pings? >> well, we don't know. and certainly the data right now suggests that the aircraft was flying -- the data we have and the reporting we've just done indicates the airplane was in a normal cruise altitude when it stopped broadcasting. so certainly you take that to a few different logical conclusions as you continue the investigation, and you can arrive at one that says, it has crashed. you can say it maybe has landed somewhere. at this point this is the central focus of where the investigation is going. and the u.s. navy has dispatched. >> john ostrower,thank you very much indeed. we've actually kept barbara starr. barbara, i want to get your reaction to the "wall street journal" report. clearly a lot of similarities there. although i guess the conclusion is still up for conjecture depending on who you talk to. what did you make of what he just said? >> reporter: if you want to add to the mystery of all this or the uncertainty, what officials are also telling us is this plane like all planes carried a system, essentially a beacon,

it has enabled us to correlate the ping data with the southern indian ocean. there is simply no match. on that basis after it was peer reviewed by another satellite and space company and then also the investigation board the malaysian prime minister made the announcement today. >> did you know he was going to do it after the conversation? he began by saying he wanted to make the announcement. do you feel in any way it was premature? it sounds like you are as sure as you can be that it was accurate? >> it was peer reviewed and carefully looked at. in the business for over 30 years since our founding under u.n. charter. we are a private company now. we have quite a lot of experience in these matters. we were not surprised at the announcement. it had been discussed with us a couple of hours beforehand. >> and explain -- i guess i don't want you to get into deep math but the data. what was the data you were able to use to determine? there is debris. people say there is a chance this plane could be somewhere else. motive is outside your purview. nobody knows the mo

we keep talking about that very valuable ping data.eyond that these other areas, no, we are not talking about that as much. we are really focusing on that southern corridor. >> keith, if they did find the black box, we have got only two hours because it keeps looping every two hours. we do have all the data in terms of the other recording box; is that correct? >> the flight data recorder should be good for about 25 hours. so that will be very helpful. if they can finds the black boxes, so-called black boxes that really is going to be an aid to the investigation. >> the plane disappeared on the 8th and apparently on monday the 2nd there were satellite pictures, weren't turned over until saturday. with those ocean current, if this plane is there, how much movement is there going to be? >> probably good night quite a bit, greta. >> quite a bit meaning what. >> several hundred miles. if you want to think of a typical current and wind forcing maybe about a naut of speed. 25 miles plus in a single day. >> it can move a lot? >> we have a very

investigators looked at the pinging data and have taken a look and said it appears that the plane may have gone out west towards the indian ocean. the u.s. navy moving a droir in the area -- destroyer into the area. the uss kidd has moved to that area. a big mystery, and more questions than answers. >> lisa stark in washington. >> over in philadelphia, a u.s. airways ship was forced to land after a plane blew a tyre through takeoff. cellphone video after a plane returned with 149 passengers on board. the landing gear collapsed and it skidded on to the runway. the faa is now investigating the incident. >> the justice department wants to reduce prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. attorney-general eric holter old told a u.s. sentencing commission that shorter sentences would be fair and only apply to some crimes. >> there are people, we must understand, who have to be prosecuted and deserve to go to gaol. there are ways in which we can maintained public safety and reduce the prison population, reduce the number of people we are sentencing. >> the commission will vote on a pro

. >> the satellite ping data. i think that is absolutely crucial. additional information we got yesterday, i think narrows the search area and we should focus on it. >> daniel? >> the most important clue is we don't have any evidence of conduct. that refocuses the investigation on what happened on that plane in terms of system and malfunction. >> any kind of terrorist chatter, or indication the pilots may have been involved in a plot. the absence of anything. david, what do you think the most important clue is? the one investigators should be honing in on? >> the new satellite image. i'm not ruling it out as being the same piece of debris we saw before. it does gather together at times, especially if it's flipping over. it gives information of where the trail might be and where to continue to look. >> tom, most important clue, the one investigates should put before the others? >> i think they are putting, as said, the satellite imagery of the objects in the water, both the one the australians put out and now the recent chinese. the fact that more sh

