experts are trying to recover some deleted files that potentially, folksily could contain some critical clues. remember you can always follow us on twitter. you can tweet me at wolf blitzer. you can certainly tweet the show at cnn sit room. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. erin burnett "out front "starts right now. next, breaking news. president obama speaking for the first time about flight 370 today. what he said about the investigation tonight. plus, why was information deleted from the pilot's homemade flight simulate center in fbi looking for answers tonight. and an "out front" investigation, how easy it for a 777 to disappear from radar? well, we went and found out. let's go "out front." and good evening to everyone, i'm erin burnett.

"out front" tonight we begin with the breaking news, president obama making his first public comments tonight about the search for missing malaysia airlines flight 370. >> we have put every resource that we have available at the disposal of the search process. there's been close cooperation with the malaysian government and so not just ntsb but fbi, you know, anybody who dip typically deals with anything related to our aviation system is available. and so, you know, our thoughts and prayers were with the families but i want them to be assured that we consider this a top priority and we are going to keep on working. >> a top priority it is day 13 in the search for the missing plane and investigators in a race against time. they have just 17 days to find the plane's black box, which is sort of an old term for basically the flight data

recorder, which stops transmitting crucial signals that could help locate the wreckage. at this hour, here is what we know in that search. an unnamed source tells malay a malaysia's daily newspaper that investigators discovered the runways near five airports near the end yap ocean loaded into the pilot's homemade flight simulator. obviously, that is a hugely significant headline. we have not independently confirmed that. that comes from a mail daley newspaper in malaysia. officials announced that some data on the simulate her been deleted and gave us a date for that, february 3rd. still it is unclear who deleted the information and what motive they may have had to do that we will talk much more about that this hour, because there's a really big, crucial caveat there the fbi, meantime is now examining the simulators a hard drive as well as computer hard drives belonging to both the pilot and co-pilot. as for the search, a u.s. government source tells us tonight that all evidence points to the southern search corridor. you may remember the northern one went up with the stans, kazhakistan, western china.

now focusing pretty much exclusively on the southern corridor, which is are the entire swath there of the indian ocean. australia is now leading the search there, says it has narrowed its focus to the waters off of perth, which is on the south we were coast of australia. pamela brown has been following the investigation. and pamela, how seriously is the fbi taking this development, that there is missing data from the pilot's home simulator? >> well, erin, a source with knowledge of the investigation i spoke with earlier today says it's top priority to find out what's on that hard drive. it's being handled with a great deem of urgency now because so far it is the best trove of evidence we have at this point. but it's important to keep in mind it could take some time, days, even weeks, before experts at want co-'s forensics lab are able to piece together a full picture of what was on that simulators a hard drive in the captain's home there are many variables at play here, whether the data was dell fleet a simple, routine way or whether someone took extra steps to make sure it was permanently deleted. erin, from talking to expert, the only way that's possible if

the deleted file was overwritten or nuke and the fact that malaysian authorities say it was delete old february 3rd a specific date and recoverable data on the hard drive, a promising sign that investigators will be able to pull all or at least part of the information from that hard drive, but erin, what is found from the hard drive could end up being an insignificant detail. we just simply don't know. >> all right, pamela, thank you very much. obviously crucial at this point, because we just don't know the motives and what may have been innocent and what may not have been. joining me is former fbi agent, ed strauss and jay la vote, ceo of hot seat, the company that makes flight simulators. you two gentlemen understanding what is going on with this investigation. jay, let me start with you, and this crucial question, is there any reason the pilot would have, if you're at home, by the way, i have a talked to a lot of pilots who say they have flight simulators at home, they love to fly all the time. having one in and of itself would not necessarily be suspicious. some disagree. many pilots have said that but dell like the files off the flight simulator? >> well, the -- one of the

considerations would be how big the hard drive on the computer that this pilot was using. so if the computer was, a you know, 1 terabyte or larger kind of hard drive it would not indicate that there would be a lack of space on that storage facility. the files that are stored in flight simulator don't reside in flight simulator to delete them. you have to go into my documents go find the folder for flight sim and click off each of those -- there are generally three files that belong to each flight. >> right. >> and would you have to go in there and delete those files. all right. so it's not as easy as just dragging into it into your recycle bin and emptying it? it takes work? >> you have to know how to do it and there would have to be a reason you why do t specifically, pilots are saving flights to refly them. >> you don't want to delete t you want to practice. >> you want to keep t >> all right. what is the fbi then looking for? you have done this sort of forensic analysis.

