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New Information Emerges About Missing Malaysian Plane

Aired March 15, 2014 - 14:30   ET

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

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

We're getting brand new information now about the events leading up to the disappearance of flight 370. Here's what we know right now. Malaysia's prime minister says the cockpit's signoff to ground control which was, quote, "All right, goodnight" was said after the plane's communication system was disabled. More on what all that could mean straight ahead.

And Malaysia's prime minister also says 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. This is video of police leaving the home of the plane's co-pilot. The pilot's home was also searched. U.S. authorities say they continue to review the backgrounds of the crew and the passengers, but so far 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 up to the border of Kazakhstan. The other, south towards the southern Indian Ocean. And that information has substantially changed the search area now. It has widened it in a very big way.

Let's dig now into this development surrounding the timeline of events on this plane. Richard Quest joining us by phone now from New York. So, Richard, this is getting that much more confusing and bizarre, and perplexing. To hear that the communication system would be cut and then after that point, there would be an "All right, good night." Explain to us what you make of this.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT, (via telephone): Well, this all really comes about from what the prime minister, the Malaysian prime minister said this morning at his news briefing. And he gave us the most detailed, significant, relevant, important facts that we've had officially in this investigation.

He basically told us that one of the communication systems was switched off or disabled as the plane left the eastern coast of Malaysia. And we know from other evidence that by the time it was in the -- the last known point of contact was just -- as it went from Malaysian to Vietnamese airspace, and that's when the transponder was also disabled or switched off.

But we also know from last week that that was the moment that there was a radio transmission, "All right, good night." in other words, the traditional handover from one airspace to the next, which begs the question, Fredricka, when the ACARS was switched off going over the coast, the incident must already have been taking place by the time the pilot said, "All right, good night," or whoever said that.

WHITFIELD: And that you say "whoever said that" leads me to my next question of voice recognition. How do they know whose voice that was, to say, "All right, good night"?

QUEST: We don't. We don't. And we may even be dealing with one plus one coming up with three or four here, but it's just, when you look at the facts, and as you may know, I mean, I have been skeptical on many of the -- of the theories out there, because I've always believed you've got to keep going back to what you know. And this is what we know. We know there was an "All right, good night" because we've been told that by the Malaysians. We now know the ACARS was disabled as the plane went out across into the water. We know that the two timelines suggest that whatever was happening, and we don't know what that is, but whatever was happening was happening when that pilot, or whoever, said, "All right, good night."

WHITFIELD: And when you say ACARS, for those who are not familiar with the vernacular, the aircraft communication addressing reporting system.

QUEST: Yes.

WHITFIELD: But that is separate from the radio transmission, you're saying? You can turn off ACARS and then still be able to communicate via this radio frequency.

QUEST: This radio frequency is good, old-fashioned VHS UHF radio, high frequency radio. It is the backbone of most communications in the airwaves every day. Most pilots communicate via radios. So it's only when you get over the oceans that you go into very ultrahigh frequencies and it becomes scratchy and they prefer others. But otherwise it's normal. You're given a wavelength with a decimal, tune your radio in, and that's how you make your calls. What's --

WHITFIELD: Go ahead.

QUEST: What's interesting now is that for the first time, Fred, we are -- we're not just completely in the dark here. There are the extremities of satellite interpretation. The information they are looking at is so detailed, it is so advanced it is so novel, that that is why it's taking longer than you, me and everybody else would like, but they're doing it in a very controlled fashion.

WHITFIELD: OK. So now -- the use of these words, you know, "All right, good night," fairly common for pilots, but is a pilot going say that when they are about to put this plane into automatic pilot, or when there is an expectation that the pilot won't have to correspond with radio control or control tower -- QUEST: Right.

WHITFIELD: -- until landing? Explain what "All right, good night" means.

QUEST: At that point in the flight, the plane is already on automatic pilot. That plane went on to automatic pilot probably a minute and a half if not sooner after it took off from Kuala Lumpur. It's basically -- it's like you leaving one person's office and going into another person's office, because you've been told to go from a to b. So you're literally saying, thanks very much. Good night.

