tom blank, thank you very much for being with us.ciate it. >> thank you. >>> with more on the investigation into the missing malaysian jet liner, stay tuned to chris wallace tomorrow. he's going to be sitting down with the chairman of the house select committee on intelligence, mike rogers. that's tomorrow on fox news sunday. >>> and that's going to do it for me. join myself and arthel neville just one hour from now on news inside america's news headquarters. "the five" is coming up next. hope you're having a great weekend. ed >> hello.ne. i'm andrea terrentino. it's 5:00 o'clock in new york city and this is "the five". last month president obama made this declaration at the national prayer breakfast. >> promoting religious freedom is a key objective of u.s. foreign policy. and i'm proud that no nation on earth does more to stand up for the freedom of religion around the world than the united states of america. >> he said promoting religious freedom abroad is a priority fos america. now, today he is abroad in saudi arabia and a lot o

. >> let's bring in tom blank now. tom, what do you think? >> well, i think we have to begin to look at the fact that we very likely have a conspiracy here. in other words it's the right thing to do to look at those pilots, at their backgrounds, their associations, even their families' backgrounds and associations because they have the skill set. it's highly unlikely what we're seeing is the work of one single perpetrator. this had to be more than one person in my view. >> we're learning now bat flight engineer who had some significant training. >> and that is exactly the kind of video would want to look at. find out whether or not he is capable of flying the airplane, attempting to fly the airplane, and there's just a number of things that begin to fall into place. this aircraft did not go on for eight hours in the air in the hands of one single human being. >> all right. we are now told that in the beginning part of all of this, after the signal went dead, after the transresponsibler -- strand responder went dead it climb to 47,000 feet. >>

let's bring in tom blank, former tsa deputy director to talk about one theory of what could have goneng. welcome, sir. >> nice to be with you, uma. >> as you hear the news that's been unfolding over the past 24 hours that this is now being seen as a deliberate act, that there was reason to believe that the cockpit was compromised, what are your thoughts as you think about security today here in this country versus what's happening around the world? >> well, two things. first, i'm reassured about what the u.s.s has done following 9/11 and the many steps to improve security. the creation of a specific agency to address transportation security. beginning with protocols that will protect the integrity of the cockpit at all costs. that seems to be the correct step to have taken, and so while i'm reassured about u.s. aviation security, i remain disappointed and a little frustrate that other nations haven't recognized the u.s. gold standard and move their own standards up to it. i think that could be a factor in this particular matter. >> as you've been reviewing, the information as it has b

. >>> joining us, tom blank, a former deputy director of the transportation security administration. hanks for coming in. >> nice to be here. >> i want to ask you about a directive or advisory that the department of homeland security issued i think on february 19th to be on the lookout for shoe bombs, this in the aftermath of chatter that was picked up by our intelligence services. what do you make of that? do you think it might play into this disappearance of the plane? >> it's certainly a possibility. i think it's a testament to the fact that the u.s. authorities, homeland security authorities are on top of intelligence, constantly analyzing intelligence, looking for these threat streams. in this case i think the malaysians have been very slow in beginning to have a look at these pilots and finding a flight simulator, a very sophisticated piece of equipment, even if it's a crude one in a pilot's home is certainly unusual to the point of being pretty suspicious. >> it was as you said a sophisticated flight simulator. he didn't have just one computer screen that some kid would choose

i want to bring in our panel, robert mark, who is a pilot, tom blank, a former tsa, deputy administrator, gentlemen, welcome to you all. rob mark, your thoughts on that statement. well, i know when i heard it a few moments ago, unless there is a system in the triple 7 that triggers a >> the pilot in command i really think it makes sense that the transponder could malfunction, but we still want the pilot in command to be able to communicate, ato what is going on, his whereabouts and be able to take some sort of evasive action. i think that makes good sense. >> this is the transponder highlighted. let me ask you, is it possible, i've heard some pilots argue that the pilot needs to have the ability to turn off a transponder if he decides he is going to make a landing, pilots don't like to have the transponder on. so could it be as some argued there was an event right after the sign-off to air traffic control. they started to shut down systems to be cautious? they decided to turn so they could get to the nearest airport, and the only reason the transponder went off perhaps even at the hand o

jon: for more on the missing plane, let's bring in tom blank, former tsa deputy director. tom the story in "the wall street journal" was enough to make me spit out my could have fee this morning. lead line reads this, u.s. inspectors suggest malaysian airlines flight 370 stayed in the air four hours past the time it reached its confirmed location according to two people familiar with the details raising the possibility that the plane could have flown on for hundreds of miles under conditions that remain murky. what do you think about that? >> well, i think that is a pretty startling revelation if in fact it turns out to be true. here's one very important lesson we learned on 9/11. at all costs maintain the security and integrity of the cockpit. and whatever happens here, we're going to learn that there was some sort after cockpit breach and that means that we had pilots who were perhaps corrupted for one reason or another because transponders don't get turned off on their own. if there was a peaceful cockpit breach, by that i mean one without weapons or without an explosion

