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Uncovering New Clues to Malaysian Airlines Flight 370; Police Searched Pilots' Home; Russia Vetoes U.N. Resolution on Crimea; Tracking Flight 370; Meet Wheelchair Pool Champ Mark Jones

Aired March 15, 2014 - 13:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, again, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in the CNN NEWSROOM.

We're tracking all the latest developments in the search for that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. So let's get straight to it.

Here's what we know right now. Malaysia's prime minister said the evidence points to the likelihood that someone inside the plane deliberately took the plane off course and the investigation will now focus on the crew and passengers.

And this is video of police leaving the home of the plane's copilot. The pilot's home was also searched. 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 others south towards the southern portion of the Indian Ocean. And that information has substantially changed the search area. It is now quite huge.

We have been learning so many new details in the last few hours so let's get to the latest on this complex and constantly changing investigation.

Rene Marsh is following the story from Washington.

So, Rene, what is the big focus. If there is one singular big focus on this investigation, what is it?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, the singular focus, Fred, is what it has been for the past eight days. It is trying to find the exact location of this plane because they still don't have a good handle on that.

So the search in the South China Sea is ending. We know that as of this morning. They are refocusing their attention on the west of the Malaysian Peninsula. Now they're making this major move based on some new information from the NTSB and the FAA. Now the agencies, they're getting really creative. They're using satellite technology. Never intended to be used for finding a missing plane. But based on this new satellite data the plane was intact and in the air about seven hours after people on the ground lost all communications with the plane.

Now the data suggests this. It suggests that the plane's last known location was as far north as Kazakhstan and as far as south as the Indian Seas. So now we have a brand new timeline for the path of this missing plane. It took off at 12:41 a.m. on Saturday Malaysian time. It remained in the air until 8:11 a.m. We already knew that the plane stopped transmitting data about the health of the plane 25 minutes after takeoff.

And then 14 minutes later, the transponder, which essentially tells air traffic control, that this is Flight 370, we're flying at this specific altitude at this specific speed, that equipment shuts off. So now two systems shut off separately and Malaysian authorities said today they found that suspicious. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAJIB RAZAK, MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER: This movement 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 MH-370.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARSH: All right, so, you just heard there. Malaysian authorities, they're suspicious that these two systems went off at separate times. But let's just say there was a fire on board. It is conceivable as the fire spreads the systems could go out separately. But then you have a lot of other things that would make sense like this plane changing altitude. So a lot of things are unclear at this point.

We do know that the altitude at one point appeared to be at 45,000 feet and then it descended down to 23,000 feet.

So, Fred, lots of questions. But the good news is, based on the satellite data, that the NTSB and the FAA had been analyzing, they at least now have a general broad area of where to start to look.

WHITFIELD: My goodness. But it seems like the area is just even much larger.

MARSH: Yes.

WHITFIELD: So it doesn't seem like they're pinpointing it at all. Just in -- finding it if they got more work to do.

Rene Marsh, thank you so much.

We're going to talk more about this trying to figure out all of these new facts and figures, and theories and scenarios. Malaysia Airlines said today the disappearance again, quote, "is truly an unprecedented situation for Malaysia Airlines and for the entire aviation industry," end quote.

I think everyone has an agreement on that, especially my next two guests. Justin Green is an aviation attorney and a private pilot. Good to see you. And Mary Schiavo is a former inspector general with the Department of Transportation. Hopefully you're there -- there you go. Now I can see you both.

All right. She is also an attorney for victims and families of transportation accidents.

All right, Mary, let me begin with you because we got cut off earlier today with our signal problem. So do you trust the information coming out that this plane could have been in the air for an additional seven hours? You're nodding your head already no. Why?

MARY SCHIAVO, AVIATION ANALYST: No. You know, the range of the plane is 7,250 miles. It could have stayed in the air seven -- you know, a certain number of hours, but at that point they are out of fuel, they would have to refuel. And -- what I don't trust especially is the data because the data is just not consistent. It conflicts each other. The plane either went north.

The route to Kazakhstan is over the Himalayas. There 100 mountains in the Himalayas higher than 23,000 feet. And the plane was purposing the route south to Antarctica. So even if you intended to go to Antarctica, you cannot land there in March. So the -- there's something wrong with the data. They need to sift through the data and -- and get the correction out, what they call harmonize it. Then I can trust it more. But right now I don't trust the data. The plane needs 45,000 gallons of Jet A fuel. They could not have re-fuelled.

