will ripley is in kuala lumpur.ne interesting aspect of this this visit, too, will, is that the u.s. president will be appointing one of his top diplomats, susan rice, and allowing her to meet with several members of the opposition in malaysia. what kind of message is being sent with that? >> reporter: very significant message. it says a lot about the state of malaysian politics. last year was the closest the opposition has been to take control of this country, the b.n. party, since they declared independence from britain nearly 60 years ago. you have a party in power, the establishment, and another party moving upwards. the fact he's sending his highest level security adviser, susan rice, to meet with opposition leaders sends a clear message that, a, united states wants to invest in aisha, they want to build relationships with all signs of the spectrum, that they hope to grow for years to come. >> the u.s. president departed air force one, in his special vehicle would it to kuala lumpur ahead of a special welcome c

will ripley off the coast of jindo, south korea. thanks. >>> breaking overnight, deadly air strikes targeting al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. they're described by yemeni officials as massive and unprecedented. the operation ongoing right now. at least 30 militants have been killed by the joint u.s./yemeni offensive. now, let's get the latest from international correspondent mohammed jamjoom. he is in washington. mohammed, good morning. and what's the latest here? >> reporter: good morning, victor. well, to give an example of just how significant an operation this is, this offensive is taking place in a part of yemen that the military would usually not dare to enter, because it is such a hot bed of militants. there are so many al qaeda battalions there. this is a part of yemen called abian, and we learned of a massive operation going on there, a joint u.s./yemeni-led operation. at this point, we know at least 30 aqap militants have been killed in this operation. we also understand that there are yemeni commandos on the ground ther

will ripley there for us.ase in perth as we wait for some confirmation whether this is the pinger that has been detected by this chinese patrol ship as reported by chinese state news agency or not. i want our panel to stick around. we will continue with the breaking news as reported by chinese state news agency that not only a pulse signal has been detected by chinese ship but chinese air force pilots have seen and taken pictures of floating objects in the search area there in the south indian ocean. stay with us. we'll continue to coverage in a moment. what does everything mean to you? with the quicksilver cash back card from capital one, it means unlimited 1.5% cash back on everything you purchase, every day. it doesn't mean, "everything... as long as you buy it at the gas station." it doesn't mean, "everything... until you hit your cash back limit." it means earn 1.5% cash back on every purchase, every place, every occasion, all over creation. that's what everything should mean. so consider... what's in you

as always, our will ripley.ut that boy who flew now from california to hawaii in a jet's wheel well. it turns out that he was trying to get to somalia to see his mom. we're also hearing a lot of interesting things about him from some of his friends. we're going to share that. humans. even when we cross our "ts" and dot our "i's", we still run into problems. that's why liberty mutual insurance offers accident forgiveness with our auto policies. if you qualify, your rates won't go up due to your first accident. because making mistakes is only human, and so are we. we also offer new car replacement, so if you total your new car, we'll give you the money for a new one. call liberty mutual insurance at... and ask us all about our auto features, like guaranteed repairs, where if you get into an accident and use one of our certified repair shops, the repairs are guaranteed for life. so call... to talk with an insurance expert about everything that comes standard with our base auto policy. and if you switch, you could s

we get more now from cnn's will ripley. he's there. >> reporter: right now in the search zone, a frantic effort to search the sunken ferry for any possible survivors, even as the odds of finding anyone alive diminish greatly. the divers are surrounded by a number of ships, filled with people who are here to help. but the real work needs to happen under the water where divers are fighting very tough conditions, low visibility, shifting currents and the grueling emotional duty of having to bring bodies back to shore. listen to what the diver who is head of the volunteers, listen to what he has to say and you can hear how this is taking an emotional toll. >> translator: finding survivors is the strong desire of the whole of the nation. we're all volunteers. we cry every day and search for the missing people. i cry whenever i think about it. all the families of the missing people and hundreds of volunteer divers are focused on searching for survivors. we're willing to risk our lives for this. >> reporter: dozens of aircraft are

will ripley is there, hi, will?l, here in south korea, they're holding on to a small sliver of hope even as we get more grim news from the search zone. what you wear to bed is your business. so, if you're sleeping in your contact lenses, ask about the air optix® contacts so breathable they're approved for up to 30 nights of continuous wear. ask your doctor about safety information as serious eye problems may occur. visit airoptix.com for a free one-month trial. i don't always have timeh to eat like i should.. that's why i like glucerna shakes. they have slowly digestible carbs to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [male announcer] glucerna... mom has a headache! had a headache! but now, i& don't. excedrin is fast. in fact for some, relief starts in just 15 minutes. excedrin. headache. gone. i'm mom at the playground the kids get trail mix, and you get a delicious milo's kitchen chicken meatball. i wish you liked my cooking that much. milo's kitchen. made in the usa with chicken or beef as the number one ingredient. t

