morning here on the east coast. good morning. i'm chris jansing. two objects floating in the southern part of the indian ocean actually described as bobbing. now, these images were just released by officials in australia, although if you look at them, you see that the date stamp is from the 16th. today is the 20th. but they've obviously been studying these images and although they don't know that this is debris from the plane, those studies provided a credible enough lead for australia to hold this news conference and to bet let us know they have sent four planes and ships into that area to check it out. this area we're talking about is about 15,000 miles off the coast of australia in the southern indian ocean. we just heard from kerry sanders that the "uss blue ridge says that there have been radar reflections picked up, but no indications of debris.

what they have in the air and there is constant communication between this air asset and the blue ridge is this p8, an anti-submarine hunting plane. it is a jet engine plane, but has highly sophisticated equipment on it. now, what they could do if they're able to spot something and they have a huge area where they can have a line of sight over 10,000 square miles, they could dib down, take high resolution imaging because if you go back to the satellite images, obviously, even though they can judge how big a piece of debris that might be and they're talking something coming close to 80 feet, what they can't tell you is what that is. so that's the point of the p8 being there. we just heard from kerry

sanders, as well there are some p 3s, c-130 that can drop down markers in the area. right now, they've been unable to find anything that confirms what those satellite images suggested which is that this could be a piece of the plane and most likely part of the skin. matt taylor is the asia-pacific reporter for cnbc, and that is the area where the news conference was held. obviously, i think it's important to point out when you have the families of 239 people on board their as well as international attention, the australian officials felt that they had something potentially very significant here to even call this news conference. >> yeah, that's exactly right, chris. we did hear from the australian prime minister, as well. around about five hours ago is when we started getting word from australian government officials that they had spotted

something. these two objects, one as you point out about five meters long or 15 feet. the other about 24 meters closing in on about 80 feet long. the government here in australia saying it was new and credible information. then we heard from the australian maritime safety authority saying whilst the objects are inzing, they are credible sightings and it did warrant further investigation. they did direct a number of their assets already searching in the southern indian ocean for this aircraft because earlier this week the malaysian government asked them if they would take over the rescue mission in that southern corridor. there are two zing trajectories that aircraft may have taken, one over the north up to kazakhstan, the other one off the coast of australia and down into the indian ocean. three of those four aircrafts are now in that particular area

searching. another one is dual to arrive there. this one from new zealand within the next hour. it is still four hours off the western coast of australia where the certainly zone is located. officials saying that a number of these aircrafts only have about two hours worth of flying time to scour the ocean and determine what these images that the satellites picked up are before they have to head back to land and refuel. the water there also particularly deep. and there has been some poor visibility conditions fine but authorities reporting that the visibility in that part of the ocean also difficult. it is closing in on the late afternoon off of the west coast of australia. currently just after 4:00 in the afternoon. so it will be getting dark in the coming hours, as well when you'd imagine that the search for this debris would end for

the day until of course, we get daylight again. >> we keep showing these images, and i'm wondering as you first pointed out when you look at the upper left-hand corner, these images are dated the 16th of march. we are now at the 20th of march. did officials talk at all why this delay in releasing these images or sending assets to that area? >> no, and it's interesting because when i was watching this media conference that was happening a few hours ago, i was wondering when these images that they found were taken, and there was no mention of that until the officials released these images only about an hour or so ago at which point in time, it was revealed that they were from the 16th of march or date stamped at least on the 16th of march. so this whole process may be complicated, as well by that particular time lapse could have these objects that are located in the ocean have moved, are

authorities keeping that in mind when they search this particular zone about 1500 miles off the australian coast. >> matt taylor in sydney, australia for us. and the ongoing search right now. matt, thank you. i'm sure we'll get back to you through the morning. we do know when the press conference was taking place in a beijing hotel, that malaysia has used as a help center is, many of the family members of the people on board gathered in a conference room to watch that televised australian briefing. annabelle roberts is in london for us where she has been following the story of the families. what do we know at this hour about those families? >> chris, good morning. nothing has been confirmed but we have unofficial reports that there has been a makeshift medical centering has been set up both at the hotel in beijing where many families of the

