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Flight 370 Search Expands into Indian Ocean; A Look Inside a Boeing 777

Aired March 14, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM breaking overnight, the search turns west.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we went from a chessboard to a football field.

COSTELLO: The hunt for Flight 370 now focusing on a small group of islands almost 1,000 miles from takeoff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There seems to be a real trail that leads to something taking that aircraft, that doesn't just happen by accident.

COSTELLO: A new report just out that says the plane was deliberately flown in that direction.

MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: All we know is the transition stopped. We don't know that someone turned them off.

COSTELLO: And developing this morning, new planes that communication systems onboard were shut down separately.

The American Navy rushing to the new search area. As new details pour in every hour.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Good morning, welcome to this special edition of NEWSROOM. I'm Carol Costello. Breaking news on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The investigation and the search taking a radical turn. Reuters reporting new evidence that someone deliberately and secretly rerouted the plane towards the Indian Ocean and flew for hours after the last contact.

Citing military radar and unnamed sources, Reuters adds a bizarre new twist and helps open up a vast new search area.

We're covering all the angles. Our correspondents and analysts are peeling back the layers of this unfolding mystery, but let's begin our coverage with aviation correspondent Richard Quest and this new Reuters report.

Tell us more, Richard.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, what this report does is take the information that the aircraft or an aircraft was sending these ping messages. Basically saying to the satellite, I am here, I am here, I am here. And we know that they did this yesterday. The U.S. confirmed that they were looking at this and this was one of the reasons why resources and ships were being moved into the Indian Ocean.

Overnight, they seem to have plotted the root of those pings and what they've discovered is that they appear to show the plane on -- for want of a better word -- an aviation interstate in the sky. The root upon which the planes fly. This plane, apparently flew, the phrase you're going to hear again and again, Carol, is way points. These are the junctions on the interstates of the sky. They go from one point to the next point to the next point to the next point, and planes fly these in an orderly fashion.

You're told by air traffic control as part of your flight plan to go from point A to point B to point C to point D.

Now, look, Carol, this plane could have been flying -- whatever plane it is, it could have been flying them on auto pilot or it could have been flying them manually. But what the Reuters' report suggests is that if you look at the pings, there is an order to them that shows the plane was not just flying randomly across the sky.

COSTELLO: Right, it was in a flight path, still, even though -- even when it allegedly made that turn, right? It was still in a flight path, a known flight path.

QUEST: It was flying a particular route. But I'm now going to caveat everything I've said with this simple health warning. They are still looking on the eastern side of Malaysia, too. They still believe there is a real possibility that the plane went down near the last point of contact in the South China Sea. There is not, not, not 100 percent confidence in this western Indian Ocean theory, but what they are doing, and this is really crucial.

The Malaysians admitted this morning that they are now handing over information, which they said previously they would not hand over on national security grounds. In other words, international experts are being given the raw data and it's those experts that are basically saying, I'm guessing, well, we look at this, there's an order to this plane's path and this is the way points it was flying and either somebody or the plane itself was flying this in a preordain fashion.

COSTELLO: That's why a U.S. ship is going over to the Indian Ocean.

Richard Quest, many thanks.

I want to bring in Tom Foreman now to walk us through where exactly the Andaman Islands are and what a large area that searchers are now searching. Tom, take it away.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol. We're going to have to adjust our map again today. Let me pull this out and show you our general map here and talk about what we know from the beginning in all of this.

We know where the plane took off. From Kuala Lumpur, flew for less than an hour, up to here where it disappeared entirely. And these are the search areas that have been put into place since that time. And they have been steadily growing. They started with the main search area that was up in this area and then they spread out over land and into the other, more westerly areas. The Andamans, if -- like I said, we're going to have to adjust the whole map here. But if you were to continue right up here, you would wind up at the Andamans back there and the Andamans are a string of islands.

They are close to 500 of them and they actually stretch from one end to the other about 500 miles. They're not really that wide across. But they're all strung up. Most of them are uninhabited, most of them, and according to the "Wall Street Journal" India started searching these just on its own. Not because it was part of the coordinated search but more because they were just saying, well, they're out there, it seemed to be a general area, we should go look in that area.

So is there a real belief that it went this way? Richard really hit the nail on the head there. Remember, remember, even what little bit you can get officially about this is that there was some kind of plane, they don't know if it was this plane, they just don't know what other plane it was, that seemed to be going this way giving some kind of signal. But an awful lot of the focus is going to remain back on that original search area.

