let's begin with our aviation correspondent rene marsh with the very latest. rene? >> a sudden shift in focus. again, this search zone has moved and authorities say that's thanks to a credible lead. that lead? more analysis of existing data with an entirely new search zone in play, does that mean crews wasted time searching the wrong area for more than a week? the new zone, roughly 1,023 square miles, larger than the state of new york and 300 miles closer to the australian coastline a shorter trip for search planes. >> this is our best estimate of the area in which the aircraft is likely to have crashed into the ocean. >> reporter: so why change everything three weeks after the plane disappeared? more radar and satellite analysis makes investigators believe the plane was flying faster than previously thought. as it moved between the south china sea and the strait of malacca.

rene marsh joining us from washington with more on this. rein earthquake, time is running out for batteries on recorders. if they are found, who will actually analyze these recorders and get critical information from them? >> fred, at this point it's unclear which countries would get these recorders. malaysian authorities would essentially make that decision. that said, the nbt here in the united states is the most sophisticated labs. one-third of their work is for foreign government. it's quite possible ntsb could get those for analysis. how fast a readout? that could happen in 24 hours. that's for investigators in the u.s. >> we're talking about the indian ocean. incredibly deep. how might the depth impact investigators ability to retrieve usable data from the recorders if indeed they could locate them. >> it's extremely deep, in some

renee marsh shows us what kind of debris might be spotted out on the water and the difficulty in finding it. >> reporter: three million parts to a boeing 777 and not one piece of flight 370 has been found. satellite images from australia, china, and france showing floating objects in the south indian ocean. the latest suggests 122 floating objects but nothing is confirmed to being from the plane. the larger piece could be a portion of the wing. the total wingspan of a 777 is 200 feet. >> the wing carries fuel. so the liquid doesn't leak out it's sealed. when a plane uses all that fuel and the tanks now are empty, the voids in the wing will now be with air and that would float a wing. >> but the large objects could be multiple pieces. >> intermingled with wire and other debris. you could have a lot of smaller pieces which might look like a larger piece. >> reporter: the size of debris depends on how the plane hit the water. if it hit the water nose first, the plane would shatter into thousands of small pieces. a mid-air explosion could produce larger debris and a wider field. but if someo

all of those scenarios are problematic for the crews. >> rene marsh in washington.ack now my panel joins me now. here's the interesting thing. we were talking about -- and in the flight simulator with martin savidge about this land theory. why aren't people looking at land now? a conversation among you guys you said they should be looking over land. >> i think there is a number of scenarios we have to look it. for example was the crew under duress or was it an emergency. it's unlikely it was an emergency. we would have had an emergency call. let's assume it was under duress. was the landing strip under malaysian air space or external to malaysian air space. if it is external the aircraft would have had to have crossed a sovereign boundary. we know in the post 9/11 order in the world there, there aren't ifr plan and routine airways corridor traffic. with no squawk on. that alife-supports the authorities to get the qra if indeed the country has it to interrogate. that would be my big question. >> at this point, they are mobilizing so many teams and so much aircraft, s

rene marsh is in washington with more. >> reporter: good morning. a lot to cover this morning.an authorities have handed over both radar data and other information to the ntsb and faa. and the agencies have seen the data. based on that, they agree it was reasonable to extend this search area to the west of the peninsula. but the main focus is still the south china sea. and as the search continues for the sixth day, this morning we take a closer look at exactly how they are doing it. from the sea, air, land and even space, search teams are using everything at their disposal to find malaysian airlines flight 370. the first question figuring out where radar last picked up the plane. >> it's a big task because you have multiple radar sites and possibly multiple different countries. so they're not all in the same format. >> some of the top radar experts in the world are helping analyze every possible blip. but searching can also be low tech like looking out a window for debris. >> most of the search is being done either by air, airplanes flying over it because they can cover the lar

rene marsh, thanks very much. let's dig deeper right now. pilot keith bolezinger, he flies 777s and patrick smith, author of the website askthepilot.com. keith, if these satellite images are correct, and we don't know if they are, they may be correct, may not be, this is what the chinese satellite agency has released saying they found these three suspicious large pieces of debris floating there in the waters just south of vietnam. but say they are correct. what does that say to you? >> wolf, i'm by no means a satellite imagery expert but if the images are correct and if they are parts of the missing airplane, that might indicate that the aircraft was intact upon impact with the water. if the airplane had had a structural in-flight breakup there would have been a much larger debris field covering many, many miles. >> as a pilot of the 777, keith, does it say anything to you at all about the potential cause of a plane simply losing its transponder and crashing into the water, let's say? >> no, not exactly. simply losing a transponder or had a

