difficult. they have planes in the air and ships on the way and the search is under way. that search will continue until they have decided what it is that they have found. until then, we will wait and we will maintain a clo we look at -- [ inaudible [ crowd noise/inaudible ] -- that they have spotted what

has been described to us as two items of significant size, and then further described as some 24 meters in size, or about 78 feet across. two large pieces, 1,500 miles to the south and west of perth, australia. this is the general vicinity of the area. the original search area, as defined by the national transportation safety board, are those strange box-like things on the left-hand side of your screen, just above the fox news channel logo there, that's the area where they were searching. now we know they have found, not only these two large significant sized pieces, but also what's been described, though not using these words, as a debris field around it. the images were found on satellite after the national transportation safety board instructed those in the area that they believe the place to look was there. so the australians led the way in focusing air resources, maritime, resources and

satellites on that particular area. and then they found these items of interest. first the australian prime minister went to his parliament and said, we have what we believe to be some large pieces. we think it's possible it may be the boeing 777 missing for 12 days. then the authorities came out and gave you a news conference. we'll give you parts of that for those of you who may have missed it. now they have resources on the way and some on site. for more than three hours, they've had a government aircraft above the scene. they're sending three others, which are expected to be there within an hour to three hours, depending on which jet you're talking about and then water resources, ships and the rest, are on the way as well. the hope is, they'll be able to find this, fly low to see if there are survivors. first of all, if it is indeed

wreckage from the jet, to see if there are any survivors, on rafts or whatever from that jet. we don't know how it went down, or where it went down, or why it went there in the first place. so they have to search for survivors. then at some point, if they determine ps pieces of the jet, they'll begin to search for the black boxes and the large debris field, which we can assume is on the bottom of the indian ocean, if in fact they determine this is the wreckage of that jet. and then getting down there is going to be very difficult because it is extremely deep. the weather has not been good over the past few hours since they've begun this search by satellite. and the road ahead may be a very long one. there's nothing at this moment to suggest that within a matter of hours, or even days, we'll be seeing them pull up pieces of this plane or have something more definitive about what exactly has happened here. as i report to you live, it's 33 minutes past 1:00 in the morning

on a thursday in new york city. we have nothing that we can report with any degree of certainty. we have the australian prime minister making his statements. we have the satellite images, which we have not yet seen. we have been led to believe we will have these images. the australian government working to provide these to the media around the world. so we can see what they have seen. he said they are non-specific, but these items are of a significant size. i want to get to a former commercial pilot, former boeing 777 instructor on the line with us. this is right on the edge of what is our understanding to be the range for this jet, with the amount of fuel that we know it had. getting to this location, by air would have been very difficult. >> shepherd, i'm not sure if you and i discussed this particular scenario when i last spoke with you. obviously the first thing that i would caution everybody is to get everybody's hopes us and

this one turns out to be incorrect. but this is promising. it's more promising than most other theories and findings. if this is true, that these are pieces of the aircraft, then perhaps my gut feeling may have been right. because all along, again, i'm not sure if we talked about it, so if that's the case, then it is -- >> what you discussed, there was some sort of fire or smoke in the cockpit, and go on with the story for those who haven't heard it. >> okay, my gut feeling is th that -- southbound 90 degrees to the course and get out of the airway that we're flying on, because you don't want to run into other airplanes on that airway. so perhaps, if this was a fire,

a crew did exactly what their books told them to do, by descending and getting off the airway and that kind of coincides with that westerly heading that would have taken them to the indian ocean. now, if they were succumbed by smoke and fire, the airplane perhaps flew by itself for a while. so either exhausted its fuel supply, or crashed because the controls were perhaps melting. >> sure. now, it would make no sense to anybody like me, who doesn't have experience with this sort of thing, that the pilots would have programmed in these waypoints such that it's jog of a flight pattern would be of the construct which we've seen. however, it's my understanding and i think from you, that pilots might put in a

number of waypoints just as a just in case, and that would explain why it is that they made those erratic movements. >> that's correct. they could have done that. or simply use a heading mode, which is the fastest and the simplest way to turn the aircraft from the navigation route that they -- the original route. we're told to -- if we need to do that in a hurry, you basically just push one button, heading select, and turn to heading to whatever you want it to be. in this case, would have been heading 270, which is westerly heading. and this also explains perhaps why there was no communication, or the acars dropping off, because when the aircraft is on fire, these components actually drop off by the protection

