>> ready? >> all right. >> thank you. >> thank you. y'all take care. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hello, don lemon here. i want to welcome you. the reason we are here so late is because the man in charge of this search in australia has called a press conference for 11:30 eastern time. not sure what it's about. but we will carry that for you live. the man in charge of this search in australia, holding a press conference. the search is on again and off again for a passenger jet that disappeared four weeks ago. and two days ago, search crews from eight countries are working again in the newly modified area in the area off western

australia. here's where they are heading right now. the red spots are sunday's place to look. the gray areas were hit on previous days and turned up nothing. in between is where a chinese ship claims to to have heard something this weekend. and that boat picked up 90 seconds of pulses on the same frequency used by beacons attached to flight data recorders. our analysts say it's not out of the question. back to today, a u.s. navy p-8 poseidon took off from western australia a short time ago. that crew is now heading for the southern indian ocean. if yesterday was time critical today is more so. if a pinger is working in the water somewhere it won't be much longer. the batteries last 30 days or maybe a few days more. in just a few minutes we're going to hear from the man what who is in charge of this search.

he's going to speak to the media in perth, australia. we will take that live right here on cnn. matthew chance is in perth right now. how seriously are these coordinators taking these reports of pings and new debris by the chinese. are we expecting angus to address those reports in a few minutes? >> i think we'll certainly expect him to address that. if he doesn't address it in his comments he will be asked about it if we have the ability to ask questions afterwards. they are taking the chinese claims very seriously in the sense that these are serious people that have been engaging in a serious search alibeit outside the search zone. they are outside the other seven nations that are engaged in the search. that is a source of confusion as

well. there are question marks over the equipment they used to monitor these pings they say they detected. it's much less sophisticated than the equipment on the australian vessel the "ocean shield" and the "hms echo" that is looking for any trace of this missing airliner in the search zone. but what the australians have said up until a few hours ago is that we don't have enough information about what the nature of this chinese detection was. we can't verify anything about it. that may be what angus houston may state again. or the situation may have changed. we don't know. >> tony abbott spoke a time ago and urged caution.

>> my understanding is that they're unconfirmed and, look, the point i make is that -- we are hopeful but by no means certain. this is the most difficult search in human history. we are searching for an aircraft which is -- is at the bottom of a very deep ocean. and it's a very, very wide search area. so it's a very, very difficult search. and while we certainly are throwing everything we have at it and while the best brains and the best technology in the world will be deployed, we need to be very careful about coming to hard and fast conclusions too soon. >> tony abbott, the australian prime minister making those comments in tokyo. it's a huge search area but the

search area is different today, the size and location. how do they decide where to send the boats and the ships especially after maybe hearing the pinger. >> they have been refining the search area based on updated analysis based on the data from the inmarsat satellite which, you know, the handshakes the pings that the plane was emitting as it was making a course to the south. they extrapolated the most likely places that the plane could have gone depending on the amount of fuel it had. and these are the areas they are searching. when they search one area and find the plane is not there they move to a different area. the interesting thing about this chinese thing is that it is outside any of the areas they have been looking at. according to the analysts -- the world's best minds had been

looking at it. they did not indicate it was in this place. doesn't mean it's not there but it's not their best guest. >> we'll need you once the prime minister does speak. i'm going to get analysis on how or if these pulse signals should impact the search. with me is les avin. michael, what do you make of holding this press conference? the man in charge of this is at the last minute here? >> i think in your statement tonight, i think you hit the nail on the head. this is an absolutely critical time in terms of the battery life that is left on the gps pingers on the black boxes. so what he has to do next, his next actions could potentially

be credit caitical to the investigation. he has to think long and hard about the analysts that he's got. but what angus can't do is ignore this latest information. he will have to be redeploy that. >> can we read into this, les? >> the fact to this press conference was just recently called. >> he is fairly organized. he said i'm going to alert you at this location at certain times. and this is out of the ordinary. >> he's the man. and maybe he's just going to announce they can't verify the credibility of this information that the chinese came up with. >> is it likely that the search planes will move toward the location of the reported pulse signals? >> that would be the most sensible first move.

