it has turned into one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time. the disappearance of malaysia airlines flight 370 with 239 souls on board. welcome to a kelly file special report. the mystery of flight 370. tonight we take you inside the story, how it happened as it happened. the questions we've answered and the riddles that remain. our story starts with the news of the missing plane first breaking on the kelly file friday night, march 7, early saturday morning malaysia time. fox news alert. we have breaking news on a missing commercial jet. learned the plane left and never

arrived at its destination. worried families awaiting loved ones see delayed on the beijing airport screen. soon it's revealed two stolen passports were used by passengers to board that plane. that detail sparking the first real suspicions that this may have been no accident. the airline calls in a disaster recovery company, fearing the worst. but saying, quote, we are not ruling anything out. meantime, former faa official scott brenner tells us the following. >> one of the things that has -- one of the advantages we've seen in some of these newer boeing aircrafts is they are closely connected with all their important data that's constantly being communicated to their home base. >> by sunday, march 9, reports surfaced that the many may have turned around. heading not northeast, but southwest to the indian ocean. but the search still continues off malaysia's east coast. the monday after the

disappearance, the "new york times" reports the search area is expanding. there is wide speculation over the aircraft's fate. a character made mr. ali emerges, who paid for the journeys of the men with the stolen passports they were bought last minute and paid for in cash. the possibility of a hijacking is seriously considered. experts tell the kelly file they suspect foul play. >> i think it was a criminal act. the 777 is such a reliable airplane, i can't imagine that there was some sort of structural malfunction that was enough to bring this airplane down. >> the men with the stolen passports are iranian nationals. but authorities discount any links to terrorism, suggesting their goal was to emigrate to europe. this as learn more about the plane's curious track. >> the new twist in the search for that missing malaysia airline jet that seemingly disappeared into thin air with

239 people on board. a high ranking malaysia military official is conducting the investigation and is confirming the flight went hundreds of miles offcourse before it went off radar. conflicting information continues to come from the malaysians, while the plane's dramatic route changes come under more scrutiny. is there any chance that these were confused pilots? i don't know what may have happened to shut off the transponder, but that they thought they were going the direction they meant to be going? >> that would be lottery odds, i would suspect. with those pilots and with their expertise or their experience, no. there was something that caused that airplane to turn and go south. >> day five, a wednesday. we learn the final words from the cockpit were seemingly calm, all right, good night. no may day call was ever issued. concern grows that this was deliberate. >> i think as c.i.a. director brennan stated, right now, at least, even with the fact that you described, you can not rule

out terrorism at this point. >> then the chinese release two satellite images of what they suggest might be piece of the wreckage. they appear off malaysia's east coast. the very next day, that lead falls apart. new reports tonight that the plane's communication system was shut down manually and not because of failure. also the "wall street journal" is now reporting that this plane -- this is the new information -- flew up to five hours, five hours after communications went dark. u.s. investigators are now reportedly looking into the possibility that it was diverted to a secret location. the chinese leader admit their satellite images were a false alarm. by now almost a week passed and then -- n ten of the day, what you have is a plane that was going erratically in different directions and was going up and down in ways that a plane is obviously not supposed to and this raises the question i was

saying before of who was controlling the plane at that point? was it someone that didn't know how it fly a plane. >> attention increases on the pilots. police had not searched their homes so far. we also learned the plane made significant changes in altitude after it reversed course. suspicions grow that the aircraft may be hidden somewhere. >> i believe definitely it landed someplace, megyn. that, i do not know. i would look at all air fields, 7500 feet in length, with a large hangar in pakistan and in eastern iran. >> by saturday, malaysia declares this is a criminal matter. >> this movement is consistent with deliberate actions by someone. >> in a bombshell development, it emerges the plane was detected by satellites through 8:11 a.m., the day it disappeared. nearly eight hours after takeoff and seven hours after air