circuits, and perhaps pilots actually turning them off. because when you have an electric fire, any kind of fire, you start turning off components. and perhaps the radios were not working where they could have made any contact. again, as i've mentioned on several interviews, that on board fire is probably the worst-case scenario, because the fire propigates so rapidly in an aircraft, that sometimes there's absolutely no time. >> yeah. >> there was a ups 747 freighter crash a few years ago that was carrying lithium ion batteries. and they crashed in dubai. that was very, very much in my mind, every time i saw this, and again, i had heard some news that this aircraft may have been carrying a shipment of lithium

ion batteries in the cargo compartment. >> ross, thank you very much. we have a number of new bits of information coming in regarding the spotting of what appears to australian authorities to be a debris field, some 1,500 miles to the south and west of perth, australia, off the western coast of australia. is it -- do they believe it's possible this is wreckage of this jet? they do. they have satellite images. but they now have one ship on scene -- one aircraft on scene. three more aircraft on the way. a ship on the way as well. they're hoping to begin a search.catherine herridge is in washington and do we have her on the line with us now? instead i want to go to david piper. remember, that it was the thai radar systems that were able to spot a change in direction for this jet. and now our david piper is live

for us in bangkok. david, this is significant at very least. >> yes, that's right. we haven't had any firm leads like this for a long, long time. a lot of rumors, a lot of searching, but nothing like this. and the malaysian authorities, they're saying, they can confirm there has been a new lead. but they're being very, very cautious at this time. saying they want to have it verified. the australians are trying to verify it at this time. they have a plane flying over. we understand bad visibility. more planes are going and also ships. we understand they're also asking for help already. we know that there's nine chinese ships west of sumatra, the indonesian island. i believe perhaps some of them will be steaming towards australia now. back to you. >> david, is it your sense -- we've spoke to a number of different pilots and former officials from the faa and the ntsb, but from all that we knew of this jet, the fuel that it contained, the weight that it was carrying, to be able to

reach this area, would have been on the extremes of this jet's range. >> yes, on the extreme. but also the australians have been releasing a lot of information over the last few day, showing where they've been searching and they've been very straight about what they've been up to. they understand that they were searching at the edge of that likely southern arc. so if they hadn't had found that, then i don't think they would have been taking it so seriously and having the australian prime minister standing up in parliament to say that there is a possibility debris has been found. >> john young, the australian maritime safety authority came forward to tell us that the sheer size of the search area posed such a huge challenge. he said it covered more than 372,000 square miles of the southern indian ocean. it would take a least a few weeks to search the area effectively. but instead, they were able to

find this debris area of something, using satellites. now, david, i keep talking about this being the extremes of the range of this jet because one of the working theories is that the jet was flying basically a ghost ship, that those on board, potentially no longer had the ability to fly this jet, that it was flying on auto pilot and it would do so until it ran out of fuel. so it makes sense, that if that was the case, it makes sense it would have -- >> also the satellite data coming out, the plane may have gone along the southern or northern arc. it also suggested it flew for several hours, right at the extremity perhaps when the fuel ran out. so it does add up at this moment, but you have to be extremely cautious at this time because it's only a few indistinct pictures from a commercial satellite.

they've got a plane and once the ship gets there, if they can get a fix on the debris, the story may come out very quickly now. >> david piper, quarter to 1:00 in the afternoon in bangkok, thaila thailand. where the thai radar images were important letting us know about the initial turn it took. >> i want to get back to kathleen, a pilot and contributor who will be joining us shortly to give us her perspective on this matter. i can tell you, we believe within the next 30 minutes or so, the second of these australian aircraft will have made it to scene. there's a united states vessel on site or in the general vicinity as well. but they've been very clear to tell us they can't pinpoint exactly where this debris field is. as we've mentioned repeatedly, the weather is bad, the seas are choppy. the flow of water is such that it's going to be difficult to find them once they do get the jets -- the planes in there.

and then priority one is a search for any survivors. [ inaudible ] to see if it's possible that 11, 12 days later, somebody might have been able to survive this. it's a long shot, but it's priority one. again, let's get to kathleen banks, who is a pilot, an aviation expert and a fox news contributor. kathleen, your thoughts on what we have heard from the aussies and what it may mean in the big picture? >> well, i'd like to say i'm cautiously optimistic, but really what i'm hoping is that this is not a premature revelation. because the families involv involved -- -- relatively indistinct imagery. maybe they're not playing their whole hand.

