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Passengers' Families Wait, Hope; Malaysia: Plane's Turn Appears Deliberate; Key U.N. Vote Ahead of Crimea's Vote; Search Area for Flight 370 Expanded; Malaysia: Plane Disappearance Appears "Deliberate"; Crimea Independence Vote Set For Tomorrow

Aired March 15, 2014 - 11:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right good day to you all. Thanks so much have a great one. I appreciate that. It is the 11:00 Eastern hour of the CNN NEWSROOM which begins right now.

Two big breaking stories this hour: first, the hunt for Flight 370. We're learning more about the potential path of that flight and what may have happened on board the plane. Our extensive live coverage of this fast-moving story all day right here on CNN.

Plus, this hour, world powers prepare to take decisive action against Crimea's vote to leave Ukraine. Just one day before that referendum while thousands take to the streets in Crimea and Moscow and the atmosphere is intense.

We begin with new clues to the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. There have been major developments over the last few hours. Here's what we know right now.

Malaysia's Prime Minister says investigators have confirmed with a high degree of certainty that the plane's communication systems were disabled in a deliberate act to commandeer the jet. He says the investigation is now zeroing in on the crew and passengers. Malaysian police searched the home of the pilot today in Kuala Lumpur. U.S. authority say they continue to review the backgrounds of the crew and passengers but so far have found no link to terrorism.

Satellite signals now indicate the play plane may have been airborne for seven hours after it lost contact with ground control. And radar shows dramatic changes in altitude during that time.

Officials have also concluded it likely flew along one of two distinct paths. The first, north all of the way up to the border of Kazakhstan; the other, south toward the southern Indian Ocean. And that information has substantially changed the search area.

We have correspondents covering these new developments from across the globe. Andrew Stevens is in Malaysia and Rene Marsh in Washington. Let's begin with the latest on the investigation with Rene Marsh, following that live from Washington. Rene where do things stand right now?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Fred, the search for missing Flight 370 has really taken a drastic turn. It appears for the last eight days crews searching the South China Sea they were simply in the wrong area. They are ending the search there and refocusing their attention to the west of the Malaysian peninsula.

Now, everything just took a turn because of technology that both the NTSB and the FAA happen to be using. It's technology that wasn't intended to be used for this particular purpose but it is giving them a whole lot of information on the missing plane's last position.

Now, based on this new satellite data, the plane was intact and in the air seven hours after people on the ground lost all communications with the plane. So now we have a brand new timeline for the path of the missing plane. We already knew that the plane stopped transmitting data about the health of the plane and the engines, about 25 minutes after takeoff. Then 14 minutes later the transponder shuts off. The two systems went off separately. And Malaysian authorities think there may be something to that.

Take a listen to this press conference just this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAJIB RAZAK, MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER: These movements are consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane. Today, based on raw satellite data, which was obtained from the satellite data service provider, we can confirm that the aircraft shown in the primary radar data was Flight MH370.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARSH: All right so he is saying that they can actually confirm that that was the plane. Now, based on that new satellite data, the NTSB and the FAA are looking at, it further supports that Flight 370 did indeed, head towards the West and it -- they say that they detected it until about 8:11 a.m.

Now that is so critical because with the amount of fuel we know that the plane had and it's detected to be in the air more than seven hours after takeoff, it was likely very close to running out of fuel.

Now, Fred, one last point -- they know the general area of the plane. But they're still unsure how much further it was able to fly after the satellite got that last ping.

WHITFIELD: So Rene, if this satellite information could determine the plane was in the air or it's been flying about seven hours after losing contact, if they can determine possible trajectories, paths, can -- is there going to be satellite imagery that will actually be able to detect an exact path, be able to locate that aircraft where it may have gone down or even possibly landed, ultimately?

MARSH: Well, so now based on that new satellite information, they have this large, very large general vicinity of where this plane could be. The problem is, it doesn't tell them precisely where the plane is. So -- so they will have to dispatch search crews in that area. The reason why they can't pinpoint it is because that original system that we said shut off at around 1:07 in the morning, shortly about 25 minutes after takeoff, as well as the transponder that also shut off 14 minutes later, that kind of equipment would give them more detail that this is Malaysia Flight 370. They would have that kind of solid information.