what are they looking for in the headline we have is the deletion date was february 3rd. obviously, if he was practicing a bunch of routes, that's long time ago to have deleted but now you have this malaysian newspaper, emphasized, we have not confirmed this, saying they found there are five airports near the indian ocean on that flight simulator. >> think the fbi will be looking for deleted files for sure, but that is only one part of the treasure trove of information that you find on a computer. every computer, every investigation right now has a computer somewhere in the mix and if you're talking about somebody who is a pilot, had this desites are home, i don't think there's anything nefarious about that we have to be using this computer to power the flight simulator but he play is also been using the computer for other purposes. it's the same type of back end that you have on any kind of computer system so that will be an area of investigation for the fbi, to the extent that files were deleted, were they deleted deliberately? were they deleted and overwritten, deleted a certain

point in time? just as you were saying. >> an interesting point. by the way if it is true these five airports near the indian ocean were programmed, obviously, could be reasons not nefarious that would have happened. if it did happen aren't question would be when was that deleted? because was that in the -- before february 3rd or after? aft, the guy wasn't trying to cover it up because it was sitting there, along with diego garcia, we know was also on that flight simulator. >> i think it is also important to remember, in a matter like this you have to account for everything that occurred. it isn't just lacking for things that are troublesome. >> right. >> also investigating to fee there are innocent explanations. people can be cleared. if investigative theories can be shut down based on certain things that are determined. so, it's important to keep in mind that they are looking for all of the truth that may be on that drive. right. and jay, the point is right now, there's the simulate and nothing else because there's no plane, so people are folk ducks in on this. we spoke to a former israeli air force pilot, who now uses -- designs flight simulators for use in high-end searching and

things like that says someone as experienced of the pilot of mh-370 would have had no need to proon a similarity. his view, the only reason we have been using it would be to try unfamiliar, untested routes. >> you know, you can fly any airport on the planet geographically and top graphically, correct. virtually any airplane. so there are millions of people out there who enjoy flight simulation and fly all over the world with this tool and it's not unusual for a pilot to practice. >> you want to fly a new route, right? get bored with the regular route to beijing. >> and he may have been flying -- i don't know if he flew those trips during his rotation as a pilot. and if he did woe want to practice. nothing nasty about that >> right there's so many questions here but again this is the key piece of data that we have. so obviously, everyone is going to be obsessing over it. thanks very much to both of you, ed and jay. next, one of the things investigators need to know, was the pilot practicing landing on

a short run bay? we are going to show what you that landing looks like, literally, from start to finish. we looked through the indian ocean. we found a runway that a 777 low on fuel might be able to land on and we are going to show what you it looks like. also, miles o'brien, a very familiar face to cnn viewers, a pilot himself, joins us to talk about what he thinks happened to the plane. and chaotic scene as families demand to know what happened to their loved ones on flight 370. it's a growing trend in business: do more with less with less energy. hp is helping ups do just that. soon, the world's most intelligent servers, designed by hp, will give ups over twice the performance, using forty percent less energy. multiply that across over a thousand locations, and they'll provide the same benefit to the environment as over 60,000 trees.