what i hope they have, like a wing, descriptive of a tail section or something that shows malaysian airlines markings. otherwise i'm nervous that it's premature. one of the good things you mentioned, it's about 78 feet, the largest piece, which is a third the length or width of a triple seven, give or take a couple feet. so that would be encouraging. that that could be related to a debris field for this airplane. >> for viewers who haven't been following, this jet is, give or take, a couple hundred feet long and with the wing span, a couple hundred feet across. is that correct? >> that's correct. this would be about a third. if they found a chunk that's about 78 feet. i know we're all holding out hope that perhaps the passengers had been taken somewhere in like a hijack-hostage situation, but in any event, if this does turn

out to be a debris field from the flight, at least there will be closure. we're still a long way from that. we don't know if the p-3's will get photographs they'll be able to share with us, or if they'll wait until the ships are on site. i know some of the people we've talked to tonight are optimistic, if it does turn out to be the malaysian airplane, that they'll find the black boxes, but i would caution that those are two completely separate things. but if this does turn out to be debris, then a lot of this mystery will have been solved. >> it will. one thing we do not know, is how, if it is in fact the jet, we don't know that, but if it is, how it got there, why it got there, if it's been anywhere else along the way, and how it's possible nobody spotted it. all of the bits of the mystery are with us and will be for a while. that said, if they are able to

get pieces of this jet, they'll be able to know relatively quickly whether there had been a fire inside that cabin that would have facilitated this series of thoughts about how this may have gone down. you're going to know very quickly once you retrieve parts of this if there was a fire. >> it depends on the pieces they find. if you recall in the air france crash in 2009, one of the first big pieces they found was the tail section. and of course the triple 7 is a hugely composite structure airplane, as opposed to the old days where they were built mostly out of aluminum. so that lends itself that one of these pieces could be floating. something else that's encouraging is that there's apparently a scattered debris field of smaller pieces which could be things like seats and other small objects in the airplane that could float. but, you know, again, i think we have to exercise a little restraint. one thing this whole mystery has had and this investigation, is

many, many false starts. and i just think we need to wait a few more hours or days until we get the photographic evidence of something that shows specifically that this is the triple 7 in question. >> agreed with you on all fronts. kathleen banks with us, a pilot, aviation expert and fox news contributor, my thanks. we are on live in the middle of the night on the east coast for some specific reasons. i want to give you the reason that we see this as very significant. the australian prime minister speaking to his parliament was certainly a tell-tale sign. then this very organized and precise language from the aviation authorities there lead us to believe that they at least think they have something. they have diverted resources in large numbers to this area. from air and sea. the united states is participating as well. and all eyes are on this area, some 1,550 miles to the south

and west of perth, australia. catherine herridge has been on the forefront of this investigation and is live with us from washington. drips and drabs, but it's coming in. >> well, it is. if i could just lay out some of the dots and connect them for folks. because what led us to this moment is really a second review or analysis of the existing signals intelligence. so this was the communications link that pinged, if you will, for about eight hours, or reset for eight hours. that led to the two corridors, one north, and one south. then also the civilian radar data and the military radar data. one of our contacts here in washington told us there was a second intense review of this existing data by the faa, as well as the ntsb, and it now seems clear from a news conference this evening that there was a significant input from the u.s. threatening community as well. this led to a refining of the

area and it was not just the radar data or signals data. but they also factored in things such as the weather, the fuel, and how long a triple 7 could glide without any power. they took all of these things, factored them in, and they came out with this new refocused search area southwest of perth. a map of this area was released late yesterday by the pentagon. and significantly not only a targeted search area, but also a secondary drift area, and it designated the drift area as about a week after the crash. we also understood, and this was confirmed at the news conference, that there was a refocusing of all u.s. military assets that were involved in the search on that southwestern corridor. so that really has borne fruit it would seem and brought us to

the point today where these two objects have now been publicly identified by the australians as possibly related to the missing flight 370. in the news conference just decoded for people, the australians pulled data from what's called the a.g.o., their geospatial and imagery intelligence organization. this is a military intelligence organization and their job is to be the best technical eyes in the sky. they picked up these images and now they're refocusing civilian satellites to help refine and refocus what they think they're seeing. another key data point, as your previous guest just emphasized, a piece of debris, that at least on its face, would be consistent with the size of a triple 7, about 80 feet. not sure if it's in length or width, but something about 80 feet. and ntsb investigators have told

fox since the flight disappeared, especially with that false alarm with the chinese satellite images, that the type of debris that would survive an impact into the ocean, would be the large sections of the aircraft. so the wing span, which is about 210 feet, and then that tail section which would be the horizontal stabilizer, as well as the vertical fin. and finally, i would just say that as you rightly point out, the weather may be one of the biggest unknowables in this situation. it seems to have made it harder to discern what exactly has shown up in that section of the ocean by the satellites, and it will certainly complicate the recovery which is in an area that's quite a jog off the coast of australia. so you have the challenge of reaching that site, navigating the weather, trying to recover what may be there, because it's

