with carol stello. >> thanks guys. "newsroom" starts right now. happening now in the "newsroom" breaking overnight, dramatic new leads emerge in the search for flight 370. new objects found in the search area and new details about the flight path. why did the plane drop to 12,000 feet? >> that plane came down to 12,000 feet then we're wasting a lot of time picking up trash in the south indian ocean because it couldn't have flown that far. >> new satellite photos and new details on the plane's cargo and how many of those lithium batteries the plane was carrying. >> 440 pounds of lithium batteries in the cargo hold. sometimes they can catch fire. is that a lot? >> cnn on the ground and taking to you skies.

>> while much of the focus has been in kuala lumpur, the heart of the search effort has moved here to the perth air force base. >> you're live in the cnn "newsroom". good morning. i'm carol costello. thanks so much for joining me. right now a royal australian navy ship is racing to a new spot in the indian ocean. it's on the hunt for two objects that could be part of malaysian flight 370. both of those objects spotted by air by an australian air force plane today. now the reason these objects are so important, not just because of their shape but because of their color. the circular object is gray or green. the rectangular object is orange. investigators say those colors are important and they are intrigued by them. we'll talk about that in a moment. now this development comes as a chinese plane located even more potential debris. in addition we're awaiting more

satellite images to be released this time by france. search teams still have not found debris detected in two other satellite photos the first on your left 78 feet long, and 16 feet long and haven't found this debris either. this too taken by a chinese satellite. cnn andrew spencer is in perth, australia where the search may be gaining new momentum. take it away. >> reporter: no doubt about it. this search is indeed gaining new momentum. in fact we're being told the malaysian prime minister may be making a press statement in the next hour or two. so, i don't think he's going to be making a press statement just to reframe what we already know. so that's a closely watched affair. the search is ramping up and as more planes go up, more debris success discovered. two distinct areas today but not that far from each other and that's critical. the chinese spotting what they

describe as relatively large objects surround by some smaller white objects in a radius of a few miles. then the australian as couple of hours later saying they found these two or seem to have found and seen, two different things in this search, seen these two objects. now gray, obviously the fuselage, the wings of the plane are gray and the orange card, they do have orange red markings on it. so there san australian war ship already there. night has fallen in the last hour or so. they were on station for about four hours but they didn't see any of these objects which the air force had identified. 200 sailors on that australian naval ship. they have been looking and looking hard. everyone who could was up on deck searching just before night fell. at this stage we don't have any information.

we've heard from the crash or the malaysian authorities in kuala lumpur saying that the australian prime minister spoke to his malaysian counterpart and told him they could expect to find these objects within hours. they haven't yet. the search will go on at night. obviously, it wasn't effective during daytime. many more assets now converging on that area both at sea and in the air. so next 24 hours or so could be absolutely crucial. >> oh, gosh. finally some hope. we'll keep our fingers crossed. another intriguing clue about what happened after flight 370 took that sharp westward turn over the strait of malacca. it dropped 12,000 feet. curious, right? more specifics. a source tells cnn it would have taken a full two minutes to turn that plane around, make that westward turn and then sometime between 1:19 a.m. and 2:40 a.m. the plane descended 23,000 feet.

that means at some point within that time period the plane was flying at 12,000 feet. not below radar but extremely low for a large plane. joining me now is martin savidge and the pilot. welcome back, gentlemen. >> reporter: good morning, carol. >> let's talk about that drop of 12,000 feet, martin. take it away. you're great with this. >> reporter: right. well, all i will say we'll show you two jones. basically the very same thing. i want seems this latest information is being interpreted in two different camps in two different ways. the first one is it would support some kind of emergency in the cabin, the turn and descent. less demonstrate how that would work. i would tell mitchell here's what happened you had a massive explosive decompression inside the airplane. bulk head has given away,

something exploded out back you were at altitude and then you had this decompression. what would you do? >> purity speed brake, thrust forward, you want to get down as fast as possible. we would put our oxygen mask on. >> reporter: this is kind of an emergency and definitely would be. then you want to get the plane down low because the passengers would not be breathing or breathing on those emergency masks that come down. you need to get them down to a point where they can breathe on their own. the other thing is the turn. the turn would imply you're going back to kuala lumpur, the airport you left a short time ago or maybe you're turning to the west to get to a nearby airport where you can set this plane on the ground and have everyone treat forward this emergency. so that is scenario number one. how the drop and turn would support an emergency. level us off if you would, mitchell. leapt me show you how this data is actually being told cnn by a

malaysian official. you noted at first it was that two minute turn. it's not a real sharp turn as they describe it, a two minute turn and we'll try to emulate what it will feel like. can you do it on automatic pilot. you almost have to, it's so subtle. it's very gentle. this is a turn roughly that would take you about two minutes. i don't know if you can see relative to the horizon. this is very gentle. very smooth. nothing sharp, nothing frightening, nothing disturb field goal you're a passenger. this is very, very subtle. then we talk about that descent. yes to go from 35,000 to 12,000 is a lot but this was record. radar information over an hour and 20 minutes. it doesn't mean they dropped all at once. it too could have been gradual, slow and steady which is why malaysian officials say this actually indicates to them there could have been criminal intent.

some path to get this aircraft down to a point where it code is appear. they don't say who they say it doesn't necessarily mean emergency. >> another question. how long can this plane fly at 12,000 feet because we know the last ping picked up by satellite happened what five or six hours later. >> right. right. that's another key factor to hang on to. remember this plane if it was an emergency still flu for a very long time apparently. so mitchell any idea how long they could fly 12,000 with the fuel load? >> fuel load that they had you might cut the range as much as half. >> reporter: there are other factors. what was their fuel load. we don't know exactly. you have to know the winds. >> all these factors, this is pure speculation but rough estimate, very rough maybe half a little more than half. >> reporter: the aircraft would not have made it down to the area they are searching if it remained at the 12,000 foot

level. another head scratcher. >> it could have gained in altitude after that, we just don't know, right? >> reporter: that's exactly right. there were reports that it fluctuated in altitude but would have lost fuel in all of that. it still would have cost them something and climbing back up to altitude would have again used fuel as well. so regardless, it would have had an impact on the abilities and the longevity of the aircraft to fly. >> martin savidge and the pilot thanks as always. mary schiavo and former inspector general for department of transportation and steve wall is also a cnn aviation analysis and director of the faa office of investigation. welcome to both of you. >> thank you. >> good morning. >> so, mary, first question to you. if this plane dipped to 12,000 feet does that give credence to these fishermen. they say they saw a plane flying low northeast of malaysia.

>> it could, but 12,000 feet we have to look at what the significance would be at 12,000 feet. certainly not disappear from radar. you're plainly visible at 12,000 feet or 5,000 feet. it's not a nefarious disappearing act. and the reason usually given for descending to 12,000 feet is because of decompression and you need everyone to plane. the fisherman said the plane was very low. 12,000 feet, that's two miles up. it's not the kind of sighting they were reporting. but most definitely it would be, you know, lower than what they were used to for large commercial planes but not the kind of sights where they could see the windows. they reported they could see the windows and doors and trim on the plane. not at 12,000 feet. >> interesting. steve, a question for you. if this plane did drop to 12,000 feet we know from martin and

mitchell's report it couldn't have flown for as long as it would take to get out off the coast of australia, so in your mind could this information be wrong? is it right? >> it could be wrong. we heard about this 12,000 feet several days ago. and suddenly it seems to have taken on a new life. i don't know why. we have not with so much of the evidence here we have not pinned that down. i would liken flying a 777 at 12,000 feet to your jogging on the beach and then going out and jogging on water that's nearly you were to waist. the air is too thick down, there the airplane is very inefficient. all those calculations and inmarsat pings which drew the northern and southern arcs some of what i thought was the most reliable evidence, they are

predicated on that error, demonstrate that airplane was basically operating at cruise speed. it cannot operate at cruise speed at those low altitudes. 12,000 feet as mary said is consistent where you would take a plane in the event of decompression and also below where all pressurized aircraft are flying and kind of above where most unpressurized aircraft would be flying. it's kind of an empty altitude down there. >> very curious. let's talk about the debris. an australian ship is racing towards this debris. investigators think this debris is critical because of the color. one object is gray. the other is orange. what might that tell us, mary? >> the orange, everybody immediately thinks of the emergency evacuation slides or the life rafts, or the life vests. most likely of that sides it would be a life raft or a slide that deattaches to become a life raft and the white object they describe is a trunk.

