communication technologies and we did make a number of recommendations for greater transparency. >> all right. "conspiracy theories," thank you so much. that's it for "the lead." i'm jim sciutto. i'll turn you over to wolf blitzer. he's in "the situation room." >> jim, thank you very much. happening now, the mystery of flight 370. the satellite images one after another are coming in. first from thailand and then japan and they show hundreds of floating objects. new electronic clues. how signals from the airliner received via satellite, including a partial signal, could help investigators learn what went wrong and narrow the entire search area. and could the batteries powering those pingers on the all important black boxes already be dead? if they were stored improperly, the search and the investigation could become a whole lot

tougher. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." the breaking news right now, the aerial search is about to resume as dramatic new satellite images give a boost to flight 370. aircraft now getting ready for a new day of searching after flights were called back due to severe turbulence and icing. six ships have continued to search despite the storms and poor visibility in the targeted areas. in the most recent sighting, japan now says one of its intelligence satellites has spotted ten objects floating in the radius near the search area. the largest piece is 13 feet by 26 feet. that follows an announcement of a big debris field reported by a thigh satellite. ranging up to 50 feet long. that debris was about 125 miles from where a french satellite spotted dozens of objects

earlier in the eke. our analysts and our reporters are all standing by and they are here in washington as well as of special coverage that only cnn can deliver. we begin with pamela brown with the very latest. pam? >> wolf, officials are optimistic but the search to find the debris is back on. overnight, just as searchers announced that weather had again grounded the search. >> zero visibility with severe turbulence and icing. the risk did not outweigh the possible for searching. >> they rekindled hope, saying that their satellites found new evidence of debris. japan saying it found ten floating objects. these images, released by thailand space agency, shows as many as 300 objects, ranging in size from 6 to 50 feet long. so many objects close together

could suggest plane debris. as many as five countries have released satellite photos off the coast of australia. but still no pieces of the plane have been found and the clock is i can itti ticking on the batte. >> it may not have made seven days or may not have made it today. >> reporter: they have no leads as to what caused the plane to disappear. sources say the fbi will soon release its analysis of the pilot and co-pilot. so far, the investigation has found nothing to support or rule out the idea that either pilot planned to take down the plane. >> anyone who is of that caliber is going to probably be able to find useful information and leads from the hard drives. >> reporter: overnight, the 53-year-old zaharie shah's family broke its silence. shah's 26-year-old son saying

that he does not believe his father crashed the plane intentionally. ahmad shah zaharie said "i've read everything online but i've ignored all the speculation. i know my father better." >> he's an lent pilot. and i think an excellent captain. i think going the wrong way pointing a finger at him. >> reporter: you also knew the co-pilot. what can you say about him? >> he's smart. he learned the koran by heart. he's a good muslim. and i know that captain is a good muslim. >> and the fbi will send over the hard drive to the malaysians soon. it could provide leads to follow

up on and that could end up being important in this investigation but as for now, these pilots are victims until proven otherwise. wolf. >> pamela brown, thank you. let's bring in mike weiss, peter goelz, and tom fuentes. peter, what do you make of all of these reports? five nations now providing satellite imagery of possible debris but no confirmation that any of it may be wreckage from the plane? >> well, i think this is good news. this is the type of debris field that you would expect to find. and i know that u.s. investigators just recently turned over new analysis of the rad radar pings that have narrowed their search area even further. they were the first ones to identify this area in the south indian ocean. they've narrowed it further

within the last it 4 hours. hopefully this is good news. >> so let's say that one of the planes flying today, it's already friday in that part of the world, they spot something, they get a boat nearby, a ship, they pick something up, what do they do with that? walk us through the next step? >> initially they are going to be looking at any sign of the debris that would indicate how it became debris as our burn marks or other residue on it would indicate that it's part of an explosion. how was the matter torn or separated from the other parts of the aircraft? that would be initial clues, how big are the pieces, what are the shapes of the pieces? so the pieces themselves will reveal a great deal of information but nothing like the plane itself which they have to get their hands on. >> and you've flown 777, so you're familiar with these aircraft. it will be relatively easy to determine if a piece of medal came from a boeing 777 as opposed to some junk out there

that some ship captain decided to throw overboard? >> oh, absolutely. the ntsb is able to piece together these airplanes and just put them together as though they were part of a jigsaw puzzle. >> we've been getting these reports for a week, ten days. do you find it odd that they haven't been able to find one piece of the plane? >> honestly, no. having been involved in a couple open ocean searches, it's really hard. if they found a debris field with hundreds of pieces, they could be zeroing in on the right spot. >> you've looked at the satellite imagery. can you tell? i know you're not a satellite image reader but do you think it looks like wreckage from a 777? >> it certainly appears that this is a real possibility.