that the military put out is enough and rolls royce is denying the notion that the aircraft was pinging data on the performance of the engine. >> i think they're not commenting. i don't know if they're formally denying. >> you know, wolf, such a mess. not to beat up on the malaysians, they just got caught off guard over their head with a huge investigation. i think what you're starting to see is the faa, ntsb begin to put some quality control into this investigation. >> because the malaysians really don't have a whole lot of experience. >> they need help. >> the ntsb and the u.s. authorities and others who really have some experience. a lot of folks, peter, and you've studied this, they're increasingly looking at the possibility this was not some mechanical failure but this was someone commandeering, if you will, that aircraft. >> there's a distinction between commandeering and hijacking, hijacking is for a political purpose. before 9/11 commandeering a plane was not all that uncommon. a fedex plane in '94, southwest airlines, alaska airlines in 2000 and one before 9/11. that's much harder t

. >> well, you know, i've been a little concerned about the fact that they are not releasing the ping datat and on cnn's, we're receiving so much information from really top-notch scientists from around the world asking, just give us some of the l-band information. give us the parameters. give us very specific information. if we could get that and let these people crowd source that information, get some other ideas, some other concepts in an investigation, you have to do that. you have to work together to take all of the information and weigh that information. give it different levels of confidence. >> given all of the false alarms that we've seen, you think that crowd sources still might be a good approach? i guess we don't really have much to work with anyway? >> well, you know, the crowd sourcing for the satellite didn't work very well and the reason i believe it didn't, i spoke with someone who used to be the executive vice president of digital globe. he said that with satellite technology, unless you have super high definitions coming back, it's really going to give you a lot of false

remember, this flight data recorder's probably two miles down on the ocean floor, and that's a guess at this point. you've got another 30 days where or 15 to 20 days where you might have a ping coming from the flight data recorder, and if there is equipment in the area, they might be able to pick that pinger. by the way, u.s. navy's pinger, one of the locators is on its way to perth from jfk, being accompanied with ten private contractors. that may help them find that flight data recorder. keep in mind, it may be months, years, before they ever find that flight data recorder. it took a couple of years in the air france case off the coast of brazil. so that's really the key to finding out what happened with this flight. >> all right. phil lebeau, reporting from south carolina. sue, down to you. >>> it was 25 years ago tonight that the "exxon valdez" spilled oil off the coast of alaska. worst oil spill in u.s. history. in the port of galveston, texas, authorities are dealing with another oil spill. traffic into the harbor is massive, as the cleanup workers try to do what they can, as a massive backup, as you can see in that harbor. and nbc's janet shamlian is in galveston. >>

designed to transmit routine maintenance and engine performance information, continued to ping satellites with available data. sources say those periodic pings lasted for at least four hours. investigators say no data was actually transmit toltd satellites, so there are snow details about precisely what plane might have been doing. but just the fact that the jet continued to emit signals is a strong indicator the plane had not crashed. investigators can't say if the jet was flying the entire time, a plane on the ground with its engines running could produce the same signal. investigators strongly suspect the jet was heading west away from its intended flight path, back across the malaysian peninsula. military radar picked up a trail of unidentified blips, moving away from the general location where the jet vanished from civilian radar. u.s. experts have studied the images, which seem to show an airplane heading towards the strait of malacca. they believe the radar is credible and say the images are consistent with the missing boeing 777. now, recovery teams are expanding their search and the circle may get e

you tow it behind the ship and it listens for the fading ping from the cockpit voice recorder and inflight data reporter. this is critical in the next few days because we know about a week left. that's how much battery life there is before those pings stop. when the pings stop, there is another piece of technology in the ocean field called the bluefin 21. basically, it's an underwater drone. this thing can go down under water and scan the bottom of the ocean. it can map out if there is any debris. great technology, but here is the reason. why they haven't deployed it earlier. you need a small search area for this to be effective. they can cover about 50 miles a day. with the time frame we're look at here, they need about a thousand square mile area to cover in about a week. that's about as much as they can do. we're looking at a search area well over 100,000 square miles. so until we can narrow down where debris essentially is, potentially the ocean shield with all its technology will be looking for a visual search just like the one thousand sailors on the eight ships which are currently out in