commercial pilot and fox news aviation analyst, also kathleen banks, a fox news aviation specialist, and tom blank who was a former department tsa executive. tom let me start with you as an investigator. when you hear the friend offer what appeared to be a heartfelt defense of the man he knew and none of the rest of us did, your thoughts on how -- on that take, on the captain and how the investigators need to go about figuring out for themselves who this man really was. >> well, that is an important data point. pleased to have it out in the public. but it certainly doesn't go far enough. i think it is also important that we have some interaction with other pilots and co-pilots that this gentleman has flown with over the past 60/90 days, even longer. i would be interested in the observations of flight crew that have worked with him and also interested in what the evaluations done by malaysia have said about him. there should be something we could glean from that about whether there were any problems in his mental state. unusual behaviors, anxiety and those kind of things. that is what we would want

former deputy administrator tom blank and d.j. frost. welcome to the program. let me start with you and ask, first of all, if investigators find on this captain's simulator, they find, for example, the five practice runways in the indian ocean what does that tell you, does that raise suspicions in your mind about him? >> well, sean, i flew a 767 not quite a 777 yet, but i want to say, it could be something interests or it could be nothing. it could be him wanting to prepare for future check rides, training events, things like that, it's something interesting, yet i wouldn't put a lot of faith on to something earth shattering at this point yet. >> what do you think, as a tsa investigator do you believe the same thing? >> i believe the key lesson from 9/11, we have to protect the integrity of the cockpit at all costs. it seems in this case, something went awry in the cockpit. we have an aircraft that has gone off its assigned course. we have controls that have been manually turned off, it appears, that tells us in this particular flight. the maintenance of the in

. >> tom blank, live with us. thank you so much. >> nice to see you. >> consider this. we'll get into this with lea gabrielle. consider this. it is widely believed now this plane may have taken a course that would help it avoid known ground radar. in other words, not just made a turn but made a turn and then a series of turns to get to a location. and there is talk of a general area of what that location may be. the way in which he or she might have maneuvered this jet, and talk about why. we'll have all the details on that in just minutes. we'll speak with a pielet about the latest theories and what he says the evidence shows so far. plus in philadelphia, passengers say people were screaming and crying after the front of their jet slammed into the tarmac at takeoff. and look at that. not in some faraway land. that's philly, and the group of firefighters on board who say they turned from passengers into rescuers. it is an extremely busy news day with the disappearance of flight 370 dominating it all. i'm in new york. stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ yourturn night into day.ng. conqu

i want to bring in our panel, robert mark, who is a pilot, tom blank, a former tsa, deputy administratorelcome to you all. rob mark, your thoughts on that statement. well, i know when i heard it a few moments ago, unless there is a system in the triple 7 that triggers a >> the pilot in command i really think it makes sense that the transponder could malfunction, but we still want the pilot in command to be able to communicate, as to what is going on, his whereabouts and be able to take some sort of evasive action. i think that makes good sense. >> this is the transponder highlighted. let me ask you, is it possible, i've heard some pilots argue that the pilot needs to have the ability to turn off a transponder if he decides he is going to make a landing, pilots don't like to have the transponder on. so could it be as some argued there was an event right after the sign-off to air traffic control. they started to shut down systems to be cautious? they decided to turn so they could get to the nearest airport, and the only reason the transponder went off perhaps even at the hand of the pilot,

he's now senior manager at met ron scientific lusolutions, and tom blank, executive vp of gephardt government affairs. captain, i want to start with you and today's stall searched, what is the risk assessment to postpone a search like this entail? and could we actually see ships returning to the search before airplanes? >> good to be with you this afternoon. that's a great question, and it really goes to the heart of the challenges that the australians are facing, as they coordinate this effort down there with multiple assets, trying to help identify where the wreckage may be. the issue then becomes, you know, how do you do that safely? and given the kinds of weather conditions that have been reported down in the search area for over the last 24 hours, they made the call that it just wasn't prudent, nor would it be worthwhile to send assets in. again, they're still in the phase of trying to look with their eyeballs, what we'd call the mod one search detector, and see something on the ocean's surface. and when you're talking about gale force winds and 12-foot-plus seas with white caps and low

blank. our superhero thomas roberts has ion spider-me to -- >> our producer eric schultz speaks for us all when he says tomip spider-me to greatly expand my -- then we have another viewer that said thomas has inspeared me to go out and buy some burgers. those are his favorite. >> this is my favorite >>> thanks, everyone, for a great show. "morning joe" starts right now. >>> so how does this work? do you send ambassador rodman to n north korea? i read you'd be sending hulk hogan? or is that going to be tonya harding? >> what was it like to talk to the last president? >> it must stink you can't run thre