and abc's gloria riviera, tonight, from a search plane over the indian ocean. >> reporter: today, we joined the hunt for the phantom plane. we boarded a p3 orion, with the grey knight squadron from the navy's 7th fleet out of washington state. a ten-hour journey over the turquoise blue waters. this mission, taking us west of indonesia, covering 54,000-square nautical miles. the plane, dropping below 500 feet, close to the ocean's surface, any time the pilot sees something to investigate. the aircraft can detect sound 1,000 feet down in the ocean. even the faint beep from a black box. but today, the p3 focused on finding physical signs of flight 370. at night, using infrared to scan the ocean surface. during light, powerful cameras. this is one example of the kind of technology that makes this aircraft able to do such an exhaustive search. cameras around the plane, acting like eyes. but they have the ability to do an extreme zoom in on anything that might be part of flight 370. that could be anything, from luggage, to plane debris, even oil. tonight, above the water, it feels like an

gloria riviera, abc news, above the indian ocean. >> and we thank you, gloria. >>> from your search on the ocean, we turn to the latest on the search inside the lives of the pilots. even the words of the co-pilot, when he said good night. abc's chief justice correspondent, pierre thomas, spoke to the experts today. >> reporter: tonight, malaysian authorities are urgently studying the captain's at-home flight simulator for clues. >> the simulator was reassembled here at headquarters. >> reporter: investigators want to know, did the captain, seen here on a widely circulated youtube clip, appearing to show him going through airport security, practice the maneuvers that the flight made beforehand? and today, we learned from malaysian officials, the critical importance of that last radio transmission from the plane to air traffic control. all right, good night, said someone in the cockpit. could only four words provide clues to help unlock the case? >> do you believe the person who said, all right, good night, from the cockpit, was the pilot or co-pilot? >> initial investigation indicated i

. >> reporter: abc's gloria riviera had a front row seat for ten hours of searching today, searching in vain. on the ground perth on the west coast of australia has become a central staging area. 26 nations are now involved in the search and rescue. you're at pierce air base. they'll be spearheading the effort as it reaches into the southern reaches of the indian ocean. aviation experts tell us that's the most likely place this plane ended up. but the thing is no one can say for sure. >> reporter: this in an era when technology is not supposed to let things simply disappear. least of all a jumbo jet with 239 souls on board. but so far instead of answers it's become a real-life episode of "lost." a mystery in danger of unraveling into conspiracy theories. could the plane have landed somewhere? were the pilots involved? could a catastrophic failure have incapacitated everyone on board? here's what we do know for certain. flight mh370 took off from kuala lumpur at 12:41 a.m. bound for beijing. 1:19 the cockpit checks in with the tower one last time. "all right. good night," he said. tod

. >> gloria riviera, abc news in malaysia. >> frightening moments for those on board a us airways plane yesterday when the nose landing gear collapsed and a tire blew during takeoff from philadelphia international airport. the pilot aborted takeoff and passengers went down the emergency chutes onto the runway and some use their cell phones to record what happened. >> oh my god. >> everything was in a panic at the time. i have never seen anything like that in my life for. >> two of the 150 people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries and some of the passengers opted to get another flight that night and go to fort lauderdale. new details into the investigation of the massive recall by general motors, what the automaker is saying about figures involving debts in recall vehicles. we will tell you about the health concern that forced a local school to close today. >> taking a live look outside at the nation's capital, it's pretty warm out there so prepare for the warm-up but the temperatures w >> the maryland state senate will vote today on whether to decriminalize the possession of

abc's gloria riviera was there at his gate watching the search. >> it was just after 2:42 when a white van came up to the gates, was carrying two officers in plainclothes. said they were from malaysia's police headquarters after that a police car with two in uniforms came in spent two hours here. upscale neighborhoods and neighbors say it's a tight-knit community. >> reporter: in his home he has his own flight simulator. also on the manifest is fariq abdul hamid, now engaged to be married. i visited his house yesterday. no one answered the door. everyone i spoke to said nice things, especially this malaysian singer, one of his closest friends. she grew up in the same hometown in panang. >> he is a nice guy, truly young. i don't think he's involved. >> reporter: as the prime minister spoke today, family members watched it closely hoping for good news. this father's 29-year-old son is on that plane. his hope now is that he is still alive. one of the questions this morning is why did it take so much time for the government to reveal this kind of information? well, it's been told by many p