cnn's will ripley joins us live. he's on a boat off the coast of western australia. will, what's it looking like out there? >> reporter: hey, christine. yeah, you know, the weather conditions both here, close to the western australian coast, and also at the search area, about 1,000 miles from where we are, are described as fair today. and the weather is very important, whether we're talking about an underwater search or an above-the-water search, the weather conditions have a big effect because of the technology that's being used. the side-scan sonar that's looking for debris, if you have too many waves, then obviously, that's going to affect the ability to detect what's floating on the surface of the water. also, if you have too many waves and you have white caps and what not, then a visual search from the air or ship is very difficult because the white caps can be mistaken for objects floating in the water. the actual weather conditions, if you look here, we're told that this is probably a bit nicer, a bit more cle

cnn's will ripley has more on this new phase.stralia. >> reporter: carol, things are really slowing down here in perth as you mentioned. the search chief says the bluefin 21 is now scanning the ocean floor in an area so remote it is brand new to man. the search for 370 is moving into a dark corner of the world that in some ways is more mysterious than outer space. >> we know less about our deep ocean than we know of the moon's surface. >> he and his research team took this video in the middle of the indian ocean and thinks this is what the search zone nearly three miles down could look like. >> it's dark, very cold. >> reporter: with pressure so intense, it crushes a styrofoam cup to a fraction of its size. the missing plane is believed to be 4500 meters, nearly 15,000 feet down. >> it's flat and the saidment is silt. >> reporter: this will test the limits of the bluefin 21. >> patience, people need to have patients. >> reporter: he says one mission takes 24 hours. four hours of scan is data from the ocean floor. >> you see the t

let's go live now to the latest from will ripley, live off the coast of jindo, south korea. okay, so, we'll get back to will. we're having a bit of a technical issue, attempting to report live from the yellow sea. we'll get back to him in a moment. >>> we'll move on to this story. breaking overnight, a massive, unprecedented operation targeting al qaeda in the arabian peninsula is ongoing at this hour. at least 30 militants killed by air strikes, part of a joint u.s./yemen official. let's get the latest from international correspondent mohammed jamjoom live from washington this morning. mohammed, what's the latest on this? >> reporter: alison, what we know is that the operation is still ongoing, and the fact that it's still going on is very significant. now we know that there are yemeni commandos that are on the ground in parts of shabwa and another province, extreme, rugged, mountainous. in short, the perfect type of hideout for al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, which is the most dangerous wing of the al qaeda network and which is housed in yemen. now, these attacks are le

let me bring in will ripley live in perth, 3:00 in the morning there. was not the same frequency we would expect to hear from a black box. what are crews there saying about that? >> reporter: yeah, remember when we first got the word that those chinese ships that potentially heard a ping, and we heard the 37.5 kilo hertz, and then we're hearing that these pings were like 33, and 33.2. and so you're wondering, what gives, why is it not the same number? well, the manufacturer of the black boxes says that that -- it still makes this a credible lead. there's still a very good chance those frequencies would have come from an in-flight data recorder or cook about it voice recorder. two factors. battery life is one. if the battery is old or the frequency can change. also the depth at which the signal is being emitted, then the water pressure surrounding the device, that can also change the frequency that's detected on the surface. so they still feel very much that these two pings that were detected over the weekend are certainly a credible lead, which is why t

will ripley, thank you. we'll talk more about that later on in the hour. >>> so up next, more on flight 370. i'll bring in our panel and ask them if they think is a big step backwards in the search for the 777. could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.s everybody knows that. well, did you know bad news doesn't always travel fast? (clears throat) hi mister tompkins. todd? you're fired. well, gotta run. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. >>> all right. searchers for flight 370 are once again looking in an expanded area after more study of ocean currents and other data, the search area is now some 40% larger than it was yesterday. so is this a case of taking two steps back in the search for the plane? let's go now to our panel at this hour. bob francis is the former vice chairman of the ntsb, cnn aviation analyst mary skchiavo represents families in airline disasters. and andrew carr is president of underwater search and survey. okay. so more study of currents and data

. >>> our will ripley joins us live just off the australian coast. and certainly, will, time is running out for any chance of perhaps of finding these data recorders. >> reporter: yeah. absolutely, because, natsly, as you've been all righting, as we've been reporting for weeks now, they only have a certain battery life where this ping is emitted and we are now down to literally a handful of days that this equipment may still be emitting a ping. and we deents know the physical condition of the data recorders. are they damaged? we just don't know. but the only thing that we do know is that we have a lot of equipment in place to listen for these pings. we have a british submarine, a british ship, both of those equipped with sew that are equipment. we have the united states navy pinger locator listening for that ping noise. and i wanted to take you inside this charter fishing boat that we are at. we about 1700 kilometers from the search area. i wanted to show you. lots of boats have technology that uses sound to basically scan the bottom of the ocean, ev

