>> reporter: a former ntsb official tells us that it cannot happen. it has to be the country where the incident occurs who has to take the lead. that's according to international treat es. the malaysians have this now. they'll have to make due with it. >> they'll get a lot of help, no doubt about that. families there sharing more of their anger, more of their grief. look at this. passengers, relatives threw water bottles at malaysia airlines officials in beijing and accused them of being liers. 239 people were on board where the plane suddenly vanished. two brothers who were traveling to indonesia on business. they spoke to the third brother who appeared in shadow because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself. he described the pain his family is experiencing right now. >> translator: extremely sad. we've been crying. there's a feeling of loss, but for sure we're still hoping. because the plane hasn't been found, we still hope we were together the way we were before. >> what are you hoping for now? >> translator: our hope is that they'll be foun

when the ntsb and when we do an investigation in the united states, by the way, whenny in ntsb is done pick up, we depose everyone. we go back over and re-create the accident. you should have the -- the log books searches, contributes, what did he do in the previous week. i mean, there's no -- there's nothing to be saying they didn't do it about. they should have done it. if they haven't, i want to know why. >> mary schiavo, thanks, as always. >> thank you. >>> still to come, malaysian officials respond to the latest report that flight 370 flew on for hours and hours after it disappeared from the radar. we'll talk more about that when we come back. >>> malaysian officials are knocking on "the wall street journal" report that flight 370 may have flown for four hours after the last radar contact. jim clancy has more from day six of the search. >> reporter: malaysian officials say they found nothing. >> let me be clear. there's no real precedent for a situation like this. the plane vanished. we have extended the search area because it is our duty to follow every lead. and we owe it to the

i wouldn't be surprised if the ntsb and fbi have as well. they think it looks promising and they need to take a closer look - which is what they are doing. if they find it is from the aircraft, they'll retrieve it and bring in assistance from the air... >> let me interrupt you. there's sound from the prime minister what he said a few moments ago. let's listen. >> i would like to inform the house that new and credible information has dom light in the light of the search for flight 370. the australian maritime safety authority received information based on satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search. following specialist analyst of this satellite imagery two possible objects related to the search have been identified. i can inform the house that a royal australian air force orion has been diverted to attempt to locate the objects. this orion is expected to arrive in the area at about this time. three more aircraft will follow this orion. they are tasked for more intensive follow up search. i have spoken to my malaysian counterp

steven, now that the ntsb, steven would lasso owe now that the ntsb apparently involved, why is it difficult if the malaysian air force says it spotted this plane going across malaysia, no transponder, but they have radar, why is it so hard to interpret that radar? >> well, i'm glad to hear just now that the u.s. experts and ntsb has some very first-rate radar experts and faa experts as well looking at that data. without the transponder on, you're just looking at the bounce off the skin of the airplane. this is basically radar that is designed to help you see somebody who doesn't want you to see them. like an enemy. so that primary radar is just a sort of -- can be kind of a fuzzy blip. so -- and whereas with the normal transponder, you're going to have a data block as to where the airplane is, the speed and altitude and all that. >> so it's -- so they think the malaysia air force, this was the plane, the 777, flying across malaysia, over the sea to the west of malaysia, without the transponder going for an hour and ten minutes. what you're saying, it's open to interpretation, they can't be

but they delegated the authority to the ntsb. we had the resources to get it done. and the ntsb called the shots as they saw them. >> it's got to be excruciating for the poor family members of the passengers. there was an editorial in a chinese-run state newspaper that said "the information malaysia released to the public is very kai kaye ottawaic. is the malaysian military hiding anything on purpose?" it seems the majority of these passengers were chinese. do you expect the chinese to get a little more aggressive when it comes to the investigation? that's a state-run newspaper. that's the chinese government saying malaysia, you're impressing us. >> it would not surprise me if the chinese foreign ministry called the malaysian ambassador and said this has got to stop. we have over 200 citizens that potentially died and we want to know what happened. get it under control. >> let's turn to the fact that the search grid has now expanded to 27,000 square miles. is it even possible to search an area that large? >> it's preposterous. twa flight 800 crashed nine miles off t

ntsb has stopped talking about this. as you and i both know, the ntsb is long known for giving out accurate information. sometimes they withhold information until the investigation is over. what you get is normally correct. because the malaysian authorities have given out such contradictory information the ntsb has been inundated with questions. so now to appear they're not big-footing, the ntsb says they're not talking anymore and not sending out anymore press releases. even the white house is reinforcing this. listen. >> malaysia has the lead in the investigation. it's a malaysian airline flight that was lost. but we are assisting as are many other nations in any way we can. >> that could be a setback. one of the guys the experts is actually on scene is a man named scott dunnam, an expert in radar and with the little data they have he could come in very handy in this investigation. >> not as if all these people will be sitting on the sidelines in the united states if they find the jet. >> as soon as they fine the plane