abc's gloria riviera is at the beijing airport with the latest. >> here at beijing international airport, it was more than four hours before officials announced anyone awaiting word on flight 370 should head back to beijing to meet with representatives from malaysia airlines. we saw many chinese police here dispatched to keep control, as so many wanted answers when they were none. the boeing 777 aircraft, similar to the one pictured here was carrying 239 people from malaysia's capital to beijing. chinese state media reports radar contact with the plane was lost in vietnamese air space. the airline confirms four americans onboard, one of them a child. in total there were 14 different nationalities on the flight. as the day wore on, families in tears, lacking information. the beijing-bound flight departed kuala lumpur was scheduled to land in beijing at 6:30 a.m. it went missing two hours into the flight. at the airport in beijing the arrivals board listed the flight as delayed. >> this is very rare. for an airplane to disappear is not normal. i think we have at this hour every reason to e

. >>> gloria riviera is at a military base in kuala lumpur this morning where she spoke to the chief of malaysia's air force leading the search for the plane. >> he insists he's been misquoted about a change of direction the jetliner may have taken and when gloria asked him why after five days there's still no radar data his response was a firm "no comment." stay with abc news for all the new developments on the mystery of flight 370. we have live team coverage coming up on "good morning america." >>> well, new this morning what one passenger is calling the miracle on us airways flight 678 left tampa bound for phoenix forced to make a landing in houston. that's because a baby on board stopped breathing. two passengers with medical training saved the child. >> ran up and had the baby held in his hand upside down. the baby was purple. >> there are people that assisted and they were told there would be an emergency landing and everything went smoothly. everybody was just invested in -- when we heard the baby cry, teary moment for everybody. >> all right. wonderful. the flight continued

abc's gloria riviera is in beijing tonight. >> reporter: from above, those two vast oil slicks, scarring an otherwise calm ocean surface. today, debris was spotted, but none linked directly to flight 370. planes will fly out to the area later to try to confirm where the debris came from. the quest for answers, a growing, multinational all-out effort. at least 30 aircraft, more than 40 ships. vietnamese search and rescue teams deployed. chinese divers on hand. u.s. navy vessels at work. soon, even a submarine. for relatives, an agonizing wait. in texas, the family of american passenger phillip wood told abc news today he had visited home just a week ago. his father, barely able to speak. >> so, he had a big, big heart. >> reporter: and from his sons -- >> last thing i said was, i love you. i was on my way out. i was going back to college. he just stood up and he gave me a big hug and i just told him i loved him. >> reporter: seeing what these families at this hotel have gone through, a mother unable to face the loss of her son, a wife, certain her husband must have somehow survived, it's

gloria riviera, abc news, beijing. >> be sure to stay with abc news as we cover all angles of this midair mystery. our live coverage continues on "america this morning" and "good morning america." >>> president obama will welcome ukraine's new prime minister to the white house later this week in a show of support. in the crimean part of ukraine, details of sunday's referendum are being announced. voters will decide whether to break away and join russia. it comes against a dueling back drop of protesters and clashes between pro-ukrainian and pro-russian groups across the divided country. >>> the second week of the murder trial of oscar pistorius begins today in africa. on friday, he told the court after receiving reports of gunshots from neighbors that he called pistorius who told him everything was fine. >>> we are hearing for the first time this morning from the father of sandy hook school shooter. peters lanza tells "the new yorker" he said he doesn't know how he could have prevented his son, adam, from killing 20 students and six adults. he also said he wished adam had never been born

we want to bring in gloria riviera. she is in beijing, the original destination for flight 370. she has been with the families of those souls on board the flight, gloria, their reaction this morning or this evening there in beijing was what? >> reporter: josh, it's been dramatic here at the hotel in beijing. we're getting reports -- abc news has been inside the hotel where families are. one woman fainting, crying being put on a stretcher. this location since march 8th where the families have been keeping hope alive. the news today confirming their worst fears. one woman telling abc news she received the information from malaysian informations from an e-mail in english. just as this press conference was beginning to happen, families were still coming down from their hotel rooms, entering a room to be together where they have been together for so many days, demanding answers, answers that just didn't come. praying for the best. bracing for the worst. that worst news for them coming this evening, josh? >> all right, gloria. >>> i also want to bring in david wright. he was member of

