abc news reporter david curley has the latest. >> reporter: this is the actual 777 that is missing an aircraft with few maintenance issues but disappeared a little more than 36 hours ago. here's what we do know. malaysia airlines 370, the red eye to beijing took off on its six-hour flight at 12:41 in the morning. 40 minutes later at 1:20 in the morning it flew out of the radar coverage area. ten minutes later, the airline says the crew reported their position, the last time they were heard from. how much longer they were in the air or what direction they were headed is unclear. but this morning officials say they're investigating the possibility that the plane tried an air turnback, a literal turnaround back to the airport at kuala lumpur. we do know the pilot 53-year-old zaharie shah was experienced. he had been with the airline more than 30 years. there's so much we do not know, what was happening in the final moments? the black box also likely tell us. they are now presumably at the bottom of the south china sea, locator beacons pinging for a month or so. >> it's a little over 600

abc david curley has more from washington. >> today a total of eight aircraft criss-crossing the search area, including four commercial jets. the crew trying to eyeball debris on the surface of the rough indian ocean based on the latest satellite images. chinese photos see something 75 miles from the first pictures and now the french pictures. >> we have now had a number of very credible leads. there is increasing hope. no more than hope. no more than hope that we might be on the road to discovering what did happen to this ill-fated aircraft. >> the photos, taken days apart, were days old when they were released. with drama, the malaysians releasing news of the chinese photos in a news conference. >> this is all i have. >> but because of delays in concentrating the search in the southern indian ocean with its strong currents, debris, if ever found, could be hundreds of miles from a possible crash site where the black boxes could be on the ocean floor and the batteries on the boxes have just a couple weeks of power remaining to send out a signal. the australians just announced they are s

david curley raised something in the piece i want to ask about. in this day and age with so much technology at our disposal, where the black boxes not transmitting to land? rather than going to the bottom of the ocean? >> it's a legitimate question. that was raised after the air france crash. why not transmipt mitt it through satellite links? we would know the health of the aircraft. up to this point, it's the question of technology, having the satellites in the right place. paying the cost of having the data transmitted. that's a cost-benefit analysis. but you will see the way business is done transoceanically. >> thank you. >>> and turning now to the other story breaking overnight. a stage collapsing in the middle of a high school performance. dozens of students taken to hospitals. and what went wrong. and we have more. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, bianna. it was a scary and chaotic time for the dozens of girls performing on the stage when it collapsed. and for the hundreds of family members in the audience looking on. caught on came

abc's david curley has been following the search for flight 370 from the very beginning. >> david isw to give us some perspective on where this is taking place. >> reporter: the satellite, according to the prime minister, has seen one piece, that was at least 24 meters across, which is a pretty big piece of debris, and then many smaller pieces. so now the p8 from the united states and the p3, another aircraft the australians are flying, are going to fly over this area where the satellite saw this and take pictures. and those pictures will then come back and they will analyze, is this looking like a fussile lodge or debris from a 777. if that's the case, then vessels will be heading to the same area, trying to pick up the actual debris. there will be serial numbers on any parts of the fuselage. could be luggage with luggage tags on it. looking for any clues that says this is the triple 7 we've been looking for for more than 12 days now. the u.s. investigators were interested in this area southwest of australia. this is where they wanted to concentrate. and in the last 12 hours, 24 hou

we have team coverage, starting with david curley in washington. good morning. >> reporter: as you mentioned, more satellite images to study. these from the french. it's the third set of pictures that show potential debris in the search area off australia. all helping to narrow the effort, but will it help find the plane? today, a total of eight aircraft criss-crossing the search area, including four commercial jets. trying to eyeball debris on the surface of the rough southern indian ocean based on the latest satellite images. the chinese photos have something, just 79 miles from the satellite pictures released by the australians. and now the french pictures. >> we have had a number of very credible leads. and there is increasing hope. no more than hope. no more than hope. that we might be on the road to discovering what did happen to this ill-fated aircraft. >> reporter: the photos taken days apart were days old when they were released. >> it was just that i got some breaking news -- >> reporter: with drama, the malaysians releasing news of the c

but lets get right to david curley for the very latest. david. >> reporter: martha, this is the end of the second day of daylight searching, and still no sign of this malaysian airlines 777. we need the crews to find wreckage, then they can listen to the pings of the all-important black boxes. they could solve the mystery of the sudden disappearance of this jetliner. it's every flier's greatest fear, a plane falling out of the sky without a trace. and this morning the search continues in the waters off of vietnam for any signs of malaysian air flight 370. 239 passengers and crew on board took off after midnight on saturday heading for beijing. it's the red eye. but it was last heard from at the 50 minute mark. then nothing. but no distress call or mayday signal. this morning, malaysian officials say there is a possibility that the plane may have tried to turn back to kuala lumpur. >> we have probably over 60,000 flights every day all over the world, and that may be a conservative figure, and this sort of thing never happens. >> reporter: ab

let's bring in abc's david curley and abc news contributor colonel steve ganyard, an aviation accident investigator. both have been on the story from the start. thanks for joining us. start with you, steve. you look at the vast search area and it reminds me how small the search area was for air france. they had debris within five days, and then it took two years. but this area is so huge. >> it is. the good news is, if you remember earlier in the week, we were looking at 2 million square miles. so the so-called good news is we're down to a search area the size of the state of texas. you reference the air france mishap because of the similarities. in that mishap, probably looking at something the size of connecticut. still a daunting, daunting search area. >> and if we find the debris, if that is actually debris from the airplane, it doesn't mean we're going do find the airplane. >> that's right. i think we ought to think of this as two separate search areas. we're looking for things on top of the water that still may be floating. but where the airplane went into the water is some 350 t