something known as a towed ping locater. essentially that will be used to try to find the plane's missing black box flight recorder. what happens is a ship tows this through the water and it's able to pick up any pings or signals sent out by the black box. there are a few problems with that. one, the black box flight recorder is only able to send these pings out for about 30 days. that's the amount of battery life. we're already on day 18. there's a bit of time pressure. secondly, the black box may have been damaged so it may not be able to send out anything at all. thirdly, you can only use the ping locater when you have a pretty good idea exactly where the plane crashed. at the moment, we just don't know that. i think basically this recovery operation could take months if not years. >> reporter: the australian prime minister tony abbott has been paying tribute to the passengers and crew of the plane now presumed dead. >> the crash zone is about as close to nowhere as it's possible to be. it's closer to australian than to a

we know they had some inspectors who wanted to make sure that the a-ping that lowers the tow ping locaterwater, the microphone that listens for the ping from the black box that. >> want to make sure that it works properly, that it's welded properly that they can get that i didn't mean to safely down to the water. because when you're out in the indian ocean and things get treacherous, you want to make sure it all holds together and things work properly. they're testing to make sure things work all right. >> according to our experts here, that's what they should be doing. okay, michael kay, you have really been honing in on you want more radar, more satellite information. is that correct? >> i want more evidence to corroborate the track south. because that will then help us feed the assumptions on where it is. and i want to zone in on primary radar. works out to about 200 miles off the coast there is a huge area of radar right near banda aceh. >> what is the reason you're honing in on this so much? why is this so important? >> well, we don't have a lot of information. but the information we

we know search boats are going going to the area and there is a ping locater to locate the black box.ers are beginning to surface, there are so many questions about how and why the transponders were turned off. why the plane took a different direction from the route it was on. and how it landed in the indian ocean as we have just heard from the malaysian prime minister. >> it is little after 10 p.m. in kuala lumpur. that is only the second time the prime minister has spoken publically. we know this would be significant news of his presence and our sister network is reporting family members will be coming to australia in a couple days. for the first time ever we are using satellite technology in a way that has never been used before. if this plays out, flight mh370 ended in the southern indian ocean. sal is here. good morning. you had a six hour flight from kuala lumpur to bejing that was planned with an additional hour on board in case there is an issue in bejing. if you look at the line, this plane flew 7.5 hours in the air, if this plays out the way it has been explained to us, what

that's two toad ping locaters. there are various kind of unmanned vehicles that can do this kind of search. but the u.s. navy is only sending a single platform. >> any idea how deep it is in this huge expanse of area? and i suppose it's different, different places. how much water are we talking about? >> i think i have heard anywhere from 10 to 15,000 feet deep, which is about what we were looking at for the middle of the atlantic for air france 447. >> and, in terms of the -- the pinger, we are told it's a month, maybe has a little extra battery life we might have another week or so on it. >> yeah. if we got lucky, we would see 40 days. the manufacturers will tell you behind the curtain that 40 days they have seen that but really the specs say it will only be 30 days. so we are really running out of time. about two weeks from now. >> we call it the black box. is it really black or is that brighter bolder color so that maybe it can be seen? is it black. >> no. of course not there has been pictures all over the news

a towed ping locater will be used to try to find the plane's missing black box flight recorder. what happens is a ship tows this through the water and it's able to pick up any pings or signals sent out by the black box. there are a few problems with that. one, the black box flight recorder is only able to send these pings out for about 30 days. that's the amount of battery life. we're already on day 18. secondly, the black box may have been damaged so it may not be able to send out anything at all. thirdly, you can only use the ping locater when you have a pretty good idea exactly where the plane crashed. at the moment, we just don't know that. i think basically this recovery operation could make months if not years. >> reporter: the western australian state government says it's preparing for the arrival of possibly hundreds of relatives of those passengers and crew on board the missing malaysia airlines flights. they will presumably come to this part of australia to see for themselves this growing surveillance operation and perhaps to gain some sort of closure and to be close t

