we have the "hma success" set up from here. that's at the search scene as well as several chinese ships. perth, already one of the most remote cities in the world, and the search area is some 2,500 from where we are now. we have a key bit of kit being flown in by the americans. something known as a towed ping locater. essentially that will be used to try to find the plane's missing black box flight recorder. what happens is a ship tows this through the water and it's able to pick up any pings or signals sent out by the black box. there are a few problems with that. one, the black box flight recorder is only able to send these pings out for about 30 days. that's the amount of battery life. we're already on day 18. there's a bit of time pressure. secondly, the black box may have been damaged so it may not be able to send out anything at all. thirdly, you can only use the ping locater when you have a pretty good idea exactly where the plane crashed. at the moment, we just don't know that. i think basically this recovery operation

our analysis, when we left to the photographers, the image analysis once we land, as well as hma's success once she steamed into the area. >> and that australian worship is en route to try to retrieve the objects the aircraft fown fd today. del. >> randall it bears pointing out we know where this plane disappeared we don't know why it disappeared. >> that is true. to that point one of the malaysian law enforcement officials said today, they had cleared aul the passengers of suspicion but interestingly, the investigation continues into the background of the pilot and co-pilot. no further information. but they are continuing to figure out who may have directed that plane into a southerly direction and into the ocean. >> randall pinkston for us live in washington, d.c. randall, thank you very much. meanwhile the families were given the news before that announcement was made today. they were called into a closed door meeting with malaysia air officials about an hour before the news conference. margaret ortigas has that story. >> the families were called into a meeting by malaysian officials in

the hmas success is en route, could be picking up items. keep in mind the sun is about to go down so it might not be until tomorrow morning. this is happening about 1600 miles southwest of perth, australia. that's the bottom center of your screen there. those two items should be noted are different from the two large floating objects and small white ones spotted earlier by chinese military aircraft. this morning new information about another object that was spotted days ago by a commercial aircraft. you might remember that wooden palate with the straps and belts. hours ago malaysia's transportation minister said there were palates but it's possible one fell off a cargo ship. i believe you are looking at video from a new zealand krarkt, and the united states are involved. they are trying to find these possible pieces of evidence looking out a plane window at 200 feet above the surface. not very easy. >> 200 miles an hour the world is whistling past and you're looking for an object in the white caps of the waves. >> it's disappointing we didn

"hmas success" remains the only vessel in the search area.arriving in the search area on the 25th of march. three aircraft, two from japan and one from the uae, have already departed today and are on en route to the southern corridor. six malaysian ships with three ship-borne helicopters are now in the northern part of the southern corridor. ten chinese ships are in the southern corridor carrying out search-and-rescue operations. "hms echo" is currently refueling in the mole deevz and will be sailing to the southern corridor this evening. in the northern corridor, turkmenistan confirmed they have had no sightings of mh-370 at all on their radar. each piece of information we receive from our partners in the northern corridor helps us to continuously narrow that corridor. satellite images, new leads into mh-370's possible location have come from satellite data. this is one of the four tools we identified that could narrow the search area along with surveillance radar data, increasing surface and air assets and bringing in more technical experts

the flight crew put down a marker and called in a supply ship, the only vessel nearby, the hmas "success the "success" still hasn't succeeded in retrieving them. the weather too rough. today the entire search was called off because of bad weather. but for a week now the search planes have scoured these waters, poring over a remote stretch of sea bigger than the state of california. >> our mission today is to go out to our search area. we're conducting a visual search, looking for any objects in the water. >> reporter: we've been with them, chasing grainy satellite images from the u.s., china, and france. >> any word if anybody's seen anything? >> nothing yet. >> reporter: the radar array starts pinging. >> i just got two additional hits on the northern side of our search area. >> reporter: multiple content. each of them some sort of anomaly on the water. >> the board is lighting up, huh? >> getting indications on our screen. >> reporter: but in these conditions, forget about it. the crew circles three times over the radar contact with no success. as tough as this first stage has been, st

