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New Clues in Flight 370 Investigation; U.S. Investigates Crew; Tracking Flight 370; Families Furious with Malaysian Officials; Crimea Votes on Joining Russia; Flight 370 and Legal Ramifications; Flight 370 Joins the Unknowns

Aired March 16, 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, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Two big stories topping our news this hour, the massive search for that Flight 370 and the multinational investigation now into one of the biggest aviation mysteries of our time.

Plus, Crimea's crucial vote to join Russia. It could have major diplomatic consequences around the world.

But first, we want to bring you the latest information on Flight 370. In the last hour we've learned that France is sending investigators to Malaysia today to help sift through the clues. A top military official in India says that country has temporarily ended its search for the plane while Malaysia reviews the massive deployments from 25 countries.

The search area now covers large areas of land including extremely remote regions. Crews are looking along two corridors, one to the south, the other to the north, reaching all the way up to Kazakhstan.

Authorities say they're examining a flight simulator taken from the home of the pilot. A U.S. official tells CNN U.S. intelligence is leaning toward the theory that the pilots are responsible. Satellite signals picked up on Flight 370 for seven hours after the last contact with the pilots. But Malaysian officials announced today it is possible the last satellite contact could have come from the plane on the ground.

Our Atika Shubert joins us now live from Kuala Lumpur.

So, Atika, what are Malaysian officials saying more about this last satellite contact?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what they're basically saying is that it is possible to have received that last contact with the plane on the ground. Basically if its main communication was up it would still be -- and it was on it would still be able to transmit that, whether it was on the air or on the ground.

Now that might give hope to family members that perhaps the plane landed but it really doesn't give us any indication yet about what happened to the plane or where exactly it is. And this is why the Malaysian government is making an appeal to 25 countries to help them get as much information as they can including satellite images, radar data. And remember, as you pointed out, this is some of the most remote parts of the world that they're looking at.

An area that stretches from north Thailand to Kazakhstan, I mean, that covers everything from the Himalayas, Myanmar, China. A huge, expansive area to be cover and it's going to be very difficult to coordinate all of these different countries in the search. It really is like looking for a need in a haystack.

WHITFIELD: That is indeed the case. So what are investigators saying about this flight simulator that was taken from one of the pilot's homes?

SHUBERT: Well, the captain, Zaharie Ahmed Shah, was such an -- he has such a passion for aviation that friends say he built his own homemade simulator of the 777. That is something apparently he constructed himself with software. We don't have that many details about it. But we do -- what we do know from a senior police source who just told us who's very close to the investigation has said that the police are still working on it but they haven't found anything conclusive yet.

But obviously one of the things that they will be looking for is any clues as to why the flight might have deviated from its path, was this pass run before on a simulator. These are all things that police will be looking at, but so far nothing conclusive -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And so, Atika, our officials intimating here that these simulators have a type of memory and that possibly of all those scenarios that you just spelled out, if that pilot were looking into those things, practicing on any number of things, that it might be in the memory bank of that simulator even though it was home built.

SHUBERT: It's a possibility that they're looking at. But I do have to point out even though the focus is now on both the pilot and the co-pilot, they are also looking at the rest of the crew, all the passengers on the plane to see whether anybody else had aviation experience and also ground crew. They say this is also possible, somebody who helped to get that plane up in the air may have had something to do with this diverted flight path.

So it's not just the pilot they're looking at but obviously since they had the most experience flying the plane, it's logical that they would focus on them first.

WHITFIELD: All right, Atika Shubert, thank you so much from Kuala Lumpur. We'll check back with you later on.

All right, now back to the States and the Pentagon where U.S. officials told our Barbara Starr the focus is now on, quote, "those in the cockpit" in the flight's disappearance.

I want to bring in Barbara Starr now for more on that.

So, Barbara, what they're saying is not too different from what Malaysian authorities are insinuating?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: I think that's right, Fredricka. As Atika was just pointing out, it's a logical theory, hypothesis that they're moving towards across several agencies of the U.S. government that are working with the Malaysians, that are familiar with the technical analysis of the data that they do have in hand. No facts yet. You know, nothing is proven and certainly nothing against any members of the crew or the passengers because nobody knows what happened. But if you begin to rule certain things out, it may be what you're left with, we're told. You know, there was that deliberate turn to the left, electronic systems were cut off.

