and just when you think your journey's reached an end, you'll be surprised to find it's only just beginning. but you'll keep going because it's your journey wherever it goes. hello and welcome it our continuing coverage of the search for missing malaysia airlines flight 370. i'm errol barnett. >> and i'm isha sesay. to our viewers, thank you for joining us. let's get straight it our top story. australian prime minister tony agot tells reporters in china authorities are "confident" they know the position of the black box flight recorder to "within some kilometers." at the same time, search leader angus houston says there has been no major breakthrough. in fact, he says a fifth sound picked up thursday is unlikely to be related to the missing

plane. with that still leaves crews with four other possible pings to go on. and the search area, well, that continues to shrink. today it's down to just under 47,000 square kilometers. >> let's get you newest details from the headquarters of this massive search effort. we have more live from perth, australia. erin, as far as we know, no major breakthrough, but bring us up to speed on where the search stands right now. >> reporter: that's right, as far as we know, no major breakthrough, but there does seem to be growing confidence here in australia that they are now looking in the right place. tony abbott, the prime minister, delivering a speech at a trade lunch today in shanghai. he said that they are very confident that they know the position of the black box flight recorders to within some kilometers. and he also noted they are confident that -- that confidence in the position of the black box is not the same as

a visual identification of actual wreckage. he said that he was going to update the chinese president later today with all the latest developments, as well. now in terms of the search, angus houston, the man responsible for coordinating the effort which is based out of the building just behind me, issuing a statement today saying that they are still looking for more pings from the black box flight recorder. the "ocean shield," the australian vehicle equipped with american towed pinger locator scouring the waters, trying to detect further signals. the statement also said that they are continuing the overnight head, the ahn p3 planes are continuing to fly overhead the area, to parachute down these sonar buoys equipped from hydrophones. they go underneath the water trying to detect signals. the signals sent straight back up to the plane. they thought they had made a detection that perhaps looked

promising yesterday based on one of the buoys. that overnight analysis, preliminarily analysis showing that it in fact had nothing to do with the missing plane. that search still continues. they'll exhaust those efforts, officials here in australia say, until they are absolutely certain that the batteries of the black box pinger has completely run out. that they have all the information, the locational information possible to make that underwater search for physical wreckage that much easier. but certainly looks like there's growing confidence here in australia today. errol? >> it gives you a sense of all the efforts taking place. the sonar buoys which one official said they're pushing beyond their limits, deeper beneath the ocean's surface to see if it can in fact pick up more signals. you also have a u.s. navy vessel adding to the many vessels already there. and that gives the impression that really everyone's preparing for a long haul her because even as they narrow down the search area, the effort to pull whatever is down there making this noise up will be quite an

extended one. >> reporter: absolutely. and that u.s. navy vessel that you mentioned is actually a supply slip that was sent to -- ship that was sent to provide supply materials for those searching for debris. it gives a sense that they are looking to the longer term, that they extending the search, they is made progress, that they are narrowing the field. even the search field for debris. they're going to try and continue to do this, to find the welcomage, to find pieces of the -- wreckage, to find pieces of the plane. they're trying to make this happen, and it looks like they're making progress. >> that's right. 35 days now. no confirmed wreckage, and the aerial searches today returned no debris. but certainly the four pings the best hope we have at confirming this is mh 370. erin mclaughlin. joining us in new york, our cnn aviation analyst jeff wise and michael kaye. welcome to you both. good to have you with us.

michael, if i could start with you. we hear from ahn prime minister tony abbott sounds of optimism, as he says, that he's confident, very confident, in fact, that the signals coming out of the indian ocean are from the black boxes. then we hear from angus houston, he appear to be tempering that confidence. what's your read of the situatio situation? >> look, i think there are serious ramifications to any information that would lead to a false start. what i mean by that is not just from tony abbott's political credibility, but the number-one priority at the moment which is getting closure for the families and loved once of m -- loved ones of mh 370. i think we've seen over the past week optimism creeping in to the investigation. we saw angus houston's press conference last saturday. this then led to the australian defense prime minister having a sort of smaller press conference, and you in we see

tony abbot on the international stage talking with increased optimism. i'd also say that i don't think we'd -- we would be seeing tony abbot with this optimism if he hadn't consulted with those other five countries that formed part of the team thunder investigation. that is the u.k., u.s., china, malaysia, and france. >> okay. jeff wise, let me ask you this then. is there the chance -- of course there's a chance, but how likely is it that -- that angus houston would not have the same information that tony abbott had? and that, you know, that was leading to this kind of breakdown and conflict in messaging? >> it's hard to really understand. personally, to understand the nature of the messaging that we're getting from the australians. you know, objectively speaking, this is day 35 of what's shaping up to be the most expensive search for an aircraft in history. and what do we have to show for it? nothing. we've got no wreckage.

