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. anderson? >> susan, thanks very much. that's it for us.

jim, what can we make of these new detail, the course correction programmed into the flight computer at least 12 minutes before that last communication? >> well, we can clean from that bit of information that investigators know that it was preset to turn to make that sharp turn possibly because they received acars information, the automated communication system reported back. those are the numbers that are in the -- if they're punched in, if it's keyed, that's what's keyed into the navigation system. and it would have come back with the data that is exchanged between the plane and the control tower or malaysia airlines. so that was about the time, the

last time at 1:07 that acars transmitted. so they said, that must have been the time when it was programmed in. sometime around that time frame. but that doesn't tell us exactly what happened onboard the plane. that doesn't tell us whether the pilot, you know, might have done that just in case he had an emergency, often pilots do that. let's take a closer look at what this search is tending to focus in just one area, really. investigatored have pursued the dogged possibility that the pilot and co-pilot maliciously steered flight 370 off its path. if they have any proof, it has not been shared publicly. >> i worked on many cases where the pilots were suspect and it turned out to be a mechanical and horrible problem. i have a saying myself, sometimes an erratic flightath is heroism not terrorism. and i always remind myself of

that, not to jump to that conclusion. sometimes pilots are fighting just amazing battles and hear about it. >> investigators in the u.s. as they have done in the past point out details to support their theorys. the latest is that the sharp turn to the west was preprogrammed into the plane's navigation, even before the co-pilot told control all right, good night. but that isn't evidence of foul play. the pilot could have done it protectively in the event of an emergency. theories based on hijacking have also fallen short. thus far, no one onboard flight 370 has been linked to any known terror group. background checks cleared all 153 of china's citizens. a malaysia officials have repeatedly stressed, in order to have the evidence, they must find the plane. >> the entire search area is now 2.24 million square nautical miles.

>> as we look at that search ar area, some have suggested the most important part of that may be in the far reaches when the fuel for the plane would have run out. today we just got word from the australian maritime services telling us that they concluded a search, and they're in the far southern reaches there, they've got a u.s. pa poseidon, a very advanced surveillance plane. an us a tailian p-3 orion has been out there on station. they have to fly about 2,500 kilometers or 1,600 miles to get out there, so that reduces their search time on station, but at the same time, they reported they came up empty today. found nothing linked to flight 370. the mystery goes on, john. >> that search area, about 2/3 the way to antarctica, just to put it in some perspective of exactly where they're looking. but jim, the search area just

keeps getting bigger, dozens of ships, dozens of planes. a massive search understood way right now. it's been going on for 12 days. there will come a point where officials start talking about winding this back and the possibility of never finding the plane. we . >> well, you know, the officials in public at least don't say anything close to that. they still call it search and rescue. they're still holding out hope for the families. certainly the families are hoping that their loved ones could be returned safe and sound. but you're right, as the clock ticks and time runs down, the pressure is on to find some trace of flight 370 so that we can all know what happened to the flight. especially for the families that are so upset and have really -- they've threatened to go on a hunger strike in beijing in order to get some answers. the problem is nobody has any

answers. and they can't get an answer until they find the plane. john, back to you. >> okay, jim, back to you. jim clancy live with us yet again in kuala lumpur. a coalition of 26 countries is now looking for the missing plane and china has deployed 21 of its satellites. the area is massive, roughly the size of the united states. australia has taken charge of the search in the southern indian ocean. the officials there say it could be weeks before they're done. and as brian todd reports, time is now running out. as each day passes, the search widens and the clock ticks. with batteries designed to keep pinging for 30 days, searchers may only have 19 days left to find the box with the flight data and cockpit voice roerds. and the batteries might be down to 63%. >> the odds of finding the pinger are very slim. even when you know roughly where the target is, it can be very tricky to find the pinger. they have a very limited range.