>> do you agree with that? >> i do. i think they might be on the right track. >> that's pretty encouraging. what about you? >> it's possible. >> everybody seems to think -- if you listen to the prime minister of australia or malaysia, they are all saying that this is encouraging. but folks are really ak thousand. they want to get confirmation because certainly the families would like to know for sure if, in fact, their loved ones are dead. i don't know if any of you have expertise in this area but we've seen images coming in from thailand and japan and australia but what about the u.s. imagery? where is that? >> i think no one really wants to show their full capabilities. this is a national security issue. but i do know that the united states investigators, ntsb and faa are confident that they are

in this area for the right reasons and they've been confident of that for the last ten days. that's why u.s. forces assets were diverted there. >> would drones make a difference? >> i think if you have the right kind of cameras on the drones it could work. >> do you think so? >> very possibly. it would be a good opportunity. >> the drones could stay up above a lot longer than a pilot and a crew. they've got to fly ten hours back and forth over there. it's a lot easier to maybe send a drone over there. >> that's true, wolf. they've been used in domestic law enforcement operations, trying to find children because of the capacity to stay in the air almost indefinitely for 20 hours before they have to land. the question is, maybe the weather there is so horrible that the drones would be tossed and and crashed and wouldn't be able to fly in it. that may be the possibility that

they are not there. out there in perth, australia, planes are getting ready to take off to resume after a day's delay because of horrible weather. also, i'll interview the reporter behind a rather controversial article citing a malaysian police source linking the plane's disappearance to directly the plane's captain and why the pingers powering the black box may already be dead and what that could mean for the investigation.

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first on cnn, let's get an inside look at the controversial report in usa today in which a malaysian police source links the plane's change of course and disappearance directly to the

plane's captain. joins us now from kuala lumpur is the reporter for the newspaper "usa today" that reported this news. mahi, thanks for joining us. give us the new information that you've come up with, based on your sources in cue all kuala l. what have you learned about the pilot and his alleged role in the disappearance of this flight? >> reporter: well, my source, who has been clued in from the first day of this investigation, who has been a part of the investigation from the very first day told us that the pilot is being investigated for his alleged role and they found out that he deliberately lead the plane and is the only one that could have done it. they looked at the passenger manifest and they have cleared the co-pilot and categorically said it's the pilot who is responsible in diverting the

plane. he also said that they were looking at motives and for now they have ruled out financial consideration and they believe that he could have just flipped and they do not know why he has done it. they say it's an ongoing investigation. >> do they have any hard evidence linking him to this decision to fly the plane over the indian ocean and crash landed in the indian ocean, is it just a working assumption, a theory on their part, or do they have direct evidence linking him to it? >> well, for now, you see, i have worked with this source for years now and i know that he's credible and that he is always on top of the game. but what he told me is they know for a fact that it was the pilot who diverted the plane but he says that it's a very sensitive

issue which is being investigated now and he is not privileged to divulge every detail of information to me at this point in time. but as you know, this is a story which is developing and we hope to get more information as the day goes by. >> and did he tell you how they know for a fact that this pilot supposedly did it? did he give you any background, any additional information other than this is their assumption? >> well, for now they said that they believe that it is -- they need to do a little bit more investigation with the wife. they believe that the wife will hold the key that can actually give them a clearer picture as to why the pilot could have done it. for now, all he told me was that the pilot flipped and there is a reason behind it and that the wife will be able to shed some light. now, he also said that it is

very possible that the wife may not actually have known that he is going to do something like that. but they also said that she is not very forthcoming with information. but they do believe that if she's more forthcoming with information, then they will be able to put through some of the facts that they have to get a clearer picture. but at this point in time, he was not happy and he was not willing to give me all of the hard data. >> as far as you know, mahi, did this source of yours have any political agenda in linking the pilot to the disappearance of this plane, because of the pilot's political views close to the opposition in malaysia? >> i did ask him about that and, interestingly, he said, no, absolutely not. he said that he doesn't know where that information came from and whether or not he is aligned to malaysia's prime minister,

supportive or not, he said that that is not part of the investigation and the investigators are not looking at that. it was something floated by the media but they said, no, it has got nothing to do with the pilot flying deliberately diverting the plane. >> and mahi, have you been able to corroborate this with another source or is this strictly based on the one law enforcement source that you have, that you're reporting? >> this is a well-placed source. he has been included from day one, he was in the loop from day one and there when the investigation started. i have every reason to believe that he knows exactly what he is telling me and he's one guy that i've worked with for years now. and if he's not clear about any piece of information, he will not give it to me. but i would like to give you a little bit about how the malaysian elite force works.

they have their own specific -- specification of work and investigation that needs to be carried out and one officer does for the talk to the other because there is this assumption that if they do, then whatever that they speak about may cloud the investigation. so at the end of the investigation, all of this information is put together to get a bigger picture. so i'm hoping for something bigger to ee lerge as the investigations go by. but for now, what i heard from the source is that the plane was deliberately diverted by the pilot, that he will have -- there is definitely a motivation and that they are investigating to figure out what the motivation can be. what has been categorically ruled out is his affiliation to anwar ibrahim and also financial conversation. >> mahi, thank you so much for joining us. let's discuss what we just heard

with our aviation analyst, miles o'brien, pamela brown along with law enforcement analyst tom fuentes. you understand kuala lumpur, you understand the police force there. you have your own sources and they are disputing what this woman in kuala lumpur is hearing from her source. >> right. again, my sources are saying that they have -- they have no reason, nothing, evidence that shows that the pilot -- now, if a police officer that she's talking to or some small group of officers that has caused them to think that he flipped, as she said, that's not the theory that the rest of the people at the police department or the executives there believe. but i don't know exactly who she's talking to or what they are saying or what it is based on. >> right. and from all of the conversations, pamela, that