could be several things. it could be a trunk, cube food cart, could be a cargo container in the hold. there's several things that make that promising as well. the gray, the gray/green classic color of the inside of most planes. >> so, steve, does this sound hopeful to you? >> well, hopeful. i mean, you know, i think the families who are suffering terribly in this situation, if they found wreckage that could clearly remember attached to the airplane, it might bring them closure. might also, you know, they are clinging to a last possible hope that this aircraft could have landed safely some place. i would just add that, you know, the experts here really have the best inside information is tremendously focused on this recovery effort based in perth, australia which would suggest to me we need to look again at this 12,000-foot estimate off of a military radar designed to look

for intruders not very accurate. i under at the end of its range, i think that barbara starr, your pentagon correspondent raised serious questions about its accuracy as well. >> yeah, we're going to get to her in a little bit. ma'am thanks to boston you. we downed the malaysian prime minister will hold a live news conference at 10:00 a.m. eastern time, about 45 minutes from now. of course when that happens we'll carry it live four. maybe they will have new breaking information. gosh, i hope so. also happening today and we have to get in this. in the united states emergency crews are actively searching for survivors after a deadly landslide northeast of seattle. so far eight bodies have been recovered. responders are struggling to reach more people because the area remains unstable. cnn george howell is outside of seattle to tell us more. good morning. >> reporter: carol, good morning. you mentioned that unstable land. so unstable that rescuers had to

going by helicopter. that's the best option, going in by ground is not a good option. simply because of that land. it's what you call glacial till. it's a combination of boulders, of small rocks and sedment, powdery sediment that can become very unstable when you get a lot of rainfall. that's what happened. near record rainfall in that area and reportedly a wall of mud that came down wind a matter of three or four seconds. what we know the search did continue through the night and officials are saying that this is an active rescue. it is not a recovery operation. they are adamant about that. they want families to know and the governor has made this point very clear all available resources are out there doing their best to scan that area with infrared cameras to see what they can find in that mud. >> george howell, i know you'll stick with that story. the malaysian prime minister expected to hold a news conference at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. when he begins speaking we'll

take to you malaysia. to kuala lumpur live. we'll also continue overall coverage of the mystery of flight 370. a hi-tech listening device to help find the plane's recorders heading to australia but could not be used commonwealth. we'll tell you how the united states is stepping in to help. it's a growing trend in business: do more with less with less energy. hp is helping ups do just that. soon, the world's most intelligent servers, designed by hp, will give ups over twice the performance, using forty percent less energy. multiply that across over a thousand locations, and they'll provide the same benefit to the environment as over 60,000 trees. that's a trend we can all get behind.

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i have a little more about this intriguing news conference that's about to take place,

10:00 a.m. eastern time. the malaysian prime minister says he will come out and he will possibly give us new developments. now the thing that makes it extra interesting is that two chinese families who lost loved ones aboard that flight said that malaysian officials are going to hold a special news conference just for them at a hotel and fill them in on some information. we don't know if the two things are connected but it sure sounds like it. let's bring in mary schiavo back in. i know from listening to this morning's press conference, mary, that the malaysian authorities were somewhat excited about this news of this debris that was found by those australian pilots, that this australian ship is racing towards right now. might this news conference have something to do with that? >> well, it might. i wouldn't think they would call a press conference to announce the news that everyone has already talked about, about the plane turning around, about the

coordinates for the turn around not being pre-programmed and all that. however, they simply might be trying to get ahead of the news and properly brief the families if, in fact, they are holding this briefing for at least to some of the chinese families that's pretty typical operation for the ntsb. they hold those daily family briefings in the united states when they work something. but i would think it would be a significant development if they would call a press conference and perhaps they have been able to identify one of those pieces of wreckage. you certainly wouldn't call a press conference to say you haven't identified anything. >> you know, you never know in this case, mary, though. but i hope you're absolutely right. the other bit of news that was talked about in the press conference this morning was the plane dropping to 12,000 feet. that would possibly mean some sort of criminal activity was taking place in the cockpit. the malaysian investigators this

morning talked about how they interviewed 100 witnesses in regards to the pilot and co-pilot. they didn't say they found anything but who knows. >> right. plus on the altitude again earlier on a week ago we had reports that the aircraft climbed 45,000 or 43,000 and then descended down 5,000. so all the ti attitude of this plane has been somewhat of a mystery. it has pretty much been all over the flight levels, up and down, et cetera. there have been cases where airplanes have porpoised when they've had mechanical problems and cases where the airplanes have porpoised because a very bad pilot in terms of, you know, being a hijacker has taken control for example the 9/11 hijackers, hijacker pilots were not very good pilots they were bad. the plane was up and down pretty much all over the place, didn't have a good ride and they hit their targets because they had

gps. so, you know, bad piloting, you know, can sometimes be the hallmark of a hijacker or being all over the sky, you're trying to get control of a disabled plane. i'm not too confident in the altitude information and maybe they will clear that you want. that would be very helpful. >> yes it would. mary schiavo, i hope is you stick around. this press conference is about to take place in 40 minutes from now. the malaysian prime minister will announce new developments. that's the information that we're getting at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. let's bring in our pentagon correspondent, barbara starr right now and talk more about that plane dropping to 12,000 feet because you have added information about that. >> reporter: well, i would only endorse what mary has said which it's a bigamist rue because the reporting has certainly been all over the lays about the altitude, carol. but as we anticipate this press dprens the malaysians there was a very interesting development last night that may, in fact, could incidentsally be quite

timely. the u.s. navy is shipping a piece of vital equipment out to australia today. it's essentially a device that is put in the water, towed by a ship and listens for the pings, if you will, from the data recorders and here's -- this has been the big dilemma. this is what we're anticipating. if they can find debris and they know where to begin to look for the data recorders, they have to find debris first then calculate where the data recorders might be based on ocean current, ocean movement, elapsed time since the incident then they can put this kind of hi-tech equipment in the water and seriously begin to hone in on the area. they might be able to listen for the data recorder. of course every day counts on that. i think it's one of the reasons, just one of the reasons the notion that they might have found, might have found verified debris is so important to take these next steps.

>> this is a pain staking task. you hook these things on the a ship. the ship has to move slowly and hope it's in the right place. >> reporter: that's right. that's why it's so difficult. this is usa navy device that's specifically designed, by the way, to listen for data recorder from a downed aircraft either military or a civilian commercial airliner, designed specifically for that and listen to a depth of 20,000 feet if the data recorder was 20,000 feet under the surface of the ocean this equipment should be able to hear it. but it is very pain staking. a lot of people wonder why in the last couple of weeks haven't they been out there listening for the data recorder and it's simply they have no idea where to begin. you find a debris field. you verify it. you bring in the oceanographers to work backwards, look at the ocean current, time lapse where

did this debris flow from, where indict come across the ocean, work your way back and that's where you start to look for the data recorder. >> barbara starr reporting live from the pentagon. many thanks. the malaysia yap prime minister expected to hold a news conference to nuns new developments 10:00 a.m. eastern time. i'll be right back. ng categorie. it's the no-category-gaming, no-look-passing, clear-the-lane-i'm- going-up-strong, backboard-breaking, cash back card. this is the quicksilver cash back card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, every single day. i'll ask again... what's in your wallet? gundyes!n group is a go. not just a start up. an upstart. gotta get going. gotta be good. good? good. growth is the goal. how do we do that? i talked to ups.