we've got no clues. we don't know why this was done, really even who did it or why. it's just one huge question mark. and maybe people are getting frustrated. oh, and to mention -- don't forget to mention that now the pinger's probably dead. and so our odds are getting worse by the minute. our only hope -- listen, a few days ago, they weren't even going to deploy these towed pinger locator equipment until they found some wreckage that would let them narrow down the search. they didn't have any wreckage. the pinger was about to die. they said let's throw this in the water and hope for the best. boom. they found a signal. how good is that signal? not very. it's the wrong frequency. and these return that they've been finding are -- are scattered around an area that's something like 12 miles across. much too wide an area to be able to actually find a signal. these things only work for about 2.5-mile range. >> jeff wise, let me ask -- do you draw any confidence from the fact that the search area is

being narrowed somewhat? >> you know, they say it's being narrowed, but it's not being narrowed on the basis of new data. we haven't had any acoustic returns in three days. we just threw out the last most recent one because it turned out not to be good. if you look at the returns that have been found, they're scattered all over the place. they're not getting narrower, they're not converging. it's earl not a very optimistic picture. it's baffling as to why this is making optimistic noises. >> michael kay, what's your take on what jeff said? do you share that sense of i guess pessimism or sense -- certainly a sense that there's been no significant progress made in the search? >> i think jeff raises a good point. i don't think it's pessimism, i think it's realism. i think one of the consistencies through the last 35 days throughout this whole entire investigation has been you've got just enough evidence to leave all the cards on the table, and we don't have enough evidence to take any cards off the table. that's why we're left in this

conundrum. there are three phases to this investigation. there's the where, the what, and the why. we still haven't achieved the where. what we're doing is unprecedented when it comes to aircraft investigations. we're bypassing the haystack and trying to go straight to the needle. that's never happened. we've never found a black box without having debris. so jeff's point is valid. however, i think we need to see the investigation for what it is. we need to understand that it's -- it's very unusual. it's probably one of the most mysterious we've had in aviation history. and we have to treat all the facts of what we've got and look at them and the situation is is that we've got a situation where we think we might have located an area where the black boxes may be, we're still looking for the debris that we haven't found, and we keep continuing until the batteries run out and then the auvs are deployed. i think we better raise our expectations for the long game. it could take years. >> yeah. it certainly could. michael kay, jeff wise, our thanks to you both. great conversation. thank you. well, whether you look at this as a pessimist or realist, despite the fact that this fifth

ping is likely to be ruled out, searchers are still encouraged by the fact that they've picked up four confirmed signals. that they do believe may be from the so-called black box on flight 370. >> but the point we keep coming to and that we have to stress is finding them and retrieving them are two very different things. >> yeah. >> george howell has more. >> reporter: once you've found a need in a haystack, how do you extract it? that's what investigators are up against in the search for flight 370 as they try to hone in on the black boxes. >> authorities and search operators actually found the needle before nay found the haystack. it's unprecedented. >> reporter: once you know where to look, how do you get down there? some 14,000 feet below the indianation. >> there's one of two -- two ways you do. you either do it with a remote vehicle that is not tethered to a ship on -- on the top, or you do it with a tethered remote

vehicle. >> reporter: the former managing director of the national transportation safety board says similar types of vehicles went almost 13,000 feet deep during the search for the cockpit voice and data recorders from the 2009 air france crash off the coast of brazil. the recorders were found about two years after the crash, long after the pingers had died. underwater vehicles were also used to recover artifacts from the "titanic." but before sending the vehicles down, investigators must first map the terrain. a step that takes time and requires patience. >> if it is in rocky or cavernous terrain, it -- it could be challenging. but once the wreckage is identified, these vehicles and operators have extraordinary capabilities. >> reporter: locating them is one thing, but pulling the black boxes from the incredible depth is another. the remote-controlled vehicles

armed with sonar, cameras, lighting, and remote control arms may sift through silt and potentially through wreckage in pitch-dark waters. >> it can be painstaking. it can be very difficult. sometimes the boxes have separated from the wreckage. sometimes the boxes have separated from their pingers. this is going to be a long process. >> reporter: george howell, cnn, chick. -- chicago. coming up after the break for you, we'll see how all of these developments are impacting the families of the missing passengers and crew. our correspondent has been speaking to some of them in beijing. we'll bring you a live report later. stay with us. plus, yet another cross-examination, a contentious one in the oscar pistorius murder trial. after the break, what prompted the have -- the judge to issue a warning. -eating sharks in every ocean... but we still swim.