>> reporter: and you can't find that box until you find the plane. >> this is an enormous search area. and it is something that malaysia cannot possibly search on its own. >> 2.24 million square nautical miles to be precise. an area nearly the size of the continental united states. dozens of planes, ships and helicopters from 26 countries are scouring this massive region. china and kazakhstan are taking the lead in the northern corrid corridor. australia and ipd nies yeah take the lead in the southern route. the australians are focusing their search on this area. the possible flight path they got based on the final pings from the plane to a satellite. >> they can't plot an exact position for each one, but sequentially they can be built up into a possible route the aircraft took. >> the u.s. navy is deploying a p 8 poseidon and a p-3 orion.

if the plane is in the water, another set of challenges. search specialist helped find the remains of air france flight 447 in the atlantic. he said in malaysia airlines 370 is found off india, a key focus of the search, teams will have to go very deep to recover it. >> the depth range is between 4,000 and 7,000 meters, which was around 12 to 24,000, 25,000 feet. so significant depths. >> if and when the wreckage is found at sea, the crews will then send sup mersables down, either manned ones like this that can take pictures of the black box. that silver arm there is used to recover the black box. only a handful of countries have the heavy equipment needed for that type of recovery, but some of them are involved in this search. brian todd, cnn washington.

>> now, these efforts at sea are just part of the complicated operation. much of the search on the so-called northern arc involves vast areas of the rugged, highly populated territory. countries including pakistan and india say their radar would have picked up the missing plane if it had flown into their air space. we get more now from tom forman. >> we know from these satellite readings there's an idea there could be an arc to the south in the ocean. and this arc to the north. how could it go up this way? it could be very difficult. look at all the places it would have to fly through. radar systems are still there. people there, people taking a look. but even in tf the radar were na problem, there is this. there are a lot of people living in some of these areas that they almost certainly have to pass over on the way. beyond that, they have to pass over the himalayas. this is the biggest mountain range on the planet. hard to pass by day, virtually

impossible by night for many aircraft out there. and then even if it were to get out into some flat lands and even if it were to find some remote airfield, as so many people have speculated, the question still remains, how does it get on the ground. a plane of this size, 200 by 200, and have nobody spot it. >> well, thanks to tom foreman for that. and we will continue to follow any updates on the missing malaysia airline. first, we will check other headlines. russian president vladimir putin is being hailed as a hero in moscow after announcing that crimea is rejoining russia. russian law makers are expected to approve the annexation by the end of this week. but ukraine's prime minister says russia has stolen part of its country. >> reporter: today's events in moscow can only be qualified one way. this is a robbery on an international scale. one country is applying force thinking they will never be held response nl. >> toyota has agreed to pay $1

billion to settle a u.s. justice department probe. the auto maker was under investigation after customers complained about their cars suddenly speeding up without warning. beginning in 2009, toyota recalled millions of cars after years of doing little to fix the problem. well, there's no end to the theories about what happened to flight 370. and coming up, a retired airline captain shares his views that the simplest explanation is often right. also, masked gunmen move in on a military brace in crimea with deadly results. we will go live to moscow for reaction. you are watchig cnn live around the world.

you crane's defense ministry has authorized their soldiers to

operate their weapons in self-defense. michael holmes is there. >> reporter: armed and uniformed men enter a building at a ukrainian military facility in the crimean capital. the aftermath of what appears to be the first shooting incident of this crisis. there have been standoffs at ukrainian military bases all around crimea for the past two weeks. most have been uneventful, but today at this base, gunfire erupted. an ambulance arrives amid reports of injuries while local so-called self-defense groups guard the gates outside. this man on the phone with his daughter said her husband was wounded in the incident after armed and masked men burst on to the base, breaking windows and telling staff to lay on the ground. it's not clear how or why the shooting began. pro ukrainian sources said the attackers fired first.

crimea media said the ukrainian soldiers did. a chief warrant officer was dill kilned and a captain wounded and taken to hospital. other military personnel taken to base have had their documents taken and told they're under arrest, the military said. later, uniformed matsinged and armed men loaded on to a military truck and left the base. no confirmation who they were, but the uniforms seem to be russian. this is the first fatality at a military base since the current crimean leadership took power two weeks ago. the military bases around crimea have been under various levels of blockade ever since. it's long been feared an incident could easily occur and bloodshed. and today it appears that has happened. michael holmes, cnn, crimea. >> in moscow, russian president vladimir putin is being seen as a hero, a tough leader who stood up to the west, he brought crimea back to mother russia so his approval ratings in recent weeks have surged.