It has to remain there for right now because the only solid facts we have is that it was over here. They know it was here when it disappeared and, if all these radar trails were so clear, if this was so obvious, Carol, how could it take six days to figure out that there is a radar trail?

That's information you have right away. This is I think again another measure of how much uncertainty there is about this, not that there is certainty of a western route.

COSTELLO: All right, Tom Foreman, thanks so much.

So let's bring in our experts to try to answer some of these questions. Law enforcement Tom Fuentes and Bob Francis, the former vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Before we dive in, gentlemen, here is what we know. At 1:07 a.m. Saturday morning, the plane's data reporting system shuts down. Just 14 minutes later at 1:21 a.m. the transponder sent its last signal. Now authorities believe they were turned off separately and deliberately.

So I'll start with you, Bob. Does that mean we can now rule out that some catastrophic event happened?

BOB FRANCIS, FORMER VICE CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: I don't think we can rule out much of anything. This is so complicated and there is so much unknown. I think, you know, we all love to speculate and we like to speculate responsibly and I just think that the kind of information that is out there now makes it enormously difficult to say almost anything for certain.

COSTELLO: But wouldn't those communications systems go down at the same time if the plane, let's say, exploded?

FRANCIS: Well, it depends on what communication systems you're talking about, too. If these are the systems that are reporting the engine parameters and functioning, that's one thing. If it's, if it's what the plane puts out ordinarily, other than that, you're talking about a different place.

COSTELLO: So, Tom, I want to talk a little bit more about the Reuters report. If it's -- if the Reuters' reporting is right, if these communication systems were shut off deliberately, someone, obviously, didn't want the plane to communicate to the outside world. The question is why and who.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: The problem, Carol, is that you have all these unnamed sources being quoted by various news services and we don't know if they're getting -- those sources are getting information from people third hand that are not immediately involved in this thing or closely involved. We just don't know the qualifications of the sources themselves and then the services put the information out and everybody runs around in circles based on source information that may or may not be true.

I think the biggest issue with this of whether it was hijacked or whether it was terrorist or whether it was turned off by the pilots on purpose, all of that hinges on the route that plane took. That's as much of a clue as anything and there's still uncertainty about that.

Did that plane, in fact, make the turn and start heading for the Indian Ocean or is it still possible that it's down over the Indian Ocean or the South China Sea, I should say or the Gulf of Thailand or over land in Vietnam in some jungle? That's still the biggest mystery of all and that alone will solve a number of issues of how did that plane get there and could it have gotten there on its own with nobody at the controls.

COSTELLO: OK, so, again, from this Reuters' reporting, the plane veered off -- I'm listening to you, Tom and Bob, I am. But this is what Reuters is saying. The plane veered off course supposedly toward the Andaman Islands, but it reportedly was still flying in a known flight plan. A route that takes planes to Europe or the Middle East.

So, Bob, what does that tell you? Anything?

FRANCIS: Well, if you take that as -- as being factual, I mean, one of the problems here, and I'm not answering your question because I can't really answer it, but I think -- I think that we should be looking at more in terms of the long-term and not just this accident. At the way in which this is being handled, the Malaysians are not doing a superb job of running this investigation. And they apparently give you some information and they withhold information.

How much are they relying on and listening to the Europeans and the NTSB who are there with more expertise? I don't know. But I think, you know, we've got a mixture of a very, very strange situation that happens to be in an -- a regulatory environment that really isn't capable or isn't running an investigation the way it should be run.

COSTELLO: Which is awful for the families. Although Richard Quest, Tom, did report that Malaysia finally agreed to turn over some militarily sensitive information to U.S. investigators and that should help, right?

FUENTES: Well, if they turn over everything -- and if the, you know, the FAA and NTSB investigators get to look at all aspects of all of the equipment and, also, we don't know the age of the radars. This could be really antiquated equipment and it's not easy even for the best experts to actually figure out what each blip means and where that plane was going. So there's a lot of -- a lot of factors along those lines.

I agree with Bob that this is not exactly crisis management 101 being displayed there. Now that doesn't mean the investigation may not be looking at all aspects aggressively, intensively and doing a diligent job but their reporting and their handling of the public reports of this, their public affairs or media affairs aspect of it has been terrible.

COSTELLO: That, I would think, is an understatement.

Bob Francis, Tom Fuentes, you're going to join me, again, in just a couple of minutes. Thank you so much for enlightening us. Always appreciate it.