Because those systems were not working, they don't have that solid information. But they do know that the plane's system was in the vicinity. How do they know that? The best way for me to try to explain this is, take a look at this here. So this is your cellphone. You know when you have your cellphone, if you switch it into airplane mode, you know that your cellphone is still on but you're not getting data, you're not getting text message, you're not getting e-mails.

So those towers as you're driving in your car with your cellphone possibly in airplane mode would still possibly be able to detect your phone but it just wouldn't be transmitting data. So that's kind of the situation that we have here with this plane and its system.

But again, they still aren't able to pin point exactly where it is, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right fascinating stuff. Thank you so much Rene. We'll be checking back with you.

Of course, there's a whole lot of other information that's coming out of Malaysia as well. Our Andrew Stevens is live in Kuala Lumpur with more on that. So Andrew we heard from the Prime Minister about this satellite tracking. What else are we learning from investigators there?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we're learning also from the Prime Minister when he spoke a couple of hours ago was that there was going to be an intensive refocus obviously on the manifest, both the crew and the passengers the 239 souls on that plane and starting with the pilot and the co-pilot. And we have seen plainclothes police, Malaysian police leaving the home of the co-pilot the 27-year-old co-pilot carrying plastic bags.

We have also been told that police have also been at the home of the pilot. We do know a little bit about the pilot at this stage, Fred. He's a 53-year-old. He's senior. He is experienced, more than 18,000 hours of flying. And talking to people who know him and people who live near him, he does sound like something of a pillar of the community. He is very focused on environmental issues. He helps underprivileged children. He has three children of his own. He's, in fact, a grandfather.

He's also a bit of a geek, we're being told. And that fits in with news that we have known for a while that he has his own flight simulator in his house. And he also puts out YouTube clips, self-help YouTube clips as well.

So he's obviously someone who enjoys what he does. We're told this. He's got a passion for flying. And police have been there in the last several hours and have taken evidence away. At this stage, that's all we know. But there's nothing to suggest, at least at this stage, any links, any concerns that the police may have. Obviously they're going to have to go through every personal manifest so much more closely now to see whether they can find any links to anybody who would --

WHITFIELD: All right. Sorry about that. We lost our transmission there with Andrew Stevens. When we get that back up we'll try to resume that conversation with him coming from Kuala Lumpur.

All right coming up, what we can learn from the past that will help potentially solve this mystery of Flight 370.

And next, what the clues are telling us in the plane's disappearance. If this was deliberate, how does that change the search?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back.

Another new twist in the hunt for missing Flight 370 -- the search area has now changed. In fact, it's expanded exponentially. Satellite information shows the plane may have flown another seven hours after losing contact with ground control. Investigators think it was traveling along two possible corridors, as you see there. At that point one extending as far north as Kazakhstan the other as far south as the southern Indian Ocean.

Chinese officials are demanding that Malaysia give more specific information about the new search area. China's foreign minister says the country is sending its own technical experts to assist in the investigation.

So with this search area now widened, what clues have become more crucial in discovering the fate of Flight 370? I'm joined now by Tom Haueter, he is a former NTSB investigator and I'm also joined by CNN's safety analyst, David Soucie.

So this plane has been missing now more than a week. And now the focus has shifted to this disappearance being a deliberate act, as we heard from the Malaysian Prime Minister.

So Tom, you first, without a plane in your view and all the tools that are available that are being used to figure out where it is and what happened, are you satisfied with how the investigation so far is pinpointing these two possible corridors?

TOM HAUETER, FORMER NTSB INVESTIGATOR: Well, this is just a huge area. It's going to be very difficult to search all of it, obviously. What's going to be needed now is a major international effort to gather all the information from all the countries in this corridor area, all the data that's out there, civilian, military, everything, to look for it. This is going to be a massive effort.

WHITFIELD: And so, David, you know, we're not talking about information, satellite information that is better pinpointing. Instead, we're talking about an area that is much greater than what had been the focal point. So how in the world will investigators try to zero in? I mean the north corridor versus the south corridor. You're talking about potential land overseas. What kind of assets are going to be necessary in order to kind of pinpoint the potential whereabouts of this plane?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: As Tom said, trying to get all the information in one place is absolutely critical. The one piece of information I think that they're going to be focusing on right now is trying to gain altitude information as to what altitude the aircraft was flying at. And so far, I don't think we have very reliable information about what altitude that aircraft is flying at.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Well, why would that matter? Because we did at least hear that there was a fluctuation of altitude. That at 30,000 it may have been coasting, then suddenly it may have gone to 45,000 and then back down. What do those things tell you?

