>> hello and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm errol barnett. and i'm rosemary church. you're watching the breaking news coverage of the mystery of flight 370, and there is no new hope this hour that malaysia flight 370 could be found within a matter of days. >> that's right, two more underwater signal pings have been detected. that makes four since saturday. the search leader made the announcement. listen to this. >> today i can report some further encouraging information

regarding the zusearch for missg flight mh-370. on monday, i advised that the pinger locator deployed by the ocean shield had detect ed signals similar to those emitted by black boxes on two separate occasions. ocean shield has been able to reacquire the signals on two more occasions. late yesterday afternoon and late last night perth time. the detection yesterday afternoon was held for approximately five minutes and 32 second. the detection late last night was held for approximately seven minutes. ocean shield has now detected four transmissions in the same broad area. >> so new analysis shows the

earliest signals did come from an electronic device. they are consistent with the ping of a flight data recorder. >> and all this makes the search more focused, of course. 15 aircraft and 14 ships are working a grid of about 75,000 square kilometers. >> still, authorities say it's too soon to deploy the u.s. navy's unmanned submarine. they want to define the search area with as many pings as possible before the batteries in the plane's beacon certainly and definitely die out. >> all right, so let's get more from search headquarters in perth, australia. erin mclaughlin is there live. it's just after 2:00 in the afternoon. they're in perth and people are digesting this significant news coming from the presser that we just heard from angus houston just hours ago. so talk to us for the benefit of those viewers who perhaps have just joined us from the united states or anywhere across the globe. bring us up to date on all the significant headlines that came out of that news conference.

>> well, they're saying this is a very encouraging new lead rosemary. they're now confident that they are, in fact, looking in the correct location. angus houston, the man spearheading this multinational search effort saying these two new detection, the signals are noticeably weaker, were noticeably weaker than the prior detections made on saturday. he said that's most likely because the battery life on the black box pinger has expired or has reached its expiry date where it's set to expire in some 30 days, and we're now on day 32. so he said the priority now is for the australian vessel, the ocean shield to continue combing the waters equipped with that american-provided toad pinger locator, trying to detect any

further signals. they're trying to get as much information as possible until they're absolutely certain that battery has completely run out. only then they say will they deploy the blue fin 21, the american provided underwater aton mouse vehicle to go down and try to look for any potential wreckage. but certainly, they are more confident about this location as being the most likely place where they'll find some wreckage. >> as you pointed out, the signal is getting weaker, and that's understandable given 33 days now. and of course the batteries were only expected to last 30, give or take a few days. but give us an idea on what he said about whether he thought both the black boxes were operational at this point. >> during the press conference, he said that these two detections that they detected yesterday, one in the afternoon, the other in the evening only indicated one signal from the

black box pingers. and that you would expect to have found two. earlier on saturday, one of the detections, they did, in fact, detect two signals. so that could perhaps, perhaps, they're not certain, indicate that one of those batteries has already expired. but again, not entirely certain on that. so they're still combing the waters in hopes of reacquiring the signal in order to be able to narrow down that potential search area. >> a live report there from perth, australia. many thanks to you as always. and of course, we know about this new front that's moving from the southeast. it's expected to bring cat scattered showers to the search area. >> if there weren't enough challenges already. our meteorologist joins us now in the international weather center with challenges facing search officials today. >> yeah, both above and below. at this point, guy, the weather pattern not as bad a we've seen in recent days.

certainly have a storm system on the approach here. we think it's going skirt the southern tier of the search area. you see a lot of clouds pushing in. and certainly can't rule out an isolated thunderstorm in the region, but visibility going to be reduced. that's the main concern. i don't see much in the way of wind impact in the area. that's the areas where we had the search initially, a couple of weeks ago. so conditions in that regard really not as bad as we've seen them. want to talk about the search area,s in very close approximpr to an area known as the wallaby plateau. we know ping detection coming around 14,700 feet deep. you think to yourself what could be living down here. officials say electronic signals is pretty much all that could be associated with what they're picking up here. you see there are sea ur chchin sea cucumbers, squid. but once you get down to the surface, a lot of silt beginning to take shape.

