that distress call will go out on a huge arc of notice. so it will go out 1215, the distress frequency. every aircraft in the air on 1215 will hear something go out. >> it's all fascinating but still leads to more questions. and hopefully you'll be around to continue to help us understand. colonel kay, great to have you. thank you. appreciate your insight. thank you all. have a great week. turning it over to my colleague, turning it over to my colleague, wolf blitzer. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hello, i'm wolf blitzer, reporting from washington. an intense day of searching so far comes up empty. we're following the latest developments in the disappears of malaysia airlines flight 370. search planes return to base in australia today after finding no sign of at the brie in the southern indian ocean. improved weather conditions allowed crews to search visually rather than using radar. the search at sea as seen two

objects, photographed by a commercial satellite. australia's prime minister today defended the decision to announce the discovery. also reiterated the objects may not be from the missing plane. also, malaysian authorities now say they're aware of news reports, the pilot the of flight 370 placed a cell phone call only minutes before the plane took off. they say they have passed that information on to investigators. military surveillance planes and commercial jet two merchant ships spent hours combing through the search area today because of the remote location, planes can only stay over the area for about two or maximum three hours before they have to return to their base in perth, australia, about 1,500 miles away. our andrew stevens on the scene in perpth, when the first plane came in after a disappointing search. >> reporter: it's day two now of the australian-led search for missing flight 370, deep in the southern parts of the indian ocean. and what we're looking at here is the first of the search

planes returning, about 4:00 this friday afternoon, after a grueling 12 hours searching. at this stage, we don't know whether they have actually seen anything, but indications suggest they haven't. as we wait for the crew to get off this plane, we're going to start moving down to where we hope the pilots or spokesmen, at least, will make a statement on what they saw today. as you walk along here, this isn't quite a remarkable sight. the media has actually been allowed inside the perimeter for the first time. usually we have been kept right outside the base. but the royal australian air force has allowed the media to come in, and not only to come in, to actually -- what it looks like, get access to the pilots, to the crew. >> we are going out on station today and had really good weather, actually, compared to yesterday. the visibility was great. we had better than 10 kilometers visibility. no rain in the area. we had really good opportunity, i think, to see anything

individual out there. and for the task we had today, the conditions were outstanding. unfortunately, the conditions back here precluded us from staying on station as long as we would have liked. however, there are a few other aircraft out there. the poseidon out there still searching. and with any luck, we'll find something shortly. >> reporter: so more disappointment, as you heard there. they didn't see anything. but they're still hoping that something will turn up. it's been a long and grueling 15-hour day for these flight crews, but they say they will keep going out until they do find something. and certainly the hopes of the families and friends of those 239 souls aboard malaysia airlines flight 370 are resting on the men and women and the airplanes of these air forces. andrew stevens, cnn, perth. >> joining us now to discuss what we just heard, our cnn aviation analyst, former ntsb managing director, peter goelz.

also former american airlines pilot, mark wise, and cnn law enforcement analyst, tom fuentes, former assistant director at the fbi. so peter, they came back empty-handed today. what does that say to you? these sophisticated aircraft, the p-3, the p-8, the poseidon, the orion, they knew where to go. they knew the location of where this debris was a few days ago. but they didn't see anything. >> well, it's disappointing, but it's not surprising, wolf. i mean, this is a huge area. even with the sighting of the wreckage, it is still a daunting task. and is going to take weeks, months, maybe even years. >> even though they did see something that was floating now five days ago, big objects, big -- could have been part of the plane, could have been a container, could have been something else. >> and it could have sunk. they had rough weather there for a day-and-a-half. it could have gone under. it's just -- and we're not clear what the currents were, where they were moving. we think we know. but we don't know for sure. >> if the plane had actually run