WHITFIELD: Wow. OK. So, Justin, what do you trust about the data? Anything?

JUSTIN GREEN, AVIATION ATTORNEY: Well, I'd have to see the data. Mary is right. There is a lot of questions -- the release of that data actually shows. One of the things that I think she just said you have to smooth the data, someone has to interpret the data and see whether it's reliable and I think the other thing is you have to think about whether China would see this airplane if it was flying up towards Kazakhstan and there is really no indication of that. So I think it's a lot more questions. Every time they release information, it creates more questions.

WHITFIELD: So what sort of tools are available that haven't been used or utilized thus far? We talk about the satellite information that the Malaysian authorities say helped them to determine these two routes. If you don't know where to look for the plane, you can't search for the ping or you can't detect them, could you, Mary?

SCHIAVO: Well, they are doing that now with the various satellites. And there are many other countries that would have satellite data and private satellites, communications companies, so they can expand the data by bringing in other satellites, but then you've got to have brilliant minds and I think both China and the U.S.'s, you know, some great minds are working on smoothing out the data.

So you have additional sources from the satellite but the most important source, the Malaysian authorities have apparently not tapped. And then if they truly believe what they're saying, this is a huge hijack operation where someone went in the belly of the plane and fixed the electronics or tampered with them, and they had someone on board flying and the navigator, and they have someone to control the 237 people in the cabin who would have fought back against knives like, you know, on 9/11.

Then you better be investigating Malaysia Air. You should be grounding it immediately because this is a huge plot. And I don't see them investigating Malaysia Air, and that's a huge hole.

WHITFIELD: OK. So, Justin, then if we -- if we ruled out, just based on my conversation with you, if it sounds like, and especially what Mary is saying about, you know, the near impossibility of this plane flying into the Himalayas, and all that, then if we look south on that other trajectory, that other route, and we're talking about the southern Indian Ocean which is vast, which is incredibly deep, what kind of assets would be involved or needed in order to try and find a jet in that massive water?

GREEN: Well, you know, there is an expression, a needle in a haystack. And that really doesn't even describe what we're dealing with here because given this -- the vastness of the -- of the ocean and the vastness of the area that this airplane could have been, a needle in a haystack would be an easy thing to find. So there's a lot of information and if it went down in the water which likely is -- it may even be an accident.

If ships sees a piece of wreckage then that will be able -- you know, that will cause them to be able to narrow their focus. But until they can narrow the focus area which they can do with satellites and with other areas if they see anything --

WHITFIELD: And how long does that take?

GREEN: -- that could have a --

WHITFIELD: Why has that not happened yet?

GREEN: Well, I -- you know, I just think they don't know where to start looking. They are -- they have the satellites, you know, image working. But they just don't see anything. So once something is found, whether it's by satellite or it's by a fishing troller, that's what -- that's what's going to result in the finding of this airplane. They will find the airplane at some point.

WHITFIELD: All right, Justin Green, thank you so much. Mary Schiavo, thank you, as well.

Justin, I know I'm going to see you a bit later on in the hour as well.

GREEN: Yes. WHITFIELD: Thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.

GREEN: Thanks a lot, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So we're talking about eight days now of searching. And authorities in Malaysia are focusing some of their attention on the pilots, as we mentioned, of Flight 370. We'll go live to Kuala Lumpur for the latest on what they're learning about them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Back to these new developments in the hunt for Flight 370. Malaysian officials announced today that the evidence indicates Flight 370 appears to have been diverted on purpose. And that's put renewed focus on the people inside the plane.

Our Andrew Stevens joins us now live from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where police searched the pilot and copilot's homes.

And, Andrew, are they revealing any more about what they collected in those bags when they left the homes?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not at this stage, Fred. The entire investigation by police has been very low key in the fact that there is very little information coming out. In fact this whole investigation over the past eight days has been characterized by a very slow flow of information coming out.

What we can tell you is that CNN reporters were out at the home of the copilot, the 27-year-old copilot, and they saw what looked to be the plainclothes police taking away bags of we can only assume as evidence or certainly documents of interest for the police. And we've been told by the police unofficially that the captain's home, the pilot's -- the main pilot's home has also been searched by police.

Now we do know a little bit more about the captain. He is a 53-year- old, a man described as having a passion for flying, which included having a flight simulator in his house. And that is likely to be of particular interest.

