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U.S. Reduces Search Role; New Timeline for Flight 370; Agonizing Wait for Friends, Families of Passengers; Q&A From Viewers About Flight; Pilot Testing and Looking Into Their Backgrounds; March Madness Begins

Aired March 17, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news here on CNN, past the bottom of the hour, I'm Brooke Baldwin.

The U.S. is now reducing its role in the search for missing Flight 370. The USS Kidd is expected to leave the search area of Indian Ocean in the coming days. That's the news we are just getting from our sources at the Pentagon.

U.S. officials tell us the Australians are taking over the majority of the search from there.

Here is what I want to do now. I want to do just a reset if you're just joining us. Take it all the way back to the start, try and fill in some gaps as we go.

So for that, let's turn to my colleague, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux. She is standing by in Washington.

Suzanne?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brooke.

There are new details that were revealed this morning. This is by the chairman of Malaysian Airlines that are really providing a clear timeline in the first hour of the flight, and this dramatically alters how we know and what we know about the missing plane's mysterious journey.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Saturday, March 8th, at 12:41 a.m. local time, Malaysia Flight 370 takes off from Kuala Lumpur headed to Beijing, China. The Boeing 777 is carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew on board.

Twenty-six minutes into the flight at 1:07 a.m., one of the plane's critical communications sends its final transmission.

The onboard computer is called the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS. It measures thousands of data points about the plane and pilot's performance and sends the information via satellite.

It is due to transmit again at 1:37 a.m., but never does.

One-nineteen a.m., someone inside the cockpit, believed to be the co- pilot, provides the last verbal communication with air traffic controllers, his last words, "All right, good night." It's a common goodbye to controllers after being handed off.

At 1:21 a.m., the transponder which identifies the plane to civilian radar goes off. Critical information like the plane's flight number, height, speed and heading are all cutoff. This happens at the same time the plane is supposed to check in with air traffic control in Vietnam.

One-thirty a.m., authorities say all civilian radars lose contact with the plane altogether, then it appears to go through erratic changes, perhaps as high as 45,000 feet, above the approved altitude.

Two-fifteen a.m., Malaysian military radar last detects the plane off the Malaysia's west coast, hundreds of miles off course.

Six-thirty a.m., Flight 370 is due to land in Beijing.

Eight-eleven a.m., more than seven hours after takeoff, a commercial satellite orbiting more than 22,000 miles above Earth makes its last connection with the plane, known as a "handshake."

Using the angle of the satellite, investigators are able to draw two big arcs where they believe the plane could travel. One of those paths spans from Indonesia to the Indian Ocean.

The second is across central Asia to northern Thailand. This brings us to the current massive search under way by land and by sea, involving 26 countries looking for the missing flight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: And, Brooke, although it got considerably more details, there's still some major questions that remain unanswered.

This is a timeline that's been changing day by day, sometimes, as you know, hour by hour, so, Brooke, we're going to keep you posted on the very latest.

BALDWIN: Suzanne Malveaux, thank you so much, in Washington for us.

And you think about the families of the people who were onboard, still holding out hope, like this woman, because one of those onboard that flight, an American, and CNN spoke with his girlfriend.

They were getting ready to move to Malaysia and she says she has a bag packed. She is ready to go whenever, wherever she gets the call that he is found.

Do not miss her emotional interview with us here at CNN. That's coming up, next. Also ahead, you've got a lot of questions. I know you have been tweeting me. You've been tweeting my colleagues. You want things answered, things you don't quite understand, maybe, about the search for this missing flight.

We're all learning about this together. Coming up, we'll pose some of those questions to an expert.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: For the families of Flight 370 the wait for news has to be agonizing, especially for Sarah Bajc, the partner of American, Philip Wood.

The pair were moving to Kuala Lumpur together and were actually planning on getting married later this year.

The movers showed up the very day the plane disappeared and she had to send them away.

Sarah is the first to admit that she may be in denial about his fate, but is on a desperate search to find the man she considers her soul mate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH BAJC, GIRLFRIEND OF PASSENGER ON FLIGHT 370: My bag is packed and ready to go. It has been since Saturday morning.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Ready to go where?

BAJC: Wherever he is.

My son even helped me pick out which clothes to bring for him, so I have an outfit for him in the -- in my backpack, because he wouldn't want to wear his dirty old stuff anymore, I'm sure, and he probably wouldn't want to wear a hospital gown if that's the case.

So, yeah, it's all ready.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: A Facebook page and Twitter account have been started called "Finding Philip Wood" to help gather information, share information about the flight.

Wood was one of three Americans on that plane.

And there are all kinds of questions out there that we just cannot answer at this stage, but I know that some we can. I know a lot of you have some questions. You tweet me. You tweet my colleagues.

Don Lemon, I'm sure you were on the receiving end of a number of these questions and tweets. And I know you have chosen several of them to ask our own aviation expert, Richard Quest, who's joining us here, live, as well. So, Don Lemon, what do people want to know?