. >> reporter: rene marsh, cnn, washington. >> and thanks so much to all for watching our breaking news coverage continues with anderson cooper. >>> good evening, everyone. we begin tonight with break news. a potential new development in the search for malaysia airlines flight 370. it comes from china which has an especially strong interest in locating the airliner which was carrying so many chinese nationals on board. late today, chinese authorities released satellite photos of what they call a suspected crash site. they were taken on a high definition camera on the morning of march 9th, a day and a night after the the boeing 777 vanished on route from kuala lumpur to beijing. three images in the open ocean, each showing floating objects. what precisely they are, that remains to be seen. we should point out there have been several fault sightings so far. what is intriguing is the location. according to the chinese it's within a 20 kilometer or 12 1/2 mile radius of this spot on the map which corresponds closely to the point where controllers lost contact with the airliner's radar trans

bring in affairiation associate renee marsh. e, this ocean shield ship as it's named is heading out shortly with a u.s. pinger on board. deploying that device will be rather challenging, won't it? >> it absolutely will be, fred. that pinger locater is a critical piece of equipment used to find black boxes where the data recorders. that has been loaded onto that australian navy ship and the ship will leave monday. it won't arrive to the certainly area until thursday. it still cannot be used until crews find the debris field. that's because the strength of the signal from the black box is only about a mile or two radius. you must really be in the right area to have any chance of detecting it. what complicates matters is the signal dies down as the battery stops. it could die august together. it could happen april 6th, if it hasn't already. event b, in the event it stopped emitting that signal. they have equipment that will map the ocean floor. take a look what they believe it will be able to do in assisting them in finding these bl

rene marsh, cnn, washington. >>> pro-russian forces are tightening their grip on crimea.up next here, how ukraine is responding to the ongoing russian takeover. you're comfortable here, it's where you email, shop, even bank. but are you too comfortable? these days crime can happen in a few keystrokes. american express can help protect you with intelligent security that learns your spending patterns, and can alert you to an unusual charge instantly. so you can be a member of a more secure world. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. >>> updating you on the air and sea search now for malaysia airlines flight 370. the first five search planes is now returning to base after scanning remote waters of the southern indian ocean. it's been looking for any sign of the boeing 777 missing now for nearly two weeks. australia's prime minister cautions that two objects spotted in the area by satellite may not be from the flight but he says the families of the people aboard flight 370 deserve every possible effort. turning to the crisis now in ukraine. pro-russian fo

rene marsh is joining us us now with the latest details. rene?> wolf, today we learned that there's evidence of another ping we didn't know about before, a partial electronic transmission which may be the final minutes of flight 370. this new information extends the plane's timeline but tonight the experts that analyzed the data are asking questions instead of answering questions because they admit they don't know what this new data means just yet. new data may help unlock the secrets of where flight 370 bwet down. the 777 flew south over the indian ocean connecting with the satellite once an hour for six hours. the final ping, as described by malaysian authorities nearly two weeks ago, happened at 8:11 a.m. but now a new revelation. there may have been another ping. eight minutes later, the satellite detects something else, this time evidence of a partial connection. >> so by getting that very last data, that last data point, you have a lot more information about where the plane might be. it's another very important piece of the puzzle. >> repor

thank you, rene marsh. appreciate that. >>> u.s.gence community increasingly turning their focus on those in the cockpit, the pilots being responsible for the missing jet. malaysian police today say they searched the pilots' home outside kuala lumpur. police were also seen leaving the home of the co-pilot carrying small shopping bags. david mckenzie live in beijing, where the flight was scheduled to land last week. david, are tensions growing between china and the malaysian government because of this? >> reporter: well, they definitely are growing, those tensions. there has been a whole lot of mudslinging between the two sides. earlier this week, certainly from the malaysian side, they criticized the chinese for giving out mistaken information and now, the chinese are saying that they need to step up their efforts on the search. one state media editorial which is really a mouthpiece of the government here, saying massive efforts have been squandered and numerous rumors have been spawned repeatedly wracking the nerves of the awaiting

cnn aviation correspondent renee marsh joins me now from washington with more. renee, you and i both have been speaking to intelligence officials since this plane disappeared. they've always been saying nothing to indicate a tie to terrorism yet. but they're clearly not closing that door, are they? >> no. absolutely not at this point. as you mentioned there, jim, a senior u.s. government official tells cnn that investigators there are still very much looking at the pilot as well as the co-pilot. but at this point, no aha moment, so to speak. a review of the hard drives from the captain's flight simulator has not raised any red flags. and another source telling cnn that nothing suspicious was found after reviewing the passenger manifest. that said, when it comes to the question of whether someone deliberately took this plane off course, officials continue to believe based on how this plane flew, it suggests a deliberate action inside of the cockpit. but the question is, was it terrorism? well, today the chair of both the house and senate intelligence committee wer