but just before the ping locater left perth, the u.s. navy captain, mark matthews, who's in charge of this operation, said that it could last another 15 days. he said, you know, the accepted time, the published time if you'd like, was 30 days, but it still may be sending signal for an additional 15 days, which would take us into the third week of april. so gives us a little bit more time. the ping locater left this evening, but will take four days to get out to the search area. the problem they have is they are not really going to be able to use it until that search area has been massively narrowed, because they need to have a better idea of precisely where the plane might have gone down, and, of course, they can only determine that once they've found some wreckage and from that can start to plot the likely current and drift, craig. >> ian, what are we hearing this morning in terms of the families? the families who had folks aboard that plane, what are they saying to officials there? >> reporter: well, the family, this is a very painful

then they will put in the ping locator to listen to be black box. if they can hear that, then they can reduce the search area. from there, they will go an underwater vehicle which will he able to identify the debris field and then go back and take photographs of the debris on the ocean and then they would send theomething to recover black boxes. >> in 2009, when you're competing was involved in recovering the black boxes from air france, you had debris found after five days and it still took two years. what are the chances this time? >> chances are similar or worse. debris afteroating five days, but they did not hear any pinger. will can hear that, it narrow the search field, otherwise we are in the same situation or worse. the weather will be worse. when they working, several days not working. >> to be clear, to find the debris at this point, do we have to go to ships to pull it from the ocean? to beis going to have that. you have to identify the debris to that actual crash. it can't be floating palettes or any other debris. you have to say for sur

navy's towed ping locator in an underwater drone.earch for malaysian air liens flight 370 is entering its fourth week. and there was disappointing news today. investigators say items pulled from the ocean friday turned out to be nothing more than garbage, but they're not ruling out the possibility some floating objects pinpointed today could be from the plane. >>> for the first time since last weekend's deadly mudslide, finally some signs of hope in washington state. we'll explain why coming up next. >>> and we're getting our share of rain this weekend. but wait until you see what happens next. >>> well, tonight, there is positive news coming out of washington state. one week after that devastating mudslide, dozens of people have been found alive. they're safe, and that means the number of people still missing has dropped. still, the death toll climbs tonight to 18. nbc's brian mooar has the latest on this developing story. >> reporter: despite the bone-chilling rain, the fatigue, the lingering danger, and the enormity of their task,

has sent an advanced robotic submarine to the area as well as a ping locater which could help find the plane's black blockses or flight recorders, but neither of those pieces of equipment will be much used until a narrow underwater debris field can be found, and we we don't have that yet. in fact, the head of australia's air force says they're not looking for a needle in a haystack. they don't even know where the haystack is. now, when it comes to the two black boxes which may help explain why the falling 777 went down, it's now a race of time because the box's transponder may have as little as 12 days battery life left in those boxes. anne-marie? >> holly williams in perth, australia. thank you, holly. >>> back in this country, it's supposed to be spring, but this morning a powerful mid-winter-like storm is ready to pound new england. the storm developed off the mid-atlantic coast. washington, philadelphia, and new york are expected to see flurries, but blizzard warnings are posted for cape cod, martha's vineyard, nantucket, and parts of maine. some areas could see a foot of snow and

that battery means no pings signaling the plane's location. though there have been a few promising pings, timing is becoming more precious now. in australia, where the search effort is based, i want to begin with cnn's will ripley. he is following the ocean shield, an ocean ship with a black box detector on its way out into the southern indian ocean right now. is there are no batteries, that means no pings signaling the plane's location. tell us what you're seeing right now, will ripley, as you head out, as you're shadowing this search ship. >> hey, don, we just arrived here at garden island. this is australia's largest naval base on their western coast. the reason we're here is because we're monitoring the movements here of ocean shield. you see it. you can't miss it, really, it's bright red, docked here at the naval base. it arrived here over the weekend. crews have been very busy here. they've been outfitting this ship with u.s. navy technology that we hope is going to really help in this search. there is the tpl, that towed pinger locator.

we will put underwater robotic vehicles -- sonar ping locators -- we may find the primary wreckage field. this is a big piece of news, but we are not yet close to knowing what happened to the airplane. >> do we have any more idea whether this is a pilot act? >> i don't think we do. people have all sorts of theories. none of the theories stand up to some of the key questions. nobody has the answer. what we have been given today is all we really know -- the airplane went south and is in the middle of one of the most remote parts of the world. it will be tough to find out answers why it is there. >> we are able to locate where they are by data points? >> we know talking to boeing engineers -- they talked about how much fuel was aboard the plane. the last thing was 7.5 hours. you have 30 minutes of gas and you are a thousand miles from land, you're not going anywhere but in the water. it will allow them to narrow down what that cooridor might've been. it will hopefully help locate where the impact might be. it is the wreckage that contains the black boxes that will answer most of the mysteri

