take photos of, what to concentrate on and what to pick up or sample if need be. >> okay. david gallo, thank you for your time and expertise. obviously so many questions still last as the search continues in this area. it is dark, but the light will return and the assets are en route. a handoff now to my colleague wolf blitzer who continues the story. hello. i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. there's new information coming in about the most promising lead so far in the hunt for flight 370. here's what we know right now, search crews from china, the united states, europe and australia are all on the look out for two objects spotted in the southern indian ocean off australia's west coast. the commercial satellite captured images of the objects four days ago. the largest is about 79 feet long, roughly the size of a 777

wing. australia and u.s. aircraft reached the area today but so far have found nothing. visibility was limited because of rain and clouds. but search planes are due to return in the area at sunrise, that's just about five hours from now. and a norwegian cargo ship is continuing to hunt for the debris around the clock. officials stress the objects may just be ocean garbage, like a container that may have fallen off of a ship. but they also say the sighting is the best lead they've gotten so far. >> our experience is that there is debris out there from ships for example falling overboard and other objects of that type. on this particular occasion the size and the fact that there are a number located in the same area really makes it worth looking at. but i don't want to speculate about what they are until we get there and we see them. >> the search crews will face

serious challenges including the weather. jim schutto is joining us now. jim, exactly where are those two objects locate snd. >> let's put it in relation to the search area we've been talking about the last 24 hours ago. you remember that u.s., australia and even chinese resources focusing on this area, about 1400 or 1500 miles off the southwest coast of australia. now, the debris was found just 14 miles to the south and east of there -- south and west of there -- south and east of there i should say right about there. here's what we're looking at. these are the images. the larger one 24 meters, almost 79 feet, the smaller one about 18 feet. what's interesting is they also spotted smaller pieces debris about it. they can't be sure of the size but in addition to the large one it looks at least the possibility of a debris field. we do know now they're getting other commercial satellite, so say the australian authorities, to look at this area again to get more images, me are refined

images to get a better sense of what's there. >> what about the other area sns are they still searching there? or are the crews now being diverted to the southern indian ocean target point? >> well, officially there are still areas both in the south down where the debris has been found and the north. and in fact australian authorities, malaysian authorities said today that countries all along here are still deploying asset, that laos is looking in its territory, vietnam, kazakhstan and china, western china, still looking at its radar data, sending helicopters and airplanes to here. that said really the focus increasingly coming down here. here's a great indication of that. of the 29 ships involved in the search of the northern and southern corridor, four of them are up here and 25 of them now headed down here. that gives you a real sense of where they think that the plane might be. again, as you've said many times, we've said many times they're not sure, the satellite images are grainy. at least as they're allocating resources this is becoming the

new focus. >> and get more information as daylight begins in about five hours over there. thanks so much jim sciutto. much more on this ocean search coming up in a few moments, but there's also information coming in on the investigation of two pilots. authorities are examining the captains and copilots computer hard drives and the hard drive in the captain's home flight simulator. our pamela brown has learned more about what the officials have learned so far -- key words so far, are finding out. pamela, what are your sources telling you? >> that's right, so far really is sort of the key phrase here, wolf. forensic experts are in the beginning stages of analyzing that hard drive that was taken from the flight simulator from the captain's home in malaysia. and we're told at this early stage experts are confident that they'll be able to retrieve at least some of the deleted data from that hard drive. of course we learned from malaysian officials yesterday that data was deleted from the

captain's hard drive on february 3rd. but the fact we have a data deletion and the fact there is still retrievable data on that hard drive are promising signs according to experts i've been speaking with. but i can tell you, wolf, that the fbi is throwing all the manpower they have at this trying to retrieve that data as one of my sources told me today there's a possibility that there's someone -- there's something on that hard drive that could clue us in as to what happened. and time is really running out here. so really they are putting -- they're throwing everything at it trying to figure it out. and we should know soon at least, wolf, if -- how much of that data that was deleted can be recovered. >> but they're not giving you an estimate how long they think this might take even if they bring in outside computer experts to go through those hard drives? >> at this point i'm told by sources that outside experts haven't been brought in yet, but we are again at the beginning stages. they are still trying to assess what kind of experts they need