10 meters or 30 feet of it down on the sea floor. a lot of the areas making it very treacherous. if you've ever been snorkeling or scuba diving and you're told not to get too close to the silt below. you kick it up and visibility is reduced, that's what the folks have to deal with. right in this general area of the wallaby plateau and canyon, you see upwards of 30 feet of silt. that not only reduces visibility when you have an unman the machine going down there and trying to move around and look for equipment, it's pitch black. the pressure equal to something like 11000 psi. the animals that live down there are mostly invertbrates. it puts in perspective what we're dealing with. very isolated of course and that amount of silt also wreaks havoc on acoustics.

typical bedrock reflects the machines towards the surface and silt absorbs the sound. faint sound is going to be muffled or even taken into the silt as opposed to sent back up to the surface. >> reduced visibility, the incredible amount of pressure, the silt. it's almost another world. >> they have water falls -- the terrain is just like the earth down there. >> if and when they find it, it is definitely going to be the most incredible undertakings of anything we' seen as far as what they have to face. >> thanks very much. at this moment, i want to bring in jeffrey thomas, he's an expert on the airlines industry and an editor in chief of airlinerati airlineratings.com. thanks very much for you time. first, i just want to ask, how confident are you now that this is mh-370? >> look, very confident indeed. and that's drawn from private discussions and, of course, the fact that this search pattern that they started on almost a

week ago now was the final set of calculations done off the inmarsaf satellite, hand shake pings we heard about. this was the seventh calculus they've done on this after, you know, bringing more radar down from various countries that had tracked this airplane in southeast asia. and they drew up this flight path and they sent ocean shield and hms echo, the british ship, to trod along this line. this is where they found the pings. and interestingly, according to inmarsat, the exact location where the ocean shield is detecting these pins is where they calculated was the final handoff, the final hand shake from the 777 was at this locality. so everything seems to be supporting the fact that we have located the black boxes of this

err pla airplane. >> and you're seeing the visual depiction of that. the yellow lines are the estimations of where the flight path could have been because of the hand shakes. and you're also seeing the locations of some of the pings. in the left you're seeing this aerial search. jeffrey, tell me if you feel as if certain information throughout this entire month has been held back by certain countries for national interests. and based on hearing angus houston today, we are so close, didn't want to confirm it, and you're confident that this is it. is it possible there's more information boosting their confidence? >> look, i don't think there's any doubt about that whatsoever. one of the things we've asked about is the british nuclear submarine hms toorless which is out there as well. they acknowledge the the fact that it is out there, but they simply will not tell us what it is doing. and also the other element to this is when australia was tasked with looking after the southern region of 24 search, obviously geographically, that

was a smart thing to do, but that enabled the united states to start sharing intelligence it had with the australians, because they're our very close joint defense work we do together. we have joint bases in australia. there are several of those. so we work very closely with the united states, and a lot of data was shared. and since the time that the australians were tasked with the southern area, and also since we came onboard as fully fledged members of the investigation team as well, there has been a very strong discipline to this. there's also been a very strong since of purpose about what's happening. and it just feels -- you just get the sense that they really do know quite a bit more about this than they're prepared to reveal. >> very encouraging to hear that. let's just look forward here. how might this change the aviation industry. we're talking now of this

desperate search, because these flight data recorders only have batteries that last 30 days. might there be different thinking now that that really isn't enough time? >> look, that's a very good point, and after the tragic loss of air france 447 in 2009, the french crash investigator, the bea, they made several recommendations, and those recommendations were that black box data, some black box data should be streamed in real time back to the airlines base. they also suggested that black boxes be ejected on impact in an accident, that they should float, and that they should have a 90-day beacon on them as well. now if any one of those things had been adopted by the industry, we would have discovered this airplane quite some time ago. what i do know is happening now is that a number of industry bodies, international

transportation association and the civil aviation organization, the governi ining of aviation a now looking at those recommendations with a new perspective, that this is something that the industry has to do no total or in part to ensure you don't have this sort of tragedy again. >> absolutely. via web cam there, jeffrey thomas, the editor in chief of airlines deposit ratings.com. thanks very much of your time. another official analyst or voice saying a lot of confidence mh-370 is in location. >> and a very important point that jeffrey thomas brought up there as well, is that, you know, why? why do these batteries only last for 30 day? we've seen in the past there that there's a necessity for them to last longer. and if they had picked that up, this would have been a different story. >> we are going to take a short break right now.