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a major development tonight in the investigation to flight 370. tonight, the fbi working to recover deleted files from the pilot's flight simulator hard drive. investigators hope the erased files will provide insight into the pilot's mind set before the flight went missing. the big question here is whether the pilot used that homemade simulator to practice flying unfamiliar territory or perhaps landing on a short runway. as we said earlier, a malaysian daily newspaper is reporting that flight simulate her five runways in the indian ocean programming onto t unsure whether that's true but that is the report that we have right now. and that, if true is a very, very significant development, which leads us exactly to where

we are going now, which is landing on one of those runways. martin savidge is live in a 777 simulator with a pilot trainer, mitchell. our viewers know him well. 777 needs a runway 8,000 feet. les abend says runways are 10,000 feet. this is all hypothetical. i know 777 er could land on a much smaller runway if there was an emergency, if fuel was low, right? how short around can you do it? >> well, first of all, it's a simulator, a simulator is not exactly as the 777 might act, but it is doggone close, as close as we can get safelism is a small island off of western australia. we are not saying this is what happened. what we want to show you is the safety aspect of the plane itself. what we are talking about here is that we are dealing with an aircraft that has so many safety features built into it.

yes, they need 6 to maybe 8,000 feet. they can do it with less. we are looking a at runway here, mitchell, what do we think -- >> i'm sorry, what is that? >> 4,000 feet. if he can't make it on the approach, we will go around. this runway is not ideal. got some of the best and biggest landing gear of any major plane and you can see the weather is a problem. so whether he is gonna get it down and have enough runway at the end, i guess we watch and see. 130 miles a hour, there's the ground. reverse thrusters. and he -- you can see there's the back of the runway coming up quick. and correction.

and you are right at the end. speed's 40 miles. >> crashing here? >> 40 miles an hour. it can be done. but again, it's a simulator. >> are you on the runway now -- you're off, it aren't you? >> well, it's gone -- gone just beyond the edge. >> okay. >> but in theory, you know, with that speed. and this landing gear, say some of the biggest and most fortified of any aircraft like this, it's survivable. that's what you're talking about here. this is emergency. not going to turn the plane around again, refuel and take off. this is last-ditch scenario. could it be done? this simulator says, yes, it could. we certainly know 777 could land on much less than, say an 8,000, 6,000-foot runway. >> let me bring in les abend. because les a 777 pilot, watching mitchell performa thank move. i wasn't thrilled with the look going across your face.

>> yeah. he was -- that's test pilot stuff right there. i was gonna ask whether they were using max braking on that because there's a setting that we have that will -- >> and that's something that the pilot would have known on this plane? >> he would have done had he been aware -- >> can mitchell hear me? martin, can you hear me? were you using max braking? >> i can hear you. we did use max braking but one thing i should mention on this landing, i put the reverse on and the reversers did not come on and that's why we ended up landing long f the reverses had come on that loud roaring you hear after you touched down, we would have stopped short of the end of the runway. >> just made it obviously, the assumption, les, this plane was running out of fuel. obviously aren't landing a fully fueled plane on this i guess here's the question is this something that pilots would have prepared for, especially given this latest potential development, the malaysian newspaper reporting that there

were five run ways in the indian ocean programmed on the flight simulator in the pilot's home? >> i -- no. just -- it's very improbable. yeah. it's not something that i think any professional crew, regardless of nefarious ideas, would even attempt. >> right. so i guess it's conceivable, if indeed that, indeed, we have no idea, if the pilot tried to do it and perhaps failed. i think all these run ways in this area, the plane is not there. >> probably not. >> right. >> probably not. >> all right. les abend, thank you very much. we appreciate it. and thanks also to mitchell and to martin. so many of you had questions about that, just to watch exactly how that would be executed. still to come, families of the passengers desperate for information about their loved ones, hoping against hope for a landing like the one you saw there. but their pleas have been met with silence. today, things got incredibly tense. and just how did flight 370 vanish from radar?

that is one of the most central questions here, with all of these military stations looking for it, we wanted to know. so went and found out. an "out front" investigation. >> how likely is it that this flight was able to' lewd radar just by accident? >> highly unlikely. [ intercom ] drivers, to your marks.