Now one question that has been causing some puzzlement is why has taken eight days for the captain's house to have been searched? The late -- the briefing from yesterday said that police still haven't been on to the property. They now have. Now as far the pilot himself is concerned, I said, he's got a passion for flying. He's also seen to be something of a pillar of the community. He's certainly -- he's got a following online. He puts up YouTube clips of do-it-yourself items around the house.

So he's quite, quite active in that front. He's also been helping underprivileged children. He's also been quite active in environmental issues. So he is a man who is quite busy within his community. A father of three children. In fact a grandfather. He has one grandchild.

So that's what we know at this stage, Fred. It's all a bit sketchy details at the moment. But as I said, the Malaysian Police is certainly not forthcoming in their information.

WHITFIELD: Right. And, Andrew, what about the passengers? Obviously officials are examining, looking at the backgrounds of all of the passengers. Is there anything that stands out that they're willing to share?

STEVENS: Well, then again, not at this stage they're willing to share. There has been speculation and somewhat a confusion about the passengers list. Did it or did it not include a member of the Uyghur community. The Uyghurs are an ethnic group, a Muslim ethnic group that live in the south -- excuse me, the northwest of China. Considering that more than two-thirds of the passengers on that flight were Chinese.

If they can confirm, there may have been a Uyghur on board, they will be a person of interest almost automatically because the province in which the Uyghurs mostly lived is a province called Xinjiang and there has been a very active separatist movement coming from that province. They have been linked to several attacks. They've claimed responsibility for some. And they've been blamed by police for others.

Now police say it was a Uyghur separatist group that's carried out in the attack in Kunming train station just a couple of weeks ago. A horrific attack, 30 people were stabbed to death on a train station. That has not -- they have not claimed responsibility for that, I should add, but certainly the police are putting the blame on the Uyghur separatists.

But if there are Uyghurs on board, obviously they will be investigated thoroughly. All passengers are now being investigated thoroughly. The prime minister said today that the focus -- the re-focus, if you like, of the investigation is now very much on the crew and the passengers because of what the prime minister calls evidence of deliberate action in the cockpit to take that plane out into the western Malacca and out into the Indian Ocean.

WHITFIELD: All right. Andrew Stevens, keep us posted there from Kuala Lumpur.

All right. Now let's talk more about the focus of the pilots of that plane. Let's bring in Terrence McCoy, foreign affairs reporter at the "Washington Post," an aviation attorney Justin Green who is a private pilot. He stuck around to talk some more on this.

So let's talk about the various scenarios. I mean, everything really is on the table. But let's talk about the potential, I guess, investigation involving the pilots, looking into them whether they were forced into diverting the plane. Whether terrorism is something that is being entertained here or was it simply something catastrophic, an accident.

Terrence, you wrote an article about pilots and suicide. Are you seeing any hallmarks based on the information we have about the potential whereabouts of this plane to what you find to be the commonalities involving any kind of pilot suicide missions? TERRENCE MCCOY, FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORT, WASHINGTON POST: Well, it's difficult to draw any commonalities of any pilot suicide mission because the data sample is so small right now. Over the last two decades in the United States, there have been about 24 cases of pilots committing suicide. And that's over thousands and thousands of pilots and planes. So it's almost impossible to draw any sort of commonalities between them because the population is so small.

What is known, though, is that every single pilot in the United States who has killed himself in the last two decades using his airplane have been both male and middle aged. And that small demographic does fit the pilot of the Malaysia Airlines plane.

WHITFIELD: OK. And, you know, since we've heard from the Malaysian prime minister that they have reason to believe that there was -- there was some sort of deliberate action that led to why this plane went off course.

Justin, as you hear the dialogue about whether it could be pilot suicide that's entertained here, whether it's some a catastrophic failure, whether terrorism, hijacking, is there anything based on the information you've heard thus far that has you leaning toward any of those scenarios?

GREEN: Well, from the pilot's background, we're not hearing what we would expect to hear if this person was associated with the terrorist group or -- if this person was going through a very terrible time and had kind of suicidal tendencies. So we haven't heard anything that suggests that. You know, he does fall into that demographic to the extent that you could call it, of course, I do too. So the next question is, I think -- I think what's really the reason to focus on that is you've got an armored cockpit door. Right?