In another new lead Chinese researchers say they recorded a seafloor even near the plane's last known location. It happened about 90 minutes after Flight 370 dropped off the radar. They say it could have been caused by the flight crashing into the sea, but CNN talked with one expert who disagrees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID GALLO, WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION: There's still not a shred of evidence that that plane has impacted the water or crash landed any place in that search area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And searches of that area have turned up absolutely no sign of the plane.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM new reports raise new questions about what was going on inside the cockpit of that missing plane.

CNN's Martin Savidge is inside a Boeing 777 simulator with a look at what the pilots may have been facing.

Hi, Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. What we've done is set everything up exactly as what we know from Flight 370. We're flying over the South China Sea and we're almost to the point they were last heard from. The story, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A new report from "Reuters" suggests that Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 was deliberately flown towards the Indian Ocean. "Reuters" cited radar data and unnamed sources. Malaysian officials say the plane's communication systems were shut off separately.

For a look at what might have happened inside the cockpit, CNN's Martin Savidge joins us from inside a Boeing 777 simulator.

Take it away, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Yes, good morning, Carol.

Yes, even though it is a simulator, it does feel when you're sitting here very much like the real thing.

Let me tell you what we have done. We set up the simulation as close to what we know as was going on with Flight 370. In other words, we took off from Kuala Lumpur about 45 minutes to an hour ago, we're following the highway in the sky that I think people have referenced. We're on this pink line right here you can see on the navigation system.

The reason we're not touching the controls is just like 370, we're on automatic pilot. We're currently up at an altitude of 35,000 feet. So everything that we know about the plane at the time it disappeared, we are sort of re-creating and reliving here.

Let's talk about some vital equipment. A lot has been said about the transponder. Where is it here? It is actually located right here, right beside me. Relatively small and looks rather obscure but it's vitally important.

Mitchell Casado is my pilot on this flight.

Mitchell, explain why the transponder is so important.

MITCHELL CASADO, PILOT TRAINER, 777 COCKPIT STIMULATOR: The transponder is so important because without it, the folks on the ground, the air traffic controllers, would not be able to determine where we are, where we're going and where we came from and how fast we're going and they need that for spacing information for (INAUDIBLE).

SAVIDGE: So, the people at home know on a radar screen, this transponder is sending out a message that says we're Flight 370, we're at this altitude, this speed and a lot of other information they need to know.

Can you turn it off? Yes, you can. Here's how you do it. Just three clicks to the left and it's off.

But you would never do that, would you, Mitchell?

CASADO: We would never do that.

SAVIDGE: Not in flight?

CASADO: Not in flight.

SAVIDGE: I mean, I think you associate -- it would be like driving the wrong way down a highway, that's how a no go this sort of maneuver is. But it can be turned off.

Let me show you something else this transponder can do. Put it back in the normal position. If I'd been hijacked, there was a way to use the transponder to send a code. I'm not going to do the code, but there is a code you can enter and immediately now we're transmitting this plane is no longer under the pilot's control. Every control center nearby, alarm bells are going off, right, Mitchell?

CASADO: That's right. It's going to send immediate alarm bells. It's going to be warnings and air traffic control unit in the area and they're going to be calling us asking why the transponder's off, why we put that code in. They're going to think it's the worse, hijacking.

SAVIDGE: We should point out, Carol, that allegedly, has not happened. In other words, we have not had any reports that that emergency code was used.

One last thing, we're on auto pilot. If I want today change course, as it suggested the plane did. If I did this, that's the alarm that tells me, the autopilot has been disengaged. I can turn it off and put us back on course.

So, in other words, you can't take this plane off course without somebody in the cockpit knowing it's happening -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So, a question that a lot of people asked me via tweet, why can you turn the transponder off?

SAVIDGE: Yes, that's a question I asked Mitchell. The same thing. Why can you turn this transponder off? I mean, if it's so vital, wouldn't you always have it on?

CASADO: You would. In flight, you would always have it on. The reason the off switch exists is just because when we land, as you taxi off the runway, you're no longer a factor for air traffic, so air traffic controllers no longer need to know where you are and they don't need to -- any of your information, you're just going to clutter up their screen. So, you turn them off to de-clutter their screens and no longer a factor.

SAVIDGE: So, on the ground, you don't need it, you switch it off. That's the reason it exists.

You also mentioned the shut down of some of the communication equipment. Just to show you where that stuff is, the radios, Mitchell, there are a number of radios, not just one, right? They're located right here.

