>> we have breaking news tonight, the search area for flight 370 has narrowed significantly tonight after more pings were picked up by the australian ship ocean shield yesterday. 13 shippedz and 14 planes are out there right now, criss-crossing an area that's about 7,000 square miles smaller than yesterday. the ocean shield's 24/7 search with the navy's towed pinger locator is still going on with the ship's non-essential equipment turned off to minimize distracting noise. as the search goes on, there are still more questions than answers. you've been tweeting us questions biy the thousands. like this one from debby. if they find the black boxes, how long until they find out what happened?

right now, i'm going to michael holmes in perth, joe johns is in kuala lumpur. also joining me richard quest here with me in new york. good evening to you, sir. >> just when it looked like the trail was going cold, the search of flight 370's new signals heard yesterday. what's the latest on today's search? >> the planes haven't headed out yet, but they will be, more than a dozen planes up in the area and more than a dozen ships out at sea, all continuing to search for the elusive jet. now, as you said, we had two more pings on tuesday, that in addition to the two from saturday. that helps those who are dragging the ping locator on loan from the u.s. navy, trying to get more pings today. what that will do is help them triangulate, if you like, think of it like looking for a cell phone using cell phone towers and the pings of the towers.

it helps you work out where the best spot to search for those flight data recorders are. of course it's a very difficult task. it's still a vast area, and on the bottom of that ocean floor, by all accounts, there's perhaps meters of silt. so it depends how these things, if they are there, hit the ground, hit the ocean floor, and maybe they're buried in silt, which is going to make finding them even more difficult. but that's the aim today. what we heard from the man who is heading up the search effort here, he said he was optimistic they would find the wreckage because of what data they have received so far. and that coming from a man not prone to exaggeration or raising false hopes. he's a very mild mannered gentlemen. if he says he's optimistic, then that really is a good sign, don? >> yeah, we've been playing close attention to him. usually the planes are up by now, right? >> yeah, the first flights have

normally left by now, it's 10:00 a.m. any particular reason why they might be a bit later tonight -- today? >> you're right, most days they have taken offer by now. today they have not, but it's not the first time they've been this late. it could be complications of weather of course. it's a beautiful day today here in perth, 80s fahrenheit. but this search is happening a couple thousand kilometers off shore and the tiniest variation in the weather out there can keep those planes down for an hour or two. so they haven't taken off yet, but that's not unheard of. >> we'll see. thank you, joe, it has been an agoni agonizing month for the families. >> we're talked so much in these last several days about the emotional limbo these families

are going through. compelling them to not say much until they get some firm evidence that this plane has in fact crashed. there's also the financial limbo many of these families are in. there are bank accounts. there are wills, trusts and estates, all of which cannot be dealt with until a death determination is made. there are also dependents who need financial support. so all these pieces of the puzzle cannot be resolved until a determination of death has been made or authorities otherwise tell these families what has happened to their family members on that plane. a very difficult situation for people here in malaysia. also people in china. >> all right. thank you very much. i want to bring in now mike dean. also jeffrey thomas, he's the

editor in chief of airline ratings.com. the head of the search is predicting that they will find the plane or wreckage soon. what are you hearing from your sources there? >> look, absolutely. i'm very optimistic, both on the record with an gus houston, a man not known for being enthusiastic. but also off the record, very positive feedback. there are actually two search areas. we have where the "ocean cheesh is." then about 500 miles to the west of that, we have about 14 ships. that's where the aircraft are going as well because they're looking for debris. that debris is 500 nautical miles away because a hurricane, if you like, went through there

about two and a half weeks ago and they think it took the debris off to the side. >> the search for flight 370 has shrunk to about the size of south carolina. how much more manageable ask the search area now. >> certainly too large to move to the next phase of the search. we want to try to get that signal and try to shrink it down more. they can cover about 20 miles a day. we've got to get that number down a little bit more. we're optimistic that we reacquired a signal somewhat. having done this for a while, we never believe we've found anything. >> i want everyone to standby. we're going to go to tom foreman

now for a look at the placement of the pings. >> it's very interesting to look at precisely how they collected these pings out here. there's the arc. this is the actual path followed by the "ocean shield." how did they do this? what they're trying to do more of now is establish some order on the ocean. they do this by essentially going back and forth over the target area, getting as many hits as possible. then going in a perpendicular fashion to get as many more as they can. then they look for the strongest ones in both directions hoping that they will coincide to make a smaller box, a smaller search area allowing them to crush this down to an area that is more capably searched under water where the job is tougher and