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an emotional and chaotic scene today involving some of the families aboard missing malaysia airlines flight 370. a mother pleading with authorities for more information about the investigation. it was incredibly emotional. >> that woman was dragged away by malaysian authorities. as you can see, it's rather frightening just to see all the media that was there, the anguish. kyung lah was there. right there in the middle, you almost getting knocked over

yourself. did you see her, these families after they were dragged away? >> reporter: actually stood outside that double door and waited for the families to come out. remember, erin, these women came to a press briefing where they knew there were going to be hundreds of cameras. they had a message that they wanted to talk to the press. they wanted to get the press on their side so that we would take the malaysian government to task. that was essentially the message. we need more information. after they disappeared into that room, we stood outside waiting for them to come out. i kept repeatedly asking the official there is, what's happening? where -- what have you done with these women? and they boldfaceded and said there were no women in there, even though i could see them through the doors. after a short time, the authorities basically stood side by side, locking their arms to keep the cameras away from these women as they were led out of the hotel. we gave them chase but they

disappeared. >> that's pretty incredible they would just say there was no women in there. it sort of adds to the whole perception we have had from the malaysian government, they say that happened, they say, no, whoever said that was a liar. accident say that. i mean, just the kind of disaster that the investigation's been so far. i mean, what did the government then say? >> reporter: well, the government in the press briefing that followed, and i should point out, it was on time. they kept to that. they wanted to keep the task on finding this plane, getting out their message, and what they did say in answering one question about this is that they did understand that this was hard for the families. but after the press briefing, the acting transportation secretary did rethese statement. i want to show it to you. what he basically says is one can only imagine the anguish they, referring to the families, are going through. malaysia is doing everything in its power to find mh 370 and

hopefully bring some degree of closure for those whose family members are missing. what all this does show us, erin, is the malaysian government has a message they want to get out they want to show that they are in control but they are having a lot of trouble trying to maintain control and try to push this investigation forward in the way that they want. >> kyung lah, thank you very much live from kuala lumpur this morning. still to come, an "out front" investigation, just how difficult is it for a 777 to completely disappear from radar? that is a crucial question we have an exclusive investigation and access how that would have happened. and details how the missing plane's flight plan was changed midair. textile production in spain, and the use of medical technology in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence.

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breaking news. president obama says finding the missing flight from malaysia is a top priority for the united states. speaking for the first time about the flight personally, he said every possible resource is available for the search, including the fbi, which is now examining the hard drive of the pilot's flight simulator and looking at the pilot and co-pilot's computer, personal computers, looking for any information that may be useful for the information -- the investigation. as for the plane, u.s. and australian search teams are focus their he have north a very specific location, as you can seem the red part is the possible route, obviously that's a very, very wide swath of water. the green area is where they are

looking. that's the waters off australia's west coast. the question is, how could the pane have flown that far without being detected by radar? everything we know so far, at least we have been told, has come from satellite. david mattingly is "out front." >> reporter: with all the technology, all the sophisticated systems, all the different planes air traffic has managed on tens of thousands of flights a day flying under the radar to essentially disappear sounds ridiculously easy and surprisingly, it's not the only way for a 777 to avoid detection. how likely is it that this flight was able to elude radar just by accident? >> highly unlikely. >> reporter: air traffic control experts at embry-riddle aeronautical university use state-of-the-art simulators to teach the next generation of colors are,interpret the flood of electronic data that's constantly pouring in. you know what flight it is?

>> correct. >> you no yes it is? >> correct. >> you know how fast it's going? >> right. >> you know the altitude? >> correct. here is the altitude, 22,000 feet. >> reporter: but that only works if the transponder is turned on. sid mcgurk spent 35 years in air traffic control for the fa a and four years in the air forces, at one time, guiding flights under fire in vietnam. he says without the plane's transponder, air traffic control is almost blind. this is what a play looks like with the transponder on? >> correct. >> reporter: when the transresponders a on, a data tag with all vital information is very obvious. the pilot can use it to report an emergency. the letters hijk mean hijack. so, without saying word, the pilot can tell you he is being hijacked? >> that's correct. that's international code that every pilot knows. >> but the transponder has to be on? >> the transponder has to be on. >> reporter: malaysia airlines flight 370 never reported a problem. and when the transponder went off -- it looks like this?