25 days into the search for the missing malaysia airlines flight, a race to locate the plane's data recorder before the pings go silent. australian navy ship set out to sea monday night with advanced american underwater search gear on board, including a pinger locator. still, the equipment won't be useful until the search zone is dramatically located. >> we have to put the pinger in a location and it's far too big of an area right now. >> reporter: frustration with the progress. four orange objects spotted on monday and earlier described as promising durned out, once again, to be a false alarm. just old fishing gear. >> the best eyes in the world are applying themselves in this task. all of the technological mastery that we have is being applied and brought to bear here. so if this mystery is solvable, we will solve it. >> reporter: families accuse malaysian officials of being dishonest. not helped by the decision, four weeks in to finally correct the records on the final words from the cockpit. the malaysian goempb government said today it was a "good night malaysian 370," not "all right, good night," which

tpoed to ping locator and blue fin 21. can you break down the devices for me?nd they serve different purposes. >> yes, the tpl 25 is a device that picks up the a custic signature of the pinger that is located on the flight data recorders. and the pinger is designed to draw attention, that is the black box. to pull up the black box that records all of the aircraft perimeters. it is towed behind a ship. and they intend to use it on awe commercial ship. that's the intent. and they will put it on a commercial ship and tow it over the debris field and locate the pinger and flight data recorder. and once they do that. you put the blue fin 21 in a torpedothat is 16 feet long and has sonar and mapping technology and put video cameras and still cameras in there and it goes down by itself. it is an unmanned submarine that goes back and forth and using the navigation system accurately records and images the sea floor. bring it up and it has a four gig flash memory and slap new batteries and sensors and put it back in the water and it goes again. it can go 24 or 25 hours w

one is a ping locator that could find the data recorders. families are fed up with the uncertainty.roup of chinese families are demanding information from officials. >> we want an apology for what delayed the search mission, and we wanted malaysia government to apologize for irresponsiblely announcing that the plane went down. >> reporter: many believe their relatives are still alive. >>> facebook is buying a tech company worth 2 billion. why are they buying a company that makes virtually reality headsets? coming up, that's in my tech report. >>> a few light showers across the bay right now, into downtown san jose. i will let you know how much rain is coming up tomorrow. that's coming up next. really... so our business can be on at&t's network for $175 dollars a month? yup. all five of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. low dues& great terms& let's close. our best ever value plans for business ju

the american ping locator can help find the black box is en route and will arrive tomorrow. it is due to dock in perth the 28th of march. ladies and gentlemen, the new analysis shared with investigation has focused efforts on the southern part of the southern corridor. it was released out of commitment to openness and respect for the relatives, two principals which have guided us in our investigations. thank you. >>> the acting transportation minister of malaysia. as the search and rescue operations continue, questions continue to swirl about who could have flown the boeing 777 into the middle of the southern indian ocean. malaysian airlines ceo spoke exclusively to alice in kuala lumpur. >> tell us about the pilot and the co-pilot. >> based on records they have been quite exemplary. the pilot cap has 18,000 hours. there's no record or anything which is out of order i call it. >> did he fly your plane into the ocean? >> we don't know. >> is there any evidence, anything that is being held back. >> there is nothing really. we are cooperating fully with the investigating team.

this ping locater is being taken to that search area? >> i think that's wishful thinking. you know, i hope that's the case. i honestly do, but i don't believe it is. i think people are just frustrated by the fact that even though we fancy ourselves such technologically advanced mammals, we can't do something as simple as find a large aircraft in an ocean. that's very, very frustrating. i have to agree finding the pingers with the pinger locater would be -- you've got better chances of winning tonight's lottery. >> is this an experience revealing we're not as advanced in technology as many of us thought we were? >> i think a lot of us watch too many science fiction, carried away blending hollywood fiction with reality. the reality is an awful lot of sea surface out there. thousands of meters, many thousands of feet deep. when you're searching in those locations, it's harder than it sounds. we would like to rely on technology to solve this for us. unfortunately it's not as easy as it looks. >> thanks so much. crews looking for flight 370 a