they are quicker than the ships. the p-8 poseidon can travel at 500 knots and the p-3s can travel three to four miles a minute. and a jet aircraft from china, maritime surveillance. it would be sensible to deploy assets into this area first to get a feel. as we spoke about today you don't get smoke without fire. it would be unusual to find black boxes without a sign of a debris field. if you then had anything that looked suspicious or objects that we saw. 90 objects were seen today. but if there is anything that could corroborate the ships going into the area, the planes could do that. >> do you think that some of the search assets should move that way? because the batteries are dying. >> well, i mean, the most important asset would be a boat

that has the towed pinger behind it. that can locate this thing at least in my estimation as far as the debris is concerned, maybe a couple more airplanes. >> michael kay, les abend, stick around. we are waiting for a news conference from the head of the search effort at the bottom of the hour. in the meantime our coverage continues. nic robertson is in kuala lumpur where a new group has heard the air traffic control conversations. good evening to you, nick. . >> friends and colleagues of the first officer and the captain on board. which one of the two was the one who was last to communicate with the air traffic controllers is key in the investigation. more after this break. can be. w painfuln for fast, long lasting relief, use doctor recommended gaviscon®.

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welcome back to our special coverage. we are waiting for a press conference to start at 11:00 p.m. eastern time in the united states. i want to welcome our viewers from the united states and around the world. a flight origined four weeks ago. today new reports that pings were found near the search area have not been confirmed. i want to go now to kuala lumpur and talk to cnn's nic robertson. officials allowed some people outside the investigation to hear specific control tower recordings. who was that and why did they hear it? >> friends and colleagues of the first officer and captain is

what we've been told by officials here, don, this is in an effort to identify which of them was at the controls of the aircraft -- which one of them said "good night malaysian 370." key for the investigation because it's not long after that communication that the aircraft then deviates from its planned route to beijing. an important clue about what was happening on board the aircraft. the crew is still the focus of the investigation here for the investigators. but it is unusual for them to share this information. we do understand that it would be normal to allow and help with identification for friends, colleagues, people who knew them well, knew the first officer and captain well to be played this recording to help with that identification. but because the close way that

the investigators here have been holding all their information, it is, perhaps, slightly out of the ordinary and also slightly out of the ordinary they have not played the recordings to the families of the first officer and the captain, don. >> nic, tell us about these groups that the malaysian government is forming as part of the investigation. >> yeah, three groups. airworthiness, operations and medical. airworthiness is looking at the maintenance records, those sorts of things, the background of the aircraft leading up to this day. the operations will be focused on the flight recordings should those black boxes be recovered. their role will increase once some of the debris is in the hands of investigations, if that happens. and then there is the medical side which will -- if eventually the aircraft is found, will also

get more work. they will be looking at the people on board, the pathology, if you will, and survivability. three groups, three tasked groups as part of the investigation here. >> nic robertson in kuala lumpur. we'll get back to you after this news conference. >> les abend, does it make a difference the communication? >> i know there has been a focus on what pilot made that last transmission but to me what's important and michael kay and i have been talking about that on the break, was that -- it's important that it's either the crew or somebody else. but the fact that the captain was in control or -- it doesn't make a difference. if it was the captain the co-pilot would be speaking. or it could be that the captain

was -- or the co-pilot was busy because he was grabbing a cup of coffee. >> but it still does offer at least something? >> not from my perspective, it does not. >> what is important, don, is the consistency of the audio information that we're hearing. what that means is when you listen to the voice on start up and delivery frequency, is that the same voice that you hear right up until the very last piece on the transcript, or are there two voices that are consistent in terms of that. >> let's talk about the black boxes now. if the battery still works this is what it sounds like when a black box sends off a beacon signal. are the reported pulse signals that a chinese ship heard, are they the real thing.

>> obviously, we have to wait and see or get evidence of what was heard for how long. is it a very unique sound at a very fixed frequency. and the ticking of a clock. it's very repeatable and very continuous in that way. so even if they heard it partially over the course of 90 seconds, it would -- you -- is it unique to the device itself. obviously there are many things in the water that can generate sound. but this is unique in what it produces. >> the device a chinese ship used is hand held and meant for divers. a news conference is scheduled for the bottom of the hour, 11:30 eastern time here in the united states. our special coverage of what happened to flight 370 continues. if the new pulse signals are real what do they say about

flight 370's course before ending up in the ocean? we go to a flight simulator to show us what the plane could have been doing beforehand. that's straight ahead. we work with leading employers to learn what you need to learn so classes impact your career. while helping ensure credits you've already earned pay off. and we have career planning tools to keep you on track every step of the way. plus the freshman fifteen, isn't really a thing here. and graduation, it's just the beginning. because we build education around where you want to go. so, you know, you can get the job you want. ready, let's get to work. they're about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. polident kills 99.99% of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains. that's why i recommend polident. [ male announcer ] cleaner, fresher, brighter every day.