the ntsb ruled the pilot intentionally caused the 1990 crash. egyptian authorities say it was caused by mechanical failure. >> it's like a jigsaw puzzle. a jigsaw puzzle in which there are thousands of pieces and not all those pieces are at the bottom of the ocean. >> reporter: could someone in the cockpit have done something to malaysia airlines flight 370? these two young women say the co-pilot of the missing plane invited them to ride in the cockpit on a previous flight and did. retired american airlines pilot mark weiss believes based on prior history someone with the crew intentionally cause this plane to vanish. >> whether it was one of the pilots that maybe had a meltdown or wanted to do something nefarious to the airplane or uninvited visitor or perhaps an invited visitor or another crew member that was bent on perhaps committing suicide or doing some destruction on the aircraft. >> now there's an intense focus on the wreckage. obviously that's not where all the answers lie. >> reporter: you're right about that. there's a focus on the wr

this appeared on satellites that they went back to scour, as kathryn mentioned after the ntsb here in the united states said that it had reason to believe that's where they should be looking. lieutenant colonel dan hampton is on the line with us. it's as good a bit of information from as credible a source as we've received since march 8th when this jet disappeared. >> yeah, that's true, shepherd. and as i said from the very beginning, if i was going to try to lose an airplane, or disappear an airplane, that's where it would be. i think we were all hoping there would be a happier ending. and i need to point out again, that this is all preliminary. >> of course it is. but you've said from the beginning colonel hampton, that this would be the place to ditch it, if that's what you wanted to do, this would be the spot to do it. what i can't figure out, is why someone would want to do that. >> yeah, and assuming that's what this is, then that's obviously the next phase of all this, is motive. the first thing obviously was to find the thing. i hope this is, only because it would give the fam

in aviation, ntsb doesn't want them carried at all.t year the rules changed to 66 pounds of these batteries being carried. they're looking clearly at structural causes as well. >> in the cargo hold? >> absolutely. >> but if there were an explosion or fire couldn't the plane have -- >> not necessarily. >> even for hours? >> we've had catastrophic where hawaiian air half the fuselage were gone. if it were a slow explosion you could disable acars and the transponder, the pilots could have been disoriented, yet the plane if they made that turn and that heading the plane could have continued on its own. whether or not the issue of the pilots, something nefarious going on. >> and michael schmidt, you're about to report in "the new york times" and we've reported it earlier on cnn that there were these lithium batteries in the cargo hold, but what you're reporting is that there was a significant amount. do you know how much? >> we don't know exactly how much, but they said that it was more than a normal that would be inside in the cargo hold.

the ntsb also recommends airlines change their flight manuals.pilots know not to ever reduce speed in such a scenario as in the case of flight 191. neither american airlines or mcdonnell-douglas admitted fault in this accident. but in april 1981, the two companies agreed to share the costs of settlements in more than 200 lawsuits that were filed. the terms of those settlements remain confidential. >> every accident and incident, because of its unique characteristics, we are going to learn something. we have to heed those lessons. we've got to heed those lessons and enhance aviation safety. we don't want those people to have died in vain. >>> coming up next, the cargo door where your luggage goes. imagine it opening in midair. our dramatic animations put you at the scene of another heart-stopping structural failure. >> i denied it. complete, absolute mental denial. this is not happening. >>> and a plane flying out of control crashes into a mountain. we'll take you deep inside this 747 to discover what went wrong. >> that would be a nightmare scena

we had ntsb as the lead agency in that investigation. we had many organizations cooperating. the u.s. navy was cooperating with ntsb and we meticulously set out and did the search and started out at a rescue mission and turned into a recovery mission and brought back as many -- as much of the aircraft as we possibly can work with the faa and t with wa and ultimately, put together the full investigation before there were any -- before they came up with any estimates of what happened to the aircraft. >> but that is here in the united states, captain that that happened. and if you are going to fly airplanes like the 77 you should have accountability and now how to investigate if the worst of it happened. we'll get back -- >> you can't. >> the search for flight 370 is suspended today. we are not much closer to answers, exactly where the plane is. the search is on for 176 people after a devastating mudslide in washington state. that's next. gunderman group is a go. yes! not just a start up. an upstart. gotta get going. gotta be good. good? good. growth is the goal. how do we do th