traffic control lost track of the aircraft. but still no answers as to where it was going or why. the search is expanded to a daunting area off malaysia's west coast, including a northern and southern track in the indian ocean. sunday, march 16, authorities claim the plane's communication system known as acars, was disabled before the pilot's last words to air traffic control, leading to questions about why the crew did not raise this issue. but the timing of the acars shut down would later be called into question. that same day, malaysia's government revealed the captain's personal flight simulator is being examined and by the next day -- >> you're not missing anything. i think somebody clearly was up to no good. >> we learn it was the copilot who uttered the final words of the flight. all right, good night. the number of countries involved in the search has grown from 14 to 26 and then -- >> according to federal initials o are involved with this investigation, they're telling me that at least within the

first 26 minutes of that flight, the pilots were already changing the flight path. so what we had originally thought was the plane had gone up basically flying toward its original course to beijing and signing with air traffic control and then making the westerly turn, we now know that within those first 26 minutes, they had reprogrammed the flight plan and were already starting to turn west far before they even signed off with air traffic control. >> so the pilots had intentionally changed their path. but the reason why remains a mystery. malaysian authorities now reveal the plane's acars communication system could have been shut down any time between 1:07 and 1:37 a.m not necessarily before the copilot signed off. the total search area is now at more than 2 million square nautical miles. the next day we learn that files have been deleted from the captain's at-home flight simulator. but what files and why? the f.b.i. steps in to help as

the families of the missing reach a breaking point. on thursday, march 20, potentially big news from australia whose prime minister says satellites have spotted debris off the aussie's west coast that may belong to the missing plane. this lines up with the southern path identified as one possible route for the plane. two large objects are spotted from the skies, but not by initial searchers who head to the spot. officials underscore it could be unrelated to this plane. an international effort to find this plane is focused on the southern indian ocean. but figuring out where 370 came to rest does not answer the why or the how. just ahead, the unavoidable questions about the two men flying this jet, what we know and what we do not. >> hi, everyone. this is youtube video that i made as a community service. >> plus, was this a hijacking, an act of terror or something

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at first flight 370 was just delayed. then missing issues then feared crashed. a fourth idea started to take hold within 24 hours of takeoff, that it was hijacked. our chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge has been tracking that part of the story from washington. >> reporter: within hours of the jet's disappearance, investigators focused on two passengers who used stolen passports to board flight 370. they purchased the tickets through an iranian middle man. >> he's iranian. >> reporter: intelligence officials emphasize that while the men's profiles were run through multiple databases, no positive hits for terrorism were found. it was later determined that at least one of the iranians was meeting his mother in germany. while all passengers' backgrounds were scrub scrubbed for flight training, investigators would not rule anything out. >> we are looking in four areas. one is hijacking. >> reporter: u.s. officials were also open to the possibility of terrorism. >> we know that there are

terrorist groups that are still determined to carry out attacks, including against especially aircraft. >> reporter: days later the malaysian government was quick to down play hijacking report. >> despite knee jerk reports that the plane was hijacked, i wish to be very clear, we are still investigating all possibilities as to what caused mh 370 to deviate from its original flight path. >> reporter: with 152 chinese nationals among the missing passengers, beijing said there was no terrorism linked to its citizens. malaysian investigators refocused their efforts on the aircraft's pilots, with the f.b.i. getting deeply involved. >> we are working with the authorities in malaysia. we're trying to offer whatever assistance that we can, but at this point, i don't think we have any theoryies that i could

propound. >> reporter: with dramatic changes in the aircraft's altitude reported, former intelligence and homeland security officials say the passengers may have taken heroic action like they did on 9-11. >> midair struggle between the passengers and crew with those carrying out the plot just in united 93. >> reporter: once the wreckage and presumably the aircraft's black boxes are found, investigators will determine whether flight 370 was taken down bay criminal act or a catastrophic event. megyn? >> joining me, mike boyd, aviation analyst and aviation consultant for boyd group international. peter brooks also. and philip hollyway is a flight instructor. peter, let me start with you. in light of the most recent developments, looking down on the side of australia, many saying that this is consistent with a flight path that would have been on auto pilot and gone straight past an alternate airport. do you believe that terrorism or hijacking is diminished?