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I haven't seen your Twitter feed. I'm sure it's just going every second. Richard Quest, I know, has been answering questions. Mine, as well.

And, you know, people do want to know about the families, but they want to know, operationally, what happened and also where the plane is.

I'm going to pose this question to Richard. Richard, this is the first one that I picked. It's from Robert Ray, or BobRay7425. And he says, "@DonLemon, hash tag, it's 370 questions, if the satellites tracked that plane for six to seven hours, OK, why don't they know where it went down? Something doesn't make sense."

I'll say, Richard Quest.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESONDENT: OK, because the satellite wasn't tracking the plane.

What was happening is, every hour, the satellite was looking for planes and it came across one and it sends a signal saying, hello, who are you? But the plane didn't reply, or if it did, it just sent a basic message back. This is where we are.

So, it wasn't a solid tracking. Think of it more as a ping. The best -- look, I know this is going to be a simplistic explanation, Don, but the best way to think of it is Bluetooth-like.

The satellite was looking for what is discoverable and it found --

BALDWIN: That's a great example.

QUEST: -- that's discoverable, but it doesn't come back with a full name and a full response to it.

So, what they -- and the satellite was never intended to do that. So what they've had to do is literally reconstruct and make various assumptions as a result of there, there, there, there. And it did it six times and that's how it did it.

LEMON: That makes perfect sense, right, Brooke? I mean --

BALDWIN: The Bluetooth analogy is great. I never thought about that. Yeah.

LEMON: Can I get one more in here? It says, "@DonLemonCNN, how long before debris would wash ashore if plane went down in ocean."

Again, if you wanted to answer these questions on the air, we will be doing the at 10:00 tonight, hash tag 370 Qs.

So, how long before debris would wash ashore, Richard, if plane went down in the ocean?

QUEST: That's a question of currents and tides and oceanographers are looking at that at the moment.

We know from previous plane crashes that everything -- there are things that float, not least the life rafts, the life vests, parts of the wing, parts of the tail.

BALDWIN: None of which has been found.

QUEST: None of which has been found so far, but eventually what does happen is -- and TWA, of course, off Long Island, there, certainly, bits of the plane and debris, that was only nine miles out. That floated in.

So, eventually something would float into a shore somewhere, but what they need to do is look at the oceans, the currents, the temperatures and they can -- once they know roughly where it should have been then they can start to work that out.

LEMON: Because we had been asking, Brooke, and I'm sure you have been asking, too, what are the chances that it's in the ocean and there is no debris field.

And people are saying that's pretty unlikely considering how turbulent the waters are.

BALDWIN: There is the whole notion, Richard Quest, and maybe this is off base, but the whole "Miracle on the Hudson." You think of Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and the fact that that was a controlled land, more or less, right on the water.

LEMON: The water is so placid on the Hudson, yeah.

QUEST: Yeah, but it was in -- I mean, it was a superb piece of airmanship -

BALDWIN: Yes.

QUEST: But it was during the day and it was calm waters, very different than the south Indian Ocean.

Listen, I'm going to offer to -- I'm going make up for something -- @RichardQuest. I will try and do my best. And if I get good questions, I will answer them at tonight 10:00, as well.

LEMON: Yeah, Richard will be on the show, but make sure you hash tag them. Make sure you hash tag them --

BALDWIN: Hash tag "370 Qs."

LEMON: You're got it.

BALDWIN: And, again, the time of the show, Don Lemon? What time --

LEMON: It's at 10:00 p.m. Eastern tonight -

BALDWIN: Ten p.m.

LEMON: It's an hour tonight. It's the "DON LEMON SHOW" and we will be answering all of your questions, so here's your chance.

This is the viewer's chance, Brooke -

QUEST: Absolutely.

LEMON: -- and I hope they really chime in.

BALDWIN: All right, gentlemen, thank you. We will see you at 10:00 tonight Eastern.

LEMON: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thank you. Thank you.

Investigators, they are taking a look at all kinds of angles in this case, one of them, the background of the pilot and co-pilot here.

Here's what we know. We know their homes have been searched, the pilot's flight simulator has been seized, but what about any kind of psychological background checks.

What tests are performed before a pilot can transport hundreds of people? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The two pilots at the controls of Flight 370 have now really become the focus of this investigation.

Authorities are scouring the background of 53-year-old Zaharie Ahmad Shah and 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid, seen here in this security video, reportedly showing the two men going through the security screening, of course, as everyone has to do at the Kuala Lumpur international airport.

CNN cannot independently confirm when the video was shot, but we have video for you.

From Washington now, Brian Todd with more on these background checks. What kind of background checks are investigators conducting on these pilots and what exactly are they looking for?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're looking for anything in their backgrounds, Brooke, that might have given a signal of any potential problems.