renee marsh, cnn, washington. >>> grief, outrage and defliel a denial are emotions from some of the family members. some of them decided to vent their anger at the malaysian embassy in beijing. you were there with the families and they went to the malaysian embassy in beijing. tole us how they unfolded and what they were trying to say and achieve by doing that. >> reporter: the police tried to stop them from undergoing this protest and they're message was that they are not happy with this announcement that came out of malaysia yet. they say we want hard evidence. this morning the family members gathered at this hotel. they tried to get on buses but the police would not let them leave the buses. the family members decided to walk to the embassy and the police officers allowed them to. we saw this huge security presence. security did not let the media through. they were holding up signs saying we want the truth. one woman held up a sign saying husband, please come home. what about me and our child. they're angry about the way they were given that message with the text message. they are sayin

our renee marsh is here from washington, d.c. and bob beher joining us live. , the ntsb is saying they have a pretty good feeling about these latest satellite images. do we have any clue as to why there's such confidence? >> well, the ntsb based on their data they've been able to narrow the search down to that southern part of the indian ocean. so they feel very confident about that search area. and the reason why they got to that search area is because they considered the currents, they also considered how fast the plane may have been going. they considered multiple pieces of data including radar in order to come up with that southern area in the indian ocean where they should be searching. now, today we're talking about those satellite images, possibly the debris from the plane. now, the images are being called more credible. so much so that they've diverted the search area to this specific place where they believe these images are from. why so credible? after all we remember those chinese satellite images, they turned out to be a false alarm. but authorities

cnn's renee marsh has more now. >> reporter: some experts say the 74-foot object in this newly released image from china is too big to be debris from the missing jet. others say we could be looking at multiple pieces. >> they're going to be actually intermingled with wire and other debris. so you may have a lot of smaller pieces mixed in which might look like a larger piece from a satellite or the air. >> reporter: the size of the debris depends on how the plane hit the water, assuming it did. if it were going at a high rate of speed and made a nosedive like alaska airlines flight 261 did in 2000, when it crashed into the pacific, there would be a shatter effect breaking into thousands of small pieces. a mid-air collision like twa flight 800 would produce larger pieces of debris and a wider debris field. a third scenario, when ethiopian airlines flight 961 tried to make a controlled landing in the indian ocean in 1996, the plane broke into large pieces. what sinks and what floats depends on the part of the plane and the material it's made of. >> most of the cabin furnishings, for exampl

renee marsh is out front. >> reporter: with more than 1100 boeing 777s worldwide having flown roughly million flights, capable of carrying more than 1 billion people, it's considered one of the safest in the sky. but now with the disappearance of malaysia airline flight 370, the plane is under the microscope. the first 777 rolled off the assembly line in the early 90s. now it's flown by almost every major airline. american has 57, delta 18 and united 74. in its 19-year history only one fatal crash. the asiana airlines flight in san francisco last july. early indicators point to pilot error. the faa's web site lists more than 100 air-worthiness directives for the 777. they alert airlines to potential issues with the plane so they can expect or repair it. last september, a warning that 777s could have cracks in the top of the plane near an antenna. the faa called for frequent inspections and warned it could lead to rapid decompression and loss of structural integrity of the plane. >> the general public read every air worthiness directive no one would fly. because it's frightening. but i

rene marsh is with us. she is our aviation correspondent.mark is here as well, well versed in this, he is an attorney. kyung lah, stationed in perth, australia, and christine dennison is here. tim taylor as well and sarah standing by in kuala lumpur where the families are. i want to get to you. is there encouraging words from the prime minister there? this may be the most encouragement the families have gotten so far at least that it appears, there is a coordination here. and no one is giving up on them. no one is giving up on their loved ones. >> you think you're exactly right. we've talked about during this broadcast, and earlier broadcasts. the thing that families want in all my years of representing airlines, the things the families want is information. they want direction and they want to know the investigation is moving forward. for whatever reason, good reason, bad reason, whatever, there's a credibility issue that has existed and built up over the last several weeks with respect to the malaysian investigators or the government specif

a lot to cover tonight starting with cnn's rene marsh. >> reporter: this was the last-known location of flight 370 over the south china sea as civilian aviation radar suggests. but now a dramatic new turn of events. a malaysian military source tells cnn their radar shows the plane may have still been flying an hour and ten minutes later. instead of being off to the east coast of malaysia, it apparently turned to the opposite direction and flew to the malaka straits west of the peninsula. its last-known location according to the malaysian air force was just over this small island called pulau parak. adding to the mystery, why were the transresponders in the cockpit used to tract plane turn turned off? >> you have to very a very deliberative process to turn the transresponder off. if somebody did that in the cockpit they would do it to disguise the route of the plane. >> reporter: malaysian police are now looking at three areas, hijacking, sabotage, and psychological or personal problems with the passengers or crew. >> was there someone unauthorized in the cockpit, ordered the transres

