over an airplane in today's world. i mean, they're not necessarily dumb or stupid or not capable. could very well be very highly trained and very skilled. so i want to keep that door open because of what it means. my first question is, why and what is the end game? if they were going to do that, whoever decided to do it, where do they want to go with this? where can i take this nice big airplane? >> a report from the "new york times" there hasn't been any chatter according to his sources in the intelligence community. my panel thank you very much. just ahead the partner of phillip wood one of the passengers on board flight 370. she has not given up hope he's

still alive. she's speaking out on 360 next. in a timely fashion and within budget. angie's list members can tell you which provider is the best in town. you'll find reviews on everything from home repair to healthcare. now that we're expecting, i like the fact i can go onto angie's list and look for pediatricians. the service providers that i've found on angie's list actually have blown me away. find out why more than two million members count on angie's list. angie's list -- reviews you can trust. you'd do that for me? really? yeah, i'd like that. who are you talking to? uh, it's jake from state farm. sounds like a really good deal. jake from state farm at three in the morning. who is this? it's jake from state farm. what are you wearing, jake from state farm? [ jake ] uh... khakis. she sounds hideous. well she's a guy, so... [ male announcer ] another reason more people stay with state farm. get to a better state. ♪

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until you're sure you do. bartender: thanks, captain obvious. co: which is what makes using the hotels.com mobile app so useful. i can book a nearby hotel room from wherever i am. or, i could not book a hotel room and put my cellphone back into my pocket as if nothing happened. hotels.com. i don't need it right now. families of some of the chinese passengers on flight 370 have threatened to gone a hunger strike until malaysian officials tell them the truth about what happened to their loved ones.

there is a lot of frustration over the lack of answers over 11 days. phillip wood was one of three americans on flight 370. sarah bajac is his partner. they've been together for two years and were about to prove beijing to kuala lumpur where they have two jobs. they planned to get married this year. she has not given up on those plans. she joins me from beijing. sarah, i can't imagine what these last 11 days have been like for you. you're staying busy, you're a teacher, continuing to team. how are you holding up? how are you getting through this? >> i'm staying busy, anderson. coming to speak with you is part of that. and i appreciate the attention you're paying to this story, keeping it alive. >> i know you have a son, phillip has two sons. how are they doing? >> i actually have two sons and a daughter, so between us we have five. and they're all finding this to be a very very difficult process.

i mean, we just finished planning a big family reunion in kuala lumpur over the summer. both of phillip's boys were going to come over and my older two kids in university in the states were going to come over. and the seven of us were going to go to an island off the coast of malaysia to do some scuba diving. and the flights are booked, the hotel is booked, and now this. >> i know you've created a facebook page where you and phil's family are keeping up the energy for the search, keeping hope alive, same on twitter. you say you've been hardened by reports the disappearance could have been intentional. that this might be something like a hijacking. explain how that gives you and the other families hope. >> well, partly it makes me feel like i'm not crazy. because that's the scenario that i hypothesized way back the first day after it happened. so by sunday already i was starting to think there's clearly no sign of crash.

it was a nighttime activity. so satellites should have been able to pick up any kind of flame. so the only logical answer for a completely silent jet would be that it had been taken. and over the week, of course, my friends were starting to think that perhaps i was just in denial. and i was even starting to doubt myself a little bit. and so when all of this new evidence started to come out, it gave me confidence that i wasn't so crazy after all. >> i understand that phillip's brother tom who i spoke with before is now saying he believes there's a miracle coming in this. you have a bag all packed and ready for phillip. >> well, i have a backpack packed for me to go to wherever he is and a set of clothes in there. and miracles do happen. they happen every day. i had somebody tell me last night about a family experience where her father had been

kidnaped. and everybody had given up hope. but six months later he showed up. and i think those things can happen. and whoever has done this is trying to accomplish a bigger thing. this is just one step. i'll leave it to the experts to look at the evidence. i don't have any expertise in planes or satellites. but i have intuition. and i have a feeling that they're still alive. and common sense to say if i was a terrorist what would i do. i would want to protect those very valuable assets of the people on the plane. because that would be the leverage point. so if we spent as much energy looking into motives and potential places where that plane could be hidden, maybe we'd be coming up with some different answers. i don't know. and i know it's important to you because i've been following you on twitter and on facebook, you

have a message for people out there. you have a message for anybody who you believe may have been involved in this >> yes. i want to make a request. first of all, i can't imagine the pain and frustration that somebody would have to have gone through to resort to this kind of a stunt, a prank. but the reality is, whoever has done this has been successful. they have fooled all the experts and all the governments in the world. they have made a very serious point. but i think they can accomplish their goals without hurting people. because in the end, in the end the families and the god of whoever is doing this could forgive them creating this crisis. it's a terrible thing that they've done.

but i think they couldn't forgive if they took innocent lives. and so i'm just hoping. i'm hoping and i'm asking, please, to not hurt the people on the plane. find some other way to accomplish what you're trying to accomplish, but don't hurt the people. let phillip come back to me, please. >> sarah, again, our thoughts are with you, with your family and with phillip's family. we just wish you the best through all this. and stay strong. >> thank you. >> stay strong. we'll be right back. ♪ oh-oh, oh, oh, la, la-la, la-la, la-la ♪ ♪ na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na some things just go together, like auto and home insurance. bundle them together at progressive, and you save big on both. ♪ oh, oh-oh, oh, oh hey, it's me! [ whistles ]

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susan hendricks has a 360 bull tip. >> reporter: breaking news. the fbi has launched a preliminary inquiry into allegations by the cia that senate staffers have unauthorized access to classified documents related to the agency's now defunct post 9/11 interrogation program. that's according to several people close to the matter. and ukranian troops in crimea have the green light to use their weapons to protect themselves. this comes after mass gunmen attacked and killed a ukranian service member and wounded another accordicord to ukraine' according to ukraine's defense

minister. >> a helicopter crash killed three people near seattle today. the rolling stones have postponed several concerts in australia and new zealand following the death of mick jagger's long time girlfriend. she was found dead of apparent suicide. the singer said he's struggling to understand how she could have ended her life in this way. >> that does it for us. we'll see you at 10:00 p.m. eastern for another edition of "ac 360." "piers morgan live" starts now. this is "piers morgan live." with your host on holiday i am bill weir filling in for this week. it is the equivalent of trying to find the head of a pin. not a whole pin just the head. hidden somewhere in greater seattle or trying to find one misplaced letter in 600 bibles. those are some of the mathematical analogies on folks today trying to help us understand the sheer size of the flight 370 search area.