there is a nothing left but a tiny spec of light that even a trained eye would not recognize right away as an airplane. >> could be a target. this could be a target here. yeah. >> but you don't know for sure? >> we don't know for sure. aid very to concentrate on that particular piece of data. >> reporter: in the wee hours of the morning when flight 370 seemingly vanished archetypeny sp -- a tiny speck of light could have not attracted attention. >> you and i at home in bed, asleep, colors are there expecting to see targets with a transponder on board. >> not looking for any surprise. >> not looking for any surprise. >> reporter: just one more theory in an increasingly vexing case, a 777 disappears by hiding in plain sight. >> hiding in plain sight. incredible, david. one of the things people say is that the early morning hours could explain the lack of detection by civilian colors are. people are tired. people respect looking. they are just used to their routine job. but what about the military?

respect they always looking? >> reporter: well, i asked that question and the same argument could apply here. if there isn't some reason for a behind state alert, it's very possible an inconsequential blip on the radar passing through might escape notice. and remember, we don't know where these radar systems are around in this part of the world. there could be dead zones, places where the radar systems do not overlap so the flight also could fly into the dead zone, completely escape detection. >> and could such an elaborate system, as you just reported on, be defeated just with the flick of a switch? you know, we keep hearing it is kind of incredible, a transpond transponder, hit a bunt tapped is gone some this entire system be off, flick? >> well, this was a question that came up after 9/11, because those hijackers, the first thing they did when they took over the cockpits was to turn off the traps responder. there was a great deal of discussion about possibly installing transresponders that

can't be accessed and turned off while in fight. well, that discussion never got to the point of these types of transresponders being installed in the u.s. or overseas but situations like what we are looking at right now are so rare, we will have to wait and see if that discussion pops up at all. all right, david mattingly, thank you very much. pretty amazing there, what he was able to show us. i want to talk more about the possibility that the plane was able to elude radar and what happened with bill nye, the science guy and a former boeing engineer and michael kay, former plight and british military officer. two of the most perfect people to talk about this. bill, let me start with you. how conceivable is it that this jet was able to any somewhere, and by the way, somewhere pretty far, right with these pings we kept getting every hour from satellite for seven times, without being detected? >> well, it's not very likely and i appreciate you-all asking me about this, but there's just so many theories out there.

i would say that let think about the motive. what are these people who ever hijacked this plane, what do they intend to gain 12 days after the thing disappears? so, i'm hoping that what we're really doing, i say "we", the people with the ability to do so, are looking underwater, listening for that pinger. i brought this up a couple times because if the thing is gone for 12 days, i got a feeling it's underwater. but of course, i'm just one more person with one more idea about this. it's just every day, there's another fascinating clue. it's got everything, erin. it's got a plane disappearance. it has families in great distress. >> yeah. >> and it's got this mystery. i mean, it's got it all. it's -- it really is fascinating. so, i'm just hoping that we are getting the so-called assets underwater to listen in the most likely place. >> i want to ask you about the underwater situation and the flight data recorder, which we

all commonly, inaccurately, refer to as the black box. i know you're an expert on that mike, let me bring you in here first. what about -- what do you think? take nothing account here, you have a play -- a i know flight isn't the right word, but the track of where this flight was going to go was reprogrammed, the data we communicate to ground traffic chrome was turned off, the plane turns and appears to head into the middle of no where. >> yeah. >> some of the place on earth where there is no radar. >> let's rewind and look at some of the ways we can actually tract jet through the air. the first one is primary radar. primary radar sends out effectively a pulse, bounces across the fuselage and comes back it is primitive. and the secondary radar works with the transponder, absolutely key, the transponder gives you position, gives you altitude, gives you speed and what the t cast works off, the traffic collision avoidance system. does have limitation. on transo'oceanic flight this transponder will work out to about 200 miles off the coast. >> going from new york to london, you lose this radar?