our aviation correspondent, rene marsh, taking a look at that. >> reporter: 3 million pars to a boeingfter more than two weeks of searching, not one piece of flight 370 has been found. satellite images from australia, china, and france showing floating objects in the south indian ocean, the latest suggests 122 floating objects, but so far nothing is confirmed to be from the plane. the objects range from 3 to 78 feet. the larger piece could be a portion of the wing. the total wingspan of a 777 is 200 feet. >> the wing carries fuel, and so liquid doesn't leak out it's seal sealed. so when a plane loses fuel and the tanks now are empty, those voids in the wing will now leave layer and that would float a wing. >> reporter: but the large objects could be mull l pieces. ? they're mangled with wire and other debris so you may have a lot of other smaller pieces mixed in with a larger piece from the satellite or the air. >> reporter: the size of debris depends on how a plane hits the water. if it hit water fast nose first like alaska airlines flight 261 in 2000, the plane would shatter into tho

rene marsh, what are you finding out? n a moment, but barbara starr, you're getting new information right now on this search that the u.s. is now apparently scaling back at least as far as ships are concerned. >> well, they are taking the "uss kidd" out of there as we chatted about because they simply feel that the p-8 aircraft out of australia will provide much more coverage and be able to get to any debris field much more quickly. and that was proven earlier today when they responded to a possible debris field but it turned out to be a false alarm, but they can get there more quickly. no way a u.s. navy ship was going to stay there forever. the search in the southern indian ocean very wide open, hundreds of thousands of miles of open ocean and the aircraft will do much better efficiently getting to that part of the search. as for the northern track, wolf. i have to tell you that the u.s. military, the u.s. intelligence community has once again scoured all of their satellite data, all of their radar data because they have

let's begin with the search, cnn's rene marsh has the story. >> it's a vast area and winds and currents complicate things. this mysterious disappearance of the jumbo jet has gone hand in hand with lots of false leads and reports of the missing plane. what do we know and what remains a mystery? here's what we can tell you. >> reporter: now, by air and by water, 34 planes, 40 ships and crews from ten countries are locked into a massive search. the boeing 777 lost radar contact 170 miles east of the malaysia peninsula. the search started there in the south china sea and has extended west and over land. >> we need hard evidence. we need parts of the aircraft. >> reporter: crews must find the plane. that's about the only certainty in the mysterious disappearance of flight 370. they have plenty of false leads. vietnamese search crews spotted an object believed to be the missing plane's door. but it wasn't. a plane found in oil slick in the gulf of thailand, was it jet oil from the missing plane? test results say that it wasn't. >> we have confirmed that the oil is not from an aircraft. >> rep

our aviation correspondent rene marsh is here with this part of the story.g about the final path of this airliner? >> wolf, the satellite analysis and data has never been used for an investigation like this before but today it is shedding new light on where malaysia airlines flight 370 is and it's also helping us to rule out certain theories about what happened on board. >> reporter: it's one of the most remote places on earth and new calculations indicate this is where flight 370 went down. the plane went south before crashing into the middle of the indian ocean. this new information is helping plot the flight path. >> if this is indeed the crash site, it does sound like the flight path is directly from the original turn after the last broadcast and it stayed pretty much on a straight line. >> reporter: if the analysis is accurate, after flight 307 turned left, it flew for six hours. by the time it reached the southern indian ocean, it was running out of fuel. a former ntsb board member said certain theories are now more likely. >> it sounds to me like ther

rene marsh reporting, thank you. >>> let's dig a little bit deeper.nt pamela brown is still with us. "new york times" reporter michael schmidt joins us. and the world news editor for "usa today." and the former fbi assistant director tom fuentes. william, i'll start with you, you're reporting breaking potentially new ground. tell our viewers precisely what "usa today" has. >> as pamela says, a look at captain zaharie's background has not found anything that would indicate that he would have been capable of such a terrible act. they've looked into his finances, according to our source, who is a high level source for the kuala lumpur meese department. they found nothing amiss, according to this source. they also haven't found any indication of militancy or ties to militant groups. however, they're drawing their conclusion that he deliberately committed this act and they're doing it based on the fact that they believe he is the only one really capable of doing all the things that had been done on that plane to divert it down to the south indian ocean. >>

let's bring in our aviation correspondent rene marsh. what are you hearing? >> well, jake, there is so much confusion over what all of these communications systems that this aircraft had. i'm told by officials that they have gotten this data that at some point someone changed the program of where this aircraft was headed and put in coordinates for it to head west from its course that it was over the gulf of thailand. now, how that information was transmitted, that simply i don't know and that's one of the investigations that this brings up. they do know with certainty that the aircraft veered from its course on its way to beijing and did so on purpose because someone changed the heading in the computer system, jake. >> rene, whether or not that was conveyed through the acars system, that's significant. explain to us why? >> well, you know, jake, i have spent the day talking to a lot of people familiar with the acars system and they are just baffled. they do not understand how anyone could get any information or data about whether a flight plan was changed mid