more time-consuming. >> thank you very much. you think this is significant? >> there is absolutely no question. it is of huge significance. to have had two pings and double that with another two? you're bringing this search area ever smaller. you are getting a better handle on what you need to be. now the worrying part in this is what houston said last night. the signals they had yesterday, the signal's getting weaker. the batteries are dying. he believes that's why. >> that's an indication that it probably is 370, but the bad thing is the signal is getting weaker. >> exactly. so the time is against them. what houston said is, there's no second chance. that is why what tom foreman was just talking about. they're going to keep going up and down before they even think

of putting the vehicles in the water, until they can be absolutely certain that there's no more life. >> all right. mike, to you now. how long do you think they'll continue with the tow pinger locator knowing the battery life is roughly 30 days and that it is almost over? >> sure. we've seen batteries last 35 and perhaps as long adds 38 days. i would expect they would continue on that track for a few more days until they hit one of the 35, 38 days and then likely not had a signal in 48 hours before they discontinue the tpl. that's the ur genergency. you don't want to switch over only to go down and not find anything. >> all right. thank you very much. you'll be back with us a little bit later on. jeffrey thomas, richard quest, stay with me. when we come right back, more than a month since the flight

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♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk. welcome back. the search has narrowed significantly tonight. are we closer than ever before to finding the plane? want to bring in my team of experts. jeff wise, mary schiavo, former

inspector general of the department of transportation. lieutenant colonel michael of the ministry of defense. and david, author of why planes crash. and editor in chief of airline ratings. michael, we're now up to four signals since saturday. now confident are you that this is flight 370? >> well, the first priority here and the first priority from the outset has been to locate the final resting place of mh-370. there's a usual process we've been used to in the past. usually it involves identifying surface debris. >> how confident are you that this is 370? >> i still think that we have a few facts that we need to get our heads around. in the absence of anything else,

i'm confident in the inmarsat data and what "ocean field picked up so far is going to lead us to the location. >> they're concluded that they need more from electronic equipment therein deed. let's take a quick look at this tweet. it says, we hear that might stimulate pings, but how often do false positive tis actually occur? >> there have been frequency picked up, but never at one second pulse like these are doing. you not only have the frequency which other things use, commercial fishing boats use some in that same frequency to look for fish, but they're talking about multiple pings per second. this is a one second ping. that's what we have here. we've never picked up anything that i'm aware of as far as false positives. >> not in anything you can

remember? that's pretty interesting. mary, the official signal picked up on saturday lasted two hours 20 minutes. the two most recent lasted five and a half minutes and seven minutes as well. it appears to be weakening. how bad is that for searchers. >> it's bad because we still have a lot of area to search. by the time you calculate that swath, it's really a long, long spell or it can be unless they get lucky. once the battery dies, they're left with that, what, 36 square mile path on the ocean floor, mow the ocean floor with those submersible inside sonar. we're looking at weeks or months of constant searching. >> even with this smaller search area, right? >> even with that. i don't like to be not

optimistic, but with a larger search area until it was narrowed with the pings, it would be impossible. it would be pointless to put down the sonar until they narrowed it down to what we've got. >> i have a question for martin savage. he's in a 777 flight simulator. searchers have possibly detected the black box. still no debris has been found. could that mean that the plane landed in one piece and broke apart as it sunk? >> it's possible. i mean, until we find the black boxes and the aircraft itself, there are a lot of things that are possible. last time we showed you a demonstration of what it would be like to land on water without power, in other words the engines had quit because they ran out of fuel. if you were a pilot and you knew you had to ditch, you would not wait until you were out of fuel, right? >> no way.

>> take us down, get under the circumstances re-- us really close. we're not going to go into the water. simulator couldn't possibly take that. we'll bring you in and tell you what the approach would be like. >> martin, full water landing, you want to keep the airplane in a similar attitude as you would for a regular landing. so level wings. nose up. you want to touch down tail low. you're going to bounce. that's pretty much a certainty. of course, you want to have a the hatch open to escape. the crew would be prepared in the back and 15 degrees of flaps. not full because that's too much drag. >> reporter: do you keep the power going? we're now 30 feet above the water service. >> yeah. >> reporter: we're right about stall speed almost. can you show us the tied outside of the aircraft.