. >> hmas alliance was launched.a third of sailors serving on assault occasioning actual bodily harms during the war lost their lives. >> don't forget aljazeera.com for the news. >> yeah, i'm all right. >> you see what? >> no. ♪ ♪ ♪

the russian navy ship hmas success is on the area. and something easily. this is broken to cover any object that it is a program to be drawn at eight three seconds. every effort is being made to the cape york to suit contends that the right imagery. it must be stressed that the seconds while credible. i still have the info. four and tasty seventy is a multi national effort. i would not give you an update on the assets which have been deployed. during the course of these operations chief for the defence forces. welcome to stop across from countries including australia china india indonesia japan for the snow or use it in singapore. i then get non uk and u s a. all were very supportive and all hope for justice. as the focus of the search has moved from the south china sea and stitch them back to two thousand and seven corridor with. i witnessed a promise to continue to provide whatever support they can but this incident occurred at different phases of the search and rescue operation and kind there are eighteen ships twenty nine acre off and says for helicopt

. >> an australian navy ship, hmas success is one of several vessels trying to find that out and it could then take days to transport anything they do find to 1,500 miles back to dry land. and unless the plane's crucial black box is found, we may know what happened but we won't know why. bbc news in perth. >> here's one very big empty ocean out there. for more i spoke a short time ago with robert francis, former vice chairman of the u.s. national transportation safety board and to retired navy captain van gurley, who commanded ocean ography operations. they joined me from washington. van gurley, let me start with you, we have seen a lot of pictures of the planes flying over this area of ocean. how critical is it we get ships on to that area too? >> well, that's absolutely critical for the next phase of the operation. a search like this is multiphased evolution. first is getting some idea where the debris field may be and that's the role of the long-range aircraft that could cover a large area quickly and of satellites. but once there is the debris, potential debris spotted as appears to h

three australian ships, the "hmas success," the "hmas" and a merchant vessel, which is currently transiting in the search area on the third of april. the adb "ocean shield" fitted with a towed pinger locator and a bluefin 21 autonomous underwater vehicle is due to arrive in the search area on the third of april. in terms of sightings of potential objects, on saturday, five objects were retrieved by "hmas success" and the "haisun." however it was found none of these objects were related to mh-370. on sunday, an australian p-3 orion made visual sighting of seven potential objects. the korean p-3 orion also made visuals of three potential objects. the chinese ship the "haisun" was tasked on monday to retrieve these potential objects. in my capacity as malaysian defense minister, i will leave tonight for the united states pacific command in hawaii. i will attend the asean defense ministers meeting, which will help will be held from the first to the third of april. it is convened by u.s. secretary chuck hagel. on behalf of the malaysian government, i will share with my asean counterparts and the

now we're going to be waiting to see if the hmas success, an australian naval ship in the area, if itet to that spot where it was spotted and wait for that information to get back to us. we're going to return to our search for flight 370 in a moment. we are also following another really big story here stateside. search crews in washington state are frantically trying to find more survivors this morning. over the weekend, look at your tv right now. huge mudslide, buried, almost an entire neighborhood, about an hour outside of seattle. crews so far have found eight bodies. they believe there are more than a dozen people still missing. cnn's george howell has the very latest. >> reporter: the devastation, of course, is overwhelming. >> officials call the search mission in snohomish county, washington aggressive. helicopters equipped with heat sensing technology scan fields of debris for any signs of people still trapped underneath. >> there was no sign of life. the only thing i can report is that we found one deceased victim. >> reporter: the side of this hill came crashing down on the s

and the hmas success. it of course had to turn back. >> now, that's what's happening at the moment. but there was this confirmation from the transport minister in malaysia that this extraordinary bit of commitment which can detect black boxes -- can you hear me now, sharon? no. okay. sharon there in central perth. many relatives of chinese passengers suppressed their frustration with the malaysian authorities. mr. wang is a representative of some families of missing passengers. he did not give his first name. >> we just want the truth. and if you make a conclusion with no exact evidence, why do you make that conclusion? and why do you make the conclusion that no one is alive? i don't believe that. you must have some answers. we want to know why. >> more than 100 bereaved relatives have been protesting outside the malaysian embassy in beijing. they threw water bottles and chanted. jon sudworth is in beijing. jon, how did they manage to defy the beijing police, who don't like protests? >> that's right. protests are of course very rare. this appeared to be pretty spontaneous. it caught