navy sending specialized ping locater which detects signals from a black box that stretch an average of two mimes. lieutenant colonel kay served as adviser for britain's ministry and part of krarg investigations. he's my guest today. we heard about this satellite doppler company. they are the ones who have been able to pretty much tell us the location of the aircraft. >> provide a classic satellite system to 777. it gives acars position, altitude, height and speed. immarsat based over indian ocean is absolutely key to this. the information we got is based on doppler shift. this information given the malaysian minister the confidence to come out and be so decisive as he was yesterday. what is doppler shift, gretchen. to dumb it down into layman's technology for someone like myself, it's basically a continuous wave sent out from the satellite. if the plane is moving away, the wave will be elongated. if the plane is coming towards, it will be compressed. i spoke yesterday about using distance piece, time taken for ping to go out and come back, they could use the distance piece of it. if

the ping locator to help find the black box is currently en route to perth and will arrive tomorrow. the ship is due to arrive in the search areas on the 3rd of april. ladies and gentlemen, the new analysis shared investigation by the aaib have focused efforts on the southern part of the southern corridor. although this news was incredibly hard for the family members, as our prime minister said it was out of commitment to openness and respect for the relatives two principals which guided us in our investigations. thank you. >> so the focus now is on that southern area of that long arc down from kuala lumpur. that takes the area to 2.5 thousand areas south of perth in the australian area. there is a large fleet of the specialist maritime reconnaissance out of the air base. but they have been grounded all day. >> reporter: they have indeed. as you said, i am some 1500 miles southwest where i'm standing here in the middle of central perth. southwest is in that direction to me. that is the focal point of the search. as you had, a lot of ships and a lot of planes have all not had any chan

narrowing down their location could come from the pings of the satellites. let's dig deeper now with chris mcglocklin at marseilles. >> reporter: the malaysian government made the announcement today that the plane went down in the indian ocean. how confidence is the company that that is what happened to 370 that it ended in the water. >> 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

and identified as part of the aircraft, it's impossible to narrow it down snuff to submarines, ping locators the high-tech technology can be found. >>> one of osama bin laden's sons-in-law has been found guilty in new york of conspireing to kill u.s. citizens. he is the highest ranking al qaeda figure to be brought to trial on u.s. soil. >>reporter: the attacks of september 11th forever changed america. almost 3,000 people were killed that day, and the country's war on terror began. this is the man who led the propaganda wore, summoned by osama bin laden to a cave in afghanistan and told to deliver his message to the world. u.s. officials say he was part of what they call homicide al power hierarchy. in one video, the kuwaiti national promises no end to the storm of planes. he evaded capture for years. in 2002, he fled afghanistan for iran, where he remained more than a decade. then in february of 2013, he was arrested in a hotel in the turkish capital of ankara. on his way to kuwait, he was picked up by u.s. agents in amman, jordan, and flown to the united states. just blocks away from the

navy is providing a towed ping locater, an underwater hydrophone that looks like a stingray and has the ability to hear underwater pings when dragged behind a ship, and a deep sea drone known as the blue fin. >> it's only going to be valuable if you know you have something down there that's worth and taking a closer look at. >> at a nuclear summit with g-7 members in the netherlands, president obama met with the chinese president and offered continued help. >> we're going to continue to support them, but i don't want to indicate we have independent confirmation of the fate of the passengers on that plane. >> a typhoon is moving into the search area some time tomorrow, which could impede search efforts. so far, the currents have been moving in competing directions and have not forced them to alter the search area, which is still 1500 miles off the coast of australia. >> just heartbreaking to see those pictures of family members grieving like that. a number of them got together and held a press conference this evening malaysia time, or i guess this morning malaysia time. what did they say

. >> we are sending the ping locator down to aid in locating the black box. basically, this is highly sensitive equipment that is used, it's towed behind at very slow speeds on a commercial vessel down to depths of about -- it can listen down to depths of about 20,000 feet, listening for the ping coming off the black box, which is going to be critical in helping out with the investigation. it's a difficult task. the indian ocean is a very large area, and we were trying to follow -- you know, we go to every lead that's out there in these identified search areas. we're dedicated to the mission and we'll keep going as long as we're needed out there. >> such a massive search, so many countries involved. word that are malaysia airlines flight 370 dropped as low as 12,000 feet before disappearing from radar. that's raising new questions for investigators about just what happened inside the plane's cockpit and why. cnn's jim clancy's live for us in kuala lumpur. and jim, we have heard multiple theories. we've heard that perhaps the cabin depressurized and the pilots