you've had with fbi and other sources here in washington, the information that cnn is getting is very different. it's not necessarily rejecting what she is saying but it's not confirming it by a long shot. >> right. they are exploring every possibility at this stage. they are not accusing the pilots for letting them off the hook. we are still very early on in the investigation. talking to my sources so far, there has not been any sort of smoking gun found after a preliminary review of that hard drive. it could lead to other clues. malaysian officials could follow up on it and that could lead to important information in that investigation but nothing is jumping out at them at this stage. malaysian officials are taking a lead on this investigation and so my sources are in the u.s. and i don't know how much information is being shared between the malaysian officials and the u.s. officials. >> miles, you cover a lot of these stories and she said that the pilot's wife may hold the key to understanding if in fact

he flipped and she says there's no smoking gun, no evidence of financial problems or split cat hatred, she says they are trying to get more information right now from the wife. >> i'm sure the emotional state of the pilot, domestic concerns was the marriage splitting up, was there an affair? all of these things could factor into all of this. but to say that an investigator knows for a fact, no one on earth knows for a fact what went on on that airplane. so it's clearly -- it's one of the things that we have -- it's very high on the list of possibilities but to say it's a fact is, i think -- does a debt trimeant to all of us. and i hope that inside the investigation that is true, that they are looking at all of the possibilities, because you can reverse an investigation to prove what you want. >> you wanted it to add to that? >> the cockpit conversation that leads up to, okay, good night, there seems to be no stress. it's the co-pilot talking to the

tower but nothing has happened up until that point. at what point would the flip have occurred that as of 20, 30 minutes into the flight there's been no indication -- >> if this investigation were here in the united states, how quickly would they have started to interview the wife? >> well they -- immediately. >> right away? even though she may be grieving or whatever? it seems like they have waited a long time to start talking to family members. >> i'm not sure about that. i think the investigation was ongoing immediately, even with the family, even with the family of the pilots because they had to look at the pilots right away and it's just a fact of life that the pilots, they are the ones that have their hands on the controls. everybody's life is in their hands first and that's the first place they look. also, the crew, the passengers, the cargo. >> miles, we don't know if this source of hers does have more information that he's not willing to share. he may. >> he may. he may.

but again, it's a wild guess right now and for them to paint it in terms in a factual way, he's a high-ranking law enforcement official and i certainly don't doubt that he's a good source of hers but he was weighing the aviation capability of the first officer and that's way out of his lane. >> this investigation keeps coming back to the pilots because there's nothing to explain the disappearance of the plane. >> and two minutes after "all right, good night," the plane makes a left turn. >> if they had direct evidence that this is exactly what happened, they wouldn't have their prime minister out there saying, no, we don't have evidence. >> and these two men could end up being victims, for all me know. it's important to keep that in mind. >> all of this is still on the table. >> right. >> thanks very much. up next, could a race against time already be lost? a closer look at why the

batteries powering the so-called black box pingers may already be dead and what that could mean for the investigation. and new electronic clues. how signals received via satellite, including a mysterious partial signal could help focus on what went wrong. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." [ ship horn blows ] no, no, no! stop! humans. one day we're coming up with the theory of relativity, the next... not so much. but that's okay. you're covered with great ideas like optional better car replacement from liberty mutual insurance. total your car, and we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. learn about it at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? [ male announcer ] when fixed income experts... ♪

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nearly three weeks since flight 370 disappeared and now there's new concern about the battery life and whether it could be running out. athena jones is joining us with that part of the details. >> reporter: we're talking about water that is a mile and a half to three miles deep and terrain that looks like an underwater mountain range. so finding these devices, if the batteries have run out, could take a very long time. 30 days. that's how long the batteries on the flight data recorder and the

cockpit voice recorder are expected to last. they power the underwater locator beacons, or pingers, that help search teams find these crucial devices. and after 21 days, those batteries could soon run out if they haven't already. that's what has cnn's safety analyst david soucie concerned. he spoke to a mechanic who found problems with the way that they store these devices. >> having them stored improperly against the manufacturer's recommendations is extremely hard on them and will reduce the battery life to close as half as much as it is intended to, so 15 days or so. >> reporter: high temperature could affect battery life. the manual says they should be stored in a cool, dry environment. we don't know how the recorders on flight 370 were stored. we do know that it will be much harder to find the black box

without the pinger. it took two years to find it from flight 447 after it crashed off the coast of brazil in 2009. search teams towed pingers near the debris field days after the crash and heard nothing, suggesting that pingers had stopped working or the signal was somehow blocked by rugged underwater terrain or other obstacles. >> even plant life, seaweed, coral, any of those things can detract from the signal and even temperature changes in the water. if you have a thermal layer, it can hide that ping and it can hide any kind of detection that you might have. >> reporter: oceanographer david gallo helped find it with the help of sonar, high-resolution cameras and deep-sea drones. >> we took 85,000 still images of the wreck site and handed that over to phoenix international and they found the black boxes.