the royal australian warship hma success is on route to the area, but it's some days away. she is equipped to locate any objected located and proven to be from mh 370. the focus is to continue the search operation with all available ships and aircraft. the ships and aircraft are searching for any signs of the missing aircraft. weather conditions are moderate in the southern indian ocean where the search is taking place. however, poor visibility has been reported, and this will hamper both air and satellite efforts. amsa continues to hold concern for the crew and passengers on board. we are happy to take any questions. >> what do they appear to be? >> the objects are relatively indistinct on the imagery. i don't profess to be an expert in assessing the imagery, but those who are expert indicate they are credible sightings. they are of reasonable size and probably awash with water. moving up and down out of the surface. >> do you have an idea of the size? like the size of a basketball or seat cushion or much larger. >> no much larger. the largest item i've seen has been asses

we have hma going 120 kilometers to the south, for those who understand sea sites, horrendous conditions. this is a major operation. can i say that the prime minister today, that -- we will welcome them to give them closure in what has been an extreme accident for them. this is an amazing example of international cooperation, particularly between militaries. we are very pleased to host the chinese, japanese, koreans, new zealanders and americans to western australia. >> is there a special facility o for families to be flown over or taken by sea to the crash area? >> i think that will need to be done very carefully. this is a major operation. this is one of the most remote parts of our planet. we want to get it right. assist our families and friends to have closure. but let's talk about that when we know how many are coming and when they are arriving. >> is this clearly now a case of be looking for survivors but looking for debris and for those black boxes? >> let's be clear. to this point in time, very have not successfully identified or recovered any debris from the aircraft in question

there are two merchant ships down there and "hma success" which is at that location.ho" a british ship is in the persian gulf. why they really need that to get there is that it has underwater sensors. we keep emphasizing here on cnn, they need this kind of technology to try and hear that crucial signal from the flight's data recorder that could reveal so much to so many people waiting for answers for flight mh370. also another thing that came up in the press conference was that this search is still going on in the northern corridor. not just released in the press conference but from earlier on today about where that search is taking place. we understand four indian maiden ships are in the west of the islands and the p-8 aircraft is searching south of the great nicobar islands west of sumatra so the search is under way in the northern corridor as well in a limited area. as it seems it's difficult but not impossible. >> it's definitely a challenging situation there and the acting transportation minister spoke about how challenging the certain area is in the southern cor

the royal australian navy war ship hma success is on route to the area but is some days away. proven to be from mh 370. the focus for answer to continue the search operation with all of available ships and aircraft. the ships and aircraft as searching for any signs of the missing aircraft. weather conditions are moderate in southern indian ocean where the search is taking place however, poor visibility has been reported this will hamper efforts. and continues to hold great concerns for passenger asks crew on board. and i must emphasize these objects maying very difficult to locate and they may not be related to the search. i'd be happy to take questions. >> what do they appear to be? >> the objects are indistinct on the imagery. i don't profess to be an expert but those who are expert indicate they're credible sightings the indication to me are objects reasonable size and probably awash. with water. moving up and down on the surface. >> are you aware of the size? a basketball or a seat cushion? or much larger >> much larger than that. largest image has been 24 meters. there is

yesterday, hmas' was redeploy to get search area. ship has returned and will support the operations in the west sector. meanwhile, the chinese ship xu long has been deployed to the east sector. and going from perth to join the search operation. as i mentioned yesterday, the search operation it's in northern corridor and in the northern part of the southern corridor have been called off. the ministry of foreign affairs has sent diplomatic notes to all represented countries to inform them of this change. before i continue, i would like to convey our appreciation to the australian authorities and in particular to prime minister tony abbott for making such an extraordinary contribution to this search operation. chinese special enjoy. today, the prime minister met with the excellency, the chinese prime minister of foreign affairs and i also met with his excellency his afternoon. during our conversation, his excellency conveyed china's commitment to continue and intensify the search operation in any way possible. and to deploy any assets t

