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Plane Investigators Work Out New Timeline; Inside the Search for Flight 370; Transponder Was Switched Off Before Final Cockpit Transmission of "Alright, Goodnight"; Was Flight 777 Taken By Groups Hostile to China; Last Communication from Flight 370 Came After Tracking System Turned Off; Flight Disappearances Not That Rare; Day Before Crimea Ultimatum, Russian Troops Gather on Border

Aired March 15, 2014 - 17:00   ET

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

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Sciutto in today for Don Lemon.

If there's one positive thing, one reason to be slightly hopeful as this airliner search goes on, it's that there's no evidence as of yet that the plane crashed. Small comfort, but better than no comfort for families in China, in Malaysia, and in every country those 239 passengers and crew called home. A new working theory this evening though presuming the Boeing 777 was forced into silence is that it may have been taken in this direction toward western China or the countries of Central Asia. The plane carried enough fuel, we know, to get there. It is part of the world where some extremist groups have real political and ethic struggles with the government of China and with the West.

We have Andrew Stevens in Kuala Lumpur today. Andrew, just, if I can start, how much, how jarring, how interesting, how different is this announcement from the Malaysian government that they now believe this plane was deliberately taken in this direction?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a hugely significant direction and a significant development too. Jim, what we know at this stage is the Malaysian prime minister has finally given some concrete evidence just to say that, yes, the plane did travel in that direction. Yes, we lost contact after about seven hours or so. And there is two trajectories involved. One takes the plane down to the south into the deep Southern Indian Ocean towards the southern ocean and one perhaps more interestingly and more worryingly into the Northern Region, which does -- the trajectory, the ark that investigators are now looking at its searches and now looking at -- does take it over countries like Kazakhstan and into Turkmenistan, India.

China, as you say, Western China, so they are significant areas that is going to be a political effort as well now for the Malaysian government. They have to get the governments, all these countries on board. They have to share data. They have to look at the passengers as well. Here in Malaysia, Jim, I can tell you that soon after the announcement from the prime minister that it looks like there was a very, very strong body of evidence to suggest that the plane was deliberately turned away from its flight path by someone on board. The two pilots here, both police rating, both of the homes of the two pilots, they will took away evidence. So, we don't know what it was in it. It was bags full of evidence and documents. I can tell you that the lead pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53-year-old, 18.5 thousand hours under his -- a veteran pilot. He had a simulator, a hand-built simulator in his house. A flight simulator that's going to be looked at obviously. But at this stage, it's all about -- we're just hearing that there are searches going on at the houses. Nothing more than that at the moment.

SCIUTTO: Still two major developments, Andrew Stevens, thank you in Kuala Lumpur, both the Malaysian authority saying that the flight was deliberately taken over and searching the pilots homes now. Another area of interest.

It's the newest direction that investigators are focusing. Their search for Malaysia Airlines flight. The possibility based on new information that the Boeing 777 was rendered silence on purpose, then flown a northwestern route as far as western china. Perhaps even to Tajikistan or Kazakhstan.

Jim Tilmon is with me now, a 30-year commercial airline captain. Also Peter Bergen, our National Security analyst. Jim, if I can start with you, first, put you on the spot here, everything you heard about the transponder timeline, the fuel on board, the way points, is this scenario now that this plane was commandeered and taken to another place possibly landed? Is that a plausible one knowing what we know now?

JIM TILMON, RETIRED AIRLINE CAPTAIN: It's plausible, but like a lot of other things that have been released to us, it's a little bit confusing. Let's put it this way. When they communication from the cockpit to the ground, "Good night," whatever else took place, I'm told now that this was after the transponder had been turned off. I don't understand that. Because even if it was or not, where was air traffic control? The people who were supposed to be monitoring that flight for wherever it goes, why wasn't there some outcry immediately as soon as they lost visual contact with the bluff that the transponder would have been giving them?