CASADO: Here and here for the captain and first officer, we have VHF radios within range of ground stations. When we're flying over the oceans, we use what we call high-frequency or HF, and what that does because VHF radio used line of sight and because of the curvature of the earth, if we're out of range of wind, we can't reach those signals and they bounce off the --

SAVIDGE: Let me point something out here. You just don't turn these off like you do the transponder with an on/off switch. Those radius require a much more specific effort to turn them off, right?

CASADO: Yes, it's a much more complicated procedure.

SAVIDGE: Another system called the ACARS which communicates, tells the planes what it is doing. You can turn that off, again, too. But again, you specifically have to know what you're doing and that implies somebody who knew a cockpit and knew what they were doing, right?

CASADO: Yes, absolutely. If you're turning off the radios, if you're turning it off the ACARS, this is somebody who has in-depth knowledge, a very deep understanding of aircraft systems and operation that is going to be doing that. Absolutely.

SAVIDGE: We should say, Carol, I mean, we are still at altitude and if this were the real flight, we'd be landing in Beijing in about an hour, hour and 20 minutes. That, of course, never happened with 370 -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. Another question for you: the communication systems were shut down separately. What does that tell your pilot there?

CASADO: Well, if a malfunction did happen and it's extremely rare that that would have happened, there's about 13 or 14 redundant systems in this airplane, the systematic shutting down of those systems indicates to me that it was done deliberately by human hand. If it was a mechanical failure, it would have been shut off more than likely all at once, all the systems. But turning it off one at a time, that's a very strong indication that it was done by someone in the cockpit deliberately.

COSTELLO: OK, we're good. We're going to pause this conversation because I have to take a break, but it's so fascinating.

We're going to come back to you. So, Martin, stick around.

I'm sorry, sir, I didn't catch your name. What is your name?

CASADO: Mitchell.

COSTELLO: Mitchell. So, Mitchell and Martin, stick around. I'm going to take a break. We'll be right back with more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right. We're going to go back to Martin Savidge and pilot Mitchell Casado there in a flight simulator, and that copy of that Boeing 777, and they're now flying beyond the point, right, Martin, of where they lost track of that Malaysia airliner.

SAVIDGE: Right. We've gone now probably about, oh, just, (INAUDIBLE) here if you ca see it, is the area where roughly this aircraft was last known to report in. So, we went around that. We can come back it, again, if we want. It's a simulator, you can do whatever you want.

But the point is we designed this whole experiment here, if you will, to emulate in every way that we could, including the outside being dark, the flight of 370. The altitude is 35,000 feet. We took off from Kuala Lumpur, the plane flew all the way. We were it, and we're now on our way to Beijing, as was the original flight plan.

So, everything is set up in that particular way.

One of the things we should talk about, Carol, is the redundancy factor and it's something the pilot here had mentioned. This aircraft, the 777-200, it's designed to go long distances and be out in the middle of nowhere. So, they had multiple backup systems. Some have suggested maybe they lost power and electricity to all of this. There are backups to that, right?

CASADO: There are a lot of backups. So, the electrical system, for example, just that one system has six separate backup systems. The hydraulics is backed up eight times.

SAVIDGE: The electrical system, you pointed out to me, what's interesting, is that you got two generators on each of the engines, two engines. Two back-up generators and then you have the APU, it's another generator in the back of the plane, and if all of that failed, there is another manual little thing that pops out of propeller on the bottom of the plane that the spinning of the air would generate electricity. That's called a RAT, by the way.

Five to six different ways just to back up the electricity.

CASADO: Yes.

SAVIDGE: Hydraulic failure, how many systems for that?

CASADO: There's eight different backups for the hydraulics. Air- driven or pneumatic systems, engine driven, and electric, it just goes on and on. It's inconceivable that all those systems would fail at once and just complete failure like that. It's electrically dead airplane. That's unheard of. I've never heard of that.

SAVIDGE: No way to really stress to you, Carol, how much safety factor has been built and engineered into this aircraft, which is why for professionals like Mitch and others, it is so baffling. COSTELLO: One last question before I let Mitchell go, the role of all pilots -- aviate, navigate and communicate. If this plane, was, indeed, flying for four hours after it lost all communication, what does that tell you about what might have been happening in the sky, Mitchell?

CASADO: If a plane is flying, if it was off course and it was flying for four hours after last contact, someone's flying that airplane. Someone turned it off course. Someone was flying that airplane.