>> reporter: if the boxes are found, investigators can still retrieve the vital information inside. >> the battery running out will not preclude the authorities from being able to extract that data. it is embedded into the system. >> so that's the good news, they can still get access to that data. but we're 21 days out here and still don't have a confirmed debris field. in the case of the air france flight, the first floating parts will found five days after the accident. those flight recorders were recovered 23 months after the accident. so that gives you a sense of just how long it can take to find these devices underwater. wolf? >> it can be so, so frustrating. athena, thank you. so we've seen satellite images that may represent the plane but so far searchers have been unable to find them. brian todd has been looking into this part of the story with an explanation of why it is so hard. >> wolf, it's one thing to find

a needle in the haystack and it's another when the needle keeps moving. now, one oceanographer we spoke with has animation model that could help search teams track the debris. hundreds of objects are spotted by satellites in a condensed area, giving new hope to search teams. but in the rough swirl of the southern indian, it's been very difficult to find them. >> they drift with the winds and ocean currents and all things that are making this a very dynamic situation. >> reporter: gurley's team at metron has new animation models projecting where objects spotted recently by satellites may have drifted. they use weather, wind, and ocean current projections from noaa and determine what kind of objects could be floating. >> based on the types of things

you would expect either from a boating accident, someone lost at sea or an aircraft accident. >> reporter: like luggage and seats floating. it could have drifted on sunday by midday thursday. >> the circle is where it was spotted on the 23rd and in this particular field it's about 60 miles on this axis from the southwest to the northeast but the pattern doesn't really go to the north and does go to the south again about 60 miles. >> reporter: 60 miles in each direction. what about the field of 300 some objects spotted by a thai satellite? >> it's moved about 60 miles to the north, 65 miles to the south but you can see this entire field has moved east. >> reporter: a key question, if gurley's team can project these objects forward in time, can they track them backward to the morning of march 8th when the plane's last signals were sent, maybe see where the plane hit

the ocean? >> it's much more difficult. we're now at day 20 of the problem. >> reporter: the possible good news comes in what the black line represents in realtime. >> operating near the area of wear our imagery says it is located. >> van gurley's company has similar models that actually help the coast guard find people who are lost at sea. they take a report of where someone has been lost and project currents and drift ahead to where people may be drifting in the water and where the coast guard can start a search. wolf? >> brian todd, as usual, thank you. joining us now, the oceanographer from the research center at new south wales and also joining us is colleen keller from metron which helped search for air france flight 447.

colleen, what do you make of these large clusters, items, whatever they are seen in the satellite images. do you think it could be the plane? >> you know, wolf, this is such a remote part of the ocean that seeing large groups of objects like this, what could consider to be a drifting pattern of aircraft parts, i think it's very encouraging to see these objects close together. the simulations that we were just discussing there that my colleague is doing predicted that the debris would stay fairly close together, clumped together as it drifted around. so this is consistent with the models and i'm very encouraged by the recent information. >> let me bring eric in. you know the indian ocean well, eric. if this plane crashed, let's say after 19 days, and there's debris from the plane, wreckage from the plane, you know the waters, you know the currents, you know the weather. would they all generally be in the same area presumably or would they be spread out over 19 days over a wide range of the

indian ocean? >> well, i think what you would see is that there are clumps of debris just as what we're seeing now. so i also think this is an encouraging sign. you would see that there's debris fields that move away but within the debris fields there may be a few miles in diameter, you would see much higher concentrations of debris, yes. >> so if they identify this debris as being from the plane, wreckage, colleen, presumably it could be hundreds of miles away from the seabed where the actual plane -- if the plane is on the bottom where it's located? >> well, we're predicting -- the currents are taking the debris a mile an hour or 24 miles a day. we're talking several hundred miles of travel. if you back the debris field up to the potential point of impact, that's where we should be looking. and yes the beacons are going to be several miles down on the

floor. when we deploy the towed pinger locator, we put them down as close to the seafloor as we can so they get the best shot of finding the signal. >> assuming it's still beeping something because we're concerned about the batteries right now. we'll have more on that later coming up here in "the situation room." erik, you've described the currents in the indian ocean, in your words, a mini hurricane. you say these are like mini hurricanes. explain what you mean. >> well, what i mean is that there are vortices and they move around. just like hurricanes, if you see them on satellite images, they have giant eyes and move around. so are the eddies which we call them in the ocean. they are not as nearly as violent or damaging as hurricanes themselves but they have the same physics, the same physical properties. it's the same mathematics of these hurricanes and smaller

eddies. >> and with fall and winter approaching in that part of the world, it's only going to get worse. erik, colleen, we'll resume our conversation tomorrow. when we come back, new details about flight 370's satellite communications which may help determine what happened in the plane's final moments. that's next. dear sun, meet your biggest competitor: philips slimstyle led bulb. beautiful quality light with a slim design, at a slim price.

we're learning more now about what was likely flight 370's timeline and it's based on recent satellite communications.

suzanne malveaux is working this part of the story. she's got new details. suzanne? >> wolf, we have new details about this because we're talking about communications between the plane and a british commercial satellite. it could give us clue to what happened on board as well as the final moments. this is based on a theory that understanding exactly when that plane lost contact is going to tell us where the plane went down and dramatically narrow the search area. from the moment malaysia flight 370 took off, it was communicating with the satellite orbiting more than 22,000 miles above earth. sending out pings or electronic handshakes to say, i'm here and okay. >> the ping is really like your cell phone checking that it's connected with the cell phone network. >> reporter: the first three recorded pings came between 12:30 and 1:00 p.a.m. local tim >> the first three pings are

messages carrying data about the performa perform performance of the engines. >> reporter: then the transponder stops communicating. between 1:21 and 1:28 a.m., the plane take as sharp left turn and dips to 12,000 feet. the satellite picks up three more electronic pings, one right after the other in the span of just a few minutes. >> it looks like they were initiated by the plane because the plane had lost contact with the satellite network. after that quick turn, maybe the plane banked sharply. >> reporter: whatever happens is seemingly resolved as malaysia 370 sends hourly pings or handshakes. at 3:40, 4:40, 5:40, 6:40 and

