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Mystery Of Flight 370; Source: Police Searched Pilots' Homes; What Happened To Flight 370?; Group Blames GM For 303 Defect Deaths

Aired March 15, 2014 - 12:00   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, we have much more straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM and it all begins right now.

Investigators looking into the baffling disappearance of Flight 370 now have new information to go on. Here's what we know right now. Malaysia's prime minister said authorities have confirmed, quote, "With a high degree of certainty," end quote, that the plane's communication system were disabled deliberately.

He says the investigation is now zeroing in on the crew and passengers and today Malaysian police searched the homes of the pilot and co- pilot in Kuala Lumpur. U.S. authorities say they continue to review the backgrounds of the crew and passengers, but so far they have found no links to terrorism.

Satellite signals now indicate the 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 the plane likely flew along one of two distinct paths.

The first north all the way up to the border of Kazakhstan. The other south toward the Southern Indian Ocean. That information has substantially change the search area now.

So let's start with the latest on the investigation into what may have happened in the air and where this plane might be. Rene Marsh is following that live for us now in Washington. So Rene, where do things stand and to what degree are U.S. officials involved now?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So they are very involved especially in analyzing the data that they have there. That data is so critical because the bottom line is they need to find this plane. So new this morning, we learned that Malaysian authorities believed that for the last eight days, crews searching the South China Sea were possibly in the wrong area.

The search there has been called off and they are refocusing their attention to the west of the Malaysian Peninsula. Now the search for this missing plane just took a very major turn because of technology that both the NTSB and the FAA are making use of.

It's technology that we should say is not intended to be used to find a missing plane like this case here. But they are getting very creative because they can't find the plane and the space satellite is really providing some pretty good information on the plane's last position.

Now based on this new satellite data, the plane was intact and in the air for about seven hours after people on the ground lost all communications with it. So we have a new timeline for the path of this missing plane. Here is the new nugget to the timeline that was talked about in this press conference earlier morning. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAJIB RAZAK, MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER: According to the new data, the last confirmed communication between the plane and the satellite was at 8:11 a.m. Malaysian time on Saturday, the investigation team is making further calculations, which will indicate how far the aircraft may have flown after the last point of contact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARSH: All right, so according to that satellite data, as you just heard there the plane was detected in the air and intact more than seven hours after takeoff. But the satellite can only give them a general idea of where the plane is. It cannot give a precise location and as we were talking about earlier, the best way to describe how this all worked, is if you think of cell phone, you are in your car. You are driving. You have your phone on airplane mode.

If you have your phone on airplane mode, you are not necessarily getting data because you are not getting e-mails and you are not getting text messages. So think of this cell phone as maybe the systems in the plane. It was not transmitting hard data about the plane. Those towers that you may be passing in your car may be able to detect your phone.

And know that it is in the general area. That's pretty much how this is working as far as that satellite data goes. So Fred, they have a lot of work on their hands and still a very broad area that they need to search.

WHITFIELD: It is broad indeed. It seems like it multiplied by many thousands. OK, thank you so much, Rene Marsh. Let's bring in now CNN law enforcement analyst, Tom Fuentes also in Washington. So Tom, you know, in light of this new information, the plane may have been deliberately diverted. What does this tell you?

Because Malaysian authorities are also saying while they looked into the back ground of the crew, they see no link to terrorism. So what are some of the questions that they are asking now as it relates to the mysteries of the crew and whether the crew deliberately was part of this deliberate diversion or whether they were roped into it?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: What we are saying is you have them publicly stating and carrying out searches as the captain and co-pilot's homes last night. That doesn't mean this hasn't been an ongoing parallel investigation by the police and by other law enforcement agencies from the very beginning. The FBI was invited into the command post they established the first night this plane went missing. Those kind of inquiries and data checks on passengers and cargo began immediately. They waited until now to have enough in their legal system's justification to conduct those searches, but that doesn't mean that they are already weren't looking at bank accounts and internet files and e-mails, cell phone records and interviews with other people that knew the captain and crew.