investigators looked at the pinging data from the satellites and says it appears that the plane may have gone out west towards the indian ocean, the u.s. navy using a destroy in the area. the uss "kidd" into that region to look for wreckage, it's a huge area, but a big mystery, and a lot more questions than answers. >> lisa stark reporting. and from mexico, alan diehl, an m.t.s. p and federal aviation administration investigator. welcome. we're glad to have him back. >> thanks. so after the revelations today, what is your assessment of the situation right now? >> well, obviously the mystery is growing. it's been said we are looking for a needle in a haystack, now we are looking for a needle in a hay field, with the scenario that the aircraft flew for four hours, that means the malaysians, i hope are talking to the pentagon about having more assets in the ocean. we have the equipment to do that, they don't. i hope they'll request our assistance. this is certainly obviously a big issue, and there's unsaid things that are playing here, such as the fact that this 777 is a very reliable airpl

officials are telling cnn that they believe pings of data from the plane may show that it traveled fourve hours from it is last known location. that could expand the search into the indian ocean. they are working to analyze the new information and while they caution this is not 100%, it's one of the more promising leads in the ever growing search for the missing plane. joining me is the man who headed up the investigation of flight twa. james, thanks for joining us. u.s. officials are now saying they believe flight 370 could -- i want to emphasize again, could -- nothing is definite yet in this story -- could have flown for several more hours, based on some pings of data and that could be as far as the indian ocean. what does this new information tell you? >> well, my understanding, jake, is that that data is not continuous but builds up in little blocks of data and then periodically every half hour, every 20 minutes or whatever it sends particular data to the airline company, boeing, to the owner of the airline, malaysia air and to the builder of the engine which in this case is rolls

. >> very reluctantly, we've been looking at the ping data for the last six or serven days, comparing it with other malaysian airlines, triple 777 in the region and looking at the flight data we can get from the pings. we mapped those pings against the southern and northern route. i can say there's a strong correlation with the southern route, and absolutely no correlation with the north, that it went south. >> you can rule out that northern route? >> yes. >> can you say, though, that with 100% certainty, that the plane ended up in the water? >> we have to bow to the honors that the investigation team has. we can say that we saw the plane in a number of pings to the network, the period of hours cone sides with the amount of time the malaysians say it was fueled up for, and that would tie in with some seven pings or communications, if you like, from the last known one through to the plane possibly running out of fuel. at which case it would have been over the southern indian ocean. >> i don't know how to ask this, or how you can answer it. is all the information you've given the malays

data. the reason we're calling them pings and not data links is because the ping is saying, i have some data. the aircraft does this, when it loses communication or can't reach anyone, it sends out a ping. it says where are we and i need to connect with you. so it sends out basically a telephone call waiting for someone to answer. and that's what we're receiving. >> so first of all, the fact that there are these pings leads me to think that whole notion of a catastrophic disaster in which every single system was destroyed and that's why this thing disappeared isn't quite the case because if there are pings why are there not transponder information available? >> exactly. now there are things that could cause that. i'm not ruling it out. because if the buses are all lost and the other thing connected to the buses that transmit, which is incredibly unlikely. so i would agree with you that things were intentionally turned off or there was some kind of process, something happened where they were all turned off. >> it's a series of events, the transponder was disabled or failed first, then you've