So the idea that the passengers can take over the cockpit before the pilots would be able to radio a distress call, before the pilots would be able to change the transponder code to indicate that there was a hijacking going on, and then the passengers who took it over would have to know enough about the systems. So the easiest way that -- the pilots are in the best position to take over the cockpit, to turn off the transponder, to disable the ACAR system.

So I think that's really the focus on the pilots. It's nothing -- nothing about them personally is coming out.

WHITFIELD: And, you know, Justin, earlier, when you and I were talking about Mary Schiavo, she brought up a pretty interesting point which was if indeed this was a deliberate act, if there's something very sinister taking place, if there was a hijacking, act of terrorism, all these are big ifs, and Malaysian authorities have enough to at least say that this was a deliberate act, why wouldn't they ground all Malaysian Airline flights? Why wouldn't there be, you know, a stoppage of all, you know, flights if not temporarily?

GREEN: Well, I guess what they're suggesting I think is that somebody took over the airplane. I don't think that they're suggesting -- they're not even suggesting it was their pilots and they're not -- they're certainly not suggesting that there's a major conspiracy. So I don't see anything. I mean you could do that out of extreme caution, but -- to the idea that there was a number of professional pilots -- you have to understand professional pilots are among the most scrutinized groups of people in the world. They have to get -- seen by medical regularly. They have to go through checks regularly.

So if someone is acting odd, if somebody has problems, its most likely they're going to find out. So I tend to doubt that -- if it's pilot involvement, you're talking about one. Probably not two of these pilots.

WHITFIELD: All right, and Terrence, before I let you go, in all of your reporting, is there anything that is indicating what a -- more reasonable gut feeling should be here?

MCCOY: Well, I just want to --

WHITFIELD: Based on the people you've talked to?

MCCOY: I just want to reaffirm what was just said just now and that the fact that these pilots are some of the most scrutinized people across -- across the nation and across the world. In the United States, pilots have to undergo examinations every six months if they're over the age of 40 and every year if they're under the age of 40.

In Malaysia this is actually the same. They are held to the same standards. They have to undergo chest exams, hearing exams, eye exams. When I look at the Malaysian examination files, I did not see anything that seem to indicate that they undergo any sort of medical or mental evaluation of any sorts. It was purely physical.

WHITFIELD: OK. We'll leave it there. Terrence McCoy, Justin Green, thanks so much, gentlemen. Appreciate it.

GREEN: Thank you very much.

MCCOY: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Another big story we're following for you today. People in Crimea are just now hours away from a controversial -- referendum, rather, that could have them breaking away from the Ukraine. Next, we'll go live to the U.N. for the latest on a push to invalidate that vote.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. We'll have the latest on the disappearance of Flight 370 in just a moment, but first another big story we're following this weekend, the crisis in Ukraine.

We just learned from Ukraine that about 60 Russian troops in helicopters and with armed vehicles crossed into a region of Ukraine that borders Crimea. Ukraine officials say its borders' guards have taken defensive positions. This comes just after the United Nations Security Council voted on a resolution that would have declared Crimea's upcoming vote invalid and but that vote happening tomorrow.

We're talking about the referendum now will give people in Crimea the choice to join Russia or become independent. The U.S. said that move is illegal. But Russia has supported Crimea's vote.

And when it came down to the U.N. Security Council vote today, everyone was watching the Russian ambassador.

Senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth is there for us live.

So, Richard, take us through what happened at that vote today.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Well, on his way into the Security Council Russian Ambassador Churkin told reporters with a smile no surprises here today. So everyone knew for sure that Moscow would be vetoing this Ukraine-Crimea referendum resolution.

As you stated, the resolution would have affirmed the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and declared this referendum in Crimea invalid and would have asked all member countries of the U.N. not to recognize the results.

The Russian Ambassador Churkin put his hand in the air and this resolution was DOA. China's ambassador abstained which pleases some Western countries that were glad that unlike with Syria, China could be peeled away from Russia regarding voting on these crises matters. But the real action is overseas and individual countries' sanctions and European Union sanctions are likely.

However, there was a fierce exchange of words, Cold War style, between the Russian delegate and the U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power. A lot of it came down to who's telling the truth on what's going on in Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMANTHA POWER, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: Under the U.N. charter, the Russian Federation has the power to veto a Security Council resolution. But it does not have the power to veto the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: The Russian ambassador said the people of Crimea should be allowed to determine their own determination really and their own freedom. There was a large exchange about history and World War II and who shed blood.