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good morning i'm carol costello. developing news to tell you about right now. the malaysian defense minister via twitter announced there will be a news conference in kuala lumpur in just about a half hour. the prime minister supposedly is

going to announce new developments. let's head out to kuala lumpur and check in with jim clancy. these news conferences that malaysian authorities have been holding have been pretty steady. they are usually in the morning. how unusual is this? >> reporter: well, you know, the only time that we got a lot of news was from the prime minister himself. very clear pecking order in the malaysian government. we have watched as different agencies, whether it was, you know, civilian air traffic or civilian aviation, the defense ministry, other groups, they tend to vie for the power but the prime minister is there. he's made all the major announcements. we're expecting to hear something significant from him. it is what i want to hear? is it that they located the plane? i don't think we can be sure. we have to wait and listen to what he has to say. we do know the families according to some of our sources

has been advised he'll be making a statement. they will be informed first, given a better hint of what's going on here. that's another thing the malasians have put in place because they want it be known they are putting the families first. they are considering their feelings opinion they are all-important. the families are besides themselves as you well know, some driven to the point ever illness because they had such a roller coaster ride of emotions. there's very much at stake. we're waiting to see if we have our first verified clue as to the whereabouts of flight 370 and 239 souls that were aboard when it did you say appeared in the early hour of the morning of december 8th. just vanished on a moonless night in calm, still air. back to you. >> the only real thing that came out of the press conference this morning was that the australian prime minister did make a phone call to the malaysian prime minister about wreckage spotted

by an australian navy plane and, of course, an australian ship is trying to find that particular debris right now. so maybe this news conference will tell us more about that particular debris. >> reporter: carol, that's what i'm thinking because the prime minister tweeted, you know, showed himself on the phone, said i talked with tony abbott, the australian prime minister and an australian ship should be there in a couple of hours and be able to tell us what they have found, what is that debris. now are they going to tell us that it's been confirmed, linked to flight 370? we don't know that yet. the suspends, of course, is building. we're in day what? 17, carol. there's just so many people that have ridden thunder and down. the press conferences, the normally scheduled ones have become an exercise in repeating what the search areas are, how many people are cooperating. we're not learning anything new

really about the investigation into who may have been involved or what may have been the motives. they are holding those cards very close to their chest. the only thing they are revealing is how this search is going and they are saying before we can go ahead with any kind of investigation, tell you people anything, we need some hard evidence. that's the flight data recorders. is this a link to those recorders? is this a link to unraveling the mystery of flight 370? well may be about to find out, carol. >> i know. i'm keeping my fingers crossed by. i want to bring mary schiavo back in to talk about the debris, the debris that investigators think that's important. the reason they think it's important is because of the shape and color. >> that's right. >> the circular object is gray or green and rectangular object is orange. why is that important >> gray/green is the color of the inside of the aircraft. metal and other pieces are of a

gray/green color. everything from the metal in the fuselage and pieces of the mechanical parts, et cetera, and then orange or bright yellow are the color of the emergency escape slides, the life rafts inside the plane. the life vests but they wouldn't be that big. there are many things that are those colors that could be a signal that it's not something that has fallen off a ship but rather something out of a plane. >> the other thing they talked about in the press conference this morning and talking about malaysian investigators was the co-pilot and his relative inexperience of flying this boeing 777. i believe this was his first flight in such a plane unsupervised. might that mean anything? >> well, i wouldn't say unsupervised. he had an $18,000 captain with him. while it's a divergent

experienced captain with an inexperienced captain it's a lot of experience in the cockpit of the two combined. often you try to bring a junior captain up along with the senior captain and i've worked many cases where there was this disparity, many times there's a checking airman and a senior captain with a more junior captain. it doesn't necessarily mean that there's, you know, there was anything wrong with either one, or that he had a giant aircraft just turned over to him. it wouldn't be that way at all, particularly if they used good what they call crew resource management and that's a requirement in the united states and that's a practice where the pilots must challenge each other. they must, you know, if something doesn't seem right they must ask a question and they most must do it. so they are both actively involved in the piloting, and really the airmanship of this plane. so, i don't think that the pairing of really a senior guy

with a junior guy was necessarily telling and i wouldn't read anything into that right now. >> all right, mary shaf jobs thanks so much. we're waiting to hear from malaysia's prime minister in just about 25 minutes. he's expected to announce some new developments in the investigation. i'll being right back. [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ] [ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. [ m'm... ] great taste. [ tapping ] sounds good. campbell's healthy request. m'm! m'm! good.® campbell's healthy request. i've quit for 75 days. 15 days, but not in a row. for the first time, you can use nicorette even if you slip up, so you can reach your goal.

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just about 20 minutes. 10:00 a.m. eastern time. he's expected to announce new developments in that missing airliner investigation. in the meantime we go kuala lumpur. families are waiting to hear any bit of information. sara, i understand malaysian authorities are already meeting with the families, is that right? >> reporter: that's what we understand. i've been in the same hotel with the families for a few days now and we've seen them go through without saying a word, there are tears shed. we saw a woman who completely broke down one morning and had to be comforted by some of the other family members there who were also waiting for word of their loved ones on that missing flight, mh-370. it has been really, really tough for these families. they have wait sod long, given so many false leads, given a lot of false hope. some are resigned to what they

think has happened, the worst news for them, obviously, would be that these are pieces of the planes. we do knot yet know that. we do know they have been called, it's unusual for them to be called this last minute and -- >> sarah, you still there? all right. we lost sara. she was saying it was unusual for malaysian officials to call this meeting together for families and then call for a news conference moments later. they are meeting with families. we one they met with the families at 9:30 eastern time. that's our time and telling the family whatever bit of new information they have and then at 10:00 a.m. eastern time the malaysian prime minister will announce i want to the world. all right. the united states is trying to help in any way it can. nasa is ramping up resources to help search for that missing flight. it will repo signatures some of its satellites to look for possible crash sites.

nasa officials plan to examine data collected from cameras on the international space station for potential clues. joining us to discuss this is our tech analyst brett larson. welcome. tell us what nasa is planning to do. >> reporter: you would think in this day and age where things happen instantly things would happen quicker but it's a very slow process. nasa said they will move some existing satellites to take those constant images of the earth that we're fond of, repo signatures them and move them to that area to help search for debris and then could back to this archive of data they have from these satellites to look through that to see if they too can find objects floating there in the sea. this process that we've been hearing about, you know, when we see those images of that debris in the ocean it seems like that would be a simple thing to find but it's actually a very comply

indicated process of looking through miles and miles and miles of ocean to find something that is actually an object and not just, you know, an aberration on the camera lens orring a light reflection or cloud shadow or some such thing. >> as nasa ever used their satellite technology in this way? >> reporter: not that we're aware of that they would search for debris. this is the satellite technology that we use for google maps or these amazing pictures of the tops of killimanjaro or amazing changes in the coastlines of the planet after massive storms or things like that. so this is definitely a first for nasa to be getting in there with this satellite that was, you know, initially part of a completely different project but still very workable and still in use today, taking great resolution pictures of our planet. >> you know, i know a lot of people have asked in particular you because you're an expert in

such things how it's possible to lose a 777 in the age of satellites and cell phones. you talked about a satellite network called iridium that can provide real-time information in the air. how does that work? >> reporter: it is the question that we've all been scratching our heads about. how do we lose this giant commercial airliner. iridium system was set up back in the '90s, a way for us to make phone calls from every corner of the globe. now they are relaunching it, rebranding it, if you will to not only provide the satellite phone technology but also provide this immediate real-time location information about airplanes. the company saying they are starting to launch these new satellites that will have this capability starting in 2015. have all 66 of these satellites which is a lot of satellites to replace vied this sort of service. if something had been in place

for this incident with the missing malaysian airline flight even going back 2009 with the missing air france plane it would have given us a faster turn around time to start searching for this missing aircraft. >> hindsight is always 20-20. brett lar son, many thanks. again we're waiting to hear from malaysian's prime minister in 15 minutes now with new developments. i'll be right back. i've always had to keep my eye on her...