8:11 a.m. >> that indicates that the plane is flying smoothly. >> reporter: but then something unusual happens. a partial ping eight minutes later recorded at 8:19 a.m., the last electronic signal before the plane disappears. >> the plane wasn't able to communicate back again and so the handshaking wasn't completed. the plane must have turned sharply, stalled, or died, something to cause the terminal on the top of the plane to be turned away from the satellite and then to try to re-establish contact. >> so the aviation analyst i spoke with today tells me that the significance of this is essentially two-fold. whatever trouble the plane was having in the burst of pings around the left turn could be the same problem resurfacing during the plane's final moments and we know as well if the precise time of the plane lost it is ability to communicate and went down, investigators can now

dramatically narrow the search area to look for that plane's debris. so those are the important parts about recognizing those pings between the plane and the satellite. >> they are looking for any clue that could help find some of that wreckage. suzanne, thanks very much. good explanation on that part. just ahead at the top of the hour, the search for flight 370 is about to resume. planes are getting ready to take off in perth, australia, for the latest effort to find any debris from the plane. i'll also speak about what is going on with the u.s. naval commander who has a key role in this entire search effort. plus, ukraine potentially on the brink of war right now. details on the escalating crisis coming up.

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we'll have much more on our special coverage of the missing flight 370 in just a moment but there's other important news we're following as well including a historic meeting between president obama and pope francis at the vatican. the president's visit coming amid the es da lating crisis in ukraine as tens of thousands of russian troops gather near the border. jim acosta is traveling with the president and he's joining us from rome right now with details. jim? >> reporter: that's right, wolf. president obama has wrapped up a busy day here in rome. the highlight being, as you mentioned, that historic visit with pope francis, but even that meeting was somewhat overshadowed by the crisis in ukraine. with estimates of 40,000 or more russian troops gathering on the ukrainian border, the president appeared to close the door shut

on any military action. by taking the military option off the table, are you sending a signal to vladimir putin that other parts of ukraine are his for the taking and why not send a multinational peacekeepers to the ukrainian border as a deterrent? after complaining about the questions coming in at a news conference in rome -- >> that's a lot of questions there, jim. >> reporter: the president defended his sanctions-first approach. >> ivan very cle'v i've been ve saying that we'll do whatever we can to support ukraine and the ukrainian people, but i think it's also important for us not to promise and then not be able to deliver. >> reporter: all week the president has been careful to separate ukraine from the nato countries of eastern europe he vowed to defend against any russian aggression, a promise echoed by the italian prime minister. >> the question for me is more clear and the answer is easy -- yes. >> reporter: before the ukraine crisis, this was supposed to be

the key moment of the president's trip. his first meeting ever with pope francis. after exchanging gifts -- >> i actually will probably read this in the oval office when i'm deeply frustrated. >> reporter: the president said he and the pope steered clear of the controversy over the contraception coverage mandates in obama care but conceded the vatican did raise concerns. the focus instead, mr. obama, was on a sheer goal of tackling inequality. >> open people's eyes and make sure they're seeing this is an issue. >> reporter: he finally found time to play tourist in chief with a tour of the colosseum. >> it's remarkable. unbelievable. >> reporter: now, the president did also reveal today that more than 6 million americans have signed up for health insurance under obama care. as you know, wolf, that key

deadline of march 31st, just a few days away. >> certainly, the end of the month. jim acosta traveling with the president. coming up new satellite images show hundreds of objects floating in the indian ocean. search planes getting ready to resume their hunt for flight 370. new information about the u.s. role in the search. i'll speak live with u.s. navy commander aboard a ship in the region. mine was earned in korea in 1953. afghanistan, in 2009. orbiting the moon in 1971. [ male announcer ] once it's earned, usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection. and because usaa's commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. begin your legacy.

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without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. from contractors and doctors to dog sitters and landscapers, you can find it all on angie's list. we found riley at the shelter, and found everything he needed at angie's list. join today at angieslist.com happening now, a "situation room" special report on the missing flight 370. we're standing by for search planes to take off after being grounded by horrible weather. crucial hours have been lost. as more possible debris has been detected. experts there studying the latest satellite images showing hundreds of objects near the suspected crash area. a u.s. navy commander will join us live at this hour with more information on the search. new details about the investigation into the plane's captain as his son and former

boss speak out about the theories that he's to blame. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> this is cnn breaking news. let's get to the breaking news this hour. the search for flight 370 is due to resume any moment now. the bad weather that grounded planes for hours appears to have improved. it may be more urgent than ever to get crews to the suspected crash site. japan and thailand have revealed new satellite images of objects in the southern indian ocean. they're in roughly the same area where several other satellite sightings have been reported showing hundreds of pieces of possible debris. still, no actual wreckage has been found nearly three weeks after the jet vanished. as always, we have our team of correspondents and analysts here in "the situation room" and around the globe to follow every new development. first, let's go to our chief national security correspondent

