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Thai Radar Bolsters "Left Turn" Theory; Nothing Suspicious Found In Pilot's Home; Flight 370 Families Plead For Facts; Official: Ukrainian Officer Killed In Crimea;

Aired March 18, 2014 - 14:30   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: Past bottom of hour. You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. This is our special coverage of this mystery of Flight 370. So let's dive into this sharp left turn this plane took before disappearing. This has really been one of the main sources of confusion, but for one theory, it's a point of stunning simplicity.

Because this one expert, we were just talking about just a few minutes ago. This veteran pilot believes there was a fire on the plane. He suggests that this left turn shows that the pilot on this flight, who by the way had something like 18,000 flying hours under his belt, did what experienced aviators do, aim for an airport.

So in this article it was originally on Google Plus, veteran pilot, Chris Goodfellow writes this. Quote, "We old pilots were always drilled to always know the closest airport of safe harbor while in cruise. Airports behind us, airports abeam us, and airports ahead of us, always in our head. Always. Because if something happens, you don't want to be thinking, what are you going to do? You already know what you're going to do. Instinctively when I saw that left turn with a direct heading, I knew he was heading for an airport."

And Goodfellow believes 370 was headed for this airport in Malaysia with this 13,000-foot runway. So joining me now to walk through this, Captain Bill Savage, who was also a certified airline accident investigator and current pilot who has flown these 777s.

So Bill, welcome to you. And Chad Myers joining me here in studio. Bill, I want to walk through some of these points this gentleman makes in this piece. But first, Chad, can you just show me a map and tell me exactly how this all fits together?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, let's just walk right over here. I'll show you what's going on. Left Kuala Lumpur, it got up here a little bit farther to the north right there. Decided that this thing was going to go left and it did go left. And it went across the island and over that island. At least that was the theory. And that's the airport you just showed right there.

The other theory here -- because I'm trying to put two good theories together that kind of match up because we don't have anything. We can't get the arc to work. We can't get eyewitnesses to work. But we found something this morning a little bit interesting.

There are reports that way over here in the Maldives, someone -- actually more than one, saw a low-flying white plane with red stripes that morning, and if that thing stayed on auto pilot, flew over that island that you just showed, guess where it would have ended up 1,800 miles later. Right over the Maldives right there.

And yes, there are places to put that plane down on land in the Maldives. Not many. They have very little land and a lot of water. You go down here a little bit farther, you will find that island right there. That is a 1.6-mile-long runway and not too many people on that island either -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Bill, what do you think? I mean, simple as a fire and that he wanted to find a place to put this bird down?

CAPTAIN BILL SAVAGE, COMMERCIAL AIRLINE PILOT: Well, I agree with the premise. I'm not convinced that there's any indication there was a fire on board. With a mere two button push on the flight management system computer, it brings up the five closest alternate airports from your present position that are suitable to land an aircraft of that size. And I agree we are trained to pick the closest suitable airport in an emergency, and head for that position to put the airplane on the ground, particularly in a fire. But flying all the way to the Maldives at low level, looking for a runway is as plausible as anything else I've heard so far this week.

BALDWIN: What is it the pilots say? You say aviate, navigate and lastly, communicate. That's the other question. Just go with me on this theory from this 20-year pilot veteran who wrote this piece. He says, you know, listen, there are reasons, in the case of if it were some sort of electrical fire. You're throwing off all the buses. That was the word he used. Flipping them all back on to determine where the origin of the fire would be, correct?

SAVAGE: Well, that's a very prolonged event to attack the problem with. You'd be in checklists doing that. You would have, a, been using your transponder to squawk an emergency code. You would be in communication with air traffic control. There wouldn't be silence and I'm not at all comfortable with the signoff of the last transmission you did hear. I would want to hear the 20 minutes before that, of the whole conversation, and then apply that last voice to the ongoing air traffic control transmissions that have been going back and forth.

As I stated yesterday, Asians generally don't use that short clip vernacular of "all right, goodnight." The Asians are very procedurally correct and they would have signed off with their airline call sign, and in addition to the term heavy, meaning that it's a 777.

BALDWIN: So are you saying it doesn't make sense that they said "all right, goodnight?" Because every other pilot I've talked to said no big deal.