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we are all hoping the debris debt by satellite is the real dale. this latest debris. the ships off the coast of awe usa can actually find it. if they do the u.s. pacific command will be ready to move a black box locater. this piece of equipment can detect sounds deep under water as in the pings coming from a plane's flight data recorder. joining me now on the phone, commander william marks.

he's on board the "uss blue ridge" in the philippine sea. welcome, sir. >> hello, thank you for having me. >> thank you so much for being with me. before we get to the pinger detector i want to talk about this later debris. one is rectangular and gray/green and the other is circular and orange. what does that tell you >> i'm watching the news reports probably as you are, intrigued and just a little bit hopeful that we can get some solid evidence and confirmation here. what i would call this is this is a testament to this international cooperative effort. you have the united states here, the seventh fleet in a supporting role to the australian led effort. we have chinese ships and aircraft out here. malaysians are running the operation from the north. so i haven't seen exactly what

they look like. but to me the fact that all these countries are cooperating is such an encouraging situation. i can tell you for these planes, i'm very enthusiastic about getting the images starting tomorrow morning. so it's about 11:00 here in asia. and so tomorrow morning when the ships get a lot closer to the area, when the aircraft fly over they should be able to get pretty good visual pictures of what those objects are. we're all kind of waiting for tomorrow morning to come. >> you're not kidding. just to interrupt for just a second, we're awaiting this news conference from the malaysian prime minister and they are set up for that right now. that will happen in just about ten minutes. we expect the prime minister to talk about this latest debris find. okay. we're just hearing that prime minister is going to make a statement, no questions. it's even more intrigue.

let's get back to those objects. they were spotted way up in the air by an australian plane, and these guys were able to not only detect them in a huge giant ocean, right, but they were able to detect colors as well. >> yes. these planes are very advanced for the seventh fleet, the 38 . . . just to give you an idea of what it can do, if it is flying at an altitude of 5,000 feet, it can use an advanced radar to pick up something as small as the size of a basketball. it will get a return on its radar, a little, tiny blip. it can use an electrooptical camera or an infrared camera depending on the environment, to get a closer look. it can get lower to get a visual

i.d. it is essentially someone looking with binoculars. it is a layered approach. it all depends on the environment. these planes are very sophisticated. right now, i'm sure all the air crews are preparing for tomorrow morning led by the australian government in terms of where these planes are flying. i'm sure everyone is waiting for tomorrow morning to get a plane in the air and get some ships really close to that. we're also waiting, in case we need to deploy our pinger locator. >> i am going to bring in richard quest for just a second if you could bear with me, commander i would appreciate it. the prime minister is setting up for this news conference. he is just going to make a statement. does that tell you anything, really. >> yes, it does. in the sense that you don't get the prime minister coming out to make a statement just to wish

everyone good morning and give a sort of situation update. in the same way that we had the prime minister of malaysia give that first major statement two weeks ago on saturday when he gave information of the deliberate turn. he set up the whole concept of the southern corridor. we had the australian prime minister who gave us the statement about the first pieces of debris. it turned out they couldn't find them again. tony abbott, given the information about what they had found. so for the malaysian prime minister to be coming out this morning, i don't know what he is going to say. we do have these two pieces of debris. one is circular, gray and green. the other is rectangular and orange. one can deduce that that tends

to be the color of the raw fuselage, gray and painted green. the rectangular parts, if it is orange, life rafts, life vests, those sort of things. we don't know. i'm getting ahead of myself. we are just eight minutes away from when the prime minister is due to speak. that will give us what we need to know. the fact also, carol, is that the relatives and families are being called together in beijing. with a dose of experience and a sort of a feel for the way these things go, a confluence of events is taking place which would lead us to reasonably conclude that something significant is to be announced this morning. >> you mentioned the families were being called together. sara sidner is outside the hotel. are you in kuala lumpur, sarah? >> reporter: yes. i'm here. >> you are in front of the hotel

where -- >> reporter: i'm actually inside. basically, what's happened is the families have been called. they have been talking to the families. so this is an unusual movement. generally speaking, the families are briefed. they have been very concerned about not getting enough information back. for now, the government of the airlines have been making a concerted information to get them the information before the media, before they have to see it come out on television. this is a development. what the development is, we don't know. we hear from the prime minister but just fact that the prime minister is going to be speaking, who we don't hear from every day. so what is happening is that the hotels in kuala lumpur where the families are, the government has them here.

after being in the hotel with the families for several days, that we have seen them go through so much. we saw a woman just yesterday bursting out in tears. all the people around her holding her, hugging her. just so many emotions, as you might imagine, when your loved ones are missing and you simply keep coming up with different sip scenarios, are they all right, are they okay? are they not alive? what is going on with them? it is just torture. this has been like torture for them, because they just don't know the answer. now, they may be getting some answers. is it the answer they want to hear? we won't know that until we hear from the prime minister but these families have been through 17 days of absolute hell, carol. >> sara sidner, i think that's an understatement. stand by. five minutes to go until the malaysian prime minister makes this statement. commander marks, are you still

with me? >> i am. >> you mentioned before that you are excited to possibly get images of this debris in the water tomorrow. you sound certain that you are going to get images of this debris. why? >> well, i can tell you the capabilities of not only our aircraft but of the aircraft of all these countries. for the most part, you can say if they fly over it, they are going to see it. it is not a matter of if they can see it. it is just a matter of flying over the right space. if they do have a location and they fly over it, there is not much of a doubt that those planes and specially the ships can see whatever it is out there. >> commander marks, thank you so much. richard quest, sara sidner. i am going to turn it over to new york and anderson cooper. take it away. >> we are waiting for statements to be made by malaysia's prime

minister. we anticipate that in about three minutes from now. obviously significant. it is nearly 10:00 p.m. in kuala lumpur where the base for these operations, for the malaysian airlines, has been going on. i am here with our richard quest, who has been wmonitoring developments all weekend long. there has been a rising sense of an it is payment. let's take a look at the statement. >> translator: good night to everyone. this evening, i was briefed by representatives from the u.k. accidents investigation branch or aaib. they informed me that the uk

company that provided the satellite data which indicated northern and southern corridors, inmarsat, has been performing further calculations on the data, using a type of analysis never before used in any investigation of this sort, they have been able to shed more light on mh-370s flight path. based on the new analysis, inmarsat and the aaib, have concluded that mh-370 flew along the southern corridor and that its last position was in the middle of the indian ocean west

of perth. this is a remote location. far from any possible landing sites. it is, therefore, with deep sadness, and regret, that i must inform you, that according to this new data, mh-370, life ended in the southern indian ocean. we will be holding a press conference tomorrow. with furth details. in the meantime, we wanted to inform you of this new development at the earliest

opportunity. we share this information out of a commitment to openness and respect for the families. two principles will have guided this investigation. malaysia airlines have already spoken to the families of the passengers and crew you to inform them of this development. for them, the past few weeks have been heartbreaking. i know this news must be harder still. i urge the media to respect their privacy and allow them the space they need at this very difficult time.