Why weren't they asking the airplane to squawk I.D. It's just a phrase that used by air traffic controllers routinely to ask an airplane to just punch a button on the transponder and that lights up that airplane's block so that it's very obvious to the air traffic controller about where it is and what it's doing. I haven't heard an interview being done with air traffic control. And after all, these are the people who really are supposed to be monitoring everything that airplane does or fails to do.

SCIUTTO: I want to get back to that point because there's also the question of the handoff from Malaysian radar to Vietnamese radar and why weren't warning signs raised early. But Peter, if I can first come to you because we've raised this issue. Now that you have this ark of flight, if we can put the map up there again so our viewers can see it, that takes you possibly to India over the Indian Ocean, but also possibly far north into those countries of Central Asia there, it happens that most of the people on the plane were Chinese. It also happens that you have a restive region up there in Western China's Xinjiang. Terror group there that have carried out attacks even recently. A knife attack in Kunming that killed more than a dozen people, Peter. Is it possible that this group could have the intention of carrying something like this out and the ability to do so?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Maybe the intention, I'm pretty sure not the ability based on past performance. I mean, certainly this group has attempted to hijack local Chinese flights in China on two occasions, Jim. And they do have a sort of very small presence in places like Afghanistan and Western Pakistan. But they have been really focused on China. For them to suddenly train somebody to fly, you know, this kind of sophisticated plane would be, you know, an order of magnitude different from the knife attack that you just referenced.

So it's not impossible, but it's also -- the other thing I think Jim hit here is that the group, the separatist group that -- they tend to be Muslim fundamentalist a lot of them, why would they target a Malaysian Airlines, which is after a majority Muslim Country, quite a number of Muslims on the plane, it doesn't really seem to make sense. That of course doesn't mean that it can be ruled out, but I think it's low probability.

SCIUTTO: Fair question. Let me come back to Jim if I can. Because there's a practical question here too. If the plane were to go that far north over that many countries, with developed civilian aviation systems as well as a lot of militaries there with a lot of radars, there are a lot of tensions in this part of the world, you have that question of how it could be possible. I mean, you already have one handoff that was missed from Malaysia air traffic control, the Vietnamese and the Vietnamese did not raise a red flag here. How much of a failure do you think that is and how plausible do you think it is that a plane of this size could fly through all those radar zones without being detected?

TILMON: First of all, I can't imagine how he could fly that far in that region without being seen by somebody's radar. I mean, it just really -- doesn't even make sense. I can't imagine how he could get away with doing that. Now, that being said, if he was really savvy and if he really had his homework done, he would know where all those radars were. He would be able to fly at altitudes that would leave him underneath those radars when necessary. He could pop up later on and fly a little bit differently. All of that, however, you have to consider the fact that whatever fuel he had on board, if he's flying underneath radar, he's using a lot more of that fuel per hour than he would at altitude. So I can't discount the seven hours of fuel or whatever else that was available. Lots of problems here.

SCIUTTO: And that is a fair point. Because you're maneuvering the planes from altitudes, taking turns et cetera, that burns more fuel and reduces the range. But let me ask you Peter, that requires a level of sophistication. And again, reminding our viewers we're in the realm here of piecing pieces of evidence together for possible scenarios, this is far from hard. But you remember before 9/11 Americans were amazed, the world was amazed that these pilots, these hijackers could learn how to fly a jet plane and control it and fly them into buildings. I mean, is it conceivable that a terror group with financing and the commitment and the time could learn to fly a plane and maneuver it in such a way?

BERGEN: Yes. It's conceivable, but also, you know, the Malaysian prime minister has put the notion into play but this is a criminal act. Now, a criminal act doesn't necessarily mean that it's a political hijacking. I mean, people do commandeer planes for syncretic motives, we've seen in the past, people who have kind of strange delusions. We have seen people, you know, take planes to try to get asylum. So, he doesn't necessarily have to be a political motive. But I will say something, I know quite a lot about the radar of Pakistan, which is one of the places this plane would have to cross. Because of research I did for the hunt for Bin Laden.