the royal australian war ship hmas "success" is on route to the area, but is some days away. she is quick to locating any objects located and proven to be from flight 370. the focus for a m.s. a is to sustain the search operation with all available ships and aircraft. the ships and aircraft are searching for signs of the missing aircraft. weather conditions are moderate in the southern indian ocean where the search is taking place. however, poor visibility has been reported, and this will hamper both air and satellite effort. a m.s. a continues to hold concerns for the passengers and crew on board, and i must emphasise that these objects may be very difficult to locate and they may not be related to the search. air-commodore mc-gary and i will be happy to take questions. >> reporter: what did the objects look like? what did they appear to be. >> they are relatively indistinct. i don't profess to be an expert in assessing the imagery. those that are expert indicate that they are credible sightings. the indication to me is of objects that are a reasonable size, and probably awa

the hmas success, which is an australian navy supply vessel, which had been en route to try and check out the objects, the apparent debris that was spotted yesterday by australian search aircraft, has been withdrawn from the area because the seas are so bad and will wait outside the search area until the seas have subsided and it can return possibly wednesday. that means that that debris, who knows what will happen to it in that 24 hours, in that swell, in those churning oceans. it's going to be doubly difficult now to try and find, to try to & trace what was seen monday by the australian search aircraft. that had raised hopes. that and also some sightings by a chinese aircraft. today, tuesday, in perth was to be the day when they went in to check those out. but it's all been suspended. the weather's too bad, lawrence. >> and ian, what is the weather pattern in that area of the ocean? is this a particularly difficult area for weather in searches like this? >> reporter: it's very difficult. just in the short time that we've been down here you see predictions, you see forecasts, and the

the royal australian navy war ship hmas "success" is on route to the area but is some days away. she is equipped to recover any object located and proved to be from flight 370. the focus or a m.s. a is to continue of the search operation with all available ships and aircraft. the ships and aircraft are searching for any signs of the missing aircraft. weather conditions are moderate in the southern indian ocean where the search is taking police. however poor visibility has been reported, and that will hamper air and satellite efforts. a m.s. a holds grave concerns for the passengers and crew on board, and i must emphasise that these objects may be very difficult to locate and they may not be located to the church. air-commodore mc-gary and i will be willing to take questions. >> reporter: what do the objects look like? >> the objects are indistinct on the imagery, i'm not an expert in assessing the imagery, but those that are indicate that they are credible sightings. the images are objects of relevant side and probably awash with water, bobbing up and down out of the service. >>

hmas success is due to reach the vicinity of the objects tomorrow.ployed five ships and three ship-borne helicopters, which are currently heading towards the southern corridor. three chinese aircraft, two illusion 1il-76s and one shanzi y-8 arrived in malaysia at 1100 this morning. they will also be searching in the southern corridor. japan is deploying its assets to perth, including two p-3 orions to assist with australian search effor efforts. this morning i have spoken with the acting high commissioner from the united kingdom, who afterno confirmed that the prime minister has spoken to the prime minister of the uk, and "hms echo" is already heading towards the southern indian ocean to support the search effort. he also confirmed that uk will be providing us with a list of possible assets that can be deployed, if needed. he also confirmed -- reaffirmed that in addition to the technical support provided so far, it stands ready to provide further specialist search and investigative assistance once more information about the fate of mh-370 becomes kno

six ships are relocating to the new search area including hma success and five chinese ships and expectedarch area by tomorrow night. additionally the chinese maritime is in the area. and safety conference we have the opportunity to do a search and rescue exercise off the ship. and policing 21 underwater vehicles have arrived in perth to assist with location and recovery of the black box. these will be fitted to australian defense vessel ocean shield which will arrive in western australia incoming days. the depth of the search area is 2000 meters and 4,000 meters. >> thank you. >> the atsb agency is working with a range of other international expert organizations to analyze available data relating to the flight of mh 370 and determine the best area to search. the key pieces of information being analyzed relate to early positional information from the aircraft and later calling of a satellite through its aircraft systems new information based on continuing anal sis of radar data about the aircraft movement between south china sea before radar contact was lost. this continuing analysis indi

and there are eight ships already in the search area, including the hmas toowoomba. when i asked the prime minister, what did he think of coordinating all these nation's efforts and how confident he was about the information that he was getting from his partners in this, here is how he replied. >> obviously, australia is leading the search. the legal responsibility for the investigation rests with malaysia as the flag of the airline that went down. we will want to work very closely with malaysia. i've certainly offered prime minister najib razak of malaysia the full cooperation of australia. we've also just appointed air chief marshall anxious houston, a former chief of our defense force, very well respected in our region and in the wider world as the chief of the coordinating center. so angus houston can liaise with the senior officials of all the various countries who have a stake in this. >> how would you categorize then that cooperation or the challenges of that cooperation? >> the challenges are considerable. but let's not underestimate the good will. everyone w