>> the statement in kuala lumpur by malaysia's prime minister saying that based on furth calculations made by british officials and inmarsat, of satellite data, calculations they have never been able to do before. they have been able to shed more light. based on new analysis, flight 370 flew along the south corridor, the last position in the middle of the indian ocean, far from any landing sites. he said sombrely, according to this new data, flight mh-370 ended in the southern indian ocean. there has been so much question obviously for the last two weeks, more than last two weeks now about this. this is the most definitive statement we have heard from malaysian officials. i am here with richard quest here in new york. essentially, again, reiterating why there has been so much focus on the southern corridor and why

there has been so much focus on this area about 1500 miles southwest of perth. >> now, the sad news this morning what the inmarsat people have done is they have gone back to those pings. they have interrogated the wattage transmission from the planes. they have looked at the angles. they have worked out the differences, the aaip, the air accident investigation branch of the uk, the british equivalent of the ntsb, enormously experienced and concluding not only the southern corridor but the fuel on board from the last known position puts it southwest of perth, a remote location, no landing strip. therefore, the conclusion being that the flight ended in the south indian ocean, which will now, of course, intensify the efforts to see what this debris is in the same area that they are talking about.

the certainty of closure, as much as there can be, anderson, for the families today. at least they know that the flight, that it ended the way that it did. >> and there is more debris that has been spotted really all throughout this weekend that we want to talk about. sara sidner is in kuala lumpur. she joins us now on the phone. i understand you have been talking to some families, sarah. >> reporter: yes. we also talk about these objects as well, anderson. basically, i have been in one of the hotels where the bulk of the chinese families that were in kuala lumpur have been housed. we have seen them go through so many emotions, hopeful ones, all the way to bursting out at tears, inconsolable. they have really gone through more than most of us ever think we might have to go through because of the waiting. each time you ask them about whether or not, what is bothering them the most, it is

always the uncertainty and the scenario that they come up with this their heads as to what has happened to their grandparents, their mothers, their fathers, their children, their loved ones who are on this flight. so that uncertainty has been killing them. they really, really have been talking it out with counselors, have been talking it out with other family members. they tend to move in groups. they tend to need comforting. we have seen a large level of police, the malaysian airlines authorities who are here who have been with the families, the counselors are here with them 24/7. they feel that they have been given finally some answers. they have been meeting with authorities before this press conference. all the while, anderson, you know this very well. at the very beginning, they felt like they were being left out, finding information as we, the media, was finding it out. that was very upsetting to them. they felt disrespected. they felt like they were the last to know. that hurt them further. that has changed over the last

few days. they are now getting that information first. is it what they want to hear? of course not. they were hoping beyond hope that the plane had somehow landed and the loved ones were still alive. right now, some of these emotions were going to start settling. you may see people really breaking down now. the certainty of one thing, having an idea of something catastrophic happen is completely different. >> officials met with family members before holding that announcement in malaysia as is certainly appropriate in this situation. atika shubert is joining us from kuala lumpur. she was at the press conference. atika, when word came that there was going to be a 10:00 p.m. press conference, clearly, people in kuala lumpur all throughout the world knew this was going to be something major. what was the atmosphere like there? >> reporter: they knew it was going to be something but they

didn't know what exactly it would be. there was a lot of talk. of course, a lot of search planes have been going out night and day trying to find something. this information, the fact that it came from british investigators, from the inmarsat satellite company, unfortunately, it is news that certainly seems to indicate the plane went down over the indian ocean. the fact that there still has been no debris found. the fact that there is no way of knowing yet if they can get the flight data recorder and finding out exactly what happened on that flight. unfortunately, even though this is very sad news for the family, there is still that sense of uncertainty. what exactly happened aboard the flight. why did it veer so far off course to such a remote area of the world? >> these are questions that are still unanswered. inside the press conference, the prime minister was very sombre. he was flanked by the ceo of

malaysian airlines, the transportation minister, as well as the department of civil aviation. it was a very sad moment when he announced that unfortunately, anderson, still no answers as to what happened. >> of course, that -- now that we know that the plane did, in fact, end up in the water. the question is, atika said, is why. richard quest, that is obviously due to continuing effort of investigators over the last several days. a lot of people may be following this over the weekend. there was new information that at one point, the plane was flying at some 12,000 feet, very low for an aircraft of this size. >> absolutely. the reason it was said to be flying or one of the speculative reasons at 12,000 feet, would be so it wouldn't be in an air corridor and risk other aircraft as it flew back. we don't know the reason why. the sources tell cnn that the radar data and other data showed it go from 36,000 to 12,000,

back across the malaysian peninsula. it must have gone back up to altitude again. we know that because as 12,000 feet, it couldn't have gotten out at the south indian ocean, because the fuel burn was so much higher. it would have had to go back up to 35,000 feet, 45,000 feet to get that range. >> which then raises the question of why these fluctuations in altitude. >> sources say it was 12,000 feet. we haven't had that confirmed. we need to put that to the side for a second. what we now can say with a degree of certainty because of what we heard this morning, is that it flew at altitude for most of that run. because that plane flew for six, seven hours, back from malaysia all the way down to the south indian ocean. you wouldn't be able to do that

at anything other than full speed, 500, 600 miles per hour, depending on the winds and at altitude over 30,000, 35,000 feet. >> i want to go over with you what has been spotted about new satellite information for our viewers joining us now almost ten past 10:00 a.m. monday morning. ten past 10:00 in kuala lumpur and in perth in western australia. according to malaysia's prime minister, according to new data, data crunched by officials, inmarsat officials, he can say that based on this data, flight 370 ended up in the southern indian ocean. there has been now multiple spotings of debris by a variety of sources. >> yes, there has. we have had french radar satellite pictures, chinese

satellite pictures and chinese aerials. this morning, we had australian eyes on water from a p-3 over the water. >> withhich may be the most significant. investigators have been saying, given the rough conditions, it is crucial to have eyes on. >> we saw this morning. we have had a picture back from the chinese. the thing they saw over the weekend turned out to be a 15-foot carcass of a whale. however, what we are hearing this morning is that some of the items are orange. that's slightly more significance. orange is the color of the life vests an the life rafts. now, that could have come from a ship. it could have been there a long time. >> there is a lot of junk just in this area. >> right. >> when you start to piece together, we now know the root according to the waip. we know where the debris has been seen, we know the nature. hma, the australian naval ship,

is on its way. it is going to be there and will be in a good position to pick up that debris. it is about to be on base any time now. >> let's check in with kate bolduan and andrew stevens who are in perth, australia. kate, andrew, devastating news for the families, for investigators, just another validation of their decision days ago to really focus the search on this southern sector. >> reporter: you are absolutely right, anderson. andrew and i have been talking about this throughout the day. this search effort you really notice from here at perth here at pierce air force base. you notice it ramping it up. yesterday, i took a flight with new zealand's air force, number five squadron, to go on a flight with them. when i was out there, you see just how amazingly vast this space is and it seems very feasible it would be impossible

to find anything. on the same day that the prime minister comes out and he doesn't do this daily. whenever he comes out, it has been a very important announce. as this has been. unfortunately, on the same day, we have the sighting of these objects that you and i have been talking about. there have been a lot of false leads but these seem more significant. >> reporter: they definitely do. the point is that the royal australian vessel which is now on site, has been there for four hours, had four hours of daylight looking for the objects. they still couldn't see them. it is now dark. realize just how difficult. we now know that the plane is there somewhere. we did not know that before. actually, still finding it is going to be a massive task. you've got vessels there, ten planes now there, another two coming tomorrow but still, this search is not over yet. >> you've got some severe