Now, it took the United States, you know, we used tilt helicopters, we flew at night, we flew a map of the earth. You know, Pakistan has a pretty robust radar system just as neighboring countries like Pakistan. It's inconceivable, by the way, we have very good radar systems in Afghanistan. I mean, one of the busiest airports in the world is Kandahar Airfield where United States has a very significant presence. So, you know, the idea that you could just revolt a 777 over this area, I think it's not just sensical.

SCIUTTO: Yes. It's a very smart part point because there's so many territorial disputes in that part of the world. The Chinese are watching the Indians. You've have Afghanistan, you've got Pakistan and India watching each other. A lot of resources concentrated there. Great points by both of you. Thanks very much Peter Bergen, Jim Tilmon. I know we'll talk to you again as the search for Malaysia Flight 370 continues and expands. Investigators are now digging for more information on the people on board that flight.

Richard Quest actually did a story with the co-pilot just one week before the jet disappeared. We're going to talk to him about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back. I'm Jim Sciutto in New York. The longer it takes to find Malaysia Airlines flight 370, the more the speculation grows, but the part of the world where this jet disappeared adds to the mystery and the challenges if and when the plane is found. Is it in the water? Is it on land?

Let's bring in Rob McCallum and Andrew Johnston. Andrew is a geographer at the Smithsonian's National Space Museum. Rob, ocean search specialist and professional expedition leader. Andrew, if I could start with you. One thing we're curious about looking at this is, has there ever been a search this big for something like this? As you look at expanding Indian Ocean at the south, all the way up to north and Central Asia at the north, this is enormous area to look for something.

ROB MCCALLUM, OCEAN SEARCH SPECIALIST: That's good. I mean, at the moment we're still bringing in all of the pieces together and trying to ascertain, you know, exactly where to start the actual search. So, at the moments we're just finding the search box. We're putting all the clues together to try and find where to commence the actual physical search.

SCIUTTO: OK. And just beginning we know we have a lot of assets there, if I could ask your view as well, do you think as you're looking at this that this is something that is manageable in light of the resources that are dedicated? Some 50 ships. You have search airplanes very capable. Because this is a big quarter practically of the planet that they are looking at right now.

ANDREW JOHNSTON, GEOGRAPHER, SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM: Yes. That's correct. The size of the area is really almost hard to imagine for a lot of people and sometimes the more we learn, it seems the larger it gets. I think a lot of people should probably keep in mind that a lot of the graphics that they see about the possible area where this airplane is going, they need to understand that those large arks that are often shown on the maps that you're showing there, don't necessarily show the path of the aircraft.

We don't really know exactly the path this aircraft could have taken. That's the potential area that shows where it was last -- where we last got data from a communication satellite. So it's truly tremendously huge area and tools like satellite remote sensing or images from satellites are good tools to use, but it's going to take a long time to get through some of these images to try to identify any evidence of where this aircraft may have ended up.

SCIUTTO: And Andrew makes a very good point. When we show that map, that's not a -- the range that kind of half circle we show in the map, maybe we can put up again is the range of places where the plane might have trouble, not the path that it took. So, it's everywhere inside in effect that half circle there, which is a big cut of land and sea. You know, when you talk about the sea part of this, this is some very deep sections of the ocean. Obviously, makes it much harder. It took years to find the Air France flight. They found some wreckage but to find the fuselage. How do you manage that? How do you do it? Submarines, ships with sonar, this kind of thing, planes with sonar, how does it work?

MCCALLUM: Well, this is very deep water. Anywhere between four and 7,000 meters. So, you search with sound. You tow a sonar unit through the water and you paint the bottom of the sea floor with sound --

SCIUTTO: And look for recognizable shapes.

MCCALLUM: And we look for images of hard targets.

SCIUTTO: Right.

MCCALLUM: In this case, it would be things like the leading edges of wings or the engines or the folded up landing gear.

SCIUTTO: Interesting. So you look for something that small. I mean, I imagine you picture yourself looking for a fuselage, but I supposed that's the first thing to break up. So you're looking for other things that would stay intact. Is that right?

