>> in a counterclockwise fashion and this is called the indian ocean gyre and it's basically how the currents move and how things would be moved if they were floating in the water here. so here's the search area. the currents to the south of the search area actually quite strong but where they believe this debris is, the currents are actually quite weak, at least right now. so not moving all that quickly although even if the debris were

moving at 20 to 30 centimeters per second it could still have traveled 200 to 300 kilometers during the past two weeks. but at this point we do believe it is still in this vicinity. if it were to get caught up in the stronger current, of course, it would pick up its pace. so this is about 2,500 kilometers from the perth coastline here and as we take you down, you can just see how incredibly deep the indian ocean basin is and those water temperatures, by the way, in case you were wondering running 12 to 15 degrees celsius. but the basin itself incredibly deep, some two to three kilometers deep, so that makes it very difficult for sonar and other detection devices to pick out possible debris and to be able to identify such debris. so you can see that would be equal to the empire state building. we think the empire state building is just so tall but if you stacked up five to eight of those, that's how deep that basin is. we're seeing the showers move away from perth right now. we are also seeing improving

conditions because some of those showers were around when those planes took off out of perth earlier on, natalie. so we do expect to see fewer clouds around. we're seeing the clouds move out of the area now and we expect that to stay the case until sunday afternoon and that next front moves on in. those planes should be headed back about now, to perth, so we'll wait and see if they saw anything, so thank you, samantha. well, the satellite images that triggered that current search were actually taken on sunday by a u.s. company. the company says it took four days to identify them because the task of analyzing them is extremely complex and required going through them frame by frame. cnn's brian todd tells us more about how the satellites were able to capture these images. >> reporter: credible sightings, australian officials call them. two large objects captured on satellite photos, one about 79 feet long, the other about 16 feet. >> we need to get there, find them, see them, assess them to

know whether it's really meaningful or not. >> reporter: what gave the australians confidence to see these two blurry objects may be parts of the plane? these images come from a colorado based company called digital globe. imagery analyst tim brown says digital globe satellites fly at four miles a second in a polar orbit snapped huge swaths of pictures at a time. how would the searchers have taken these satellite images and determined that this was debris? >> what they're looking for a r bright objects against the dark sea. sometimes they use detection software to do that. other times they have the human eyeballs and in the case of the australians they have lots and lots of eyeballs. >> reporter: google earth satellites can take very detailed pictures like these of planes at reagan national airport. but these satellite pictures of the object in question are fuzzy. brown says australian intelligence officials likely saw higher resolution versions than the ones released to the public. >> that's because they don't want to share the information

with potential adversaries, for example. >> reporter: why did it take four days for the pictures to go public? brown says digital globe would have first had to download them then send them via satellite to their colorado labs, process then in different formats then send them to the australians who would examine them frame by frame, pixel by pixel. if the currents are strong and the ocean is choppy, how do you distinguish between white caps and a crucial piece of debris? >> if you have a white cap like that it's much more difficult to identify a piece of debris so it requires just more attention and a lot more eyeballs to make those distinctions. >> reporter: and now what's making the search difficult is that the water has been really choppy. after the pictures were released, the search was hindered by low visibility and rough seas in that same area. brian todd, cnn, washington. malaysia says the search-and-rescue teams need more equipment such as pinger locaters as they try to find the airplane. andrew stevens joins us live in

perth, australia, where tonight's flight mission over the southern indian ocean is originating. he's got the latest on the search. andrew? >> reporter: natalie, we're standing now inside the pierce air base here on the outskirts of perth. it's a much, much clearer day than it was 12 hours ago and that's good news for the searchers because it had been bad weather hampering visibility, hampering the search yesterday, that vital first day after we received this credible and new information about the floating objects from the prime minister. so the weather over the search zone is good for military aircraft in the air or about to take to the air plus one civilian jet over the area as well. so we've got the search covered at this stage, nothing from the search crews. and also the australian prime minister after talking about credible information yesterday is said to be backtracking somewhat on whether this is actually linked to missing