These are the kinds of things that appear to be very deliberate actions by someone who has considerable flight expertise. That is leading them very much to look at the pilot, to look at the co-pilot, and as we saw yesterday Malaysian authorities went to the homes of both men to search them. So this is something that several parties led by the Malaysians are looking into.

WHITFIELD: And so that is the criminal investigation, but of course there's also the accident investigation. What kind of assets is the U.S. kind of devoting to helping to look for that plane?

STARR: Well, it's the same problem now that, you know, when you put the map up and you look at the thousands, hundreds of thousands of square miles from central Asia to the southern Indian Ocean this is an overwhelming challenge. How do you find it.

The U.S. Navy is searching the waters from about the Andaman Islands south at this point. They have pretty much left the Bay of Bengal area. They're looking at all of that. They have a ship. They have helicopters. They have maritime surveillance aircraft which can see long distances, looking for any anomalies on the water, anything that might be a debris field.

They are also going back one more time looking at all of their satellite and radar data from Central Asia where the U.S. does monitor activity. It does not in the Indian Ocean. Looking at Central Asia one more time, but so far they say their own satellite and radar data simply isn't showing them anything.

WHITFIELD: And that satellite data could potentially show them where a plane might be in a place that it shouldn't be, or are we talking about satellite data that would help I guess corroborate with that most recent art of the possible directions the plane may have gone?

STARR: Well, I think if you assume that they pretty much settled on this arc as the potential possible path of the plane, what they're looking for now is any so-called signature, any imagery from a satellite that would show an infrared image perhaps of a crash site, would show a plane landing at an airfield, though that is very unlikely that would not be noticed. Those are the -- or additional radar signatures that would show it passing by any of the potentially hundreds of commercial and military traffic control radars in that region.

But I think what U.S. officials believe about this northern track is the plane first would have had to have crossed some countries' coastline with nobody noticing it on their radars. Those are all countries that do have radars on their coastlines. So first it has to cross a coastline. Then it has to travel perhaps some distance inside one of those countries, still not be noticed. This is one of the challenges of that hunt, officials are saying, is that logical, is that probable.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

STARR: Where do you begin to look.

WHITFIELD: Yes. That's the stuff that just doesn't make sense. How is it that so many countries could miss. One country possibly missing but how could so many miss a plane as big as this 777.

All right. Thanks so much, Barbara Starr. Appreciate that. Keep us posted.

All right. So the U.S. has deployed several assets to the area in hopes of helping find the Malaysia Flight 370. The search for the missing jet is being followed very closely in Washington as you heard Barbara spell out.

Let's get more on that. Let's bring in Candy Crowley, anchor of CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION."

So, Candy, this morning you spoke with an expert about the so-called black boxes, the flight data recorders. What have we learned about that or what they're looking for, the kind of information they'd need for that?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR, STATE OF THE UNION: Here's what's interesting to me, Fredricka, and that is that when I talk to any number of experts, I say what one thing do you really want right now and they say those data boxes, used to call them black boxes but they're not, they're orange, but they have the recordings of what was said in the cockpit and they have other data about what was going on with the instruments in the cockpit.

Those are the ones that people are always searching the ocean floor for, you know, the boxes, the data boxes will tell us something. So I put it to a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, and I said if these -- whoever did this and was sophisticated enough to cut off two communication systems on the plane, could they have also cut off these data boxes? And here's what John Goglia had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN GOGLIA, FORMER NTSB BOARD MEMBER: It is possible to make them not work. And a knowledgeable crew could interrupt the electrical power to the circuitry and cause the box to stop. They would have to know the location of that circuit break, and off the top of my head, I don't remember where it is, if it's in the cockpit or if it's down below in the electrical power center. But it is possible in flight to get to the circuit breakers and to interrupt the power.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CROWLEY: So I have to tell you, Fredricka, that I talked to another expert shortly after that who said I actually don't think it's possible to interfere with those data boxes. But another thing about it is that the noise that these data boxes emit so that you can find them in cases such as this have about a 30-day life span. So time's awasting as they say. I mean, we're eight days into this.

WHITFIELD: Right.

CROWLEY: And so that's what a lot of the -- I mean, obviously they're looking for plane wreckage, any sign of human remains or anything but to know what happened, the experts are all wanting to find those data boxes.