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sonar buoy, s unlikely to be related to the plane's black box boxes. the prime minister says there's been no major breakthrough in the search for mh 370. as you can imagine, the families of the passengers aboard the missing flights have been through so much. we spoke with the parents of one of the malaysian passengers aboard flight 370. you know, they're holding on to hope on ththat their son will c home. in fairness, my heart is telling still they are alive. all the passengers are alive. >> the couple's son was an i.t. specialist and was heading to beijing for a new job. he was married with two young children. and he also took care of his parents. it has been an agonizing waits in malaysia and -- agonizing wait in malaysia and china. pauline, these families have been through so much, so many

twists and turns in the search and investigation. the australian prime minister there in china on this day addressing optimism that the signals that have been detected were indeed from those black boxes. how is that going over with family member? >> reporter: well, the family members all say that this may be progress, and it may lead to something. but they're very cautious and hesitant about going past that point because they have been subject to so many false leads in the past. and it's so difficult. i mean, we are in the 35th day. and the 35th day is no easier than the first day. frankly, no one can believe that we're into the month of april. still searching for the plane. but as they're waiting, they're staying very productive. during the day, they meet, and they organize. in fact, they've gotten more organized late yesterday afternoon. they set up a voting rights structure. they said, listen, we can't stay here in this hotel forever. some of us will have to go home.

we should be able to decide as a big group what to do on issues like what kind of messages to send out, what kind of questions to ask, and what kind of issue we want to address if we're going to filed a lawsuit later on down the line. they set up this voting rights structure of one passenger, one vote. and they assigned a relative to each passenger. now, these are for the 154 chinese passengers on that plane. there are three americans also on the plane. one of them is an american man from the state of texas. his fiancee has been very outspoken, and just this morning, she explained why she and many other relatives still are have to hope that there may be survivors. >> the hope is the only thing that we have. and the minute we give that up, we have to fall into a grieving cycle, and we can't do that until we have evidence. i think a lot of outsiders think the families are just being irrational, but we're not. we're protecting our emotional

health. and we want answers. and we want to keep pressure on the government agencies involved to find those answers. >> reporter: you that word from a lot of the relatives here in the hotel behind me, from the chinese families. hope -- hope for an answer. and as they're waiting, they're doing a lot of research. i mean, they are like detectives when you hear the questions that they ask the technical team. it's quite impressive. and now they're saying that malaysian team can't really answer all of their questions, so they're questioning for boeing and inmarsat to send representatives here to beijing to answer their questions. >> pauline chiou with the latest from beijing. appreciate it. thank you very much. well, stay with us here on cnn. just ahead, bracing for a cyclone. the superstorm that's got northeast australia in its sights. [ man ] every corner, every week!

let me just say something. we all got a choice to make. and we can keep focusing on the bad... dwell on the bad, talk about the bad... or, or...we can focus in on the good. i want to give it up for good. give it up for what is good. what can be good. what will be good in our communities. now who's with me?

(agent) i understand. (dad) we've never sold a house before. (agent) i'll walk you guys through every step. (dad) so if we sell, do you think we can swing it? (agent) i have the numbers right here and based on the comps that i've found, the timing is perfect. ...there's a lot of buyers for a house like yours. (dad) that's good to know. (mom) i'm so excited. hello, everyone. prosecutors in the oscar pistorius murder trial are expected to be the attack again today as the olympic athlete spends his fifth day on the witness stand. court is scheduled to resume in just about two hours. thursday's cross-examination was so contentious, it brought a warning from the judge. argue -- if the people didn't know they were there and

one doesn't, that version -- >> i don't want to argue with mr. nel, my lady. >> reporter: a prosecutor ready for a fight, the defendant unwilling to back down. >> you are not willing to concede anything. >> reporter: a judge pushing to keep order. >> you possibly think this is entertainment. it is not. so please restrain yourselves. >> reporter: it was a wide-ranging second day of cross-examination in the oscar pistorius murder trial. one in which the prosecution touched on all charges against the olympian, and finally revealed its narrative of what it believes happened on valentine's morning. after a push from the defense lawyer -- >> when you got up, you had an argument, that's why she ran away screaming. >> reporter: finally an objection forced the state to give their version of the