out of fuel, there's no fuel left on that 777, mark, would it be more conducive to floating wreckage from that aircraft, as opposed to sinking? >> well, parts of the aircraft would have floated more easily. certainly the wings, because they have a lot of air compartments in there. but, you know, when that airplane would have landed or hit the water, a good deal of it would have sunk and come apart. and really, what you're going to be looking at is what kind of a debris field there is. which will help you determine how that airplane came apart, but parts of it would still be floating. >> because usually in a situation like this, you're looking for not only debris field, but looking for an oil slick, too. that would be a sure sign that something was going on. if the plane was empty from fuel, wouldn't be an oil slick. >> very little. hydraulic fuels, liquids, that's it. >> and that would disappear fairly soon. >> yes, it would. >> is cooperation getting any better between -- there's rivalries, tensions in the area

between a whole bunch of countries in that part of the world. do you sense it's getting better now? >> i think so, wolf. but in this case, you have the australians taking control of this search area near their country. and i don't think they're having any issues with that, because it's australians and americans that have worked together closely, extremely closely. i don't see any coordination issue at this time, other than being baffled by where the debris floated to in the interim five days since the satellite photographed it, or as peter mentioned, did it sink. >> the malaysians are asking the u.s. and others for what are called these remotely operated submersibles, which i guess would be underwater drones, if you will, to see if they can detect something. good idea to start bringing that into the area? >> i think you need to reposition them to australia or to another location and get ready to go. and my understanding is, the national security council has ordered that the repositioning and it started today. >> because those presumably

would be helpful in finding anything that sunk, right? >> they can -- >> even if it's a couple miles underneath the top of the water. >> their depth is virtually unlimited and the best thing is, they can work 24/7. >> what do you think? are they getting any closer? this was a false hope yesterday, what the prime minister of australia, mark, delivered to the parliament over there and indeed to the world, or should they -- in other words, should they continue this surveillance search in the southern part of the indian ocean? >> based upon all of the facts that we know to this point, that seems to be the most logical area to search. now, remember, the currents are going to be moving the debris around. you know, it's a -- it's a -- it's a matter of managing expectations to a large degree. wh i think as human beings we want to see something and certainly reach out to people on board the aircraft and their families. >> i'm going to ask all of you to stay with us. we have a lot more to report and assess. malaysian authorities now say a certain type of battery was, in

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plane crash back in 2010. our justice reporter, evan perez, is joining us now. evan, what do we know about these batteries, specifically on this flight, 370? >> reporter: well, wolf, we know that the malaysian authorities told u.s. authorities last week that these -- there was a shipment of these batteries that was on the flight. now, they don't believe there was anything nefarious, no foul play suspended in placing these on there. and, you know, but this was one of the first things that raised some eyebrows, some suspicion among u.s. officials. especially intelligence officials who thought that perhaps, just perhaps, this could be an explanation for flight 370 disappearing. now, that still hasn't been confirmed and we don't know more about what exactly this cargo was. but we do know they were on the plane, wolf. >> what are the regulations surrounding transporting batteries, these lithium batteries, in the cargo hold of planes? >> well, you know, they're very tight regulations. for example, if you're a

passenger, you're not allowed to put it in checked luggage, for instance. and we know that the international organizations have issued these very strict rules for even shipping these types of batteries. again, these are very common batteries, as you said, found in cell phones and in laptops. and we know that the u.s. has some strict restrictions, international organizations do the same. malaysians say they have these same regulations, and they believe these were packed appropriately. now, the regulations indicate that you have to pack it in noncombustible material. you have specific ways in which you can put it on the airplane. you have to label it specifically. again, all because there has been previous problems with this. there was a 2010 u.p.s. airliner that crashed and its believed that the shipment of batteries ignited on that plane and caused it to crash, wolf. >> have the malaysians told us if it was a small box, a huge amount, the size of the cargo

from the lithium batteries? >> they haven't said. but we do know they turned over the cargo manifest of this aircraft to the customs and border protection agency in the u.s., so their experts can look at this and determine if there is anything that raises suspicion. what we're told is that so far nothing else has raised any eyebrows or any suspicion about the cargo on this aircraft, wolf. >> evan perez, thanks very much. w quickly, mark wise, what do you think, could that have been a source of fire or catastrophic problem? >> i don't think you could rule it out completely. but the reality is, that really probably was not the source of the problem on the aircraft. the 777 has a great fire suppression system, and if you think about the chain of events, if the pilots had that problem in the airplane, there would have been enough time to get an emergency message out. so it just doesn't coordinate. >> peter, you agree? >> i agree completely. it's at the bottom of the list. >> if there were a fire or something, they would immediately tell groundel

control, we've got a problem. >> scares me, because every gadget i own has lithium batteries. >> all our smartphones. >> exactly. all right, guys. we'll take a quick break. what we return, our panel of experts will continue weighing in on reports that the pilot made a cell phone call just a few minutes before takeoff. does that raise red flags? that story and more, coming up. capital to make it happen?

