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Russia Officially Excluded From G8; Search For Flight 370 Suspended Due To Bad Weather; Northern Corridor Search Called Off For Flight 370; The Names Behind The Passengers of Flight 370; 176 Still Missing After Washington State Landslide

Aired March 25, 2014 - 8:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. And welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet.

Now families of those now said to be lost on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 lash out in grief and anger.

G7 leaders meet to discuss the crisis in Crimea, but is there anything they can do about Russia?

And more than 100 people could still be missing in a small U.S. town after a massive mud slide.

Grief has turned to disbelief for some relatives of the 239 passengers on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. They want physical proof to back up Monday's announcement that the plane must have crashed into the southern Indian ocean.

Now crews have been combing the remote region for any sign of debris from the plane. But bad weather today has put that search on hold with gale force winds and heavy swells keeping search planes grounded.

Now the search could resume as early as Wednesday with as many as 12 aircraft and six ships scouring the area.

Now some passenger's families say that Malaysia is not telling the truth about what happened to the plane. Now these signs say that they are still waiting for M370 to arrive.

In Beijing earlier on Tuesday, hundreds marched to the Malaysian embassy to express their anger and frustration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...they even get no evidence that the flight was crashed and they said that, oh, it is over. And they say that no one is survive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you are not satisfied with the prime minister's explanation?

So you are not satisfied with the Malaysian government's explanation at all? You are not satisfied.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. There's no evidence. If you find something, OK, we'll accept. But nothing. Just from the data, just from an analysis and you say that the flight is crashed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: And just a short time ago, the families confronted Malaysia's ambassador to China.

Now let's bring in Pauline Chiou live from Beijing. And Pauline, what happened during that encounter?

PAULINE CHIOU, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kristie, during that meeting with the Malaysian ambassador, we were not allowed in the room, because media has been banned. But we were checking social media. We were also contacting family members by texting. And they said they asked a lot of questions to the Malaysian ambassador, but he wasn't answering anything. They were asking him simple questions like how long have you been in Beijing? What's your political party in Malaysia?

and one relative said his responses were just shameless, because -- that's using his words -- because he wasn't really answering the questions. So there's that level of frustration.

Also, Kristie, you talked about physical proof. That's exactly what these relatives want. They want tangible evidence that they feel that the announcement by the Malaysian government on Monday that this plane has gone down was premature. They say, sure, we understand the data from the satellite might indicate that, but until you give us some sort of hard evidence, we will not close the door on this. Relatives were saying if you're going to say that, show us a piece of luggage or show us a seat cushion or something like that.

So as a result you saw family members gather this morning and they marched to the Malaysian embassy. You see signs there from people saying 1.3 billion people are waiting for this airplane. Or Malaysian government, tell us the truth. We've been waiting too long.

And now it's at the point where the Chinese families here are so frustrated, Kristie, that several of them had been reluctant to go to Kuala Lumpur. They didn't want to leave China. But now they say they want to get on the plane and go to Kuala Lumpur to confront the officials at the highest level there to try to get some answers -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: Family members there in Beijing, they are in anguish, they are angry. They want answers. They want physical proof. What about the Chinese government? Does Beijing agree with Malaysia's conclusion about the plane's flight path? Or does it, too, want to see more evidence, more proof?

CHIOU: The Chinese government has been putting pressure on Malaysia throughout this whole search, but today we've learned that China's president Xi Jinping has now sent the deputy foreign minister to Malaysia to, quote, negotiate the situation. In other words, put more pressure on the Malaysian government to find answers and to try to speed up the search and recovery effort, because as everyone has been talking about for the past 18 days there have been two main diversions, too many mistakes and too slow of the flow of information.

Also, the Chinese government is asking for that satellite data, that satellite data that prompted the Malaysian government to make this announcement on Monday.

So, again, the relatives here, the Chinese government, they have so much at stake because most of the passengers on board, 154, are Chinese citizens.

LU STOUT: All right, Pauline Chiou, joining me live from Beijing. Thank you so much for that update.

Now Malaysian authorities, they say that the search effort has been called off in the northern corridor. Now operations have also stopped in the northern part of the southern corridor near Indonesia. Instead, crews are now focused on nearly 470,000 square nautical miles in the southern Indian Ocean, that's down from more than 2 million square nautical miles last week. But it is still a huge stretch of open ocean.

And searchers, they are racing against the clock to find the flight data recorders and any answers that they might hold. Experts say that the batteries in the pingers could die as soon as April 7 or the 8. And the equipment needed to find them will not be in place and ready until April 5.

But to paraphrase one Australian official, the search is not yet for a needle in a haystack, it's still trying to find the haystack.