. >> reporter: now, the director of this ntsb lab said it's incredibly rare for them to come across a black box that's too damaged for them to be able to access the data. and it's not water but high intensity, high duration fire that's most likely to cause that information to be irretrievable. wolf? >> athena, thank you. athena jones reporting. >>> let's bring in rene marsh, miles o'brien, "the new york times" reporter michael schmidt and tom fuentes, former assistant director of the fbi. if they find the black box -- and miles, you've covered these stories for a long time -- i assume in this case -- and this is the black box even though it's orange. i assume in this case the critical information they find it even after the pinger stops going will be retrievable? >> yes, there's an unlimited shelf life essentially for that. it's kind of baked into it. it doesn't need to have an active battery in order for that date to be recoverable. just because there's no pinger doesn't mean there's no data on the black box. >> tom, you're the assistant fbi director. i've gotten questions from viewe

full recommendations and egypt air disputed what the ntsb found.ttom line is, it's often political and malaysia will not want to let go of this investigation, particularly since malaysia air is owned by the government. >> tom, we've been talking about mostly this has been about satellite images that have been captured and them going to try to find them. here is what christopher says. all the satellite data has come from china, france, uk. why not u.s. military satellites, best resolution? is the united states possibly more involved than we know, tom? >> i think, don, the first satellite information put out by the australians was based on the u.s. company in denver. so first satellite data that went out when the prime minister of australia announced the initial finding of debris based on satellite information, that was based on u.s. satellite information. >> yeah. jeff wise, here is what patrick says. why rely on planes and ships only? given the vastness of the search area, would it be useful to have other people scrutinizing these images? >> it's g

are they at least sharing everything with the ntsb, the faa, the u.s.ligence committee, the fbi, all of the u.s. agencies involved? >> well, i've been -- i was told all along that the cooperation was good. but then you find out that they waited several days before they told us the report of the malaysian air force that the plane possibly had detoured. so they were giving us information, but it turns out they were apparently not giving us all of it. again, these could be errors they're making because there is a spirit of cooperation, that i know because i've heard that people in the government that the spirit of cooperation is there, but just so far has not added up. >> one final question, congressman. as far as we know no credible organization has claimed credit, terror organization, or any other organization for that matter, for the disappearance of this flight. what if anything should we read into that? >> well, you know, usually organizations do take responsibility. but, again, when it came to lockerbie, no one ever took responsibility. and there hav

greg feith, former aviation investigator for ntsb.greg, thanks very much. >> you're welcome. >>> turning back to the world of politics, we have sad news to report. former democratic national chairman and all-around super operative, bob strauss, has died. strauss was a larger-than-life washington figure. during the '70s and '80s, if you looked up washington mover and shaker, you would have found a picture of bob strauss. he was the first modern political operative. more than anything else, was his ability to work with anyone regardless of party. he was a longtime reveered democratic power house, but strauss walked the halls of the reagan and bush white houses as comfortably as he did during the carter administration, and had a bunch of friends during the clinton years. strauss managed both of jimmy carter's presidential campaigns. he advised president reagan on iran-contra. he was ambassador to the soviet union under president george h.w. bush, during the fall of communism. president bush said in a statement last night that strauss' li

the ntsb and perhaps other branchs. but certainly it will be critical for feeding information about the aircraft itself to the extent that it becomes relative in which case i'm sure it will. how do you see crews prioritizing in this search. we focus on locating the flight digital recorders. if there are no survivors those data recorders have beacons on them. so they will have under water microphones in the water seeking to detect that signal and that will help them hone in on the debris itself. it is rarely deeper than 50 meters there, 166 feet. that will help make things straight forward. dan rose, thank you gentlemen appreciate it. >> thank you. >> all right something else we are washing of global importance by the end of the month. russia could swallow up crimea. is there anything ukraine can do to stop that? time is running out. >>> russian president defended crimea's steps to join russia today. he said the legitimate authorities are taking these steps based on international law. the russian government says the lead

let me properly introduce alan, a former ntsb investigator.e'll help us to try to understand all this. i appreciate you staying up this late to explain what is going on. >> i want to go over the little information that we know. >> the australian prime minister spoke to parliament and said "the task of locating these objects will be extremely difficult, and it may be that they do not relate to the aircraft, but it is very possible as well, according to the prime minister, that they are objects from the malaysian jets. you talk about the p3, what is the p3, and how does it help to search the area? >> okay. what we are looking for is the black boxes, equipped with pingers. they have - they put out - they put out sound under the water. they have acoustic devices. it looks for enemy sub marines, but can here the pingers, they drop listening devices, sonar boys that float on the water and listen for sounds. they are very effective. the aeroplanes, airliners fly at 400 miles per hour, and go out thousands of miles. we have an awful lot of looking to

or is it simply the interest of any airline that would go down in any part of the world that the ntsb would want to be part of the investigation? >> right, so, we were in contact with the ntsb yesterday and their official comment is that they're closely monitoring the situation. they haven't said they're officially participating in the investigation. that being said, we do believe that they will be participating in that investigation. there's a few things that come into play here. the airplane, the boeing 777 is manufactured here in the united states. so, you know, the ntsb would want to know exactly what happened here if it had something to do with the plane, they would have an interest in learning what factors here were as far as this crash goes. also, you know, i spoke to several experts who bring up a point in this region, they may not necessarily have the same kind of resources that the united states have when it comes to investigating this sort of crash. so, usually, what would happen is the bigger country with more money and more resources would step in to really be, take a rea

