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Sources Indicate Flight 370 Was Off-Course, Almost U-Turned; Malaysian Defense Minister Joins Search Teams; Brothers of Missing Passenger Turn to Faith; Crowdsourcing the Plane Search

Aired March 11, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our breaking news coverage, the mystery of flight 370.

We have learned it was way off course when it disappeared. This information is coming to us from a senior Malaysian air force official.

They have traced the last signs of the plane to a very small island in the straits of Malacca. This was when they lost contact with the plane's transponder.

If the air force information is correct, again, if this information is correct, this is a very big development. It means a plane had almost done a complete U-turn and was flying in the opposite direction from its scheduled destination.

I want to bring in CNN's Brian Todd. He joins us now from Washington. In the search for this plane, could military satellites be an option here?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Certainly, they could be an option, Don. We've been talking to the Pentagon about the assets that they have deployed here.

They are not telling us whether they're using military satellites or not. They just don't want to give out that information.

They do give information about the 22 aircraft, the 40 sea-going vessels that they're using, but they're not telling us a lot about satellites.

You talk about the transponder, you talk about GPS on these planes, could they be used to track it? If the transponder was either turned off or destroyed somehow, that is not an option. Once that's turned off, it doesn't come back.

GPS, yes, those devices could conceivably be used, but if a GPS is destroyed or turned off, somehow that doesn't emit some kind of a natural signal or a signal that kicks in automatically from the wreckage of the plane. As for the other technologies being used, we're told the Pentagon says that the Navy's Seventh Fleet has MH-60 helicopters, a P-3 Orion plane patrolling the area. These aircraft have flare pods, infrared detectors, which can detect signs of life, signs of movement.

Pentagon officials not giving information about satellites or other technology being used, but experts tell us it is very likely that military satellites are going to be used some high res imagery.

LEMON: Brian Todd with good information from Washington, Brian Todd, appreciate that.

We want to focus on the search for this plane. CNN was given exclusive access to the search for the missing Malaysia jet.

It is an intensive effort, flying with open doors at 500 feet, hoping to spot any clue that will answer the mystery of what happened to Flight 370.

Here's Saima Mohsin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is no easy task. This C-130 plane has been carrying out regular search-and-rescue missions since Flight MH-370 disappeared.

It's the first time the minister for defense and transportation and the chief of defense force have been out to survey this massive operation. They invited CNN to join them.

I have to put this life jacket on because we're now descending to just 500 feet above sea level.

Flying low, the doors are opened for the search to begin. We flew past a number of ships, scouring the sea for the plane, those onboard, or any clues at all to what happened.

DATUK SERI HISAMMUDDIN HUSSEIN, MALAYSIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: I just want to find the plane, you know, at all costs. As long as we are still standing and as long as people are out there praying for us, we will continue until we persevere.

And this is something that I will not stop. This is what I promised the families.

MOHSIN: We flew to the Malacca Straits to the west of Malaysia. This isn't the scheduled flight path for the Malaysia Airlines flight, but it's a possibility the search team is taking seriously in case the plane turned back and lost its way.

There are 16 ships surveying this area. That's more than 12,000 nautical square miles. They're joined in the air by 14 aircraft.

And that's just the area to the west of Malaysia. There are more than 30 aircraft and more than 40 ships in the entire operation. As we look out across this vast expanse of water, far into the horizon, holding his head in his hands, the minister tells me he's overwhelmed.

HUSSEIN: When you're looking for something in this wide sea, it's a reality check, how to find even a huge aircraft like a Boeing 777.

But we must never, never give up hope.

MOHSIN: The team onboard maintains this is still a search-and-rescue operation.

HUSSEIN: I'm hoping against hope.

MOHSIN: But four days on and with no explanation or understanding of what happened to Flight MH-370, the question is just how long can they continue to search for survivors.

Saima Mohsin, CNN, the Malacca Straits, Malaysia

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Again, our thanks to Saima Mohsin.

As the search goes on, there are still a lot of unanswered questions about the flight's path and also why the transponder stopped working.

Next, we're asking our Richard Quest what he thinks happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Welcome back to our breaking news coverage of Flight 370.

We're learning new information that the flight was way off course. This is from a Malaysian official, an air force official saying that the flight made a U-turn almost in the exact direction from which it was coming.

I want to bring in our Richard Quest. So many questions here, Richard, so many questions, and the possibility that we're hearing -- you know, there are airfields in the area that could have sustained a jet this size, one, the air force base, the royal Malaysian air force base.

Had that happened, though, we would have heard about it by now.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No question about that. The interesting thing about that aspect is the pilots, even if they've lost electronic maps and tablets and all those sort of things, they've got charts.

They would have known about those air bases. They would have known about those long runways.