Now CNN's aviation analyst Miles O'Brien joins me now live from Washington. He is also the science correspondent for PBS NewsHour. Miles, thank you so much for joining us.

Before we get into the search for debris, I first wanted to get your thoughts on the so-called cutting edge satellite analysis. I mean, just how definitive is the evidence from Inmarsat?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION EXPERT: Well, yesterday there were a lot of statements without a lot of data released to support those statements. And as I say frequently, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

This morning Inmarsat along with the Air Accident Investigation Branch in the UK, which is, you know, a gold standard air accident investigation entity released a little more background on exactly how they came up with this notion that the aircraft was in this region generally where the search is going on.

And basically the device that they're using is this ACARS, which basically sends kind of a text or -- it's like a text messaging device on the aircraft. And when it turns off, the satellite, the Inmarsat satelilte that receives it asset -- on an hourly basis, are you out there? And even when the device is off it will say, yeah, I'm here, but I'm off. It's called a handshake. And so they received six of these indicating it was in that state for six hours.

Now as you measure the time it takes for that signal to go from the airplane to the satellite, do a little bit of trigonometry and you can start planning an arc on -- actually a circle on the planet where it might be.

They added an interesting second technique to this, which actually was used to track Apollo spacecraft in the 1960s, it's called the Doppler effect when you hear a train go by and the whistle appears to change its pitch, it's the same thing. Inside that frequency, the frequency changes ever so slightly depending on the speed and on the -- what direction it is going relative to the satellite. And they use that to further refine the - - its location. So, we're getting a little more information on how they came up with this. And it's very clever what they've done so far.

LU STOUT: You're saying that more evidence is needed to back up that satellite analysis. As we heard from our correspondent in Beijing, the families there, the Chinese government even demanding that as well.

Miles, I want to talk to you next about the hunt for the debris. It's been suspended because of weather conditions and other factors. The focus has been on this southern Indian Ocean, but authorities admit they don't even know, in their words, where the haystack is, let alone the needle. So when the search continues, when it resume, do they even know where to look?

O'BRIEN: Well, this is a big problem, Kristie, because even with that Inmarsat data that we have this morning, there's still a lot of variability in all this. What -- you know, we have a report from CNN that the plane was down at 12,000 feet. Now -- that is not an optimal altitude for an aircraft. There's not even a table printed for the fuel burn at 12,000 feet. They don't -- it's not designed to fly at that altitude. And so it would use a lot more fuel. The fuel burn will be much higher, probably reduce the range by at least 50 percent.

So you have to wonder if the plane came up a little bit short of where they're looking. These are some of the variabilities and the notions that they have to factor in when they use this Inmarsat data, which is -- it's a satellite which is just there to receive data. It's not a tracking satellite. So what they're doing is pushing the envelope here.

LU STOUT: Now the search in the northern corridor has been called off. Also the search in the northern part of the southern corridor has been called off, we learned that today from Malaysian officials. Given all the variables out there, is that a mistake?

O'BRIEN: It's hard to say. I mean, they have to -- they have to start somewhere. It's just too big an area to try to search everywhere.

So, you have to go with likely probabilities. But it really is a situation where they're in the dark and with horrible conditions.

You know, it's autumn in the southern ocean and the storms are going to be terrible. The weather is not going to get any better. So the idea that this is just -- that this wreckage is going to appear magically in a situation where they have really not refined those search location I think is far fetched.

LU STOUT: YOu know, it's a situation as you put it in the dark. What else is needed? Is more data needed? I mean, does NASA need to be enlisted here to reposition satellites, get more satellite data to search for debris and for evidence of this missing plane?

O'BRIEN: Well, here's a big problem, if the weather continues as it is, the satellites do no good because the clouds would obscure any view of the ocean. So not only does it hurt the search by the aircraft, but it makes the -- renders the satellites pretty ineffective if there's thick cloud cover.

So, this is a very difficult challenge. And you know, for the -- it just breaks my heart thinking that these families trying to reconcile what they heard from the prime minister with the absence of evidence it's just - - it's heartbreaking.

LU STOUT: It is heartbreaking. I mean, this is a tragedy after all. Miles O'Brien, thank you so much for your analysis. Thank you and take care.

Now you're watching News Stream. And still ahead on the program, we've got the latest on that ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Leaders of the world's leading industrialized nations take action against Russia.

Also ahead, residents from a small town in the U.S. refuse to give up hope to find survivors, even though it's been days since a major mudslide destroyed their homes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: All right, welcome back.