>> exactly. primary radar lost around 100, 150 miles. after 200 miles, what air traffic controllers rely what called a synthetic air picture. that is built up using bits of information, the first is acars, acars will send inform was to the air line, it will send things like burn rates and fuel rates and all the rest to have but also a gps position much the other way air traffic is worked sought a procedural piece. they will deconflict by biff givening each airlinary specific mack number to fly, different mack number, procedurally separated through that and through altitude. that's wait they build up the air picture until they reach 200 miles to the next coast, when they will be picked up again on transponder and primary radar. >> all right. so there is a ray weigh in the middle of nowhere, except acars was turned off? >> there is but it's not through radar. we must get away from this now, you mentioned the point how can military radar pick it up. this is a great question because as soon as that flight drops off the radar, the civilian air traffic control community should be getting on the phone to the distress cell. the distress cell will attempt to get ahold of the aircraft,

cell phone in the cockpit, through high frequency radio, radio used over long distances or ask jets behind 370 or in front -- >> do you see? >> because it will have dropped off the t cast. that is the first thing. second is the air traffic controls rink up the traffic controls and says, guys, we have just had a radar, aircraft drop off radar, you see anything unusual, okay, you need to go and interrogate that. so, what the guys will have on the military radar, they will have an air corridor, potentially, that has routine traffic going lining, nothing suspicious there, have vfr flight plans. >> so, cross the border is what you are saying, somebody would have seen it? >> i'm staying it went outside of the standard routine traffic on the vfr flight plans gone with the military it would have raised suspicions. i find it hard to believe that if malaysian air traffic or crossed the sovereign territory, like into indonesia if they saw something and they didn't know what it was and didn't have a unique squawk on it i find it very difficult they wouldn't ultimately launch some quick reaction alert fighters to go and see what it s >> which is one of the big

questions out there bill what about the flight data recorder, an area of expertise for you if this plane is under the water where you think it is and potentially under the water in an incredibly remote, not near land, incredibly deep, mountainous underwater area are we ever gonna find it? >> well, i got to say if it is underwater, we will probably find it eventually. i mean, we found so many things, the deep sea submersibles have gotten so much better last decade and a half. >> yeah. >> that we will find it but this -- everybody's in distress right now, the families and so on let me say, looking for a motive for these people, whoever made this happen, what would you do with a 777? what would you do with 300 hostages? what exactly could you pull off? so i'm hoping that people who plan these things, when you talk about military radar, are watching for something unusual in this extremely large area. >> l >> but the meantime, as we say i

hope we are looking underwater. thanks very much. we have to leave it there thanks very much to both of you. we appreciate it. still to come, we have the latest on the search. miles o'brien, a very familiar plays this face to cnn viewers, he is a pilot himself, going to be with us next, speaking out for the first time on t a lot of people have come forward to say they have seen the missing plane a lot of people. we examine the possible sightings, the realistic and the ridiculous. won't treat all of your symptoms. really? alka seltzer plus severe sinus fights your tough sinus symptoms plus your runny nose. oh what a relief it is predibut, manufacturings a prettin the united states do. means advanced technology. we learned that technology allows us to be craft oriented. no one's losing their job. there's no beer robot that has suddenly chased them out. the technology is actually creating new jobs. siemens designed and built the right tools and resources to get the job done.

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the disappearance of malaysia airlines flight 370 is still a mystery. here is what we know now the fbi is looking at the hard drive that was taken from the simulator in the pilot's home. malaysian officials say some data was deleted prior to february 3rd. as for the search, u.s. officials tell cnn more evidence is pointing to the southern search corridor, in particular, a very specific slice, not the enormous entire indian ocean in the south, but an area, a swath near the waters off of perth, right near with australia though, that's about 1,400 miles away from the coast. out front tonight, a face familiar to cnn viewers, miles o'brien, years covering aviation, a pilot, correspondent for the pbs news hour. i appreciate you taking the time so many theories being