chinese passengers are gathered and also in kuala lump pur. there's another hotel where a number of families are also basing themselves. at both sites, there are a number of ambulances on stand by and a kind of makeshift medical center. obviously these families have been under a great deal of stress. their hopes have been raised and then dashed. one can hardly imagine what sort of emotional roller coaster they have been through. the official line is, of course, that they are -- there is no comment coming from the families whatsoever until there is any clear more concrete reports coming from the investigation center in kuala lump pur. we can expect a press conference later on today. no official reaction so far from the families but the stress they are going through must be really unbearable, chris. >> annabelle roberts in london for us. we got run report from the scene i just want to let you know in

beijing where many of those families are staying at one hotel that at one one family member. walked out mid press conference many holding out hope that somehow their family members may still be alive and to get the word that there could possibly be debris floating in the ocean obviously confirming their worst fears and yet, there has been conflicting information. we also know and we can't say this enough over the course of the last 12 case days, there have been sightings that have turned out not to be credible so the quote from one of those family members said i don't want to hear anymore. there's nothing they can tell me. i don't believe anything they say. so emotions running very, very high for those family members. let me go to retired pilot tom casey who joins me now on the phone. let me ask you very generally what you make of these new developments.

>> good morning, chris. well, they certainly got the investigative artillery going with the aircraft, the p 3s are scouring the surface of the water but it's so far away, 1500 miles off the coast and that part of the oceaning is royaling. i'm not surprised that electronic means have been used, satellites to the discover this debris and nobody's had a sighting of it. but it's encouraging. unhappily, the human dimension is coming to the forenow. this mystery has been prolonged for so many days, it's agonizing to the loved ones of the passengers aboard that flight. we in the aviation community, airline pilots have been glued to our televisions waiting for further disclosures, news of what happened to this plane. and it's just -- it's such an

ambiguous development when debris is discovered rather than some better news, but some -- we have to have this solved. and it looks likes they're really putting forth a huge effort. when i was fearful of the efforts to discover what the fate of that aircraft was was beginning to fade but from an investigative standpoint, this is very good news and the human dimension is going to become more and more important and more poignant if they do in fact discover what the fate of this airplane was. >> i suppose it's fair to say and everyone wants this mystery solved not the least of which is so that the families can know what happened to their loved ones but if it turns out that they cannot find what they thought might be debris or they actually locate something that turns out not to be from the plane, that does at least in some way move this investigation

forward, doesn't it, because they can eliminate a particular area where that p 8 craft has been and is able to cover that wide range of miles and has not been able to see anything? >> absolutely. nothing has come easy in this investigation. time is the enemy of anything that we might discover in terms of location because of the winds and the currents and the tides. so where the black box might be, it's going to give us a better answer or will give us the answer to what happened. that's going to take a huge effort. remember, air france 447 from rio to paris, they found debris right away but it took them two years to find the black box. nothing has come easy here. this has been an ex-cruciating, almost 16 days. it's been quite remarkable, but you know, the attention on this

miss industries has been like nothing we've seen in the modern age simply because the dimensions of a disappearance of a jumbo jet really send the imagination with both wonder and horror. we want this miss have i solved. we want information. it's coming to us but it's coming from dribs and drabs with tremendous effort. at least the effort is being made and seems to be yielding some clues, but facts is what we need and what we're looking for. >> pilot tom casey, thank you so much for your perspective. again, moving into day 13 of this incredible mystery. what happened to this enormous triple 7 plane? could it just possibly have disappeared off the face of the earth? now our first credible sighting of what may be debris but at least up until this point and we are getting realtime information from a p-8 aircraft,' highly sophisticated aircraft, they

have not been able to locate what this australian satellite image believes it has seen. come up, more on the breaking news on the missing malaysian airlines flight 370 and the search for two objects seen by sat lies floating in the southern part of the indian ocean. we'll be right back. 's a lot of beautiful makeup out there, but one is so clever that your skin looks better even after you take it off. neutrogena healthy skin liquid makeup. 98% saw improved skin. does your makeup do that? neutrogena® cosmetics. are you flo? yes. is this the thing you gave my husband? well, yeah, yes. the "name your price" tool. you tell us the price you want to pay, and we give you a range of options to choose from. careful, though -- that kind of power can go to your head. that explains a lot. yo, buddy! i got this. gimme one, gimme one, gimme one! the power of the "name your price" tool.