It was a wide-ranging scathing attack by countries that sometimes keep it behind closed doors, Felicia. And then as the meeting was under way, there were reports of Russian troops making an incursion into some territory near Crimea, a neighboring border area.

The Ukraine ambassador telling the Security Council about it then later explaining to reporters also that some 40 to 60 Russian troops have come across with three armed vehicles. He says this is outrageous, U.S. Ambassador Power kind of denounced what she was hearing. They get their word from -- by phone calls and other messages from the military people over there.

The Security Council is poised to meet again. This was their seventh meeting, Felicia. We'll see what happens overseas after the referendum.

WHITFIELD: All right. Richard Ross, didn't know you knew my middle name. Thanks so much.

(LAUGHTER)

All right. Now let's get reaction from Russia.

CNN analyst and Russian journalist Vladimir Pozner joining me live now from Moscow.

OK, so, Vladimir, it was expected that Russia would veto this vote. But how does it set the stage for tomorrow's referendum vote?

VLADIMIR POZNER, CNN ANALYST: It doesn't change anything. The vote is going to take place. It's I think pretty logical to expect that the majority will vote for the independent and joining Russia. You consider that 60 percent of the population there is Russian. Probably the Tatar population is 24 percent will either abstain or vote against it, but the majority is going to vote for it.

Now what that will lead to ultimately is anyone's guess, but the way things have been shaping up, it looks very much like Russia will then say all right, you want to join the Russian Federation, you are an independent country now and therefore we have the right to say OK, fine, we'll help you do that.

And that's the scenario that I personally don't think it's going to be a very good one for anyone involved. But it looks like that's going to be move unless President Putin has something up his sleeves, some kind of deal that will be acceptable to Ukraine and to the United States and the West in general.

WHITFIELD: All right, Vladimir. And so people are given an option, independence or to join Russia. Do you have any doubt that people would be voting for independence?

POZNER: Well, I think that probably the majority are going to say we want to be with Russia because it's such a -- it's a small peninsula. Being independent means what? Economically they don't have much. They are going to be dependent anyway on someone for energy, for all kinds of things. And probably Russia in that case would be their choice if they want to be separate from Ukraine. And it seems to me that they do.

WHITFIELD: All right. Vladimir Pozner, thank you so much from Moscow. Appreciate it.

All right. Also we are tracking that mystery surrounding the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. In just a minute, we'll look at where investigators now think the plane may have gone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. For an update on mortgages. Rates are down from last week. Take a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. As of this hour, it is now day nine in the search for that missing Malaysia Airlines plane. And here's new information and a new focus that we can share with you.

CNN has learned that police searched the pilot's home in Kuala Lumpur and this is video of police leaving the copilot's home. The investigation is now 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 area is now expanded as far north as Kazakhstan and as far south as the southern Indian Ocean. This comes as satellite information shows the plane may have flown another seven hours after the last contact with the pilot.

And China's state news agency says two Chinese warships, one equipped with underwater robots, are now headed to the Strait of Malacca to search for the plane. They are expected to arrive later on today.

So just how did the search crews determine these two possible areas that the plane may have gone?

Chad Myers is here to help map it all out.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Fred, we all know about GPS, but for GPS to work we really need three things. Actually three satellites all intersecting at one spot, and that's where your car is. It even knows how fast your car is going at some time. But what we have here with this airplane is only one ring. Only one satellite ping so far. So your car could be anywhere along that circle.

Not right there because we don't have any other intersecting lines and that's the rub at this point in time. No intersecting lines. We have arks here because this is the -- satellite right there, that was pinged. Its circle would be all around like this. But for now, we know that this, here, here or here, somewhere in here at 8:11 a.m., the plane was located. We think the end is here only because that's where the plane would have run out of gas.

If it was only fuelled to go to Beijing. There may have been more or something more sinister on the ground happening and so there may be more fuel and that line may have to go a little farther, we'll have to see. But this doesn't mean -- these lines not -- they do not mean that the plane went on this course.

All the lines mean is that 8:11 in the morning when it got a ping, the plane was somewhere along this line. All the way down this ark or this ark. It could have still had more fuel, could have flown for a few more hours. For now we don't know, that's the last ping they have, 8:11 a.m. Assuming, though, the plane was almost out of fuel at that point in time. It's narrowed the search a little bit, but not very much -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Chad Myers, thank you so much.

So let's go deeper now into how satellite can be used in searches like this.