a moving target. because it was identified on a satellite does not mean that's the exact location that it is. but it's a promising lead. those were the words of the australians this evening. but they stayed careful to play down expectations as well. >> indeed they did. catherine herridge live with us with a great synopsis of what brought us to this point. thanks so much. >> you're welcome. >> for our viewers who were not with us, all of this is what led the australian prime minister tony abbott to speak in the morning hours, we're late afternoon now in canberra in australia, the capital there, approaching sundown in the next hour or so. but in the morning hours, he went before parliament and said, and i quote, new and credible information has come to light in relation to the search in the south indian ocean.

the australian maritime safety authority has received information based on satellite imagery, of two objects, possibly related to the search. he went on to say i can inform the house that a royal australian air force orion, an aircraft has been diverted to attempt to locate these objects. later we learned that aircraft has been on scene there for the better part of i'd say an hour and a half. maybe two and a half hours actually now. he went on to say that this orion ap 3, which is a four engine turboprop patrol aircraft that carries out submarine hunting for its normal work. maritime surveillance and other missions for the australian military is now there and a version of the aircraft is also used by the united states navy. this appeared on satellites that they went back to scour, as kathryn mentioned after the ntsb here in the united states said that it had reason to believe that's where they should be

looking. lieutenant colonel dan hampton is on the line with us. it's as good a bit of information from as credible a source as we've received since march 8th when this jet disappeared. >> yeah, that's true, shepherd. and as i said from the very beginning, if i was going to try to lose an airplane, or disappear an airplane, that's where it would be. i think we were all hoping there would be a happier ending. and i need to point out again, that this is all preliminary. >> of course it is. but you've said from the beginning colonel hampton, that this would be the place to ditch it, if that's what you wanted to do, this would be the spot to do it. what i can't figure out, is why someone would want to do that. >> yeah, and assuming that's what this is, then that's obviously the next phase of all this, is motive. the first thing obviously was to find the thing. i hope this is, only because it

would give the families some peace. then to figure out why. and there's a couple reasons why. it could be as simple as the pilot just blew a gasket for whatever reason. we may never know. it also could be -- and this was pointed out earlier too. it could be a counterintelligence situation where somebody somewhere in the world is interested to see, what our capabilities are. that's one reason why our own intelligence agencies have been so cautious because they realize they're being watched too. >> colonel hampton, you mentioned there's the possibility this could just be a rogue captain. there's also -- or pilot. there's also the possibility this could have been some sort of event on board this jet about which we have no knowledge. they could have incapacitated people and left them with a preprogrammed flight path that to us at this moment, at least,

wouldn't make any sense. >> yeah, that's true. i always -- i didn't believe the straight mechanical catastrophe scenario just because there would have been wreckage. but if there had been something in the cockpit that incapacitated the pilots, then it could have flown on auto pilot until it reached the end of its range and fell into the sea. there's a couple reasons why i don't think that's incredibly likely, but we'll know when we can find the wreckage. and this has been drifting now for 12 days, so it's not anywhere close to where the wreckage has shown up. >> you're right about that. lieutenant colonel dan hampton, former fighter pilot, retired from the united states military. sir, thank you very much. >> no problem. see you friday then, i guess. >> for viewers who may just be joining us here in the late-night hours, a news conference held seems like an hour or so ago, where they were discussing in australia in perth, regarding off the coast

of perth, 1,500 miles, exactly what it is they think they've seen and why it is they think it's significant. here is the air commodore john mckrary of the royal australian air force. >> the australian maritime safety authority is coordinating the southern corridor search for the missing malaysian airlines aircraft with assistance from the australian defense force, the royal new zealand air force, and the united states navy. rescues coordination has received satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search for the missing aircraft mh 370. we've received an expert assessment of that satellite imagery this morning, 20th of march. the images captured by satellite, they may not be related to the aircraft.