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right now investigators from asia into the united states, they're taking a very hard look at all the evidence surrounding flight 370, including the backgrounds of all of the passengers and the crew members. they're hoping to uncover anything that will shed some light on the jet's baffling

disappearance. let's bring back our panel, our aviation analyst, former american airlines pilot, mark weise, who has flown 777s. also our aviation analyst, former ntsb managing director, peter goelz and tom fuentes, our law enforcement analyst, former assistant director of the fbi. so they say now, and you're a pilot, that they -- that the pilot in this particular case did make a phone call on his cell phone about seven or eight minutes before takeoff. what's so unusual about that? >> nothing. >> that's what i thought. >> nothing. >> now, here's the next follow-up. how hard is it to find out who he called? it's one thing if he called his wife and said, darling, i love you, i'll see you when i come back from beijing. another thing if he made some mysterious call to someone in somalia. >> that's right. he could also be calling just as easily somebody saying we're going to on time, i'll be in beijing tomorrow, see you for breakfast. >> why haven't they told us? how long would it take for a company in malaysia that deals

with this cell phone to figure snout i'll ask you. you're former fbi. 30 or 40 seconds to find out who he called? >> 35. >> yeah. >> yeah they would know right away. >> why are they letting this whoever over there? maybe this is an innocent call, darling, love you, see you in a couple days when i get back from beijing. why don't they just say he made a phone call to a friend or uncle? >> probably one of the many parts of the investigation they regarded insignificant until someone in the media gave it a sinister overtone and made it who have verify. that's the problem. and knowing you probably had the flight attendants and everybody on that plane making their last-minute phone calls, because they're going to fly for six or eight hours. >> once you close the door, shut off your cell phone. if you were in charge, wouldn't you want to check as a matter of routine every cell phone call that was made from that jetliner before takeoff? >> it would have been the -- one, if the first things we did when we checked the activity of

the crew for the 72 hours before the flight. we would have pulled cell phone records and seen who they called. >> yeah. that's just -- >> and it would have happened right away. >> investigation 101. >> and i'm sure they did it. >> you think the malaysians did it? >> absolutely. >> why are you so sure? >> investigation 101. >> but they don't have a whole lot of experience dealing with a huge problem. >> doesn't have to be huge. in any investigation like this, you would have cell phone, and anybody they're looking at, and they have been looking at the pilots from the very first day, i know that. so you would look at all of the cell phone calls and e-mails they send. that would -- but the phone calls would be easy to check through the phone company immediately, who was called, how long was the call and then go to that person, what was the call about. verify the nature of the call, the content of the discussion, and it's so routine that they would figure everybody knows. >> mark, let me just walk you through, going back to the earlier segment on the lithium batteries in the cargo hold. you're flying and flown a 777,

you're a pilot. and all of a sudden there is a problem, smoke, fire from a lithium battery, a cargo containment in the cargo hold. what happens? >> well, let's say there is a smoke or fire, but we don't know exactly what it's from. doesn't really make a difference. when you get that emergency, the 777 has a great fire suppression system in there. >> in the cargo hold. >> in the cargo hold. you're alerted immediately. >> in the cockpit. >> in the cockpit. there are warning signs and the warning horns going off in the cockpit. and you have understand that, a cockpit is a very choreographeded arena. so -- and through training and training and training, one of the pilots -- and it sounded like the captain was flying the airplane. would have said attention give the airplane, we're going to divert. telling the co flight, you work the problem. the captain would then say, let's get this airplane down. we're going to get to a diversionary airport, whether it's a civilian or military field. but he would have enunciated that. >> tell air traffic control. >> absolutely.