And then the next transmission would normally have been the pilot, what we call the NPF, the non-pilot flying, he would have switched his radio to Vietnam's wavelength and calmed out, Ho Chi Minh Control, this is Malaysian 370, heading xyz -- speed xyz, and Vietnam wool have acknowledged it. So this "All right, good night" it's just a pleasantry at the end of a radio communication which, frankly, if you listen to air traffic control in the United States, sometimes you get a pleasantry, good night, good-bye, good morning, sometimes you don't.

WHITFIELD: So now, given that, would the expectation be that this pilot would then say hello to the next airspace, like you said, Ho Chi Minh, and if that takes place who would have that kind of recording or data reflecting that that conversation may have happened?

QUEST: Well, that's the -- that's a very, very interesting point. Because the next -- very often you know about a plane incident or a plane accident certainly with air France 447, many of them, we knew about this, because the next person doesn't hear from them. And then Vietnam goes back to Malaysia and said, hang on. What happened to 370? We haven't heard from them yet. And that is frequently the way in which you do discover that something has gone wrong.

So I'm imagining now the Vietnamese will be -- they've probably already. The Vietnamese would already have been well and truly looking to see did they get a call in from 370 after the hand over? But, of course, they didn't, or they probably didn't, because we know again from the prime minister's press conference today, we know that the plane made its turn. So the question should -- the question probably becomes -- why didn't Vietnam say, we're expecting 370, and we haven't heard from it.

WHITFIELD: And that's what we don't know. We don't know whether Vietnam has said that, because we are going have to rely on Vietnamese authorities to share that with the world or Malaysian authorities to convey that Vietnam actually did correspond with them and say, hey, that plane never made it into our air space. Where are they?

QUEST: Correct.

WHITFIELD: Richard, I hope you have a few minutes because I have to take a short break and I want to continue this conversation, a fascinating new detail in the sequence, a possible sequence of events as it pertains to this mysterious disappearance of this plane. Richard, we'll be right back, and at home, we'll be right back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. The chronology of events involving missing flight 370 has taken a very perplexing turn. We understand from Malaysian authorities now after the communications system was disabled on that plane, authorities are now saying the pilot, or at least a voice, presumed to be the pilot, said, "All right, good night." we're going to continue our conversation about what this all means. Richard Quest with us before the break, and also joining us now is aviation attorney and private pilot Justin Green, to are part of this conversation.

Justin, hold on one second. I want to get to Richard, because he's going to then have to go. Richard, you were talking about whether Vietnam, when a plane leaves one airspace and enters another one, meaning it had left the Malaysian airspace, it said, "All right, good night" and presumably as it entered Vietnam airspace, there may have been a "hello" and identifying that the plane is now on that track, and it would seem that Malaysian authorities would hear from Vietnam that this plane did not make it to airspace if, indeed, it took that left turn and did not make it into airspace on its regular track. So explain to me now how we would learn whether Vietnam had that correspondence with Malaysia?

QUEST: They'd have to tell us. It's as simple as that. One assumes two things -- a, that they didn't make a call. We don't know. They'll no doubt reveal. No, actually we do know. The Malaysians said the last known contact. You've got to keep coming back to what you've been told. We've been told the Malaysians said during the week, the last known contact with the plane was at that point. So if they'd said, hello, Vietnam, Malaysia 370 at 3-4-0, or whatever, that would be the next last known place. We know that. Questions will obviously need to be asked before somebody raised the alarm in Vietnam that they hadn't heard from this plane.

I just need to make one point very clear, Fredricka, in all of this. What I'm doing here is putting one and one and one together from the various things we've been told during the week, the official information we've been told during the week. Now, if it comes up at half a dozen during the course of the week, so be it. But at the moment, from what we were told by this terribly significant news conference this morning by the Malaysian prime minister, of crucial importance, what it appears is that there is this minor -- well, not minor. There is this point when they said, "All right, good night," what was happening in the cockpit, because we know that the ACARS has already been disabled because the PM said so.

WHITFIELD: OK, Richard Quest, I'm going to let you go. I know you'll be joining me onset and we have to get you miked up and ready to go. Meantime, Justin Green, a private pilot and aviation attorney. What does this information mean to you? Under what circumstances does a pilot, you know, say, "All right, good night." Is that also kind of an indicator that everything is going just fine?

JUSTIN GREEN, AVIATION ATTORNEY: It is a completely normal communication. The same, exact communication you would expect as Richard just described when a pilot is checking out from one air traffic controller around going in to the airspace of another.