to be brought in, whether they need experts from the software company. but as far as the degree of the data that was deleted, whether the captain, you know, or someone else used sophisticated software security technology that would overwrite the data and so forth, we should be able to find the degree of deletions relatively soon, today, the next day, couple days. but as far as what's on that hard drive, that could take much longer. it could take weeks. we just don't know at this point because we are still in the early stages how long it will take. but as one of my sources said it could take some time. >> all right. pamela brown reporting for us. thank you. let's get some analysis on all these late-breaking developments. joining us our cnn aviation analyst, former ntsb manager peter gol, mark weiss and tom fuentes, former director at the fbi. peter, let's get back to the debris. it looks like a pretty promising

lead. you studied it, you've had a few hours to digest what we've heard from the australians. what is your analysis? >> i think it is promising. and i think what's most promising is it's in the location of the ntsb, faa and australians all agree is the most promising spot. we've got to get out there and get a look at it. it's been in the water four days plus since the satellite took the images. so they're going to have to use some tracking to figure out where the ocean currents and the wind was moving it. but it's a step in the right direction. >> you see it as a promising lead too, or could there have been so many false hopes, false clues over the past week sns. >> i see it as promising and something they have to devote their resources too, but it's still such a tough job. they have to, again, find the debris that's now drifted another five days since it was photographed by the satellite. and then even if they find it going back 14 days maybe of the

actual original crash. where in the ocean did that plane crash if the debris is sitting now in this site thousands of miles off the coast of australia. >> let's not forget, mark, when they found the initial debris from that air france crash in the atlantic ocean off the coast of brazil, they found initial debris five days into the search but then it still took two years to find the flight data recorder, the voice recorder, two years. >> it really just goes to the difficulty of this search team what they're going to have in front of them. certainly that past experience should give everybody hope that there's opportunity to find that aircraft, the debris field and hopefully they'll be able to put this to rest. >> you know, it's interesting the way the australian prime minister, tony abbott, discussed this. because he spoke to the parliament in australia about it. that's a big deal. he didn't just make some sort of tentative announcement. i want you to listen precisely to what the prime minister said.

>> new and credible information has come to light in relation to the search for malaysia airlines flight mh-370 in the southern indian ocean. the australian maritime safety authority has received information based on satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search. following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible objects related to the search have been identified. >> so, peter, that's a pretty strong statement. he seems to be fairly confident that this might be the real deal. do you think it's wise to raise those kinds of hopes right now before they know for sure? or should they have waited to get definitive word that this is debris from the plane? >> i think there's a great deal of pressure to move this investigation forward. and i don't think the prime minister would have made those statements if the ministry hadn't assured him that they

thought this was a pretty live issue. so i'm hopeful that this is going to turn out positive, that this is going to be part of the plane and this will be the beginning of the ability to find out where it went down. >> and it won't tell us even if it's the debris how the plane wound up there or anything. they've got a lot more work to do after that. but it would be very, very significant moment in this mystery to be sure. guys, we're going to continue our analysis of what's going on. out in the middle of nowhere we'll take a closer look at where the debris is, if it is the debris possibly from the missing flight 370. and later we'll be answering your questions about the debris, the plane's flight path, the unprecedented search that's going on. tweet us, use hash tag370qs. for car insurance today? yeah. i heard about progressive's "name your price" tool? i guess you can tell them how much you want to pay and it gives you a range of options to choose from.