Andrew Johnston joins me now from Washington. He's a geographer at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Andrew, good to see you. So authorities believe they know when the plane last communicated with that satellite mapping that we just showed. Will this really help in narrowing the search or does this further complicate things?

ANDREW JOHNSTON, GEOGRAPHER, SMITHSONIAN AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM: I think it does help narrow the search, but as you saw on those maps, it's a really huge area. I think it is important to note that the way they came up with those arks is actually very different than the way GPS fix works.

From what I understand those arks were determined by using communications from a -- received communications from a satellite in something we called geostationary orbit out 22,000 miles above the surface of the earth. And based on that they were able to determine roughly how far away the aircraft was from the satellite which allows you to narrow down those arks. It's a very different process than how a GPS works.

But you see given the size of those arks, it remains to be seen if that data holds up under scrutiny, but if it does, we're looking at a huge ark that goes all the way up in the central Asia area.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

JOHNSTON: And they still need to refine the width of those as well.

WHITFIELD: Is there any other satellite imagery or assistance that will help narrow that scope in any way? Might there be, you know, another satellite with another view or vantage point or a way in which to tighten the range?

JOHNSTON: Yes. Absolutely. The way that you can start looking for evidence of where an aircraft might be or at least pieces of an aircraft would be to use imagery from orbiting satellites. Those don't necessarily help you narrow down the search range, but once you get an area of interest, you can focus in on that area and look for evidence.

Some satellites that are in orbit probably wouldn't be very useful for looking for an aircraft because they can't see details that are that small. The kinds of satellites that we see on the television that tell us the weather patterns, for instance, things need to be the size of a couple city blocks to be visible so that wouldn't be useful.

But other satellites look into very fine details. You can see things down to the size of maybe an automobile or even a large table that you'd have in your dining room. The problem there is that huge expansive area. Right now there are people -- the general public are helping us search through some of these what we call the high resolution images.

They've -- from what I understand, they've got more than 100,000 people looking for these images, but it's such a large area and some things that you would expect to find from an aircraft are going to be very difficult to find perhaps . It is very difficult to find floating in an ocean or wherever it ends up being.

WHITFIELD: So --

JOHNSTON: So I'm not actually surprised that nothing has turned up yet in some of these searches.

WHITFIELD: OK. Even after now we're in day nine. So even if you have satellite imagery that allows us to see your house or a car as you put it or even a piece of furniture, then you're saying there isn't that same kind of technology or imagery that can locate something like an airplane?

JOHNSTON: Right. There's a couple -- two important factors to keep in mind. First of all there's no really easy automatic way to identify an aircraft or anything like that. In other words, we don't have a computer program that we can say to look at the imagery and say find and automatically identify where an aircraft might have ended up. But actually takes human interpretation.

When people are looking on these Internet map servers and you're used to looking in your backyard or maybe seeing what's in your neighbor's backyard, you can identify things because you know exactly where you're looking. The problem with this huge area -- that's a second factor here -- it's such a large area it's going to take a long time to pore over all of these images to see if anything turns up. So as I said, I'm actually not terribly surprised that nothing has come up yet in these sources through the imagery.

WHITFIELD: All right. Andrew Johnson, thank you so much from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Appreciate it.

So we're into day nine now as of 1:30 Eastern Time in the search for this plane, Flight 370. And the mystery grows even deeper and the area of the search grows wider. What does it mean now that more countries are being included in the search?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The search for Flight 370 has now widened. Based on when the plane last communicated with the satellite, it may have been as far north as the border of Kazakhstan or Turkmenistan?

Let's bring in Nic Robertson in Jerusalem.

So, Nic, if this plane were to take that northern route, fly, land, go down there, describe for us just how militarized is that area. Would there be the kind of assets involved in or being able to help locate this plane?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you would expect there to be some information to be generated. If you look at that northern route, and I guess what we have to remember with that arc is that it's less a route but more along that ark somewhere is at least one time the plane checked in.

You've got a large area where potentially that aircraft was over Chinese airspace in the west of China, Tibetan plateau, across some of the western deserts. Kyrgyzstan could have been over there. Relatively small country. And then Kazakhstan after that.

Both Kazakhstan and China have sophisticated air defense systems and sophisticated radar systems. Did they miss something that was flying through their airspace? This aircraft that was flying, MH-370, it wasn't identifying itself. You would have expected these countries to be on top of the air defenses enough to be aware of it and questioning what it was. So perhaps there is some information that can be retrieved about that from that perspective that may lead to focusing in on the aircraft -- on MH-370's whereabouts.