. >> reporter: meanwhile, our abc's own gloria riviera retraced flight 370 taking the red-eye to beijing, just like 239 passengers and crew did that fateful night. soon after takeoff, just before 370's communications started to fail, the crew would have been starting food service. the passengers like us getting settled. in less than an hour something on 370 was seriously wrong. >> we're over 40 minutes into the flight. i just got on flight 370. someone had switched off the transponder communication to air traffic control, so the plane was no longer in contact -- direct contact with anyone on the ground and also the point at which the plane turned to the left. would passengers notice? they're in the middle of dinner, and they're also getting ready for bed. >> on this flight nothing unusual except on landing when the pilot said -- >> have a blessed morning and please pray for mh370. >> reporter: we're just starting to get more information on where the family went. the last i saw them, they were up the escalator. exactly where they'll go from here is still unclear, but we're finding out mor

for abc news, gloria riviera this morning joined a search party desperate for any clue. >> we just bankedard right. i thought the wind would touch the ocean surface because the captain wanted to check out something they saw. it was that big. turned out to be a fisherman's box. >> reporter: those search and rescue teams are saying not only are they just looking for debris, they also have this great hope that maybe hopefully they'll be able to find some of those people still alive. george? >> much more work to be done. >> indeed. all right. >>> as bhengsed, there are new questions about flight 370's final moments in those key nine minutes of no communication, but the plane still showing up on the radar. abc's david kerley is live in washington with the latest on this, good morning to you, david. >> reporter: lara, we learned this morning that u.s. aviation investigators have now seen all the radar data the malaysians have. but there's still this mystery that led to a discussion of possible theories because of these missing nine minutes. something happened to this 777's ability to report to

abc's gloria riviera spoke with malaysia's air force chief on the phone. >> reporter: can you clarifyor me why aviation authorities are not able to release radar data or even a time line at this time? >> no comment. >> reporter: now another possibility. last month the faa issued an airworthiness direct ive regarding boeing 777s in the u.s. reports of possible cracking of the fuselage skin could lead to rapid decompression or oxygen loss in the cabin causing loss of structural integrity of the airplane. experts say the same concerns would apply to flight 370 even though it was a slightly older model. now, some of those family members have told us they've been trying to call the cell phone of those loved ones in the plane and they said they heard them ring but the experts say that doesn't necessarily mean those phones are really ringing and working. sometimes you just hear that. that's about all they're really getting information on right now. robin? >> okay, bob, thank you. >>> new information about the pilots at the controls of that plane. investigators digging into their backgrounds.

gloria riviera, abc news, above the indian ocean. >> and as the australian military heads to the searchp on "america this morning" and "good morning america." >>> turning to the news starting with the murder trial of oscar pistorius. the olympian listened yesterday as a gun expert testified about pistorius's love of firearms. the expert said pistorius asked him to purchase several weapons for him, including three shotguns and a rifle. on the stand yesterday, a police photographer claimed nothing at the scene of steenkamp's death was tampered with. >>> while entering a guilty plea to a military judge, jeffrey sinclair seemed to choke up saying, quote, i failed her as a leader and as a mentor and caused harm to her emotion at state. >>> tv pitchman kevin trudeau will spend the next ten years behind bars. at his sentencing, the judge called him an unrepentant huckster who was deceitful to the core. a court order barred him from running false tv ad. his info commercials ran at least 32,000 times. trudeau made millions from sales of his weight loss book. >>> general motors issued a new batch