they are now presumably at the bottom of the south china sea, locator beacons pinging for a month or so. >> it's a little over 600 feet so that means they will be able to find it. that's not a terrible depth of thousands of feet or a rough bottom that would make a major problem out of this. >> reporter: the black boxes are critical in another high profile disappearance air france 447 the black boxes provided the answers to why that jet fell out of the sky. some are asking whether all that data from these jets should be beamed back to land rather than stored on those black boxes. this morning, the search and rescue crews are looking for wreckage so they can start listening for the locator pings from those all-important recorders. david curley, abc news, washington. >>> new details investigators say a san francisco firefighter lied about the circumstances surrounding the death of a teenager who was run over and killed by a fire department rig following the crash of asiana flight at sfo. alyse ducket claims her rig did not run over the 15-year-old, contradict videos shown in helmet cam

a ping locater is on its way. it can find black boxes at the depth of 20,000 feet. a tragic day for loved ones. >> live image of 370 ended in a sudden indian ocean. >> the family of chinese passengers are reacting with outrageal causing the malaysian government for deceiving them and covering up the truth one of the oldest passengers was an artist who cheated death many times. the youngest, a 2-year-old, traveling with his parents on their way home from a vacation in malaysia. i'll talk exclusively to the friend of a family who spoke to them just before they left. we are covering every angle tonight with reporters around the globe. i want to begin with kyun lah. the search has been called off, it's only about 9:00 a.m. in perth, australia. we can only assume it's very rough indeed? >> very rough indeed. the details we're getting from the australian military is that waves are 6.5 feet high. the swells 13 feet. but the big problem is the fog, the cloud cover, 200 to 500 foot visibility. planes cannot fly that low for an extended period of time. it is too dangerous for

. >> the pentagon announced they are sending a toad ping locate er, u.s. navy, they're sending their autonomous vehicle, do you know much about that? >> that is not my area of expertise, i spoke to a few sources, so what i do know is it is very slow, accurate, but takes a lot of time. >> and literally combs the bottom using sonar, so tell me which is best to use in this case? >> you know, i think they all bring their own unique capabilities. we talked about this constraint. this has an endurance of 13 hours, five hours to get out to the site, five hours back, you only have minimum loiter time. this travels at high altitude, it can get out there. but still, you have relatively limited time on station. and look, sean, when the cloud base is down at 200 feet, the rain is falling, the visibility within 200 kilometers -- >> you go back to the original map that we have. and when we would go out 1500 feet, i mean, it is we're talking about a small area of a vast ocean that literally is beyond the needle in a hay stack, but i have to wrong, michael you're going to

and identified as part of the aircraft, it's impossible to narrow it down enough to submarines, ping locators-tech technology can be found. >> german airports as ground staff, maintenance staff hold a strike. most of the country's major airports including frankfurt, the third largest. >> it has been one of the worst kept secrets the head of the egyptian army has confirmed he will stand in the forthcoming presidential elections. he made his announcements in a televised address. with me is muhammad to talk more about this. worst kept secret in the world. i guess the timing is interesting. >> yeah. now, since the ousting of the muslim brotherhood government in june last year, which assisi led, he mappinged to rise sentiments which put him in the position where he is now in a place where he is almost guaranteed to win the elections. he enjoys support from considerable large section of the egyptian public. but of course on the other hand there's the pro muslim brotherhood supporters are vehemently against them. >> we have just watched the televised address in which he not only announced his intent

brian, it's -- that ship that's bringing that ping locater out there, only going to get there thursdaytoo late to pick up any of these pings. >> yeah, you really get the sense, wolf, this is just such a narrow window of time. but they still think it's worth it to send that vessel out there. as you mentioned, less than a week until the battery life on the pinger of the plane's black box likely runs out. that means a real sense of urgency now. u.s. navy commander, mark matthews, working with those teams, he talked about that urgency. >> typically, these last -- the batteries last for 30 days. usually they last a little bit longer and that's what we're trying to find. but what is critical is that the teams out there searching for the surface debris, they get good position data and feed it back to the oceangraphers to help us determine a possible point of impact for where the aircraft went in. >> now, if these teams can find one confirmable piece of wreckage from the plane, the field of this search can narrow considerab considerably. and a key piece of technology can help the teams zero in