>> john young speaking with us on what it is that the australians have found. so, where are we? well, quite frankly, we're not sure. but we can tell you that the australian authorities believe they have found two items of significance. one of them, about 24 meters in size, or 78 feet across, or up and down. they're frankly not sure. another object of significant size, plus a number of smaller objects. so they didn't tell us exactly how many. they described to us what we would call a debris field around it. it's all floating about 2,500 kilometers or 1,550 miles to the south and west of perth, off the western coast of australia in a very deep section of the southern indian ocean. getting down to whatever is on the bottom of the sea will be a difficult and time-consuming matter. finding what it is they've seen by satellite will be equally

difficult. they have planes in the air and ships on the way and the search is under way. that search will continue until they have decided what it is that they have found. until then, we will wait and we will maintain a clo we look at -- [ inaudible [ crowd noise/inaudible ] -- that they have spotted what

has been described to us as two items of significant size, and then further described as some 24 meters in size, or about 78 feet across. two large pieces, 1,500 miles to the south and west of perth, australia. this is the general vicinity of the area. the original search area, as defined by the national transportation safety board, are those strange box-like things on the left-hand side of your screen, just above the fox news channel logo there, that's the area where they were searching. now we know they have found, not only these two large significant sized pieces, but also what's been described, though not using these words, as a debris field around it. the images were found on satellite after the national transportation safety board instructed those in the area that they believe the place to look was there. so the australians led the way in focusing air resources, maritime, resources and

satellites on that particular area. and then they found these items of interest. first the australian prime minister went to his parliament and said, we have what we believe to be some large pieces. we think it's possible it may be the boeing 777 missing for 12 days. then the authorities came out and gave you a news conference. we'll give you parts of that for those of you who may have missed it. now they have resources on the way and some on site. for more than three hours, they've had a government aircraft above the scene. they're sending three others, which are expected to be there within an hour to three hours, depending on which jet you're talking about and then water resources, ships and the rest, are on the way as well. the hope is, they'll be able to find this, fly low to see if there are survivors. first of all, if it is indeed

wreckage from the jet, to see if there are any survivors, on rafts or whatever from that jet. we don't know how it went down, or where it went down, or why it went there in the first place. so they have to search for survivors. then at some point, if they determine ps pieces of the jet, they'll begin to search for the black boxes and the large debris field, which we can assume is on the bottom of the indian ocean, if in fact they determine this is the wreckage of that jet. and then getting down there is going to be very difficult because it is extremely deep. the weather has not been good over the past few hours since they've begun this search by satellite. and the road ahead may be a very long one. there's nothing at this moment to suggest that within a matter of hours, or even days, we'll be seeing them pull up pieces of this plane or have something more definitive about what exactly has happened here. as i report to you live, it's 33 minutes past 1:00 in the morning

on a thursday in new york city. we have nothing that we can report with any degree of certainty. we have the australian prime minister making his statements. we have the satellite images, which we have not yet seen. we have been led to believe we will have these images. the australian government working to provide these to the media around the world. so we can see what they have seen. he said they are non-specific, but these items are of a significant size. i want to get to a former commercial pilot, former boeing 777 instructor on the line with us. this is right on the edge of what is our understanding to be the range for this jet, with the amount of fuel that we know it had. getting to this location, by air would have been very difficult. >> shepherd, i'm not sure if you and i discussed this particular scenario when i last spoke with you. obviously the first thing that i would caution everybody is to get everybody's hopes us and

this one turns out to be incorrect. but this is promising. it's more promising than most other theories and findings. if this is true, that these are pieces of the aircraft, then perhaps my gut feeling may have been right. because all along, again, i'm not sure if we talked about it, so if that's the case, then it is -- >> what you discussed, there was some sort of fire or smoke in the cockpit, and go on with the story for those who haven't heard it. >> okay, my gut feeling is th that -- southbound 90 degrees to the course and get out of the airway that we're flying on, because you don't want to run into other airplanes on that airway. so perhaps, if this was a fire,

a crew did exactly what their books told them to do, by descending and getting off the airway and that kind of coincides with that westerly heading that would have taken them to the indian ocean. now, if they were succumbed by smoke and fire, the airplane perhaps flew by itself for a while. so either exhausted its fuel supply, or crashed because the controls were perhaps melting. >> sure. now, it would make no sense to anybody like me, who doesn't have experience with this sort of thing, that the pilots would have programmed in these waypoints such that it's jog of a flight pattern would be of the construct which we've seen. however, it's my understanding and i think i've heard it from you, that pilots might put in a

number of waypoints just as a just in case, and that would explain why it is that they made those erratic movements. >> that's correct. they could have done that. or simply use a heading mode, which is the fastest and the simplest way to turn the aircraft from the navigation route that they -- the original route. we're told to -- if we need to do that in a hurry, you basically just push one button, heading select, and turn to heading to whatever you want it to be. in this case, would have been heading 270, which is westerly heading. and this also explains perhaps why there was no communication, or the acars dropping off, because when the aircraft is on fire, these components actually drop off by the protection