events. they said pistorius and steenkamp had an argument, and as he chased her into the bathroom, see it screamed -- s screamed in terror. >> reporter: earlier, nel loud a text message dispute between the olympian and his girlfriend. pistorius said some of her emergencies messages were untrue. >> reporter: questioned about why she wrote "i'm scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me." i think she was scared of the feelings that she had for me. >> she's not scared about feelings. she's scare good how you react to what she does. that is what she's scared about. >> reporter: the prosecution skipping between events and charges in its questioning. >> it was obviously his strategy. he was getting pistorius' mind to jump between all of the charges before he essentially went in for the kill on the most important murder charge. >> reporter: questioning that once again captivated the courtroom. reeva steenkamp's mother revealing to a paper, "i looked

at oscar the whole time to see how he's coping, behaving. i'm obsessed with looking at him. it's just instinctive. i can't explain it." she said, "he must feel my eyes boring into him." oscar pistorius throughout the examination never once made eye contact with the state prosecutor. of course, he'll be back here again on friday. robin curnow, cnn, pretoria. >> contentious. friday's cross-examination in the oscar pistorius murder trial is set to start just a short time from now. we'll bring you a live report from pretoria next hour. >> of course, as we've done each day, we'll bring you the cross-examination as soon as it begins, as well. tourists and residents are evacuating cities and towns along the northeastern coast of australia. others are preparing for the arrival of a powerful cyclone. the storm has been upgraded to a category 5, that's the maximum, with wind gusts of up to 285

kilometers per hour. the cyclone's expected to make landfall tonight, local time north of cannes. the torrential rains could cause widespread flag. we have our meteorologist, samantha mohr, from the weather center. how damaging could it be? >> it is tremendously damaging and it is huge. as you see, the diameter of the system, tropical storm-force winds cover some 185,000 square kilometers. and this storm has been around for a while, since last weekend, we were talking about it. over the solomon islands. it continued its movement off it the west, strengthening as it went. so this would be equal to a super typhoon if it were in the western pacific. look how well defined that eye wall is, as well. that center of circulation as it approaches cooktown here. now the winds gusting up to 305 kilometers per hour.

those are gusts. sustained 250. it does make it equal to a category 5 on the saffir-simpson scale. say clones, hurricanes, they -- cyclones, hurricanes, they like to follow the path of least resistance. that's what the trough of low pressure is. it will funnel it down the eastern coast of australia, and we'll have concerns about storm surge as we head into the next 48 hours, into the weekend. this area's particularly prone to that. and you can see it will be weakening once it makes its way in. this is probably one of the most powerful storms to ever hit this part of the coast. we'll continue to follow it throughout the night. >> sam, thank you very much. we'll keep our focus in that region of the world, though. pick up the tone a little bit. it was a day of fun, sun, and a built of competition for the duke and duchess of cambridge. >> the couple went head to head on rival yachts around auckland

harbor. it was pointed out they didn't do it alone. they had the help of team new zealand and the support of crowds cheering them on. while prince william reportedly told people the night before he would sail to victory, kate showed no mercy, sweeping him in both races. the royal couple and their son, prince george, are on a three-week tour of new zealand and australia. go, kate. >> you know, it's said they are a very competitive couple. nice seeing this unfold on their royal tour. still to come on cnn, much more on our top story -- the search for missing malaysia flight 370. >> that's coming up after the break. each year, 95% of homeowners won't have a claim. that's why allstate claim free rewards gives you money back for every year you don't have one. and why if you're part of the other 5%, allstate offers claim rateguard.