this appeared on satellites that they went back to scour, as kathryn mentioned after the ntsb here in the united states said that it had reason to believe that's where they should be looking. lieutenant colonel dan hampton is on the line with us. it's as good a bit of information from as credible a source as we've received since march 8th when this jet disappeared. >> yeah, that's true, shepherd. and as i said from the very beginning, if i was going to try to lose an airplane, or disappear an airplane, that's where it would be. i think we were all hoping there would be a happier ending. and i need to point out again, that this is all preliminary. >> of course it is. but you've said from the beginning colonel hampton, that this would be the place to ditch it, if that's what you wanted to do, this would be the spot to do it. what i can't figure out, is why someone would want to do that. >> yeah, and assuming that's what this is, then that's obviously the next phase of all this, is motive. the first thing obviously was to find the thing. i hope this is, only because it would give the fam

that resulted in the ntsb not issuing a full report. not issuing full recommendations and they dare disputed what what the ntsb found. it is often political and they will not want to let go of the investigation particularly since malaysian air is owned by the government. >> that was it at the end. it is all very political. tom, we have been talking about, mostly about satellite images that have being captured and them going to try to find them. this is what christopher says. all of the satellite data has come from china, france, u.k., why not u.s. satellites, best resolution. is the united states more involved than we know? tom? >> i think, don, the first satellite information put out by the australians was based on the u.s. company in denver who are on contract to the u.s. military. first satellite data that went out when the prime minister of australia announced the initial finding of debris based on satellite information, that was with based on u.s. satellite information. >> yeah. jeff wise, here's what patrick says. are 3 million pa

i want to bring in former senior aviation director with the ntsb. greg, we have had some false starts before there was oil spotted that turned out no tot be jet fuel and pieces of debris not related to the plane. nothing was found after chinese satellite thought they found something. what does it sound like to you now? >> there's cautious optimism he here. these objects happen to be in an area that was redefined for sear search. it was folks from boeing and the faa who were figuring fuel performance and fuel endurance for the airplane looked for fuel exhaustion points. if the airplane ran out of fuel and was ditched or crashed, that happens to be the area that these objects have been found in which would make sense. now we have to see what the satellite imagery looks like and now with aircraft on station who can give us a better idea. the australians and the americans will be able to, at least, give us a better perspective of is this another floating cargo container or some large chunk of debris from something else or is this actually an aircraft pa

and i think the ntsb had said that they didn't have the data package for the structural part of that, that's why it's only the engines being reported. very strange indeed. >> very strange indeed. michael goldfarb, peter bergen, thanks very much. indications the malaysian airliner may have kept flying for hours after its last control with ground control. ♪ humans -- we are beautifully imperfect creatures, living in an imperfect world. that's why liberty mutual insurance has your back, offering exclusive products like optional better car replacement, where, if your car is totaled, we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. call... and ask an insurance expert about all our benefits today, like our 24/7 support and service, because at liberty mutual insurance, we believe our customers do their best out there in the world, so we do everything we can to be there for them when they need us. plus, you could save hundreds when you switch -- up to $423. call... today. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? take this simple test. press your tongue against it, lik

and what is ntsb's role in all this? >> the ntsb, like these other countries, they're technical advisers to the malaysians. the malaysians are responsible for the conduct of this investigation. and so the united states and australia and other countries are all in a support role. we're all providing technical assistance. i've got tongue tied today. technical assistance. so with the expertise that the ntsb has and, of course, we have the fbi as part of that team. we have the faa as part of the team. and, of course with b b, boeing. we can provide a level of assistance because we do have a very good laboratory if they do recover the data recorder, flight cockpit voice recorder. we have the fbi working on the computer hard drives from the pilots. so we're in a support role just like the australians are. they may be out front in examining or searching that part of the world that they've been given responsibility for. but they, too, are in a support role of malaysia. now with regard to the parts. once they get a high resolutio

ntsb for an accident investigation?>. >> it's not unusual at all. in fact, it's rather common sense, since twa and zoents, but, no now one thing we do know is that until we found the recorders, we really won't know whether this is a criminal investigation or whether it was a mechanic am or malfunction of the aircraft. >> how rare is it to not find the wreckage with all these assets looking for the aircraft? >> well, it's very unfortunate that after five years after air france with the availability of the technology deployable flight recorders, which are used in the united states military, that we still have not at the international level required deployable recorders on these aircraft that fly over the ocean. >> isn't that amazing? on my sailboat, i have an automatic device that if my boat sinks, it floats to the surface and if i was gone, drowned, whatever, and they don't have it or did not have it on this malaysian airliner, that's absolutely standard, i think. but i got to let you go. jim hall, thank you. thank you g