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good morning. i'm chris jansing. it is 4:15 on the east coast. major developments in the search for the airlines is flight 370, those australian satellite images looking at these two pieces of possible debris in the south indian ocean. what these images are is where the search is focused right now. one is very large, about 80 feet. 15700 feet off the coast of australia. officials calling this their best lead so far in the search for this missing plane. but what is it exactly? that's what four planes and a couple of ships are looking to

find out but at this moment, "uss blue ridge, the command ship getting realtime data from the air and have no confirmation about debris in that area. kerry sanders has been following this for us from washington, d.c. and has been in touch with the folks on board that ship. and kerry, let's go back to set the stage for people joining us. the anti-submarine hunting plane so far has not seen anything. there are also a couple of p-3 propeller planes on way. differentiate the type you have equipment that's on board and is it possible that the p 3 might be able to see something that the p isn't? >> it's more likely the 3 8 will see something that the p 3 can't. the best technology to see on the surface of the ocean are on board that p-8. the p 3s with less technology still have incredible ability to see and so you have the 3 3 two

of those airborne in the area heading from the militaries of both australia and new zealand and the p 8 which is a u.s. aircraft all coming out of perth in australia. let me take you on the map down to the area we're talking about. they flying out of perth and they're making their way here to the target area. initially, the national transportation safety board had an area about 370,000 square miles. then they said you know what? in the last 36 hours, we're going to make that area a little bit smaller and they made it around 117,000 square miles. it's just down here where that satellite image suggested that there were two pieces of debris. so flying out of perth, the aircraft had made their way down to that area just south of the target area to see whether they

can get confirmation of what those satellite images suggest. of course, what the australian authorities say is after analyzing these pictures macon march 16th, it appears there may be two pieces of debris in the water. we look at those pictures. one of them rather sizable about 78 feet. it's slow the floating in water. the water is, according to a vessel in the area, about three days ago now, reporting that the seas were about nine feet and there were 25 knot winds in the area. it's a pretty rough area right now, floating there what could be debris and if it is debris, it's what's likely what's known as the skin of the aircraft, a portion of the fuselage or the wing. >> i'm talking about the n tp sb that this might be it the area to focus the search because obviously, they're looking at what they know from where the

aircraft might be headed but also the point at which it would run out of fuel, right? >> exactly. let me take you back to the map here. you'll notice at the center of the map here what we have here is a satellite. i'm going to draw a line out from that sat, and each one of these lines is equidistant from the satellite. so as the plane was sending data back and forth using what's known as the acars system, a passive system on board the aircraft that sends back bursts of data saying here's our p how our engines are running, this is the kind of fuel we're using, there were very good engineers who decided that the plane was lost that they could take the signal that was going back and forth even when there was no longer any data, they could take the signal and measure it. when they measured, that's how they came up with this arc. it went from all the way up

north over land all the way down here to the southern indian ocean. and so the national transportation safety board and i'm not exactly sure why they chose this, but they will felt it was likely that will it's this area here nat aircraft traveled. and so it was two days ago that they came up with that first target area which was so large, it was going to take about six weeks to have the aircraft fly in that area and go through with their advanced radar equipment on the p-3s and p i 8s. then 24 hours later they said we think it might be a little bit smaller of an area of about 117 thousand square miles. now we are working just south of that target area where the satellite pictures suggest there may be some debris. >> it's worth mengening again, this is the largest search in av

yags history. the square miles that they have had to cover and what they've covered already, but would go it can a safe assumption that given the technology, given the so festication of the aircraft we're talking about, both the p-8 and p-3 if on this run they don't see anything to corroborate what was on that satellite imagery that the conclusion would be that it was not part of the plane? >> i'm not sure it would be a conclusion it wasn't part of the plane. i think it would be considered more of a false lead and they would probably have to go back and continue to look for it. just because they see debris in the satellite images it doesn't mean it's from the airplane. as you may or may not know, cargo ships travel a lot through these areas. entire containers go overboard. they break apart. things float. there's a lot of garbage in the ocean to begin with. with the way the currents travel