they combine that radar data with the pings that we're talking about now, satellite data, as well as a sense of the range that circle you're seeing now on the map based on the fuel in the fuel tanks of that plane. that's where they get this search area. it was traveling southwest. it could have turned which would expand the search area. but as you say, exactly right, anderson, it's a combination of clues that leads them in that direction. >> richard, what do you make of these developments? >> it's extraordinary. nothing ever seen like this before. that search area looks horrendous when you put it as one big circle. but of course, if they have got these pings they are following a series of not so much tracks but they can narrow it down. they are not going to be willy nilly searching the entire spectrum of the indian ocean. they will have a much more defined area within that ocean of where they expect it to be. and what we're really getting to grips with here is, clearly we are seeing the u.s. authorities, the ntsb, the faa, the experts who have now got the raw data and are now bringin

it says, has an authority other than the malaysian government like our ntsb validated inmatsat ping data and maylay radar tapes? and i want to pose that one to patrick smith. what's the possibility about that? chad mentioned that and he said we need to get the other ping information from them. >> yeah, we're getting all sorts of garbled information, unconfirmed information. i think it goes without saying that everything needs to be put on the table and vetted a little more carefully before we have a stronger against of what happened. meanwhile, to back up a minute, i'm going to side with richard on that last argument about global air safety. >> you're not going to win, arthur, you're not going to win. >> it's safe to say that all global carriers are astonishingly safe. you start playing that game, compare country to country and carrier to carrier, it's an academic discussion. really, all carriers are safe. >> we'll leave it there. get ready, because this is what we call the lightning round. we're going to answer as many of your tweets as we can possibly fit in. that's next. yeah, i'm mar

remember, they are using that ping data from the satellite system to try to figure out triangulate where the plane was. >> that makes it worse if you say this isn't new information because that means that we have lost three weeks. if indeed this is the new area, we have lost three weeks. and that three weeks matters because there is so much time on that black box pinging. we could have been three weeks ago looking in the right area. if this indeed turns out to be the right area and maybe find the black box. >> that's true. there is no denying that. what it really speaks to is that this is a guestimate. they will admit to you the information they have, the flight speed, they do not know what the plane did, especially after it left the gulf of malacca. did it speed up or slow down? if it changed speeds, that really throws things off. they can't do a really accurate cam could you legs at that point. it's based on an a calculation how fast they think the plane might have been going. it doesn't tell you what was going on inside the cockpit. >> of course also matters altitude. certain altitude

secondly, the other piece of data that's important is using the axis or using those satellite pings on trying to figure out where this plane was. those two lines come together. they cross pretty much right at that spot there in the south indian ocean. right pretty much close to where the ntsb had said, look in this area. they did exactly that. this is the first piece of debris, which would suggest maybe they've got a hit. what does this mean for the investigation? i want to show you the other piece of evidence here. because, you know, we've all been focused, of course, on what was the flight track. if this plane came all the way down like that, then what does that mean for -- didn't mean to do that. sorry. let's put the telestrator on. what does that mean for the hypothesis? if this was autopilot, that seems to be the belief, it was traveling at 500 miles per hour, altitude about 30,000 feet. those are the numbers that we had when the plane was essentially over the strait of malaka or out over the south china sea. those numbers didn't change. why is that relevant? it suggests this plan

from the flight data recorder. the ping may start to fade away about 14 days from now so crews are frantically racing to find it before it's too late. here's what that ping sounds like. so quiet, so simple, surprisingly simple. correspondent rosa flores joins me to explain the frantic hunt for that sound, which as we've said before, doesn't really sound the way we thought it would sound. >> i know, i talked to a company that uses equipment that specifically listens for this. they told me something called a tpl, a tode pinger locater, and it does exactly what the name suggests, it looks for that ping. it's a piece of equipment that has listening gear. and so you put experts on the other end of that information and they're able to distinguish what this ping exactly sounds like. and they narrow an area which is what we've been talking about all along. this area needs to be narrowed. and within that narrow area, then you'd have a debris field. and that's when you bring something called nauv. autonomous unmanned vehicle. here is