it would take four years for the ntsb to wrap up the investigation. the crashes of flights in 1996 led to tougher laws in the united states to protect victim's families. starting first with the flow of information. >> the family assistance act was passed. it gives families the rights to have briefings in the beginning of the investigation, daily briefings, sometimes twice a day. >> when families are granted access to the crash. >> it gives them rights to view the site when the plane the found. it requires the airline to help them out financially and take care of them. it gives them access to personnel and information. >> and most importantly, u.s. laws provide protection during the agonizing grieving process. >> the ntsb in the briefing rooms has a separate room for the families so they don't have this horrible scene like today with the poor families being dragged away. >> for heidi snow, it's a state of limbo when families are most vulnerable. >> we're all just in such a state of grief at that time. we want as much information as possible and patienc

been a gold standard investigation you would get in the uk or france or the united states but the ntsb or the bea. by everybody's definition this is unprecedented. the plane is two and a half thousand miles in the opposite direction that it was flying and we only really learned these facts. they are damned if they do and damned if they don't. if they don't tell us anything because they don't know it, we criticize them. if they say this is what they believe, we criticize them. >> you are make the point that miles o'brien is make. if you are going to have this kind of plane in the air you should be able to investigate it. you should not lose an airplane. >> because you cannot say in these circumstances that any other country flying a 777 that might not be the gold standard of the ntsb, the bea and the aaib couldn't do this. >> arthur? >> wait for the malaysian government to appeal rate the situation is to provide proof. in the absence of wreckage, the proof is the inmarsat report, the proof is the radar data. produce it. let the experts take a look at it. let an independent body of speak

we have people going along with the ntsb to investigate. these include the faa and boeing as the search continues. it's not clear if the u.s. will be the lead agency. it dpsd if this is found in international waters or waters controlled by the other nations. back to you. >> thanks. stay with nbcwashington.com for continuing coverage. we'll send a push alert to your smart phone when news breaks. >>> now to a situation in laurel. a motorcycle involved in a deadly crash this morning was stolen. route 198 was closed several hours after a motorcycle collided with a suv. a 17-year-old was killed after being thrown from the bike. he was with another guy on a bike that left the scene. the bike involved in the crash was stolen. speed was a factor. as for the suv driver, that person is in serious but stable condition. >>> this morning, arundel county police are looking for whoever set off fireworks inside the mall movie theater. yesterday afternoon, police were called to the mall on a report of shots being fired. turned out the sound wasn't gunfire b

this was an ntsb operation. i think it was about 48 hours ago, greg, where they really were able to hone in by looking at the information they had, looking at some of the pings off the aircraft and looking, also, at how much fuel was on board and when that fuel would be exhausted to come to this much smaller search area than they had had just the day before. >> you characterized it perfectly. the fact is that in the early stages we assume that, okay, somebody intentionally crashed it in the water it could have been anywhere. that's all logical based on the information that we got from day one, day three, day five. but then you have to take into consideration how far would the airplane go -- we know how much fuel was on board. we know basically what the last ground speed which was about 450 knots. we know the last altitude was 30,000 feet. they just performed a bunch of calculations and said, okay, under these conditions, with winds aloft, airplane steady state, tracking outbound, how far before fuel exhaustion?

earlier this morning i was briefed by the investigation which includes the f.a.a., the ntsb.ing minister of transport on new information that shared further light on what happened to mh372. say with a high degree of certainty that the aircraft communications addressing and reporting systems was disabled before the aircraft reached h the east coast of the peninsula. shortly afterwards near the border between malaysia and vietnamese, air traffic control, the aircraft from this point onward the primary data showed that an aircraft which was believed, but not confirmed to be mh3700 did indeed turn back. it then flew in a westerly direction before turning northwest. up until the point at which it left radar coverage, these movement are consistent with deliberate actions by someone on the plane. today based on raw satellite data which was obtained from the satellite data service provider we can show the primary radar data lost flight. after much forensic work, the f.a.a., ntsb, aaib and malaysian authorities working on the same data conquer. last confirmed communication between the

as a former senior air director with the ntsb, also happens to be a veteran pilot. greg, you're in the business of ruling nothing out. though if this were submitted as a hollywood script, it would be rejected for being too incredible. if we're looking for this over land, doesn't that mean that we're kind of theorizing it could have been a situation like the pro golfer payne stewart on board that small aircraft? they were overcome by something and the plane went on flying, although in this case, with no electronic trail. >> absolutely, brian. and you bring up a good point. with the fact that if this airplane had an explosive decompression and incapacitated the crew and the airplane was still capable of operating, the airplane could continue on any number of tracks. because if it goes into the jungle it can be enveloped into the dense jungle and not be seen readily. >> we have a whole report on this later in the broadcast, but are you as frustrated by the limits of technology in this day and age as we civilians are? >> absolutely, brian, we have had this discussion ov