the world, it can travel for hundreds ef miles and plastics and other things that do float don't necessarily break it up. it can be out there for a very long time. but the reason they believe it may be some sort of debris from the aircraft, is because it seems to fit the picture of what the safety board suggested of where this 777 may have gone down, that it was in the southern indian ocean. >> so it's an incredible coincidence or as you say, and unnornlly, because obviously hopes have been raised and dashed for the families before. we will continue, obviously, to watch this very, very closely. kerry, i know you're going to be standing by. you're going to be in touch with your sources in the military. i want to bring in investigatorer anthony brick house, associate director of occupational safety at the day

tony nap beach college of aviation. from your perspective, assuming that nothing is found there, assuming that they can't find anything on the p 3s or the p 8s that could give them an indication of what was seen to on that satellite, where do they take it from there? >> if you go back to the beginning of this event, we've been trying to get the search area. last week it was basically a 360 dooeg type. over the weekend, it kind i have allowed us to narrow the search area a tribute. if this light isn't anything connected, i'm sure the engineers at the national safety board basically go back to look at more evidence and come up with another search area that might turn up more evidence. >> and in a very real sense, the clock is ticking because some of

the evidence may be again available in those black boxes in the cockpit voice recorder. and we're almost 13 days in. we're starting day 13. these have a life of about 30 days? >> that's correct. >> the aircraft will have two boxes. one is called the flight data reporter. the battery he's on the -- it is called the underwater location pinger. and that party is going to send out a sig fal for about 30 days. if you don't locate the boxers in that window,er that not going to have that -- you have to visually find the box. >> if this is the area where the plane went down and again, this is the best information from the nt subpoena b based on all of the information that is known

including how much fuel was in that plane, this is a deep part of the ocean. i think bob hagger was saying maybe a couple of miles down but these black boxes are designed for these types of situation. >> yes, what i understand the average depth of the indian oceaning is prol 12,000 feet. the boxing's already been designed to withstand the pressure that will be present at 16,000 feet above the city. you are working with some numbers. but hopefully, this wreckage will be connected and they can get over there. and find the two black boxes and start meeting the puzzle back together. >> thank you very much. coming up, we're going to check on the fames of the 239 passengers aboard flight 370 coming up after the break.

plaintiff 27 minutes past 4:00 in the morning here on the east coast. good morning. i'm chris jansing. we are looking at what may be new clues, these satellite images that show two objects. one of them almost 80 feet in size. could they be the area where the plane went down? could they be debris from the missing malaysia air flight incredible mystery that has captivated us for about 13 days now. kerry sanders has been keeping track of it from the assets that are in the indian ocean. and so kerry, let's sort of set the stage where we are right now. you have several hours ago

australian officials come out, and they say, abundance of caution but we have something that we believe could be a significant clue. we have sent assets to the area. in the air, we know that there are ships, much, much slower on the ground although we know there is a commercial vessel that they believe could be scheduled to arrive within perhaps 90 minutes now. and what they're trying to do obviously is lay eyes on this piece of debris. whatever it might be. but i guess the puzzling part to me is, if it showed up on satellite images and now we can't see it at all with the so festicated equipment that is on the p8, what might have happened to it? >> very good question. and it's 4:28 p.m. in the southwest about 1500 miles from

perth. so the sun will be setting soon. that should not impact the ability of the aircraft entering the area to look down. the p8 which is a u.s. aircraft, the most advanced anti-submarine that exists has radar ability to look at the surface of the ocean. can look through clouds and see down there, despite that advanced technology, and knowing a general area where the satellite images showed what appeared to be debris that could have been from the boeing 777, they have been unable to confirm anything that suggests there's even debris there. in fact, they're seeing about 10,000 square miles with this advanced technology. so it's not like they need to be right on top of it. now, they're continuing to stay there according to lieutenant