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thanks for staying with us on cnn. i'm errol barnett. >> i'm isha sesay. thanks to our viewers around the united states and the world. let's get straight to our top story. in the search for malaysia airlines flight 370, australian prime minister tony abbott says confidence is high that the -- t hand. >> we have narrowed the secretary of area and are very confident that the signals we are detecting making are from the black box on mh 370. >> the search leader, angus houston, says a fifth sound picked up thursday is probably unrelated to the missing plane. and based on the information he has, there has been no major breakthrough in the search. but crews still have four other possible pings to go on.

today's overall search area covers about 45,000 square kilometers. earlier, cnn's don lemon spoke with one of the journalists present when ahn prime minister tony abbott made his statement. >> reporter: reporting on the prime minister's trip across asia, don, we were having a press conference about the developments of potentially a free-trade agreement between australia and china. while we were in that room during that press conference, a couple of the reporter started to get reports from back home about this latest ping. he was asked a question, and he came out with really -- not what we expected, the strongest statement that he's made so far about like -- about locating that black box. hooey sa he said that we are confident that it is the black box. he says of course the signal is starting to fade. but certainly confident that we've seen where the signals are coming from. that we've narrowed down the search. he did say, don, he doesn't want to go any further than that at

this stage. that is because right now there's a motorcade that will take the prime minister from shanghai to beijing, where he was getting off the plane to meet with the chinese president. and at that meeting, he has told us he will talk about mh 370 and deliver the latest update that he has to the chinese premier. >> of course we're standing by to see if after tony abbot speaks with the chinese premier he has anything to announce publicly. why don't we check in again with ourclamb lychlan in perth. can we read into the fact that this u.s. navy vessel fleas, the "cesar chavez" going to where it is, that there's a long-term plan being mayor daley and a high level of -- being made, and a high level of confidence that they're looking in the right place? >> reporter: i don't think at this point we should be reading in to anything.

i think in terms of the timetable of this operation, no specific date says or times have been given. but certainly the "cesar chavez" moving in to the area where they're searching for the debris to provide supplies to some of those ships is a sign of international cooperation, a kind of cooperation that has made all of this possible. now, tony abbot, the australian prime minister, as you were mentioning there, delivering a speech to that trade union lunch today in which he gave some details that we haven't necessarily heard before. he said that they are confident that they know the position of the black box flight recorder to within some kilometers. now within some kilometers is something that has not been heard before. he also was careful to say that confident in the position of the black box flight recorder is not the same as a visual on actual wreckage. authorities here in australia have been very careful in all of this. they realize that for the sake

of the families and friends, the passengers involved, they need to find the physical wreckage. now as for this operation, angus houston, the man responsible for coordinating in the building behind me, issuing a statement saying that the search continue in earnest. that the "ocean shield" equipped with the american towed pinger locator's scouring the waters, trying to find natumore signals more information. and there will be three plate patterns -- flight patterns dropping buoys into the water to try to get more information needed to narrow down this potential search field. now we also know that the british vessel the "hms echo," is in the area. we know it has sensitive audio-detecting equipment on board. we also know that it's capable of mapping the sea floor.

this is still very much an ongoing search. we're still, according to houston, at the stage of we're trying to detect more black boxapibox pings before they go underwater to at the wrebckage. >> we're 35 days of the plane missing. and the families are waiting to hear. even with these pings not being confirmed, there's still some doubt left. you have the "hms echo" heading to the area. we mentioned the u.s. refalling vessel heading there -- refueling vessel heading there, as well. once they do confirm the location of where the pings are coming from, there's still a long way to go with this "blue fin 21" vessel. it's a slow-moving vessel once it gets beneath the ocean's surface, correct? >> reporter: absolutely. we just heard the australian prime minister there say that they have narrowed it down to within some kilometers. and that blue fin 21, the u.s.

navy provided underwater autonomous vehicle currently aboard the "ocean shield," is able to go on to the ocean floor and search about 11 square miles in a total day. takes about two hours to get down, 16 hours of search, and two hours to get back up. they take the data, analyze it, and send it back down. they want it be able to conduct its work before -- they want to be able to identify that something is, in fact, down there they say before equipping it with the camera to get the actual visual on any potential wreckage. >> and as you're speaking, we're seeing a file footage of the blue fin 21, what it will look like when it's beneath the ocean's surface. thank you very much. i want to bring you more on the devices searchers are using to listen for the blxocs. a report auto -- black boxes. a report on what they are and how they work. . >> reporter: they're dropped out of a plane, plummet with a parachute, descend below the surface, open a payload, and hunt for a target.