you're watching the special coverage of the search. but sick around, when we come back, we'll take you live to beijing. we'll have a report on how the families are reacting to these latest developments. abe! get in! punch it! [ male announcer ] let quicken loans help you save your money with a mortgage that's engineered to amaze. sunny or bubbly? cozy or cool? "meow" or "woof"? wheels or wheeeels? everything exactly the way you want it ...until boom, it's bedtime. your mattress isn't bliss: it's a battleground of thwarted desire. enter the all-new sleep number classic series. designed to let couples sleep together in individualized comfort. starting at just $699.99 for a queen mattress. he's the softy: his sleep number setting is 35. you're the rock: your setting is 60. that works. he's the night owl. his side's up while you're in dreamland. you're the early bird. up and at 'em. no problem, because you're in it together...

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have been detected, making four since saturday. it's now more than one month since the search operation began. and despite the latest positive developments, the painful wait continues for the families of the 239 people aboard flight 3470. pauline shu joins us now where she just spoke to relatives who attended a family meeting. and i wanted to get to that family meeting in just a moment. but we do need to get some word on reaction to this new astounding developments coming out of the perth australia. these two additional signals being detected. what is being said there by family members? >> well, rosemary, the relatives here realize that this is a development. they're very hesitant to call it encouraging, and they're hesitant to use the word optimistic because they have seen so many false leads in the past. and also, they're saying what

they've been saying for many weeks now. even though this is progress and it may eventually lead to the plane, they're saying they want to see proof. they want to see the black box. they want to see images of the plane. they want to see some sort of debris or markings from the plane before they'll actually have an official reaction. so what we're hearing from the relatives is pretty much that sense of caution for many days now, especially as we hear more information about these pings, and especially as we hear more details about how this search area has narrowed. what about the family meeting that took place? what all was discussed then? >> it was an interesting meeting between three americans and the chinese families. they're from a group called

planesafe.org. and you were talking with your guest about improvements in the aviation industry. well, these relatives, for them it's very personal because they've all lost relatives in past plane crashes. one woman lost her husband on september 11th. another woman lost both of her parents in a plane accident. and so their main message is advocacy, for better security and better safety in the industry. and they also gave advice to these chinese family members. and one relative here in beijing said his main takeaway is that finding answers could really be a very long process. >> one lady told us it took 20 years to find out what happened to the plane. just keep strong. >> was that difficult to hear for you? >> yes, of course. but we will wait and do what we can do.

>> now these meetings took place this morning but they will be here until friday. these americans say they're willing to talk to the family members. they understand what they're going through because they wept through this several years ago. i asked them, what kind of questions were asked by the chinese families, because this meaning was closed off to the media. and they said very interesting technical questions also questions about how to deal with this if, in fact, it is terrorism. so there's a lot of discussion to try to cover a huge range of issues. so i assume these conversations will go on until friday. >> so important for the family members to get that sort of support. there hasn't been a lot of it along this process, has there? pauline chu, many thanks to you.

>> our matthew chance is flying aboard one of the zernl planes right now. he's on an 11-hour mission aboard a new zealand p-3 aircraft, due to return to perth in the next few hours. it's been a three-hour flight to the zernl zone, which means depending on the weather conditions we've been mention, the plane will spend between three and five hours searching for debris. of course, as soon as matthew lands, we'll check in with him and bring you developments and details on what exactly officials saw from the sky. at this point, we're going to check the day's other top stori stories. >> when we come back, including an emotional day on the witness stand for oscar pistorius.

>> updating you now on to breaking news to cnn. search officials now optimistic that malaysia airlines flight 370 may be located in a matter of days. that's after two underwater pings were detected tuesday. that makes four since saturday.

and analyst of the first two signals indicate they did, in fact, come from an electronic device, such as a flight data recorder. now, with that new information, the search intensifies. today, 15 aircraft, 14 ships are working a krid of about 25,000 square kilometer 37s more search clue, though, are still needed. >> i believe we're searching in the right area, but we need to visually identify aircraft wreckage before we can confirm with certainty that this is the final resting place of mh-370. for the sake of the 239 families, this is absolutely imperative. >> and angus houston stayed with cnn for further developments on this story throughout the day.