MCCALLUM: We look for things that give a good return to the acoustic signals that we're sending out. And it's an interesting area that we're focusing on now because the sea floor there is relatively flat and relatively similar right throughout.

SCIUTTO: That makes a difference so you're not dealing with underwater mountain scapegoat.

MCCALLUM: That's right. That's right. So, it's much simpler from our point of view. And, you know, I have to say, it's been interesting over the last few days, watching all the clues come together. And now we're starting to focus in on areas where it may be and perhaps that's why we haven't found any clues so far is that we have been looking in the wrong area and the clues are in the sea.

SCIUTTO: That's a big problem, they have been looking in the wrong area. Right? They were looking to the east to the Malay Peninsula, now they are looking much further to the west.

MCCALLUM: So, now that we're moving out to the west, perhaps we'll find some debris and that will be the beginning of the start really of defining a search area.

SCIUTTO: Andrew, if I could ask you since you have equal expertise as well. And on land, some advantages if you're searching for this plane, if it went down or perhaps landed somewhere on land, except if you were trying to hide it, right? Assuming this remarkable possibility that the plane was somehow commandeered and hidden somewhere or taken somewhere, you know, for further use. I imagine the land has its own challenges.

JOHNSTON: Yes. Absolutely. And we have no idea of course what happened to the aircraft. And we have lots of possible tools that could be used from this imagery, from these orbiting satellites to try to identify an aircraft either intact or not intact. But honestly, I'm not terribly surprised that nothing has turned up yet given the size of the area that we have to look through the satellite images. Some of which can identify large things. The majority of satellites in orbit can see things, you know, the size of a football field or maybe the size of a city block.

There are a few that can identify things down to cars or even pieces of furniture. Things, objects of that size. But even in those images, the challenges looking through the vast amount of data and it's going to take a long time. And I'm honestly not surprised that somebody that has used a lot of satellite that nothing has turned up quite yet because you have worry about cloud cover, you have to worry about identifying what these objects are. So it's going to take quite some time to find some evidence, especially given the ever-expanding scope of the potential area.

SCIUTTO: We know a lot of people are contributing now. A lot of countries, we've been told the Pentagon, for instance, using some civilian satellites and others to look for this. Thank you very much. Andrew Johnston there. Rob McCallum next to me here in New York helping us on this really remarkable unprecedented search underway. Now the timetable of events in the disappearance of flight 370 has changed. New evidence that something was happening inside the cockpit before that last radio transmission. We're talking about that with our aviation expert, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: There's new evidence today that something sinister could have happened on this airplane. Was it hijacked and were the pilots involved? We have a new time line suggesting that that the last radio transmission, the words "alright, good night" seemingly calm and happy were said after the tracking system on this plane was switched off. CNN has also learned that police searched the home of the pilot and the co-pilot, shown here, after the country's prime minister confirmed the plain was likely in his words deliberately diverted.

Richard Quest is here again, Richard. So many questions to go over. I wonder if we can ask first again to explain to our viewers who might not have heard this yet but the significance of the sequencing now, the idea that that seemingly everything was fine and dandy, good night came after at least one of the systems was turned off.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. But this is not -- this is straight forwardly from the prime minister's statement. And aisle caveat it before, after and in the middle. People, they are not speaking with the precision of the final investigative report.

SCIUTTO: No question.

QUEST: So, the prime minister says the ACARS data transmission system is switched off or disabled, as the phrase he used, disabled as the plane goes out over the east of Malaysia.

SCIUTTO: Just as it crosses the land area.

QUEST: Then also last says, the last known point of contact is in the South China Sea.

SCIUTTO: Right.

QUEST: And that's either by transponder or by the handoff between Malaysia and Vietnam.

SCIUTTO: But we also know that those words "goodnight" were spoken at that point.