so if they didn't have the expertise and nobody does at the ntsb. the ntsb has so many cases and we were the lead inertia aviation for so long that they just have tremendous experience worked literally thousands of cases so i'm going to write it off to inexperience rather than coverup. however, if the there's a they were saying and they started saying the sabotage or highjack theory, they didn't look at their own pilots until yesterday as a possible cause but in they really believed it was a highjack theory and had the type of crew they talked about, somebody that could get down in the cargo bay and perform operations, they needed to look inside malaysia air and if the errant way points were prepramsd, programed they needed to look inside malaysia airplane and if they were not investigating them by persons in the 5eur8 then i don't believe they take their own there's a buzz after 9/11 everybody was looked at. and we looked to see if there was complicity within the airline if they had operatives in the airline or the airports in can a hutes, certainl

the ntsb and faa are providing technical assistance to decode the data on flight mh-370's last known location. >> i think there are some radar tracks. i think the malaysians know they have them. i don't think they know exactly what they are. so i think by having faa and ntsb experts come in, maybe they can get a better idea of exactly what it is that they're seeing. >> the jet transponders found in the cockpit track altitude speed and location and sent out a unique code to air controllers. seasoned investigators say the jet apparently kept flying but now as an unknown aircraft. there is a separate independent data stream known as acard which sends realtime information to the airline. >> all we got today from the officials over there is the last words from the cockpit. what are the details of that? >> after a briefing for the chinese media, reporters were told the final exchange was routine between the air and air traffic control in vietnam. after the flight was handed over to china's city, the pilot responded, all right, good night. and while the ma-370 never made contact with the ch

ntsb for an accident investigation sth. >> it is not unusual at all. in fact, it's rather common place since the '90s and other accidents, but now one thing we do know is until we find the recorders we won't know whether this is a criminal investigation or whether it was a mechanical or malfunction of the aircraft. >> how rare is it to not find the wreckage with all these assets looking for the aircraft? >> well, it's very unfortunate that five years after air france with the availability of the technology of deployable flight recorders which are used in the united states military that we still have not at the international level required deployable recorders on these aircraft that fly over the ocean. >> isn't that amazing? on my sail boat i have an automatic device that if my boat sinks it floats to the surface. if i was gone and didn't have it on the malaysian air liner. that is absolutely scandalous. i have to let you go. thank you very much. the former new york city police commissioner is next on his take on the possibility of terror and much more.

the ntsb concluded that the pilot deliberately directed the flight to crash. in indonesia, they claim the findings are inconclusive. randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> it's certainly a troubling and perhaps remote possibility but one that has to be explored by investigators. joining us two pilots who are both cnn aviation analysts, les abend and miles o'brien. does that make sense in any way that a suicide pilot or co-pilot would be involved in this? >> why do it in the middle of nowhere? it just doesn't make sense. i would have done it after takeoff. my understanding is that there's one of the world's biggest buildings and towers in kuala lumpur. why not do it going into beijing? >> miles, others would say perhaps you wanted to go to a deeper area, the waters in the gulf of thailand were very low. but pilot suicide as we talked about in that egyptair disaster off nantucket in the late '90s, that was shortly into the flight, correct? the malaysia airlines flight if the information is accurate, it went on for hours well off course. does that line up with the theory

it's quite possible ntsb could get those for analysis. how fast a readout? that could happen in 24 hours. that's for investigators in the u.s. >> we're talking about the indian ocean. incredibly deep. how might the depth impact investigators ability to retrieve usable data from the recorders if indeed they could locate them. >> it's extremely deep, in some

after much forensic work and deliberation, the faa, ntsb, aaib, and the malaysian authorities working separately on the same data concur. according to the new data, the last confirmed communication between the plane and the satellite was at 8:11 p.m. malaysian time. on saturday the 8th of march. the investigation team is making further calculations, which whether indicate how far the aircraft may have flown after the last point of contact. this will help us to refine the search. due to the type of satellite data, we are unable to confirm the precise location of the plane when it last made contact with a satellite. however, based on this new data, the aviation authorities of malaysia and their international counterparts had determined that the plane's last communication with a satellite was in one of two possible corridors. a northern corridor stretching from the border of kazakhstan to northern thailand. or the southern corridor, stretching approximately from indonesia to southern indian ocean. the investigation team is working to further refine the information. in view of this latest

earlier this morning i was briefed by the investigation which includes the f.a.a., the ntsb.ing minister of transport on new information that shared further light on what happened to mh372. say with a high degree of certainty that the aircraft communications addressing and reporting systems was disabled before the aircraft reached h the east coast of the peninsula. shortly afterwards near the border between malaysia and vietnamese, air traffic control, the aircraft from this point onward the primary data showed that an aircraft which was believed, but not confirmed to be mh3700 did indeed turn back. it then flew in a westerly direction before turning northwest. up until the point at which it left radar coverage, these movement are consistent with deliberate actions by someone on the plane. today based on raw satellite data which was obtained from the satellite data service provider we can show the primary radar data lost flight. after much forensic work, the f.a.a., ntsb, aaib and malaysian authorities working on the same data conquer. last confirmed communication between the