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it's being called the most isolated place on earth. let's go deeper into this area where this debris has been found. debris that may, we don't know if it is, but may be part of malaysia airlines flight 370. our meteorologist jennifer gray is tracking this for us. lots of moving parts, jennifer. give us an idea just what this area is like, what the ocean currents specifically are like. >> yeah, this is not a very forgiving part of the world. you have a lot of moving parts. you have very strong winds, very strong currents. it's a very deep, deep part of the world as well. this is the search area right here. you can see it's just north of the west australian current. now, that current moves at about a foot per second. right now where the search area is not much current at all. so this is actually a best case scenario, if it can just stay put where it is and have nothing move it into that west

australian current, they can get better visibility, they can get to the spot, see if that indeed is the plane. and that would be the best case scenario, wolf. because if it does get into that west australian current, it is going to be bad news and very hard to find. >> it certainly will be. what about the weather right now? i understand there are storms, strong winds, waves that's really hampered this search in that specific area. >> you're exactly right. they had a front move through yesterday. that's why we keep hearing the visibility was low, a lot of clouds in the area, rain. that has pushed out. now, this area is known for very, very strong winds. but luckily as we move through the next 48 hours we're not planning on winds any higher than say 15 to 25 miles per hour. that's great news. we're also looking at our exclusive cnn forecast model, and still showing the same 15 to 25-mile-per-hour winds is about maximum as we go through the next 48 hours. beyond that of course things could change. but right now looking good. this is that front that we were talking about pass through.

visibilities should be much, much better, wolf. sun should be rising. by 8:00 our time. so should have good visibility as we go into the next couple of hours and they can get those search crews out there. >> jennifer, thanks very much. let's go back to our panel, our aviation analyst mark weiss and peter goelz and tom fuentes. mark, you're a pilot. one thing people have realized if this is debris from this airliner, it would basically correspond to where the flight could have run out of fuel if it had flown that entire six or seven hours. >> absolutely. you know, i think what's been done is they've taken the amount of time it would have normally gotten to beijing with the alternate fuels that it would have had and reprojected that on a southern path. and given that, given the winds at the time, this is the most probable area that this would have been in. so i think all of that coming together really kind of focuses the attention and now put the resources there.

>> some have suggested even if it were cruising on automatic pilot, say the pilots were disabled for whatever reason, runs out of fuel, it could still glide for a while before it actually went into the water. >> yeah. aircraft are inherently stable. but obviously gravity is a very large pull. so had that scenario been the case, then the aircraft would have kept flying. but it would have glided and it would have had a fairly decent glide angle. and that distance would have increased. >> does this tell us -- let's say this is the debris, peter, from the plane. does it give us an indication whether it was a mechanical failure or human being that caused this. >> it does not. we need more information. we don't know why this aircraft ended up in that position. if it ends up in the south indian ocean, why did it go there? we just don't know yet. and we're not going to know just because we got some surface -- >> so not going to know until they find the flight data recorders, voice recorders, so-called black boxes which are

really orange -- >> even then. >> why do you say even then? >> because the voice cockpit recorder will have been written over if the plane stayed in the air that much longer, they're not going to be able to go back to listen to what happened in the cockpit. >> it will be silent. >> the last two hours -- >> they'll still have a lot of data. >> it will go up, down or sideways and won't tell you what's being said in the cockpit. >> but that data would be useful. >> it would be extremely useful. but it really raises the issue with what tom said. we need to have the data recorders and the voice recorders looked at again. longer batteries so that they can be recovered over a longer period of time, longer time on the voice recorder. should be a 24-hour period. >> why don't they have that? what's the problem? >> well, there's been a variety of oppositional positions. pilots don't like it. that's the main reason. >> that's not a good reason. >> well, it's a tough one. it's their work environment.

they believe that the voice recorders intruding on their work environment and they've made some very persuasive arguments. >> you could make the case of school bus drivers have a video camera on them all the time. why shouldn't pilots who have hundreds of people at risk have a camera in there as well? >> absolutely. and there's enormous protections on who gets access to the voice recorder. that can be extended to video recorders. it's seldom violated. i think it's time to extend the voice recorders beyond 30 minutes. >> i think i agree with you on that one. all right, guys, standby. we've got much more to discuss. searching for clues in a remote part of the planet, we're going to zero in and try to discover how satellites actually work now that australian searchers have images of possible -- repeat possible, debris from the missing airline. our clients need a lot of attention.