QUEST: We know that and several minutes after the ACAR system was --

SCIUTTO: We know that because a civil aviation authorities person in Malaysia said that. Would I be surprised if tomorrow we're told that that actually never happened? No, I wouldn't be surprised. But on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, that's what we were told. QUEST: Right. And once those words are out there, it was probably a longer sentence. It was probably Malaysia acknowledging and then saying "alright, good night."

SCIUTTO: Well, granted, because there are so many things have changed. We remember the excitement over the satellite photos. But potential significance of this separation of things, it indicates that there was some control or decision making, is that your view?

QUEST: It indicates, it suggests that at the moment when that last voice transmission was being made, there was the incident was already underway. And there is no indication in what was said that we know of that leads one way or the other, but of course something could have been happening in the aircraft of which they were not aware.

SCIUTTO: Right. Something that could have been under --

QUEST: Or something could have been happening.

SCIUTTO: A fire or something and the system could have gone down.

QUEST: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Fair points. Fair points. So, OK, that's the questions it raises. It has given the Malaysian government some more certainty in the prime minister's words that it was a deliberate act. Let's talk about other potential failures here though. That handoff happens, or that handoff supposed to happen between Malaysian Air traffic control and Vietnamese Air traffic control, but it doesn't happen. The Vietnamese never picked up the plane. And then you have it traveling southwest, we would believe, and possibly over other radar-controlled areas. You have a lot of people in governments and countries along the way who could have said, where is that plane, the Vietnamese? What is this plane that's coming over my air space, why did that happen? QUEST: We don't know at what point and if the Vietnamese went back to the Malaysians and said, we haven't seen MH 370.

SCIUTTO: Right.

QUEST: The flight plan there, we should have seen it by now. Now, having read enough reports, what tends to happen with a missing plane is -- and this happened with 447, this happened with 447 -- and all of the different places on the route. What tends to happen is the next point of call where you're going to check in doesn't hear from you, might think, well, we'll give him five more minutes.

SCIUTTO: Right. But you all give them seven hours the whole night.

QUEST: No. And then you go back to the last one and say, hey, what happened to Malaysia flight 370? We haven't heard from it. Well, we've handed it on to you. Now, the moment that happens, you get other aircraft in the region to start hailing them, in cases of radio. You start asking other planets in the region --

SCIUTTO: All things that to our knowledge didn't happen. QUEST: We have not got anywhere near to that depth of understanding of what else was happening during those times. But ultimately, within an hour if you haven't heard from a flight like this, you're pushing the big red button and you're basically saying we haven't heard from this flight. Now, meanwhile, seven hours later, this is heading up towards other countries. Indonesia, it went past China and it went right back over Malaysia and seemingly no one thought to scramble fighters with Helios.

SCIUTTO: And this is a very sensitive part of the world with a lot of countries watching each other with a lot of very powerful surveillance tools because they are concerned about what other country's aircraft is doing.

QUEST: Last night, I was looking at the report into the Helios Cypriot plane and they have jets up in the air within an hour to see what was happening.

SCIUTTO: And this is something we know did not happen with this flight.

QUEST: Approximately not.

SCIUTTO: Well, as you note though, there are still many questions and we're following this step by step along the way. Some new information today, not definitive.

Still to come, we're digging deeper into the mystery of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 and where it could have landed. More after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: The new focus for all of the search crews and international agencies searching for the missing Boeing 777 is this: What was happening on that flight deck before the jet vanished from every scope watching it from the ground? Here's one working scenario. The plane may have flown this pattern, northwest over China and possibly into central Asia, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan. That's where some groups have strong political and ethnic issues and anger at China and with the West. And analysts say they could see the value in taking over an airplane.

Again, it's just one of several working theories at this point. So we want to run that possibility for a few minutes here.

We have Chad Myers, who looking into this enormous region where the plane could have reached; also, or aviation correspondent, Rene Marsh; and Bob Baer, our national security analyst.