cbs news transportation safety expert mark rosenker is the chairman of the ntsb.ood morning. >> good morning, charlie, norah. >> explain to us now in light of what we're hearing from australia what the process is in trying to make the determination of whether this is the debris from flight 370. >> well, it's still in the hands of the search and recovery folks. they're the people that are actually going to be able to get close enough to it to confirm or deny that it is a piece from the aircraft. >> mark, it's great to have your expertise because you are with the ntsb. given that the australian prime minister came out and said this this new and incredible information has come to light in the search, does that suggest they may know more than they're telling us at this point? >> well, to bring the prime minister out to share information is a very interesting element. i don't want to read too much into it because he alps said it is important to proceed with caution. so let's take a look at what we find and when we begin to actually be able to confirm that we actually h

>> there would be that pressure because it's one thing for an international body or even the ntsb to conclude what the cause of an accident is, but an airline is not going to pay unless a court finds them liable. and that's a very different thing. and here you have the additional complexity of a mail asian airline, mostly chinese passenger, wreckage that hasn't even been found yet that may be near australia. the question of which country's court is something that's going to be very complicated to resolve. there have been at least some initial efforts to try to bring a case in the united states. it happened in the past couple of days, but you know, this is very early. this could be just intercontinental ambulance chasing. so this is all going to take a very long time to be resolved, legally. >> peter, you were directly involved over at the ntsb with the egypt air investigation. what happens in a situation like this when there's a multinational investigation. how do you determine who really is responsible? >> well, it is very complex. sometimes in silk air, even though the ntsb determi

thank you. >>> back with us aviation journalist and former ntsb member john golio.ou just heard from the commander, major shift westward along with the indian navy now being asked to participate in the search. what do you make of that? the commander describing this as shifting the search from the chess board to the football field. >> the search area certainly has gotten wider. but what's frustrating in this whole endeavor, this should have been four days ago. this delayed start into this process is really crazy. you can see now how quickly things are developing since we've included the international community in the efforts to find this airplane. the radar data that's all of a sudden we're getting lots of information off the radar data. we've got lots of things to explore. it may not be the answer. we may not find it. but we have more opportunity and more leads to follow. >> that could have been done days ago? >> yes. it should have been done from the very beginning. the very beginning. they should have mobilized. the international community is always willing to jum

with the faa and the ntsb. they don't have all the experience the ntsb has.reat people helping them. they've got ntsb, boeing, faa, they have their own staff. it's just going to take time because there's a lot of different parts and pieces coming in. they're going to take a lot of people looking at over a period of time to sort out. >> and then you have almost sort of, jim, politics at play. i mean, i know diplomatic feuds, nothing new when it comes to searches like this, but beijing very angry with malaysia right now. we know the vietnamese have pulled out of searching, frustrated with malaysia. this has happened before. >> no question. i'm really glad you made that point, because there is a lot of political tension here. first of all, there's the political tension over the delay in getting any hard answers. certainly, the chinese government, like the chinese public, frustrated with the malaysians. they have more than 150 chinese on board that plane and they have no hard answers, and it's their impression that the malaysians have information that they haven'

and that's why in the united states the ntsb does the briefing. they handle the families.and it's good work that the agency does, they're trusted by the public. they're trusted by congress. and the ntsb is trusted by the families. >> bob, to that -- >> let me just add to what peter said. >> sure. >> i just thought viewers should know at the time peter was the manager there, that's when all this began. ntsb did not have responsibility for taking care of the relatives of victims before that. it was under his time that they undertook that whole program. >> and we did it very cautiously. we were very nervous about this responsibility. >> sure. >> but as bob said, we found out the ntsb -- it was the only agency that could do it effectively. >> well, and bob, to what peter was saying, you've got to have, i think as a family member, you want one source of information you feel like you can trust. one of the frustrations apparently that they had was they were told they wouldn't receive anymore briefings now that this was a criminal investigation. i'm assuming that's because it's un

earlier on the forecast we had allen diehl, a former ntsb can investigator. he says it's time to bring in the a team for the malaysian prime minister to call the president of the united states and say to the president we need those p-3s here and we need full-on ntsb go-team on the scene. something tells me you would agree with that assessment. >> i agree with that completely, tony. thank you for having me and i want to express my condolence to all those families. this was a tough day for them. but i do ups and do agree that until we have tangible evidence in our hands we're not going to know what they're seeing out there was debris from an aircraft or part of that garbage dump that occurs in that part of the indian ocean. >> that's interesting. you have flown over that ocean and tell us about that and the currents and the factors involved. >> as you know that is an enormous body of water. and it just happens that those currents come together at that point. and the thing that doesn't seem to be getting much attention is that the ocean in itself is a very, very