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it may take some time to find out if those two pieces of debris are in fact parts of missing malaysia flight 370. brian todd is here taking a closer look, how do these searchers determine that this is actual debris from this airliner, if it is? >> it's a fascinating process, wolf. i spoke with tim brown, he's an analyst for globalsecurity.org. he says when they take the satellite pictures, they download them to a ground station and then put them through the sophisticated computer program called change detection software. on that software after that kind of comes through the software, they look for contrasts, white

or bright images against the dark of the ocean. and you can kind of see that with those pictures there. now, it's a pain staking process, it takes some time. that's why it's taken about four days for us to see these first, but it is a fascinating process. and, you know, he says the group digital globe, a colorado-based satellite operator, they have said that the satellite imagery that the australian cited it came from them, tim brown says digital globe would have taken this, analyzed it and sent it to the australians who would have gone over it frame by frame, pixel by pixel and says the australians probably would have seen something of slightly higher resolution than the images we're seeing. >> why would they see a better quality resolution? why not release that instead of something that is in effect dumbed down. >> i think what we got indications of it may be a matter of national security that there's some government regulations saying they have to, i guess, fuzz it over a little bit for public consumption.

that may be part of play here. >> chinese released their images turned out to be a false alarm about a week or so ago, it looked fuzzy. >> that's right. they're probably seeing something a little clearer, but tim brown says it might not be as much clearer than you think. >> in the end will it just come down to getting a piece of that metal, whatever it is, and taking a look at it and seeing if it's from an airliner or a container that may have fallen off some cargo? >> they are very likely going to have to physically find these two pieces of debris and eyeball them, see if they can see them. they will be able to send submersibles down, take pictures, use some sonar, that technology will be available as well. but it's going to be a matter of getting there and getting to that debris. and now they have the dilemma of maybe the debris's moved, they couldn't see it because of the weather a few hours ago. so they've got some challenges. >> i'm sure the debris did move. it's four days old, those pictures are. brian, thanks very much. >> sure. >> as brian mentioned an american company says it

provided the satellite imagery the australian officials used to make what could be an unprecedented breakthrough in this search. also coming up we'll talk to a guest about how difficult it may be to find the wreckage of the missing plane. meantime, the families of the passengers, they are demanding answers as they wait and they hold out hope. ♪ [ banker ] sydney needed some financial guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. so we talked about her options. her valuable assets were staying. and selling her car wouldn't fly. we helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today...and tomorrow. so let's see what we can do about that... remodel. motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. they take a banker. make a my financial priorities appointment today. because when people talk, great things happen.

crews searching for any sign of malaysia flight 370 now a concrete lead to go on, but it's only still a lead. here are the latest developments. a multinational search operation is underway right now in the southern indian ocean about -- after two objects were spotted bobbing in the water. a commercial satellite captured images of the objects four days ago. australian intelligence officials analyzed the pictures, determined the objects could possibly be debris from the jet, but they don't yet know for sure. the largest object is about 79 feet long, roughly the size of a boeing 777 wing. australian and u.s. aircraft reached the area today, but so far they have found nothing. visibility was limited because of rain and clouds. search planes are due to return to the area at sunrise in that part of the world, that's in about four and a half hours from now. and a norwegian cargo ship is continuing to hunt for the debris around the clock.

the cargo ship is in the area. officials stressed the objects may just be ocean garbage, like a container or two that fell off of a ship, but they also say the sighting is the best lead they've gotten so far. and there's also a development in the investigation, a u.s. official telling cnn that fbi investigators, they are confident they will eventually be able to recover at least some of the data deleted from the flight simulator that was taken from the pilot's home. joining us now from san francisco is retired u.s. air force lieutenant colonel ken christiansen. he's a commercial pilot, certified aircraft crash investigator. ken, thanks very much for joining us. you have lots of experience in ocean searches like this one. just how difficult is it going to be to determine -- first of all to find these two objects and determine whether or not they are from the missing airliner? >> well, wolf, first of all they have to find -- you go back out