Chad, if I can talk with you, this jet liner took off from Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Is there a place on earth as you look at that giant half circle leading into South and North Central Asia where you can land this plane without anybody noticing, seeing you?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I would say absolutely, without a doubt in my mind. Let's put some scope and some reality to these lines. Because you probably woke up this morning and say, wait, yesterday, we were searching scare squares and now we're searching arks. How did we get there? Here are the ACARs. This is one of them up here. And another one down to the south. Where did that come from? It came from a GPS ping. It came from a satellite provider that pinged the plane at 8:11 in the morning, the morning that this plane disappeared. If you only take 100 miles from this line and this line, that's a million square miles to search, that's a million square miles to search. That's larger than Alaska, Texas and California put together.

But now let's get to how we got those arcs. There's a satellite up in space. It heard something. It just heard the timing of the response between its ping and the handshake back. So what we have here is a ring, a big red ring that you're seeing here. This red ring all the way from here, all the way around here, that's where the plane could have been. That's where the ping may have come back from any of these locations. Now we have eliminated half of the ring, at least half of the circle because the plane couldn't fly that fast or that far on the fuel that it was given to get to Beijing. There's the possibility it was given more fuel. There's so many other theories. But the arcs came from the fact that we don't think it could have been here because Malaysia would have seen the plane in here. But up here, that's our arc, down here, that's our arc, and up here on the northern part, from Vietnam to the top of the world. We're talking 100 peaks over 23,000 miles high, but then up to the Tibetan plateau where there's very, very few people.

Now we do a little bit, something more sinister. Let's continue the line farther and not take it where it would have run out of fuel. Let's say there was more fuel in the plane that what was first thought. You can get people to put more water or oil or fuel in your plane if you pay them enough money. There's Tehran. There's Baghdad. So this could be another area that they will eventually look at.

It's, how did it get there undetected by so many other radars and so many other military installations. That's part of the problem with the northern extent up here. To the south, there's not much else down there other than water.

SCIUTTO: Chad, that's fascinating how you show how big of a slice of the planet they have to look at.

Rene, what do we know about the flight path based on the information we have so far? I know nothing is definitive, but what best guesses are investigators able to make at this point?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know from the latest presser that happened today, we got more detail about the final flight path of this plane here. We have our own model 777 here. And so this is what we know. The ACARs system -- which essentially tells you all about everything going on, the condition of the plane, how are the engines running, how are things going with the plane, are there any problems being detected -- we know that was the first thing to go off. We also know that the last time that this plane was picked up on radar was right -- you're looking at the map there -- last point of contact right over the South China Sea.

Then they started analyzing some satellite data. And now we're starting to learn more about that flight path of the missing plane. We now know, they are confirming for us that the plane did indeed make that turn and head towards the west. A U.S. official also telling us -- you're looking at the graphic there -- that at some point the plane descended to 23,000 feet, and also went up to 45,000 feet, which is way too high for that plane.

But back to the satellite data, it's crossing the Malaysia peninsula and heading west. The last time that this airplane was picked up in the sky, we do know was at 8:11 a.m. That's a lot longer than we originally thought. Before, we didn't know if the plane went down when it went off the radar in the sea. But based on the satellite information, it's suggesting that the plane made the turn and, again, it was in the air for more than seven hours. And that last transmission, or at least that last ping, I should say, happened at 8:11 a.m.

SCIUTTO: Rene, before I get to Bob, just very quickly, the last ping, any locater on that ping or we know it came at 8:11, but we don't know where it came from?

MARSH: As far as the last ping goes, no data transmitted, so we have no idea what was going on with the plane as far as if it was in good condition. We don't have that specific data. What we do know is, looking at this map here, based on that last ping, the airplane could have been anywhere along that red line there as far north as Kazakhstan and as far south as the Indian Ocean just west of Australia. That's where they are zeroing in their efforts at this point. But as you can see there, Jim, it's quite a large, large scope.

SCIUTTO: Bob, you've looked at terror plots for years, both during the service and after your service. Typically, these ideas come from somewhere or they have been detected that groups are thinking about doing something like this. Has there ever been an indication that terrorist groups were looking to commandeer a plane and take it somewhere?