>> well, the other possibility, megyn, is that whoever took control of this aircraft didn't want the aircraft to be found. and put it out in a place that was very inhospitable to recovery operations or search operations. so as little as we know about possible motivations, i'm not ruling any of the above out at this point. >> mike, same question to you. >> we don't know anything yet. all we know is the airplane disappeared. at this point in time, there are plausible arguments that it could have been a zombie airplane, that something went wrong in the cockpit. but there is a lot of information came out, misinformation in some instances that the malaysians that would indicate something is rot machine kuala lumpur and this could have been a terrorist attack. >> and you mean suffered from decompression and were flying incapacitated, much as they did in the payne stewart airplane. i want to ask you, philip, about this because many pilots have

said, look, don't throw these pilots under the bus because these may have been heros. not villains who were struggling to save this plane from mechanical failure and that may explain the coordinates typed in to get to an alternate airport and the continuation down south winding up someplace west of australia. >> you know, i'm not ready to throw anybody under the bus at this point. however, in addition to being a pilot, i've been a criminal lawyer for the last 18 years. what i know is that a proper investigation begins with ascertaining facts and unfortunately, to me, the facts suggest that this was a crime, this was a hijacking. the one key fact, and i think you broke it first a couple nights ago, was that the aircraft made a dramatic turn to the west and it made that turn prior to the copilot making his last transmission to air traffic control. at that point, the transponders were pound off and the airplane

went dark, so that suggests hijacking. >> that is a key point. and scott brenner was at the faa on 9-11 is the one who broke that news here. and yet others have questioned it. we questioned it that very night, mike, because they were saying, look, the transponder tracks the plane prior to that and it doesn't match up. in other words, the ascertainable radar data doesn't support that assertion. so i think we have to put a question mark on that information. we don't know it for sure. what we do know is that a destination that was west and not on the plane's original journey was programmed in prior to when they signed off from air traffic control. but i'm not sure what we can glean from that. >> we do know that they did not put 777 into the transponders, which is the emergency code. they did not put 7500 no the transponders which is the hijack code. they put nothing in there except it was turned off.

again, it has to lead one to the inference that it was a human involvement in this and has to be a hijacking or a stolen aircraft. >> mike? >> i have to agree entirely. for safety sake, we have to assume that going forward if someone has this airplane, that's a real stretch and wants to do something with it, sometime in the next 12 months, they might do something with it, we need to look at those options. but i have to agree with the lawyer. it doesn't look good. we can make excuses, but there is too many points here that just don't add up. >> peter brooks, we had lieutenant general suggesting he believes very much that this plane could have made it to pakistan and that that's where we need to be looking and that's what we need to be worried about. your thoughts on it. >> well, tom is a friend of mine and i understand his theory there. give someplace ability to and i would like no know why israel has reacted so strongly to the

disappearance of this aircraft. i can't add to any more than what tom has told us because he has the sources. because few nights ago we talked about how israel is very concerned and putting their air traffic controllers and their air defense systems on high alert. what do they know that the rest of us may not know, if anything, about the disposition of this aircraft. >> a lot of the officials we've had on the broadcast have told us, even off the air, that they believe the american officials probably know much more than they're letting on no matter what that information leads to, mechanical issues, terrorism issues, what have you. gentlemen, thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. so many air disasters are eventually blamed on pilot error. but what if this one is different? what about the suggestions that these pilots may have intended to cause harm? and it wasn't an error, it was planned. up next, what we've uncovered about the two men in the cockpit. and then this search is

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at a company that's bringing media and technology together. next is every second of nbcuniversal's coverage 0f the 2014 olympic winter games. it's connecting over one million low-income americans to broadband internet at home. it's a place named one america's most veteran friendly employers. next is information and entertainment in ways you never thought possible. welcome to what's next. comcastnbcuniversal. welcome back. whatever happened aboard this missing jet liner, there is one thing that did not happen. there was not a single warning, not a radio call, not an emergency beacon, no may day call, no sign of trouble.