rene marsh, washington. >>> if the black box battery runs out and the pings stop, how will they find black box? ian is joining me. explain how investigators can find the black box if they no longer have the ping? >> listening devices and trying to find ominous objects on the bottom and try to zero in on that. you have to go to the bottom of the ocean and search usually a large area with -- in a nested way, starting in a big area and honing in as the evidence begins to indicate where the debris might be. >> i want to get your take on something that's developed in the last couple of hours. a lecturer at the ocean nothiog center said that he sees something that looks like an oil slick near the left that we're seeing on the screen. our richard quest indicates that it would not be an oil slick. it would be more like a sheen. can you tell us whether you conclude that it's an oil slick or not? >> i would certainly like to say that it is but i cannot, based on the images that i see, say that it is. the sea state was about 10 to 12-foot waves and wind at 25 knots. i would have a hard time bel

rene marsh, thanks. >> thanks for joining me today.r in washington. >>> carol, thanks very much. we're a waiting the president of the united states. we'll have more on the mystery surrounding the malaysian airliner coming up. now you're looking at live pictures from the south lawn of the white house. the president will walk out to marine one that will fly the president to joint base andrews outside washington d.c., getting rod to fly to orlando, florida for a series of events including political fundraising. in the meantime, the president will make what the white house is describing the statement on the situation in ukraine. u.s. deeply concerned about what's going on now. the official decision from russia from the parliament in russia, the vote nearly unanimouslily to annex crimea and make it part of russia and in effect take it from the sovereign nation of ukraine. michelle is standing by. this was a late edition to the president's schedule. the president clearly wants to make a statement now. i assume he'll tighten sanctions on russ

let's start with renee marsh, joining us by phone in washington. so, renee, there has been some confusion surrounding the identities of two of the passengers. malaysia airlines saying there is an austrian passenger and italian passenger, but austria and italy are denying that because of the issue of passports, one stolen or lost. and possibly replaced. explain to us what's going on here? >> that's the big question that investigators have and it's something that people are really zeroing in on here. if indeed those passports were lost and stolen, were they reported lost and stolen, authorities are saying they were, so the question now becomes how did someone get on board this malaysia airlines plane with these documents that should not have been valid. this is a question that investigators really want to get to the bottom of and so, how will they get to the bottom of this at this point? because as i speak to you, this plane is still categorized as missing, so you know, i spoke with one expert. he says one of the major points of access or points of in

let's bring in our aviation correspondent rene marsh. >> jake, we have not gotten our hands on that transcript as of yet but the paper is reporting that the transcript of the conversation between the pilot and air traffic control overall was pretty routine with the exception of one thing. a purported transcript that details what malaysia airlines flight 370 told air traffic controllers from takeoff until it disappeared has been obtained by london's telegraph newspaper. on commercial flights, one pilot usually flies while the other handles radio calls. the conversations match with what malaysian investigators and u.s. officials have told cnn, that the recordings indicated a normal flight. the telegraph says the radio calls were slightly casual but gave no sign the plane was about to disappear. at 1:07 a.m., a message saying that the plane is at 35,000 feet, which is odd, according to the paper, because the same communication had been given six minutes earlier. at 1:19 a.m., they say "all right, good night," and then the transponder goes off. flight 370 has not been heard from or seen since. >>

rene marsh, cnn. >> i want to bring in jim tillman, a retired aircraft pilot.does this tell you about the last contact with the transponder? >> i'm troubled by the lack of more complete information. i've been looking at the timeline, jake, and it's very interesting to me that conversation that you mentioned that they had, the last known transmission from the cockpit was stated without any emotion or without any indication that anything was wrong. and moments later, literally moments later, the transponderers went off the line. now, what happened in that little time span between everything's okay, roger, have a nice night, and transponderer is off the line and no communication whatsoever after that point? and the other thing is, this thing about the engines communicating with acars on the ground, it's my understanding that transmission is not absolute in terms of by the realtime, this is a precise moment, that the information can be collected and saved and then sent out in bursts of communications through the system. that could happen after the engines may not b

rene marsh, cnn, washington. >>> searchers are anxious to spot anything in the debris fields.kes four hours, though, just to get from the base of operations in perth, australia. they had to turn back yesterday because of horrendous conditions on site. we're talking about zero visibility and severe turbulence. i want to bring in our chief meteorologist chad myers. he's in the cnn weather center. chad, is it going to get any better? are they going to be able to look for these areas again? >> the weather is better today. yesterday it looked like they were searching for a bar of ivory soap in a bubble bath. the entire ocean was foam. waves 20 to 30 feet high. it causes the surface to turn white. think about being looking for something white in the ocean when the ocean was already white. they couldn't get any elevation as well, no sense of flying above the cloud when you're looking for something on the surface of the ocean. if anything stops the search today, it will be the bumps through here. remember, these are turbo props. these are not jets flying at 45,000 feet. they are flyin