circuits, and perhaps pilots actually turning them off. because when you have an electric fire, any kind of fire, you start turning off components. and perhaps the radios were not working where they could have made any contact. again, as i've mentioned on several interviews, that on board fire is probably the owe ryan has been diverted to the area to attempt to locate the owe ryan is expected to arrive in the area -- it has arrived and it is searching

for the objects right now. 24r* are three additional aircrafts that were expected to join in this intensive search. right now there is really no word exactly where these objects were found or why they believe it could be part of that missing malaysian jetliner flight 370. the search has been narrowed to this particular area where they have found this debris off the coast of australia. the plane was carrying 239 people and it went missing back on march 8th. it has been almost two weeks now we are going to go to an aviation expert who is joining us on the phone. she is a pilot and a fox news contributor. kathleen, thanks for being with us. when you look at these images, it is hard to tell what it is. that explains why they want to get in closer and try to see if this indeed could be pieces of the plane. >> yes, i have to admit and good morning. i am a little surprised. i don't they mentioned they would release any preliminary

photos. when you look at the date on the photo it is taken march 16th which is over three days now. looking at it, of course they don't have a scale on there, so there is nothing on there. they are telling us what they think the satellite range or scale is. looking at that piece if one were to identify it as one of the largest pieces they said they had some pieces they identified as possibly being 24 meters or roughly 78 to 80 feet that would possibly be in line with the tail section of the boeing 777. and looking at that piece if it were possibly -- again this is all, you know, speculative at this point. if it were, what it possibly could be and this is without any scale to size is it possibly could be a horizontal stabilizer. if you look at the indentation

of the middle of the section, there is that -- what looks like possibly if you are going to have to identify that as part of an airplane it looks like possibly it could be the horizontal stabilizer or what they call the tail section of the airplane. >> you are able to look at that and give us that assessment based on what you are looking at. australian officials did the same thing when they looked at it. but why wait three days to let us know they have this? why do it now? >> we don't know if the satellite snapped that photo at that time on the 16th, or if that's when the australian government received the photo. i am again a little surprised by the press conference. i would thought they would have waited until the p3 orien got on site. they can get some excellent photography and get there well ahead of the ships they have heading to the area. so a little surprised the

press conference could be premature. this is highly speculative because it is a pretty grainy image. we don't have any scale to size whether the object we are looking at is 100 feet or whether it is 10 feet. that's the difficulty with this. i think the good news is is that something has been found and we will probably know in a few hours or a couple days at the most. going on the theory which they always talked about that once this airplane left, according to the satellite pinging he went on a trajectory north or south. if you follow the southern arc of the trajectory and cross-referenced that with the remaining fuel with the boeing 777 had when it left, it is just about in this region where conceivably if the plane ran out of gas this is very close to what that location

would have been. i can see why they are excited. that part makes sense. we have to be -- we have to exercise some restraint until we get a little more details especially until we get photographic evidence. >> the australian prime minister mentioned other debris. it soibd like he was -- sounded like he was describing a debris field. do you think contributed to their competence in saying they think this might be it? >> yes, excellent point. why they are excited is not only are you looking for the airplane, but the fuselage which is the main tubular part of the body or the tail section which is what we think about when we think about the airplane structure. all of those things might float to the surface, any life vests or seat cushions or water bottles could be

floating with these larger pieces. >> what a are the chances the smaller pieces are going to be around in that particular area? >> and that is interesting because of course it depends on the weather. they said there is some fairly bad weather in that area right now which may inhibit the search , but what we are going to know very shortly one way or the other is if this has anything to do with the malaysian 777 mystery or if it doesn't. >> i guess that's my next question. do you think they will get there and take a look at it, and once they are sure will they tell us? or is this going to be on going for a couple more days until they really get confirmation? >> hopefully if the weather is clear in that area and the p3's can get down there and get some good photos they should be able to identify this, hopefully today if they can make contact w@th these pieces. again i am very surprised that the australian government went

ahead and released in -- released this prematurely and getting everybody's hopes up and the ricocheting emotions that the families and -- the families of the victims of this mystery and also the employees at the airline and everybody, there are so many people and they would be relieved if this wasn't the malaysian airplane so there is that long lost hope that of course the many was hijacked. but if it sbt and this -- if it isn't and this continues it will be a sad state of affairs. a little surprised they released this. hopefully by the end of the day we will have photographic i have evidence. there is a big time difference. we are waiting with our fingers crossed to find out is this part of the malaysian air 370 or is this just some debris that perhaps a ship or