navy is providing a ping locator, an underwater search vessel that looks like a sting ray and has theto hear underwater pings when dragged behind a ship. this will be used in the search as soon as ships are in position to tow it. pentagon officials tell us it will most likely be a civilian maritime vessel used to tow it. the request for the hydrophone was made by the malaysian government to defense secretary chuck hagel last friday, martha. >> obviously one of the toughest things to watch this morning was the reaction from the families as they got this news. >> well, there's been disbelief, a bit of denial. the families, when they heard the news, began wailing and cursing the malaysian government, which they say has mishandled the investigation and search from the beginning, being secretive and sharing information sparsely, which delayed the search in the indian ocean by days. the families received the information from the malaysian airlines by text message, martha. >> that has not gone over well, to say the very least. jennifer, thank you very much. >>> all right. for more on this st

. >> the fact that the united states is dispatching and i want the terminology right, a ping locater, this black box. >> like a microphone under water. >> what does that tell you about the search? apparently the latest is this is being lootded on a plane bound for perth and you see a picture of the device right there. what does it say to you about what they found or haven't found that they are deploying this device? >> the mere fact they are shipping it out there, they want to get it near the action. because take -- sending anything halfway around the globe takes a while. but the point is that never mind these calculations, which confirmed that the plane was on this southerly route, what they really need for the investigation is wreckage. and then that surface wreckage is going to be light stuff, skin and things like that from the airplane, airplane skin. they've got to find where the main body of wreckage first hit the water. to do that, if they can find this surface material and calculate back where the main body of the wreckage is, then they listen with these devices such as the on

and that constraint, it can only see a mile around where its ping locater is.and when you look at the size of the area, you know, it's not designed to go straight into find the needle. we use the p-3s, the p-8s, to get over the area, scan the area and find that haystack. and then you bring the ships in. we're kind of subverting that process at the moment, because we don't know where to look. so we shouldn't be putting all our eggs in the one basket of the technology piece. we also know the human eye is absolutely critical to this investigation, as well. but let's go back at the international level. let's interrogate the data we've got to understand that we're absolutely in the south. and let's eliminate the data for the north. >> david, look, as an accident investigator, is there some point where you and your colleagues look at the data, relook it at the data, analyze all of the equipment and the people and the eyeballs and eventually say, our optimism is now waning and it is time to pull back. >> well, it should be done every day. i mean, every day in my inves

those ping locations change, as well. you've got to remap them and rescale them. >> this has dramatically changed. >> absolutely. >> they are nowhere near the area they were previously looking at. >> that's right. >> now they've remapped the pings. do you think if this information is as clearly available as it is, they're closer to finding the wreckage? >> without a doubt. this is a much more logical explanation of what's going on. there's fewer holes in at least my mind. >> miles, do you occur with that? do you feel this is the big breakthrough they've been looking for? >> it could be. i'm a little incredulous it's just now happening. why on earth this radar information is just now available to these authorities and just now realizing the speed of the aircraft? it doesn't add up to me. it's like so many things in this investigation. i'm mystified. >> let me remind you again of what they said in this new updated report. >> radar data is pretty straightforward. there's a blip and it's going a certain amount of speed. new a

ping. so they use this very technology, the toad pinger locater and did not hear a ping. so then we go to plan b, which they have already done in this case. they sent along another censor, which in this case, the blue fin 21, which is an autonomous underwater vehicle. and this, then, is going to use sonar technology, not listening for a ping, in case either the battery has worn out or the ping is no longer able to transmit and we can't hear it. so then we use the sonar technology to try to find the aircraft debris on the bottom. so we have that capabilitcapabi. >> they have to find the haystack first, so hopefully conditions will be great for them to get out today, being wednesday in australia, and find this debris and link it to the plane and deploy what they need to. thank you so much. i really appreciate you coming on. let me take you now to some pictures, because this is what we're watching here, live pictures from our houston affiliate kprc. what you're looking at is not exactly right now, because -- there we go. this is a massive fire. this is burning in a residenti