You are talking about they have to investigate the 239 people that were on board and there is a couple hundred other people that may have access to that airplane. The people that bring in the food and clean the airplane and do the mechanical work on the airplane. Everybody that would have a hand one way or the other that affects that flight.

They also have to be looked at as well. So that part of the investigation began the first night it went missing. As I've said, you know, if you report your child missing to the police or the FBI, they don't tell you when we find the body, we will start the investigation. It begins immediately.

WHITFIELD: Tom Fuentes, thank you so much. We'll talk back with you later on in the hour. Thanks for now.

Coming up, we will talk more with a man who has been in the cockpit for more than 35 years and get a pilot's perspective on all this as well.

Plus as new attention turns to the pilots of Flight 370, we will tell you more about the men who flew that plane.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELF: Authorities in Malaysia say part of the investigation into the disappearance of Flight 370 is now focusing on the crew and passengers. Today Malaysian police searched the homes of the pilot and co-pilot in Kuala Lumpur. U.S. authorities say they continue to review the backgrounds of the crew and passengers and so far no one is saying anything about a link to terrorism. Gary Tuchman has a closer look at the men who flew Flight 370.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the men who were in charge of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53 years old and his first officer, 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid. Captain Shah is a very experienced pilot with 33 years under his belt at the airline. A source close to his family said police have been outside his home, but have yet to enter the house.

Shah said to have liked his job so much, he made his own flight simulator in his home. You can see it behind him in this YouTube video.

ZAHARIE AHMAD SHAH, CAPTAIN FOR MALAYSIA AIRLINE FLIGHT 370: Hi, everyone. This is the YouTube video that I made as a community service. TUCHMAN: The video actually has nothing to do with aviation. He was talking about household air conditioners.

SHAH: This video is to be used to optimize your compressor in order to reduce your electric bill.

TUCHMAN: First Officer Hamid is a much less experienced pilot. He has flown for Malaysia Airlines for just over six years, but is relatively new on the 777. You can see him here on the white co- pilot's seat. Coincidentally CNN's Richard Quest recently shot a story aboard the plane Hamid was flying. Richard's visit to the plane was of course authorized, but a South African passenger had a much very different kind of visit to the co-pilot's cockpit.

(Inaudible) said in 2011, Co-pilot Hamid and another pilot invited her and a friend to sit in the cockpit for the entire flight from Thailand to Malaysia.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We boarded the plane normally with all the other passengers and went to us our seat. A short while after taking our seat, air hostess came to us and asked if we would like to move into the cockpit and after which we did, and that's where we spent the flight.

TUCHMAN: Malaysia airlines said they are shocked by these allegations, but certainly has more urgent investigative priorities now, which will undoubtedly check into the background of this captain.

SHAH: If your system is suffering any kind of leakage, there is no cold air coming in --

TUCHMAN: And his first officer. Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, some have described the search for Flight 370 as going from a chess board to now a football field. It is huge. A lot of territory to cover.

Let's bring in Captain Dave Funk, a retired Northwest Airlines pilot. He is in Des Moines, Iowa. It's good to see you. And also with us is Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general at the U.S. Department of Transportation joining us from Charleston, South Carolina. Good to see you as well.

All right, so Dave, you first. Based on the information we received in the last few hours that this plane may have flown an additional seven hours after going off radar. The altitude fluctuated from 30,000 to 45,000 and then dipping again. Is any of this information encouraging to you or discouraging?

CAPTAIN DAVE FUNK, RETIRED NORTHWEST AIRLINE PILOT: It's neither. Similar to the crash years ago. The aircraft isolated or oscillated in attitude because that's what dynamically stable airplanes do. Having seen these kinds of things, it basically tells me the auto pilot was probably not functioning. Yesterday, you know, a lot of us believed the auto pilot was functioning based on the information that's come out. But now it looks like perhaps it was not. That would to me be indicative of what I thought all along is that they had some sort of insipient or slow developing electrical problem, perhaps an electrical fire disabled the pilots and slowly knocked out systems not having them all drop off line instantaneously.