weather conditions also said to be moving to the area. we are going to check on that. andrew, kate, stand by. i wanted to go to beijing. joining us on the phone is david mckenzie. you have been monitoring the situation there where families were told half an hour before the malaysian prime minister made the announcement. david mckenzie, we will try to check back with you. let's go back to kate and andrew stevens. kate and andrew, we have been told that there is a very real possibility of bad weather moving into the area. what do you know about it? >> reporter: it is honestly changes by day and can change within the day. yesterday, when i was up with one of the search teams, the conditions can change on a moment's notice when you are out there. we were flying at 500 feet above the water at one point, 200 feet above the ocean surface at

another. it went from complete fog, zero visibility to wide open spaces. you could see for miles. the visibility is so key. we can talk about it but when you're out there, you really understand. if you can't have eyes out the window of these planes, you cannot spot anything. it has been changing quite a bit, even today, andrew. >> reporter: even today. getting the vessels now there, if that's the critical stage, we have got this position. they put flares down when they saw those, which is key. they haven't actually located them yet but those vessels are now going to be leading this search. they have to pull whatever these objects are. anderson, they have to get official identification of these objects and then they can start plotting back using the drift theory. >> reporter: we assume they will come here. we haven't been told if they find debris, where they are going to bring it.

as remote as that location is, where these things will be found, this is, perth, is the closest place, albeit not even close to being close. >> even with a small amount of debris, any debris they begin to recover, they can, depending on where the piece of debris was from in the aircraft ther, they start to understand what happened to the plane if the debris was from some critical part of the aircraft. i do want to go to beijing. david mckenzie was back with us. families were briefed about a half hour before malaysia's prime minister made his statement. >> very desperate here, anderson. he is walking through a crush of cameras and some paramedics with beds going in. there is steady whaling coming out of the conference room there. one woman pulled out lying on the floor shouting, saying, i only have one son, he was on that plane. he was my only son. i need to be saved from the situation.

it certainly appears from the perspective of these families, who have been waiting, agonizing over these days, that the news has now come. the news has come and it is bad news that they never hoped for but certainly extremely sad and dramatically difficult. >> david, i talked to family members on friday who were still holding out hope that perhaps the plane had been hijacked, perhaps the passengers were hostages, that they were still alive. this really the most official confirmation that there can be that all those on board are gone, that the plane went down in the water. >> well, all that hope, anderson, we have been speaking about for days together, that hope is now lost. i just saw a young woman flanked by two friends or family members being moved out of the hotel holding her face in her hands. there is a great deal of raw emotion. right now, paramedics are leading them down the escalators

presumably to give medical assistance. the counselors i have spoken to over the past few days have said, when the news does finally come, it will be almost too difficult to contemplate for people who have been hoping for the worst case scenario, hoping for a hijacking. now, as it appears from what we know, all hope is lost for these families and certainly this is agonizing in this hotel, which has been a real hellish experience, appears to be coming to an end. the grieving process appears to be stopping. it is very raw and very difficult for those that have spent all this time here. >> i want to go to jim sciutto who is standing by in washington, d.c. the investigation continues. the news for those just joining, malaysia's prime minister saying that according to latest analysis of the information but uk authorities and inmarsat, the

satellite company, they can say that the flight ended in the southern indian ocean, mh-370, in an area where there were not any areas to land, saying the plane ended up in the water. the investigation continues and critical to that investigation is finding first debris and then the aircraft itself and those black boxes. >> i think you have two investigations, the investigation as to why this happened and also that first step as to where the plane is. i think we can see today as the culmination of a long, difficult and often frustrating sometimes mismanaged investigation into that first question really. where did this plane end up? to be fair, investigators working with a lot of information, lost contact with the plane, the acars system, the transponder. they had to do some real detective work to get a sense of in which direction the plane flew and then we had those two massive arcs leading north and

south. then, as the malaysian prime minister said just now, they used some never-before used analysis, led apparently by britain inmarsat to then determine it wasn't that northern arc but the southern arc. a combination of science, really, in addition to that detective work, where they calculated the plane's speed, altitude and how much fuel was in the tanks which allowed them to refine that search zone where they have been searching in the southern indian ocean, 1500 miles south of australia. the smaller boxes that helped lead them to the satellite boxes we are seeing on air. the next step today to what the plane spotted. possibly debris floating in the ocean. instead of seeing it from miles up in space, they saw it from a couple hundred feet above the water. as richard noted, you now have the hms success, that's an

australian ship that cannot just drive by these pieces of wreckage, or possible pieces of wreckage, but potentially pick them up. it has been a remarkable effort frustrating fort families as we watch them and unpress denltnd how international it has been. imagine the countries who have taken part and are taking part in close quarters. the u.s. and china with great tensions in the regions now, showing off some of their most advanced surveillance airplanes and ships, destroyers, et cetera. you have china and japan in the midst of their own territorial dispute off islands off the coast of china with ships and planes in close proximity there. we have seen those tensions play out and possibly delay this investigation as countries have been reluctant to share their capabilities, their radar data, which in some cases has been embarrassing. you had a plane flying across malaysian radar without being noticed. india refusing to allow chinese ships to search in its waters.

you had some real stumbles as a result. hopefully, we have seen now in this last week or so, better cooperation and possibly now a determination as to where this plane is. that's the first question. the next question is, why this plane ended up there. >> appreciate that, jim. i want to show you the entire news conference given by malaysia's prime minister. it occurred some 24 or 23 minutes ago. where the announcement was made that many of the families, the missing passengers had feared most. let's watch. >> this evening, i was briefed by representatives from the u.k. accident investigation branch, or aaib. they informed me that inmarsat, the u.k. company that provided the satellite data, which indicated northern and southern

corridors, has been performing further calculations on the data using a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort. they have been able to shed more light on mh-370s flight path. based on the new analysis, inmarsat and the aaib have concluded that mh-370 flew along the southern corridor and that it's last position was in the middle of the indian ocean west of perth. this is a remote location.

far from any possible landing sites. it is, therefore, with deep sadness and regret that i must inform you that according to this new data, like like for mh-370 ended in the southern indian ocean. we will be holding a press conference tomorrow. with further details. in the meantime, we wanted to inform you of this new development at the earliest opportunity. we share this information out of a commitment to openness and

respect for the families, two principles which have guided this investigation. malaysia airlines has already spoken to the families of the passengers and crew to inform them of this development. for them, the past few weeks have been heartbreaking. i know this news must be harder still. i urge the media to respect their privacy and allow them the space they need. at this very difficult time. >> a difficult time indeed for

the families, most of all. so many people have been following this story so close wondering what happened, hoping beyond hope at times that somehow this plane had made it to land and somehow these passengers might still alive. malaysian authorities there, the most final word we have heard based on inmarsat officials, based on u.k. officials reading of satellite data, intense reading of satellite data, that the flight ended up in the southern indian ocean, far from any possible landing sites. we are going to take a short break and our coverage continues in a moment. anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink. we didn't get into business to spend time managing receipts, that's why we have ink. we like being in business because we like being creative, we like interacting with people. so you have time to focus on the things you love. ink from chase. so you can.