that has resulted in a number of questions about these two men. william lajeunesse looks at what we've learned about the captain, the copilot and what was happening in that cockpit. >> reporter: megyn, one plane, 239 lives, dependent on the character judgment and expertise of these pilots. deliberate or accident? what happened on flight 370 will always reflect on what these two men did or did not do. 53-year-old captain shah joined the airline in 1981. 18,000 hours of experience. he also built a home flight simulator. police later seized to retrieve files deleted on february 3. files which could show he practiced how to steal this plane, or he may have simply cleaned his hard drive. he's also suspect for his politics. just hours before he took

control of flight 370, the government sentenced distant relative and opposition leader to jail. to some, meaningless. to others, a motive. >> this all leads towards the cockpit with the pilot himself and copilot. >> reporter: also in focus, first officer hamid, age 27. he joined malaysian air five years ago and just graduated to the 777. it's his voice last heard before the plane disappears. no sense of distress. this 2011 photo shows him with two women he invited in for an hour of smoking and flirting. one called the experience friendly, but sleazy. >> he took my friend's hand and he was looking at her palm and said, oh, your hand is very creased. that means you're a creative person. >> reporter: malaysia air says the two pilots did not request to fly together that day, which suggests if this was a deliberate act, one pilot would have to incapacitate the other. history shows it would not be the first time a lone wolf

pulled off a mass murder. megyn. >> back now to our panel. kathleen baines, aviation analyst, former commercial jet pilot and mike boyd, fox news aviation analyst. good to see you both back. the lack of may day call, kathleen, that is the.on which so many people want to give the pilots the benefit of the doubt get hung up on. your thoughts? >> i don't get hung up at all and i can tell you as a farmer airline pilot and instructor, i don't find this unusual because as everyone knows from watching the news the past two days, there is an old saw which is basically first you aviator, you fly the airplane, then you navigate. then if you have time, you communicate. i think that potentially, potentially what happened was so sudden and so catastrophic that they didn't have time to react and to actual -- >> walk us through that because as a lay person, you say how can you not have time to press a button and say may day?

>> let's talk about what we do know. there is a good chance the captain was at the controls. that's because pilots fly, one pilot tends to be at the controls, the pilot flying and the pilot not flying, in this case, probably the copilot, made the radio call. now, what would be interesting to find out ahead of time is if we could determine possibly through air traffic control tapes, if there were earlier radio calls made. i would be very, very interested to know if we heard the captain's voice at all once they took off. the captain would be on the radio on the ground. but if the captain was on the air when they were flying from kuala lumpur to beijing and suddenly we hear the last call from the copilot, there is a very good chance that would mean there was an inflight problem or emergency. in something like that, in a crisis, what a captain might say is you have the airplane. i'm going to work the problem. and you have the radio. so i would really like to hear those air traffic control tapes and see if possibly the captain had been on the radio earlier. >> our information had been -- this is just from one faa

source -- that the captain had not been on the radio on this airplane journey. but that needs to be confirmed by more people. mike, your thoughts on it, because the absence of the may day call, many people talked about it. yet we learned in the payne stewart air crash, which is called a zombie flight, where no one was flying the aircraft. there wasn't a may day call in that situation either. >> no, that's because it was as the captain mentioned, a catastrophic incident that took the crew out. took the whole airplane out. >> it flew for several hours before it crashed. >> absolutely. that could be the case here. there is no question. again, the question is, was the airplane turned by the pilot? was it turned by the navigation system? those are all open questions. there is a lot of plausible answers here. i still smell something. one thing that bothers me is the assumption that the trajectory that airplane was making the last point of contact was made is one they would keep. if it was a hijacked airplane,

and we didn't know where it was after that last contact, that could have been taken back up north, south, east or west, and that really complicates the matter. >> something could have gone wrong after that point. before i let you go, quickly, mike, no history of extremism in either of their backgrounds as far as we can tell. everybody who knows them says they're good guys. no history of problems. they loved their airline. they loved to fly airplanes. >> yeah. all we found out, the captain has been with the company basically over 30 years. the copilot had girls in the cockpit. all right. so he's a red blooded 20-year-old guy and on the hustle and his technique isn't very good apparently. but other than that, there is nothing else we know that's really negative about these two guys. >> yeah. wound up falling in love, the pilot's wife had just left him, according to some reports. thank you both. >> thanks, megyn. whatever happened to this plane, searchers are focusing a lot of their attention more than 3500 miles to the south of where its journey started.