toward penang on the western coast of malaysia, out of the straits of malacca and the pings they received from the engine data aligned almost perfectly with an airway heading northwest toward sri lanka. >> i want to talk about that theory. but first, karen, i wanted to ask you if -- there's been a lot of confusion about what exactly the transponder is. it's a frequency that's in there in the cockpit you can set. have you ever had occasion as a pilot to turn the transponder off? is there some aspect of that that doesn't seem as incriminating or mysterious or bizarre as it appears to lay folks like me? >> procedures are to turn on the transponder right before we take

pinging. its crucial data could be lost forever.bc's david wright is in astronaut along with investigators as they hunt for clues. >> reporter: we now know what happened to flight 370. but why? that more profound question is still a mystery. the answer lies about two miles down on the ocean floor. for the families of 239 people who were hoping against hope, heartbreak tonight. there are no survivors, and there are still plenty of unanswered questions. the satellite firm immarsat provided clues to the few answers we have. the firm helped narrow the final flight path based on pings it collected from the plane as it flew. >> the pings match our plot for the southern route. they do not match the northern route. and therefore, the northern route is ruled out. >> reporter: but where exactly did it go down? that's still only a guess, based on how much fuel it had left. today an australian p-3 orion finally spotted new clues. a gray or green circular object and an orange rectangular object floating in the indian ocean. we don't yet know if

pings. four data points. it was following a track, a known navigational track.s very helpful in the investigation and i see it the other way down, i see it as narrowing it. >> fair criticism, however, if they had their hands around all the data earlier, there wouldn't have been this dribbling out of inconsistent theories because they would have known what is the best earlier, yes? >> exactly. and not only are the black boxes so very important, but the wreckage itself because there's so much evidence that is contained on the pieces of the plane and the longer they drift in the ocean, the longer key evidence is going to deterrierate or be lost to the bottom of the sea. so, the time has worked a toll on the investigation. but it is hopeful that they have at least a direction to proceed. >> talk more about these pings. do they speak to you about intent? >> no. actually, the pings to me speak to me about the airplane. and we saw the same thing in air france, the air france crash investigation because the plane is trying to relay its help. what these are are sort of l

there are also reports that this plane sent out pingings of data several hours after the last transponder signal. again i said it a while ago, the "the wall street journal" suggesting up to five hours. and the journal now reporting the last ping came while the plane was over water. and then there is this. fox news is just concerned the u.s. navy is moving the uss kidd into the indian ocean to search for remnants of the jet. all of this suggests the plane may have done that after taking off, after all. it could have ended up anywhere in this circle, over 2500 miles from where the plane originally was. that would make the potential search area about the size of six united states. we begin with our chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge reporting from washington. >> reporter: and confirming to fox news, they sent periodic pushes of data after the transponder went dark, suggesting that it could fly, but this transponder did not suggest a location, shutting down the transponder was likely a deliberate act. as the search expands into the southwest and indian ocean. they are told th

their search includes trying to detect pings from the data recorders. to discuss, i'm joined by dick schofield from duquesne, which makes one of the components that emi emits signals, i should call him chuck. and tom fuentes as well, former fbi assistant director. laura parker, a writer and an editor at national geographic.dom. chuck, when the planes and the ships that are searching through the indian ocean, some of them very deep parts of the indian ocean, 10 or 20,000 feet deep, how close do they have to get to the plane to pick up a signal from it? >> well, there are several factors that matter. sea state is a factor. that can consist of algae in the water, traffic, et cetera. but the average distance that the pinger can located is about two nautical miles. >> that's two nautical miles in any direction? straight down into the ocean? >> that's right. >> can you hear pings on the land? say it's lost in the mountains or hidden somewhere on land? >> actually, the device that we manufacture is -- it only pings when it has come into contact with water. whe

i think the problem is the satellite, not really pings, just data fixes.tellite data fixes are better on directional but not on altitude. we haven't gotten the same indications on altitude yet. what i'm hoping they can do and i'm sure they are working feverishly on this. this is really important data. i think they have to smooth out the data that they are getting and clear out the white noise and see if they can't refine this altitude issue better. at one point, it was 45,000 feet. 5,000 feet, if it is true. who knows what's true. you have two paths, one north up towards very mountainous countryside and one south into the indian ocean. there is no way. if they are flying at 5,000 feet, you would have a tremendous fuel burn and they have to go into mountain nous regions. they couldn't have done it. you would be out of fuel. you would be in the himalayas. >> thanks for your insight. much appreciated. 26 countries from around the world are assisting in the massive search for ta vanished flight. so, well, let's go to cnn's tom for man. he has the latest on the