will ripley is following every step of the search in perth. will, why did they expand this visual search area? >> reporter: well, because they are continuing to fly out every day and they still haven't found a piece of debris. they are constantly looking at the data, at the currents and they are trying to get a handle on where this debris field, if there is still debris floating, where it could be. they continue to search tirelessly. not only above the surface but under water as well to see if there are any pings left from the black box. the pings are getting weaker each time the pinger locator was able to lock on to them. this could be a key week for the search, fred, because at some point -- and i can guarantee you, there are conversations happening behind the scenes right now. they are going to have to make the decision that there is not anything to hear. we need to start getting down there and looking. this is -- they have narrowed down as much as is going to happen using the pinger locator and then they get the submersible down there to s

nick ripley off the coast of australia. will, you're on a boast off the coast of australia. what are the conditions like for today's search? >> reporter: top, we just left the port, so we're heading out to get out into the open water to see what conditions like. here it's sunny and clear but we're being told in the search area right now, daytime in australia, conditions are described as fair. we have clouds that are about 1,000 feet above the surface, which means the search planes have to get below that to get a good look at any objects they're searching for on the ocean floor. sea conditions, fair means it's choppy at times. so the seas go down to a depth of 16,000 feet in some areas and the waves can get high, too. >> the weather conditions are expected to cooperate at least for the moment, will? >> at least for the moment, described as fair. so not ideal. visibility, you're talking about a six-mile visibility with relatively -- with clouds of 1,000 feet, it's high enough the planes can get down. six miles, that's pretty decent. it's not perfect but not as bad as we've see

cnn's will ripley is on a boat nearby with more. >> reporter: another day of searching.nother day of grim discoveries. body after body from the sunken sewol ferry. we watched as several bodies were pulled out of the water from the coast guard ships. they have been going out in groups and teams and use five different entry points into the ferry. hundreds of divers, ships, and dozens of aircraft are searching. we know the divers are facing very grueling conditions right now. the underwater currents are very strong and they're constantly shifting. plus visibility is limited partly because there's an oil slim coming up from the ferry. there's also equipment here that will be used for a salvage operation including a crane that could help pull the boat out of the water, but that is not being used right now. it is only the divers. because these families do not want anything done that could disturb the ship and could potentially disturb an air pocket if there's a slim chance somebody may still be alive under there. but sadly as we see each body found, it appears this search miss

let's bring in our will ripley. he's in perth. that's where this massive search operation is based. we heard the prime minister there saying the search area is being narrowed down. there seems to be a building of confidence. just bring us up to speed on where everything stands right now. >> yeah, it really has been narrowed down, errol. if you think about the fact it was nearly bigger than the size of australia when this started. now just over 40,000 square kilometers. still a sizable area, but the hope is here now that we didn't necessarily have at the beginning. that we're getting close, that we're in the area where flight 370 went down. but there's still so much work ahead. as we're more than a month into this search, we still don't have a physical piece of the plane to show the families to say, look, this is where it is. so there's understandably a lot of skepticism and doubt among many of those family members. they say until there's something tangible, they're going do hold out hope that perhaps this didn't happen. perhaps the plane didn't go down. but the most promising piece

it's something that some of the crew months are also talking about. >> will ripley, reporting for us from south korea. we'll stay in close touch with you. by the way, we're going to have more on the ferry sinking later this hour. a maritime safety expert will join us to talk about the emergency procedures that should have been followed on that stricken ship. >>> it has stoked the worst east-west tensions since the cold war. u.s. troops now arriving in poland, heading to three other nations along the baltic sea. in a move the u.s. says is in response to the crisis in ukraine. for its part, russia's also mobilizing its military with previously unplanned drills in the caspian sea. earlier today, the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov said russia would respond if its interests were attacked in ukraine. >> if we are attacked, we will certainly respond. if our interests legitimate interests, the interests of russians, had been attacked directly like they were in south ossetia, for example, i don't see any other way but to respond in full accordance with international law. russian citiz

will ripley in australia, thank you. the malaysian cabinet has offered to set up an investigation team to look into the case. joe johns is in kuala lumpur. he's working that part of the story for us. what is this investigative committee, joe, supposed to do? >> reporter: wolf, it sounds roughly similar to the investigations that get started like in washington, perhaps the space shuttle mission, the 9/11 commission. it's questions that need to be answered in a thoughtful way, this investigative committee will look into air worthiness, flight recorders, human factors, weather concerns, all of the things that really could help explain how a jumbo jet could seemingly go missing without a trace. with a couple hundred people on board. >> i want you to listen to what the defense minister said. listen to all of this. >> we did not go to the twin tower incident. our ministry of defense was not attacked like the pentagon was. but we need to, for the same of that, consider that as a possible future threat and that needs to be addre