mh-370. he's on a trip to papua, new guinea and he was being asked by journalists about whether he released this information prematurely, because there's been talk about whether this debris could be a shipping container. s what the prime minister had to say in response to that, though. >> it's about the most inaccessible spot you could imagine on the face of the earth. but if there is anything down there, we will find it. we owe it to the families of those people to do no less. >> reporter: he's talking about owing it to the families and he wants to get that information out there. soon after he got it from the australian satellite intelligence services he spoke to the malaysian prime minister and then he spoke to the australian house which created an enormous storm of interest in this story about whether the australians actually knew something and had a really firm lead on this. he is now saying that, yes, it could be a container but we do owe it to the families to get that information out there. as he says, it's an incredibly

remote area, just a four-hour flight to get there. the planes that are there can only have two hours on station before returning but, as i said, natalie, the weather is good. visibility is key to this because getting a visual recognition, visual sighting of those two objects is crucially important to actually identifying and establishing actual play they are. natalie? well, we hope they have been able to see something. thank you as much andrew stevens live for us there in perth. we'll get back to you when there's some news. more on the search for the malaysia airlines flight and the investigation in a moment. first, we want to go to our other major international story this hour. the upper house of russia's parliament expected to vote in the next hour to ratify the agreement allowing crimea to join the russian federation. the lower house approved the measure 443-1 on thursday. russian foreign minister sergei lavrov told lawmakers the move is necessary to protect ethnic russians.

meantime, u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon is headed to kiev today after meeting with russian president vladimir putin in moscow. the european union is ratcheting up the pressure on russia over its annexation of crimea. e.u. leaders announced a new round of sanctions against moscow thursday and say they plan to sign a political association pact with ukraine. nina december santos reported on that from brussels. >> reporter: leaders agreed to add 12 names to the list of individuals who will be facing sanctions. we're talking visa bans, travel restrictions and asset freezes for their role in russia's incursion into ukraine's crimean peninsula. now, officially the list will not be disseminated until at least friday. that is in accordance to an agreement between the 28 heads of state and government. but already cnn understands the number of key individuals very close to the russian president vladimir putin will be included in this list of sanctions. these include the likes of the

speaker of the senate as well as the deputy prime minister of russia and two key advisors to vladimir putin, too. for those who are expecting the business community to be explicitly targeted to ceci east coast of large russian blue chip companies and banks on the list, they'll billion sorely disappointed because we understand that will be excluded from the second round of sanctions and also family members will probably have to be exempt as well. this is largely because a number of them live within the e.u. zone borders, further complicating the legality of the issue of any sanctions towards them. what did the e.u. agree on here this evening is well, e.u. leaders have agreed to send in more observers into eastern parts of ukraine and other parts of the country to prevent russia or pro-russian forces from creeping outside of the the disputed crimean peninsula and they say if they get any pushback on that then they can move to stage three of the sanctions. remember, there's four stages here. stage three could involve targeting certain key areas of

russian business, perhaps even the energy sector or banks. stage four could see this region taking on a major revolution of how it views its energy policy to pivot away from its dependence on russian gas. nina dos santos, cnn, brussels. new leads in the flight 370 search are creating a roller coaster of emotions, as you can imagine, for the families and friends of those missing. we'll go live to beijing to find out how they're coping. what if a photo were more than a memory? what if it were more than something to share? what if a photo could build that shelf you've always wanted? or fix a leaky faucet? or even give you your saturday back? the new snapfix app revolutionizes local service. just snap a photo and angie's list coordinates a

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welcome back. search planes continue to come the southern indian ocean right now for signs of the malaysia airliner. debris spotted by satellite may be related but australia's prime minister acknowledges it may only be a lost shipping container. the search area is remote and malaysia is asking the u.s. for more equipment to find the

plane's data recorder once related debris is located. and because the disfrance land is so great, each plane has only enough fuel to search for a couple of hours before heading back. well, families of the missing plane's passengers and crew were keeping close watch on the developments coming out of australia. pauline chu joins us live from beijing and no doubt, pauline, this is adding to their agony, perhaps. >> reporter: yeah, they're still waiting to hear whether or not this debris is confirmed to be from the plane or not. now, for the first time today, natalie, the families got what they asked for and that was a high-level meeting with high-level executives and officials from the malaysian government as well as malaysia airlines. that meeting took place a couple of hours ago. i was inside the room so i was able to hear what was discussed. it was interesting when you heard the questions from family members. they asked very technical