david levy. they will stay there till they have to return to perthing with an exhaustion of fuel and they have to refuel. but at the same time, there are two p 3 aircraft making tharg way there, as well is, one from the australian. so they have similar technology on board. as you noted, while there are warships making their way there, a warship from the australian military, the likelihood of the first vessel that could making it into this area is actually a commercialship diverted at the question of the australian military to see if they can actually lay eyes on it. if they see some or the of radar reflection that strongly suggests it coincides and confirms what the folks from the satellite images have analyzed, then that aircraft could the dip down and look down and they

could actually take some high resolution photographs that will then be analyzed when they land back in perkt. the last piece of the puzzle is there a c-130, a four engine aircraft, kind of ugly. it gets into the area and it can drop down, transponders, drop sanders that go into the water and they can make the location so once they have a confirmation of debris, once they get that aircraft in there they can drop that down that they don't lose the location. because as you noted it takes a long time for real eyes to be on location to see what may or may not be there. >> but let me just clarify about the technology that's on the p-8. it sounds like they're going to kind can i have be passing each other. if the p 8 has to go back, the type of images they would be

able to take, kerry, would any be clear enough that you it would probably be some sort of very specific evidence that this is or is not part of the claim? >> yes, yes. if they get the age, they will know it's got the complete outline. say it's a piece of the fuse lang with windows. they'll see it. if it has the shape of a portion of a wing, they will see it. the technology is that precise. >> and markings obviously very clearly that might be on any of those pieces of the plane. we're talking about one piece that according to the satellite imagery is almost 80 feet. >> the markings may not show up on the radar ins that are many coming back. they can get that with the high resolution photographs on a low altitude pass but not on the radar. what they would get is an extremely detailed outline of what they see floating there. >> kerry sanders, we will be back to you. no one following these events

more leslie than the 234 people on board. annabelle, what can you tell us? >> well, chris, as we know these families have been waitinging a very long time for any confirms news what's happened to their loves ones. we saw one parent complaining that they were getting lied to and getting in no truth from the authorities. nothing has been confirmed at this page. we are expecting a press conference starting in about an hour. no one will be waiting for that more eegly than the aengs on board. they're congregating in two places, one in beijing. makeshift medical centers have been set up at these hotels and in beijing, we understand there are a flub of ambulances lined up outside the hotel that there were not there yesterday.

clearly the emotional stress of biv living through a wait like this must be a roller coaster. they've been doing it for 12 days. >> annabelle roberts, thank you. we want to go to the hotel. joining me is producer zilia jabber. what i've been reading from the local press there is that the families, many of them gathered for this press conference that was obviously from australia that was aired on television. what can you tell us from there? >> well, chris what we do knows is about a dozen family paz some of the chinese families, some of the citizens on board flight 370 are saying here at the hotel just outside you have couey allah lumpur. hotel staff has nationally sequestered them away if you will. you can't really talk to them. local president and international media is just

setting up here in attention of any news to come out of australia. after a unites airlines employee, a makeshift medical center has been set up here. just an early saw about three ambulances head up outside the hotel. all in participation of any clues to come out of the word. >> i know in many instances and when i've covered these crashes in the united states, often the airlines will assign specific people to each of the the families. a liaison essentially who can help them with whatever they need and make sure they get information first before that gets out into the flick. what kind of system is set up there? >> so chris, what we understand is that ma laborer yab airlines has indeed set up a center for families. each person, each family has a

specific minder that it's there to rely information to them directly. and that's what we have right now. >> ziia jabber, an nbc producer on the ground. when we come back, we'll talk to airline pilot paul mccarthy about what may have happened to flight 370 as new hope comes in the search.