and get eyes on the object that was found for the satellite. they have not done that yet. it's dark there now. and when day breaks they'll go out and look for that again. once they establish a target, they're going to have to fly lower and see does this look like an aircraft piece or part or not. if they have ships out at that point or a ship with a helicopt helicopter, the helicopter might be able to come off the ship and take a closer look. or they'll be deboarding someone in a ship in a smaller boat to verify that. >> because the debris, the pictures that the australians released the satellite images, they're four days old. and presumably given the heavy currents whatever that was, that debris, it could have moved a lot of miles away. >> yeah, that's correct. they're very familiar with the currents, both the currents deeper down and the currents on top. and what they would do is once

they see the debris field, they'll see how much the debris weighs, if it's lighter debris and can blow, heavier piece of debris it will move slower. they'll take that into consideration and how many days and use the currents and back those pieces up to the point of origin or the point where the aircraft could have gone in if this is in fact the side of the aircraft. >> given the actual -- it's really narrowed down the area that they're searching right now, it shouldn't take too long to get a plane to fly over, a helicopter to fly over or a ship to get nearby, maybe a submarine, and see what's going on. if in fact this is the debris, the next step would be to find more of it including the flight data recorder, the voice recorder, there's only 15 or 16 days left that it's continuing to send out these beeps, these pings, that would determine where they are. that would be a difficult challenge, right? >> yes, it would. that's a real race. initially when you see the debris field you want to look

for survivors. that's probably not probable at this point. but you want to look for that anyway. and then the second thing would be to look for that flight data recorder. then it goes from a rescue to a recovery phase. you can sort of slow down and do things correctly, but the race to get where the debris field, you're in the neighborhood, and then that's when your sensors go in the water to find the underwater locater beacon which makes ticking noises. but you need a sensor in the water to take care of that. it's much, much different than emergency locator transmitter which if you crash an airplane in the side of a mountain it would transmit and a constellation of satellites would pick up and pinpoint you instantly. you have to be closer to an underwater beacon because its transmission propagation is not that -- as far as emergency locator transmitter. >> i would assume they would want to collect as much -- if this is wreckage from the plane, they would want to collect it and bring it to shore. that's about a 1500-mile sail

from, if this is in fact the area, to the closest shoreline, which would be perth, australia. that's not an easy challenge, is it? >> no, it's not, wolf. i think you brought up an excellent point. the transient time from the australian coast to be on scene where you're going to search is almost five hours for the p-3 aircraft, for the p-8, the u.s. navy jet, that's a little faster. but for the p-3s, they have about a 13-hour, 14-hour duration. so five hours to the objective area, five hours back is ten. you're only going to be able to be on station for about three hours. so they're going to have a series of airplanes every two and a half hours -- two to three hours taking off from australia flying out the objective area and relieving the one that's on scene. so the search can continue. >> i got a tweet earlier today from someone who said could drones be useful in searching for the debris, what do you think? >> drones with the correct

sensors on them would be a very good use of that asset. the one thing that drones don't do well are fly low at low altitudes. so if they have a cloud deck, let's say the cloud deck is 500 feet, the p-3s are able to penetrate the cloud deck and then fly just under 500 feet and continue to search. and that might be a little riskier for the drones. we're not talking small drones. we're talking like predator drones that have long duration 22 hours of air time. >> good point. ken christiansen, thanks very much for helping us. >> you're welcome. the pressure and the anguish of waiting, we're going to hear from what malaysia's government is now saying to families and others concerned about the passengers. remember, there were 239 passengers and crew members aboard this missing flight 370. this is for you. ♪ [ male announcer ] bob's heart attack

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anxious relatives have been waiting and waiting for any news of their loved ones. it's an emotional roller coaster until they find out what happened to those on board flight 370. this chinese father whose son was on the plane is still clinging to hope. >> translator: this is not confirmed. i think this is definitely not the plane. i have hope from the very giping, i firmly believe everyone on board is alive. i'm just not sure where they have hidden the plane. >> that belief from one father in china. most of the passengers are chinese. and the government promises to fly families to perth, australia, if that debris is confirmed to be from the plane. meanwhile, in malaysia's capital officials have been talking to family members today. let's bring in sima mosa joining us from kuala lumpur.