will ripley from perth. thank you very much. he designed and develops underwater locater beacons and kelly who's a licensed pilot who helped find flight 447 when it crashed into the atlantic ocean in 2009. thank you bouch so much for joining us. jeff, let me start with you. and explain to us if you will what else could be under water that would make a pinging noise the same as black boxes do. >> okay. good morning. the song that the pinger emits have very unique. the designs and pinger around it were selected because of that. it's unusual for something natural to emit a sound like that, so this is certainly something that would most likely be manmade. so if it's not the beacons on the black boxings, possibly it's something else that has been placed there recently for other purposes. >> so it could be another manmade noise, but it is not -- i mean the ocean is pretty noisy for anyone that's ever gone scubadiving or, you know, been down there in any sort of vehicle, but this is definitely -- if the chinese heard what they think th

for the latest, let's go to our correspondent will ripley in perth, australia. what are you learning, will? >> we're still working to confirm with the joint agency coordination center whether the bluefin-21 is back in the water yet. we know there was some rough weather in the area that was delaying them getting that submersible back in the water. its mission on monday, late monday night, had to be cut short. it was aborted only 29% in. so less than a third of the work was completed. we're told the reason for that, as you've said, the submersible got down and the water in the area was deeper than the programmers bleaprogram ers believed it was. they program a route ahead of time. then the submersible goes down and does its work. it stays about 100 feet above the ocean floor. if the submersible floor detects the ocean floor drops below that 4,500 meter mark where the pressure would become dangerous on the submersible, it could actually harm the equipment, that's when the machinery aborts the mission and goes back to the surface. they program in tmed in a coupl oth

will ripley.y're not telling us much about the new ping and understanding they sent it off for analysis. what are you hearing from your sources there. >> reporter: in fact just in the last hour or so, we got new information within the us a trailian defense force. you talk about this sonobuoy, old technology putting to a new use here and it's not 3500 kilohertz, that's important because that's the black box frequency designed to admit. 37.5. it's not that. it's within a range investigators say strongly suggests, this signal the fifth signal detected is man made. the first two signals detected saturday were in the 33 kilohertz range. this is believed to be man made and pretty significant new info. >> what's amazing, their taking this acoustic data at the australian air force near ade adelai adelaide, what are they doing? is it the same as with the other pings? >> reporter: absolutely. the same kind of analysis they did with the first two pinks. we still haven't heard what the analysis results are fo

nicole ripley is in kuala lumpur where it is 6:45 in the morning, will, you were at the meeting earlier not everyone welcomed the president with open arms. what happened? >> reporter: the president started out the town hall saying this was his opportunity to have fun, but in the middle of this pretty high liquor graphed event where there were softball questions thrown from members of the audience, a group of student who is came in were approved and snuck in signs and stood up right in the middle of the event holding up signs opposing this free trade deal that the president is lobbying so hard for here in asia. take a look at the moment the president talked about it on stage. >> let me explain the -- what i think is most important is showing people respect who you disagree with, right? and so, for example, there's a note over there, i don't know what those young people are putting a note about, but -- >> the president used that opportunity, he was actually answering a question about his personal values and said one of the values in the united states that are important to us are that we a

will ripley, cnn, off the coast of jindo, south korea. >> just awful, thank you very much, will ripley. as you can tell, the divers have a herculean task here. i want you to look at this video. it is -- i hate to use the word amazing. this truly is amazing. this is what the divers are doing. they're following underwater ropes that guide them in and out of the ship. so they're doing this. they have to feel around for those ropes that will guide them in and out. they don't want to lose their way. they also are cutting through the hull of this ship in order to gain access to parts of the ship they can navigate with the guide ropes. imagine cutting through the hole with a torch underwater and then using devices to get through that hole. it is a herculean task, no other way to put it. joining me is captain bobby sculley, retired navy diver. in new york, christine denimson, an expedition specialist. it's sad to watch this. you see what the divers are going through, but the families are going through as well. as the ferry continues to sink further and it's now leaking oil. you helped recover

cnn's will ripley has these tantalizing details from kuala lumpur, malaysia, and i'm also joined by cnn aviation analyst, former royal air force pilot, colonel michael kay. will, first to you, more about this discovery, it's somewhat perplexing to say the least, especially where it was. who made the discovery, how they made the discovery, how serious is this? >> certainly an having development, although considering all the false leads we've had in this investigation, the mystery going on nearly eight weeks now. this australian private company, s georesonan georesonance, they were looking for aluminum first because a boeing 777 is about 70% aluminum. then they started looking for other metals you'd find in a 77 7, other traces of materials. that's how they zeroed into this area, 3,100 miles north of the current search zone. i want you to hear what the company spokesman says as he describes this process. >> the southern area doesn't seem logical to us at all. the pings coming from the satellite is basically a 50/50 chance that it was heading on the northern corridor or the southern corrid