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fox news alert. i'm arthel neville. new developments today in the mystery of the missing malaysian airliner as the search enters week three, malaysian officials announcing that a chinese satellite has spotted a large piece of debris in the south indian ocean. that's the same general area where another satellite spotted what appeared to be two other pieces of floating debris earlier this week. malaysian officials say china is sending ships to investigate. australia says despite rough weather in the region, search efforts did continue today, but turned up nothing. and tensions rising yet again in ukraine. pro-russian forces storming an air force base in crimea.

firing shots and smashing through concrete walls with armored personnel carriers. two officers reportedly wounded and officials telling fox news russian forces beat some journalists. more news at the top of the hour. right now get you back to the kelly file. welcome back to our special, the mystery of flight 370. a patch of water more than 1,000 miles from anywhere. it's stormy, fierce and hard to reach. that's just the beginning of this challenge. trace gallagher has more. >> reporter: the reason they're focusing so heavily on the southern indian ocean is because there is no confirmed radar from any country that indicates that flight 70 continued flying on a northward path. there is radar that it was flying west and south. but finding debris may be the easier part of this search

because beyond that, the hurdles become extremely high. first, experts will use mathematical models of wind and ocean currents to see how far the debris drifted. when they agree on a general vicinity, sonar buoys can be dropped in to pick up pings from either the black box or the emergency locator transmitters. but the pings can only be detected from a mile away and the batteries, only last 30 days. that means they would send manned or unmanned subs, but the plane could be 12,000 feet deep, about the same as titanic or the air france plane that crashed back in 2009. that crash debris was found in five days, but it took two years and $100 million to recover the black boxes. add to that the indian ocean is known for underwater volcanos, earthquakes, and landslides and if you have lava or mud on the wreckage, megyn, the astronomical odds get even lower.

>> good gracious. thank you. we're going to turn to our expert, dr. alan deal, former ntsb, faa and u.s. air force investigator. and author of air safety investigations. sean used to be a commercial pilot and an aviation accident investigator. captain chuck nash is a fox news military contributor. good to see you all. let me start with you on this, dr. deal. the thought of going 2 1/2 to three miles under the ocean to try to find bits and pieces that may or may not thereby seems overwhelming. how do they start? >> well, we've done it before in west indian ocean. we found a 747, south african airways lost one back in 87. it took them two years and they knew roughly where the aircraft was. but they didn't get to it while the pingers were still operational. they did get one of the black boxes up and it answered the riddle. >> sean, look at these did she

they call this body of ocean the roaring 40s because these seas are just so overwhelming. look at some of this video. they're talking about some of these waves getting up over 32 feet high. how are they supposed to even search out there? >> you're exactly right. extremely challenging and very adverse conditions. part of this is using gps technology, which is something that is far more accessible now than in some of the past investigation, some of the other guests have talked about. but using that technology with known search patterns, these folks are train to do do this. they know how it do this. but that still doesn't negate the task at hand. just a tremendous volume area to cover. >> we were told once they're down there, they can use binoculars, on board infrared cameras so you can spot things up to 22 miles away, digital radar. do you feel confident if