data recorders. time is running out to find these locator pings coming from the boxes, but if they are damaged, the boxesly a handful of laboratories in the world that are capable of retrieving data from a box bllax that's been damaged. here at the national transportation safety board state of the art laboratory, a demonstration of what it takes to get vital information from the all important black boxes. this is what the pinging of one of the data recorders sounds like, once it's made contact with water. even after a prolonged period in salt water, data from these devices is still retrievable. >> we have had a good success rate with recovery. all of the recorders go through different stresses but overall, we have had a very good success rate with water recovery. >> have you ever not gotten data in a water recovery in. >> i can't think of one. >> reporter: recorders 230u7bd in salt water are first bathed in fresh water and later carefully dried and taken apart to reveal this. the device's memory card. even a damaged card can be useful. >> the data just skbrujump from to chip, so even if you have one chip

authorities that they do have several pings of data from the airliner engine. it is set up to transmit about the engine as it flies. they believe they have several pings, if you will of engine data transpit mitted and picked up by satellite and now is being analyzed. the preliminary analysis they say is that this data was picked up showing a track that the plane may indeed have flown to five hours across the indian ocean. u.s. authorities working with the malaysians to analyze all of this and the flow of data from the engines that they believe they have during that time they think the plane flew is a primary indicator of why the u.s. is agreeing to expand the search area. within the coming hours, a u.s. navy ship that was searching more along the flight path is going to be moved. it will enter the indian ocean. we are told it will join the search. now, this senior u.s. official also telling cnn none of this is 100%. it's a confusing picture. there is not complete information. there is some concern on the part of authorities with the malaysians may not be sharing

all we have is the data ping that it is above water and functioning at four data points pass the last known spot. >> take me through the technology itself. you mentioned that malaysia did not pay for the system. what systems come from the manufacturer of the aircraft? what systems are optional? what systems are mandatory? >> it is the transponder. it lived there traffic control and the whole world where you are.- you know where you it transforms you from a ufo to an airplane with a #two and appeared that was turned off. # sign on it. that was turned off. you can send messages back and forth. is a radio-based system, one is a computer-based system. they stopped admitting signals. the next system is satellite-based. and is built into the 777 takes the temperature of the plane all the time. updates not send status if you subscribe to the system as a carrier. is juston't, the signal on saying we are here. we have four blips. it does not say anything more or where they were going. pings, doesn't mean the plane was above water when they happened? >> yes. it was above water when they happens

this is what the pinging of one of the data recorders sounds like once it's made contact with water. even after a prolonged period in saltwater, data is still retrievable. >> we've had a good success rate with recovery. all of the recorders go through different stresses, but overall, we've had a very good success rate. >> have you ever not gotten data in a recovery in water? >> i can't think of one. >> reporter: recorders found in saltwater are first bathed in fresh water, then taken apart to reveal the memory card. even a damaged card can be useful. >> the data does jump from chip to chip. so each if you have one corrupt chip because it has cracked or gotten some sort of corrosion on it, we still should be able to build the information back. >> reporter: information from the flight data recorder's memory card is downloaded on a computer system where a team makes sense of the data. to us, it looks like zeros and ones. >> we get information from the manufacturer of the aircraft that has a data map, and that map translates all the zeros and ones into actual parameters. >> reporter: for

or aircraft handling experience who were aboard the aircraft, that has -- as we know, the flight data pings from the aircraft, from the aircraft engines, and other

