it's jeff weiss, jeff beatty, mary schiavo and patrick smith. with all of the technology in this world, why is it that planes don't have an unstoppable tracking device attached? jeff beatty, you have been talking about the communication on this plane that you say no one has been talking about involving countries jamming signals. elaborate on that for us. >> certainly. well, first of all, your viewer is correct. there is no reason why we could not put technology on that is impossible or highly unlikely for the crew to be able to turn off. we have that type of technology in the emergency beacons onboard the aircraft. that is something that we'll probably be looking at to do. i've been racking my brain, how do we explain the no cell phone calls, some of the other things where people were asking about tonight and last night and one of the very simple explanations is, jamming of equipment. now, in the old days that used to be something that only states could do. they could do electronic warfare and jam cell phone transmissions but right now that is e

patrick smith joins us from boston.commercial airline pilot and author of "cockpit confidential." this is a technology show. how is it that in the 21st century, a plane can simply disappear with no trace of it on radar, no communications? how does that actually happen? >> you use the word there, radar. air traffic control radar is something that only exists in certain parts of the world. there are vast stretches of the planet that are not covered by radar across the ocean, certain remote parts of asia and africa. when an aircraft is in one of these areas, we communicate other ways, by high-frequency radio or what we call sms datalink. there are different ways of communicating, depending on where you are exactly and depending which air traffic control facility you are working with. it varies. i keep being asked, why wasn't this plane being tracked? it was. air crews are always in touch with air traffic control and companies on the ground, one way or the other, through any of those means i just talked about. what seems to

patrick smith, you're an airline pilot. everyone's got a theory. a theory that changes every hour on this based on the latest reports and so on. what is your best advised, best informed theory? could be no more than that. >> i'm not sure that i have one. mr. weiss's suggestion i think is something that's conceivable. and we're hearing a lot of these conceivable ideas. but although they're conceivable they're not very likely. and meanwhile -- to me i think the most fascinating aspect of this story now is that it's become for lack of a better term transcendent. by that i mean it's no longer a story about an airplane crash. it's a mystery story. and people are watching it the way they watch a celebrity murder trial. and now the verdict so to speak isn't guilty or not guilty, it's going to be where and when did they find the airplane. and my theory there is once that happens the story loses its mojo and nobody cares anymore. which is unfortunate for a couple of reasons. one being the fact that the questions we really should be asking are what happened

a commercial pilot patrick smith joins us now from boston. patrick, good to talk to you. this feels like a solid lead in this case, and i never want to get ahead of the facts and information here but based that it's comin coming from the chine government how solid does this piece of information feel to you? >> it's really hard to say. it depends. if it turns out that these are pieces of the airplane it really brings the conversation back to where we were originally when the plane first went missing and starts to suggest the possibility of some very sudden, very quick catastrophic event, a bomb going off, an explosive decompression that turned out to be unrecoverable. something like that happening all at once instead of these more curious theories that the airplane had been flying for 500 miles for better part of an hour for unexplained reason. it's interesting that i think this story is tran transcendent because it has become a mystery story rather than the story of an airplane crash. people are so fixated on where is the airplane aspect of it. now that we find it, we thi

. >> clive irving, patrick smith, richard quest, stand by. i want to take a quick break.y record of the boeing 777 and what is that safety record? more on that, more on the possible sighting of malaysia flight 370 wreckage by chinese satellites. our breaking news coverage continues. [announcer] if your dog can dream it, purina pro plan can help him achieve it. ♪ epic classical music stops ♪music resumes music stops ♪music resumes [announcer] purina pro plan's bioavailable formulas deliver optimal nutrient absorption. [owner] come on. [announcer] purina pro plan. nutrition that performs. >>> breaking news, china releasing satellite images of suspected crash site from malaysia airlines 370. they appear to show large floating objects as experts try to determine what may have gone wrong aboard that boeing 777 which has a reputation as an extremely safe and reliable aircraft. rene marsh has been looking into the boeing 777. what are you finding out? >> we can tell you that more than 300 have been sold to u.s. companies and worldwide. there are even more than 1,100 of these pla