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and better is so easy withrning you cabenefiber.o something better for yourself. fiber that's taste-free, grit-free and dissolves completely. so you can feel free to add it to anything. and feel better about doing it. better it with benefiber. >> welcome back to our continuing coverage of the crash of flight 370. we say crash. malaysian officials this morning announcing nighttime malaysian time that based on new analysis by inmarsat and british officials that they can say that

flight 370 ended up in the southern indian ocean far from any runways. families have been told that all those on boards have lost their lives and that the flight did end in the southern indian ocean i many here with richard quest. this focus redoubles all the efforts on this region in the southern indian ocean. what, up until a couple of days ago was one theory. there was still talk of the northern arc. now, solely, this will be the focus. >> without a doubt. inmarsat evidence. aa confirmation. malaysian officials saying, it is now the southern corridor. not just southern corridor, the south indian ocean southwest of perth which is where the plane went down. frankly, the urgency now, despite the sadness of those involved but urgency now to locate a substantial debris field so that you can locate the wreckage, if 447 was hard in the south atlantic, they had the

whole debris field. they knew ruffle where it was. now, they have to locate the debris field to establish where the plane will be. locating the debris field will help get the submersibles to find the black box, the flight data recorder, the cockpit recorder. time is running out for the pingers, maybe a week, two weeks, 3 weeks maximum for the pingers to still be transmitting a location. >> it is still possible to find black boxes in flight 447, air france. they found them some two years after the plane went down. it is a lot more difficult. they go end up manually searching with submersible vehicles which in the pitch black at those depths -- >> it was the third attempt and almost the last day of the search window. >> let's take a moment here now that we have this focus on this area. what do we now know for sure about the flight itself?

we obviously don't know why this occurred. we know the turn was real. >> we know the acars stopped transmitting. for six or seven hours. >> 1:07 was the last transmission. >> we know the turn is real, because of the evidence this morning. we know the transponder was off. why? because it never came back on again. we now know the route and somebody would have seen it. we know it went southwest back across malaysia. we know it was tracked by military radar. sources have said it went down to 12,000 feet. we haven't had that confirmed. >> if that is true, that does indicate some sort of manual control of the flight. >> xlcompletely. >> it means the plane came down. we don't know for what purpose. because of a kdecompression or

other nefarious means. >> it could not have flown at 12,000 feet? >> not at the weight of that plane for that distance. to get to that distance, it was virtually flying at its normal speed of 50550 miles an hour. to burn that much fuel, it had to be at the optimum altitude, up in the high 30s. >> that means the flight was going on for six or seven hours? >> absolutely. this raises the whole question, which one doesn't want to be unseemly bearing in mind that families have just been told their loved ones are dead. this raises the whole ghost ship theory. the whole idea of a plane flying without anybody at the controls right to the top. to fly for that length of time without any form of may day, without any form offer calms, having flown back across malaysia and indonesia, where

there were places where you could have landed on route, you have to now put the ghost ship theory back on top. >> i want to read you this. we just received this was a text message that malaysia airlines sent out to family members of those on board flight 370 before formally briefing them in beijing and kuala lumpur. this was a text message that family members who were waiting for word of their loved ones received before this formal briefing in beijing and kuala lumpur. it said, quote, malaysia airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that mh-370 has been lost and none of those on board survived. as you will hear in the next from malaysia's prime minister, we must now suggest all evidence that the plane went down in the southern indian ocean. no sense on if they got a warning that this horrific text message was about to be received by them. this was a text message, confirmed, sent out by malaysian

airlines. >> my understanding would have been that the families would have known that urgent information would have been confirmed, sent by text. they would have been told very early on in the process, a system is being set up, do you want to receive information by text and they would have received it. it sounds very blunt to send a text like this. if you are the families, you actually want to receive this information as soon as it becomes available. >> jim shoe tciutto is standings well. jim? >> it is clearly a heartbreaking situation. in my experience in china, people send a lot of information by text message. like richard said, to get the information quickly and before it is out in public or leaks out to reporters before the prime minister announced it in as cold a method as it seems. the key here from their perspective was to get it out quickly before the prime minister spoke. you can judge by the reaction of the families there in beijing, no matter how they received this

news, it was heartbreaking. it is really heartbreaking to watch it as it happens here. you also hear from those reactions something that's been a continuing angle in this story, that those store families in beijing immediately shouted out, cursing the malaysian government. that's where they are directing their anger here, in two ways. right? one, it is a malaysian flagged airline. they blamed the airline for the loss of the plane for whatever happened to it and for this long and frustrating and sometimes misleading investigation. you remember, the search started. a lot of resources were focused in entirely the wrong location early on, just to the east of the mayla peninsula. that anger will not dissipate. it continues to be anger against governments. the chinese government has been upset and expressed that

frustration with the malaysian government over this investigation as well. those tensions continue. >> it is 10:35 in perth, in western australia. 10:35 at night. searches will resume with intensi intensity obviously during daylight hours. they really are focusing on getting eyeballs of human beings actually looking on the water. that's essential. >> because of the nature of the waves and the topography of the water. getting people to see what is there is crucial. >> hms is on the sight. the british ship hms enjoy is on t the way. we have two piece. one is circular, gray and green, the color of a fuselage and/or

internal parts of the aircraft and lorng, which wouorange, whi color of life vests and life rafts and getting there, working out which way the tides have moved it so you can work out where the larger, more significant debris field must be and getting in there as fast as you can to try and find whatever else is left. >> kate bolduan and andrew stevens are in perth in australia at 10:37 in the evening. it is fascinating to me that he have. >>en even if they are able to recover as quickly as possible a few pieces of debris, they can start looking at those pieces to see if that gives any clues to what happened to the aircraft, how the aircraft actually entered the water. they were able to do that with air france flight 447. they were to begin to understand how it impacted the water. >> reporter: first off, the one thing they are obviously looking for is just to find any debris

that can point to an area, a debris field of what happened to this flight. that's first things first. of course, the moment they get any piece, they can begin that analysis and they can gather a lot of information from how that debris looks, if it is floating on the surface or be at the have, very deep in these waters. what is it? three miles. >> three miles deep in some of these places here in the southern indian ocean. they can start putting -- trying to piece together this puzzle. we have so many pieces, it seems, anderson. they just don't fit together. maybe i am being overly cautious. we have the prime minister that comes out to make this statement on the very same day we have these pretty significant leads and objects that are on there, that have been spotted on the water. we don't know yet. it hasn't been confirmed yet, that these two things are connected. i would assume that they are. to be careful, we don't know if the prime minister coming out to

talk about this new data, that they have come and the conclusion they have had to reach from it. they are connected with what we are hearing here from the air force base. these objects are being spotted, right, andrew? >> absolutely. at the moment, the prime minister is talking about inmarsat. it does seem to be linked. everybody is now. we have been talking about how d desperate the search and rescue mission has been. we have chinese air force planes sitting on an air force base here. it is all working in the same direction. it is three miles deep, this part of the ocean around there. there are big currents, big tides, big seas. this is a very rough, rough stretch of water and so, so remote. there are vessels. the vessels are going to be absolutely critical. richard was talking about the success of the australian navy vessel. that is there.

there are 200 plus crew on that ship. i was told earlier this evening that every man who was available was on deck, looking, eyeballs, binoculars. they are going to do the same thing six or seven hours from now. >> reporter: there are two chinese vessels that are also on the way and they will get here tuesday. >> three chinese vessels and two search and rescue vessels as well plus the british rescue vessel. >> maybe even bfr efore we got official confirmation. the focus was in the southern corridor. >> if you watch where the assets were moving and the focus of the search, it seems as if everybody involved has assumed the focus is right here in the southern corridor, without saying they are not worried about the northern corridor anymore. it has been the defacto decision. >> reporter: there was a lot of raised eyebrows when the australian prime minister came out and said, there was credible new information about the search

and new satellite information coming through. people saying he was putting his -- out on a limb there a little bit. >> it all now obviously seems to be falling into place. >> kate, andrew, more from you. a short break. our coverage continues. we'll be right back. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers.