If they were looking for somewhere to land, they would have known. Certainly, a captain of 18,000 hours experience would have known the territory upon which he was flying. So, again, I urge you -- and I know it's not very sexy in a way, I urge you to just think of this as a piece of the jigsaw that has been put on the table rather than the picture itself.

LEMON: You're urging caution, Richard Quest.

QUEST: I always urge caution. The temptation -- all right, if you look at what we've got now --

LEMON: Right.

QUEST: -- the scenario we've got, the turn, the flight back over Malaysia, into the straits of Malacca, the disappearance of the plane, on the one hand, you've got a straight forward was this plane being taken over by somebody and were the pilots being forced to fly it, straightforward hijacking question, which we won't know for some time yet.

But on the other side, you've got the technological side. Was this a mechanical failure, a major systems failure, and they were mainly taken up with flying this aircraft as they worked through what was wrong with the plane? It lost power? It was unable to send out signals?

LEMON: Yeah.

QUEST: Within those two total extremes, the truth lies.

LEMON: Yeah. OK. So here's the thing. So, you and I have been talking about this one. When I said, conceivably, we might never know what happened, and you're like, Don, stop it! No, we will know. We will know!

Of course we'll probably know, but will we know exactly what happened? Will we know for sure what happened?

QUEST: Next time I speak to you, in the next hour -- I wish I'd known you were going to ask that question, because in my office upstairs, I've got the report into Air France 447, and it's 250 pages long, as indeed every one of these reports is, from the NTSB, from the BEA, from the AAIB.

They will take this investigation apart as they try and find out what actually happened.

LEMON: OK.

QUEST: They will find it out.

LEMON: OK, let me ask you this.

QUEST: Go on.

LEMON: See this? What is that right there? That little app. It says what? FindPhone, right? If you click on it --

QUEST: Your point is --

LEMON: My point is, if there are people on the plane and they're saying they're calling the cell phones, the phones are ringing, why can't they just ping the phones and figure out where they are and get a locator on the phone?

QUEST: You have successfully put one and one together and managed to come up with four, because you've made --

LEMON: No, I'm just saying --

QUEST: Well, you have, because you've made an assumption.

If you'd read a bit further, you'd have seen that there's plenty of suggestion out there that in certain circumstances when those phones are no longer connected --

LEMON: Well, that's why I'm asking you.

QUEST: When those phones are no longer connected, they continue to ring. Sometimes if I'm out of the country and somebody dials my U.S. cell, or my U.K. cell, it will continue to ring while it transfers or finds where it is and then eventually it will go to voicemail.

LEMON: But my point is, people are asking that.

QUEST: It's a legitimate point.

LEMON: That's a question I'm asking.

QUEST: It's a completely legitimate point.

LEMON: I'm not second-guessing the investigators.

QUEST: It's a completely legitimate point that there are these situations where the phones are ringing.

And what, of course, everybody wants, what everybody is suggesting is that the plane landed and these people are still with the phones.

Please, God, I'm wrong.

LEMON: Right.

QUEST: You know, from my lips to God's ears that it proves not to be the case.

LEMON: I get what you're saying. We get what you're saying.

Thank you, Richard Quest. We appreciate it.

Coming up, there is a way that you can help search the ocean for debris from this flight from your home. We're going to tell you about that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: Breaking news on the mystery of Flight 370, we have learned that the plane was way off course when it disappeared.

Joining me now is former Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras.

Evy, in light of this new information, what do you make of it?

EVY POUMPOURAS, FORMER U.S. SECRET SERVICE AGENT (via telephone): I think this is another red flag, another indication that something is amiss.

I know Interpol has come out and stated that they think that it's unlikely that it's terrorism, but they have not come out to say that they are absolutely sure it is not.

So, again, they're running their lead. They're making sure, through the process of elimination, that it is not the case.

The concern, of course, is we have all these red flags, the strange deviation of course, which leaves all these unanswered questions, as well as a transponder going off. That is one end of the spectrum.

But, of course, again, it remains, could be a technical issue, a mechanical issue, as well.

LEMON: Yeah. We've heard a number of different scenarios that it could be and we still don't know.

And as Richard Quest said earlier, we want to err on the side of caution, be patient, because there's a lot of territory to cover there.

Evy, I think there's like 4,000-square miles that this plane could have gone in either direction.

But if you look at -- I know what the possibilities are, but judging from your expertise when you see that map, right, and hear this information from the Malaysian official, does it point to you catastrophic mechanical failure or terrorism, or do you think it's too early on to even speculate about it?

POUMPOURAS (via telephone): Look, it is early on because we don't have all of the pieces of the puzzle. Obviously, if we had the plane, we'd have something more tangible.