Ukraine's parliament has voted to dismiss the defense minister over his handling of Russia's military move into Crimea. And Russia is front and center at The Hague. The G8, the world's wealthiest industrial countries plus Russia is now once again the G7. Now members have decided to exclude Moscow from any meetings and canceled a planned summit in Sochi.

Now the senior international correspondent Nic Robertson, he is close by The Hague where the G7 meeting is taking place. He joins me right now live. And Nic, G7 leaders, they are standing together against Russia. What are they saying? What is their so-called joint declaration?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORREPSONDENT: Well, political isolation for Russia. What they've said is, and it's sort of smart language, if you will, they said well we're not going to go to the G8 in Sochi, which -- face it, it leaves Russia in a club of one. We're going to have the G7 in Brussels in June instead.

This is intended to sort of add to the economic sanctions that were in place.

There is the threat of an escalation of economic sanctions for Russia if it doesn't engage in political dialogue, if it doesn't recognize the territorial integrity of -- and sovereignty of Ukraine. You know, if he puts his troops across the border into eastern Ukraine, southern Ukraine that's the threat of the table for more sanctions. Those sanctions would target the energy sector, banking, finance, arms trade as well.

But there is a price to pay here for the G7. And that's recognized as well, because in this Hague declaration, they've also said OK within the next few weeks our energy ministers are going to have to meet to sort of work out better energy security for the G7. And what that means is essentially countries like Italy and Germany, members of the G7, 30 percent of their oil and gas comes from Russia. So they're going to have to look elsewhere, because there will perhaps be a price to pay in Europe from Russia.

The estimate is, of course, Russia will pay the far bigger price for these -- for the political isolation and economic sanctions, Krisite.

LU STOUT: That's right, there is that fear of action and retaliation from Russia.

Now this is the first time the G7 is meeting in The Hague without Russia since 1998. Nic, is this a significant break between Russia and the west? Is this a return to Cold War conditions?

ROBERTSON: Yeah, I mean this is what we're being told here. And this is where it's being defined.

You know there's been 20 years since the end of Communism, since the collapse of the Soviet Union and of Communism in eastern Europe, more than 20 years. And since that time there's been political integration.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister was here for part of the nuclear security summit that has been on in The Hague in the past couple of days. The G7 was kind of on the sidelines of that. And he did meet with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. He did meet for the first time with the Ukrainian foreign minister. But he reacted as if this decision about the G7/G8 didn't really matter. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Thus, if our western partners believe that this organizational format has outlived its usefulness, so be it. At least we are not attached to this format. And we don't see a great misfortune if it will not gather. Maybe, for a year or two, it will be an experiment for us to see how we live without it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: You know, Russia and his terms, Lavrov's terms, is essentially shrugging this off. But part of the message here is aimed at a personal message at President Putin to sort of to show him that he is personally isolated to target his pride, if you will, because he is estimated, believed to be somebody who likes his standing on the international stage, wants Russia to be respected, or did want to be respected internationally. And this sends him a very directly a message not just Russia, but you Mr. President Putin are out of the G8. It is the G7 -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right, Nic Robertson reporting live from near The Hague, thank you very much indeed for that.

You're watching News Stream. And up next, the death toll from a major mudslide in the Washington State, it goes up and the number of people missing jumps higher. But residents, they are still holding out hope.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong, you're back watching News Stream.

Now in the U.S. state of Washington, search and rescue operations are to carry into a fourth day as the number of dead and the lists of the missing grows. The death toll from a major mudslide is now at 14, and a list of those unaccounted for is at 176.

Now CNN's Ana Cabrera reports while rescuers are not giving up hope, the situation looks grim.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENDA NEAL, STEVEN NEAL'S WIFE: None of us feel like he's gone.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Brenda Neal's 52-year-old husband, Steven, is among those still missing after a massive landslide on Saturday in Snohomish County. This hill gave way swallowing a square mile of land and everything in its path.

BRENDA NEAL: I've been at the fire hall at midnight looking for anything. I've seen the rescuers covered in mud and the despair on their faces is very evident, that they want to help. CABRERA: Steven, a local plumber, was on a service call when the landslide hit. His daughter, Sara, describes him as a survivor.

SARA NEAL, STEVEN NEAL'S DAUGHTER: I think if anyone had a chance it would be him. I think if he was there with other people, he would keep them alive too.

CABRERA: Officials say the outlook is grim.

FIRE CHIEF TRAVIS HOTS, SNOHOMISH COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: I'm very disappointed to tell you that we didn't find any sign of any survivors.

CABRERA: But volunteers taking tremendous risk combing through the mud and rubble aren't giving up hope.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just heard this morning that another dog got rescued. If we're still finding dogs alive, why can't we be finding people?