fred, with so much popularity at home, so much domestic support, why would mr. putin simply stop now at crimea? >> well, exactly. it's within of the things he's been saying is that he does not intend to move russian forces into anywhere else. doesn't intend to move russian forces into the east of ukraine, but certainly it doesn't appear as though western sanctions or western backlash is something that factors very much into his calculation about what he's going to do politically or militarily. there was a gigantic rally here in moscow last night to celebrate crimea becoming part of the russian federation. of course, in russia's view, there's no other country that's actually recognized that yet. but it was a massive rally that came right after vladimir putin's speech. and as you say, the approval ratings speak their own language and also one of the numbers that was quoted as well, 95% of russians also are in favor of this move. are in favor of crimea being a

part of russia again. so it certainly is the fact that while vladimir putin is being condemned internationally, he is being hailed here in moscow. and there's a lot of people who believe that vladimir putin with this move to take in crimea will have his place in russian history, john. '. >> and fred, during that speech, you mentioned he had no plans to take more territory, but there's still a lot moscow can do to stabilize that new government in kiev. >> yeah, there certainly is. there's economic things moscow could do. military things and diplomatic things that moscow can do as well. one of the other things he said is he doesn't recognize the leadership in kiev. he doesn't recognize the leaders in kiev. there is the threat of cutting gas exports to ukraine. it's something that moscow has done in the past. and then there's also the threat of further military action as we've noted in the past couple

of days. and simply having many russian forces on the border with ukraine, the ukraines are saying there's tens of thousands of russian troops with tanks, with other hardware on the russian board e, that's something that in itself is a destabilizing factor and certainly doesn't appear as though russia is in any hurry to pull those forces back, joehn. >> moscow, there was some talk that maybe moscow could announce tit-for-tat economic sanctions, maybe later today. is that still the case? >> well, later today, i'm not sure it would be later today, but the russians have certainly said that they would react with koubt sanctions if, in fact, the sanctions regime against them were to be toughened. there's also talk -- there was a phone call between the russian foreign minister and secretary of state john kerry where lovrov criticized these sanctions and said that russia would respond according

accordingly. again, also something that vladimir putin said. at this point in time, however, it seems most russian officials continue to laugh off the sanctions that have happened so far. one of the interesting things that happened yesterday also was that many russian officials inside the parliament asked to be put on the u.s. sanctions list because they considered it an honor to be sanctioned by the united states, john. >> okay. we'll see where that goes. fred, thank you live with the very latest on the situation. thanks, fred. still to come here on cnn news room, we'll have more on the missing flight 370. investigators are looking at why there was no phone contact with passengers on the plane. you've tried to forget your hepatitis c. it's slow moving, you tell yourself. i have time. after all there may be no symptoms for years. no wonder you try to push it to the back of your mind and forget it. but here's something you shouldn't forget. hepatitis c is a serious disease. if left untreated, it could lead to liver damage

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his own thoughts about its fate. >> you know, what we're given here is a large jigsaw puzzle that normally has 1,000 pieces. and someone tozed 20 pieces at us and said you figure out what this is supposed to represent. >> barry threw twa jetliners for 34 years. like many, he has a theory about what happened to malaysia airlines flight 370, a problem onboard. >> personally, i like to -- i like to go for the simplest explanation. >> one of the theorys is actually maybe they were being heroes and trying to get back to a landing strip that was big enough to carry a 777 and that's the reason why they made that sharp left turn. >> if you have a serious problem aboard a jetliner like a fire, one thing you're going to want to do is get on the ground as soon as possible. and turning back towards malaysia, towards a large airport is the first thing i would do. the most imperative thing is to take care of that fire. the last thing you're going to do is communicate unless you have the time to do it. because no one on the ground can