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up to 5x faster than dsl from the phone company. and our phone's better too. switch to comcast business internet. then add voice and tv for just $34.90 more per month. time to make the call. 800-501-6000 comcast business. built for business. i'm don lemon coming to you live at this late hour. a news conference has been called in australia by the man heading up the search in australia for this missing plane. we will carry that for you live as soon as he steps up to the podium. if the pulse signal does belong to malaysia air flight 370, that is a huge if, what course did

the airliner take beforehand? martin savidge is in a flight simulator for us. martin, what were you able to figure out from the location of the reported pulse signals. >> well, there's a lot that we still don't know. i mean, we know where this pulse comes from. we have been charting a lot of this stuff out on maps and computers. what we are doing right now is flying 777, of course, laid out exactly the same as 370. we are over the straits of malacca headed in a southwesterly direction. this is after the significant turn that the aircraft made and following the route. we set the plane at 25,000 feet. that's the big thing we don't know what altitude did the aircraft fly after it disappeared off radar. so we basically figured out by looking at the maps and where this ping was heard it makes sense from what we knew about

the projected path of the aircraft. >> it's basically on that southern route. it's right next to the last ping. it's adjacent to that. it's excellent work by the investigators and calculators. >> those are the pings from the inmarsat on this aircraft that were mapped out through very, very good science they determined two southern crescent crests with the way this aircraft may have gone. so the long answer to your question is, it looks plausible. i guess we'll find out soon if it truly is real. >> thank you, guys. stick around. we'll see you in a little while on cnn. that news conference from the search command center is moments away. stay with us for that and special coverage of flight 370. we'll be right back. when it comes to good nutrition, my daughter's an expert.

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i'm don lemon. i want to welcome cnn viewers around the world on cnn international and our viewers in the united states. we're about to see a live news conference from perth, australia. the man in charge of the joint coordination center will make a statement and answer questions. you are looking at live pictures

in that room. he will step up there moments away. as we wait for the latest on that plane, a plane that vanished on march 18th and what angus houston might say. joining me is michael kay who is a retired pilot and les abend a boeing 777 captain and cnn aviation analyst. it's amazing to think that in a month there is no concrete evidence where this plane is, unless, angus houston is going to come out and tell us otherwise. >> i'd love to see that happen. >> but it's unbelievable. it's been a month. i hate to keep harping on this. to be a month and no really solid sign or clue for this plane is unbelievable. we are working with a

mathematicmatt ma mat -- mathematical probability came up by oneman. >> there is now seven pings. >> this is -- it's not a last-minute news conference. but it is out of the ordinary for a man who has been so organized since leading this search, michael. >> yeah, i think it's refreshing. we heard angus houston say he is going to take a more proactive approach in keeping us all informed. he's going to have something to say. we had unique news in terms of this ping that has been reported from the chinese news agency. it's something he has to follow up on. that will require the redeployment of assets. and there will be secondariary tertiary effects to this and it will be interesting to see where he goes with this.

>> it's 11:30 in the morning in australia and the planes took off a little bit earlier but are in the sky and those who are leaving perth are pretty close to their destination to look. we don't know if they are flying to the destination where the pings were heard, do we? >> it sounds like to where they are flying to where the debris was reported. but i think they are sticking with the search -- >> you don't need planes for that. what you need is the ping touwe. >> you need something that can listen under the water. >> but the problem with that is it takes a lot longer to redeploy the towed pinger asset. it's a lot longer to deploy those. if i'm angus houston i want the fast assets to get over there. >> you have been talking about the ocean shield and the other

assets out there. and you said it's not just like that that they can turn those around and move them in different places. it takes a while. thus the cliche to turn a ship around takes a lot. >> the nuclear submarine from britain can go at about 35 knots but relative to the aircraft that is pretty slow. if you imagine it has to cover 1,000 miles to redeploy to a search area that takes a day and a half. and this is a critical time. the pings are running out. and when they go, these ping locators will be defungt. >> if you are just tuning in these are live pictures from perth, australia. this is where that search is being headed up by angus houston who is the head of the search, the multinational search. he called a press conference a couple hours ago. we are not sure what he is going

to say. he has been organized in this, offering the families more hope than they had before letting them know someone is in charge and is coordinating this particular search effort. so he's going to come out in just a short time to update us on whatever he is going to update us on. it's going to be supposedly about the ping that was heard. we don't know if it's that or if he is saying that assets are being deployed in that area. we don't know if he's going to tell us, whether -- why this got out of his hands and the chinese state run media announced that rather than being confirmed by the official agency which is the australians who are in charge of this. >> back with my panel to talk about. this we have learned several things in the past 24 hours. and twice we were told they possibly heard a pinging from the data recorders.