left in its wake. >> if it is, do you think they will find the debris on the surface of the ocean or a lot on the ocean floor? >> a lot on the ocean floor. the big rolls-royce engine and the debris would be on the ocean floor. if the plane did indeed -- if there is a saw -- scenario where the 777 ran out of gas or ran out of fuel and impacted with the water, most likely there is a very good chance it was not under anybody's control. i think most people have discounted the idea of a pilot suicide where he would continue to fly for seven hours until the plane ran out of gas and then land on the ocean. this is perhaps a break, but everybody has to be a little cautious and just wait until we get a report back from the

government. >> there is going to be a lot of mystery surrounding this even if they confirm the debris belonged to flight 370. what in your opinion would have made the plane end up in this particular area? >> we have the evidence that the plane made a left turn. perhaps there was an impact in the area. most people think the airplane did follow either on that northern arc trajectory or the southern one we have seen so many times. and that was based on the part that was still operating and pinging off the satellites in space. there was school of thought it didn't go on the north trajectory because probably one of those countries' radars

would have caught it crossing the borders. that's why the effort has been to move off the shores of australia to that point where they think the fuel supply would have been exhausted. and that's where they have been zeroing in. if this turns out to be a debris field for the 777 we will have a big piece of the mystery solved, and then the hunt would be on to try to retrieve the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder. and that's what will really solve the pieces. >> and that is what is known as the black box. >> yes, the black box, exactly. >> all right, kathleen, thank you so much for joining us. thank you. >> to recap, we are getting the first images of a debris field some 1700 miles west of australian in the indian ocean. the images are from the australian department of defense. they say it could be the debris of the missing malaysian jetliner. stay with the fox news channel for more on this developing

story. fox and friends is live at the top of the hour. us from washington. drips and drabs, but it's coming in. >> well, it is. if i could just lay out some of the dots and connect them for folks. because what led us to this moment is really a second review or analysis of the existing signals intelligence. so this was the communications link that pinged, if you will, for about eight hours, or reset for eight hours. that led to the two corridors, one north, and one south. then also the civilian radar data and the military radar data. one of our contacts here in washington told us there was a second intense review of this existing data by the faa, as well as the ntsb, and it now seems clear from a news conference this evening that there was a significant input from the u.s. threatening community as well. this led to a refining of the

area and it was not just the radar data or signals data. but they also factored in things such as the weather, the fuel, and how long a triple 7 could glide without any power. they took all of these things, factored them in, and they came out with this new refocused search area southwest of perth. a map of this area was released late yesterday by the pentagon. and significantly not only a targeted search area, but also a secondary drift area, and it designated the drift area as about a week after the crash. we also understood, and this was confirmed at the news conference, that there was a refocusing of all u.s. military assets that were involved in the search on that southwestern corridor. so that really has borne fruit it would seem and brought us to

the point today where these two objects have now been publicly identified by the australians as possibly related to the missing flight 370. in the news conference just decoded for people, the australians pulled data from what's called the a.g.o., their geospatial and imagery intelligence organization. this is a military intelligence organization and their job is to be the best technical eyes in the sky. they picked up these images and now they're refocusing civilian satellites to help refine and refocus what they think they're seeing. another key data point, as your previous guest just emphasized, a piece of debris, that at least on its face, would be consistent with the size of a triple 7, about 80 feet. not sure if it's in length or width, but something about 80 feet. and ntsb investigators have told

fox since the flight disappeared, especially with that false alarm with the chinese satellite images, that the type of debris that would survive an impact into the ocean, would be the large sections of the aircraft. so the wing span, which is about 210 feet, and then that tail section which would be the horizontal stabilizer, as well as the vertical fin. and finally, i would just say that as you rightly point out, the weather may be one of the biggest unknowables in this situation. it seems to have made it harder to discern what exactly has shown up in that section of the ocean by the satellites, and it will certainly complicate the recovery which is in an area that's quite a jog off the coast of australia. so you have the challenge of reaching that site, navigating the weather, trying to recover what may be there, because it's

a moving target. because it was identified on a satellite does not mean that's the exact location that it is. but it's a promising lead. those were the words of the australians this evening. but they stayed careful to play down expectations as well. >> indeed they did. catherine herridge live with us with a great synopsis of what brought us to this point. thanks so much. >> you're welcome. >> for our viewers who were not with us, all of this is what led the australian prime minister tony abbott to speak in the morning hours, we're late afternoon now in canberra in australia, the capital there, approaching sundown in the next hour or so. but in the morning hours, he went before parliament and said, and i quote, new and credible information has come to light in relation to the search in the south indian ocean.