WHITFIELD: So you are talking about a plane malfunction as opposed to a deliberate act of shutting things down and being able to disengage to auto pilot and take it where they wanted to go?

FUNK: Exactly. If you lose multiple systems, one of the less important things is the auto flight system. It's not going to be on the emergency or the primary buses that power the captains and the first officer's avionics. It will drop off line. If we had a minor fire and the compartment and the electrical compartment, if there was a massive fire down there, these are some of the things and the systems you would lose.

That airplane could fly along for a long time with just the engines running based on the fact that it's an airplane and it's stable. It's going to go up and down and seek an air speed when this event occurred. I'm not there yet on the idea that is primarily or most likely a terrorist event. The longer this goes, the less likely to me as past investigation and supported investigations and as a security guy who deals with these issues regularly. I just don't see it.

WHITFIELD: OK, so lots of theories on the table especially since we don't really have any hard fast evidence to go in any one direction. Let's put all of them out there. So Mary, to you then if the Malaysian authorities were saying that they do believe this is a, quote/unquote, deliberate act, a deliberate action here and say the pilot or someone was able to commandeer this plane decide to, you know, take it off auto pilot and radar and then travel.

If we are talking about a flight that was already destined for Beijing. It was roughly a four to five-hour flight from Kuala Lumpur, is it conceivable that there would be enough fuel to divert and stay in the air for seven hours without any kind of problems and have a little extra fuel to land if potentially that was the plan?

MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: No, the range of the 777 is 7,200 miles. The 777 needs 40,000 U.S. gallons of jet fuel. At seven hours, it's done for. The Malaysian authorities are making no sense at this point. I question whether they believe their theories, I think they are grabbing at straws. There is so much dirt in the data, the data degradation, it contradicts itself.

By Monday I think China and U.S. evaluators will have better data. So this data is not reliable at all. But if Malaysia authorities believe what they are saying, this would be a large hijack on a Malaysian carrier, why have they not shut down Malaysia Air like we did after September 11. There would have to be five or six hijackers on board to carry this out. They went in the belly of the plane that's in the passenger cabin to get there. They would have had to secure the passengers and they would need weapons and tools. This is a huge hijack plane. If they believe it, Malaysia Air should be shut down immediately.

WHITFIELD: So you see it's inconceivable that of these two routes that were given from Malaysian authorities. If it went north to Kazakhstan and Afghanistan region where it's very mountainous terrain and very treacherous, you don't think it would be reasonable, plausible at all that someone would commandeer this plane and be able to know that region and say I can find 7,000 feet to land this plane?

SCHIAVO: No and especially since I don't believe the pilot with 18,000 hour, an amazing number of hours, that's more than U.S. major airline captains have. That flying was not somebody with 18,000 hours if the data was right. I don't believe the data was right. It would take someone greatly experienced to land someplace like that and it wouldn't be by this pilot. Somebody flying that poorly couldn't have taken it where they say it might have gone. I just don't believe it.

WHITFIELD: All right, Mary Schiavo, Captain Dave Funk, not done with you yet. We will take a short break and continue this conversation because it is very fascinating. These various theories whether it's sinister or intentional or whether there was mechanical failure, just simply a terrible accident and it's taking a very long time to get to the bottom of it.

We'll have much more as we look into this investigation. Hundreds of family members and people around the world meantime are fascinated and heartbroken because there so many passengers on board. They too want answers right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Continuing our conversation now on what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. It has been eight days now since it vanished after taking off for Beijing with 239 people on board. No sign of the Boeing 777.

So back with me now is Captain Dave Funk, a retired Northwest Airlines pilot and Mary Schiavo, former inspector general at the U.S. Department of Transportation, and herself a pilot. Malaysian officials have been criticized for how they handled this investigation and how they have been unwilling at first to share a lot of information with other countries and investigators.

So Mary, is this unusual or is this to be expected? Is it to be expected that Malaysian authorities would want to take control of the investigation and not share as much?

Sorry about that. We lost Mary's signal there. So Captain Funk, in your view, is it unusual for Malaysian authorities to at first be a bit reticent to share information?