navigate, communicate. >> but there are also steps you could take to deal with the smoke or fire in the cargo hold. >> that's already being done. >> is that done automatically or you have to push a button? >> that's actually already being done on the airplane. >> tell us what that does. what would it do? >> actually, you take basically the oxygen out of the air over there. and trying to take away one of the components that would cause the fire. so you take that away. getting the airplane down to minimize that risk when you're in the air. >> so that's why you're suspicious about this lithium battery theory. >> nobody made a call. >> you agree. >> agree completely. >> oxygen mask on. >> the system would have suppressed it. >> your friends at the fbi and quantico now have the hard drives, i take t the flight simulator -- i don't know if it's actually physically there, but they're going through the pilot and co pilot's hard drives. do you have any doubt they'll be able to retrieve whatever had been deleted there? >> they'll be able to retrieve anything that hasn't been overwritten.

again, which would corrupt a previous file on the hard drive. as long as the space was not reused by the computer when another file was saved, they should be able to recover it. they'll work with the -- any program that was developed privately that has its own system of saving a file. they'll deal with that company, and their technicians. they'll bring them to quantico to help them work that. and try to reconstruct the files. not all files might be reconstructed, if they were contaminated, corrupted or overwritten. that's not a guarantee they'll get every one. but they should if that file is there. >> have you heard anything? are they finding anything at all suspicious? >> they are not going to tell anybody about this. >> have you heard anything? >> not a thing. >> all right. stand by. we have more to report and more to assess. search crews there scouring the indian ocean, trying to find two mystery objects that were spotted by a commercial satellite. but they're up against a critical deadline. the daunting challenge. that's next. and some are in shock, some are grieving. we're going to check in on the family members who are holding

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welcome back. malaysian airlines flight 370 has now been missing for two weeks, as we head into day 15. there's still no signs of the plane with 239 people on board. the air search in the southern indian ocean has been called off for the day. search planes returned to their

base in australia, after finding no sign of debris. the search at sea is focused on two objects photographed by a commercial satellite. australia's prime minister today defended the decision to announce the discovery. he also reiterated that the objects may not be from the missing plane. also, malaysian authorities say they are aware of news reports the pilot placed a cell phone call just minutes before the plane took off. they say they passed that information on to investigators. many factors are complicating the search for the missing malaysia airlines jet. among them, where it may have gone down. the place searching one of the most remote spots on the globe. brian todd is here getting ready to explain this daunting challenge going on. it is one of the most isolated spots in the world, brian. >> absolutely, wolf. the australian prime minister said it's one of the most inhospitable places on earth. he is certainly right. we have been talking to weather experts, oceanographers all day.

th this is the area, almost 1,500 miles southwest of perth, australia. we're going to show something here that illustrates the map of the general region in the indian ocean, southern indian ocean here. this area, according to oceanographers and weather experts, is incredibly nasty, especially as it gets into this time of the year in the southern hemisphere down there. they're getting into the fall, the winter months. it's going to get only worse in this part of the indian ocean. they call this area southwest of perth and toward the antarctic the roaring 40s, because it starts at about roughly 40 degrees south longitude, right about there. and goes down to about 65 or so degrees south longitude, almost to antarctica, right about there. and the problem is, this is all open ocean. there is no land mass, according to experts, that will stop any storm. so every two or three days, according to oceanographers, there's a pretty nasty storm that blows through this area. there is nothing down here to break it up. that's going to become very

problematic for searchers, especially when they have to bring in vessels and have people on deck towing radar and things like that. one of the biggest problems in weather in that area, wolf, it's really high wind. the wind gets very ferocious and kicks up swells in the ocean very intense. you have to have people on the decks of these sea-going vessels that have to operate some of this equipment. they're not going to be able to do that in the weather that's coming up, as we get into the fall and winter, wolf. this is really a problematic area. it is very remote. and it's just going to get nasty from here on in. >> as you point out, 1,500 miles from perth, australia. the western part of australia, right in the middle of nowhere, basically. brian, thanks very much. so a huge, huge undertaking under way in extremely tough conditions. our next guests know exactly what that's like. joining us from seattle, mike williams, an expert in ocean search and recovery operations, deep ocean waters. and joining us from san francisco, lieutenant colonel