WHITFIELD: Right. And I understand with the ping, the life span of the ping, that pinging device to try and locate wreckage is usually about 30 days. So we'll find out a little bit more if that applies still in this case.

Meantime, you spoke with a doctor who tests pilots for fitness, mental and physical. And what did you learn from Dr. Unger?

CROWLEY: That pilots across the world have different standards for what is -- does the physical test include, what is the mental test include. And -- and he said, you know, listen, you have to look at the kinds of medication that a pilot is taking. Might that have altered mood. Is this pilot depressed.

Much is put on the physical, you know. Is their heart strong enough, is there any physical difficulties here. But he said increasingly other countries are looking to U.S. standards on how we test our pilots, how regularly you do that. But the fact of the matter is something like a depression or some cognitive problem, you know, can start just after you've had a physical. So he obviously stressed the importance of having these mental exams as well but not every country requires them or every airline requires them of their pilots.

So that's certainly -- you know, as they're looking in that cockpit that's certainly something that's going to come up, but, it's -- Atika, you know, tells us several times, you know, it's not just the pilots they're looking at, it's anybody who touched that plane, loaded bags, loaded anything onto it. They're looking at them as well.

WHITFIELD: All right. Clearly everyone suspect at this point. It is just that mysterious.

All right. Thank you so much. Candy Crowley, appreciate it. Host of "STATE OF THE UNION."

All right. The families and the loved ones of those on board this missing plane are simply furious with the investigation. Some of them accuse Malaysian officials of lying to them. Listen.

They are outraged. One man even trying to punch an official. We check in with the families next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Back now to our coverage of this historic aviation mystery. What happened to Flight 370. Investigators are taking a closer look at the cockpit, who was in it. As they dig, they wait for any kind of news, and it's just excruciating for families and friends of those on board. 154 of them were Chinese nationals.

Earlier things got very ugly at a daily briefing in Beijing. Many families are simply angry, outraged with Malaysian officials. They accuse them of lying to them about the investigation.

Pauline Chiou has more.

PAULINE CHIOU, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Family members here in Beijing are digesting the news that this search has gotten more difficult, now covering the topography of 25 countries and the Indian Ocean. But one thread out of the latest news conference did give them some optimism.

There was a mention that one of the satellite communications with the plane may have come from the plane on the ground and family members were telling me that this gave them hope that perhaps the plane had landed somewhere with the passengers on board.

Now earlier Sunday we saw tempers flaring at a family briefing here at this hotel. Malaysia Airlines has been paying for the hotel and meals of hundreds of relatives for the past nine days. Now on Sunday they did tell the relatives that if they chose to return home the airline would pay for that return journey. Many relatives took that as an insult, and one woman stood up in the family briefing and started screaming at the airline representative.

This woman said, "We are not going anywhere. We will wait right here." Another man took the microphone and asked all of the people in the room who has lost faith in the Malaysian government, who has lost faith in Malaysia Airlines? If so, stand up. And we saw more than half of the room standing up.

The general consensus is that information coming out of these daily briefings is quite thin and there's just so much frustration as these family members say precious time has been lost.

Pauline Chiou, CNN, Beijing.

WHITFIELD: And new theories on the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines jet, details on that next.

And we're also following the other big story of the day, the Crimea vote to join Russia.

We'll be right back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Back now to our continuing coverage of the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. Here's the latest information we have on this investigation. A short time ago we learned that France is sending investigators to Malaysia today to help sift through the clues. A top military official in India says that country has temporarily ended its search for the plane while Malaysia reviews the massive deployments from 25 countries now.

The search area now covers large areas of land including extremely remote regions. Crews are looking along two corridors, one to the south, the other to the north, reaching all the way up to Kazakhstan.

Authorities say they are examining a flight simulator taken from the home of the pilot. A U.S. official tells CNN U.S. intelligence is leaning toward the theory that the pilots are responsible. Satellite signals picked up on Flight 370 for seven hours after the last contact with the pilots. But Malaysian officials announced today it is possible the last satellite contact could have come from the plane on the ground.

Moving now to Ukraine where there is less than one hour left for people in the Crimea region to cast a critical vote on their future. They're voting on a referendum to join Russia or to effectively become an independent state, and it has sparked turmoil across Ukraine.

Pro-Russian supporters stormed the prosecutor's office in one city in eastern Ukraine. They broke down doors and they rushed to the balcony to tear down the Ukrainian flag and wave instead a Russian flag. There you see it there.