FUNK: Well, it's a cultural divide. I have been down in that part of the world and what are norms and expected maybe in the United States or Europe or Australia or Israel is not necessarily the case down in Malaysia. I don't really fault them in that regard. It will take a while to sort out.

Until we have the airplane located, a lot of everything we are talking about are theories and I think it's early to claim it's one thing or another. I personally look at it and just the facts as they add up, what we are hearing and there may be more, it keeps pointing to a slow developing problem with the airplane.

WHITFIELD: Let's talk about some of those things. Before the break, you know, talked about responding to some of the things such as, you know, Malaysian authorities saying this plane may have been in the air for some seven hours after losing contact and may have gone right or left in terms of north or south. It could have landed if it had gone north. That was the speculation that many are entertaining.

You say most likely there could have been some sort of engine problem or mechanical failure. If that plane were to have gone in that southern route that has been thrown out there by Malaysian authorities, in your view, would experienced pilots such as what you had on this flight been able to manage this plane over the Indian Ocean and over any body of water if there were mechanical problems for it to be in the air for seven hours.

FUNK: Yes, if they were in the air for seven hours and ought over the ocean it's because they were no longer in the control of the aircraft. My guess is most likely crew incapacitation. If there were hijackers on the airplane, it will take several people to do this. They either had to be stowaways which I think is unlikely. There was no space they could hide and not be noticed on the ground.

The logistics of planning an operation of that nature are much more difficult than would appear in Bruce Willis "Die Hard" movie. That being the case, it keeps pointing back to mechanical and electrical mechanical problems with the airplane. Like the Payne Stewart crash, the whole crew and all the passengers could very have been incapacitated in this airplane because it is generally a stable airplane.

It will fly fine without your hands on the controls and without the auto pilot on and turned towards it with positive demand and stability. This thing could go on for seven hours slowly rising and descending. It could be anywhere. They can take an untrained terrorist or minimally trained hijacker and have them fly this airplane and it's a pretty low level of probability. They are out over the water and they are in the water.

WHITFIELD: All right, Captain, just to help refresh some of the memories of people, for the Payne Stewart, as they continue up in elevation. Ultimately everyone on board had been passed out. They all died as a result of that fluctuation. All right, thank you so much, Captain Dave Funk. Appreciate it. Captain, thank you so much.

FUNK: That's OK. WHITFIELD: All right, a shift in the investigation after evidence indicates Flight 370 appears to have been diverted on purpose according to officials investigating. We will tell you what police are doing today in Malaysia to find out more about the pilot.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, major developments now in the hunt for that missing Malaysia Airlines flight. The search are has now shifted and it is huge. Here's what we know. We know from satellite information that the plane may have flown for another seven hours after the last contact with the pilot. At that point the plane was in one of two possible corridors.

One stretching as far north as Kazakhstan and another as far south as the Indian Ocean. We are told U.S. investigators are using an unprecedented approach to analyze satellite data and try to figure out the plane's most likely location now.

Our Andrew Stevens joins us now live from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where police carried out searches in fact today inside the pilots' homes. Andrew, what have you learned today?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Fred. While the search run south at sea, the investigation on land is certainly wrapping up as well. Police raiding the pilot's and co-pilot's homes today. The pilot is 53-year-old. Police took away several bags of evidence we understand as they did at the co-pilot's home as well.

A bit of background about the pilots. The chief pilot is a 53-year- old community-minded man, by all accounts. He had a flight simulator in his home, which would be of particular interest obviously to police at this stage of the inquiry. A few questions are being raised, why is it taking eight days to actually get into the home of the captain and the co-pilot, but that has been carried out.

Investigations also into the other 237 people who were on board that plane. The prime minister said in the press conference today that all evidence points to the plane being deliberately flown out across the Malacca Strait and either going left or right. So the hijack theory is certainly in play at the moment, Fredricka.

All the passengers are being looked at. We don't know the extent of the investigation, but obviously it will be ramping up now that we have this new information, confirmed information.