ken christiansen, certified aircraft crash investigators, retired u.s. air force. guys, thanks very much for coming in. mike, let me start with you. these batteries powering what i call these pingers on the flight data voice recorders, they have, what, only 15 or 16 days left before they go dead and the pinging stops. you say it's going to be really hard to pick up those sounds, those pinging sounds, if they are anywhere around the bottom of that southern indian ocean. >> well, those are very low-powered pingers. and there's a real problem in detecting them in these kinds of water depths. they're range-limited. and as we just heard about the sea conditions, if you have a lot of ambient noise from breaking waves and bubbles in the water, that background would make it very difficult to even hear the pingers. you have to be just about over the top of them to even get a signal. so the chances are pretty slim that even if we can get a hydrophone out there within the

30 days that we would even be able to pick them up. >> that's pretty depressing, when you think about that. ken, you have extensive experience in these ocean searches. it's been, what, a few days now. crews haven't found these two missing mystery objects that were seen in this commercial satellite photo. it's been, what, two days they have been searching for anything. they haven't seen anything yet. they have come back, it's now nighttime over there. what's your gut tell you? are these objects going to be found, whatever they were? >> you know -- >> hold on. let me let ken answer. go ahead, ken. >> the jury is still out on that. because so many days have passed from the satellite i am mamg re and they can still get a location if it's time stamped and the latitude and longitude, and then you'll be able to track where the item is. and i'm sure the search teams are searching in those areas. but we don't know if it has sunk since then, depending on what

the sea state was. so these questions still need to be answered. >> ken, the weather was very good today flying over that suspected area, but we're told the next couple days it's going to get really bad. how much of a factor will that be, the deteriorating weather? >> deteriorating weather, if it's the winds, that can be a factor if you're flying very close to the water. more so for ceilings. if they have -- if there's low ceilings, then the aircraft might have a problem going through there and getting close to the water to get their eyes on the water. or visual searching, as you say. if it's an electronic search, a radar search looking for metallic objects, the radar will penetrate the clouds and they can fly above the cloud and do an area search. if it's infrared, the infrared sensor will be reduced, because they can't look through the clouds. >> mike, what do they really need? we know they've got p-3

surveillance aircraft, p-8s surveillance aircraft. they've got some cargo ships in the area. what do they really need? let's say there is wreckage at the bottom of the indian ocean, in that area, that general area? what do they need to find it? >> if -- >> go ahead, let mike answer that. >> okay. what we really need for search plan is a -- where to start the search plan and origin point. and that's going to be very difficult, without something, either wreckage that's confirmed that we can back calculate from tides, currents and wind, to an impact point. without that, any kind of technology is going to be really limited in what it can do in those kind of water depths and sea conditions. >> as you well know, the air france crash back in 2009 off the coast of brazil in the

atlantic ocean, they started finding debris within five days. and they started finding a whole lot of debris. but eventually took two years to actually find the flight data and voice recorders. and that was a relatively contained area. this seems so much more challenging, mike. what do you think? >> i think it's very challenging. and without a starting point, it would -- you would expend a lot of resources with fall -- very small chance of success. >> what do you think, ken? do you think they're looking in the right area? a lot of people are suggesting, you know what, this is a wild goose chase over there. they should be looking not northern part over land someplace, given the northern arc it could have gone. what's your sense? >> well, let's go with that for a minute, wolf. on that 777, you have an emergency locater transmitter. and if the aircraft, let's say,

did have an accident and impacted the ground, then that emergency locater transmitter would turn on. now, there has been some commentary on the news lately that can be disabled. but it's able to be reset, for instance, if you have a hard landing and it went off. you could reset it. but resetting it does not disable it. so if you did reset it, and you wouldn't as a person inside an airplane, if you crashed, you obviously wouldn't have the ability to reset that. because you just crashed. so you cannot disable it. you only can turn it on in flight, or you can reset it. but if it crashes, then it's going to go off. now, we have not heard that. the sar s.a.t. satellites would pinpoint that location very quickly. that has not happened. so you can get in geometry where you can crash an airplane so hard that it can actually