CABRERA: Three days ago, first responders saved this 4-year-old boy taking this photo moments after pulling him from the mud.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE So, they brought him to us in the ambulance. I took all his clothes off because he was freezing. Wrapped him up and held him and told him I was a grandma and couldn't find the rest of his family.

CABRERA: Cory Kuntz lost his aunt and his home to the slurry but his uncle survived.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They heard him pounding on that roof. He had a little air pocket. My neighbors and friends came and started digging him out.

CABRERA: He and neighbors have formed their own search crew in the hopes that more will be found alive.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Some very grim scenes there. That was Ana Cabrera reporting.

And as the search effort continues there in Washington State, let's get an update on conditions in the area. Mari Ramos joins me from the World Weather Center. She has that -- Mari.

MARI RAMOS, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kristie.

What a tragedy, huh? Well, how scary for those families still, of course, trying to figure out what happened and waiting for word to see if they can find their loved ones there.

I want to show you some before and after pictures before we get started from this area. Beautiful area up in the Pacific Northwest corner of the United States.

Now there's a couple of areas I want you to notice. This right over here you have a roadway, you have a river actually. And then this is the hillside that we're talking about. And this Google image, you don't see a lot of homes. There actually, if you look closely, you see those little white dots everywhere? Those are buildings, those are homes -- or were homes, I should say. And many of these are now gone as we were listening from Ana's report just a moment ago.

I want to go ahead and do the after now. And it is really amazing when you see that entire hillside just completely scarred, crashing down. It's almost as if you took a giant hand and just pulled all that mud all the way down. And then you see the river right over here, you see the water backing up. And of course you see all of the debris that reached far away from where the original landslide actually happened.

So very tragic situation.

I'm going to show it to you one more time so you can see again the before.

This is the before, this is the hillside that we're talking about. You can see all the dots here that are actually those little white areas. Those are some of the homes that appear in the picture and then this is the after.

And again, the landslide, you can see where the river is blocked. The water was backing up here, causing some flooding downstream. And there was concern that if that dam that the landslide actually made when it blocked the river, if that broke it could cause a lot of water pushing farther downstream. And that thread has diminished somewhat for the communities that are downstream from this river.

The problem, though, now is that we are expecting more rain.

Right now, not necessarily raining in this area. I want to show the radar and you can see there's a lot of moisture in the air here already.

This happened in this area right in here. And there's no actual weather observation there, but farther to the north in Arlington, it's 9 down towards Seattle, it's 12. So somewhere in that vicinity -- of course, as you head into the mountains it will be a lot colder, but this particular -- also it's in a valley and the hills, as you can see, were all around it.

There you see that there is the potential for more wet weather across this region.

Now while California is parched and it could use the rain no matter what. The Pacific Northwest, and Washington State in particular, has had above average rainfall for the month of March, so this is one of the concerns, of course, with any additional rainfall we could really get into some problems with additional landslides in that region. So that's still a concern.

The other story I want to tell you about in the U.S. is the potential for some winter weather, which is kind of hard to believe, Kristie. Look at these, these are all winter weather advisories across portions of the mid-Atlantic and even some blizzard warnings farther to the north. Big old storm that's beginning to form as we head through the next couple of days. And that's going to bring some very heavy snowfall late, late in the season and very cold temperatures across much of the east.

Back to you.

LU STOUT: Wow, winter weather in the U.S. and it's almost April -- extraordinary. Mari Ramos there, thank you.

Now you're watching News Stream. And still to come, the search for Flight 370 is now entirely focused on the southern Indian Ocean. And officials say they are confident the plane went down there. We'll take you live to our reporters on the ground for the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: I'm Krsitie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. You're watching News Stream. And these are your world headlines.

Now new analysis of satellite data has lead authorities to refocus the search area for the missing Malaysian Airlines plane. But bad weather over the southern Indian Ocean grounded search planes today. For the families of passengers, the wait has been agonizing. Some of them marched to the Malaysian embassy in Beijing to express their anger over how Malaysia has handled the investigation.

Now U.S. President Barack Obama met with the world leaders at a nuclear security summit in The Netherlands. On the sidelines of that summit, the U.S. and six western nations agreed to exclude Moscow from the G8 and cancel the planned G8 summit in Sochi. It's all in response to Russia's actions in Crimea.

At least 14 people have been killed and dozens are still missing from that landslide in the U.S. State of Washington on Saturday. Officials say there is little hope of finding any more survivors. Some 176 people are still unaccounted for, but authorities say the list could have some duplicated information. The landslide covered about a square mile.