will ripley is in perth, australia. joe johns is in kuala lumpur and pauline choiu in hong kong. thanks all for joining us. you're doing yeoman's work out there, i know, and are probably exhausted. will, you're in perth. it is home base for this search. it is nighttime, so the planes have come back or are headed back. anything new? >> reporter: what was new today, the search area size increased by about 6,000 square miles. as of our last update, still no debris recovered and no pings in five days as you mentioned. i guess the big headline here that could be coming up this week is the search going to transition from listening to deploying the submersible? we could get answers on that this week. today, no major developments as far as what was found on the indian ocean. >> the fact that they broadened the search area, does that indicate that they do think they're now moving back to "we've got to find some debris" and obviously, put in those underwater sonar detectors? >> for the 307 families, this debris is crucial. even a photo you have to think might not be enough for some of the

will ripley is covering the story from south korea. they are still calling it a rescue operation? >> reporter: they are at least for now. we know the diving continues 24/7. divers going down searching areas of the ship looking for survivors and for bodies. they didn't find air pockets in the area of the ship believed to be full of passengers. we also know there's equipment in the area ready for the transition to a salvage operation. the u.s. ship on standby if needed. cranes that would be used and ships surrounded the perimeter with nets to catch any bodies that may drift away from the area. >> no air pockets on the third and fourth level. in that cafeteria, which was news that broke here yesterday on this show, will, they reached the cafeteria where they expected to find bodies, they found nothing. where are they searching now? >> reporter: it was a surprise to the searchers who thought there would be passengers that would be in that cafeteria. so now that they pretty much covered the third and fourth floors, they move to the fifth floor to see if perhaps people were trying to ge

our will ripley is live in jindo, south korea. know you have some breaking news on some of the calls that came in. >> we're learning the first emergency call from the sinking ferry came from what is described as a young boy with a very shaky voice. he said, we're on the ship, we think it's in trouble, we think it's sinking. followed by that, there were 20 other calls from young people, students, who were on board that ship. this first call came in at 8:52 a.m. that is three minutes before the official call came from the ship that there was any problem. essentially what we're seeing here ashleigh, is these students were on their cell phones reporting trouble before the ship officially reported trouble. >> what else are you hearing about this ability to get to the cafeteria? i know it's slow going, but is there any report coming in about the initial findings of the cafeteria? >> yes, the confirmation they made it to the cafeteria was essentially one line in the middle of a press release within the last hour or so. all it said was th

will ripley telling us it's a very slow process. i've heard it likened to a roomba of the sea, like mowing the lawn. >> for those of us with roombas know it looks more than a pin ball. they kind of move random back and forth. you can't really see the pattern that's locked into that machine. it's more like an automatic lawnmower, if you can imagine it moving back and forth methodically. they have to be able to identify which square, which block, they have spotted something. when they bring the bluefin-21 back up, they will download the data and look at the sonogram. it will look like a sonogram. if they see anything of interest, and remember square angles and boxes and things like that don't appear in nature. so they'll be able to spot it. that's why it's so methodical and just square by square will map the ocean floor. >> so they take that information back to base, jeff, and they look at the data that mary is talking about from that sweep. how do experts know what they're looking at? how can they know that they're looking at potenti

promising, yes, but tempered optimism is a great way to put it. >> will ripley putting in some great hours for us in perth, australia, thank you for that. i'm joined live here in new york by two men with deep expertise in the underwater aspect of this sherif search. a firm that designs and builds advanced underwater communications gear including black box pingers and also the pinger detectors it david kelly is the president and ceo of bluefin robotics whose underwater robot is effectively standing by ready to map the ocean floor whenever the search teams are confident they have found the spot. so effectively it moves from your gear, at least one part of the gear you make, to your gear. you listen for the boxes. you look for the gear. i want to start with the pinging. i'm not sure if i understand clearly, thomas, why it is that you can listen for two hours to pinging and, here we are 12 hours later, we haven't redetected it. >> the trajectory, how the boat is moving across the water, where it is close to that device that they heard or what they think they heard, is very important. it

will ripley in perth for us, thank you. up next, we're going to bring in our panel of experts.his is mike. his long race day starts with back pain... ...and a choice. take 4 advil in a day which is 2 aleve... ...for all day relief. "start your engines" [ banker ] sydney needed some financial guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. so we talked about her options. her valuable assets were staying. and selling her car wouldn't fly. we helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today...and tomorrow. so let's see what we can do about that... remodel. motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. they take a banker. make a my financial priorities appointment today. because when people talk, great things happen. make a my financial priorities appointment tthose little cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment is right. cialis is also the only daily ed tablet approved to treat symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently. tell your doctor about all you

will ripley was telling us about what we have.our hit zones but they're 17 miles apart and they seem to me, you know, the neophyte in this game, to be a very strange pattern. can you help us make sense why they would be so disparate and in such a strange shape? >> we assume, you know, just from the lay person, we look at the pinger, we think it's going to ping just like a bell. it's going in every direction. that may not be the case because of the ocean floor. we know the ocean floor is a little bit rugged here. we also know that it's made of muck. thousands, millions of years of fish number two, scales, whatever, food has fallen down here and made a very mucky bottom. so when this pinger hit the ground, did it stay up on top? probably not. did it tumble down into a kre crevice? probably. rather than a ping that looks like this and goes all directions, it probably is more like a cone here. when you pull the pinger locator through this, you might miss it. but also it could mean beiechoef some of this topography. it may go to the si