Michael Holmes live now for -- from the Crimean region.

So, Michael, what has it been like today?

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Hi, Fred. Yes, we're in Simferopol, which is the regional capital of Crimea. About 40 minutes or so ago until the poll closed here and we've also had words from the prime minister of Crimea, the controversially appointed prime minister of Crimea, that preliminary results will be announced pretty quickly, perhaps within an hour after the closing of those polls.

Right here in Lenin Square in the center of the city, and you can probably hear that a concert is under way celebrating the very predictable results on this referendum. And you see a very pro- Russian crowd, you've heard it continues to be so. The crowd swelling down below and now amongst that crowd is our Nick Paton Walsh, who join us now.

Nick, gives us a sense of what it's like down there.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There is a remarkable scene of nation celebration here. You say we're about 40 minutes away from the polls closing and then about an hour-plus until we hear those preliminary results. No real doubt as to what they're going to say, that Crimea has voted to become part of Russia. That's what we anticipate, very little left that could get in the way of that result unless the Kremlin decides suddenly they don't want it, because frankly we haven't really had much of a contest electorally here.

There has been a very homogeneous diatribe here. We've simply heard from the pro-Russian movement saying why the referendum should push Crimea into the part of the Russian Federation.

But here, despite all the kind of gaiety you're seeing around me, the mixture of Russian and Crimean flags, the folk music being played on the stage. We're expecting a rock concert perhaps later on.

Now to go back to the prime minister of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, to come down here and make some of the announcements himself, you do have to bear in mind that this remarkable victory for the de facto governments at the polls not even made possible because of the 21,500 Russian troops that according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry have swollen into the Crimea at this point. So while this is a clearly well-organized display of public endorsement, the idea of becoming part of the Russian federation, you have to bear in mind --

WHITFIELD: Sorry. We lost that signal there with Nick Paton Walsh and Michael Holmes also in that same city. And of course all this taking place now and just an hour to go before preliminary results are in on that referendum on whether Crimea will join Russia. We'll have much more on that later on.

All right. Meantime, back to the investigation involving that missing airplane. The focus of the investigation is zeroing in on the pilots of missing Flight 370. What happened in that cockpit? Our panel of aviation experts next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. We're coming up on day 10 since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished. Here's what we know right now.

A short time ago we learned France is sending investigators to Malaysia today to help sift through clues. A top military official in India says that country has temporarily ended its search for the plane while Malaysia reviews the massive deployments from 25 countries.

The search area now covers large areas of land including extremely remote regions. Crews are looking along two corridors, one to the south, the other to the north, all the way to Kazakhstan. Malaysian Police are examining a flight simulator taken from the home of the pilot. A U.S. official tells CNN U.S. intelligence is leaning to where the theory that the pilots are responsible for the plane's disappearance.

Let's bring in our panel of experts. All three aviation attorneys.

Arthur Rosenberg is in New York. CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo is in Charleston, South Carolina, and Mike Dombroff joins us from Washington.

All right, good to see you all of you again. So the focus of the investigation seems to be zeroing in on the pilots. Mark, you first. What can be gleaned from that personal simulator? Because apparently investigators have collected it. They're going to be examining it. What are they looking for in that simulator?

MARK DOMBROFF, AVIATION ATTORNEY: Well, I suppose, Fredricka, that what they're looking for is a scenario that might match what little they know about the actual flight itself essentially a rehearsal or a dry run or some indication on there that somehow this was being rehearsed. That may likely be a Microsoft flight simulator program which you or I could buy at the computer store.

It's certainly one that I have on a flight simulator that I have. But I suspect that what they're looking for and to see if it's there is something that may, in fact, suggest that what happened on this flight was rehearsed. It certainly makes sense to look at any possible lead. But I suspect I wouldn't read too much into the fact that the pilot had a flight simulator.

WHITFIELD: Right. Because I was going to say at the start it's not necessarily that suspicious that someone, an experienced pilot would have a simulator. Apparently many do have them in their homes. So that's not reason enough to be suspicious of this pilot. Right?

DOMBROFF: I absolutely agree. I remember years ago an FAA inspector that I worked with said that he gave a flight check to a then-TWA pilot and he said that the pilot was so good that he must have had a flight simulator in his basement. And it actually turned out that he did have a flight simulator in his basement because he had a passion for aviation, he was consumed with aviation, and it was just something that he did.