the briefing was closed to reporters, but what have you learned? >> wolf, what i can tell you is that about 100 friends, family members, relatives of those on board flight mh-370 were packed into that room to hear what authorities have to say. mostly family members of the malay, chinese and indian people on board that flight. and so everything that was said was translated in each of those languages for clarity to make sure that everyone was accommodated and everyone felt that their voice had been heard and explained to of course crucially. now, the mood inside that room has been described to me as very somber, very calm. there was no shouting. there was no upset or angst. the families had come prepared, wolf. they've come prepared with their questions. they knew what they wanted to know. they knew the answers they needed. and crucially they asked two very important questions. they asked why did it take so

long for malaysia airlines to notify everybody of the flight being missing? now, what they said is, well, we have s.o.p.s, standard procedures to go through, we wanted to make absolutely sure that this flight had indeed gone missing right off our radar and hadn't landed somewhere else or indeed on its way to beijing. that's why it took so long. they also asked, wolf, a piece of information that came out a few days ago in one of the briefings here in kuala lumpur about the fact that malaysian authorities said they can't share a lot of primary radar information. now, primary radar is referring to military radars of different countries that are helping in this search and rescue effort. malaysian authorities said we simply can't share that. it's far too sensitive for national security. and the families in that briefing felt concerned that perhaps something had been hidden from them or perhaps that

if they could tell them which countries it was from might just lead them to exactly where the plane might be located now, one other thing about this briefing, wolf, is the people that were there representing the authorities, it was a representative of the military, not the chief of defense force. and it was a representative from the transport ministry, not the acting transport minister himself. and crucially nobody from malaysia airlines was there. so there was a lot of comments going around about the fact that a lot of the questions that needed to be answered were by the airline and yet no one from the airline was there, wolf. >> that's very intriguing. clearly they obviously don't have a lot of answers. quickly, saima, what are they saying about the statement this may be debris from the aircraft? what are malaysian government officials and airline officials saying? >> well, they're calling it

credible information. they're heavily reliant on what the prime minister said in parliament today. they believe that, you know, if the prime minister of australia is telling parliament that they believe these objects, these two objects in the indian ocean, could well be linked to flight mh-370, then it's credible information. but they also applied a lot of caution today because they reminded everyone that there is no proof yet. there is no identification. and so we're hanging on these words, could be, might be, we simply don't know yet, wolf. and all those aircraft and ships have to first get to the location, locate those two objects and then identify them. a lot of hopes and fears of family members hanging on all of these events as they'll come through, we'll keep you updated on that, wolf. >> saima, mohsin in kuala lumpur. so why don't the flight

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with more on this part of the story. tell us what you're learning, ana. >> well, wolf, these images came from the company called digital globe, based in longmont, colorado, about 30 to 40 miles north of denver. it's a satellite imagery company. what's interesting about this is we have confirmed that it was their images they've been providing to officials that ultimately are at the center of this latest discovery and these developments that seem to be possibly very promising. and they issued this statement to us confirming that they were informed by an australian government official that it was our imagery they say that prime minister abbott referred to in his recent comments. we do not have any additional information. but goes onto say we will continue to cooperate with authorities to provide any and all information at our disposal to assist the search. now, this company has been involved with the search effort really from the very beginning. remember, we talked about the crowdsourcing efforts that have gone on since at least last

monday, about ten days now, in order to get more eyes looking over this very vast area. and digital globe is providing all the imagery a viral effort. we now know there more than 3.6 million people who are. >> sis pating in looking at these digital ijages put on the website. this is a platform that digital globe uses. you are seeing the icons at the top. they are asking people looking on their computer scanning digital images to identify oil slicks and possible wreckage and a raft or other objects. to this date there have been nearly 500 million map views from people all-around the world and some 6.7 features have been tagged. what's clear is that the crowd sourcing effort led authorities