you might recall on the slide here the two yellow arrows pointing to an analysis done by the united states national transportation safety board about the movements of the aircraft that has focused searching and we have now seen satellite imagery of two objects or a number of objects there. i don't want to draw, too. much from that. this is a lead. it is probably the best lead we have right now but we need to get there, find them, see them, assess them to know whether it's

really meaningful or not. >> and that was from overnight. you just heard that australian official at the news conference giving that new information that could be critical to finding flight 370. we can show you these two images on satellite. that could be emphasizing cook debris from the plane. they are cautiousing, they aren't really sure although it is the best lead we've had yet. two images bobbing in the water in the southern indian ocean about 1500 miles off the coast of australia. one of those objects is estimated to be about 80 feet. however, there have been false alarms before. one of the family members says he doesn't believe it. in the course of this investigation, there have been conflicting pieces of information and so this is a very trying time for those family members. joining me from boston is captain paul mccarthy, a former

airline pilot and safety expert, the air line pilots association. thank you very much for joining us. give me your sense of where we are with this and how long might it be before we figure out whether or not this is a substantial lead that obviously people hope it is? >> well, yeah, i heard the reports. there's a commercial vessel that might be, oh, 90 minutes away. until somebody has a look what this stuff is, i think that everything is speculation. however, there was a reason that they were looking in that neck of the woods. they had information that may or may not be known publicly that tended to put them down in that search area and to focus their assets in that one particular area. so whether or not this turns out to be the magic moment is certainly there's a reason to be looking there. and hopefully, for the families' sake at least, it it will turn out to be something that will

allow us to then go down and find the black boxes which until we have the black botches we're not going to know what happened. >> we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. as we've said, this hasn't been confirmed. the p-8 plane that is on target, it's right there over the location. over the coordinates that were seen on those satellite images. again, the satellite images are from four days ago but they can be calculate with computer programs including the wind and the currents where that direct search area might be but this p-8 also covers 10,000 square miles. again, i don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but tell me, captain, let's say they're able to find a piece of debris. where does that put the search for the black boxes? >> you'll recall air france 447

in the south atlantic, they found the vertical stabilizer of the airplane floating after i think 672 hours. it took them two years to find the black boxes. even if these are by thes and pieces of the aircraft, we're still an awful long way from solving the in is industry. the only thing we would have solved is where the airplane went but won't put us any closer to saying what happened. >> the presentation still going out. these black boxes go for 330 days of battery life and we're 13 years in. >> if the topography of the ocean bottom is suitable, it should be doable. we have the technology to retrieve them. it could be something significant. it's just, too. doggone early to tell i think. by tomorrow morning we'll have a

letter handle what's going on on. >> if we don't what was seen on satellite that turns out not to be that, is it helpful in an exclusion ray sense? >> no. you find one piece of trash floating it doesn't mean a mile away there's not something significant. but the fact that this would not be airplane would not have a bearing one way or the other. it was another lead that didn't pan out. >> captain paul mccarthy, safety expert, thank you so much for talking with us. matt taylor is the asia-pacific reporter for cnbc. originally it was in australia we got the news. do we have information at all when we might get another update? matt? >> we don't as yet. as you were just menging, three out of the four of them would now be located at that the zone

in the southern indian oceaning about 2.5 kilometers or 1500 miles off the coast of western australia. it's been more than five hours since we first out there were these two objects that the australian government described provided new and credible informationing to this on going investigation to try and locate flight 370. we know that one aircraft arrived at that location very early on at that time that this announcement was made with two others and another from new zealand expected to around in about 15 minute or time or so. the search will continue. we do know there have been two pieces of debris or two objects that have been sited in the south indian ocean. you can see the satellite images released by the australian

authorities. one is 15 meet in dimension. the other one close to 18 feet in dimension. authorities say they are instinct if you look at them but it was credible enough these sightings by a satellite image to warrant redirecting soft of the resources into that part of the ocean. we've been talking about this throughout the course of the monk and evening that this is a very remote location, four hours flying time from the coast of australia and the authorities saying they generally have two hours of fuel searching that area before they have to refuel and then head out again. >> matt tyler from cbc for us where we fust p first got word of a possible later today. back to kerry sanders who is getting new information for us on the search for the missing plane coming up next.

so we are copying to follow this breaking news. satellite images that caused a lot of hopefulness because for 13 days now, the question has been, what happened to this triple 7 malaysia aircraft? how could it simply disappear. it looked like there were two pieces from debris in satellite images. we can show you those images. one of them large about 80 feet.