BOB BAER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I have never seen this. I have never seen any planning for this. I have never seen anybody talk about it. I have never seen it on any Internet chat. And not even pretending to have that sophistication, I have never seen a terror group like that.

But clearly, somebody got in this cockpit and took that airplane. That's -- all the evidence is pointing that way. And which makes me project -- and this is pure speculation -- did they take it, for instance, to central Asia and land it on a remote, unused field? Again, this is just -- I can tell you I have been on those fields in central Asia. I have been in the old Soviet radar sites. They don't work. You could bring this thing into the mountains and could land it somewhere and cover it up. But that is just, again -- I have said this over and over, this is so fantastic. I have never seen a terrorist group with that sort of capability. It's very worrisome if they have it now.

SCIUTTO: No question. We always have to allow the possibility for a new idea. But again, it's early.

Thanks very much, Rene Marsh, Bob Baer, Chad Myers, really helping us divine these developments today. Appreciate it.

Coming up, the last known communication aboard flight 370 took place after that tracking system was turned off. What does that mean and how will it change the investigation? We're going to talk to two aviation experts, coming up right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back. I'm Jim Sciutto, in New York.

Malaysia's prime minister says evidence suggests the plane was deliberately veered off course by someone on board. The last communication was, "All right, good night." So, do those three words take on added significance given this new information?

Joining me now to sort this out is aviation attorney, Dan Rose, also a former pilot; and our familiar aviation expert, Richard Quest.

Let's talk about that, Dan, because we haven't had a chance to ask you your view on how significance it is, that sequencing. To the best knowledge of Malaysia investigators, the ACARs system that sends all the data from the plane, altitude, speed, et cetera, was turned off and, a few minutes later, you get the nice seemingly calm handoff, "All right, good night." What does that say to you?

DAN ROSE, AVIATION ATTORNEY & FORMER PILOT: Certainly, if that's the accurate information and that establishes a time line that you can infer from that, a deliberate takeover of the cockpit, it is significant. I don't think, in and of itself, that comment has been categorized as a deal breaker or game changer. I don't think it really is. I think Richard and others have talked about the fact that it's not uncommon at that time of the night or that part of the world to be a little more casual.

SCIUTTO: Casual, the point is not how he said it or what he said, when he said it or the pilot said it, that after a system had already been disabled either intentionally or by some catastrophic event. It's the view of the Malaysian government that was a deliberate act to take over the plane. That's my question. Is it --

ROSE: I still don't think it's definitive of a deliberate takeover or otherwise. You can make an argument that the tone of that kind of a conversation was indicative of hypoxia, say, he was relaxed --

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: Starting to lose consciousness because of lack of oxygen?

ROSE: So you can make an argument either way. But I don't think it's -- (CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: Interesting.

You have an argument here that it could still be a failure in the plane. Plausible.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely right. I was reading the report last night of helios where there was a failure of the pressurization. And the captain was asking questions of ground maintenance and was being told the switch is behind you. And the captain was making no sense whatsoever. And the report actually says, on the ground, they wondered what on earth the captain was talking about.

SCIUTTO: This was happening without his knowledge. He was losing it because he wasn't aware that the oxygen was coming out.

(CROSSTALK)

QUEST: So it's entirely possible that this was happening.

SCIUTTO: This is a note of caution that we want to keep reminding our viewers. These are early stages, piecing together evidence.

You've investigated, you have been a pilot, but also represented victims of crashes before where evidence is key and the investigation is key as into the cause. Have you ever handled a case with this kind of mystery this far into the game?

ROSE: It wouldn't be a case of eight days into the game. You have to wait for the investigation to play out one way or the other, whether it's our own investigation or certainly relying on the NTSB or the authorities. The problem right now is you really don't know the accuracy of a lot of the information. It's akin to what we do these mock jury trials where we decide before we take a case to trial what people think about various facts. It's almost the same kind of scenario where you feed out facts in a controlled manner and you get a different reaction each time.