A police mobile phone expert was back on the stand today testifying in the trial of Oscar Pistorius. On Monday, he read out a message from Reeva Steenkamp, which said that she was sometimes scared of the track star. She also said she felt very unhappy and sad and accused Pistorius of sometimes picking on her.

Now we want to return to our top story -- the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. It has been suspended for at least 24 hours because of the stormy weather in the southern Indian Ocean.

Andrew Stevens is in the western Australian city of Perth where the search operation is being coordinated. He joins me now live. And Andrew, the search has been suspended. There is so much pressure for answers here. So what is the level of frustration among officials you've been talking to.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As you could imagine, Kristie, it's enormous here, because time is running out. Remember that the locator beacons on the data recorders have just perhaps 13, 15 days to run before they -- before the batteries drain, which will make the search so much harder. And authorities are saying they really can't afford to lose 24 hours to bad weather.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVENS: Expectations were high when Australian defense chief, David Johnston, called an unscheduled press conference at Pierce Air Force Base Tuesday. But as so often in this perplexing mystery, expectations are built up only to be knocked down again. The best the defense minister has was his confidence that they were looking in the right area.

DAVID JOHNSTON, AUSTRALIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: I am confident because that's the best we have at this point in time.

STEVENS: He left it to his deputy armed forces chief to announce the bad news.

VICE CHIEF MARK BINSKIN, AUSTRALIAN DEFENSE FORCE: We are not searching for a needle in the haystack, but still trying to find out where the haystack is.

STEVENS: The key to finding the haystack, a piece of breakage that confirms beyond doubt that 370 came down somewhere in the vast southern ocean. Right now, though, the search is stalled. This empty search aircraft testament to the strength of the storm, 2.5 kilometers away.

JOHNSTON: They have had to deploy 120 kilometers to the south to avoid for those of you that understand sea, horrendous weather conditions.

STEVENS: Success was said to be close to an object seen by an Australian Air Force flight on Monday, but close in these far southern latitudes is a relative term.

JOHNSTON: It is very easy to speculate about being close. Close in this part of the world could be several hundred kilometers.

STEVENS: The search is likely to resume Wednesday and this uncharacteristically quiet air base just outside the state capital is expected to be back at full operational strength.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STEVENS: Now what we're going to see tomorrow, Kristie, is flights returning as I say there, but all the focus now is on this southern end of the southern corridor. There are Chinese naval vessels moving into the area now. The Australian naval vessel will be back on stage in the morrow, and plus you've got the air assets going back out there within perhaps 12 hours from now. It is, though, still frustratingly far away finding the key that is going to unlock where this plane may have gone down. The rough area, if you like. And then on top of that they've got to find that wreckage in three miles deep ocean in weather conditions, which as we see, can (inaudible) very quickly and disrupt these vital searches which at this stage may be 13, maybe 15 days to run and then it gets so much harder, Krisite.

LU STOUT: That's right, the conditions are just so challenging. They have to deal with the churning open sea, also winter weather kicking in. And they have to look for debris on the surface. And also what you just mentioned, they have to go beneath the surface, they have to look on the sea bed. So in terms of that exploration, that search effort, what resources are available and have been deployed for that?

STEVENS: Well, they're sending in equipment which is towed very sophisticated listening equipment essentially, which is towed behind a vessel -- excuse me -- looking for those pings. And once they establish that -- if they establish that -- then they can send remote operated submersible vehicles into these incredible depths.

I mean, it has been done before. We know Air France was located at a depth of around 13,000 feet. It could be more challenging than that, but there is the technology to get to those depths and to actually locate the aircraft.

But as we saw with flight -- with the Air France flight, after they found the wreckage, it still took them two years to find the data recorders. So answering the questions of this mystery as to what actually happened in the cockpit, why this plane was so far, so many thousand kilometers off course in the opposite direction, could take months if not years.

LU STOUT: Andrew Stevens reporting live from Perth, thank you.

And now that Malaysian officials are certain that the plane crashed into the southern Indian Ocean, they have officially called off the search effort in the northern corridor and are focusing all resources on a remote area that's nearly 500,000 square nautical miles.

Now CNN's Jim Clancy joins me with the latest from Malaysia's capital. And Jim, we've got that status update from officials in KL earlier today. What more did they say?

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORREPSONDENT: Well, you know, I think if you start at the top you're really looking at the families. And the families were discussing with Malaysian Air officials today the possibility they could go to Perth, but that's not going to happen until and unless they find a piece of debris that tells them, confirms for them that, yes, this sadly is where the airliner went down. So that is on hold. Families still upset, still many of them unwilling to accept that their loved ones may be gone forever.