and cnn's will ripley has been monitoring these crews. he's been going out alongside them as well. talk to me a little about the high-tech ship. we had an arrival date that was sort of pushed ahead. has that sometimemied anything at all. is there anything new to report, will? >> reporter: yeah, you mentioned just after midnight here, but as you know, ashleigh, this is a 24/7 flow of information. just within the last 30 minutes we have confirmed some new details. we know that the british ship, echo, is in the search area. and tomorrow this ship will be conducting a specific search. cnn has confirmed a specific search. it means it will be going to a specific area, looking for something. we don't know what that is. we don't know the connection to flight 370. but again, a specific search tomorrow with the british ship, echo, which does have sonar equipment. we know sonar equipment has confirmed it heard a ping, it heard a sound. i wouldn't say a ping. it heard a sound on sonar, turned out to be a false alarm. false alarm can come from something like a whale in the ocean. it could come

will ripley, cnn, off the coast of western australia. >> wow. better him than me.hat is a very rough assignment. don't forget, when will goes out, it's not like you can just get back real quickly, either. that's a long way out to sea. and so they're dealing with those conditions for hours and hours and sometimes days and days on end. and joining me now to talk about how to execute this kind of open water search, in this sort of weather, is ocean explorer and expeditions logistics expert, christine dennison, who has seen a few conditions in her lifetime. also retired lieutenant colonel, michael kay. first to you, christine. will had to hold on for dear life, let alone being able to look out. let alone being able to see in the troughs of those waves. i hate to ask this, because i know there is a point to it. but what is the point of trying to search from that level? >> well, this is the difficulty. there is very little point. there is nothing that these crews can do. >> it's as simple as that, christine, very little point. very distressing to hear that. >> it is. and

will ripley is on a boat just off freemantle australia to tell us more. will, the frustration is that until that search area is reduced significantly in size, none of that high-tech equipment can be used to try to locate those black boxes, right? >> reporter: absolutely right, rosemary. but they're moving the technology into the search area any way in hopes that perhaps by the time they arrive we might have better news on the front of recovering some verified debris if flight 370. the "ocean shield" has been sailing for about 19 hours. we're told they're sailing into bad weather. weather here right now sunny and relatively calm but i want to show you video that we took when we headed about 12 miles into the indian ocean earlier today off free mantle. this is considered a clear day but you see from the video that we took there were waves that splashed right up over the hull of the ship. getting us wet on the upper decks, gets the windows wet as well. i emphasize, this is a clear day on the indian ocean and we were still getting thrown around quite a bit. a

. >> cnn's will ripley is near perth.ions being faced by these teams. >> reporter: after a day of clear weather, we are now starting to see some light rain just off the coast of western australia. and the weather about 1,000 miles from here in the search zone, we're told, has been similar. relatively calm seas, which was good for search crews today, because they weren't distracted by those white caps on the waves. white caps that can easily be mistaken for possible debris floating in the water. even though the visual search is now over for the day and these planes from a number of different countries are flying back to peers air base in perth, we know the s.o.n.a.r. is going to be active 24/7. their u.s. navy towed pinger locater behind the "ocean shield" is under water listening for any signal from flight 370. but the possible is, with all that sophisticated technology, the tpl, the submarine in place and then the ship that's using s.o.n.a.r. equipment as well, all that technology is just fine, but it needs a more narrow

will ripley is in perth, australia.t them searching the shift zone closer to land, does that make it easier for the search teams? >> in a sense it does. now we are less than 1,000 miles away from the coast and it takes less time for the planes to flight out each day. the ocean shield is due to arrive in the new search zone earlier within the next few hours. and so yes, in that respect it does make it easier. the reality is they searched the old search area and no new objects and it's a possibility they spotted objects in the new area. they are now going to have to search around the perimeter and all of the data analysis seems to indicate where in the zone. >> what is the plan for tomorrow? it's dawn breaking there in a few hours. >> we know the malaysian prime minister at his hotel right now, if he is resting up at pierce air base. he's meeting with the people and it's an important meeting and the first time they will be face-to-face since the search operation has begun. so it's time to coordinate and talk about what's

joining us now from perth, australia, will ripley. will, when do we expect the assets to be in place? >> hey, freld. we know that the british ship, the hms echo is less than three hours away from the newly refined search area. they will be joining the chinese ship. this is the ship on friday and saturday possibly detected those pings underwater. they have much more advanced sonar technology. you don't need daylight for sonar to work. presumably, these crews are going to get right in this area, start listening and see if necessity can also locate the sounds that this chinese ship located. australian authorities still have a lot of questions about the technology that the chinese crew use. how reliable is it? what exactly was heard? those are questions that can really only be answered once this ship arrives in the area. at the same time, fred, there's also the ocean shield which is some 350 miles away, currently investigating another sound. authorities here keeping more tight-lipped about that. so we don't know specifically what they hea