>> in other news, oscar pistorius is expected to arrive at the courthouse in pretoria, south africa, within the hour for more testimony in his murder trial. if. >> if you were watching, you saw, or at least heard, as the olympic runner broke down on the witness stand. he talked about the night he shot and killed his girlfriend for the first time publicly. >> court resumes in 90 minutes. the judge had to end proceedings early. here's a look back at the key moments. >> what time did you eat? >> about 7:00 p.m. we sat at the dining room table for a while and then we usually

after dinner would have watched tv down stairs, but i think we both had a taxing day and so we decided to go upstairs. i opened the balcony doors. it was a very humid evening. reeva is obviously not sleeping. she rolled over to me and said can't you sleep, my brother? and i said no, i can't tonight. i thought there was a burglar gaining entry into my home. i heard this noise, i interpreted it as being someone was climb into the bathroom. the first thing that ran through my mind was that i needed to arm myself, that i needed to protect

reeva eni and that i needed to get my gun. before i knew it, i fired four shots at the door. my ears were ringing. i kept on shouting at reeva to phone the police. at this point, i was mixed with emotions. i didn't know if -- i didn't want it to believe it could be reeva inside the toilet. i was still scared that maybe somebody was copping in to attack me or us. and at that point, all i wanted to do was just look inside to see if it was reeva. and i sat over reeva and i cried. and i don't know how long. i don't know how long i was there for. she wasn't breathing.

>> we'll take an adjournment. court will adjourn. >> two days of emotionally charged testimony there from oscar pistorius. and of course, you're looking here, a live shot outside the courthouse in pretoria. a little later in the show, we will have live coverage of the pistorius' arrival at court and hear from one expert who says gun ownership in south africa is something that is deeply rooted in the country's history. remember to stay with cnn for live coverage of today's testimony. day three for oscar pistorius. for viewers in the u.s., early start and new day we'll have special coverage of the trial throughout the morning. >> and now to other stories we're following for you. russia's former ministry is warning that any crackdown on

pro russian demonstrators in ukraine could plunge the country into civil war. scenes like this played out across ukraine. protesters clashing with police. this happened in a number of eastern ukrainian cities on tuesday. and cnn received conflicting reporters over whether demonstrators who seized control of a government building took hostages. and protesters called for a referendum to secede from ukraine. take a look at this dramatic video. a fight breaking out in ukraine's parliament. this came after a lawmaker defended the pro russian activists. a brawl occurred before the passage of a new law that bans calls for separatism. >> all right, time for a much lighter story now. britain's young prince george took on his first royal engagement ever in new zealand today. >> that's right.

but fortunately he didn't have to greet any dignitaries. just babies his own age. the 8-month toddler joined a play group in wellington. max foster is traveling with the royal family. i talked about all the germs in that room there must be. but that's a fantastic photo op the prince. >> cute baby alert. these pictures are going wild on social media. basically it was a play date. that's essentially what it was. so ten children from wellington were invited along to a playdate. and people just wanted to see prince george. he behaved brilliantly. i've got young kids. you take your baby along to a play date, a new play date and you're in complete panic that everything is going to go horribly wrong, but he's very well behaved. it was a diverse group of parents invited along. there was a same-sex couple, a single parent.

various different parts of community represented there. it went pretty smoothly. i did speak to one set of parents afterwards and they were involved in a bit of a scuffle. it seems there was a block on the floor and one little girl was playing it and prince george wanted it. he grabbed it, she screamed and everyone apologized to the duchess. >> photo opportunities abound, mack. just extraordinary. so what lies ahead now for the bonnie prince george and his parents? >> well, we're not going to see much more of him. that's the shame. people wanted to see as much of him as possible. because he behaves so well today, he may be brought out in a couple more engagements here in new zealand, but we're not expecting to see him again until he gets on the plane. and then his next big day will be at toranga zoo in sidney where he's going to meet some marsupials and