help you. >> reporter: so would a crisis like a fire lead the pilots to take drastic action? >> would it be crazy to think that just going into the water, trying to do a water landing of some sort -- >> i seriously doubt if anybody would try to land a jetliner in the ocean at night. without lighting. imagine hitting the water at 100, 200, 300 miles an hour. it's going to make that airplane splatter into pieces. >> isn't it surprising we haven't seen any debris anywhere? >> i think there is debris. the ocean is huge. and i simply don't think that they've found it yet. i don't know that all the ocean has been looked at yet. i kind of doubt it. my guess is, and it's strictly a guess, that they will find pieces of this airplane somewhere soon. >> shif also takes issue with the idea that the transponder was turned off deliberately. >> it stopped working perhaps because someone turned it off. or perhaps there was an electric fire or some kind of problem in that airplane that depowered the transponder along with a lot of

other things on that airplane. we don't know what happened. >> and because we don't know what happened, he argues the pilots should given the benefit of the doubt. >> the idea that their legacy is being dragged through the mud without any real knowledge of what's going on, that's upsetting to you? >> it's very possible they were working their assesoff, doing the best they could to combat a very difficult problem and became overcome by perhaps a fire, perhaps smoke. from everything i've seen about these pilots, they were pretty sharp guys. >> now, among the many unanswered questions is why no phone calls or text messages were received from the passengers. malaysia airline says there's no evidence of phone contact with flight 370. here's suzanne malvo. >> on september 11 when hijackers commandeers four plays headed to new york and washington, passengers and flight attendants onboard started making calls.

>> our number one got stabbed. our purser is stabbed. nobody knows who stabbed who and we can't even get up to business class right now because nobody can breathe. >> using cell phones and air phones, those onboard reached out to loved ones, sought help, and ultimately warned others of the impending terrorist attacks. but for the missing malaysia flight 370, silence. no phone calls, no texts, no tweets. one theory, that the cell phones didn't work because of the plane's altitude. >> 45,000 feet was much too high for a cell phone service signal to be received, right? >> you're just not going to get any consumer grade technology to be able to talk to the ground from that kind of height. >> so your cruising altitude, 25,000 feet, would it be possible to receive a signal at that point? >> occasionally possible but rare. >> another reason, no nearby towers. >> there was some point the plane had been flying over malaysia and there was at least

a couple of cities, major cities and there were some towns and villages. is it possible those signals could have got ton a cell phone tower? >> again, if people were awake, trying to use their phone and they were flying that low, it is certainly possible they got to that tower. however, it's also possibly they weren't arable to officially communica communicate. it's not just sending the radio waves, we have to actually be in touch long enough to have a little conversation. >> those onboard were able to have conversations because the planes were flying very low in density populated areas when their calls were received. but experts say most of those calls were not made from cell phones. but airline phones which use radio or satellite technology. a technology that has been phased out for the most part because of its high cost. but malaysia flight 370 did have air phones in business class. they might have been deliberately disabled along with the transponder and other communication systems. but cnn aviation am linalyst ma

weiss says the more likely scenario is no one called even when the plane reversed course. >> the lights would have been dimmed. it was almost an hour into the flight. it was a very frank quitranquil. it probably wouldn't have been turbule turbulent. nobody would have noticed anything. it could have been business as usual. >> another theory that aviation analysts are look into is whether or not the cabin was depress surized either by the pilot or someone who may have wanted to sabotage the flight. at 30,000 feet, passengers would have passed out within seconds or they would have had 15 minutes with oxygen masks. mark weiss doesn't put a lot of weight behind that scenario, but there are others who say with so much still to investigate, they're not ruling out anything. nn, washington. >> time for another break. when we come back, for people with family onboard flight 370, it's been days of heart ache and agonizing waiting.

now they're starting to lose patience. ahead we'll have a live report from beijing. >> i know that it's more solid than anything else in the world, you know? and for it to just disappear the way it is. >> shock and disbelief. we'll hear from the people who knew the pilots and the airplane. i get a little bit hungry ♪ ♪ and there's nothing good around ♪ ♪ turn around, barry ♪ i finally found the right snack ♪ [ female announcer ] fiber one. ♪ i finally found the right snack ♪ save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.ould yep, everybody knows that. well, did you know the ancient pyramids were actually a mistake? uh-oh.

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welcome back. the headlines this hour. the ukraine's defense ministry has authorized its troops to use their weapons in self-defense. this comes as masked gunmen