SCIUTTO: Let's talk about potential negligence. There does seem to be -- there were some failures. We don't know for sure, but it's possible someone was allowed on the plane that shouldn't have been. That's a possibility. Or you didn't properly vet the pilot or notice that there was an issue brewing, some trouble brewing. But certainly, as well, issues with how quickly the authorities were alerted that something was wrong, whether it's the Vietnamese radar controller, who doesn't alert immediately. We don't know for sure, but we haven't been told that he alerted immediately. Hey, where's MH370. There's a report that Malaysian Airlines didn't red-flag this flight until two and a half hours until after that communication. Is there negligence that you're seeing or signs of negligence here, things that should have been done better?

ROSE: This is turning out to be a classic aviation accident, which is usually a chain of events that leads up to the ultimate catastrophic event. It's rarely something like a bolt of lightning out of the sky. It's a chain of events, whether it's a vetting of a pilot or a passenger or security or air traffic control not doing their job. At any one of those events and the link and the chain of events, if somebody had done what was expected of them or supposed to have been done, you arguably wouldn't have the end result, which is catastrophic.

SCIUTTO: You've talked about it. I know you have covered these. Because you can have a snowballing of issues, one small mistake leads to other mistakes and things happen. Final thought from you.

QUEST: The minister summed it up yesterday. This is no ordinary investigation. The chain of events that you talk about are there, but the final causation and defect of this, which we are now experiencing and seeing, a plane missing for more than a week with a vast area being searched, this makes it no ordinary investigation -- his words.

SCIUTTO: And a longer one for sure.

Thank you, Dan Rose, aviation attorney, former pilot; Richard Quest, who knows everything about flying. Thanks to both of you.

The Bermuda Triangle, Amelia Earhart, Northwest Orient flight 2501. Next, a few of the world's great mysteries and why the disappearance of Malaysia Air flight 370 is not as rare as you might think.

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SCIUTTO: The puzzling disappearance of Malaysia flight 370 is not the first time that a plane has vanished without a trace. Some of the cases remain unsolved decades later.

Rosa Flores joins us with three more cases of mysterious plane disappearances and you say there's precedence for this thing, sadly.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and we can use history as a teacher in this particular case. So we will go back in history and start in 1994 with a flight from Chicago to Pittsburgh. Now, this is U.S. Air flight 427. The plane hit turbulence and corkscrewed and hit the ground at about 300 miles per hour. The aircraft shattered. The 132 people on board died. Hear this, four years later, a report revealed that it was a rudder valve that was to blame in that particular case.

Now we dig deeper into history, but now to 1950, a flight from New York City to Seattle. This was Northwest Orient Airlines flight 2501. And this plane vanished over Lake Michigan. And when we say vanished, it vanished without a trace. And 55 passengers and three crew on board, and no wreckage has been found, even though the bottom of Lake Michigan has been combed. And nothing has been revealed until now, and sit is a huge, huge mystery.

And the most famous, the Bermuda Triangle. I know you knew that I would go there. And this is, of course, the area of Florida, and Puerto Rico and Bermuda. This is statistics back to 1948, 1949. Two Airways jet disappeared with more than 400 people on board, and never found.

And the most widely known is flight 19, American bombers running the training missions. They and never recovered. And the aircraft charged with finding them also vanished with 13 people on board. Not surprisingly, it is known as the Devil's Triangle.

And, Jim, what we can learn from the history is that there are cases where the planes have vanished and nothing has been resolved. Granted, they were not 777s like in the case, but it has happened in the past.

SCIUTTO: And the flight over land right in Pennsylvania and it took them four years, even with everything in front of them, to discover the cause can, and so even when you find the wreckage. So even when you find the plane --

FLORES: Even when you find the wreckage, it will be difficult to find out what happened.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

Thank you, Rosa Flores.

And we will meet with you next hour with three more aviation mysteries.

But meantime, investigators work out a new time line of what may have happened to flight 370. We'll have the details for you right after this.

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