this is the criminal thi-- critl thing to look at here. this is the miracle on the hudson kind of profile you want to have, but this plane far bigger than the one that went down in the water that day. tail first. you hope there aren't billig wa. the other thing to point ut, it was daylight assuming that the seven hours had gone by. y e you could set it down intact. it could sink after that. >> you guys said you're going to bounce. doesn't that kind of offer up the possibility if you bounce there's going to be breakup especially in waters that volatile? >> reporter: you're absolutely right. there's no perfect scenario here unless you have a glass see. but it's the best case scenario. >> i mean, if you saw the fuel draining, i mean, you'd have to

be a -- you'd have to be really something to go, okay, i'll just wait for it to empty. that doesn't make any accepsens. i'm going to make the best approach i can. that's with power. >> we have a tweet and he would like to ask you this. he says, how many more hours in that simulator until you're a fully licensed pilot? >> well -- >> reporter: i would say thanks to the tutoring that i've had and almost unlimited access to the trainer here, i did a pretty good landing yesterday. >> i'd say so. >> reporter: i'm getting there. i would say maybe pretend co-pilot status at least. >> we've been asking that since week two. we appreciate it. back to business. get my panel of experts in here first. what do you think?

this was a -- the entire plane is in one piece? >> no. i think -- i don't think it was that type of landing, but i think that whatever happened when the engines named out -- and remember, houston did say, speculated that the engines named out. in other words, they run out of fuel. one stops and the other stops. i think there's a strong possibility that the aircraft has gone into the water and remains substantially intact. >> yeah. >> i'm not suggesting some sort of movie star it's all on the bottom. >> mary said this is a strong sfits indicate the plane and this would be indeed be a testament to the 777. >> but it's also like hitting concrete if you hit water at speed. that would help to explain the lack of a very big debris field. i'm not certain they're not going to find it to the west.

>> you did say that, mary, right? >> yeah. you know, when i was an aviation professor, i used to use a film supplied by boeing. when they built the 777, they actually were required to take one and break it. they had to stretch the wings up until they snapped off the plane. they can flex those things up about 70 degrees before they'd snap. when they did snap, it was a powerful sound. >> stay with me. when we come right back, how deep is 3 miles under water. also, the latest on a stabbing spree today at a pennsylvania high school. what was behind the stabbing? b, get married, have a couple of kids, [ children laughing ] move to the country, and live a long, happy life together where they almost never fight about money. [ dog barks ] because right after they get married,

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want to turn now to the latest on another big story. a teenage boy who went on a stabbing spree at a pennsylvania high school today. 20 students and one adult were stabbed in a hallw in murrayville pennsylvania. a 16-year-old has been charged.

pamela brown is live at the scene with more. pamela, what can you tell us tonight? >> reporter: well, we know that the suspect is 16-year-old sophomore alex. appeared before a judge today. he denied bail saying there's no real method of bail that could protect the defendant and the community. his defense attorney asked for a psychiatric evaluation. we also heard from the district attorney in court today who said one of the victims was e advice rated and he's not sure he's going to make it. it's one of the victims still in critical condition. the suspect in this case walked into school this morning and started allegedly stabbing people. we know this all unfold ld before classes eeb started. it was a chaotic scene. we've learned there were 21

injured, 20 class mates, one adult and four remain in critical condition tonight. >> did we hear anything about why this might have happened? >> reporter: well, that is still the big question. we don't have the answer as to why. by all accounts, he was a quiet student who kept to himself. he didn't have any prior run ins with the law. we know the fbi searched his home earlier today. they were able to retrieve his computer. it's unclear if he has a cell phone. the officials said earlier today they don't believe he had a cell phone. they're pulling together all the evidence they can trying to figure out the motive. at this point, it's still a big question mark adds to why he allegedly did this. >> thank you very much. you know, it's been more than a month since flight 370 has been missing. joining me now via skype is --

is that -- are we going to that? we're having a little bit of technical trouble with this. we'll bring that to you. anyway, the search zone now a little bit smaller, but it is up to 3 miles deep. it's full of valleys canyons and mountains. we're going to go to ed with more on that. >> reporter: plun ging to nearl 15,000 feet below sea level, a a journey few humans can even comprehend. it's possibly so deep under the indian ocean that you'd pass the statute of liberty and the tallest building in the world in dubai on the way down and still be only a fraction of the way to where the plane wreckage might be resting. keep plunging and you've enter

add place sunlight can't reach. marine biologists say marine life is unlike anything you've ever seen. >> they have to be very cold toleran tolerant. they might not even have eyes. >> reporter: keep going, at 12,500 feet is where you'd find the wreckage of the titanic which took some 70 years to discover. if it were turned upside down, that's where you'd hit the iconic peek of washington state's mount renier. 14,800 feet into the abusiness. if that doesn't capture the magnitude, imagine this. he says picture