for more equipment to pick up the ping of the plane's data recorder once wreckage is found.the focus of the operation of debris spotted by satellite that may be from the missing plane. but australia's prime minister has said once again that there's no guarantee. well, relatives of the passengers and crew just want to know where will r their loved ones. the distraught father of one passenger says he still believes everyone from the missing plane is alive somewhere. he spoke with our david mckenzie in beijing. >> translator: i can't sleep each night because all i think about is my son. up until now, what else can we do? this is about his flight. there is nothing you can do to help. we can only wait for further updates. >> reporter: is this the hardest thing you've ever had to go through? >> translator: this is the first time in my life to experience something like this. in the past, i just watched other people's stories on the news. i watched explosions, ships sink and plane accidents. those were other people's stories. this time it is my turn for bad luck. it is my turn to ac

data? what's your understanding? >> my understanding at this point is that it's actually these pings that you refer to, which means thatoard the aircraft is trying to get in contact with the satellite. it would have transmitted some data, but it doesn't transmit any data for some reason, it's not quite certain, not clear why. these repetitive attempts to reach a satellite and investigators believe that only an intact plane would do that. i want to add -- they're not suggesting this is the central theme of this investigation but the bottom line after almost a week of intensive searches is that this 250-ton plane didn't leave any debris if it crashed into the ocean. no matter whether it's a supersonic dive, vertical dive into water or a chesley sullenberger gradual belly landing on the hudson, a plane of this size has got to leave some debris. everybody agrees on that. somebody will float whether seat cushions or parts of galleys or something. so that's the big conundrum here. if you don't have debris, you don't have a crash site. and so that's why investigators are starting to look at some of the data and say well maybe

i believe it detects the pings from the flight data recorder that are sent out. that ping only travels about two miles under water. so it has to be just about over the top of this flight data recorder to detect it. so it's going to be a really difficult problem for them. >> so the one piece of good news, if there is any in this story, though, is that if we reflect back to the accident that happened a couple of years ago where they found the crash site in the water relatively soon but then it took a long time to find the black boxes. so you can still find the black boxes even though they're not pinging, correct? >> that is correct. you can do that. it did take them, i think, two years. i don't believe they ever found the cockpit voice recorder on that particular accident. what they did find was the flight data recorder. >> okay. >> so it is going to be extremely difficult, even if you do find the location, to retrieve the boxes. >> so that brings up a really important question. what would be the different information that one would garner from each of those two di

it turns out those pings were not being received at regular intervals. new dataced two minutes apart, gaps of an hour, then regularly spaced, irregularly spaced. we don't know what it means. we need to get more information about why they were spaced the way they were, what kind of conditions aboard the plane would have led to such spacing. what triggered ooech pulsyinigg. we don't know that. all we have to go on in terms of -- everything we know about the fate of this aircraft is from the analysis of these pings. these pings were not intended to carry any information. >> new math from a new device in a new way. david susie, you suggested to me that perhaps the partial handshake was the plane reaching out trying to give information. >> yeah, for me that's the only explanation for it. as far as the reliance of the schedule of these pings, the last three or four were every hour. the ones before that were not. there were attempts and it couldn't connect. so there was times when it did that. what concerns me is there was a full hour, a little bit more, where there was

these pings didn't contain any data. what we learned today is simply this, each of the seven pings was further away from the satellite than before. that tells us a lot. if you look at that graphic what you'll see we were able to exclude a huge swath of ocean including the center of the indian ocean. we know as the pilot whoever was flying this plane after they passed west over the peninsula they did a zigzag pattern. it looks like perhaps the pilot was trying to stay out away from the land, away from the military radar that was pinging them, detecting its location to get out of sight over the ocean. the most appealing part of the southern route was that it was allowing the pilot to travel out of radar coverage and go all the way to the south without any radar coverage. >> here's my question. how do we know we're looking in the right area. >> this is hard. >> in terms of the place they are looking right now. what emphasis success put. the reason everybody got on board with this was the prime minister of australia came out