to hone in on these two particular objects that everyone is racing to try to identify or if it was something separate in which the officials happened to look at the imagery independently. an interesting development with the latest breaking new s comes from a company right here in colorado. >> the fruitless search prompted many questions. twitter using the hash tag throw 70 qs. we want to put them to our panelist. here are the questions and let's take them one at a time. the question i asked earlier. how about using drones to inspect the indian ocean? >> makes sense. a longer time to get down to the altitude that you need. it gives a much greater option. >> here's the question now to peter.

how long before images from repositioned high def satellites are available? >> i don't know that. it takes at least 24 to 36 hours. >> you don't? >> agree. it's a couple of days. >> it could be a while. >> why are transponders able to be disabled t? >> everything on a plane is redid you not ant. there there is a fear that there may be an electrical short circuit and something that you may have to be disabled for. this will cause the industry and the professionals to rethink that whole approach. >> keep the transponders on. you can turn them off and you shouldn't be allowed to turn them off in a cockpit. >> you turn them off on the ground. >> that's different. there has to be a way to formulate it so it can't be manually turned off. >> you can do that with a squat switch. that's an enormous amount of

time. i am surprised after 9/11 they didn't do that. three of the four planes that were hijacked, the first thing they did was turn off the transponder. that was something that we haven't learned from them, we should learn it now. here's another question for you. are the two stolen passports considered a factor anymore and is it possible that another country allowed them to secretly land? >> i don't know about the secretly landing part. sounds far-fetched. as far as the passports, i would think that is still open as far as were the two individuals given contraband from the guy who gave them the stolen passports and the tickets in the first place. they may be unwitting couriers. >> where are the subs that run under water? wouldn't a subbe able to see what was under there? >> there two subs. we know they don't talk about them. they are extraordinarily good listeners. they are built for that.

hopefully they are in play. the smaller rovs, the remote sub, we have to get closer before we put them in the water to know what to look for. >> here's a question for you. 1500 miles from perth. all the way out to the area where the debris is, can refueling planes help keep search planes on target longer? they are going to have to refuel if they can. >> i'm not sure they really can. that's basically a 737 platform. >> i think they can. the p 3s, i don't think they can. >> that would help and brings up why the drones would be a good option. >> we will do this every day. a lot of questions out there. you guys have good answers. thanks very much. if you have questions, post them to twitter. use the hash tag 370 qs. later tonight, don lemon will host a special report on flight 370. he and an expert panel will

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. >> getting back to the search for malaysia airlines flight 370 in a moment, but first an update on developments in ukraine. last night president obama said there would be no u.s. military intervention in ukraine. russian and crimian officials on one bank, he spoke about what could come next. >> they positioned the military in a way that could lead to southern and eastern ukraine.

for this reason we have been working closely with the european partners to develop more severe actions that could be taken if russia continues to escalate the situation. as part of that process, i signed a new executive order today that gives us the territory to impose sanctions not just on individuals, but on key sectors of the russian economy. this is not the preferred out come. the sanctions would not only have a significant impact on the russian economy, but could be disruptive to the global economy. however russia must know that further escalation will only isolate it further from the international community. >> russia immediately retaliated with their own sanctions against nine officials. among them john boehner and the senate majority leader harry reid and john mccain, robert menendez and mary landrieu.

all are banned from traveling to russia. markets are feeling the ripple effect from janet yellen's policy meeting. stocks are up about 117 points right now. that's it for me. thanks for watching. i will be back at 5:00 eastern for the two-hour edition of the situation room. newsroom starts with brooke baldwin right now. >> wolf blitzer, thank you. i will take it right here. great to be with you on this thursdays we continue on this hunt for flight 370. take a look at this. these images right here, they have just changed everything. five days ago now the satellite spotted these objects 14 miles apart. these images have been scrutinized and analyzed with final low released to the public. >> this is a lead. it is probably the best lead we have right now. we need