SOUCIE: There are very important clues in the altitude information and where to search. And that is that if it's a low altitude the fuel efficiency of the aircraft goes to such a low range that that would really limit the search. So if it has been flying at a low altitude the amount of fuel it reserves on the aircraft had been drastically diminished. Whereas if they would have been at a high altitude --

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: So then when you hear that it may -- sorry about that. So then when you hear that it may have been flying for seven hours after the point of loss of contact, does that sound reasonable for that size plane, that type of altitude?

SOUCIE: It does if it's flying at its designed cruise altitude. Now, again, if it's not at the designed cruise altitude that could be significantly reduced if it's been trying to avoid radar, if it's been flying at low altitudes like we originally suspected.

WHITFIELD: And so Tom, let's talk about these two potential routes. If we're talking about going further north over land, Kazakhstan, and what we saw on that map. And we talk about this potential altitude between 30,000 and 45,000 feet. We're talking about also mountainous terrain in that region. What potentially is possible in this seven- hour flight in that region at that kind of altitude?

HAUETER: Well, if we're working with seven hours a lot of things are possible. Now we're into a scenario and it's over enough landing areas that is it possible the airplane is on the ground? We don't know. Seven hours is a long period of time. I don't know where they're getting all of this information. I wish I did.

SOUCIE: Yes.

HAUETER: But this opens up so many different aspects of this that now their over significant land mass, there are places to land an aircraft that size on this route that I see. It's not just open ocean, so the whole thing becomes much more complex.

WHITFIELD: Ok. And you're in agreement with that, that there are potential landing spaces and that very mountainous region that we're pointing out in that northern kind of path in your view as well?

SOUCIE: I'm sorry. Was that me?

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SOUCIE: Yes. Well, I'm not familiar with that area, as far as landing goes, but the thing that's changed in my mind is that previously when we didn't think there was that much range that aircraft would have had to land at night. At night you would have to have a developed airport to land that aircraft.

Now we're talking about daylight hours, so that does change the scope of where it may have landed.

WHITFIELD: Ok. All right, David, Tom, I want to ask you to hold on a moment. We're going to take a short break. And we're also watching another major development in the situation with Crimea and the U.N. Security Council right now. You're looking at live pictures.

They are voting on a U.S. Draft resolution that really would declare Sunday's planned referendum, a vote that just simply wouldn't count no matter which way it goes. We'll have much more on that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We'll get back to the mystery of the Malaysian Flight 370 in a moment. But right now the U.N. Security Council just voted on a resolution to declare a critical vote in Crimea invalid. Richard Roth is live for us now at the United Nations. Richard, what happened?

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Russia just vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have declared the Crimea referendum on Sunday illegitimate, invalid. There was just a very fierce war of words which is going on right now. It's almost like 1961. U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power giving Russian Ambassador Churkin a history lesson in the way Washington sees things after Ambassador Churkin of Russia, after his veto. Actually he spoke before the veto, laid out a case why Crimea used to be a part of Russia and should legally be a part of Russia and not Ukraine. This resolution is now dead.

This is a seventh meeting of the Security Council since this crisis started. A very large number of sessions as much of the world here tries to highlight how Russia is isolated. China which usually votes with Moscow abstained. On the Syria crisis China has vetoed several resolutions along with Russia. This time it abstained.

That key phrase Fredricka about the U.N. charter and how every country's territorial integrity must be respected -- China is always very concerned about that phrasing. So it went along by not joining in the veto. All it takes is one veto and Russia killed this resolution -- Fredericka?

WHITFIELD: All right. Richard Roth, thank you so much. Wait a minute, before let you go. Will there be another attempt at this?

ROTH: Well, one ambassador this week told me we don't intend to do multiple meetings and multiple vetoes. Of course, things can change after the Crimea Referendum and how Russia reacts after that.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you so much.

So again, the planned referendum still on schedule for tomorrow in Crimea parliament there already voted to join with Russia.

More on that later. All right. Thank you so much, Richard.