disable or break the an ten of the emergency locater transcript mater and because of that, wouldn't transmit. and that's a possibility. or did the plane land safely somewhere that we still don't know about. >> intriguing thought. which a lot of folks are worried about that, as well. wondering if that is even possible. all right, guys, thanks very much. ken christiansen, mike will someson, guys, thank you. a desperate search for answers for a family of the missing flight 370 passengers. we're going to see how those waiting are dealing with the trauma. how are they holding up? remember, 239 passengers and crew members were aboard that flight. marge: you know, there's a more enjoyable way to get your fiber. try phillips fiber good gummies. they're delicious, and a good source of fiber to help support regularity. wife: mmmm husband: these are good! marge: the tasty side of fiber. from phillips. are you flo? yes. is this the thing you gave my husband?

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certainly been an emotional roller coaster for the families of the missing passengers on flight 370. some of those relatives are already getting some financial support, automatic insurance payments of as much as $20,000 a

piece already have gone out. the money is intended to help families travel, cover other expenses, while they wait for answers. in beijing, the answers have been very slow to come. our pauline chu has an update on those clinging to hope. >> reporter: for the very first time in two weeks, the chinese families here in beijing got a chance to pete face-to-face with the high level delegation from malaysia and asked pointed questions about what happened to malaysia airlines flight 370. one man got up and asked about one scenario. he said, is it possible that a country's military shot down the plane? while the malaysian air force official was very careful in the way he answered that. he said, based on the data and the radar, at this point in time, shooting by military is not highly possible. those were his words. another man stood up and asked about the debris off the coast of australia, and what was happening with that.

and he also asked about a possible scenario. he said, "i have learned there are two uninhabited islands in that search area. are you going to look at that." now the official said, of course, we have to confirm first that the debris is from the plane. but if it is confirmed, they will go and check out these islands, if they exist. but the very fact that some of these families are asking these kinds of questions show they still have a sliver of hope that their loved ones are still alive. pauline chou, cnn, beijing. >> let's not forget, 239 people, passengers and crew members, were aboard that flight. many of you have serious questions surrounding flight 370, and about the search under way in the indian ocean. we're going to read some questions on the air when we come back. our panel of experts will answer them. go ahead and tweet m me @wolfblitzer. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪

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understandably, many of you have been sending questions about the disappearance of flight 370 using twitter, the #370qs. now our panel answers the questions. former american airlines pilot, mike weise, 777 pilot. also our aviation analyst, former ntsb managing director, peter goelz and analyst tom fuentes, former director of the fbi. when is the appropriate time for

all to scale back search efforts if this australian lead is false? >> i think we're not there yet. but certainly sometime in the next month or six weeks people are going to have to assess what kind of resources they're going to apply, who is going to pay for it. >> because the -- you know, this is already costing a lot of money. who pays for this search effort under way right now? >> right now, each one of the countries are footing the bill for their own investigations. malaysia and the malaysian air carrier is footing the bills for family and that sort of thing. but as it goes on, that becomes a real question. because these things can cost tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars. >> here's a question for you, tom. don't the experts think they should still be looking in the north? what if this new lead doesn't pan out? >> that's a good question. i think everything we're hearing, it's the technicians saying that it could have taken both arcs. but if it went north, you would have all of these countries with defensive radar systems report it. and that's english what they're basing it on more than anything.

>> but what if it was going to -- an unfriendly country that was, you know -- that wouldn't necessarily share that kind of information? >> well, if an unfriendly country might have shot it done since the transponder wasn't working. one way or the other, i think the feeling is it would have become public if that plane entered that air space. >> i think that's the theory. here is a question, mark. could the plane have landed somewhere and sent pings as long as the engines remained on, even if for several hours? in other words, sending pings while on the ground. >> well, yes. as long as you have electrical power on the aircraft, you're going to be getting that -- the pinging. but i think the arc that was determined from the satellites would suggest that the aircraft was in different places over time. >> if that arc could have been all the way up in kazakhstan, in the southern part of the indian ocean, that's a huge, huge area. but something is giving them reason to believe it's in the southern part