these are called sona buoys. >> a sensor package that's parachuted out of the aircraft, floats on the surface of the ocean, and will deploy a hiredphone. >> once it hits the water's surface, it has saltwater switches that activate different deployments. everything in this canister starts to unwind. there's gear packed in nicely. some of it floats to the surface so there's a radio antenna that talks to the aircrafts or the buoy in the aircraft, they're constantly in communication. then the microphones, hydrophones are looking for the ping. this came from american manufacturers, sent a cargo plane to indiana in recent days to pick up more than 1,000 buoys. the device was first tested and deployed by the u.s. navy but not for this purpose. >> in anti-submarine warfare, this is one of the tools the navy has to look for and track enemy submarines. they're under the ocean's surface. they don't have a radar signature. you need to use sound and smart

waves actively and passively to find them and track them. >> reporter: on this mission, the sonobuoys and planes deploying them have been modified to detect sounds in the frequency range of black box pings. sonar operators are manning computers to receive and analyze the signals. sonobuoys are dropping in a pattern, 84 at a time. they have a shorter range to detect signals than the towed pinger locator, but they're durable. >> the beauty is they stay out for up to eight hours. >> reporter: then they expire and sink to the bottom. >> while they're deployed, the sonobuoys can go about 8,000 feet down. how can they depict signals from black boxes? the sound moves through the water in a manner that can be detected further away. and with good weather, signals are a lot easier to hear. cnn, washington. >> fascinating. joining me is a professor of oceanography with the oceans

institute at the university of western australia in perth. welcome, thank you very much for joining us. so we see that we have four other possible pings to go on. the search crews have detected. and the search area itself has been restricted. it's been narrowed to 47,000 square kilometers. do you see cause for optimism here that they are getting closer to finding these black boxes? >> oh, very much so. what they actually found was not four pings. they found the pings from a source four times. so every time they received that signal, they would have been able to triangulate exactly where that sound is coming from. the more pings that they hear or many times that they hear the pings, they can triangulate it even better. that's why prime minister abbott said we know within a few

kilometers where this black box may be lying. >> right, how many -- respect -- help me understand this. with each ping they are able to triangulate and calculate to narrow it down. why is it proving so difficult to hear theapins again? we heard the -- pings again? we heard the fifth ping, to use the parlance that we're employing, is unlikely to have been coming from any black box. why are they having problems repeating that? >> well, as we know, they transmit at a pretty close frequency. the fifth one probably is not coming -- it's coming from a different frequency. that's why they're saying it's not coming from a black box. the hard part is to be able to triangulate and -- it should be pinging all the time, we know. could be two reasons that we're not finding that continuously.

firstly, the effect of batteries. if the batteries keep dying, they can transmit intermitte intermittently. secondly, it may be the way the black boxes lying on the sea floor. they might be slightly buried. they might be obscured, and under particular condition, they're able to get their signal out. there could be two reasons that we are only seeing it inpatient mittently under -- intermitte intermittently under certain conditions in the ocean to find and listen and record. >> speak to this issue for me of finding, locating these black boxes and retrieving those. those two issues in and of themselves are an enormous undertaking. >> very much so. so, we -- to be absolutely certain that they have found the black box, they would actually have to eyeball it. and the eyeballing, taking a photograph, knowing exactly how

the fuselage is lying on the sea floor. the black boxes in the tail part, rear of the plane. so they would really have to find out through either photographs, by camera on the blue fin, or putting down a submersible that it can explore the wreckage and look at it and basically take photographs. and i don't think they're going to announce that they find the black box until they've done that. we're a little bit further than we could do that. what could happen is as you mention in your news, the "echo" is surveying the area. and that would give us some blood idea of maybe how the wreck is laying or they could find it. they actually have to send the blue fin down, high-resolution data, take an actual photograph from the camera to be able to say here is where the black box

most likely is. and then they will have to send a submersible to pick it up. it might be partly buried, so it might be very much a difficult situation to be able to salvage something at that depth. >> one last quick question for you. if indeed it gets past the point of where we can realistically expect these batteries to still be operating, we come to the conclusion that the batteries are dead in these boxes, do you think they will ever find this missing plane if indeed it did end up in the indian ocean? >> no. i mean, even if -- even if they don't get a single ping again from the blockses, the data that they -- already is sufficient to be able to do a very intensive search sta to locate the black boxes. with air france, it took two

years to search. when the black boxes had stopped transmitting, it took two years for them to be able to find where and recover the black boxes. now, we're in a much better situation than that. we know approximately where the site is within a few kilometers is what prime minister abbott said. so we can actually go down there. all they're waiting to do is to refine it. if it's a few kilometers, a couple of kilometers, one kilometer. that's the type of steps that they're trying to do by analyzing additional pings. >> so great to get your perspective on this day. thank you very much for your time. >> you're welcome. >> they're underscoring how important this visual confirmation is. all this technology and these pings, no one's going to have any more confidence to say this is it until they see something. >> indeed, but i was very struck by the fact that he still maintains a confidence that even

if the batteries die in the black boxes that they will find the wreckage of this plane which is believed to have ended up -- >> we've shown optimism, pessimism, and realism. >> a range of opinions. >> surrounding this. coming up, we'll bring you much more as the search area narrows for finding this missing malaysia airlines flight 370. >> the head of the search team says there's not been a major breakthrough. we'll explain all of it after the break. so ally bank has a raise your rate cd that won't trap me in a rate.