WHITFIELD: And also while the crew are being investigated, so are all of the passengers. Investigators are looking into the backgrounds of all of the passengers and all those names that were on the manifest. Apparently one passenger belongs to an ethnic group called the Uighurs. Why is that significant?

STEVENS: Yes. This is a 35-year-old Chinese man. Now the Uighurs are an ethnic minority. They are Muslim ethnic minority that hailed from the far northwest country, a province called Xinjiang. That actually came into China's control when the communists took over back in 1949 and there has been an independence movement since 1949.

The Uighurs, the separatist movement have planned responsibility and have also been blamed for several attacks on the Chinese police most recently blaming them for a horrific attack on a train station where some 30 people were stabbed to death. So there is a history of the separatist movement that has carried violent attacks on the Chinese mainland.

There was a Uighur on the plane. What we know about that man is that he is a university professor. He has a PhD from a university in Britain. He is currently a professor in Turkey. We don't know why he was going home. I should add Fredricka that there has been in the past few days a claim of responsibility by a Uighur group apparently.

I say apparently because no one has actually heard of this group before and that was pretty much dismissed straight away and the claim came through. In the light of the fact that there has been deliberate actions taken in the cockpit in the light of what we now know and everybody is being reinvestigated including this gentleman. But at this stage, we don't know any more than that.

WHITFIELD: And Andrew, I'm going to bring in Nic Robertson into the equation. He is also in Jerusalem, but I do want to follow-up, Andrew, with you. In what way was this claim of responsibility conveyed before it was knocked down by the Uighurs?

STEVENS: I can't tell you that. All I know is the authorities were made aware of it and it did come out. As I said, it was pretty quickly dismissed.

WHITFIELD: OK. All right, so Nic, there a lot of theories and everything is being thrown out there. Some of the information coming from officials there in Malaysia. Other authorities from other countries involved in the investigation have also thrown out a bit of information. This latest information coming from Malaysian authorities that are showing two different routes that potentially this plane may have taken.

It may have gone north or may have gone south into the southern portion of the Indian Ocean. Let's talk about Kazakhstan. You are familiar with that region and how mountainous it is. If that plane were to have enough fuel to get there intentionally, if it were able to land in the general region, what would this mean based on some of the sources you have and people you talked to? What would this potentially mean that this plane would have some intention possibly to go to that region?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's really -- Fred, I have to say a lot of speculation at the moment. One would imagine if a group had taken a plane lot of people hostage, there would be demands for the release of these people. Would it be a group and there is no basis for us to be at the support. Would they be trying to extort something?

What we know about the track or at least the best estimate that they would have gone from Northern Thailand and Miramar and across the west of China to the plateau across the desert through the Turkestan's airspace and on to Kazakhstan's airspace. Where it is on the track is kind of what's interesting partly about this track that it flew.

They thought it may have flown across western chine. China, one would expect them through the radar system to be able to pick up unidentified aircraft and respond to it. It would have intersected with what was a hijacking a year and a half ago in December of 2012. It was blamed on Uighurs on a flight flying across that western bit of China. Again, it's hard to get substantial details.

There is a Uighur community and tensions between the north and the south between the ethnic groups. A very mountainous country for sure. The places to land the planes would be tough. Kazakhstan may be easier to land an aircraft there, but again a government that substantially had resources and you expect them to have a long reach in terms of radar or know what's going on there.

WHITFIELD: All right, Nic Robertson, Andrew Stevens, thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate it.

So many different theories and so many possibilities. So little information coming out and trickling in on day eight after the disappearance of that flight. We will have more on the search for this Malaysian Airlines plane coming up.

But first General Motors in this country facing a criminal investigation into a defect that caused deadly accidents that prosecutors are asking what did the company know and when did it know it. Our legal guys are next on the case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: An auto safety group says more than 300 people have died because of a defect in GM cars that are part of a recall. GM disputes that saying the company is aware of 12 deaths associated with the faulty ignition switch that causes cars to shut off and disable air bags. Our Deborah Feyerick has the latest.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, GM is under the microscope after recalling more than 1.6 million vehicles in North America. Both the House and Senate are calling for congressional hearings. A U.S. attorney in Manhattan is reviewing the case for possible criminal conduct.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK (voice-over): The 29-year-old Brooke Melton was driving down the highway. Without warning her 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt shut down and crashed into oncoming traffic. She died of her injuries.