but no follow up on that. >> it would be nice to know that this is verified data or credible data at this point in time. >> i think one of the key aspects is that angus houston will have the feelings of the families and loved ones of the people on board. and what he will be doing will be shapd by disseminating that information. and so to make sure that every single step of the way he is trying to manage the exceptions of the families and the loved ones to make sure they are looked after. >> speaking of the family. nic robertson is in kuala lumpur. you have spent a lot of moments with the families. they are watching very closely. >> they. are and what frustrates them at the moment is there is no confirmation of this ping. they are waiting patiently. they are concerned their hopes will be got up again.

everyone's hopes were raised when debris was spotted in the search area off of australia. it then turned out not to yield useful information. the families are afraid of that. there is a lot here for them of course. any news about the aircraft coming down in the sea is going to be very, very painful. they hold out that slender hope, that slender hope that somehow their loved ones may still be alive somewhere. if they get this information that the aircraft truly has gone down and that this is the black box that is pinging from the bottom of the ocean there, then this is perhaps going to close down those avenues of hope. they would like very much to get more information about this and begin to get some sense of greater understanding of what happened. perhaps the black boxes can reveal. but at the moment, they're just saying they are waiting patiently, there is no

confirmation. they are taking a very cautious, pragmatic approach to this, don. >> nic, i must ask if over the past couple weeks as you have been spending time with the families, have you seen their attitudes change or anything about them change over the past couple weeks? are they more positive? are they a little bit more, you know, leery of the authorities in this case? what -- how are they reacting to this? >> i think if you look at where we are today compared to, perhaps, two weeks ago where anger and frustration was boiling over, a huge frustration that malaysian authorities weren't able to provide them with information, a number of families came from beijing down here to kuala lumpur to get more information from authorities, there's been continuing frustration they haven't got that. the level of anger, if you will, has been more muted and kept more behind closed doors.

certainly, this is a process for them. certainly the anger has been high. but the frustration is still there. they are managing it in a different way. and we are also beginning to hear more over the past, let's say, four or five days, an editorial is written in chinese newspapers. there's a sense there that the chinese government doesn't want them sounding off as much as they have been against malaysian authorities whereas the understanding of a sense earlier was a feeling that the chinese authorities were happy for the malaysians to be lambasted in this case. that also, that sort of government view if you will as it percolates out is changing and that is modifying the way the families are responding. but this for them is not in the least bit political. it's absolutely personal and it's painful. >> we are awaiting a news conference to happen at any moment from the man in charge of

this investigation. stepping up to the podium now. let's listen in. >> well, good morning. i'd like to start by just introducing the people who are on the stage with me today. commodore peter levy, the task force commander. on my left here. i have mr. scott constable from the australian safety maritime authority and i have bob armstrong from the australian transportation safety bureau.

i've called this media conference to provide you with the latest information i have regarding the search for the missing malaysian airlines flight mh-370. as you're aware, late yesterday reports surfaced in the chinese press that the chinese ship "hie shin o 1 "detected pings. i was alerted to this. additionally i confirmed a number of white objects which were also sited on the surface about 90 kilometers from the detection area. i made clear, however that these signals and the objects could

not be verified as being related to the missing aircraft at that point in time. that remains the case. i also advised that the australian maritime safety authority's rescue coordination center had sfoen the rescue coordination center in china and asked for further information that might be relevant. this morning we were contacted by the chinese authorities and advised that high shin had redetected the signals within 90 kilometers of the original detection. this is an important and encouraging lead but one i urge you to continue to treat carefully. we are working in a very big ocean and within a very large search area and so far, since the aircraft went missing, we

have had very few leads which allow us to narrow the search area. obviously, we take any reported lead in the search very seriously. that's why today, royal australian air force assets will report to assist in further examining the acoustic signals in the vicinity where the chinese ship has detected the sounds. "hms echo" and "ocean shield" are also being directed to join the chinese ship as expeditiously as possible to assist with either discounting or confirming the detections. echo is the closest to the site. "ocean shield" will be delayed while she pursued an acoustic noise in her current location.