now four chinese ships and australia's hma success are in the area. that search discovered three objects. unfortunately, they weren't able to relocate it on subsequent passes. malaysian sources say french satellite imagery has found 122 objects of interest floating in the southern indian ocean, about 2 1/2 kilometers off the coast of perth. we were taking they ranged in size from 1 meter to 23 meters in length and are brightly credible. they say it's likely they belong to the missing jet. today's search will focus on the area, involving six military aircraft, five civil aircraft, and five ships. we're told the weather is expected to deteriorate later today. >> all right, catalina, as always, another great report. and here to show us exactly where the focus on the search is right now, we're at the hannity big board, the former uk adviser to defense, michael. 122 new objects. french satellite. walk us through what we got. >> the latest imagery from the french satellite is another piece to the jigsaw puzzle. it's a pretty big piece, but i think we've got

the royal australian navy joins the search on the water with a ship that is called the hmas success, which is what many are hoping it will be able to achieve somehow. and the british royal marine is sending the echo. the target area is the same today. a patch of ocean about 1,500 miles off perth. the focus, what could be pieces of the plane that were initially spotted via satellite. and it's a challenge for investigators who are relying more now on trained human spotters on the naked eye after early radar sweeps of the area found nothing. australia's prime minister is also promising the search will continue. >> it's about the most inaccessible spot that you could imagine on the face of the earth. but if there is anything down there, we will find it. we owe it to the families of those people to do that. >> for more, we have the editor in chief of airline ratings.com, an aviation editor for the west australian newspaper. greetings, jeffrey. and give us your take first op the signoff line from the cockpit, all right good night which is getting attention now in the context of the entire

we know the hmas has sent the "success" out there.ffort into the research. >> absolutely. think of this going large to small. it starts at satellites, moves to planes and you're moving down to ships. in the case like the hmas "success" you have a vessel on the waters coordinating but able if they find something. >> they can transport it. >> they can transport it, characterize it, give you that last step of identification. >> and also providing other support to other search vessels that will be adding to that. we know there are a couple of merchant ships in the area. they'll provide support as well. >> absolutely. >> okay. it's a big area, but we also know they're putting everything they can into this flight. thanks for looking at the assets with us. >>> searches of the indian ocean coming up empty now. no sign. we are giving you the latest on the international effort to solve this mystery. uld save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. yep, everybody knows that. well, did you know the ancient pyramids were actually a mistake?

hma, the australian naval ship, is on its way.ing to be there and will be in a good position to pick up that debris. it is about to be on base any time now. >> let's check in with kate bolduan and andrew stevens who are in perth, australia. kate, andrew, devastating news for the families, for investigators, just another validation of their decision days ago to really focus the search on this southern sector. >> reporter: you are absolutely right, anderson. andrew and i have been talking about this throughout the day. this search effort you really notice from here at perth here at pierce air force base. you notice it ramping it up. yesterday, i took a flight with new zealand's air force, number five squadron, to go on a flight with them. when i was out there, you see just how amazingly vast this space is and it seems very feasible it would be impossible to find anything. on the same day that the prime minister comes out and he doesn't do this daily. whenever he comes out, it has been a very important announce. as this has been. unf

the "hmas success" is en route to the area, expected to be there on sunday. area looking. the headline continues to be they found nothing, in this vast area described as 23,000 kilometers in the area where they've tried to isolate. so every day they kind of shrink the zone, and it was 102,000 square miles. we're now down to -- quick math on 23,000 square kilometers, somewhere in the neighborhood of 18 miles or so, something like that, as they try to get a better handle on where this debris might be. again, this is not the big search zone, identified by the ntsb. this is a smaller zone identified by those photographs from the satellites. and those -- you know, we hasten to add, and the australians have tried to emphasize this, we don't know if those photographs show debris from the plane. in theory, it could be debris just out there in the ocean. they think that it is suspect, and that it is something they should definitely be looking at, and they're curious about. but every news conference, the australian prime minister, the chief of maritime safety in austra