KEN MELTON, DAUGHTER DIED IN ACCIDENT: I knew in my gut there was something mechanically wrong rather than a mistake on her part.

FEYERICK: Her father, Ken Melton, was right. The ignition had essentially slipped into accessory mode, effectively cutting almost all power to the car. (on camera): If GM knew had it had a problem, how soon should it have warned drivers, the consumers?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As soon as they knew, immediately.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Records suggest GM knew about the defective ignition for more than a decade. A service bulletin was issued in 2006. Only last month did GM recall more than 1.62 million vehicles to correct the problem. When the engine shuts down, air bags fail to deploy. The car is difficult to control.

PETER LEISS, ENGINEERING EXPERT: Right now the car is running and I have the power assist and as you can see it's quite easy to turn the wheel. Now that the car is off, I don't have power assist and now it's very difficult to turn the wheel.

FEYERICK: In a letter to employees, the new CEO recently said they acted without hesitation. It appear that is not only did GM know, so too did federal regulators.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They knew there were deaths by 2007 and injuries.

FEYERICK: Joan Claybrook once admitted that the federal agency was responsible for highway safety. She say GM and transportation officials discussed the ignition problem seven years ago.

JOAN CLAYBROOK, CONSUMER ADVOCATE: A special investigation team went to investigate a crash in Wisconsin. In the course of doing that, they discovered that the ignition switch was in the accessory position. You can run the radio, but not the car. The Department of Transportation met with General Motors in March of 2007 and talked about it.

FEYERICK: In a statement to CNN, they said no investigation was initiated because, quote, "the data available at the time did not contain sufficient evidence of a possible safety defect trend." The Meltons don't buy it. Brooke had taken her Cobalt to a car dealer to fix the ignition shutoff days before she died on March 10th, 2010.

MELTON: I'm bubbling over. I am overwhelmed by anger. If we had just known this information, my daughter would still be here today. You can just imagine how that makes me feel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: Under the terms of GM's 2009 bankruptcy and subsequent government bailout, GM may not be legally liable for any injuries or deaths prior to 2009 because the old GM no longer exists. Consumer groups are fighting to make sure GM does the right thing to compensate those affected by the ignition defect -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much, Deborah Feyerick. Let's bring in our legal guys to talk more about this case. Avery Friedman, a civil rights attorney and law professor in Cleveland. Good to see you and Richard Herman, a New York criminal defense attorney and law professor joining us from Orlando.

All right, Avery, you first. How will federal prosecutors move forward with this case if we are talking about GM knowing about this ignition problem seven years ago? Will prosecutors be zeroing in on the lapse of time between GM knowing about it and when the first death or the first set of deaths took place?

AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, even before that, Fredricka. The question everyone is asking, but the riveting legal issue here is because there is an engineer report back in 2001, GM reported in 2004. That report suggests and that's why the U.S. Attorney's Office is looking into it. Not on a civil matter, but on a criminal matter. Most of the stuff surfaced from product liability litigation. This came out and the U.S. Attorney has it.

The question will be whether or not executives and engineers and managers, will they be criminally responsible for this for something, Fredricka, that would have only cost $2 to $5 to fix and taking care of it 15 minutes and it was never done.

WHITFIELD: My gosh, Richard, GM calls this new report linking the defect to 300 plus deaths "pure speculation," quote/unquote, but does this new information increase pressure on the automaker?

RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It does, Fred. The investigation by the Department of Justice in New York as well is both criminal and civil. They are looking into what GM knew, when they knew it and whether or not GM covered this up. They attempted to mislead the investigators about this. That's the big inquiry here. If they find GM tried to cover it up or mislead it, you are going to see criminal charges brought.