discussed. i guess one of the things that makes this such a compelling story is that everybody has one and part of what's gonna be the motive is something personal that every human can somehow connect with. hijacking, suicide, mechanical failure, all of these are on the table. based on your experience, what do you think happened? >> it is an epic mystery, coupled with a chaotic and incomplete release of information. throw in the 24-hour news cycle and i've got a lot of speculation in the mix. i don't want to get too deep into speculation, but let's just imagine for a minute that this turn began 12 minutes before they said good night as we have been reporting all today. why wasn't the air traffic controller that they were communicating with giving them a call saying, hey, where are you headed? i know in my plane, if i have a course deviation off of my assigned course in 30 seconds to a minute, an air traffic control is going to call me and say where are you going, 2 charlie victor. i would like to hear the full

air traffic control recordings from takeoff to the point where they say good night. i would love to see that laid up against what radar data they have. and then we can start making maybe a little more reasonable decision about what might have happened here. now, and this whole idea that -- let's assume the turn happened and the controller was asleep. >> the first turn we are talking about you go that first turn, all of a sudden, it veers left. got t >> so that to me takes you down a road where a mechanical fail your less likely. if there was a problem at that point that necessitated a turn to land, the pilot's gonna get on the radio and say may day, right? so let's assume for a moment that something bad was happening on board. two scenarios there. it could be a good pilot, a good crew with a bad hijacker and the good pilot is trying to signal to the ground that something wrong is happening. the hijacker knows about the secret squawk codes and alert you to a hijacking or the secret things say on the radio and maybe he just introduced a gentle turn to try to get people's attention and maybe

that non-standard handoff, that good night, was part of that trying to clue potentially. so, that's just the scenario of the day. we have to remember that we are getting a new theory every day. >> right. >> and you know, it's very difficult to be chasing all these things. we have to remember that. >> now it's unclear, you kind of point out a scenario, the pilots could have been here rose, the pilot could have been the villain here as well. if the turnoff course was preprogrammed, right you go, to take off, you then reprogram it, unless someone was in the cockpit that early, which is -- obviously, we assumed we would know, right? when you see that preprogramming, does that make you more likely to think it was the pilot? >> when was it programmed? that is an important question it was deliberate on the ground? was it subtly done in flight for some reason or was the pilot putting in some potential course deviations in case something happened, a cautious pilot might have put that in. you know, here's the nearest

airport. as soon as we get to a point of no return, i'm gonna put in the scratch pad of this device, they have the ability to have kind of, you know, rough notes, with these waypoints to get me to that airport and i wouldn't have to think much about it if i had an emergency. pilot does this all the time, they are constantly thinking about these things. it's possible that those were put in and ended up flying that route and could be a pilot who made a terrible mistake, too. >> and miles, i want to just turn to something, you know, when people are looking at you there, they probably aren't noticing something and i know you don't want to draw attention to i have to ask you about last month, you were on assignment in japan, doing all this incredibly documentary work on fukushima, the third anniversary, the fill peeps for the typhoon, try to help percentage i know you were loading up some tv equipment, you got injured, hit your arm. and you went in -- it got bad, you went into the hospital and you woke up and your arm was gone. >> yeah. yeah. i think the only way people would recognize it is i talk with my hands and i have lost half my vocabulary here, i

guess. any way, yeah, i was -- it was a flauk thing. a case fell on my arm and i developed something called acute compartment syndrome, which i had no idea existed, but it's a pressure buildup inside the sheathing which carries your muscles and convenience and if you don't catch it quickly i have this phantom pain which is a really bizarre experience. but i'm getting great care at the national rehabilitation hospital and hangar prosthetics, amazing people helping me think about how i can get back to doing all the things i love to do like flying airplanes which is on my mind right at this moment. >> it's incredible to look at you. you just seem so normal and you seem so -- you're being so gracious about it. people watching think think are stunned. people who maybe have watched you for 17 years, haven't seen you before saying you could be doing something so simple and lose your arm. how have you been able to be so positive? are you going to fly again?