The Malaysia Airlines CEO says the pilots had to go through psychological tests to get their jobs, but he says the airline is going to look at all that and see if they can tighten up their requirements.

Now, we have to say, we don't know if the pilot or the first officer had any psychological or personal issues that might have played a role in the disappearance of that flight.

The pilots are a focus of the investigation, but so far, there is nothing to indicate some kind of psychological or emotional issue played any kind of a role in this.

Now, in the United States, the FAA requires psychological testing as part of a pilot's regular checkup. Pilots say, their airlines themselves, they take it a step further. They put them through a rigorous battery of psychological tests.

One pilot says his airline when he applied for his job asked him questions like, Do you like your mother? Do you hate your father? Psychological questions like that.

There are strict rules, saying that if you have bipolar disorder or taking certain medications, that you cannot fly.

But often a pilot, Brooke, has to report that him or herself, and if the pilot keeps it completely hidden, it could stay hidden.

BALDWIN: OK. So those are the questions. Those are the rigors someone would have to go through to get a job like this.

But what about once you have the job? I would have to imagine that there are periodic checks to see if something could change, if there's a personal issue that pops up.

TODD: If there's -- they go through those psychological tests every year, but, again, they may not reveal everything in those tests.

And the one pilot said there really is not any kind of a check to see if anything's come up in your personal life that might be upsetting to you, a family illness, maybe some financial problems, things like that.

It only gets flagged, Brooke, if you exhibit some kind of a pattern of behavior, like missing a flight or being late for a flight, something like that.

But some pilots also say maybe a crew member, your fellow crew member, might not notice that you're not really acting the way you usually do and it could get flagged that way.

It's doesn't really -- it's not really part of the process to check normally to see if someone has something in his or her life that might have come up in an issue.

They don't do that on a regular basis, most airlines.

BALDWIN: This is totally fascinating. I feel like it's an angle that hasn't really been developed.

So, Brian Todd, we'll look for your reporting on "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Mr. Blitzer, 5:00 Eastern, here on CNN. We'll see you then.

TODD: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: Ah, yes, can you feel the buzz in the air? March Madness, folks, time to fill out your bracket and test your basketball knowledge.

Take a look at this. This is what greeted us as we walked into work this morning in the atrium at the World Headquarters of CNN, the world's biggest bracket.

I'm telling you, this thing is huge, trimmed kind of in Carolina blue there on the edges. There are darker edges of blue of other institutions which we will not name.

I walked down there this morning and I talked about the brackets and the teams with one of the experts. This guy knows a thing or two about basketball, Steve Smith of NBA TV.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Welcome to, in my humble opinion, the very best time of the year. You know it's March Madness when you walk into work here at CNN and you have this massive bracket in the middle of our atrium.

I love it because I'm a Tar Heel and typically we do well. We'll see how we do this season.

This is Steve Smith, by the way, NBA TV, also of NBA fame. Loved you with the Hawks because I'm an Atlanta girl and also Michigan State. Michigan State?

STEVE SMITH, NBA TV: Yeah, Michigan State is right here, and I take it you have North Carolina in your hand, and North Carolina beat us earlier in the year, so we're in the same Eastern bracket.

BALDWIN: OK. We'll see how that goes.

Who, other than -- let's take our biases out of it for a hot minute. Who are you loving?

SMITH: I'm loving Virginia, Tony Bennett, what he's done in the ACC.

BALDWIN: The Cavaliers, huh?

SMITH: Yes, the Cavaliers. They ran through the ACC. They won the regular season. They won the tournament. I like the way they play.

They go about seven or eight deep. Any guy can start. They play the right way. They set a lot of screens, great spacing, great coaching, and they play at their pace. You can't speed them up.

BALDWIN: You played -- I remember the game against Tech -- what was that, early '90s?

SMITH: Way to bring up the loss for me.

BALDWIN: But you were on fire and -- sorry about that. But what's it like being just one of these college players on the court in the middle of the Madness?

SMITH: It's unbelievable. You said it best when you started off. It's not just basketball and sports. It's an event. It's an unbelievable event.

You get a chance to play for the name on the front of the jersey. And obviously individuals win games sometimes, but teams is what you really talk about. Colleges, communities, everybody gets involved and, this day. even before it starts, people go crazy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: People do go crazy.

So, we talked about a lot of other things. We talked about possible Cinderella stories. Of course, you remember Dunk City and the Florida Gulf Coast University last year.

We talked about picking brackets, heart versus head. We'll see how it goes.

So, make sure you tune in here as we talk March Madness for the next couple of weeks.

And if you think you have what it takes to beat the rest of the CNN anchors, bring it. Here's your chance. Take the challenge. Log on to CNN.com/Brackets.

You can fill out your picks and you'll be competing against me and the rest of the CNN anchors. Again, CNN.com/Brackets. Good luck.

That's it for me. I'll see you back here tomorrow.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.