But -- again, it's looking for a needle in a haystack but this is where additional information by going back through radar records perhaps in that part of China at the time, that part of Kazakhstan may throw something up -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: And then, Nic, besides military, what other groups might be in that region? Any militant or even separatist that investigators might be either looking for or alarmed about?

ROBERTSON: Yes, I guess one of the things that jumps out here is that the possible route that the MH-370 took as it went across western China. Would have actually taken it across the route of a hijacking in June of 2012. Now the Chinese authorities blamed six Uyghurs who they said were aboard the aircraft to try to tussled with other performs, trying to break into the pilot's cabin on the aircraft 10 minutes after it took off from the town of Hotan, which is sort of pretty close to that red line.

You know, we just can't read too much into that. But obviously, you know, when you look around for similarities, certainly people are going to consider that. You know, there isn't enough information to talk about the Uyghurs in this case. However there groups, the Turkistan Islamic Party, the Uzbek group IMU, who have made threats against the Chinese government and these groups, are becoming more sophisticated, have depths of operations and planning where they have been for many, many years in the border regions of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and are spread throughout that region and have developed expertise and have issued threats.

But again we can't stand those threats up, but in this whole region the plane flew over. It's possible that they may have people in that region.

WHITFIELD: All right. Lots of theories. Nothing definitive as of yet. Nic Robertson, thank you so much.

So nine days after the disappearance of Flight 370, more theories about what may have happened. We'll run through the latest, next. But first a look at today's "Human Factor."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sixty- five years old, Mark "The Snake" Jones has competed in the World Wheelchair 9 Ball championships. He never planned on becoming a champion pool player, but it helped him overcome something that happened 40 years ago.

MARK JONES, WHEELCHAIR POOL PLAYER: I was asleep on the passenger's side in a little Volkswagen Beetle and the rear wheel came completely off the car and the impact, my door flew open. I didn't have on a seatbelt. And I flew out of the car at probably 50 miles an hour and ended up breaking my neck, my back, broken up all over.

GUPTA: He was paralyzed, no longer able to walk.

JONES: The able body guys, my friends, you know, they said, let's play some pool. I just sat there and watched them play and I said, this can't be that difficult.

GUPTA: Friendly pickup games turned into tournaments.

JONES: It's pretty much indescribable, you know? I just love it, you know? I'm - I just love it. Love the competition.

GUPTA: It's a feeling he wanted to share with others like himself, which is why he began working with the National Wheelchair Players' Association.

JONES: It's not easy. And I know exactly what they're going through. And that's what our organization is about, really, getting people back into society again and outdoing things.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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WHITFIELD: All right. You're watching CNN coverage of the mystery of Flight 370. In the days after it disappeared we learned that two passengers were traveling on stolen passports. How does this happen?

That's part of the focus of today's "YOUR MONEY" coming up at the top of the hour.

Poppy Harlow has a preview.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Fredricka. Coming up on "YOUR MONEY," just how big is the black market for stolen and fake passports?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's absolutely huge. It's probably on a daily basis an average fraudster buys five or six.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: A convicted forger tells us more. That's coming up next on an all-new "YOUR MONEY."

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Poppy.

All right. We're also tracking the newest developments in the mystery of Flight 370. Authorities still don't know where the plane could be or exactly what happened, but here's what we know right now.

Earlier today the prime minister of Malaysia said the plane's communication system and transponder were switched off before the pilot's sent their last message of "All right. Good night." So it appears that whatever happened onboard started before the communication systems were turned off. Satellite information also suggests that the plane may have flown as long as seven hours after the contact with the pilot, and Malaysian authorities say it appears someone deliberately took control of the plane.

Investigation is now focused on the pilots, the crew and the passengers, and earlier today, police searched the homes of the pilot and the copilot. So now a whole new sequence of events that are raising a whole lot more questions.

We'll try get into all of that coming up in the 2:30 Eastern hour edition of the NEWSROOM. Hope you join us then.

We're also going to talk to an oceanographer who led the underwater search for Air France Flight 447 five years ago and we're going to ask about the challenges that are imposed on this hunt for the Malaysian Airlines flight. If it's in water or if it went down, or landed on land. We'll look into all of that.

That's 30 minutes from now. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Stay tuned. First, though, "YOUR MONEY."

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