All right. Meantime, let's talk more about this mysterious disappearance of Malaysian Flight 370, where is it? The Malaysian Prime Minister had released details within the last 24 hours that it appears as though that plane may have continued to fly for seven hours and it appears may have taken a left turn and gone either north toward Kazakhstan or perhaps south in the southern Indian Ocean.

Let's talk more now with Tom Haueter, he's a former NTSB investigator; and also -- we're also joined by CNN safety analyst, David Soucie. So gentlemen, let's resume that conversation because, you know, that's very telling and very mysterious information coming from the prime minister, that there are satellite imagery that they are leaning on that tells them about this potential path at least taking a left, not long after takeoff there as we look at the map there in that illustration and then possibly flying for some seven hours more either going north toward Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, or possibly south over the Indian Ocean.

Let's talk more about if it were to go over land, David, I believe both of you actually were in concert that there were potential landing points over land even though we're talking about a very mountainous region. We're talking about this 777. It needs, what, up to 7,000 feet in which to land? Where are those potential landing locations over land, there David?

SOUCIE: You know, again, I'm not familiar with the terrain specifically. And again, we don't know which way it went. So speculating on where, the potential to land because it's daylight, I think that's important to point out. If it was still night, if it was still dark and we're talking about a dark area, I find it nearly impossible to think that that aircraft could have landed in an undeveloped area at night.

During the daytime, the chances are there, the possibility of that are dramatically increased.

WHITFIELD: And Tom, in your view, is this hopeful information or does this only make it murkier, more confusing because we are talking about a vast area. This has now widened the search area as opposed to pinpointing it.

HAUETER: I think that it does make it more confusing because you've added several more hours to the flight time which makes the area much bigger. I lean against it being on land because, one, it's kind of hard to hide a 777 somewhere in the world with all the other equipment on board. If it had crashed on land, the ELT would have deployed. But we don't have a lot of data here unfortunately. So we really don't know. WHITFIELD: Ok. And that is the quandary. We're approaching day nine now on the disappearance of this flight. Very huge plane, 250 people on board. And really the world is fascinated with how in the world something so huge can just simply vanish, just disappear.

So as we talk about the investigation and either the cooperation or perhaps lack of cooperation between Malaysian authorities, now China authorities say they have another means in which to add assets to this and the U.S. as well. Whether the U.S. or Chinese are involved here, they, too, are going to have a difficult time, Tom, trying to figure out, do we focus on north, do we focus on south?

How do you suppose they come up with a plan? What are they looking at? What are the elements to try to discern where to focus on first here with this new information?

HAUETER: Well, the problem is, I don't think you can focus on north and south. You have to go after everything. The only thing to do is to once they get in, get with all the entities involved here. All these different country, get all the data together and start sorting through it. That's not going to be easy, quite frankly.

Having various military to provide information and everything else is going to take a lot of work and a lot of cooperation. What we need here is data. And it's going to take a lot of very dedicated effort to do that.

WHITFIELD: And, David, it would seem, without a plane it's difficult to collect this data. But if there is at least satellite imagery that shows or at least Malaysian authorities are saying it shows at least this plane may have been in the air for seven hours, it may have gone either north or south, is there not satellite imagery that would be able to detail even more about this flight?

While, you know, Rene Marsh was making comparisons with say like for a cellphone, you might be able to track its whereabouts, you may not be able to retrieve data or information. Can't the same be applied to an airplane, that perhaps it can be located even if there isn't information, detailed information, being disseminated from it?

SOUCIE: Not much but the ACARS, Aircraft Communication and Reporting System is designed to provide that information. What we're relying on now as I understand it is the SatCom, which is the communication part, the antenna. It's talking but it doesn't have any information going because the ACAR system is not sharing that information.

It's really not designed to give a lot of information just from a satellite look. So now if we had ACARS data, and that's what we don't know if we have or not, hopefully they do have some but, if that transmission is coming across and giving them any information. But from what we've heard in the past the ACAR system is not on and they're not receiving any more information than just the fact that "I'm here and I'm trying to communicate with you."

WHITFIELD: Tom Haueter, David Soucie, thank you so much, gentlemen. Appreciate it. I know we'll be talking with you again throughout the day. Appreciate your expertise.