expanding the search into the indian ocean, because american experts have looked at this satellite data, pinging and done some calculations and figured the plane may have been traveling westward and that's one of the reasons they are expanding the search. >> we are not talking about a small expansion. >> no. >> this is extraordinary. >> this is huge, something like 23 million, i don't remember the actual number, but it is a huge space. the air france accident in 2009, they had about a 40-mile radius. >> which is significant and took years to sox the mystery there. >> think what this might take in fact if they really have to look over the indian ocean, that is a massive undertaking. >> the involvement of the united states in all this, from the beginning of the week, the malaysian officials were saying we need help, because the f.a.a. has expertise? >> the ntsb, f.a.a. are top and a half when it comes to investigating aviation accidents. there are others around the world, as well. because it is a boeing airplane, american-made, they are over there and willing to help and the malaysians are calling

reports overnight about the satellite pings, about the fact that it was sending back data. it says it is working with the federal aviation administration, the national transportation safety board and others providing them that raw radar records, those things that are being used to figure out where this plane is located. u.s. warships now moving east to west along what is believed to be the suspected flight path of the missing flight 370. the indian ocean depth is an average of about 13,000 feet, which may present problems. but remember, air france's black box was recovered from 16,000 feet. right now, the indian navy is joining u.s. warships in that hunt in the indian ocean. we're awaiting a press briefing later this hour, hoping to get more details from malaysian officials. meantime, in beijing, we're told that the families of the missing people aboard that jetliner are hoping that the scenario that comes true is a hijacking. it's the only one that affords them the hope they will see their loved ones again. but that may not be likely. poppy? >> you know, jim, if this reute

ping? >> every hour when the ground station is getting no data from the plane it sends out a ping saying are you there and the plane sends back a signal saying we are still logged on to the network. there is no data going back and forth. there is just the ping. we are here. 8:11 a.m. malaysian time was the last full computer handshake. eight minutes later there is some evidence for a partial handshake. i'm sorry to say that we have no explanation for what that is or what it means. that is something we are pushing on right now in our news room. >> can you add to that? >> joel expresses it well. it took two years to find the air france black box and we knew where air france went. that water where air france crashed is shallow in comparison to this water. this is three times as deep. so finding -- we don't know if that debris is connected with the aircraft. if we do it will put it within thousand of square miles. the only way to get down there is with robotic searches. robotics only move about 1 knot which is about 1.15 miles per hour and they have thousands of miles to comb. so and that is wit

drop these sonar buoys in the water and they'll be listening, hoping to find some sort of ping from those flight data and voice recorders. >> well, in the air france search, wolf, we didn't use buoys. we used towed pinger locators which are towed from ships. i'm not sure there's a buoy that's capable of listening to this, but that would be ideal to get a large field out there which could direction find to where the pings are coming from, if they have that capability. >> we're told they do. but go ahead, richard. >> let me just amplify a little bit on what you were just saying there. the reason they are deploying these buoys, these transmitters, is not really to hear the pings because, as your other guest says, it would just be impossible for that. the reason they're doing this is to monitor the current and the tide and the water temperature because bearing in mind, wolf, those -- the satellite telemetry, the satellite images that we saw are three days old. they need to know roughly where would the current have carried them three days ago. they're not going back to where they were three days ago. they

what i mean is they had been receiving hourly pings from the system with a dual stream of data they wereble to more or less tell the aircraft speed and distance from the satellite which placed it within a region, not a precise location, but more or less in the southern corridor they defined. >> they say the plane was traveling faster than originally thought. what does that suggest to you? does it suggest foul play? >> no, it does not suggest that at all. i think the new, irregular or additional pings they have found have been interpreted over the last few days and provided more precise data to assess. that is where that was concluded from. >> this new search area is still vast. it is the size of new mexico, so it is still a competition search. >> it is still a very competent at search. -- it is still a very complicated search. glide for 777 can -- i am sorry,rs 6500: letters. i will correct that. let me start with miles. it can glide 200 linear miles and therefore, approximately 40,000 square miles. even if we knew its precise point of running out of gas, we would still have a vast area