So I don't think we can read too much into the fact that this captain had a flight simulator. A lot of kids have flight simulators on their computers. This captain's was a little more extravagant because he was really into it.

WHITFIELD: Mm-hmm. And so, Mary, is it possible or likely that investigators would start looking into places where people might learn to be pilots, schools? Because isn't it the case that you have to be a fairly experienced pilot to know how to fly a 777, how to turn off the transponder? So is it likely that investigators would start trying to look at schools, places where people may have, you know -- learn some instruction and try to get some information based on that, looking for people, any names matching up on that air flight?

I mean, I recall on 9/11 those that hijacked did go to a flight school in Florida and that helped investigators kind of connect the dots. Do you see that applying to this case?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: I do, but I also think they ought to look within Malaysia Airlines, too. And by the way, on the flight simulator, the other thing you might be looking for is this captain had to have help. If the scenario that they're painting is what they're really going with, that there were, you know, multiple people, they went down in the electronics bay, et cetera, they would also look to see if he was training anyone else on that simulator because they would have to coordinate and train together.

And I agree with Mark, I have one of those at my house, too, and my kids messed on it and tried to learn to fly in the garage. So I don't think that makes so much of a difference. But by spreading out their net they're going to be looking for others in Malaysia Air that might have helped. They're going to be looking at other pilots who have trained on a 777. They will be looking at any kind of problems, unrest, people who were disgruntled, and in doing that they're going to expand the net pretty far. But it's a pretty small group of people who are expert 777s.

WHITFIELD: And, Arthur, it's understandable why family members are so frustrated, they're not getting information, they don't have their loved ones, and people are really feeling like Malaysian authorities are keeping information close, they are not trusting authorities. Do you see this as relatively understandable, or do you think Malaysian authorities are simply not divulging enough or is it they just don't have the information to divulge?

ARTHUR ROSENBERG, AVIATION ATTORNEY AND ENGINEER, PILOT: Yes, I'm completely sympathetic with these families. I think the Malaysian government from day one on this has not handled this properly in terms of the release of information. But I just wanted to go back to something that Mark and Mary said.

You know, while it's interesting that they have flight simulators in their home, and I've played with them from time to time myself, none of us are active Boeing 777 pilots. And I think what's very interesting here, and we haven't really touched on this, is that this airplane crossed the Malaysian peninsula on military radar with complete impunity.

If they flew from the east coast to the west coast, that was something that had to be practiced. The plane flew, it's been called an erratic course, they actually flew very skilled waypoints until they came to the fork and road where all contact was lost and we have the north corridor and the south corridor. But to get that kind of precision, you have to practice. And --

WHITFIELD: Are you saying because they were under radar or they just simply were overlooked?

ROSENBERG: Well, they weren't under radar. When the transponder and the ACAR systems were turned off, we have the last communication and they turned around, the military radar actually tracked this airplane on its primary radar. They got -- they got little bit of hits over to the -- over to the west coast. And the point is that's a relatively sophisticated radar environment.

How do you elude that kind of radar? Malaysia had quick response aircraft that could have intercepted that airplane which clearly shouldn't have been in that spot. So --

WHITFIELD: Right. OK. Well, hold it right there, Arthur, because I do want to continue this conversation with all three of you. We're going to take a short break for now and then when we come back, let's talk about why Malaysia's military didn't dispatch its F-18s and F-5s to go after a plane that may have gone through their air space.

All that straight ahead after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Ten days and still no word on what happened to Malaysia Flight 370. Let's bring back our panel of experts, Arthur Rosenberg in New York, CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo in Charleston, South Carolina, and Mark Dombroff in Washington. All three aviation attorneys.

All right, Arthur, back to you first. You were raising the question before the break. Why wouldn't Malaysia's military react to Flight 370 flying through its spare space and off its Beijing-bound track? Are you suggesting Malaysia was not just negligent but perhaps even complicit?

ROSENBERG: No, I'm not going that far. What -- what I'm suggesting is if you look at the north route that this plane -- one of the projected paths this plane took and you combine it today with the request from Malaysian authorities for 25 countries to submit radar data, when you put this all together it becomes very telling, and it tells a story that there are holes, there are dark spots, blind spots in the radars of these various nations.