All right. This is one of the biggest mysteries in aviation history. What happened to Malaysian Airlines Flight 370? Investigators are digging into every angle including terrorism.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, new information and a new focus in the search for that missing Malaysia Airlines plane. CNN has learned police searched the pilot's home in Kuala Lumpur Saturday and our CNN team is there on the ground saying this, what appears to be two police vans were also seen leaving the co-pilot's home.

The investigation is zeroing in on the crew and passengers after Malaysian authorities said the jet appears to have been deliberately diverted. But they stopped short of calling it a hijacking. Another new development. The search how has now expanded as far north as Kazakhstan and as far south as Southern Indian Ocean.

This comes as satellite information shows the plane may have flown another seven hours after the last contact with the pilots. Malaysia Airlines calls this an unprecedented situation and in a statement saying this, the airline said it is committed to being transparent and share information with family members and the public.

U.S. sources tell CNN that Malaysian officials are limiting the amount of information, however, that they give out due to national security concerns. A U.S. official said those limits, quote, "are understandable and we aren't pushing for more," end quote.

I want to get reaction now to that from CNN law enforcement analyst, Tom Fuentes in Washington and aviation attorney, Mark Dombroff, in Washington. All right, so Tom, you first. Does this suggest that Malaysian authorities are being as forth right as possible and, because of national security reasons, they can only provide so much information and the U.S. understands that? Am I interpreting that correctly?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, I would say so, Fredericka. The other countries have different systems and different rules governing the amount of information they can put out publicly during an investigation. And, you know, they have different privacy rights and thresholds of probable cause and, you know, technical legal limits as to what they can do and when they can do it.

So I think in this case, in terms of searching the pilots' homes, you know, the authorities have finally reached a point where, given the latest information, that human hands flew that aircraft, first, in an erratic manner but then in a long distance, that it was time to take yet another or additional step towards looking at the pilots' homes.

Now they could have already without our knowing been searching their bank account, phone records, internet accounts, e-mail records. You know, even without that. But you know, you know, they may have wanted to look at their personal computers within the house or see if there's any other, you know, information that might lead to them to believe they were going to fly that aircraft to some particular location that's not normal for Malaysian Air to fly.

WHITFIELD: And so, you know, Mark, this is -- even though, you know, Malaysian authorities are saying they believe that this was a deliberate act, no one is really pinpointing motivation yet, but very similar to a crime scene that most people are familiar with, it appears as though investigators are looking at those who are closest to the plane, the crew, passengers, just as you would if a crime took place at someone's home you would be looking at re-evaluating all the residents of the home.

So what in particular, Mark, in your view, will they be looking for or have they been looking for as they go to the homes of these crew members? What sort of things would be sending off red flags? Because we understand from a lot of pilots it's not so unusual to have flight simulator in the home, but there might be other things that would seem suspicious to authorities? Like what?

MARK DOMBROFF, AVIATION ATTORNEY: I think actually they're looking at the things that anybody would look at in the context of criminal investigation. It's very similar to any investigation that would take place in this country. The first thing that is looked at, is there a criminal act involved? Once the criminal act issue is resolved, the FBI steps aside and the NTSB in the context of U.S.

Accident, will in fact push through the investigation, drawing upon the FBI if they need their assistance technically or scientifically. So I would certainly expect that they would be looking at things like e-mails or notes or any computering or any type of documentation found in the home because you still have two investigations going on here.

You have the accident investigation, and right now we're obviously in the search mode, and you also obviously have the criminal investigation on a parallel basis going forward, which one of these investigations may ultimately take precedence really remains to be seen at this time.

Although certainly the information we're getting from the Malaysian government would suggest that it's first and foremost right now a criminal investigation, but that does not address all of the issues in terms of what happened, how did the airplane get to where it was? Nor does it address all the questions that obviously the family members have.

WHITFIELD: Mark, real quick, do you have a gut feeling on this based on the information that we've received in the last few hours?

DOMBROFF: It's probably no better than anybody else's gut feeling in terms of being speculative. Certainly the broad indicators would suggest that there's something involving deliberateness or intention here. But in terms of speculating why it happened, where it happened, where the aircraft flew, it's very difficult to talk about straight lines as many people have been suggesting.

I think what we're really talking about is a large circle of possibility here. And it will present itself and it will get figured out. And I know it's frustrating that we don't know where the airplane is, but it will be located.