Meantime, authorities are just simply trying to narrow down that search area. And they're using all of these mathematic calculations using that satellite handshake and other methodology, in order to narrow the search area. Listen to what Hishamuddin Hussein, the acting transport minister here in Malaysia had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HISHAMMUDDIN HUSEEIN, ACTING MALAYSIAN TRANSPORT MINISTER: We are currently working to further narrow down the search area using the format as I mentioned previously, which is to gather information from satellite surveillance, analysis of surveillance radar data, increasing air and surface assets and increasing the number of technical and (inaudible) material experts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Now remember that Malaysia is still in charge of this overall operation, this search that is ongoing, no longer being called a search and rescue after the prime minister's speech last night.

We heard today there's a pinger finders that Andrew was referencing are not going to be on site there until the first week of April. Now that's cutting it really close, because we know, because this plane went missing on the eighth of March, it's batteries in those flight data recorders only good for about 30 days, doesn't leave them much room to try to track down the most crucial bit of evidence there is that would in one way or another help us to unravel the mystery of flight 370 -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: And Jim, we have to talk about the families, because they are in anguish, they are angry, they want answers and they want solid evidence. So can authorities in Malaysia satisfy their needs?

CLANCY: Look, there comes a time when you have to be honest. What many of these families would like us to tell them is that your relatives have been found. They managed to land the plane. They're safe. They're going to be home this weekend. But, you know, nobody can tell them that, because it's not true. And, yes, we understand their pain. Yes, you look at it and you say all you can feel is sympathy for the families and what they are going through, what they've been through over the course of the last 18 days.

This hasn't been fair to them. It wouldn't be fair to anyone. And we understand that.

But when you look at the situation right now, you have to say it's going to be time for a lot of people to move on. Hopefully they are going to get the counseling that they need to be able to do that. In the meantime, Malaysia Airways has already promised them, it's going to set up a center for the families wherever the crash site may be, the closest area that they can get to, set that up for them and try to see that they could visit the site where their loved ones perished.

Back to you.

LU STOUT: That's right. They made that additional support. And Jim, really appreciate your honesty and your accuracy and your emotional sensitivity in your reporting all along. Jim Clancy there joining me live from Kuala Lumpur.

Now the belief that Flight 370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean it comes from the analysis of satellite data by the British company Inmarsat. Now the firm calculated the airliner's direction of travel by looking at pings from the plane to a satellite. Inmarsat's senior vice president spoke to Christiane Amanpour about the process.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS MCLAUGHLIN, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, INMARSAT: It's a technique for the first time, but the technology is ancient. It's actually embarrassingly old math. It's a method of trigonometry. It's a way in which our scientists looked at the single source of data coming off of a 1990s Lockheed Martin satellite over the Indian Ocean and said, what more can we do with this? Normally you'd have to have two or three pings or a triangulation to actually work out where it is. We just simply could go for a direction of travel and then after that a process of elimination was needed, which led us down into the southern ocean position. It's not a new technology; it's an old technology. It's called science.

AMANPOUR: Well, then, why wasn't it used earlier? And why did it take this long to figure it out?

MCLAUGHLIN: It's a very fair question. We reported on Tuesday the 11th our suggestion of the north-south route. That went into the investigation and was looked at along with massive other amounts of data. It is an immensely complicated thing to have to go into the network and look at other flights and build a picture. And that has taken the last six or seven days, which our engineers have been working very hard on to create a model. It hasn't been done before. And then once we'd done it, we then needed to know that we weren't completely wrong. And so we then shared it with others in the satellite industry in a peer review to say are we right, have we got it right? It came back yesterday with, yes, we agree with you. And then we immediately shared it.

AMANPOUR: Is there any chance, despite what you've just said, that you could be wrong?

MCLAUGHLIN: Well, for the families that are involved and the heartbreak that obviously is being experienced at the moment, I would love to hope that we're wrong. But the fit with the southern ocean model and with the southern ocean pings indications the southern ocean.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: McLaughlin also told CNN he believes the reasons that planes are not constantly tracked by satellite isn't technical, it's simply because there is no legal requirement. He says existing equipment already installed in thousands of wide body airliners can send tracking data for just a dollar an hour.

Now prosecutors in Pretoria, South Africa, they have just rested their case against Oscar Pistorius. Now the day's testimony included a police cell phone expert who read out messages from Pistorius's girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Now Pistorius admits he killed Steenkamp on February 14, 2013, but he says he thought she was an intruder.