Now last night we were discussing some of the radar capabilities of India and some of the surrounding countries. And one of your security correspondent guests was talking about the fact that he had been to several radar facilities that supposedly were doing what they were supposed to do and they didn't work. So what I'm suggesting here is we know -- what are the facts?

We know after the ACAR system went down, the transponder was turned off, the last communication this plane made a 180-degree turn, basically. It flew back across the Malaysian peninsula. They have military radar which tracked this airplane. They have primary radar hits until they got to the west coast of Malaysia. At that point we have the north and the southbound route. Now, how could that happen?

WHITFIELD: Yes.

ROSENBERG: Well, "The New York Times" reported today that there were four radar controllers, military controllers, who are responsible for that, whether they were sleeping on the job, whether they couldn't appreciate the significance of a primary hit remains to be seen and analyzed. But the point is the plane flew across the peninsula with impunity and was not intercepted or stopped.

WHITFIELD: And so, Mark, what do you make of that? "The New York Times" is reporting that within hours the military got wind of the fact that this plane had suddenly lost contact and it had been play flying into its air space. So if it's within hours why wouldn't those F-5s, F-18s be up in the air looking for that plane as opposed to waiting nearly an entire day later before comprehensive search crews are sent out? DOMBROFF: You know, I -- I don't know the answer and I'm not going to speculate. There's too much speculation. And we're now speculating about speculation. And -- but let me say this, Fredricka. I represented the United States in connection with the Korean Airlines shoot down by the Soviet Union. And there was all sorts of speculation about what the air force controllers in Alaska knew, when they knew it, why didn't do various things and so forth.

And there were all sorts of national security issues involved, and -- but it didn't stop people from speculating. And that's what's going on now. There is such speculation that we're doing a disservice to the investigation. Maybe some of these things are true. Maybe all of these things are true. But all we're doing by effectively acting as talking heads in this regard irrespective of our qualifications is we're fueling speculation, in a large measure we're fueling hysteria.

We saw the families and I just think it's just not appropriate for us to be doing something like this in this regard.

WHITFIELD: OK. Mary, I know you've got a comment on this. I'd love to hear from you on whether this really is a potential distraction. We have to take a short break. When we come right back, let's pick it up. I know you've got storms in your area so I hope we don't lose our signal with you, Mary Schiavo and Arthur and Mark. Thanks so much.

We'll be right back to continue this panel discussion.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. We continue our conversation now on that missing flight, Malaysian Flight 370. Our panel of experts back with me now. Arthur Rosenberg in New York, CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo in Charlton, South Carolina, and Mark Dombroff in Washington.

OK, we're talking about the number of countries now involved in the search for this plane, 25. There are all sorts of satellite imaging and information that is being conveyed. And now it really has elicited everyone on the planet to come up with theories and best- case, worst-case scenarios. It's only natural because this is not only a fascinating situation but it's also frightening.

But, Mary, you know, to you first, I wonder, with all of these holes in this investigation and people trying to fill in the blanks, all of us putting on our sleuth hats, is that a distraction for investigators as Mark was saying?

SCHIAVO: No. You know, I think it was Edison who said he had -- you know, before he came up with the light bulb he came up with a thousand ways not to make the light bulb. By the prime minister's statement, and I can commiserate with Malaysia because we were in the same position after September 11th, 2001, and I think he revealed what the problem was with the radar.

He had a statement I'm paraphrasing, I don't remember it exactly but he said, look -- when he was accused of a cover-up, he said, we've just laid bare, I mean, we've told the world some of our security shortcomings. We're taking a security risk in saying this. And so I think what he was saying is they simply weren't, they didn't have the radar up and they didn't have the radar coverage and they didn't have the eyes on the sky that people expect and think.

And it was the same thing with us after September 11th. People assumed that we had our eyes on the sky, that we had good airport security, that we were doing all these things and we really weren't. So I think the prime minister of Malaysia was giving us a pretty big hint that by calling in these other countries, he was pretty much saying, and I'm sure he'll take political flak for it, that they really weren't on their toes and they didn't have their best defenses on.

So I think that's why, you know, we don't have to guess what happened. He pretty much gave us the clue. And by calling in these other countries and literally the eyes of the world with this project to try to find any satellite data that will give us a clue, I mean, I actually like that they are doing it. It is rather open to say, look, we need help. Our radar wasn't so good.