let's bring in our cnn aviation correspondent, rene marsh, watching this for us. let's begin, rene, with the airliner's last confirmed location. what are malaysian officials now saying? >> reporter: wolf, here's what we know for sure. take a look at this map here. the last location of the plane based on civilian radar, puts it at 150 miles off the coast of malaysia, over the south china sea. now, all other information about the plane crossing the peninsula you see there and ending up in the middle of the malacca straits is still not definite. and we'll explain why in just a moment. the bottom line is, today malaysian authorities acknowledged they need more help from experts to make sense of all of this radar data. take a listen. >> the way forward, ladies and gentlemen, is to be more express to analyze both the civilian and the military data. in the east or in the west. and this is exactly what we are doing today. >> reporter: all right. well, three ntsb investigators are there. the faa, which has expertise in air traffic control. they have two experts and a region

rene marsh is in washington with more on that side of the story. good morning. >> good morning, carol. it's day five and still nothing and today the malaysian authorities acknowledge that they need more help from the experts. take a listen to a press briefing that just happened just a few hours ago. >> the way forward, ladies and gentlemen, is to bring experts to analyze the civilian and military data in the east or in the west, on land or in the water, and this is exactly what we are doing today. >> all right. well, we do know there are three ntsb investigators in the region. they've been there since monday, but there wasn't a whole lot that they've been able to do since the plane is still missing. the faa, which has expertise in air traffic control, is also there. we also know boeing, the manufacturer of this 777 is there to answer any questions about the plane's technology, how it works, the capability of the plane, but to be very clear, carol, they are asking -- they are not asking, i should say, the ntsb to lead the investigation because the i

joining us renee marsh, cnn aviation analyst miles o'brien. aviation analyst peter ghols. have you ever seen anything like this? this explosion of anger from the families in any of the investigations you were involved in? >> no. the family assistance act in the united states really set up a process to deal with these kinds of very challenging situations. but this is really unprecedented and is so heart rendering. >> miles, you have covered these investigations for years. have you ever seen this kind of anger and protest coming from family members? >> nothing like this. the family assistance act sets up a whole mechanism which provides counseling, grief support and frankly briefings in advance of news conferences so the families feel they are being informed and facts laid out for them, not conclusions, facts. that is the least the families are entitled to. >> there is a limited of time before they find the black box. are you optimistic they can find it? >> no. i'm not optimistic they will find it in that timeframe. over time it might happen but it might be years. >> the lif

distances, considered one of the safest planes in the world, which only deepens the mystery, here's renee marshoeing 777 is one of the most high-tech planes in the sky. and a workhorse of international travel. >> the 777 i have to say was probably the nicest, most sophisticated, but also one of the easier airplanes to fly. >> it's so sophisticated it beams messages to the ground to identify maintenance problems before it even lands. >> there are systems to communicate with the company, there are even systems sometimes that monitor the health of the engines, automated reports. >> 777-200 are capable of flying from new york to almost anywhere in the world nonstop. >> really has an excellent safety record. >> that's why the mystery behind how this flight vanished has stumped the world, even pilots like mike weiss who flu 777s. >> this was way out of the ordinary, this is just something that happened instantaneously or relatively quickly and overcame the crew and the aircraft. >> reporter: since the first 777 rolled off the assembly line in 1994, the planes have made about 5 million flights. yet it

rene marsh has more. >> reporter: new satellite data may help uncover the secrets of where flight 370 went down. it flew south connecting with the satellite once an hour for six hours. the final ping, as described by malaysian authorities nearly two weeks ago, happened at 8:11 a.m. but now a new revelation. there may have been another ping. eight minutes later, this satellite detects something else. this time evidence of a partial connection. >> so by getting that very last data, that very last data point, you have a lot more information about where the plane might be. it's another very important piece of the puzzle. >> reporter: but not even the engineers understand what this means or how it fits into the big picture. >> at this time, this mission is not understood and is subject to further ongoing work. >> reporter: is this partial ping a sign that the plane is still flying or the moment that it went down in the indian ocean? >> it's not in itself very definitively conclusive about the fate of the plane. it will allow us, should it come to that, to have a somewhat better -- a narrow

. >>> let's bring in rene marsh, miles o'brien, "the new york times" reporter michael schmidt and tom fuentes, former assistant director of the fbi. if they find the black box -- and miles, you've covered these stories for a long time -- i assume in this case -- and this is the black box even though it's orange. i assume in this case the critical information they find it even after the pinger stops going will be retrievable? >> yes, there's an unlimited shelf life essentially for that. it's kind of baked into it. it doesn't need to have an active battery in order for that date to be recoverable. just because there's no pinger doesn't mean there's no data on the black box. >> tom, you're the assistant fbi director. i've gotten questions from viewers, if they get this black box, who will have custody of it, will malaysian airlines or some other country like the united states, for example, have first crack at it? >> malaysian government is running the case, it's their case. they'll decide if they want to try to do something with that box themselves or whether they'll turn it over for nts