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welcome back. we've been talking about the mixed messages in the search for malaysia flight 370. tony abbot says they're confident they've found it within a few kilometer. angus houston said a fifth sound picked up thursday turns out likely to be unrelated to the missing plane. based on the information he has, there's been no major breakthrough in the search. crews have four possible pings. they're covering 47,000 kilometers. >> while investigators are doing all they can, families of missing passengers hang on authorities' every word, every update they issue, each news briefing. a chance perhaps to finally learn what has hopped to ed tpe happened to their loved ones. against all odd, waiting on a

miracle. >> reporter: this couple are in pain watching every newscast, waiting for word of their son. >> identified aircraft -- >> reporter: the news the day we arrived, more pings, increasing confidence from searchers they may be closing in on flight 370. >> we have to say it to believe it. we ha -- we have to see it to believe it. we have to see it. >> reporter: without proof of wreckage, it is too painful to comprehend. for weeks they've been telling themselves he's alive. >> my inside, my heart is telling still they are alive. all the passengers are alive. >> reporter: her son was aboard flight 370. an i.t. specialist heading to beijing to begin a new job.

married with two young sons. to his parents, he is everything. "he provides for us both, takes care of us" his father says, "what do we do now, just the two of us in our 60's"? they wait and hope. >> telling we'll wait, wait only. wait. >> reporter: on television, it's government officials keeping their hopes alive. >> i have always said especially to the families miracles do happen. and if we are -- we are still hoping against hope, we continue who open it a -- continue to hope and pray for survivors. >> reporter: that faith helping, calling her son for the first time in days, reaching his voicemail. >> he is not available -- >> reporter: a sign they believe he must be safe.

>> i got it. oh, my son is somewhere. i got it. >> reporter: this was this morning. >> this morning. today morning. >> reporter: one day soon, though, the news on the other end of the phone may be a lot harder to bear. >> we hope that -- yes, i don't belie believe. he will have to come back. >> reporter: nic robertson, kuala lumpur, malaysia. now we're a few hours away now from seeing a third day of cross-examination in the oscar pistorius trial. if you were watching cnn at this time yesterday, you saw as day two brought a contentious back and forth between the

prosecution and olympic track star. >> pistorius is on trial for killing his girlfriend last year. he says it was an accident. the state alleges that pistorius murdered reeva steenkamp after a heated argument. in court thursday, the prosecutor pelted the defendant with questions and accusations. >> you never wanted to shoot. the intruder's coming out -- >> that's correct, my lady. >> we knew they weren't there that evening. we know that reeva was there. >> that's correct, my lady. >> there was no reason for you to shoot. objectively, after the fact, as we stand here today. you had no reason to shoot. >> that's correct, my lady. >> why did you fire? >> because i heard a noise coming from inside the toilet that i interpreted at that split moment as somebody coming out to attack me, my lady. i didn't intend to shoot. my firearm was pointed at the door because that's where i believed that somebody was. when i heard a noise, i didn't have time to think, and i fired

my weapon. it was an accident. >> now the prosecutor also showed text messages from the victim to the track star. basically saying this is the only way we can hear from the victim. in one she wrote she was sometimes afraid of pistorius. one thing to keep in mind, there are no jury trials in south africa. so the judge will be issuing the final verdict. but there is a virtual jury of sort. that's of course we're talking about the court of public opinion. >> the panel, that is made up of people from all over the world. we have a report on social media reaction to the trial. >> reporter: the oscar pistorius trial is not just taking place in the courtroom in pretoria. it's also being played out on social media where it seems a virtual jury is already deciding pistorius' fate. now take a look at this trend map. it really shows where the conversation is happening around the world. and as you can see, the heaviest is in south africa where the trial is taking place.