>> i have every intention of flying again. they tell me there is the right prosthetic attachment to make that happen. i'm going to work on shooting video again. what happens in these cases, erin, and until you're presented with this kind of thing you don't know what you're going to do. you always think how would i handle something like this, to me there's two choices. you can either look at it as yet another challenge in life, something you need to overcome, or you end up in a very dark place. i didn't like the dark place when i went down that road briefly. so i'm going to stay on this road. and work on the challenge. >> how did you get -- you wrote on your blog "life is about playing the hand that is dealt you." i would like somebody to deal me another hand right now in more days than one. chokes me up to say that out loud. how did you get off the dark path? >> i thought about how much i love my work, frankly. i had just spent an inordinate

amount of time at the fukushima daiichi power plant and i really wanted to make sure those stories ended up on television. it would have compounded the tragedy in my view. frankly i thought about all the examples in my life. the people around me who have endured breast cancer and other afflictions. just in recent times for me. and the example that they have set for me of courage and grace under really much greater stakes. i mean, this is horrible. but it's not something that's going to loom over me for the rest of my life wondering if it's going to take my life. it's over with. people who deal with cancer don't have that luxury. so i look at those people and i'm inspired by them. i think if they can do it certainly i can. i think a lot of people looking at you, you inspire them. that's the incredible thing you never thought you'd have that opportunity. but it's still incredible you have the ability embrace it. all right, miles, thank you very much. >> you're welcome, erin. more of our breaking news when we come back.

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u.s. officials on high alert tonight. russia appears to be moving closer towards a bloody conflict, some using the word war. u.s. officials believe russia has assembled 20,000 troops near the border and put vehicles.

ivan watson is in kiev tonight. ivan, troops are on the border. is war a real possibility? are. think that if you listen to the ukranian government they say they don't want it but they have to prepare for that eventuality. that if the russians push them too far they will have to fight back. now, last night ukranian soldier was killed at his guard post in the crimean peninsula. they have been authorized to use their weapons to fight back. we have seen ukrainians giving up their bases one by one as they're overrun by these mysterious we suspect russian soldiers backed up by pro-russian militias. so far there hasn't been any shooting. the ukrainians have given up. but the ukraine government is partially mobilizing its

military. it's trying to find 40,000 recruits in the coming weeks. it has repeatedly said if the russians keep pushing, it will be forced to fight back. it just can't give up any more territory. so this is scary-sounding language. and it comes restrangevery stra. ukraine is such a smaller neighbor to russia. it's as if canada would have to fight back against the u.s. two neighbors, a lot of ties. we're imagining that scenario right now coming closer to it every passing day. >> it's amazing people think could you have a war in 2014 like that. the reality is people are saying yes. that is a shock to so many americans watching. but ivan, a lot of people say there's a good guy and there's a bad guy. a lot of people watching this show say the good guys are the guys in the interim government that the united states is allied with, the bad guy is putin. but it's not that simple, is it? >> reporter: well, no.

and i think you're suggesting a case we saw that stunned some ukrainians last night where a couple of lawmakers from a highly nationalist political party here in ukraine called svoboda or freedom walked into the office of the head of the state tv company and started arguing with the guy over footage that he was putting on his air. at one point one of the lawmakers basically started slapping around the head of the state tv company. and forced him to sign a letter of resignation. the response to that has been significant on the ground. there have been protests from journalists against these moves. there's been denunciation of it coming from the president, the prime minister. and the promise from the prosecutor here to investigate that. but it does suggest that tempers are running high and that some of the people here within the new ukranian government don't necessarily view democracy and tolerance the way some of the western backers might expect them them to.

that's been condemned by the u.s. ambassador in ukraine. >> amazing story that shows sometimes the people that the united states gets in bed with it's not as simple as saying they're the good guys. thanks for watching. ing "ac 360" starts right now. we begin tonight with several pieces of breaking news in the hunt for malaysia airlines flight 370. focusing on an swath of ocean off the southwest coast of australia. investigators now tell us the path it took, the path caught on radar, suggests the route was preprogrammed to hit certain navigational way poi-points. a lot to talk about with our panel of investigators, airline pilots, search professionals. because these developments have been stacking up day after day, some more