cnn's renee marsh has a complete timeline of what we know so far. >> reporter: takeoff from kuala lumpur 12:41 a.m. local time last saturday. flight 370 headed north along its planned route to beijing. but then two communications systems stopped working within minutes of each other. and investigators now believe someone almost surely turned them off. at 1:07 a.m. near the east coast of malaysia, the system known as akars stops transmitting information about the plane's operating condition. and that was before the last radio transmission, all right, good night, indicating everything was normal. 1:21 a.m., the transponder which identifies the aircraft on radar stops transmitting. was someone trying to hide the plane? we also now know blips then seen on malaysian military radar were, in fact, flight 370 headed west and authorities say there's every indication someone was in control. >> until the point at which it left military primary radar coverage, this movement are consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane. >> reporter: still unclear whether it was a pilot or hijacker. cn

andrew stevens is in if malaysia and rene marsh in washington. the investigation with rene marsh, follow that live from washington. where do things stand right now? >> fred, the search for missing flight 370 has taken a drastic turn. it appears for the last eight days crews searching the south china sea were simply in the wrong area. they are ending the search there and refocusing their attention to the west of the malaysian peninsula. now, everything just took a turn because of technology that both the ntsb and the faa happen to be using. it's technology that wasn'ten intended to be used for this particular purpose but it is giving them a whole lot of information on the missing plane's last position. now, based on this new satellite data, the plane was intact and in the air seven hours after people on the ground lost all communications with the plane. so now we have a brand new timeline for the path of the missing plane. we already knew that the plane stopped transmitting data about the health of the plane and the engines, about 25 minutes after

christi, victor. >>> and thank you to renee marsh for that.his sunday. i hope it's been well to you so far. i'm christi paul. >> i'm victor blackwell. 7:00 here on the east coast. we're starting with breaking news this morning. major developments in the search for malaysian airlines flight 370. just about an hour ago, malaysian officials have confirmed they have received new information from french satellites that could show potential objects in that southern search corridor area. we'll get to cnn's atika shubert on that angle. we want to catch you up on what we know this morning. >> the search team is larger than it has beignet. eight planes today from four countries scouring the waters of the southern indian ocean and that includes the world's most sophisticated search plane, the u.s. navy p8 poseidon. >> it's especially helpful to have it there, but despite the amazing capabilitiecapabilities search is taking a low-tech turn. it's a visual search with the emphasis on eyes over radar. now, yesterday a civilian plane spotted a wooden pallet i

cnn's rene marsh is putting it together for us. >> this new report raises one or critical questions,being, what was going on in the cockpit? this plane reportedly went hundreds of miles off course. its transponder was off and pilots never communicated a word to anyone. there is no good reason for the transponder transponder to be off. it tells the plane's altitude, location, and speed. there's only two reasons that this piece of equipment would be off, someone wanted to hide that critical flight information or mechanical failure. this was the last known location of flight 370 over the south china sea as civilian aviation radar suggest. but now a dramatic new turn of events. a malaysian military source tells cnn their radar shows the plane may have still been flying an hour and ten minutes later. instead of being off the east coast of malaysia, it apparently turned the opposite direction and flew to the malacca strait, west of the peninsula. why was the plane flying in the opposite direction and why would the transponder in the plane's cockpit be turned off? >> if someone did that in

it's potentially, rene marsh, very significant. >> that's right. we have a copy of the transcript right here. translated from mandarin to english, all of the wording may not be quite exact. but usually, we can tell you this, air traffic control tells the pilot when to push back, taxi to the runway and take off and the pilot communicate's the planes altitude. now we are examining the transcript of this 54-minute conversation between one of the pilots of flight 370 and air traffic control. a purported transcript that details what malaysia airlines flight 370 told air traffic controls from takeoff until it disappeared has been obtained from telegraph newspaper. one pilot flies while the other handles radio calls. the conversations match with what malaysian investigators and u.s. officials have told cnn, that the recordings indicated a normal flight. the radio calls were slightly casual but gave no sign the plane was about to disappear. at 1:07 a.m., a message saying that the plane was at 35,000 feet, a potentially odd sign identified by the paper beca

. >> rene marsh. thank you so much. >>> so the passengers' families are getting increasingly worried and frustrated. andrew stevens joins us now from beijing where relatives of the 154 chinese nationals are onboard, gathering at a hotel complex. andrew, what are officials telling them? >> reporter: well, it's very difficult for the officials to tell them any concrete facts at the moment, fredricka, because they don't have any. what they are saying is that their priority, the airlines priority to give as much assistance to the people they need. all the next of kin have now been contacted. all next of kin of the passengers who were on that plane have now been contacted and malaysian airlines, and i guess this is a way of saying they are expecting the worst. they have said, they've told the passengers as soon as the plane is found, they will fly them to where that -- where the plane is. now, we can only assume that that plane -- it will be wreckage. we don't know at this stage, as we just heard. there's