something is there, they'll find it? >> it's going to be very difficult. the sea state that you pointed out with the 32-foot waves, what you have there are essentially little 32-foot rolling hills that radar won't penetrate. so if you have something in the trough of a wave and what you're looking at suddenly pops up on the top of a wave and disappears again, and you're sweeping your radar or you're looking out the window, it can make it very difficult, even though you were looking at the right area, at the right time, you're still looking through a soda straw and a wave moves it and it's gone. >> dr. deal, how much confidence do you place in this particular search area, because the experts like you would get together. they would do math. they would figure out the currents of the they would know where to look, we assume, but that's when you know generally where the plane descended. >> obviously once we establish whether or not these debris on top of the water are part of the aircraft, then we know where to

start. but we've talked about a needle in the hay stack. right now we're looking at a needle in nebraska. we may find a needle in a hay field, but once we find the hay stack, then i'm quite confident f we do it in the next few weeks when the pingers are operational, we'll be able to find it, particularly if the u.s. navy send has fleet of their p 3s to that area. we have a few new areas. but the orions, we have 150 in inventory. we could get dozens of those to that area, couple dozen, anyway, quickly. >> sean, we've been told we have 29 vessels out there searching and that 25 of them are pursuing this southern arc. four are pursuing the northern arc. seems those in the know believe that this plane went south and may indeed be in the south indian ocean. >> i think you're exactly right. i think is where the search needs to concentrate. based on the data that we have now, we have to go on what we

have. and as little as it is, it certainly points to this area and i think this is where the investigation is going to need to focus. >> for those watching, hopes high or not so high? >> i don't think they would be spending the time bringing the prime minister of australia to a news conference to talk about this evidence or this debris that they found and to be concentrating on what is you have a desolate part of the planet. they're looking at a particular area of that. something i think led them there and my hopes are up. >> the defense minister of australia called this a logistical nightmare. we're in the most isolated part of the world he said. gentlemen, thank you. >> the relatives of those on board the plane had a coaster ride of heartbreak, ager and suspicion, as they questioned how the malaysian government has handled this thing from the start. that part of the investigation is next.

>> this is one of the family members, somebody shoved to the floor and she can't move. 239 souls, remember, on board that aircraft. these two ladies had loved ones on board. for the last 12 days, they've been given no information whatsoever. people are falling over, being shoved by the authorities. i'm -- i'm reporting for you they're literally shoving people out of the way.

people are falling over. some being shoved by the authorities. when they try to stand up -- i'm going to try to stay out of the way while i'm still reporting for you. they're literally shoving people out of the way. it's one of the family members. been shoved to the floor and she can't move. 239 souls, remember on board that aircraft. these two ladies had loved ones on board. in the last 12 days, they've been given no information whatsoever. >> pandemonium. that was the scene at a recent dramatic news briefing on the missing malaysian jet. sky news reporter describing how government officials were dragging out the relative of a passenger who was protesting about how this investigation is

being handled and complaints about this probe have been heard around the world. mike boyd is a fox news aviation analyst back with us. and mark is a former faa attorney. gentlemen, good to see you all. i spoke with the senior executive of the satellite group that tracked this plane heading westward first and foremost. they knew two days later. they told the malaysian authorities no learn the wednesday after the plane went missing and yet, still malaysia allowed all the focus to be on the east coast of malaysia and didn't even come out until three, four, almost five days later to say oh, we should be searching on the west coast. not the east coast. is that imcompetence, peter, or is that something worse than imcompetence? >> well, there is a lot of things at play here. first of all, you have to remember that this aircraft is a national airlines. it's not a private company. so the government is responsible

for it. we also, i think our expectations are very high because we're so blessed with having such terrific law enforcement and intelligence and public relations skills here in the united states. my view is that in some cases -- and i don't know this, but my sense is that this tragedy, if it is a tragedy as we believe it is now, exceeded the capacity of the malaysian government to deal with it. so i'm not sure there was any malevolence or imcompetence, but the fact of the matter is, i think our expectations are quite high because of the country we live in and it's just different culturally there. >> i left out a third option, which is not imcompetence, not mal feesance, but good old-fashioned responsibility because that same satellite communication executive said look, they wanted to run down leads. it's not a smoke gun. they didn't want to sort of get everybody engaged on the wrong coast before they really had confidence that the information was right.