ping, i should say, happened at 8:11 a.m. >> before i get to bob, just very quickly, the last ping, any locater on that ping or we know it came at 8:11, but we don't know where it came from? >> as far as the last ping goes, no data wtransmitted, so we hav no idea what was going on with the plane as far as if it was in good condition. we don't have that specific data. what we do know is looking at this map here, based on that last ping, the airplane could have been anywhere along that red line there as far north . that's where they are zeroing in. as you can see, it's quite a large, large scope. >> bob, you've looked at terror plots for years, both during the service and after your service. typically these ideas come from somewhere or they have been detected that groups are thinking about doing something like this. has there ever been an indication that terrorist groups were looking to commandeer a plane and take it somewhere? >> i have never seen this. i have never seen any planning for this. i have never seen anybody talk about it. i have never seen it on any internet chat. and even pretend to

tomorrow the australians are planning to use an under water dreend a ping er locator in hopes of finding the data tracker. a man in kuala lumpur has still not told his children what is keeping their mother from returning home. malaysia's minister of defense says there is little to no hope that anyone survived the plane's crash but pledged today that he would go on and hope against hope for positive results. >>> a pennsylvania man looking for buried treasure found something of priceless value to his family. mike crews oh spends his weekends metal detecting. last weekend while exploring the backyard of an in-laws house, he found a gold reasoning. >> i pulled out what looked like a reasoning and i cleaned it off and stuck it on my finger and put my gloves back on and pulled out another bottle cap. >> i couldn't believe it. i didn't know if i should cry. i was just in shock. . >>reporter: when crews oh saw the initials and date on that reasoning, he knew it belonged to his wives grandmother. she dropped her wedding ring in the shower and never expected to see it again. >>> same sex marriage

help us understand these pings and if they are in fact real, why wouldn't that lead to the location of the plane. >> so the pings as it's described to us, these are pings from a computer system on board of plane that is in an idle state. all it is saying is i'm here, i'm here, i'm here. but it's not sending data on location, speed, heading, et cetera. but what they're wondering is as it hit the satellite, and we goc don't think it was a constant pinging, it was several over several hours. but as it hit the sat liellite if it was traveling in this direction and the satellite was up here, can it through math mattie california could yculati moving in this direction. that will take sophisticated arithmetic. but it is not a situation where the pink oig is transmitting data on i'm at this exact gps location right now. >> that's significant. thank you very much, tom. i know you've been working this extensively. and the "uss kidd" is also helping in the search. nd here at home, terrifying moments for 149 passengers on a u.s. air andways taking off fro philadelphia to ft. lauderdale when a tire

locater beacons pinging for a month or so. >> this is over 600 feet, they will be able to find it. that's not a terrible depth of thousands of feet or a rough bottom that would make a major problem. >> reporter:er >> reporter: they are so critical. in air france 447, the boxes were retrieved, providing the answers to why that jet fell out of the sky. some are asking whether all the data should be beamed back to land rather than stored on the black boxes. this morning, the search and rescue crews are looking for wreckage so they could listen for the locater pings from the all-important recorders. boeing and the ntsb would like to assist in this investigation. they have assembled teams. they are poised and ready to go. they are waiting for the request from malaysia to come in and help with the investigation. >> thank you. more now on the mystery from colonel steven in washington this morning. good morning to you. under what circumstances could you imagine the pilots turning a plane around mid-flight? >> there are all sorts of reasons they would turn around. perhaps something went wro

information, but with only 17 somedays left until the plane's black box will stop sending out location pingsesperate for answers, searchers are now scrambling to recover from a massive setback. and that's going to do it for "nightline" on this thursday night. thank you for watching abc news. "world news now" is coming up soon. as always, we're online at abcnews.com. good night. they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪ (dad) we lived... thanks to our subaru. ♪

locater beacons pinging for a month or so. >> at this particular place, it's a little over 600 feet, that means they will be able to find it. that is not a terrible depth or thousands of feet or a rough bottom that will make a major problem. >> reporter: the black boxes are so critical. in another high profile disappearance, air france 447, the boxes were retrieved from the bottom of the atlantic, providing the answers as to why the jet fell out of the sky. some are asking whether all the data should be beamed back to land rather than stored on the black boxes. this morning, the search and rescue crews are looking for wreck ge so they can start listening to the locater pings from the all-important recorders. the americans want answers as well. the ntsb and officials from boeing have come together, poised as a team ready to fly to asia and assist in the investigation. they want to see the black boxes too, dan. >> thank you. more now on the mystery from colonel steven in washington this morning. good morning to you. under what circumstances could you imagine the pilots turning a plane