jim sciutto. jim? >> well, wolf, we just learned that those search planes will be back up in the air today, and if the weather will cooperate today, at least for one day. this is the key. because they have those satellite images, but the key now is to get eyes much closer to the surface of the ocean to confirm whether what looks like debris in a satellite photo is actually a piece of flight 370. from miles up in space, new possible signs of flight 370. thai satellites picked up some 300 objects of various sizes while japan spotted ten objects all square shaped. both grouped within the search area 1500 miles southwest of australia. but for one more day the search planes tasked with taking a closer look were grounded by bad weather. >> we're informed the weather was zero visibility with severe turbulence and severe icing. so fairly high risk flying conditions and with the visibility the way it is, very

low probability of seeing anything out there at all. >> reporter: the conditions so bad the air crews are at risk. >> there is no point. the risks do not outweigh the potential rewards for flying today. >> reporter: to today the pentagon announced it will send a second p-8 poseidon to australia. there are no plans to deploy u.s. ships to australia. >> we believe and the malaysian government believes that the most important asset we have that we can help them with are these long-range maritime aircraft. >> reporter: now new suspicions that the plane's captain zaharie ahmad shah's employer leapt to his defense in an interview with jim clancy. >> you knew captain shah. some people point a finger at him. >> he's an excellent pilot. i think they're going the wrong way pointing finger at him. >> reporter: speaking to a

malaysian newspaper shah's youngest son also rejected any possibility his father could be behind the plane's disappearance. i've read everything online, he said, but i've ignored all the speculation. i know my father better. but still no answers as to where the plane disappeared and why, family members of passengers are growing increasingly frustrated with malaysian authorities. >> there are no evidence, no pieces from the plane, none of the other things that could make us trust with that, so we don't believe it. >> reporter: one of the toughest jobs is for those spotters in the search planes, they have to look out for the expanse of the oceans for shifts of 30 to 60 minutes long. they have tricks they use, moving their eyes in x patterns so they don't glaze over but also to be able to discern pieces of debris from other things floating in the ocean. we were told even patches of seaweed are orange, a color that debris from the plane could be.

so the searchers have their work cut out for them. >> they certainly do. this hour the search is getting back under way. let's check in with our aviation correspondent rene marsh, there have been a lot of setbacks including major weather delays but looks like they're getting ready to take off today. >> that's good news today, wolf, but we've seen these several satellite images and even with ships in the area and planes doing flyovers, conditions are right to miss the critical pieces. 1500 miles off australia's west coast the search is intensifying. new satellite images of possible debris revealed today. so far a total of five countries have spotted floating objects from satellite images. australian satellites detected two, then the chindz spotted this. the french photographed 122 objects. thailand's satellites spotted 300 and wednesday the japanese detected ten.

but search crews scanning the indian ocean have not found a sign of flight 370 or any floating objects believed to match those captured on satellite. >> it's not perfect. it's a combination of fallibility of the human eye, the surface conditions. >> reporter: bottom line a visual search among waves that can be as tall as a two-story building is the best option but not a perfect one. >> assume a 100% coverage meaning you're actually physically looking at every square inch of search area, the best we normally get on long-term average is about 78% probability of detection. >> reporter: and that's in calm water. william waldock predicts the waves make detecting debris in first search only about 50%. big waves make it hard for planes and ships to detect objects on their radar. >> the type of wreckage or object that we're looking for is so close to the waterline that

now radars would not be able to pick it up. so we are very reliant on lookouts who use binoculars. >> reporter: waldock says twice as many ships are needed. >> you still got to go out and you still got to look. one of the things you start believing in, when you do this enough, is luck. >> reporter: he says the best bet for crews, focus on finding the larger debris field. it's easier for the human eye to detect. all right, and in the words of one expert, this operation needs more assets. ideally you'd want an aircraft carrier so the search planes don't have to make these tremendously long trips to and from the search site and you'd want more ships with helicopter capability so if something is spotted, it can be retrieved right away. >> rene, thanks very much. the navy says they are sending a second p-8 poseidon surveillance plane to perth to continue with this search operation. let's bring in our panel right

now. joining us our senior aviation analyst miles o'brien, "new york times" reporter michael schmidt and asks analyst michael goeles. so far the fbi hasn't found any smoking gun on those hard drives, either the flight simulator, hard drive that the pilot had that was brought to quantico for the fbi to investigate or the hard drives from the computers from the pilot or co-pilot. do we know for sure that they've managed to re-create all the deleted files? >> i don't know if they've re-created all the deleted files, but they're basically in the final steps before they go back to the malaysians. that could happen within hours if not days. yesterday the fbi director said it would be about a day. it will probably be a little bit longer than that. but there is nothing there. yet another dead end in the investigation. and the one thing that the fbi

does say when they talk about this is that there's a possibility that down the line something that they found may help the malaysians. sure. what they have right now is not helpful, but as the malaysians move forward perhaps some of this information may help them, but still nothing. >> as you know and pam brown has reported this even yesterday here on cnn that there's no evidence yet but what's curious to me, miles, and you're an expert in this area, is that i just want to make sure if the fbi completes their investigation they have re-created all those deleted files and if something was encrypted, they'd manage to find that as well. as you well know, that's not that easy. >> no, it isn't that easy, but if anybody has the expertise to do it, they can do it. these are the leading experts that have that capability. >> if they were encrypted files on the hard drives, let's say from the flight simulator, what does that say to you? why would this pilot be encrypting certain information