a word of caution. in the days, weeks, and possibly months ahead there may be leads such as the one that i'm reporting to you this morning on a regular basis. i would ask you, the media, to treat them as unverified until such time as we can provide an unequivocal determination. and i think that's very important and i ask for your assistance and cooperation. i assure you that we will follow up and exhaust every credible lead that we receive. we need to keep at the forefront of our minds, the family and friends of the 239 passengers who were on board the flight. speculation and unconfirmed reports can see the loved ones of the passengers put through terrible stress and i don't want

to put any further -- put them under any further emotional distress at this very difficult time. today, also, the international investigative team has this morning advised of a correction to the satellite data that has been used to calculate the probable flight path of that mh-370. the correction arises from new information about the state of the satellite itself when it received transmissions from mh-370 during its flight. the effects of the correction is to raise the priority for searching the southern component of the existing search area ahead of the northern component. in other words, we see a higher probability of importance upon the southern part of the search

area. the whole of the existing search area remains the most likely area that the aircraft entered the water. but based on the new advice, the southern area now had a higher priority. the air and surface searches for the floating wreckage today are already in progress and will be completed as planned in the available daylight. tomorrow's searches for flight and wreckage will be adjusted to account for any new information. up to ten military aircraft, two civil aircraft, and 13 ships will assist in today's search, which will cover an area of 216,000 square kilometers. fortunately, the weather in the search area is expected to remain good, with a cloud base of about 2,500 feet and visibility greater than ten kilometers.

i'm now happy to take your questions. one at a time. >> just three questions. have you got data and analyzed by the experts? second -- >> sorry. just -- which data? >> the signal. the data of the signal from the chinese ship analyzed by other experts? second any condition [ inaudible question ] and the third one is [ inaudible question ] >> well, the process is one of, you know, verification. and essentially, the information has been passed through the chinese authorities to the australian authorities with a request to do further investigation of the acoustic

detection. so that is why "hms echo" and "australian defense vessel ocean shield" which has special equipment which will be useful in these circumstances are proceeding to the location of the chinese ship. now all the data this becomes available to the authorities is obviously looked at very closely. but at the moment, at the moment, the data we have does not provide a means of verification. we have to -- we have to do further investigation on the site itself. and that is why all of these resources are being moved to that particular location. >> so then can you tell -- >> well, i think we just have to let the experts take their

necessary time to come up with the -- their conclusions and on the basis of that, we will know or -- whether it is credible contact or not. this is something you should be -- you've all seen how we handle the visual search over several weeks. when we first started the search there were many, many leads. something of them looked quite promising. we sent ships to pick up the stuff that had been identified on the surface of the ocean and, you know, step-by-step, we looked at it and then we couldn't find a connection with mh-370 so that one was discounted and so far none of the visual contacts that we've had and the wreckage was -- the

material we have recovered from the ocean has -- has been, i guess, linked to mh-370. we'll go through a similar process when we go underwater. under water, the environment is quite difficult. there are -- there are lots of occasions when noises will be transmitted over long distances depending on the temperature layers in the water and so on. so there's a complexity about working under water that makes the task quite complex. we have the necessary expertise to be able to operate there and obviously we'll have the expertise on land supporting the efforts of the people who are doing the work at sea. >> based on your professional knowledge if it is confirmed

that a signal comes from the black box how difficult will it be to recover the black box in that area, in this area. and if it is confirmed will you announce that immediately or have to wait for consultation with the other countries to announce together? >> look, the water in which the chinese ship is working at the moment, it is very, very deep. i think it's in the order of 4 1/2 thousand meters. and that is incredibly deep. 4 1/2 kilometers straight down. so you know, any recovery operation is going to be incredibly challenging. and very demanding and will take a long period of time. that's if there is anything down there. first of all we've got to establish the fact that there is something down there. we're long way from making that

conclusion. that's why we need "hms echo" and the australian defense vessel "ocean shield" to come to the location. they have special equipment to help us make the judgment whether there is anything down there. but i think that the fact that we've had two detections, two acoustic events in that location, provides some promise which requires a full investigation of the location. okay -- >> just to verify the two detections in the area, [ inaudible question ]. >> yeah, okay.