I've heard two different things about the Vietnam. Number one, I've been told that they never checked into Vietnam, and, number two that it was Vietnam that, you know, was looking for them and that they found they were missing.

WHITFIELD: OK, so is it plausible, is it possible, that a pilot could convey this, "All right, good night," and not even know that this ACARS, the aircraft communications addressing and reporting system, has been disabled? Does it have to be the pilot that actually disables that system?

GREEN: No. I mean, the system could fail for any number of reasons, however I can't think of a way the system would fail, say an electrical fire. Electrical problem, that's going to fail the ACARS first, the transponder second, and the pilot not know that, that's going on. And the pilot would not give a normal -- I'd have to actually listen to the communication to really understand if it's normal, but assuming that it is a normal communication, he's not stressed, it's just another day flying the airplane, it really is -- it probably creates, again, more questions.

One thing I think -- earlier today you asked me about passengers going in to the cockpit. It doesn't seem to match that scenario, because if the passengers had broken in to the cockpit, turned the ACARS off, turned the transponder off, you know, they're not going to make a normal radio call to air traffic control.

WHITFIELD: So this heightens the alarm, does it not, in you? What does this new bit of information tell you, or indicate to you, or what other questions does it provoke for you?

GREEN: It actually scares me, and makes me be more suspicious about the flight crew.

WHITFIELD: That they wouldn't have been overtaken, but perhaps participants?

GREEN: That's right. You know, it would say to me that -- assuming it's the pilot's communication, the pilot's in control of the air plane he makes that communication, his ACARS turned off, his transponder has been turned off. I'm going to be looking at the pilot.

WHITFIELD: Justin Green, hold it right there, thank you so much, and Richard Quest also is with us. We're going to take a short break and continue this conversation, much more on these new details involving this mysterious disappearance of this airplane.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: So we just reported to you information that the sequence of events changed, according to Malaysian authorities, now indicating that after the communication system on that missing plane was disabled or was no longer working, the pilots then said, "All right, good night." So it's very perplexing and fascinating and this story becomes even more bizarre as to what was going on in the cockpit.

Let's also talk about -- while there are a couple of different scenarios Malaysian authorities have given us whether this plane continued to fly another seven hours and whether it went on a northern track taking it over land or a southern track over the south of the Indian Ocean, now that has a host of people trying to wonder, how would you go about trying to locate this plane?

So let's talk now about the scenario, if this plane were to go down in water. Who best to fill us in on some of the information, how they would go about locating this aircraft? David Gallo is an expert on technology behind undersea searches just like this. He actually led the search for the remains of Air France flight 447 five years ago. Remember that went down in the Atlantic after leaving Rio. And he is the director of special projects at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. All right, David, good to see you.

DAVID GALLO, WOODS HOLE GEOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION: Hi, Fred.

WHITFIELD: So it is unclear where this plane is, but say it did go down in water, say it went down in the Indian Ocean, which is hundreds of feet deep.

GALLO: Sure.

WHITFIELD: How does anyone go about trying to locate this plane? Is it still as simple as -- not that's simple -- but is it a matter of looking for, listening for the ping, or is there something else, some other indicator to help you locate an aircraft of this size?

GALLO: I'll talk about air France. We nerve had a ping, so never heard that. But we did have a last known position which I hope we're getting at here. That becomes important because it tells where you to begin looking for debris on the surface.

WHITFIELD: Say that one more time. A what?

GALLO: A last known position.

WHITFIELD: Last known position. I've got t.

GALLO: Very important. That tells where you to begin looking for debris. We had debris on the surface that was found five days later after the crash of Air France 447. That took about -- so that was five days later. So we had to back track that debris five days, scientists using wind, waves currents modeling data, backtrack. It was on a surface on its ocean.

And ACARS data we knew after the last known, the last communications from air France 447 that the ACARS data cut off abruptly. So we knew the plane was airborne four minutes. That gave us four minutes at full speed and altitude 40 miles. So we had the x on the surface, the 40 mimes radius of a search area, and that's a big haystack, but the way you go about looking for an aircraft in that needle in that haystack is by slow and methodical search.

WHITFIELD: That indeed what seems to be happening in a very slow, methodical way. Thank you so much, David Gallo, appreciate that from Woods Hole in Massachusetts.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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