>> oh, the ntsb is the premiere investigative source in the world.ve more experience and have more, better equipment and everything else that you can imagine, than anybody else in the world, and they're sought after by every nags when they have an event, because other nations respect just how good the ntsb is, and it's analysis after an accident. so they're going to lend a lot of information to this. once they find the black boxes i suspect they're going to send them back to the us for the ntsb to put them on their table and determine what happened. >> jim tilmon, thank you so much. >>> match an clock that would never lose a second. the science behind a pentagon project coming up in a few minutes. >>> first, the 2414 winter paralympic games are happening now in sochi. one of the athletes competing was born in russia and adopted by an american family. now she is preparing to compete in a wheelchair race representing the u.s. sang sanjay gupta her her story. >> reporter: overcoming obstacles is not problem. she was born with spina bifida, prevents the

it has been a frustrating thing for the ntsb. >> who is stopping that? >> the industry resists these types of changes. >> why? >> because we learn from these lessons, we learn from these blunders. if in fact there was a mechanical problem. there's still 1100 777s flying right now. they have not been checking for any problem. we have no idea what the problem is if there was a mechanical problem. >> hopefully from this, the vacuum that this accident is leaving is going to drive the public and drive the industry to action. >> i think it's time for a national commission to learn from this, learn from other disasters and come up with a game plan -- tom, you worked with the fbi, so we don't have to go through this ordeal. when i say "we," i specifically mean the families. >> you're absolutely right. i have to admit that i've attended many stupid budget meetings were simple solutions were not allowed. you're being looking at the cost of equipment on a $250 million aircraft and you don't want to pay a few thousand extra to have the capability that miles just men

joining us now, jim hall, he was an ntsb investigator.ank you for joining us, your thoughts on what we've seen so far. >> well, megyn, this is obviously a horrible tragedy for the families that have loved ones aboard that flight. and their citizens that are impacted to fly this airline. so hopefully we'll know more after this press conference. but it certainly is not unusual to have an aircraft disappear this quickly. >> it is not unusual or it is unusual. >> well, it is not unusual from the standpoint if you look at twa 100 and egypt air and alaska air, things can go wrong in the air very quickly. and that is why you need a very experienced crew aboard. we don't know what happened. this could be anything from terrorism to a mechanical malfunction. to pilot error. so we'll just have to wait and see. >> jim, in your experience what are the odds that this winds up with a surprise safe ending? >> well, i think it is -- the odds are certainly strong against it at this point. we certainly can hope for the best. but they know how much fuel was

he says the plane's movement from the ntsb, the analysis they've gotten from the ntsb and also know thisellite imagery that they have gotten. let's let him talk about it, and then we will. >> i don't want to draw too many conclusions from this. we have two separate forms of analysis here. you might recall on the slide here the two yellow arrows pointing to analysis done by the united states national transportation safety board about the movements of the aircraft that has focused searching, and we have now seen satellite imagery of two objects, or a number of objects there. and i don't want to draw too much from that. this is a lead. it is probably the best lead we have right now. but we need to get there, find them, see them, assess them to know whether it's really meaningful or not. >> so apparently, they think what tha what they've gotten from the ntsb about the plane's movements, significant enough. what they've gotten from the satellite imagery significant enough. but he said he doesn't want to draw too much conclusions. you heard him there giving the warning. you gave the warning as

and then, separately the ntsb of the u.s.ther flight track, but basically got you to the same area. and so, when the australians started searching in this -- in this area down here, it seemed -- it seemed very plausible that this is where they would be concentrating their efforts. >> interesting. >> so it all sort of adds up to what we expected, with one big question mark that we're all going to wonder about -- why did the plane fly seven and a half hours into the middle of nowhere and run out of fuel, if that's where the plane went down? >> thomas roberts. >> joining us is retired american airlines pilot, flight instructor, tom casey. mika has big questions about the flight simulator, the simulator that was in the home of the pilot. >> bobby debunked them all, but go ahead. >> the sophistication that people talk about the realm of what this man had in his home, that is common for people like yourself, flight instructors, people who love flying to have -- >> no, that's -- that's a busman's holiday for me. i do own a private a

and the ntsb has done a really good job of even though, a lot of experts, including myself said, i've been moving towards the possibility of it being terrorism, you still have to focus on what the evidence says. and part of the evidence was saying that the plane, there was an arc showing that the plane was a thousand to 1,500 miles in one or the other direction. and they didn't give up on the other direction, despite what some of the leads were saying. that hard work has now paid off. i think that's very telling in the way that we do investigation. >> well, we still don't know exactly what's there. though the australians, they know something is there. they know something of reasonable size, as was said at one point, 78 feet in size, with smaller objects around it. from there, you're going to have to figure out where these black boxes are. i would assume given the tidal surges and the rest, maybe sonar would pick it up, if you knew a general vicinity, or no? >> i would assume so. here's the problem and i'm still learning about this because i'm not a pilot. those black boxes may or may