cnn's rene marsh has more on the mysterious revelation. what are you learning?on is coming from a law enforcement official. again, that person saying that someone in the cockpit almost certainly programmed that plane to go off course and that is based on data. but what we don't know is what data they are looking at and we don't know who may be responsible. but as one pilot tells us, it's easy to change the flight path midair if you know what you are doing in the cockpit. while people may thing pilots fly by hand, in reality, many of the turns they make are dictated by punching buttons. before takeoff, an airline dispatcher creates the flight plan. when pilots arrive at the airplane, their route is programmed and set into the flight management system. then, takeoff. in the case of flight 370, as it was following the designated flight path to beijing, cnn has learned more than 40 minutes after takeoff, the plane made an unexpected left turn that appears to have been programmed. >> you see this over here, this is my route of flight. >> captain mike weiss says alter

renee marsh is live for us from washington. his, as far as the faa and ntsb, a u.s. officials briefing cnn overnight and they say the focus is on analyzing that data. they are trying to look at the radar data and satellite data to get a good feel where the plane is. that is the priority. we know agencies helping the malaysian authorities are the faa and ntsb. they analyzed satellite data. we heard jim clancy talk about it. based on that satellite data, not radar, but satellite data, they learned key things. they can now say coming out of the press conference this morning with the high degree of certainty that the aircraft systems that essentially communicates how the plane is performing, the engines, the fuel burned. that system was disabled. they also say that was done right as the plane was going over the east coast of the malaysian peninsula. shortly after that, the transponder which gives details about the speed and altitude and identifies this is malaysia airline flight 370, that was switched off. that data confirms the pla

here's a look at the timeline, the 30-minute timeline is renee marsh in washington. the clock, let's put it that way, are they honing in on? >> the block of time that we are talking about here is 1:07 to 1:37 a.m. malaysian authorities appear to be back tracking on information they gave about the timeline of events and the new timeline they are giving today in the words of one 777 pilot makes what happened look less deliberate and more mechanical. here's the new timeline. saturday march 8th, 1:07, the acars system sent the last information about the health of the plane much the last radio transmission with the copilot saying already, good night. perfectly normal as they were going and doing the handoff for malaysian airspace towards vietnam. two minutes later, the plane's transponder stopped transmitting the altitude, speed, and positioning. nine minutes later, the radar loses the plane all together. here's what's new. i want to you follow me step by step. the acars system was programmed to transmit information in 30-minute intervals. the next scheduled data burst wo

rene marsh is here and she's working this part of the story for us.out these flight recorders, the flight and data, the voice and data recorders? >> right, so wolf, as you see, they're bright orange and they're bright orange because they want these search and rescue teams to easily be able to spot them at a crash site but finding them in this case is a mounting challenge. the battery is dying. the section of ocean is thousands of feet deep. and that means the signal is much, much harder to hear. these two objects in the indian ocean may be the best hint yet at what happened to malaysia airlines flight 370. but even if they are from the missing plane, the real key to understanding what happened could still be miles away at the bottom of the ocean and its calling, but time is running out. >> so the minute this is no longer broadcasting, things become much more difficult. >> reporter: the cockpit voice recorder stores at least two hours of audio and the data recorder contains at least 36 hours of instrument data, both crucial to understanding what happen

rene marsh is here. >> tonight we're looking at all of the puzzle pieces.re asking two main questions. is there a logical aeronautical explanation or does it point to something more sinister? >> the last transmission from the aircraft was at 01:07 which indicated that everything was normal. >> reporter: then no more data about the health of the plane and its engines. we asked two experts to examine the evidence so far on the disappearance of flight 370. steve wallace, a former faa official skilled at looking at aeronautical explanations for incidents. christopher vos, a former fbi agent skilled at looking for nefarious explanations. >> my first thought is, all right, is there a catastrophic event that immediately took the plane out of the sky? whether it be mechanical failure like twa flight 800 or a well-placed bomb like pan am 103. >> wallace says perhaps there were no problems to report. >> it's unclear to me when the next scheduled transmission of that data, maybe it's sent every few minutes or so. not something the pilots would have any reason to tampe

let's check in with our aviation correspondent rene marsh, there have been a lot of setbacks including looks like they're getting ready to take off today. >> that's good news today, wolf, but we've seen these several satellite images and even with ships in the area and planes doing flyovers, conditions are right to miss the critical pieces. 1500 miles off australia's west coast the search is intensifying. new satellite images of possible debris revealed today. so far a total of five countries have spotted floating objects from satellite images. australian satellites detected two, then the chindz spotted this. the french photographed 122 objects. thailand's satellites spotted 300 and wednesday the japanese detected ten. but search crews scanning the indian ocean have not found a sign of flight 370 or any floating objects believed to match those captured on satellite. >> it's not perfect. it's a combination of fallibility of the human eye, the surface conditions. >> reporter: bottom line a visual search among waves that can be as tall as a two-story building is the best option but not a