patrick smith, robert mark, ask corky smith. patrick let me start with you.ain argument against mechanical failure on board this flight seems to be how could a mean fly 5 or 6 hours on auto pilot, across malaysia into the indian sea? >> well, it could. and you know, i admit that the likelihood of catastrophic failure, any failure is shrinking. it's looking like an intentional act but i'm not ready to close that door completely the piece today by goodfellow, his name was, he touches on something that i brought up in one of my blogs 5 or 6 days ago is the possibility that the reason the crew made that turn is because they were dealing with a smoke or fumes emergency. in the process of diverting to an alternate airport to perform an emergency landing they were overcome by the smoke or fumes, and because the course had been set to go in one direction, and the plane auto pilot remained engaged, possibly, the airplane continued on for a considerable length of time before burning up or running out of fuel and crashing into the ocean not a likely scenario but it's a

. >> joining me now is laura parker for national geographic.com and patrick smith of ask the pilot.comlcome back. one thing we know for certain, there would be a lot less speculation and guessing for planes in flight and those on the ground. i want to come to you because the different ways the planes can communicate and my question to you is why not have the device where planes are in constant communication with the ground. we wouldn't be having this conversation and guessing. >> that's really a question i would like to hear my companion speak on that. one of the questions that has been raised is why don't the flight data recorders transmit continuously so that the ground crew knows what's going on all of the time. i think that has been a debate for a number of years and while it would have informed folks where the plane is, it's also an extraordinarily expensive thing to do. it centered around cost ask so forth. that's not obviously going to be cleared up in the situation. >> threats throw video cameras in the cockpit as well. >> airplanes are always in contact with either air traffic

guest scott rickard in orlando he is a former american intelligence linguist in new york we have patrick smith he is a foreign affairs journalist and author of time no longer americans after the american century and in london we cross to ian kearns he's the co-founder and director of the european leadership network right gentlemen cross talk rules and if that means you can jump in anytime you want if i go to you first in orlando. barack obama says that the situation in ukraine is worse than the iraq war how do you weigh that. that's incredibly disingenuous i mean the iraq war was an incredible dish destructive war many people died of the shock and efforts of bombing and murdering numerous individuals the numbers have gotten into the hundreds of thousands at the at the minimum side and millions at the maximum side and and not to mention the kinds of weaponry that was used depleted uranium was dropped on those people those are those of weapons of mass destruction so to say that a peaceful vote in crimea is equal to that is incredibly ridiculous and in london and i mean they are nato countries so

patrick rens. >> that's a smith & wesson 500 model. >> reporter: this is the receipt showing the small arsenal of, including assault rifles, shotguns, and a 50-cal handgun. abc news obtained several of the actual copies of pistorius' firearms license exams. he aced them getting 96% of the answers right on one of them. and overnight we've learned that his assault rifle license was obtained in early 2013. this test he took in 2013, which could have only been weeks before the shooting. >> correct. >> reporter: andre pretorius largely designed this set of exams posing hypothetical questions that the blade runner got right. that's oscar pistorius' own handwriting delineating the guidelines for the use of lethal force. he writes -- "it's permissible if the attack is against you. it must be unlawful, must be against the person." you're saying that he basically broke every rule in this book. >> pretty much by his own answers given in court today, i think that that came as a big surprise to the general public because everything he put in there he got the answers correct. >> reporter: it may be one reason

filters that will prevent children from accessing inappropriate content arches or smith brings us more. his name is patrick rock and he is in fact a veteran conservative party advisor david cameron's deputy chief of staff he's been called cameron spics and he's had what one might call unparalleled access to access to power over a very long time over the last four decades right there in the heart of government . in the fact that he's also been closely involved in drawing up government policy on internet pornography filters and this is a man who was rested arrested recently on suspicion of what everybody's calling an offense related to child abuse images so not just pornography but what appears to be child pornography now his arrest happened on february the twelfth and he then resigned but this was all on the quiet downing street appears to have covered it up until it was confronted with it now over the last three weeks no one thing about this but apart from the prime minister who apparently has known for three weeks he said he was very concerned that the matter should be handled correctly that he didn't wan