methodical questions, almost as if they were attorneys. they asked about the timeline, when did you know what when? when did you lose contact with the civilian radar and the military radar? and then one woman asked pointedly to the malaysian air force official "is the radar for the military and the civilians in the same room?" he said "not in the same room, in the same building separated by a wall." so that leads to the whole question of if you lost track of this airline, why weren't you sharing the same information if you're in the same building? it's these kinds of questions that was able to unravel certain information. also a man got up and asked pointedly as well "could a country's military force have shot down malaysia airlines flight 370?" again the malaysia airlines official -- sorry, the malaysian air force official answered this question and he was very careful with his wording and his answer. he said based on the data and radar at this point in time,

shooting by military is not highly possible. but natalie, they're finally getting the answers that they wanted because for two weeks now they've only been getting information from low level government officials or lower level airline officials. so finally they've got this meeting, they're going to have a similar meeting tomorrow morning. and you say you were in the room when they were asking these questions. could you tell that they had some sense of relief from getting to ask these questions directly to government officials? >> i wouldn't say it was relief. it was more of this -- the sense of it's about time, we've been asking for this for so long. and there was a good amount of sort of scolding and criticizing of the competency of the malaysian government. we heard a lot of that. and we heard a lot of comments from parents saying this has been 14 days of pure agony so we deserve these answers.

i can describe the atmosphere in the room. it was packed. keep in mind, 154 of these people on that airline was from china. so these are their family members. there were about 400, 500 people in this room. they were all very serious, quiet, very focused on the presentation, this power point presentation that was given to them about the flight and also very focused on asking very technical, specific, pointed questions. so finally they're getting some answers but i also sensed, natalie, that there are many families that still have hope because one man also asked about the debris and he also asked about two islands that he believes are uninhabited in the area of this debris in the indian ocean and he said "are you going to search these islands?" implying that perhaps passengers are there waiting on that island or perhaps that's someplace the plane landed. again, we're hearing these signs of optimism, signs of hope as long as there's no confirmation

that the this debris is from the airplane, natalie. >> i can't imagine what they continue to deal with, pauline chiou, reporting on their incredible wait from beijing. as the world awaits the fate of the missing plane and its passengers, aviation experts look at ways to prevent something similar from ever happening again. we'll look into that coming next here on cnn newsroom.

welcome back. malaysian authorities are expected to hold a news conference just about two hours from now on the search for the missing airliner. australian search planes, of course, continuing to scan the southern indian ocean, about 2,400 kilometers southwest of perth, australia, for any signs of wreckage from the missing plane. but on the second di of searching the area, so far no

reports that anything has been found. the first of the five search planes is returning now from the zone because of the distance, as we've mentioned, each plane can only search for about two hours. well, it's been almost two weeks since the plane with 239 people on board vanished. it happened, of course, just after takeoff from kuala lumpur and that's where jim clancey joins us now live. what's the reaction there, jim, to the search going on in the southern indian ocean? >> well, while malaysia remains in charge of the overall coordination of the search, clearly it is australia, indonesia that are in charge of the search on the ground and particularly australia, the search in the indian ocean there. and you know, you look at the map and it's just a massive, massive area and they're searching tiny parts of that everyday, as you noted there. it takes them hours to get on site and then they only have

limited time and they're actually over the site where they want to search for this debris. you know, we watched as the prime minister of australia dialled back some of the optimism. yes, he said, it could be just a cargo container but the families deserve it being checked out. in kuala lumpur, a bit of a pause this day. a reflection. watch. many malaysians marked day 14 as they would any other friday, but no one failed to note the need for a miracle to solve the mystery of flight 370. as search planes concentrated their focus on the southern reaches of the indian ocean, this drama is staggering into a sea of doubt. >> this is a clock ticking, and as bobby said, they can go down and scan with sonar but first, i think, more importantly what they will do if they find debris in the next day or so, they will be looking for the signature of the beacon on the plane.