Now the missing Malaysian Airliner it carried 239 people on board. They came from all around the world and from all walks of life. We'll share their stories next on News Stream.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Gail Kelly is a power player in the world of finance. And she's made it her mission to help women break through the glass ceiling in banking.

Now this week's Leading Women, Nina Dos Santos sits down with Kelly and hears her inspiring story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In 2002, Gail Kelly became the first woman to run a bank in Australia, a remarkable rise after starting in the industry as a bank teller in 1980. For the past six years, she's been the CEO of Westpac, the second largest bank in the country. Kelly is one of the most renowned executives in global banking.

Right at the height of the financial crisis, a lot of people have been coming up with interesting theories saying, hey, if women were in charge we wouldn't be in this position because they don't take as many risks. How much credence do you lend to that theory.

GAIL KELLY, CEO, WESTPAC BANK: Not so much about you don't take many risks. I think if you're going to be a CEO you know you're going to have to have the full spectrum of capability and that means firstly you need to know what you're about. You need to actually understand the business that you're in.

But I think what women do often bring is a listening perspective. And a generosity of spirit perspective to way in which they go about things.

SANTOS: Generosity of spirit is not often associated with banking, but for Kelly it's part of her DNA.

KELLY: You're more accessible as a woman. Wherever I go, people are happy to stop me and ask me a question in or outside the organization, have a chat about things. Men often are less accessible because they seem to be more important. That's not necessarily the way they want to present themselves, but that's sometimes how they can come across.

And so I think it's there's a style element for women that's a great advantage if you're going to be a CEO.

SANTOS: At Westpac, you set a minimum target that by 2014, which is obviously this year, 30 percent of senior management will be made up of women. Have you actually struck that target yet?

KELLY: Actually, the target was 40.

SANTOS: 40?

KELLY: 40. And we're over that. We're at 42 percent at the moment. But we've reset the goal.

SANTOS: What's the ultimate target?

KELLY: We reset the goal to 50 percent.

SANTOS: Kelly was born in Pretoria, South Africa. She went to University in Cape Town where she met her husband.

KELLY: My husband being a doctor was awesome. Four children, as you say, and three of them triplets, I needed a lot of help and support at home. And he did more than his fair share, in fact well more than his fair share of everything in the home. And I could not have done what I've done without that.

SANTOS: Triplets, an MBA, rising to the top of the corporate ladder to be a CEO of a worldclass bank. I mean, many people watching this show probably would like to know how you balanced all those different things.

KELLY: Well, there isn't any sort of single way, is there, to answer that. The fact that you love what you do is a big part. And I've always loved what I've done.

SANTOS: So what would be your advice for women looking on watching this interview and thinking I want to be in that position?

KELLY: My advice would be dig deep and gather all your courage in your hands, you've been offered this opportunity because you are worthy. You don't have to be 100 percent ready for this job. You don't have to be 80 percent ready for this job. You do need support around you. And you do need a determination and a preparedness to work hard.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Great advice from Gail Kelly there.

You're watching News Stream. And up next, who were the 239 passengers and crew on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. We'll tell you the stories behind the numbers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now one controversial U.S. surveillance program could soon be sharply curtailed. The Obama administration is seeking to end the NSA's systematic collection and storage of data on American's calling habits, that's according to a senior Obama administration official.

Now the surveillance program, disclosed by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, has been slammed by privacy advocates and others. And among the proposed changes is to have U.S. phone companies hold on to those phone records.

Now a court approval would be required for any government review.

Now back to the search for Flight 370. Investigators, they are focusing on the southern Indian Ocean west of Perth. But the search has been suspended due to the conditions in the area. Let's get the very latest from Mari Ramos. She joins me from the world weather center -- Mari.

RAMOS: Well, Kristie, very harsh conditions to say the very least. This a picture taken earlier. This is before the winds really got going. And one of the problems that they were dealing with was the poor visibility.

Look at this picture over here. Of course, they didn't even go out today, because the weather was so bad, but poor visibility, this is something when they have to be flying just above the surface of the ocean, but you can tell that the winds -- I can tell, I should say from this picture that the winds were generally light because you can see the ocean generally calm here.

So very harsh conditions in this part of the world. One official was saying earlier that this is an inaccessible area to begin with. And there's also not a lot of data when it comes to this part of the world, so it makes it even more difficult to make weather forecasts for them.

But we do have satellite, we do have some information. And so we're going to go ahead and continue making the forecasts for this region as they continue to do their search in this area as well.

So, what we have is a front that's coming through here. We've been talking about this for the last couple of days. It's moving rather slowly, as you can see. This is bringing not only a lot more in the way of cloud cover, it's bringing also some very gusty winds and very rough seas. And those were the concerns, because of the -- for the safety, I should say, of the people, the men and women that are participating in the search and rescue in this part of the world.