on his hard drive? >> well, yeah, that certainly would raise suspicion, but there's a lot of good reasons to encrypt thing, too, including protecting your passwords and so forth. you have to be careful about that. >> have you heard anything about any encrypted files that may be on the hard drives? >> early on the fbi reached out to -- they wouldn't say which companies but some companies that knew about coding that had been used in these programs. i don't know if that's because the fbi didn't know how to get around that or if they were just looking for expertise, but early on they were looking. >> you're formerly with the ntsb. if the fbi comes out and says we don't have any evidence that the pilot or the co-pilot based on the hard drive information, there was anything suspicious there? >> you have to move on. checked into his personal background in depth, in his financial backgrounds. if there's nothing there, there's nothing there. >> if they say we couldn't re-create all the deleted files, what do you do then? >> then you've got a real problem and you may have to go

back and tackle it again if there's some piece of evidence that indicates that the pilot was involved. >> i want you guys to hold on for a moment because commander william marks is joining us on the phone right now. he's aboard the "uss blue ridge" command ship. thank you very much for joining us. let's talk about the news. what is the very latest you're hearing from the u.s. search operation that is about to resume in perth, australia? >> the latest news is that we are moving another p-8 poseidon from its operating base in okinawa, japan, down to perth, australia. that will give us a continuous everyday flight coverage out of perth with both our two p-8s, which are the latest and best technology we have for searching. so that should be there later on today, and we have a flight

going up today, as you probably know, all the flights were canceled yesterday. there was pretty nasty weather out here. but we do expect to get up and flying again today and then with the addition of our second p-8 poseidon that will give us daily coverage. once again in support of the australian coordinated effort and a great international effort but the u.s. navy will have that continuous coverage now. >> i know there are a lot of planes, different nations. this is a multinational effort, the u.s. involved. have they told you or do you know commander, which area you specifically this p-8 poseidon will be going through, looking at the french satellite imagery, the thai, japanese, australian, do you know where you're going to be looking today? >> the way it works is that every morning we get something called an air tasking order or ato. the ato coordinates search sectors and communication frequencies, things the like that. that is coordinated by the

australians. so every day is different. it just depends on where they need us. that's an australian-coordinated assignment that we get via the ato. >> everybody sort of divides up the territory to make sure you're not overlapping, is that right? >> yeah, that's correct. and you know, one thing to stress is this is still a big area, and we're talking hundreds of miles. and to be quite honest, still too big to effectively get a good sense of where the plane may have crash landed. and as you know, we really can't effectively use the towed pinger locator before we get a good sense of where it was. and that's why we're out here searching, to get a good datum, a good point of where we think the plane may have landed, then we can get our pinger locator out there to listen to that black box ping, but the search

area is still far too big, still hundreds of miles. >> based on the information you're getting, are you upbeat, are you optimistic that this debris spotted in the satellite images that the debris is actually wreckage from the plane? >> you know, from the pilot and the air crew perspective, they are optimistic. i know every day when they launch a flight, they have a good feeling about finding something. i can tell you, though, the satellite imagery really hasn't been conclusive. to me, the only thing that's conclusive is when one of our planes, someone else's planes get a hit and we decrease our altitudes and we either zoom in with our camera or get a visual. that to me is the defining moment. satellite imagery certainly helpful, but what i personally am waiting on is that visual confirmation. once we get the visual

confirmation, then our oceanographer will work backward. they'll reverse engineer the environmentals, meaning the wind, the current and the sea state and go back 18 days and to develop that point where they think this started from. >> so i just want to be precise on these two surveillance planes, these poseidon p-8s, will two fly on one day or will you rotate one plane one day, another plane the next day? >> most likely rotate, but again that's based on the assignment from the australians. if they need us, we'll do everything in our power to support with two planes at once. if in their opinion a rotation is better, we'll support that. an international effort. a lot of planes down here. but we are a support -- in a supporting role to the international effort, so really it's what's needed of the u.s.

navy. >> does it make any sense, commander, to send an aircraft carrier to this area in the indian ocean, so these planes don't have to fly four or five hours just to get to the suspected site and then back. it's a long, long distance from perth. >> yeah, great question. the u.s. navy and seventh fleet has a forward deployed aircraft carrier. they are forward deployed out of japan. really, to be honest, these long-range nixed win patrol aircraft, they do not fly off aircraft carriers. they're land based. from their base in okinawa they can fly out of australia, out of perth, out of dozens of countries here in seventh fleet. but they are land based aircraft and the aircraft carrier air wings really is not the same

support there. >> so the helicopters that fly off aircraft carriers or the planes, they really wouldn't be useful in a search operation like this, is that what you're saying? >> i was specifically talking about the p-8 poseidons, that's land based. and they take off from land-based air strips. >> what about drones? would they be useful? >> yeah, great question, great question there. you know, i think the combination of satellite imagery plus our p-8 and the other fixed-wing patrol aircraft, that's the best combination we have. drones are certainly improving in their technology tefr day. but i think the range needed, you have to look at where the debris field may be. we're talking 14, 1500 miles out. and really the asset we have

with the best range on that is the p-8 and that's what we're using. >> commander william marks aboard "the uss blue ridge" command ship. thanks to you and to all the men and women of the united states marine corps for what you guys are doing out there to locate this plane. william marks joining us. let's talk a little bit what we heard and mark weiss, you're a 777 pilot, so you know this plane. you would understand obviously the wreckage from this kind of plane. are you encouraged from what you just heard from the navy commander? because he himself acknowledges they haven't spotted anything yet in all these flights going over this area. >> like you said i'm a pilot, not a wreckage expert. from what i've seen and been dealing with some other accidents, this wreckage, this debris field seems to be the best option that we've got so