SAVAGE: Well, Americans would say that, particularly in the middle of the night. If you had been having conversation with that controller and you recognize one another's voices. You might clip it. But that sounds to me like they gave him an additional instruction, for example. We've lost your transponder, squawk 5570 and ident, in order to establish that transponder again on their radar screen. That might elicit a response like "all right, good night," and he would do that while he then transitioned over to the next air traffic control center. I'm not at all comfortable with this clipped exit with nothing in front of it. You need to listen to the whole tape for the flight from start to finish to get a context.

BALDWIN: Which we don't have. Do me a favor and stick around with me because we're going to take some questions. There are a lot of viewer questions. A lot of questions among us. Exactly what happened here. Questions like why don't those so called black boxes have GPS locator technology? That's just one example. Stay with me. We'll be right back.

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BALDWIN: All right, we're staying on this mystery story. Where the heck is this plane? A lot of you are incredibly engaged. We'll continue answering some viewer questions. Let me bring in Don Lemon, who will be back tonight at 10:00 Eastern. I know you took questions all hour long last night. Don Lemon and Captain Bill Savage rejoing us. An incredible expert. Wealth of knowledge here. So Don Lemon, take it away.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Listen to Captain Bill, you're right. Wealth of knowledge. Very good stuff, Brooke. You asked the pertinent question. Where the heck is this plane? That's what everybody wants to know, but they also have side questions. Like this one from Ryan. Why don't black boxes have a GPS so they can be tracked in case a plane goes down, Captain?

SAVAGE: That's just not technology that was developed for the individual box itself. So there are emergency locator transmitters onboard this aircraft, two of them. Those would be putting out the electronic signals for search and rescue folks. As we found in the Air France example, they lasted over two years. Minimally to 30 days. There is plenty of equipment that would identify this airplane in the water or jungle, even if there was a horrific impact, there would be traceable evidence to find that aircraft. Hearing nothing is --

LEMON: So there is a GPS-type device on it already. It's just not called a GPS. Is that what you're saying?

SAVAGE: No, sir, it's not GPS at all. That's a satellite term. But it's a position locator. But we use other boxes called an emergency locator transmitter, which is a radio.

LEMON: Brooke, we've been talking about this as well, the possibility of remote interference. People were talking about a cyber attack --

BALDWIN: The computer.

LEMON: A cyber attack on the plane's computer. You're right, Brooke. What about that, Captain? SAVAGE: Very doubtful. They make sense of the aircraft and how terrific it is, which it is, but it's not new technology. The technology that's on board this airplane is not 15 to 20 years old. They're not susceptible to outside attack anyway. It doesn't have the ability to be penetrated externally. It's simply an internal computer that has to be managed and it has to be managed effectively. So I discount any outside attack.

BALDWIN: Because these, just to clarify, too, these are buttons that initially we have a destination Beijing, and that there was a change with that on this computer. You had to be on the plane to hit that button eight times as is now reported, correct?

SAVAGE: I haven't heard that report. Yes, the button pushes are important.

BALDWIN: But only on the plane.

SAVAGE: Yes.

LEMON: Brooke, there is another question I want to get to tonight that I find -- you'll find it interesting, what was your documentary, to track a killer? I forget what it is.

BALDWIN: On a serial killer.

LEMON: Yes, a serial killer. This is about eyewitnesses and whether eyewitnesses are often right or wrong. I was discussing it with Mary Schiavo last night in the green room. We are talking about TWA Flight 800 and eyewitnesses when it comes to this particular case. It's an interesting question that we'll answer tonight -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: We will look for you tonight on "The Don Lemon Show." All of the questions answered at 10:00 p.m. Eastern here on CNN. Bill Savage, thank you so much. We really appreciate you.

Coming up next, we're staying on the story. I mean, this all goes back for me, just thinking about these families. All the 239 souls onboard. Just imagine what these families are going through. Not just grief, but anger over the past now 12 days. Holding out hope, some of them, that their loved ones are still alive. We'll talk to someone who has been through a loss.

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BALDWIN: Families of missing passengers desperate for information erupted today in Beijing at officials of Malaysia Airlines. Among the most aggrieved, the parents only allowed to have one child under China's family planning restrictions. So some of these families now are vowing to launch a hunger strike to try to force Malaysia to release more information. That woman's sign reads "respect life, return our relatives."

Joining me from San Diego, grief consultant, Ken Druck. He is the author of book, "The Real Rules of Life." So Ken, welcome to you. If I may, just watching these pictures and hearing more and more from some of these families, the word that comes to my mind is angry. How do you manage in the thick of this your anger with your sense of helplessness?