the australian maritime safety authority has received information based on satellite imagery, of two objects, possibly related to the search. he went on to say i can inform the house that a royal australian air force orion, an aircraft has been diverted to attempt to locate these objects. later we learned that aircraft has been on scene there for the better part of i'd say an hour and a half. maybe two and a half hours actually now. he went on to say that this orion ap 3, which is a four engine turboprop patrol aircraft that carries out submarine hunting for its normal work. maritime surveillance and other missions for the australian military is now there and a version of the aircraft is also used by the united states navy. this appeared on satellites that they went back to scour, as kathryn mentioned after the ntsb here in the united states said that it had reason to believe that's where they should be

looking. lieutenant colonel dan hampton is on the line with us. it's as good a bit of information from as credible a source as we've received since march 8th when this jet disappeared. >> yeah, that's true, shepherd. and as i said from the very beginning, if i was going to try to lose an airplane, or disappear an airplane, that's where it would be. i think we were all hoping there would be a happier ending. and i need to point out again, that this is all preliminary. >> of course it is. but you've said from the beginning colonel hampton, that this would be the place to ditch it, if that's what you wanted to do, this would be the spot to do it. what i can't figure out, is why someone would want to do that. >> yeah, and assuming that's what this is, then that's obviously the next phase of all this, is motive. the first thing obviously was to find the thing. i hope this is, only because it

would give the families some peace. then to figure out why. and there's a couple reasons why. it could be as simple as the pilot just blew a gasket for whatever reason. we may never know. it also could be -- and this was pointed out earlier too. it could be a counterintelligence situation where somebody somewhere in the world is interested to see, what our capabilities are. that's one reason why our own intelligence agencies have been so cautious because they realize they're being watched too. >> colonel hampton, you mentioned there's the possibility this could just be a rogue captain. there's also -- or pilot. there's also the possibility this could have been some sort of event on board this jet about which we have no knowledge. they could have incapacitated people and left them with a preprogrammed flight path that to us at this moment, at least,

wouldn't make any sense. >> yeah, that's true. i always -- i didn't believe the straight mechanical catastrophe scenario just because there would have been wreckage. but if there had been something in the cockpit that incapacitated the pilots, then it could have flown on auto pilot until it reached the end of its range and fell into the sea. there's a couple reasons why i don't think that's incredibly likely, but we'll know when we can find the wreckage. and this has been drifting now for 12 days, so it's not anywhere close to where the wreckage has shown up. >> you're right about that. lieutenant colonel dan hampton, former fighter pilot, retired from the united states military. sir, thank you very much. >> no problem. see you friday then, i guess. >> for viewers who may just be joining us here in the late-night hours, a news conference held seems like an hour or so ago, where they were discussing in australia in perth, regarding off the coast

of perth, 1,500 miles, exactly what it is they think they've seen and why it is they think it's significant. here is the air commodore john mckrary of the royal australian air force. >> the australian maritime safety authority is coordinating the southern corridor search for the missing malaysian airlines aircraft with assistance from the australian defense force, the royal new zealand air force, and the united states navy. rescues coordination has received satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search for the missing aircraft mh 370. we've received an expert assessment of that satellite imagery this morning, 20th of march. the images captured by satellite, they may not be related to the aircraft.

>> john young speaking with us on what it is that the australians have found. so, where are we? well, quite frankly, we're not sure. but we can tell you that the australian authorities believe they have found two items of significance. one of them, about 24 meters in size, or 78 feet across, or up and down. they're frankly not sure. another object of significant size, plus a number of smaller objects. so they didn't tell us exactly how many. they described to us what we would call a debris field around it. it's all floating about 2,500 kilometers or 1,550 miles to the south and west of perth, off the western coast of australia in a very deep section of the southern indian ocean. getting down to whatever is on the bottom of the sea will be a difficult and time-consuming matter. finding what it is they've seen by satellite will be equally

difficult. they have planes in the air and ships on the way and the search is under way. that search will continue until they have decided what it is that they have found. until then, we will wait and we will maintain a clo i'm shepard smith in new york. our coverage continues as warrants. thank you. good morning, and welcome to an early edition of fox & friends. i'm heather childers. and i'm ainsley earhardt. >> if you're just joining us, objects discovered in the indian ocean could be related to the missing plane. >> take a look. these are brand new images from the australian government. they show a possible piece of debris from the plane. a short time ago, australia's prime minister tony abbott announcing that their navy and