Now, given my background and experience, you hear all of these red flags and to me, again, they're strong indications that something is not right. There is something nefarious going on, turning the plane around, going such a distance, having it fall completely off the map and then disappear. That's one angle.

So, as an investigator, you would leave no stone unturned. Terrorism, again, any type of hijacking is definitely a significant, significant thing they should be looking at.

Again, with the mechanical side of the house, it's difficult to say because you don't have physical parts of the plane. You have the plane. You reconstruct the plane, right? You can see the blast, the impact, and all those things.

So, again, from the criminal side, as an investigator, having dealt with terrorism before, yes, absolutely, we cannot deviate from that and you do have these red flags and I really don't think we should look away from them.

LEMON: All right, Evy Poumpouras, thank you.

Searching for the plane's debris from your home, you can help try and find the mystery flight on your computer. We're going to tell you how you can do that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Most of the passengers on the missing Malaysian flight 370 were Chinese but there were three U.S. citizens, including Philip Wood.

His two brothers talked to CNN's Anderson Cooper.

TOM WOOD, BROTHER OF MISSING PASSENGER: We've just been getting calls and e-mails from people we haven't heard from that have been part of his life and our life with him.

And, you know, we just wanted everybody to -- you know, we're trying to keep his memory going, and you know we're holding out hope, because as of yet, there are no answers to any of this.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "AC360": Sure.

T. WOOD: So --

JAMES WOOD, BROTHER OF MISSING PASSENGER: Can I read something to you just real fast?

COOPER: Sure, go ahead.

J. WOOD: OK. This is -- this is a scripture that's just keeping me going, personally. From Colossians 3: 1 through 3. Real quick.

"Since you've been raised in new life with Chris, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand.

"Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth, for you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ and God."

And that is what I'm thinking about.

T. WOOD: Those words keep us going.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Philip Wood graduated from Oklahoma Christian University and belonged to the Delta Gamma Sigma Organization. His girlfriend is in Beijing waiting for news.

In southeast Asia, we've been telling you about the dozens and dozens of ships that are searching for Flight 370. I'm going to bring in now our Samuel Burke.

You have been working on information that you can tell us how we actually can do this on our computers at home?

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, crowdsourcing. And what people say is that the expertise that these crowdsourcing groups lack, they make up for in numbers.

And that's why a company called Digital Globe, in the hours after the news broke of this Malaysian plane going missing, turned to the satellite areas where they believed this plane could be and then uploaded them to TomNob.com.

And with that, viewers can then, sitting at home right now, go on this Web site and actually skim these pictures, comb through them, one by one, and look for what could be the plane.

But, of course, it's not a slam dunk, Don. People might see a cloud in the picture, a wave, a bird, but hopefully might see a fragment of this missing plane.

LEMON: OK, so, www.T-O-M-N-O-D.com. And then what do you -- how do you search? How can you search yourself?

BURKE: You literally just scroll through the images, one by one, and if you see something, you flag it. Is that an oil rig that you see? Is that maybe a fragment of an airplane?

But we don't want to inundate those -- the people who searching for this information, so they wait until the whole crowd has seen something.

So, maybe a hundred people spot something, then an expert looks at it and then they pass it on to the officials -

LEMON: OK.

BURKE: -- who are searching for the missing plane.

LEMON: That's my next question, though, to have hundreds if not thousands or maybe more of amateurs looking, does that hinder the official investigators or searchers?

BURKE: They are getting better and better at this. We see this in every natural disaster now, looking for the major disaster areas, helping guide people there.

But nobody has ever been able to use this to find somebody missing in a plane crash or even a missing plane, for that matter.

But each time they are getting better at it. They will pass it on so they don't inundate them with all the missing information, maybe just bits and pieces, here and there.

But maybe this will be the time that the crowdsource does it online.

LEMON: They must see some value in it. Otherwise, they would not do it or they would not take it seriously?

BURKE: Absolutely. And many times governments are coming to companies like Digital Globe asking them for help in these type of situations.

LEMON: Very good. Samuel Burke, thank you very much. We appreciate you joining us here on CNN.

Listen, it's been a very busy couple of hours here on CNN. Here's the latest information that we have learned, that this plane, Flight 370, was way off course, way off course when it -- that's the latest information that they have.

This information is coming from a senior Malaysian air force official. They say they have traced the last signs of the plane to a very small island in the Straits of Malacca. And it was the last time that they were in contact with this plane.

If this air force information is correct, this is a huge development. This means that the plane had almost done a U-turn -- almost done a U- turn -- and was heading back, it appears, to where it took off from in Kuala Lumpur.

My colleague, Jake Tapper with "THE LEAD," is going to pick up the coverage from here, the breaking news on Flight 370. I'll see you tomorrow.