So very rough conditions and those are expected to continue because of the way that this front is moving kind of elongating along this area.

So through the day, overnight tonight and through the day on Wednesday and even into Thursday because it's moving so slowly those gusty winds will continue maybe up to 80, 90 kilometers per hour not out of the question. The rain showers will become even more frequent as that front continues to approach, thick clouds will be a huge concern. And we heard earlier from Miles O'Brien that even if they were able to move even NASA satellites over this area they wouldn't be able to see anything because the cloud cover is so thick over this region. So satellites at this point wouldn't be doing - - wouldn't be helping too much.

And then the wave heights a huge concern. So not only do you have your waves that are -- could be maybe two to three meters, but also swells that on top of that that could be even higher, making it very dangerous for people that are working of course in this.

So, the wind -- here you see it. One front kind of moves away, another one begins to move in. And the winds continue to pick up even as we head through the day on Thursday.

And that's important, because we were hoping that the weather will start to improve on Thursday, but now it looks like we'll see another weather system coming in and that will just kind of keep things very, very unstable across this region.

With our CNN exclusive high resolution model here, you can see that cold front kind of sticking around a little bit, kind of waving back a little bit more. And then look at all of this activity right in here.

So this is definitely some of the most significant weather that they've had over this area since the search began in this part of the world.

Back to you, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Wow, incredible high resolution look at the search area. Mari Ramos there, thank you.

Now there were 239 passengers and crew on flight 370, but they are more than just a number they were husbands, fathers, wives, daughters, friends and soul mates. Atika Shubert shows us some of their names and faces.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ju Kun. Zaharie bin Ahmad Shah. Mohamadkhairularmri Selamat. Muktesh Mukherjee and Xiaomo Bai. Zamani Razahan Muhammad and Norliakmar Hamid. Hadrien Wattrelos and Yan Xiao. Liu Rusheng and Bao Yuanhua. Pouria Nourmohammadi.

These are just a fraction of the names of the 239 passengers and crew onboard from 14 nations.

(MAN CRYING)

SHUBERT: For hundreds of family and friends, it's been an agonizing wait. Wife and mother Chandrika Sharma of India is the executive secretary of the International Collective in Support of Fish Workers. She was on her way to a conference in Mongolia.

Her husband wrote a note to friends and family thanking them for their support. It says, "I remain focused on what we have at hand by way of information and stay with the knowledge that Chandrika is strong and courageous. Her goodness must count for something somewhere."

Phil Wood, a 51-year-old IBM executive, was one of three Americans onboard.

SARAH BAJC, PARTNER OF PHILIP WOOD: My bag is packed and ready to go. It has been since Saturday morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready to go where?

BAJC: Wherever he is.

SHUBERT: His partner, Sarah Bajc, is on a desperate search to find the man she calls her soulmate.

Mira Elizabeth Nari, daughter of chief steward Andrew Nari from Malaysia, has taken to Twitter to post a series of heart-wrenching messages. "Daddy, Liverpool is winning the game. Come home so you can watch the game. You never miss it. This would be your first time."

New Zealander Paul Weeks left his wedding ring and watch at home when he took a mining job in Mongolia. He asked his wife, Danica, to pass them on to his two sons should anything happen. His brother describes him as his best friend.

PETER WEEKS, BROTHER OF PAUL WEEKS: People love Paul, and in general, he's just a wonderful man, and we're all hoping that he comes back.

SHUBERT: Zaharie Ahmad Shah was the airline captain piloting the plane. Despite being under scrutiny in the investigation, may have stepped forward to vouch for his credibility.

PETER CHONG, FRIEND OF ZAHARIE AHMAD SHAH: If something had happened to this flight, I would think -- in fact, I would believe that he would have made sure of the safety and welfare of everyone else before he even thinks about himself. That's the kind of person that he is.

SHUBERT: From artists to engineers, grandparents to a toddler, the passengers of Flight 370 are more than just numbers.

Atika Shubert, CNN, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Now Atika told you about the daughter of Flight 370's chief steward -- Mara Nari is still sending tweets to her father. After Tuesday's announcement from Malaysia's prime minister she wrote this, quote, "I don't know what to say, what to think, I feel so lost, so blank. I'm just so tired. Good night, daddy."

And a few hours ago she posted another message saying, "to be honest, there is still hope in me. But back to reality, should stop dreaming. The best is to just pray."

And that is News Stream, but the news continues on CNN. World Business Today is next.

END