WHITFIELD: Tom, do you have a gut on this? I mean, if this plane was commandeered the way authorities said, deliberate intent, it was able to make that left turn, possibly go right and not left, clearly they had, you know, some real expertise in being able to manage this plane, wouldn't your gut say they would go toward land and try and already have a plan mapped out.

If this was, you know, part of some master plan, that there would be some kind of plan to pinpoint an appropriate place to plan if they were in the air for several hours and possibly over land up to Kazakhstan?

FUENTES: OK. I would start my answer the same way you started the question. If, if this, if that, if the next thing, and there are so many ifs still that we don't know positively. Even now, knowing that if, again, if it's true that human hands caused that plane to go up down and other directions and human hands controlled that aircraft for an additional six or seven hours of flight.

Then that tells you that either the two pilots or someone else got into that cockpit and took over the aircraft and made this happen. So, you know, that could be, again, back to the beginning, if all of that is true, it could be a hijacking, it could be pilot suicide, it could be any of that. You know, we just don't know.

We don't have enough accurate facts. One thing I would like more accurate facts of is the flight track that takes that everywhere from the Antarctic area to the Indian Ocean to the top of the Himalayas. That plane could have crashed into Mt. Everest if you look at that flight path on the map. That entire white area in the upper part of that colored map is the Himalaya Mountains.

WHITFIELD: Right.

FUENTEST: So it's either 15,000 feet at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, could have crashed into a jungle or it could be sitting in the Himalayas somewhere 25,000 feet elevation.

WHITFIELD: Very treacherous area. All right, lots of question marks. Thank you so much, Mark, Tom, appreciate your insight.

All right, the referendum on Crimea, on the Crimean independence. It is scheduled for tomorrow. Is anyone going to take the result seriously? Will it turn up the pressure on the west to impose sanctions? All that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, it seems no matter what the international community wants, the Russian-backed referendum for Crimean independence will go ahead as planned tomorrow. Just a few minutes ago, the United Nations resolution declaring the referendum invalid failed in a Security Council vote and the government in Kiev is now taking away the authority of Crimea's regional parliament. Russian President Vladimir Putin says he won't make any further decisions on Crimea until after tomorrow's vote. Western countries are still threatening heavy sanctions against Russia over a vote they say is not legitimate.

Joining me now is Ian Bremmer, he runs the Eurasia group. They consult with governments and companies with advice on political developments. All right, good to see you, Ian.

IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT, EURASIA GROUP: Hi.

WHITFIELD: The U.N. was unable to pass this resolution that would declare tomorrow's vote illegal, would it have mattered one way or the other in you view?

BREMMER: Well, the Russians get a veto, so I don't think that surprises us. The only thing that was interesting is that the Chinese chose to abstain. Otherwise, it was everyone with the United States on this. The Chinese vote is important in the sense that the Russians have been saying publicly that the Chinese are with the Russians in recognizing their interest in Ukraine.

Clearly the Chinese want absolutely no part of this conflict. But the key issue is that the Russians are going ahead with the referendum. The Americans -- the threats of punishment coming from the U.S. and to a lesser degree from the Europeans are not in any way standing them down.

And in addition to lots of military exercises on the borders, we've seen considerable statements escalating from the Russian Foreign Ministry talking about treatment, mistreatment of ethnic Russians in Eastern Ukraine. And the fact that they would consider requests to intervene on their behalf. So all arrows right now are pointing towards very serious escalation of this crisis.

WHITFIELD: How do you interpret this referendum tomorrow? We understand the ballot is worded in a rather peculiar way saying that Crimea has a choice between independence or joining Russia. Sort of a loaded question? Do people feel they're very compelled to go ahead and say we want to join Russia?

BREMMER: Yes. I think it's clear. You've got all of these Russians and, slash, non-Russian troops on the ground in Crimea. You have the head of the new Crimean parliament that the Ukrainian government has just said has dissolved. I mean, both sides are escalating here. And clearly there's going to be -- I would be stunned if you don't get 80 percent in favor of joining Russia here.

And the Russian government will then surely recognize that outcome which will not be recognized by the United States or the Europeans. And this seriously undermines the territorial integrity of the Ukrainian government. But from the Russian perspective, the Ukrainian government is not legitimate.