the fascination with this trial stretches right around the world. now, instant verdicts are also being posted on twitter. the biggest reaction has come the last few days whether we've seen fierce cross-examination from the prosecution. many have picked on the fact that pistorius doesn't recall much of what happened that night. take a look at this tweet that we've got here for you -- "oscar just remembers what he wants and forgets what he want to ford get. in this case -- what he wants to forget. in this case, you can't choose what you forget." another, "outlook is not good for oscar pistorius. brutal cross-examination." and some ask why pistorius keeps repeating "my lady" when being cross-examined. look at this tweet. "i don't know if oscar pistorius is guilty or not, but him calling everyone "my lady" is starting to get disturbing. we know he's calling my lady because he's not facing the prosecutor but the judge.

and even the judge has not been immune to the stream of comments. many on twitter have been trying to detect a hint of which way she may be leaning. take a look at this tweet. "i think the judge secretly admires a fan of oscar pistorius. she's so caring and lenient to him." and this lady tweets, have a look, "judge is too lean yoent osc -- lenient on oscar. there are too many "i don't knows." she's giving the idea she has decided the verdict already." there are millions around the world who know what happened on that tragic night. cnn, london. >> oscar pistorius is expected to arrive at the courthouse in about an hour from now. as we've done each day this week, we'll bring you his testimony live as soon as that begins. >> yeah. another contentious day in court expected. >> without a date. we'll return to our top story if and when key parts of the missing malaysia airline are

retrieved. >> american experts may step up their involve. in the investigation. that story is straight ahead. (dad) well, we've been thinking about it and we're just not sure. (agent) i understand. (dad) we've never sold a house before. (agent) i'll walk you guys through every step. (dad) so if we sell, do you think we can swing it? (agent) i have the numbers right here and based on the comps that i've found, the timing is perfect. ...there's a lot of buyers for a house like yours. (dad) that's good to know. (mom) i'm so excited.

hello, everyone. here are the latest developments on the search for mall air base airlines flight 370 -- malaysian airlines flight 370. ping picked up from the ocean floor are believed to be from the black boxes. >> if the missing airliner is locator, the u.s. may step up involve. in the search and recovery operations in the southern indian ocean. barbara starr has more. >> reporter: as searchers potentially close in on finding malaysia airlines flight 370,

u.s. government intelligence, law enforcement, and aviation experts quietly talking about what comes next. of and at what point they'll take a bigger role in the investigation if new pings are found from the plane's black boxes. it could still take weeks to locate the voice record cher investigators hope will tell them what was happening in the cockpit. but it's the data recorder that may tell them the most about how the plane went down. >> it's going to tell you what switches were moved, when they were moved, what your air speed was, what your altitudes were, what your heading was. it's going to give an entire picture of what that airplane of doing. and when it was doing it. >> reporter: if debris is salvaged, more clues for the u.s. to follow. if part of the frame is bent outward, it could indicate an explosion. if investigators find a punched in nose cone, an indication the plane hit the water nose first.

but still, the question what brought the plane down. if it was a deliberate act, what was the motive. there's been no claim of terrorism by the cia. fbi computer experts found no evidence of wrongdoing on the pilot and first officer's computers. malaysian sources say the plane may have deliberately dropped to a low altitude. attempting to avoid radar. that low altitude could be one of the biggest indications flight 370 was not having mechanical trouble and trying to avoid other christie for safety reasons. >> did you hear anybody say that there was any emergency call? why would you turn off a transponder? >> reporter: u.s. officials still theorize that someone deliberately steered flight 370 away from land and interest the indian ocean. still leaving the very vital questions who and why.

barbara starr, cnn, the pentagon. >> all right. thanks for being with us on cnn. >> indeed. our coverage of missing malaysia airlines flight 370 continues next hour right here after a very short break. do stay with us. [ chainsaw buzzing ] humans. sometimes, life trips us up. sometimes, we trip ourselves up. and although the mistakes may seem to just keep coming at you, so do the solutions.

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a warm welcome to our viewers in the u.s. and around the world. i'm errol barnett. >> i'm isha sesay. you're watching breaking news coverage of the search for missing malaysia airlines flight 370. >> here's the latest information we have for you this hour. australia's prime minister says authorities are confident they know where the plane's flight data recorder is within some kilometers. significant because it's the strongest words he's used yet. but search leader angus houston says a fifth sound picked up thursday is unlikely to be related to the missing plane. and also mr. houston says there's been no major breakthrough. meanwhile, the overall search area continues to shrink. today it's down to just under 47,000 square kilometers. the search is