>> it's giving them more of a defined arena to search. but not necessarily a pinpoint area obviously. >> here's a good question for all of you. would dispatching a u.s. aircraft carrier to the search area help search because that would eliminate long flights back to perth? >> that would be a good possibility for multiple helicopters if there was a more pinpointed area to search from. the big jets that you are seeing doing the jets have to land on land in perth. >> a p 3 can't land on an aircraft carrier. is that what you are saying? >> they can't. >> they have 13s that could use carriers or other ships to take off from and search around as well. >> they do, but one of the things you have to consider is how long would it take to get that asset on site?

>> that's not cheap. a carrier group is a very strategic weapon and do you want to move it away from where it is in national defense posture. >> here's a question i keep getting all the time. could someone have taken control of the plane from outside the plane? just a question. could someone have hacked into the cockpit and caused whatever happened? >> it is highly unlikely. the answer is miniscule. do you agree? >> couldn't have happened. >> that's the scenario you would see in wild fiction. peter, why is no one looking to somalia and the african coast? it is a straight path and eight hours and plenty of places to hide. >> that's a good question. the hand shake suddenly did not show that was where they were headed. it showed the northern ark and

the southern ark and as tom said, the northern ark is peppered with defense radar. someone would have seen something. >> thanks very, very much. we will do it again. you can always tweet me more questions. if you have other questions about flight 370, use the tag and 10:00 p.m. eastern and we will host a special report on flight 370. he and his expert panel will answer many more of your questions. much more coverage coming up and it's official now. russia's president signs the paper officially annexing crimea to the russian federation with as many as 20,000 troops on the border with ukraine, it was more of a moralality. will putin want more?

>> much more on the mystery of flight 370. the two sides in the fight for the future of ukraine with pens. moments after the russian parliament passed the treaty, a necking crimea. vladimir putin signed it and they take ownership. in response, they signed a trade agreement with the european union. it was a dispute over closer ties that led to the current crisis. the crisis is growing more tense as russia tightens the grip. they show forces breaking through a gate of a ukrainian military base. no reports of shots fired. joining us now, he is in crimea.

how much of these new developments are adding to an already rather tense situation? >> in many ways like a done deal like it has for quite sometime. they went to one situation loyal to kiev. they have about 500 men under his control, but he had hope that tomorrow morning he might get some inclination of whether to stay on the base or withdraw back to the mainland where he is from himself. soldiers very nearby and he received ukraine yen soldier who is appear to have defected as well. crimian citizens queueing for the russian passports. there is a huge bureaucracy to incorporate crimea. nobody on the west recognized it as being part of the case.

most people said they were much better off. for people here, the difficult part begins now. there has been a whirl wind of russian motion to drag them in and now whether utilities and gas and water and electricity will come from and what's it going to be like for those staying behind. has changed significantly for the citizens of a new country. many people are asking what happened here in crimea. >> the u.s. and others are supposedly 20,000 russian troops that are poised on the ukrainian border. the russians may move into other parts of ukraine beyond crimea. what's the latest on that. >> the concern i think is

fuelled by what pentagon officials are saying. they are modorized. they could move very fast indeed if they are given the green light to do that. the idea that ethnic russians are under threat from extremists and fascists. there is little evidence of that being the case and they ended up killing or wounding those from ukrainians on the streets. that's the concern and it depends upon the ethnic rushes in the east. they think crimea is the beginning of what putin wanted to do rather than the end of it. >> right in the middle of it, we will continue to check back with you.

that's it for me this hour. thanks for watching. i will be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern for a special two-hour edition of the situation room. until then thanks for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. newsroom with brooke baldwin starts right now. >> thank you and great to be with you. here we have at this hour two major developments. and the two 39 souls on board. here's a question right now. did volatile lithium batteries bring down this plane? cnn first reported this last week during the search. today we are now hearing officially from the ceo of malaysia airlines confirming that these batteries were in fact in the cargo hold of this plane. the reason this is significant, you ask? if you look back in 2010, a