the first detection was about -- i suppose -- 36 hours ago. not last night, night before. okay? and i believe it was just a quick acoustic detection. and then nothing. the chinese ship stayed in the area investigating the site at which this had occurred and yesterday afternoon perth time there was another acoustic detection. and that was less than 2 kilometers from the original detection. now the fact that we have two detections, they're slightly apart in terms of distance but in an ocean that size, 2

kilometers is not a large distance, and of course they're separated in time over a period of 24 hours. the second transmission was -- or should i say acoustic event was for about 90 seconds. so we obviously have to investigate it fully and we will do that. and we will let you know at the completion of the process what the outcome is. i mean, we're not going to hide anything from any of you. >> if i could ask you how long you believe it will take the echo or ocean shield to get -- [ inaudible question ]. and is this location in the southern sector within the outline [ inaudible question ] >> in answer to your last question, yes, the area is in

the high probability area, yes. second thing is, in terms of how long it will take the two ships to get there, "hms echo" is closer. she will get there at i would think fairly quickly. i'll take advice from commodore leibby. but in terms of the "ocean shield" she is in the process of exploiting another acoustic event, which we need to look at to determine if there's anything in that. so this is a pain-staking process. and if we get any lead whatsoever, we investigate it and if it is significant, we continue to investigate it until such time as we say, well, no, that is not connected to mh-370.

so it is something that takes time. we're dealing with very deep water. we're dealing with an environment where sometimes you can get false indications. there are lots of noises in the ocean. and sometimes the acoustic equipment can rebound echo, if you like, and all sorts of issues around that. would you like to say anything more? >> just in terms of the timing, "hms echo" is about 14 hours from that position. and "ocean shield" is self investigating another acoustic detection she has made. once she has completed that activity if it is decided to move her down and that proves not to be the beacon up there it will be approximately 2 hours to recover her towed pinger

equipment. it's approximately 24 hours for her to steam down there and 2 hours to redeploy the equipment. >> we are talking a matter of days for [ inaudible question ]. >> that's correct. we're talking days. that's correct. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> this is only happened within the last 90 minutes. we heard a report back from "ocean shield" that they had picked up a detection. it is very, very early days and the note of caution that air chief marshall houston i would reiterate. we're not sure whether she will be tasked to remain there to investigate that detection. if it's not then i expect she will be retasked down towards the chinese ship's position.

i would imagine it would take most of today to determine that location where "ocean shield's position is. she has 3,000 meters of tow behind her. to turn around and go back over an area of water again it takes time for the ship to reverse course. i wouldn't expect until mid afternoon at the earliest a decision on whether she will relocate. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> absolutely. this is day 30 of the search. the advertised time for the life of the batteries in the beacon are 30 days.

now, sometimes they last for several days beyond that. say, eight to ten days beyond that but we are running out of time in terms of the battery life on the emergency locator beacon. you're right. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> no, not at all. we -- i mean, we have two -- well, we have three separate acoustic events, two with the chinese ship. and we have another one with "ocean shield." we're treating each of them very seriously. we need to ensure before we leave any of those areas of detection that there is no connection to mh-370. so we will work in those locations until we can say, yes

or no. so we treat every -- we treat every lead that has any sort of promise very seriously and we don't leave it until we've exhausted all avenues of investigation. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> well, "ocean shield" is probably the best equipped of all the ships out there to investigate this type of acoustic occurrence. she obviously has the towed pinger. but she also has a remotely operated vehicle which is highly capable. and we will see where it goes. and i'm sure as the commodore said, we're going to be looking at several hours, maybe, a couple of days before that one might be resolved. but as soon as -- let's say if

that one completes without verification, it would then be tasked to go down to the chinese ship's position. and if in the meantime other leads come up, we will prosecute all of them. we will, you know, we will pursue these leads to their conclusion. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> well it's 24 hours. they're a long way apart, actually. 300 nautical miles. >> you cannot be sure about the signal frequency detection of "ocean shield". >> this is late-breaking news. i thought it was important that we -- we're totally transparent with you. i just want you to know that the search is a dynamic thing. things are happening all the

time. and this broke this morning. this broke, what, an hour ago? and i thought it was very important that you be informed about it because it is like the visual search. we are dealing with identification of whether an acoustic event has anything to do with the downing of the aircraft. does it represent that the aircraft went into the sea at this location or not? and it's the same with the way we prosecute the visual search. the visual search is ongoing. ships are going to have a look at the white objects that were found in the sea yesterday. and they will be looked at closely and, again, this object, could that have been aboard mh-370? or is it something else? and we've done that