our own will ripley is joining us from perth, australia, the staging point for the search area.of all, will, what's the explanation? why did they again decide to move the entire search zone? originally in the southern indian ocean and is then up north about 700 miles and now to the east closer to australia by another couple hundred miles. what's the thinking? what went into that third shift in the indian ocean? >> reporter: yet another move to report. the official word that we're getting out here, wolf, is just that they're continuing to analyze this data and refine the search area. they're saying that maybe some new objects have been spotted in this search area closer to the australian coastline. let's be frank here for a moment. they have been scouring the other area and haven't found anything yet. so they're now searching the areas around the perimeter, hoping that maybe they'll come up with something, which we haven't seen yet. >> how many ships and planes will be on the search operation in a few hours when it resumes? >> reporter: you know, yesterday we saw ten planes, nine

let's go to will ripley joining us from perth australia.t the crews have detected a total of four pings, four of these signals coming from what they believe are these two black box, what happens now? >> the next step is they keep on listening for more pings hopefully. the search area is dramatically smaller today even than yesterday. we're talking about an area that's still quite large, 500 square miles. the ocean shield is draggin tow locator. it can cover a lot more ground than the other piece of equipment on that ship, the underwater submersiblsubmersibl bluefin 21. the tpl can do about six times the work in a day that the bluefin can do. if they keep listening for pings, each time they hear would be, they can narrow down more and more where this debris might be, and only when they're absolutely certain that the black boxes they believe are somewhere on the bottom of the indian ocean in this area, only when they believe those black boxes have stopped emitting a signal will they then deploy that submersible because once the submersible go

and those are answers we simply don't have right now. >> will ripley, great work.orking night and day. and a lot on the water. so our thanks to him. the black box that's really orange set to stop sending out this signal in just a couple days. i'm about to show you after the break what could be on the horizon. like a black box that can call out its location to anyone who is listening for years. that's next. these days, everything your business does is done on the internet. and tomorrow you'll do even more. that's what comcast business was built for. slow dsl from the phone company was built for stuff like this. switch to comcast business internet. then add voice and tv for just $34.90 more per month. and you'll be ready for tomorrow today. comcast business. built for business. >>> the search for flight 370 is now officially gone under water, under the surface of the indian ocean. a giant submersible microphone is now on the hunt. and it's designed to detect what you're hearing, effectively these pings, clicking sounds from the flight data recorders. chad myers joins

will ripley live for us in perth, australia, with new details.reciate it. >>> ahead for us at this hour, the malaysians say they think the plane dipped to between 4,000 feet and 5,000 feet. so is this credible? if it happened, was it to avoid radar? what are the implications? could this have been programmed into the flight computer? we'll ask all these questions coming up next. could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.s everybody knows that. well, did you know bad news doesn't always travel fast? (clears throat) hi mister tompkins. todd? you're fired. well, gotta run. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. >>> we turn now to the coverage of the missing plane flight 370. this morning investigators have found a few more clues they say in the hunt for the jetliner. searchers heard another possible signal from the jet's data recorders. also, some fascinating new details on many levels about what happened the night that the plane vanished. malaysian officials say it disappeared from military radar for about 120 n

will ripley has more on what it will be like for those searching for that airliner in the middle of the indian ocean. >> reporter: we have moved about 12 miles off of shore here in the indian ocean to give you a sense of with what the weather conditions can be like. believe it or not, this is considered a clear day. we have swells, waves. you have to hold onto something on the boat just to stay standing. captain ray ruby, i can't believe this is a clear day. >> you saw last night like glass. this is a normal day. i feel sorry for guys heading to the wreck zone. we're at idle running five knots. those are punching this 15 knots. every wave is straight over the top. >> reporter: even for a large ship? >> it will be over the top three times the speed we're doing. >> reporter: how large are these waves? >> these are a meter and a half with wind chop on top. not bad. when the guys get out further, they'll be up to five to six meter waves plus swells. >> reporter: literally weaves the size of many buildings here. you certainly have to hold on, dealing with windy conditions as well. imagine if

. >> will ripley joins me now with more on this. have we got any updates? >> you know, pam, we're just waiting, along with the rest of the world to find out what the blue fin 21, what the results will be. the reason we have to wait is because there's no realtime communication between a submersible when it's deployed on its mission. nearly three miles to the bottom of the ocean there, then for the 16 hours that it's scanning and the two hours back, it's basically radio silence. once the submersible gets back on "the ocean shield" and they download that information, that's men they start looking at the images. you have to have experts trained to look at this because it is basically one color, an amber screen and you look for the brighter objects. that's how they read it. >> so the blue fin is in an area where searchers had heard those pings. so this is a large area. how hopeful are authorities that they're going to have something relatively soon from this new equipment they're using? >> well, i think one thing that we kept hearing repeatly from the search chi