but that's just one of many things the malaysian government has done that has concerned people. >> i think the flow of information has been very troubling in terms of not only speed or lack of speed, but also the fact that they haven't really provided it seems reliable information. i think it's very difficult because the facts are simply not there yet. the malaysian government in many respects is sitting and waiting as it relates to locating the airplane. the investigation -- certainly the investigation has started burks it's very difficult to investigate an aircraft accident until you located the aircraft. >> let me ask you about that, how much of this anguish and frustration do you think is borne of that, the fact that tragedy has struck and there are no answers to give? >> i think you put your finger on it in terms of these scenes we've seen of the families. i've handled many, many airline accidents on behalf of the airlines. the number one thing that the families want, the number one thing is information. and the airlines that we

represent, i represent are very sophisticated in dealing with these sorts of situations. they train very hard. malaysia airlines has procedures of this sort of thing. but the families want information. and that information doesn't come from the airline. it comes from the investigators. and the investigators are in fact the malaysian government. >> mike, you have to imagine how terrible it is for these families. one day it's hijacking. next day it's catastrophic mechanical failure. next day could be terrorism. one day it's the chinese are saying it's over here. the next day the australians are saying we think it's over here. in the meantime, we get it's in the indian ocean with 30-foot seas and you have to wonder about your loved one. >> yeah. the anguish must be intolerable for these people. but where i drag the malaysians into this is three words you learn, there is a term you learn when you're trying to explain

what happened and that is we don't have that information at this time. we don't know. you don't let anything out unless you're sure it's accurate. and that -- we can't accuse them of doing. we had misinformation about when this thing lost contact, when it made a turn. we had misinformation that it made a turn, then two days later they tell to us made a turn. they really have handled this at best incompetently and as a 52% airline owned by the government, you have to can yourself some questions. >> you do. and you can see the anguish there which would be existent no matter what here. but with all the conflicting information and the crazy turns that this investigation has taken, you have to feel especially for these families. gentlemen, thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. coming up, how is the missing malaysia plane affecting the flying public? an interesting look at that question next you've reached the age where you've learned a thing or two.

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welcome back. the mystery of this missing plane has captured the world's attention. we wanted to know how it is making people feel about flying. pollster frank luntz put that question to his focus group. watch what happens. >> we heard from the experts. now let's hear from the american people. how many of you are nervous to fly based on what's going on right now? raise your hand. why are you nervous? >> well, i'd be nervous to fly internationally, that's for sure. it doesn't seem like the type of background checks or the checks that they're doing overseas and these other countries like malaysia even come close to the competence we put forward here, if we're even that competent. >> there is only one american on that plane. clearly we weren't targeted. >> well, all i could say is 30 years ago i flew elal and they were checking out toothpaste then. if we had profiling before and better screening, i would have no trouble flying.

>> you want profiling? >> yes. that's what the israelis have been doing for decades. >> racial profiling? >> no. they profile their passengers as to background, beliefs, political activity and likelihood of carrying out a crime. >> who else is nervous about flying right now because of what's going on? tell me why. >> well, i feel much more comfortable to fly with well-known airline, with the british airways, because they really have security issues and they really kind of very well-known. i would not do small airlines. >> just the fact that two guys got on this plane with stolen passport, that really scares me. >> stay with us. our kelly file special, mystery of flight 370 will continue right after this.

we want to know what you think happened to this aircraft. tell us what you think at facebook.com/the kellyfile. let me know your thoughts. thanks for watching. i'm megyn kelly. this is a special kelly file.

a fox news alert. a big development in the search for malaysia airline flight 370. australian officials now reporting a civilian aircraft spotted a number of objects in a search area that's far out in the indian ocean, 15 money miles southwest of perth. he will hoe -- hello, everyone, i'm arthel neville. >> i'm gregg jarrett. search teams are preparing for a third week scouring a remote stretch of the southern indian ocean. and they're battling strong currents and rough seas. after a chinese satellite spotted a large piece of floating debris in the area,