KEN DRUCK, GRIEF CONSULTANT: I think the anger comes directly from the sense of helplessness. We don't know what's going on. If there was a finality, if there was information, people could wrap their hearts and minds around it and begin that process. But that process can't begin with all the unknowns still around. So it's understandable that people are getting frustrated, angry. They feel overwhelmed about what's going on.

BALDWIN: Hearing from one girlfriend, an American gentleman who is on this plane. She has this backpack. Our correspondent interviewed her. She has a backpack. She is ready to roll, not only with her clothes, but her boyfriend's clothes on this plane. She says when she gets the call that he has been found. You have been through a loss with your daughter some 18 years ago. You know, your heart knows that feeling of uncertainty. How do you handle that?

DRUCK: You know, all of us, if we think about it, have stood in a moment of utter terror, where we don't know where our child is or where our loved one is for maybe 10 seconds, maybe 30 seconds, maybe for an hour. And we feel that sense of desperation. Multiply that by about a million for all the loved ones who are at the epicenter of this tragedy. They are overwhelmed not knowing what to do, where to go, how to begin to hold this.

And it's the nature of the beast that they don't know what to do. What they can begin to do I think is what many of them are doing, which is huddling up with one another and understanding that they are not alone in their feelings of desperation and it's very understandable that they're angry, that they're frustrated, and that they're broken hearted at this point.

BALDWIN: That's the only bit of -- at least they have one another, they're not suffering by themselves. Ken Druck, thank you so much. So many theories, but really it's about these families and getting answers for them. Appreciate it.

DRUCK: You know, Brooke --

BALDWIN: Go ahead.

DRUCK: It's a time where we pull together as families and rather than sitting in our helplessness, we can look into our own communities for people who are suffering comparable losses. In other words, we, as we watch this unfold, and we all pray for a miracle and good things to unfold here. But as we watch it, we can look to our own communities with compassion and understand that there are people in our own communities who are suffering the same feeling of unknowingness, living lost grief, and who need our love and support.

BALDWIN: Absolutely, Ken. Thank you for adding that. Ken, appreciate you.

Coming up here, we're going to continue along, because if the Thai military spotted this missing jet, why are we just now learning about that?

Also ahead, the breaking news in the crisis in Ukraine. A Ukrainian officer reportedly killed in Crimea. This is the first death since the standoff began. All of this as Vladimir Putin responds to President Obama's threat. Stay right here.

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BALDWIN: Cue the music. It starts the madness in a matter of hours. March Madness, that is. Two 16 seeds facing off in Dayton, Ohio, University of Albany and Mount St. Mary's. The other game tonight, you have North Carolina state facing Xavier. Watch our sister station, TruTV if you want to catch some hoops. You can test your basketball picks against myself and the other CNN anchors. Log on to cnn.com/brackets and make your picks with us.

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BALDWIN: Ukraine is experiencing its first death since Russian troops began occupying the disputed region of Crimea. Ukraine's defense ministry says one of its officers has been killed. Another is in the hospital after an incident near a military base in Simferopol. The killing is on the very same day that Russia's president declared Crimea part of the Russian federation.

Let's go straight there to CNN's international anchor, Michael Holmes, who is in Crimea. And Michael, tell me more about this officer who's been killed.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: For the last couple of weeks, Brooke, there has been various degrees of blockading of Ukrainian military bases in Crimea. It's generally been uneventful, but that changed a few hours ago. What you can call a fairly inconsequential base. This is a base that deals with things like topography and the like. It's not one that's brimming with military hardware. Now what happened was some masked and armed men raided that base, went on to the base and somehow shooting erupted.

It is the first death of a Ukrainian soldier since this Crimean leadership took power a couple of weeks ago. It is a warrant officer killed. Also a captain was wounded. It resulted in the Ukrainian government calling it a war crime and blaming Russia for the death. We were out there and we did see a heavily armed man getting onboard a military truck. They were dressed in what appeared to be Russian uniforms. They were well armed.

Now, the Ukrainian government also as a result of this has authorized its troops on bases in Crimea to defend themselves with force if need be, very difficult situation for these soldiers on these bases. They are Ukrainian, on Ukrainian bases, all of a sudden finding themselves in potentially a foreign country. So, it's an issue that needs to be resolved, and it's a very dangerous and dangerous situation -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Michael Holmes in Simferopol, Michael, thank you.