. >> even though a location transmitser was turned off, a satellite signal was getting a location being pingevery hour. malaysian officials are zeroing into the two people in the crrk cockpit. the 53-year-old pilot kept a cockpit simulator. never showed signs of being troubled. and co-pilot, 27 years old and rk engaged to be married. be officials quties why malaysia being waited so long to check out the two pilots. -k. >> outside the disputed peninsula, whether crimea should split from ukraine and join russia. ukraine answer new government and the west have denounced the vote as illegitimate. tens of thousands gathered in downtown moscow, opposing being russian president vladimir putin. >>> today, a bay area community is are raising are aid for being be indonesiaia indonesian l volo survivors. >> people still remember, even you know a month ago. but you know, for me, for the rest of the indonesiaia indones, why don't we do something, send the money there, at least help them out with the food with the blankets, whatever they need. >> the goal is do raise at least $2,000 tonight. the money wil

friday night, how it is possible a wide body aircraft has disappeared without an electronic ping, without a locator beacon, without a trace of any sort. nbc's stephanie gosk on the limitations of our technology. >> reporter: the last known location of malaysia airlines flight 370 was over the china sea, after that it disappeared. but here is something many people don't realize. every flight crossing a large body of water disappears, at least for a little while throughout the journey. tom casey is an international pilot for american airlines. >> the only way in certain parts of the world where they can locate your position is by knowing where your last position was and what your next position was predicted to be. >> reporter: here is why. radar only tracks planes when they are over land, or at least within 120 miles of land. take a flight from new york on its way to chicago. radar can pinpoint the plane's location at all times along the two and a half hour trip. seven different control towers track the flight. but when a flight takes off from new york to london, once it's beyond 120 miles offshore,

one pilot wonders why crews aren't searching on land considering the lack of pings from locaters. this is a cnn special live report. it's built to be as fast as it is strongor advil. and fights pain at the site of inflammation. advil has the strength and speed to help you move past pain. advil. make today yours. disturb the earth's force field this is a cnn special live orionorion create a three course italian dinner with olive garden's new cucina mia for just $9.99. first, choose unlimited soup or salad. then create your own pasta with one of five homemade sauces. and finish with dessert. three courses, $9.99. at olive garden. you created light. you are loved. celebrated. but things have changed since you got into this business. at philips, we're creating led light that people can color... adjust... even make beautiful sunsets. dear sun, you might be number one, but we're getting closer. innovation and you philips . >>> welcome back to our special coverage the mystery of flight 370. joining me is richard quest, michael kay. christine dennison is an ocean explorer and expedition e

navy's ping locater is on its way to australia at this hour. it will be put on board an australian vessel, but it won't even leave port until april 4th. hear that, april 4th talking ten days from now. that's how this has changed to a much more technical methodical search. the urgency is gone since everybody is believed lost. once again, this grid, and this is where the pinger locaters will be under the water trying to find the black boxes, robin. >> okay, david. now to the grieving families. reality setting in after getting the crushing news. the sadness mixed with anger at the airlines for the way they have handled the tragedy. bob woodruff is there in kuala lumpur for us this morning. good morning, bob. >> reporter: good morning, robin. i just got out of the press conference. the families were certainly hoping to hear more details about where that plane went and why it went down. but day did not get any of that today. but there was a very interesting financial offer from the airline. [ shouting ] with anger still on the streets, malaysia airl

the navy is moving into the area the toed ping or locater and something called the blue fin. describe what each does? >> sure. these are going to be some pretty critical pieces of equipment, we hope. i say we hope, because you really need a good sense of location before we deploy these. one is the tpl 25. that's the today piad pinger lo. hydrophone. can go down to a depth of about 20,000 feet and just liston any sound it here is. so if that black box is down there and it's within range, it will hear it. the key point being there in range. these black boxes don't have a huge range. maybe a couple thousand meters. so you really have to have a good sense of where this thing is. otherwise if we're on the wrong spot we'll never hear it. just to give you an example to draw a picture of how huge a challenge this is, even if this debris was moving at half a knot an hour, so .5 nautical miles an hour, over the course of 16, 17 days we're still talking hundreds of miles. so that's what -- we need to get the first planes out there to get the best location we can. so then our toad pinger