let's go to will ripley, there in perth, australia, live for us. area expanded? >> reporter: victor, all along what we've been told is this a constant process of refining the search area. they scour the air analyzing data and looking at currents. we are 37 days into the process and it's been a full week since the black box batteries were supposed supposedly rated until. we need to find this debris field but we don't know right now, given where this debris field may be moving and it's constantly moving in the indian ocean. seeing the search area get bigger isn't necessarily a sign of a setback. it's increased to 22,000 square miles, twice the size of massachusetts as you've been saying. it means they're continuing to refine, continuing to search. >> we see it's dark there now. it looks like it, as it's 7:00 in the evening for you. when are we going to get our next update on the search efforts, will? >> reporter: all along, angus hueston said he will only call a press update when he has something to announce. we've seen press conferences called with

. >> cnn's will ripley is in perth, australia with more. good morning, will. >> reporter: good morning, carol. right now the ocean shield is literally in a race against time, listening under water, trying to find the signals that the ship found twice over the weekend, signals that could help solve the mystery of flight 370. it takes about eight hours to do just one pass and time is literally running out possibly hours before the batteries in those black boxes fade away for good. if this really is the missing plane, and that's still a big if, how could you even begin to describe such a discovery? >> it certainly would be a miracle. if this does turn out to be the aircraft location. >> reporter: miracle, a strong word with an even stronger warning from u.s. navy captain mark matthews. >> i caution not to be overly optimistic here. we have work to do before we can say we have a true contact here. >> reporter: matthews' team is on the "ocean shield" using a tp lfrnlts listening for pings from mh370's black boxes. over the weekend they heard two

will ripley, reporting live from perth, australia. >>> let's talk more about this.ll hope lost with now mary schiavo, cnn aviation analyst and cnn inspector general for the department of transportation and peter golts, a cnn analyst and former ntsb managing director. welcome to both of you. >> thank you. >> good to see you. >> nice to see you both. peter, the batteries are likely dying or dead in those black boxes. how long will they continue pinging? >> well, there's no question that this is a setback for the search. the boxes are designed to have the batteries work 30 days. if they were well-maintained, it might last 35 days, but that the ocean shield has not reacquired the ping is a genuine setback, and we're talking now an investigation that could go on months, if not years. >> oh. so mary, searchers have refined the search area. i would assume that still means they're fairly sure the plane went down in that area? >> right. by refining it down to the search area, i think the pings that they did hear were tremendously helpful, because you remember they had that b

cnn's will ripley is following the investigation. >> reporter: and we have some new information, carolerry play a role in this disaster? investigators are asking questions, and so are we. all stations come over to mission a for a final go. this is for real this time. step seven point two one two. verify and lock. command is locked. five seconds. three, two, one. standing by for capture. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to places beyond it. siemens. answers. bulldog: bulldog: [yawn] i just had a dream i was at mattress discounters with tempur-pedic and the largest selection of memory foam mattresses under one roof! icomfort, by serta... optimum, by posturepedic... ahh! comforpedic, by beautyrest... ooh! 48 months interest-free financing, free delivery, and queen-size memory foam mattress sets as low as $697! that's more mattresses than you can shake a bone at. ♪ mattress discounters >>> in south korea, the death toll has grown in the ferry disaster, and more of the ship's crew have been placed under arrest. this mo

bring in will ripley in kuala lumpur, malaysia. will they check it out or ignore it? >> reporter: it's interesting, carol, you pointed out, we need to treat this with a healthy dose of skepticism. keep in mind, over the last weeks we've had so many false leads in this case. i think about the satellite images in the southern indian ocean we were so sure, people were so sure was a debris field at one point and it turned out not to be. searchers detected four pings in this area, this high probability area they're still searching off western australia. so far that search has turned up nothing. now a new company that used a different technology four days after 370 disappeared and used that technology to pinpoint this area where they think these metals and other traces of components that would make up a boeing 777 exist, and they say they weren't there before 370 disappeared, and they are there now. this is what is interesting, carol. supposedly, this company, if what they say is correct, they sent out a notice of this in late march and again in early april. weeks before th

will ripley, thank you so much for the update. we appreciate it. >>> and let's discuss the latest on the investigation with cnn aviation analyst and former inspector general with the u.s. transportation department. >> we have simon boxwell also with us, an oceanographer joining uses from london. mary, i want to start with you. there is this level of optimism because of the comments from prime minister tony abbott saying there's a high degree of confidence, kind of doubling down on these signals. but you've been here in that chair, i've been here as we've heard these optimistic statements from abbott in the past. he said that there's new incredible information that's come to light. that was march 19th. turned out to be nothing. march 22nd, we now have a number of credible leads. turned out to be a dead jelly fish. are we investing too much in the optimism of the prime minister? >> well, in the optimism of the prime minister, yes. but in the reports of angus houston and the fact they actually have pings, some of them as long as two