it lau >> reporter: if they can locate debris, if the batteries are good. if. if only we knew the answers to all our questions. was it a terrible mechanical failure that sent the plane wildly off its flight path? did the pilots or crew deliberately steer the plane to some other destination? were there unknown hijackers among the passengers on board flight 370? all those questions unanswered. a near total absence of evidence. 14 days later, all we really know is that malaysian airlines flight 370 with 239 people aboard vanished at cruising altitude on a calm, moonless night. now, there are some reports that the flight simulator that was built and used by the pilot on this plane is going to be take on the the united states and

examined in the fbi's laboratories. that's not yet confirmed. here on the ground in kuala lumpur the malaysians have very much wanted to keep hands on every aspect of this investigation. it's their national airline. they believe that it's not only their right but their responsibility under international law and the agreements for aviation, the international agreements. and so the search goes on and here in kuala lumpur last night we heard pauline chiou talking about the families there meeting today with high-level officials, air force officers and others. well, here they also talked with some officials and they had a lot of questions to ask. they emerged outside and the media was surrounding them trying to find out what they think. you know, it's a difficult, difficult time. many families coming to grips with what they face, realizing that this may not have all a good end. but they're looking for some kind of closure. they're looking for some kind of certainty and to do that they have to look towards the indian

ocean, towards the search that is under way for any clues that can directly tie something to this missing jetliner. so far there hasn't been a single one. natalie? >> it is truly remarkable that there hasn't been and certainly, you know, no one wants to get hopes up that these clues might become apparent in the southern indian ocean, that it could be part of the plane. but the it were, jim, that is only the start of still trying to figure out what brought this plane down. >> but at this point, you know -- and you're absolutely right. these are clues. but you're absolutely right, it would only be the beginning of what would be a miles deep search for potential wreckage of this aircraft. but we haven't even seen a trace to go down that would justify

going down and taking a look. it's -- this plane has vanished before our very eyes. many questions are going to be asked about how malaysian airlines, how malaysiaen authorities, the air force here and the entire air traffic control system in southeast asia responded to this crisis. and what that means for passenger safety in this entire region. this is a case with incredible importance for the aviation industry, for all of these countries that are involved. and they know it and there's some urgency to what they're trying to do, but they're not getting any results as of now. natalie? >> jim clancey live in kuala lumpur, thank you. as jim said, it seems almost impossible for a large jet to vanish regardless of the circumstances but now that it has happened, there is talk in the u.s. about improving trafficking mechanisms for commercial aircraft. cnn's athee that jones looked

into that. >> reporter: the future of tracking flights could already be here. this is boeing corporation's 787 command center near seattle where technicians track air born 787s in realtime, mapping their location and monitoring maintenance and technical issues throughout the center as they happen. if a plane has a tire pressure problem flying over the atlantic, they'll know. >> in fact, it's a little more extensive than that because there are several of us that get the messages to our blackberries and so wherever we are, whether we're in the room or off on a picnic somewhere, we'll find out about it immediately. >> reporter: but command center this is sophisticated don't exist for 777s and other smaller and older aircraft. and tracking every plane flying at any given time this closely would be a massive undertaking and, of course, the systems have to be turned on to work. that's one of the biggest problems in the search for the missing malaysian airlines flight. the plane's transponder and the

acars system that sends back data about the plane's health were apparently switched off. >> it wouldn't surprise me at all in the aftermath of this investigation, a safety recommendation comes typically from the national transportation safety board, certainly this country, to say you just have to put on a tracking system in every airliner that cannot be disabled. >> reporter: another piece of technology that could be due for an upgrade? flight data recorders. their batteries are only require too old last 30 days and, what's more, the signals they send have a range of only about two miles, making them difficult to find unless search teams are close by and lucky. athee that jones, cnn, washington. we'll update you on the latest of the search for the flight coming next and look at what the u.s. is contributing to the search coming next as well. we'll also take a look at other international headlines. ukrainian men join the military as fear of russian forces grows. [ garner ] there's a lot of beautiful makeup out there,

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