a second smaller piece and the question is, where is that now? take a look if you can in the upper left-hand corner, you see that white box. that dates this to the 16th of march. we're now on the 20th of march. but they had credible belief after studying these images that they should send assets to that area. in the air, on the sea. joining us now from washington, d.c. is nbc's kerry sanders who has been in constant contact with the "uss blue ridge, a command and mukss vessel right, carrie? >> they've been in touch with the aircraft searching this area. >> the u.s. had as a p a 8 aircraft. i just got off the phone with a spokesman for the u.s. eave. he tells me the pa has now completed its mission on station flying in the target area.

found no confirmation of debris. the aircraft is heading back to perth in australia and it will go airborne again once the crew is rested. butt-head line here is that the advanced technology of the p-8 working in the area, directed by the satellite imagery that the australians said where they saw suspect debris or what appeared to be des bris is not confirmed after almost four hours of flying over the area with some of the most advanced technology that exists to determine if there is indeed something on the surface. >> that can cover 10,000 square miles. i want to put this in perspective. maybe we can show the map of the indian ocean. there we have it, kerry. you're seeing that little yellow shape which is the target shape. the actual actually earl they were search somethinging is a

little bit south of that. the search area which had grown and shrunk to about 177,000 square miles. >> i think it's 117,000 square miles. and this can operate, this p-8 can operate to see 10,000 square miles at that time. it may sound like it and the can't cover but a small percentage of that area, i assume the search area they're operating under is much smaller than that. >> exactly. we can take a look at the map. as ewe look at the map, they're flying right here out of perth. this is the back and forth where they're going. there's the target area. actually they're flying more down towards here because that satellite imagery released by the australians suggested that the debris was just south of the target area.

of it began that the target area was actually about 4 hours ago, much larger and then the national transportation safety board concluded you know what? we think it's actually a little bit smaller. that's the area to look at in there. that's when it turned out that the satellite imagery sort of matches up and then they started looking down in this area here. >> so the p-8 aircraft is headed back now to perth australia. there are p 3s on the way. do we have an estimated eta for them, how long they can stay out there and what kind of things that they can do. >> they're a propellerer aircraft by means they can stay aloft bean longer because their fuel burn is a little bit less. i do not have a rival i'm in the area. we're attempting to assess, i spoke in to the u.s. military

and asked that question question. as i said as the p 3s arriving, he said i have to tell you that from the new zealand natives. it would make sense they would stagger these aircraft in so they could continue working around the clock to p to p to see what they can find. it's getting close to 5:00 in the area. these aircraft are not dissuaded by nightfall. the equipment they have can see onto the surface of the water. if something's -- >> i just want to touch on quickly, kerley, the other assets in the area. we talked about a 3 31. >> doesn't have the ability to look down. it has drop sanders. they're drop them into the water if they can find the doeks where

it dlis is and it marks that loiks with beeps and sounds they they can find it later. the aircraft are coming and will be going. we have a naval ship, the australian republican success. trips travel much chlorthan the aircraft do. it could take cares into the dite area. first there is a cargo general in the general issue and based on spacings may actually be getting to that area in the next hour or so. the problem is, there's no sort of confirmation of debris to tell him out to go. if you've ever been at sea it's not as if you can look out and see something four miles away floating on the surface especially when the if i understand are 25 knots.

>> at the end of the day, if somebody can look down there and see i need a piece of the plane or at least a plane and sort of goes through the size of this piece of debris, the biggest piece is 78 feet yook. short of somebody getting in the water hooking up some gear and bringing that sbeb drois on order so they can begin to look at serial numbers to see if it's the flight of light of 370. >> nothing seen by the p sl but we have some p 3s on the way. we are also waiting for another update coming up in just about half an hour. the regular briefing high society brieflying. traps they can been in constant with officials in australia. we're continue iming to follow

the breaking news, the search for in laborerian flight 370. continue to follow the story on msnbc. i'm have more at 10:00.

good thursday morning. continuing breaking news coverage on "first look." satellite imagery captures two large options floating in a remote part of the indian ocean. could bit debris from missing malaysian airlines flight 370? >> quite simply, it is credible enough to divert the search to this area on the basis that it might provide a promising lead. military search planes are racing to the area to check it out. good morning, i'm chris jansing. we're following breaking news about the missing malaysian airlines jet. could it be a