. >> john golio, what about the transponder? it stopped working at some point. what sort of red flag does that raise for you? >> i have well, given that ther many redundant instruments, that somebody turned it off. >> is there any reason why anybody would do that other than if they were told to? >> a pilot would not do that. somebody that didn't want to be seen very well would do that. you know, the transponder, the function is really to enhance the signal from the airplane for radar. primary radar, which means that the actual bouncing of the beam off the airplane, at long distances, it's not very effective. and we've known that for years. that's why we put a transponder on the airplane to enhance the signal for air traffic control. >> let's talk about the possible scenarios the same way that the investigators are trying to consider what may have happened and eliminate the ones that have not. cabin depressurization. that happened with a small private plane with payne stewart in 1999. also happened with american airlines flight 1640 in 2010. could that have happe