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this is cnn breaking news. welcome back to our continuing

coverage with breaking news. flight 370 ended in the southern indian ocean according to malaysian authorities who are citing british officials as well as inmarsat, satellite officials that have been analyzing satellite information. they say definitively, the southern route the plane took was accurate. the plane ended up in the water, deep in the water far away from any possible landing site. i want to bring in our pauline shoe in beijing where families were informed about 30 minutes or so before malaysia's prime minister made the announcement. >> reporter: anderson, it has been an awful, awful scene. i'm on the second floor of the hotel where we have been coming every day for the past 17 days. the families have come to the briefing room. about 35 minutes ago, they learned the news that there are no survivors. we heard people screaming and whaling from inside the room, all the media was outside.

one media started screaming and she said, i've lost my son and daughter-in-law. i'm desperate. she fell with the news on the floor. it is just awful. profound, profound grief. just about five minutes ago, a woman was taken out on a stretcher. she had a couple others running behind the stretcher with her. the people i have been talking to over the past 2 1/2 weeks. while their hopes have been banished, some of them have still held on to hope that perhaps this is a hijacking. i had a family today that said that was one of the best case scenarios for them. even if it were an act of terrorism, perhaps their relatives are alive. it is just -- don't know how else to describe it. it is just an awful, awful

scene. i have also seen people turning a little bit violent. one man lunged at the media and police officers had to pull him back. a man started shouting and screaming about malaysia. it is just devastating. >> malaysia's prime minister said he hopes the family will be given their family. this is the worst possible moment in their entire lives. let's hope they are given the privacy that they deserve. families were brought to that hotel, told to expect bad news. a text message was sent out by malaysian airlines before that meeting. they wanted to at least get word to the families as quick also as possible before it started to become known publicly. i am here with richard quest. one of the things that is just fascinating as the search for debris intensifies in this area. think for for sure this is the area where the plane went down.

even if they only find two or three pieces of debris, depending on what they are, they might be able to give some indication of what happened to the aircraft. >> huge amounts of information in flight 447. the initial pieces of debris told them an enormous amount it was a toilet door, it was a galley cart. all the early pieces of debris told them whether or not the plane had broken up in mid-air or gone into the water intact, lunged on the water intact and told them the nature of the way the plane had been flown. yes, it is crucial, not only to find the black box to recover the voice recorder and the data recorder but from that debris, let's assume the explosives theory which seems to be remote. they will be looking for any sign of explosives residue.

>> even what sort of stresses were placed on that out ter aircraft? >> absolutely. because you can see the way any metal or any items are bent. this is the absolute art of aircraft investigation. the ntsb are brilliant at it. the uk and the france, australians are all very talented and experienced at doing it. the malaysians, incidentally, this is almost certainly going to be a malaysian investigation. it is an international waters, which becomes the state of occurrence. there isn't one. therefore, the investigation is held by the state of operator, state of registry, in both cases, that is malaysia. >> let's bring in bobby skoly, a retired navy captain, consultant with maritime diving and salvage, spent a lot of time in the water. bobby, in terms of the focus

now, how critical is it to get those pieces of debris as quickly as possible? is that you are a lot of concern that over given with each day that passes, the debris could sink? >> yes. we really need to be focused, get those ships out there in that debris field, in that part of the ocean and try to get those eyes on any debris that we can find before that debris sinks and we lose that part of this search forever. a lot of that aircraft debris will sink, will float for a long time. with twa flight 800, we found a lot did end up on the shore of long island, of course. so some of this debris may go on forever and end up washing ashore eventually but by that time, it is just too late for the investigation. we want to find it now so we can

go backwards and try to pin down where the aircraft entered the water. i think now that we have this new information, we can really start funneling down to where we need to search eventually with our underwater systems. that's the point we really need to get to as quickly as possible. to be to the point where we can bring in those underwater systems and get to the aircraft, where it is on the bottom. the debris that's floating is valuable. it can give us some information for the investigation. we really still want to get the priority, which are the black boxes, which will be on the bottom. >> you talk about the underwater systems. it is too large an area to bring those in now to randomly search the sea floor bed at this point.

how difficult a task is it to once some debris is spotted and located, hands on it, to actually then try an gu late back to where the crash might have occurred. i bring up france flight 447. the plane was actually in the complete opposite direction to where the plane actually was found. >> yes. it is not easy to go backwards with the debris floating. we try to calculate the set and drift of the debris based on the current and the winds and the tide and so forth. it is not a precise art. the quicker we find it, the better that calculation is going to be. the more debris we find, we would like to find a large debris field, not just one or two pieces that would make it a better calculation.

so that's not an exact art. i think we need to make it a two-pronged approach. we still need to try to refine any of the electronic data that we have, both from satellite imagery and all the other incompetent put thinput we are g from the scientists with air france. they had a better flight path to work with and they eventually went back and scrubbed the data better. so that third look that they made to pick up the black boxes was based on some data that they had already looked at but went back and re-evaluated and had a better spot to look at and eventually did get the black boxes. so you have to look at that data a second and third time to really give you a much better

point to start at. so we can't put the underwater search equipment in prematurely. right now, it is just too big of an ocean. >> bobby, i do appreciate your expertise. we are going to be checking back with you throughout the day. i want to bring in david mckenzie, who is joining us live in bea jing, wheijing, where th were informed about an hour and a half ago about the fate of their loved once. david? >> reporter: well, that's right, anderson. behind me here, an ambulance has pulled up. i have already seen several ambulances pull up with their lights flashing. one elderly woman put on a gurney, put in the ambulance and rushed -- >> obviously, lost david's transmission. renee marsh is also joining us. renee, obviously, the situation now changes greatly based on this announcement this morning. >> absolutely. anderson, before, as far as

looking to are th looking for that debris, it was under different circumstances. we had two corridors. those were the two different possibilities for where this plane could be. the purpose of finding this debris has really shifted after we get this announcement. it is not about proving that the plane may have gone down into the south indian ocean. we now know that. so now the debris is now important just to maybe answer more questions about what could have gone wrong. looking at the debris, if they do identify some of these objects to be a part of flight 370, there could be some information that they may be able to learn about it by just simply examining that debris. they can possibly determine if there was a fire on board, if there was a bomb that exploded. also, by looking at how it was damaged, they may be able to tell if the plane was intact before it hit the water or did it explode mid-air and then hit the water. these are all things that they may be able to gather based on

the debris and when they find it, anderson. >> richard quest, the information that malaysia's prime minister was giving out, it doesn't come from malaysian officials but from british officials working with inmarsat. >> that stands for international marine satellite. they have been around for many years. they are the organization that most satellites do not look over the water, because there is nobody there to receive the signal. over the united states, there are many, many satellites, designed to transmit data and television pictures to people on the ground. inmarsat is a series of satellites specifically designed for the shipping industry and for over-water use. airline industry uses it too. international marine satellites. what inmarsat did is it took the pings from the aircraft,the antenna pings, the hand shake we heard about earlier in the week. it has managed to tri an gu late

and work out the distance and clearly has now gone that one stage further and worked out exactly where that plane would have been. the waib, the air accident investigation branch, the u.k. equivalent of the ntsb, they are enormously experienced. >> the amount of data they must have been going through for the last two weeks is extraordinary. >> not only the data, huge amount but the integrity of it. they know the moment they say, this is what we say happened, we have just seen. the south indian ocean and suddenly, 26 ships and 50 odd planes move halfway around the world. >> based on what they are saying, it is malaysia coming out and saying, this plane ended up in water. >> they better have an exceptional high degree of confidence in the data they are reporting as ac rcurate. >> we are going to take a quick break.

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hello. i'm anderson cooper. i want to welcome the viewers in the united states and those working around the world. heartbreaking news for those families of those on flight 370. malaysian prime minister confirming their deepest fears. >> it is, therefore, with deep sadness and regret that i must inform you that according to this new da ta, live on mh-370 ended in the southern indian ocean. >> surely, before the prime minister made that announcement, malaysia families informed the family via text. no one on board the flight survived. while the prime minister was announcing the new information, family