Remember, there had been a deal signed by European foreign ministers with the old Ukrainian President Yanukovych and the opposition, that deal was aggregated. The Russian perspective is that was a coup and Yanukovych is still president. So if you really want to take a legal perspective here we are completely at an impasse between the two sides.

WHITFIELD: Interesting, fascinating stuff. Ian Bremmer, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

BREMMER: Sure.

WHITFIELD: All right, coming up, new information that is helping potentially either narrow or widen, depends on your point of view in the search for this flight 370. Chad Myers maps it all out next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We have learned there is a new search area that is the focus of crew members looking for Malaysia Flight 370. This is not it, but our Chad Myers is here to help us understand how this applies to that new arc, that trajectory of where this plane could have potentially gone.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You have a GPS in your car.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

MYERS: And I have one too. It knows how high I am and knows how fast I'm going. It knows everything because it has more than one satellite pinging it. There is a car, put it in the middle of Nebraska somewhere. That satellite pings it here and here and here and we know the middle where all three cross, the car has to be right there.

Now if we only had one satellite, we wouldn't know there is one or two. We would know it would be along this line. Here's what we have and where the new arc came from. We woke up and said we have a new arc. The red line is a ping from a satellite that was right there. I don't know where along this red line it is because we only have one ping, but we know the distance.

It's somewhere along here. That's where the big arc is coming from. Think about this red line. But one more thing that's how much fuel the plane had. So it couldn't go further than that. That's why the arc doesn't go to Africa because there wasn't enough gas in the tank. Unless something happened on the ground where they filled it up more than they were going to because they were going to Beijing.

WHITFIELD: That would have been a four to five hour flight. They are saying it could have been in the air seven hours past the point where they lost contact. So that's a lot more fuel and something mysterious or interesting or fascinating is happening there.

MYERS: At 8:11 in the morning, the same day that the thing took off at somewhere along this red line there was a ping. We don't know if it was flying that way or that way. All we know is that the plane pinged right there, there, or there and all the way up and down. This is mountainous terrain. WHITFIELD: So that's the northern route if it would take that route. We know south, incredible depths. You see floating debris or something, but finding that is going to be like --

MYERS: Do you really think they took this plane and flew it for seven hours to crash it? If they were going to crash it, they would have crashed it in 10 minutes. It doesn't seem like this would be the likely scenario because there is no place to put it. There are some islands here, but literally not very many places to put it.

WHITFIELD: So then let's talk about the northern area because if it was your intent to take this plane, to commandeer it and land it potentially, if this is the area, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan, incredibly mountainous. This is unbelievable for any pilot to be able to land a 777.

MYERS: But also fairly well protected by military installations. They would have probably have this thing coming, right. But all of this area up in here is not so rough. We are talking about the Tibetan Plateau here. Obviously nowhere to put it. You are not going to put this thing on Mount Everest, but there could be places up here to the north.

WHITFIELD: You need something between 4,000 and 7,000 feet to land a 777. I understand.

MYERS: You know, an 80-mile desert and you land the thing as good as you can.

WHITFIELD: Right. Fascinating stuff. All right, Chad Myers, thank you so much. It's great perspective. Appreciate that.

All right, more coverage of the new questions now today about the fate of Flight 370 after this.

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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS GRUNDY, HGTV/DIY NETWORK: Hi. Chris Grundy with HGTV and DIY Network in snowy Denver, Colorado. Follow me as I give you travel tips in my town, the Mile High City. On a cold day, there is nothing like a hot brunch, stupid style. One of my favorite dishes, the smothered breakfast burrito. Can't wait. Look at stupid as you need.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It hits all the favorite foods all over the country.

GRUNDY: I'm looking around. Very retro.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It has that late 60s early 70s feel.

GRUNDY: Digging into the burrito. Time to work off some of that grub here at the Evergreen Ice Skating Rink. This place is 8-1/2 acres with 12 hockey rinks and a giant free skating area. My leg, thighs and quads are on fire. Denver has about 50 microbreweries. You can't go to Denver without sampling a little bit of brew.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have imperial stout and triple IPA and black gold, the imperial peanut buttercup stout.

GRUNDY: I heard that you had and that's good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every cake has a pound of peanut butter cup.

GRUNDY: There you have it a perfect day in Denver. For "Travel Insider"