WHITFIELD: OK.

SCHIAVO: So to me it's encouraging. And I don't see any problem with calling on everyone to come up with theories and try to help sort this out, because in reality, that's what we do when we investigate. We try out different theories and see what could possibly make sense. And in September --

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: OK.

SCHIAVO: September 11th he came forward --

WHITFIELD: And what's interesting here, you know, we talk about, and Arthur, you underscored this, 25 countries now submitting their radar data. And we have just learned that apparently that India and Pakistan are saying according to radar data there was no evidence of Flight 370. So those two countries at least are saying they don't see it, they don't have record of it.

So, Arthur, is that satisfactory to you, or are we talking about just simply there are flaws in the system globally as it pertains to, you know, the aviation system? And while the prime minister of Malaysia is saying, OK, we missed a few things, we are not perfect, is that really the case globally and that kind of thing underscored by what Mary is saying?

ROSENBERG: Yes -- no, I agree with Mary. I think what we are talking about is a plausible scenario to fit a given set of facts. But in terms of this global monitoring capability, this global radar capability, it really doesn't exist. Each country has its own air space. It's own sovereign air space. Each country has its own radar capability, but, you know, just to steer us back a little bit, the families of the people on this airplane I think were given a little bit of a disservice in terms of the way the Malaysian government handled this, but in terms of the capability of the Malaysian military and not seeing this airplane, even though India and Pakistan have now said, well, we have looked at our radar.

I don't know that they turn the radar over to be analyzed by our experts and we don't see Flight 370 going through our air space.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

ROSENBERG: That doesn't mean that another route, which this pilot, whoever was piloting the plane, may have practiced to try to evade the radar of these countries.

WHITFIELD: OK. OK. We'll have to leave it there. I know we're going to resume this conversation later on this afternoon. Thank you so much to all of you. Appreciate it, Arthur and Mary and Mark. Appreciate it.

So Flight 370 is one of the biggest mysteries in aviation history right now. Next, we'll look at some of the other big mysteries on the record books. Why we are so drawn to the unknown.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. The polls for critical vote in Crimea for that country to join Russia closing in just a few minutes from now. We'll get the latest live from Ukraine on if this significant region will join Russia.

Plus, we're also watching every development on that missing Malaysian plane. Just moments ago Pakistan now saying that they did not pick up any sign, any signals on their radar of Flight 370. That and all the other new developments at the top of the hour.

So for now, Flight 370 is one of the biggest mysteries in recent aviation history. Alexandra Field looks at some of history's other great mysteries and why we are so drawn to the unknown.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even when there are plausible explanations --

KEYA MORGAN, HISTORICAL COLLECTOR: Like the Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe case, like the Bobby Kennedy case, like even Amelia Earhart.

FIELD: -- the answers don't always satisfy.

MORGAN: I think mysteries mean questions.

FIELD: The Strait of Gibraltar, 140 years ago a ghost ship found floating. What happened to the crew aboard Mary Celeste? Pirates, a mutiny, perhaps a sea monster?

All popular theories debunked in this 2007 documentary which tells us what didn't happen but doesn't tell us what did. Seventy-seven years after Amelia Earhart disappeared, her wreckage has never been found. And Los Angeles County, now questions come to light about the long debated death of actress Natalie Wood. In 1981 it was ruled an accidental drowning. In 2012, a coroner changes the death certificate. Drowning and other undetermined factors.

And --

Marilyn Monroe, in 1962, her death was called a probable suicide. An overdose of barbiturates. But how did her internal organs disappear at the morgue? For skeptics more question lingered. What about her links to President John K. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, the various crime bosses?

MORGAN: I talked to at least 40 people who said, you know, who talked to her before she died and said how happy she was, how excited, and how she made plans for the next day, and then all of a sudden she's dead.

FIELD: A year later President Kennedy shot in Dallas. His death at once shocking the nation and still causing confusion. That perennial question, could there be a second shooter?

MORGAN: The church committee concluded unanimously that there was at least, you know, two different gunmen, but yet that's been denied by others.

FIELD: It may be the greatest mystery in American history. Lee Harvey Oswald was ruled the only assassin, but 60 years later, a Gallop poll shows just 60 percent of Americans just don't believe it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. That was Alexandra Field reporting. Thanks so much. We have much more ahead straight ahead in the NEWSROOM, and it all starts right now.