Now during the 10-year span, I think GM got about 260 complaints, about 13 deaths are attributed to this faulty ignition, which means you are driving down the road and all of a sudden the ignition shuts off. Attribute it to six models of GM and what did they do about it? That's the inquiry. It's a gut wrenching story. You just heard this individual talk about losing his daughter. It's devastating and looks like GM should have done a lot more than they really did here.

WHITFIELD: Avery, both the House and Senate committees plan to hold hearings about the timeliness of the recall. What can we expect from that? How might it impact the criminal and civil case that Richard was alluding to?

FRIEDMAN: Well, you know, that's very interesting. The U.S. Attorney's Office looking into it for criminal charges. GM officials will be called before the House and Senate subcommittees. They have to answer questions nearly April to NITSA on the safety questions. What are they going to do? If they respond, there may be criminal implications. They will take the Fifth Amendment or what are they going to do?

So the civil and criminal are interacting actually smashing into each other in a riveting question. What are the officials going to do in being responsive, but not putting themselves in criminal jeopardy? WHITFIELD: All right, thank you so much to my two great legal minds here and professors. Appreciate it. Thanks so much. We will have more of our coverage of these new questions today about the fate of Flight 370 to wrap it up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: New information and a new focus in the search for that missing Malaysia Airlines plane. CNN has learned that police searched the pilot's home in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday and this is video of police leaving the co-pilot's home right there. The investigation is now zeroing in on the crew and the passengers after Malaysian authorities said the jet appears to have been deliberately diverted. They stopped short of calling it a hijacking.

Another new development, the search area is now expanded as far north as Kazakhstan and as far south as the southern portion of the Indian Ocean. This comes as satellite information shows the plane may have flown another seven hours after the last contact with the pilots.

In China, the state news agency said two Chinese war ships one equipped with under water robots are now headed to the Strait of Malacca to continue searching for the plane. They are expected to arrive later on today.

Another two Chinese war ships are expanding their search south to the Gulf of Thailand. So what is the likelihood that the plane went down on land and what are the most reasonable scenarios about what actually happened? Ahead in the next hour, I will ask two aviation attorneys.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Doug McDermott is great in star player. A two-time All American and he is only the eight player ever to score at least 3,000 points in a college career as that would have been a high first round pick in last year's NBA draft, but he passed up million to come back for a senior year to make a deep run in the tournament and play one more season for his dad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHOLES (voice-over): Basketball is a passion in the McDermott household at an early age.

DOUG MCDERMOTT: Being around his teams all the time and often times I carried that home with me. I always had a ball in my hands.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Low, low, low! Quick, quick!

SCHOLES: In 2010, Doug enrolled at Creighton to play for his dad and balancing the father, son, coach-player relationship, became a challenge to the family dynamic, especially at first.

MCDERMOTT: It's tough as an 18-year-old. I was just coming out of high school and a lot of 18-year-olds want to get away from their parents. It's normal. I realize the opportunity we had.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Inside, inside, inside! You had it in the post. Six seconds you kicked it up. Just go make a play. The challenge for Doug was to separate the fact that this voice that has been my father's voice is also my coach's voice during parts of the day. Doug, after that you have to get out of there and find your man.

MCDERMOTT: Very rare do I call him dad. He's in my phone as Coach Mac. I don't know if I will change that.

SCHOLES: But at home Coach Mac has to go back to being dad. Not all. Why? Because mom said so.

GREG MCDERMOTT, DOUG'S FATHER AND COACH: He knows what I need to know and what I don't need to know. In the end it's what's best for Doug.

SCHOLES: In the NCAA tournament, they know the once in a lifetime opportunity.

GREG MCDERMOTT: You look at him practicing and the clock is ticking. I'm trying to cherish it. Not many of us look back on our and say we spent too much time with our parents. A lot of us would like to go back and spend more time. Doug saw it as an opportunity to spend another year with the family.

SCHOLES (on camera): Since he passed coming back for the senior season and you are putting it here, is there a reimbursement plan?

GREG MCDERMOTT: He said he calls me coach mac unless he is asking for a few bucks. Then how about a little something for dinner. I will send him a bill at some point for that.

SCHOLES (voice-over): Andy Scholes, CNN, Omaha, Nebraska.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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