patrick's day is over, done, gone. millions looking to push their luck today. tonight the mega millions jackpot is up to $400 million. let's all throw in a dollar or two. christie smith is live in milpitas where they are hoping luck can strike twice. >> you ask the lottery players, and they say it has nothing to do with the odds, they say it has everything to do with just simple incredible luck. it's happened once so why not twice? i spoke with the owners son, and he told me because of the lottery win they already got, they have gotten called away from l.a. from people asking for the same cashier to sell them a mega millions ticket now. he also says that business is way up here at the dickson landing chevron with customers starring at the huge check on the wall. the odds are something like one in 259 million. someone beat them on february 19th at this same gas station where a $425 million ticket was sold. still not claimed yet, but the retailer got $1 million for selling it and that has people coming back for more. >> are you hoping some of the luck rubs off on you? >> hopefully. >> there's a chance for everybody, right? think another millionaire might come out of he

who knows, you could be the next fred smith who started something like fedex. what is to stop you from going to patrick of overstock.com, look you probably have a big share of your business that's too small for to you really bother with. coy help with you that part of the business? have you thought of doing something like that? >> yeah, absolutely. we have a ton of requests from people that are like, they're sending out thousands of items per month. but with this first product it is really focused on people doing lower volume. we see a sweet spot for people doing 20 and 100 items a week. and right now just iphone app. so you have to enter everything through there. definitely down the line we want to basically help as many people out as we possibly can. >> is there anything you won't ship? david: good question? >> kind of rule of thumb, anything that will sit in the back seat of a four-door car. that is what our drivers will come and pick it up in. david: this is where i could see the model growing. say you work out a deal, i don't want to focus on overstock. we know patrick byrne. he is a nice guy. he

smith. we'll be talking about what the city is trying to do to improve traffic safety. >> a little cooler, a little on the breezy side, nonetheless a beautiful st. patrick's day for the whole bay area. look at your highs, upper 60s to low 70s. we're going to boost those numbers up, then bringing in the rain. i'll time out your full forecast. >> while the weather is great we do have a closure after a deadly crash in a major east bay roadway. we'll give you the latest. >> in the meantime let's take a live look outside, beautiful day, bridge illuminated on this monday morning, march 17th, this is "today in the bay." >>> a good monday morning to you. thank you for joining us. i'm peggy bunker. >> i'm laura garcia-cannon. new this morning police are looking for the driver who hit an elderly man in milpitas. they found an 80-year-old man unconscious in the intersection of south park victoria drive and hansen drive east of 680. he was taken to the hospital in critical condition. witnesses say he was hit by a gold chevy silverado pickup that took off after the crash. >> investigators are looking at surveillance cameras hoping to find out more about a tour bus cra

patrick's day parade. >> that's the weather version of march madness, the real deal just a couple days away. >> john henry smithhere to tell us about it. >> still thinking about nicole's -- >> let's talk about the bracket. i've got my pen. >> you guys are going to fill out your brackets. there's also a but..., i had to go there, i'm sorry. the great blue jays are coming offer a big win last night in the big east tournament. now you may have heard about their biggest star but as we report, there's more to the success than high scoring doug mcdermott. >> if the name said duke, kentucky or kansas they'd be on t.v. a couple of nights a week. instead, the men at creighton university go to work with a chip on their shoulder and are slowly but surely putting omaha, nebraska on the college basketball map. >> a lot of us weren't high major recruits. we were recruited here to play in missouri valley, so kind of wanted to show people that might have missed out on us. >> what did scouts miss out on? two time all american doug mcdermott who has had a dream career in omaha. the 6'7" forward is a shoo in for player of the yea

patrick's day since 1901. new york's celebration dates back to 1762. moving to sports and to golf where the number one player in the world was in some trouble on sunday and john henry smithore. >> tiger's aching back from the what a difference a day makes file. tiger woods on saturday seemed to be getting his mojo back with his best round of the year but then on sunday he tweaked his back and had to withdraw. to tiger's credit he tried to get through the final round and he was slicing and dicing all over the course and after completing 13, 5 over par he decided that is it and walked off the course and the 6th time in his career he had to withdraw from a tournament. after his round he said it's my lower back with spasms and it started warming up and asking if he will be well enough to defend the championship on thursday he said it's too early to tell and i need treatment until thursday to try to calm it down and we will see how it is. honda classic and mcilroy had a stroke in the final round but former number one player was having issues and he lost the lead and he ended up in a four-man playoff. this chip did not go well. so that opened the door for russell henley and he