far and obviously until we have hands on it to make sure that it's part of that malaysian aircraft, that 777 with serial numbers, debris field, we have to hope that this the right one. >> they've got to find at least some piece of metal or whatever that can be linked to that boeing 777, at least they'll have a clue. right now they haven't found that. >> the commander was very cautious. he was saying we've got to narrow this search area down. as we mentioned, the investigators here have tried to do that over the past week and have sent further coordinates to the searchers, so maybe they're getting the search area down to a more manageable area. >> previous investigations you've been involved in, peter, what's the stuff that floats usually from these planes and what sinks to the bottom? >> insulation, certainly seat cushions, it's luggage, baggage that's been carried and smaller

portion of the aircraft. the vertical stabilizer often floats, the tail. but this has been three weeks. that's a long time for metal to be floating. my guess is we're looking at much lighter stuff in the ocean now. >> miles, you covered a lot of these stories. were you encouraged by what you heard this naval commander say? >> that p-8 is the best tool in the toolbox. >> the poseidon. >> the most advanced surveillance -- >> they've got all sorts of technology on there that could presumably spot this. >> no question. >> it's usually looking for submarines. >> it does have a search and rescue component. my sense of it is there are more tools in the toolbox that could be deployed up to an aircraft carrier, why not? we need more planes down there. frankly, there's not enough time. the time now is for a full court

press. while i have you, michael, let's talk about the fbi, the investigation, pam brown our justice correspondent has pointed out the malaysians are taking the lead. but the malaysians are taking the overall investigatory lead. are they frustrated by that? do they want more access? do they want to go to kuala lumpur and interview family members? or are they confident malaysia's providing them with all the information that's necessary. >> i don't think they're confident in the way the investigation is being run but because they don't think it's terrorism, i think they're okay sitting on the sidelines, if they thought this was terrorism and they couldn't have access to everything that was going on, they would be -- >> what do they think it is? >> they think that it's something that the pilot did purposely, but they don't know that. that's what they think. that's what they say the likelihood is, that's the assumption because it's logical,

it would explain. >> an area that works on everything we've seen so far but i can come up with a scenario pretty quickly where somebody commandeered that plane either directly or forced the crew to fly that route. that cannot be ruled out. there are a lot of passengers sitting in the back. we keep saying they've been ruled out. pretty skeptical that occurred. >> you're skeptical? >> absolutely. >> from the very beginning we all thought there was some intervention in the cockpit. we didn't know if it was the pilot and the first officer but there had been a porous cockpit door at some time. we don't know whether that's a jumpseat rider or who that is. but we don't know. >> good point. all right, guys, thanks very, very much. we're going live to australia and the staging area for the search. is there any dajer that bad weather could again ground planes even though they're supposed to take off any moment now. we'll also take you to china

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up to $423. call... today. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? we're back with the breaking news. the search for flight 370 is taking off again after planes were grounded for bad weather. cnn's kyung lah is at the staging area in perth, australia. she has the very latest. >> wolf, the search is resuming at daybreak, according to the australian government, this after what has been a rough and tough 24 hours for search teams.

the u.s. p-8 poseidon, moments away from flying into the search zone. a few journalists, including me, are embedded with the flight crew, but just before we're to board -- >> yeah, i'll be back out in just a second. >> reporter: lieutenant commander adam schantz gets word the flights are grounded. >> shutting it up and packing it up. everybody out there has gone home. >> reporter: eight planes made it to the search site but faced dangerous conditions, severe wind, ice and zero visibility. conditions so tough that even the p-8 poseidon, world's most advanced anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare aircraft, considers it too risky. zero visibility means nothing, not anything out the windows. >> you may not even be able to see the wing tips of the aircraft. >> reporter: i can see it on their faces. can you tell me a little bit about what they're thinking? >> they're disappointed they

don't get to go out and do it. >> reporter: do the mission, find a piece of malaysia flight 370. evidence is family so desperately wants. six governments, 11 of the world's most sophisticated planes and still nothing. satellite images continue to point them in the right direction, but the south indian ocean is one of the most remote spots on the planet with no land to break the wind or the waves. they can barely predict the weather. and when it turns, like today, crews risk their lives just trying to fly out and get home. how good would it feel to bring something back? >> while it would be great for us, it would be even better for the family and friends of the victims of this crash. >> reporter: grounded today, try again on the new search day. now, cnn is embedded with the p-8 again. the last word that we have from the u.s. navy, wolf, is that we are on stand-by.

it is expected to take off in about six hours. >> you'll be on that flight, this ten-hour round trip mission, is that right, kyung? >> that's right. we are told it's going to be about ten hours. it's a four-hour flight down to the search area, two hours to take a look, then four hours back. we are told, though, that this is very much touch and go, wolf. >> well hopefully you guys will go. it will be safe. you'll be back and do a full report for us here in "the situation room." kyung lah on the ground in perth, australia, getting ready to make that journey on the p-8 poseidon surveillance plane. the vast majority of the panes on the flight are chinese. after nearly three weeks of dread and uncertainty, members of the families are grieving. so many of them remain in denial, many of them are very, very angry. totally understandably. we're joined once again from beijing where it's early friday morning. very smoggy where you are, lots of pollution, as we a