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Search Continues for Missing Boeing 777; China Releases Images of Possible Airplane Debris in Indian Ocean; Russia Masses Troops Along Ukrainian Border

Aired March 22, 2014 - 14:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: There is a lot to talk about with the new developments. We have gathered together a great panel of experts to stay with us for the hour. Here in New York, I'm joined by aviation attorney Daniel Rose and Arthur Rosenberg, also an aviation lawyer and pilot. In Washington, Rick Castaldo is an aviation surveillance engineer who spent 20 years in the FAA, and Tom Fuentes is a CNN law enforcement analyst. Sean O'Connor, a former intelligence analyst for the Air Force joins us from Indianapolis. And from Denver, David Soucie is a CNN safety analyst author of "Why Planes Crash, an Accident Investigators Fight for Safe Skies." Thank you all for joining us.

Sean, I want to start with you, because as part of your career, you look at images of this and try to figure out how significant they may be. You have seen pictures of the images from the Chinese satellite, you had a chance to look at it, as we all have. What do you think it might be? Any reason for hope? And any differentiation between this image you're looking at, we're all looking at now today, and those two other images we saw earlier in the week?

SEAN O'CONNOR, FORMER INTELLIGENCE ANALYST FOR AIR FORCE: Well, one of the interesting things you can notice when you look at the images we saw earlier in the week released by Australia, they gave one of the dimensions for the larger object as 24 meters. This one the Chinese are saying is about 22 meters wrong. And so there's a little bit of margin for error there. If there's been a little bit of measuring difficulty they might actually end up being the same object. They both looked relatively rectangular. And this one was sighted about 120 kilometers away from where the Australian items were located. And given the difference in times between when the images were required, that would imply an average surface speed of about 2.5 kilometers per hour between point A and point B. It's possible it might be the same object. It's also possible it might be different objects from a part of a different debris field.

BERMAN: There's just no way of telling what these objects might be until they actually get eyes on them. David Soucie from Denver right now, David what about the area where they found it? Sean was talking about it, 75 miles from the first bodies of debris. Is that close enough to be related, in your mind?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: In my mind, it is. But there's so many factors that put it there. If a piece of that is sticking up in the air, you have wind currents taking it one direction. If the rest of it is under the water, the water could be taking it another direction or complimenting it, adding to the wind direction. So I think it's possible, certainly.

BERMAN: And its certainly within that wider area in that southern arc they have been honing in on over the last several days, particularly as they get more and more information from the northern arc where some of these countries telling we just have no signs on the radar of any plane flying through.

Tom Fuentes, I want to ask you about something a little bit different here, because authorities in Malaysia said today they will not release a transcript of the pilot's final communication. Reports of them have been published in London. Malaysian officials says there was nothing unusual within this transcript. The fact they won't publish it, but at the same time saying there's nothing unusual, does that raise any flags to you?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: John, I think it's questionable why they made that decision. I think it would be helpful if they went ahead and released that conversation so that other people could hear it, they would know who was speaking on the radio for sure, all the transmissions, trained pilots, experienced pilots could tell you how normal it is, the tone of voice, the terminology that's used, because right now we are relying on a translation from the conversation which would have been in English from the plane to the tower. Then it was translated into Chinese, and then from Chinese Mandarin back into English. And we don't even know if it's authentic. So we are relying on a transcript that we have no idea how accurate it really is. And if you heard the actual conversation, you would certainly know what exactly was said, who said it, and whether they were seemingly under normal conditions when they said it.

BERMAN: The tone of that voice certainly will matter. Rick, let's talk about the search effort off the coast of Australia. We know there have been ships there. A Norwegian cruise vessel a commercial ship carrying cars, that has actually been released from the scene just a few minutes ago. This as an Australian naval vessel gets there. The Chinese are lending planes soon. Are enough resources being brought to bear in this region?

RICK CASTALDO, AVIATION SURVEILLANCE ENGINEER: No, not at all. And the types of resources, in my opinion, would be far surpassed with any available, modern, unmanned aerial system with superior cameras and, frankly, pieces of equipment that are designed to find very small objects in very rough parts of the world. A human eye, I might dispute an earlier comment, is nowhere near as sophisticated as modern radar, infrared cameras that can detect a tenth of a degree difference in signatures between water and floating objects. So frankly I think they need unmanned aerial systems that can stay on site a lot longer and that would help them narrow false hopes for pieces they find from low quality satellite images.

BERMAN: Arthur, you know, you are a pilot. One of the things that struck me today is they now have a couple commercial planes they asked to participate in this search right now, some longer range G-5s that can stay over the area for five hours. How hard must it be for an untrained eye to spot something in the ocean below, at least to get some kind of confirmation of what these objects might be if they see these objects again?

ARTHUR ROSENBERG, AVIATION LAWYER: It's an incredibly difficult task. First of all, this area, this ocean is wavy, everything is moving, you have white caps, you have potential aircraft structure, which is white. It's like trying to find a needle in a hay stack.

But I would just like to go back to one point, which I think is important. This satellite image showed something that was 74 feet long by 43 feet wide.

BERMAN: Right.

ROSENBERG: I took a look this morning at the wings, the stabilizer of this airplane. The wing is 200 feet from tip-to-tip. Each side is 100 feet. The root cord where the wing goes to the fuselage is about 40 feet. None of that wing section matches up with this sighted object from the Chinese satellite. If you look horizontal and vertical stabilizer of this plane, the backend of the plane, the stabilizers are about 35 feet. They're too small. When you look at the fuselage section, it doesn't work out either. I have serious doubts to whether this actually is a piece of the airplane.

BERMAN: And they had sightings before. The Chinese more than a week ago of debris, no confirmation that that was anything. In fact they say that likely wasn't anything. We have these two other sightings the Australians have been looking at from about a week ago, no confirmation of that. But it could be more than one piece of debris. It could be several pieces that floated together. We know there's a lot of different things. The seat cushions float, a lot of things inside float. Now, we are talking two weeks since possibly the plane went down. Certainly, a lot of it collected in one area.

DANIEL ROSE, AVIATION AND MARITIME ATTORNEY: That's certainly a possibility. You know, one thing you know for sure is that it's a very dynamic process where you create wreckage. No matter what happened here, whether it was inflight break up, whether it was a break up upon entering the water, it's a very dynamic occurrence and you can't really pinpoint downsizes to match up with, you know, parts of an aircraft and such.

So especially we are looking at, you know, satellite images days old, you know, resolution is a big question. But one thing I remember when I was flying in the Navy and we had planes that went down, we knew exactly where the plane went down and we would launch right away and circle overhead and be down low at 50 feet sometimes. And even at that height, I mean you are still a five-story building, maybe 200 miles an hour, if you are that slow. And it is just an incredible task to try to even identify an object that big given the state of the sea, the white caps.

BERMAN: I think that's a really important point. I hope people pay attention to that. You were saying when you were searching for things, you knew exactly where they were and what they were, and it was still very difficult to pick them out. Here, Arthur, they are looking in the middle of nowhere for something they are not sure if it's there and what pieces they are looking for. They're dealing with equipment that isn't necessarily ideal. Is there any expectation for success?

ROSENBERG: Add on top of that a fatigue factor. The planes flew out from Perth, four hours from that place. Two hours on target and they have to fly back. This is an incredibly boring, fatiguing, laborious task. On top of that, you blend in the visual image problem trying to pick out a piece of white airplane from white caps in an ocean. It's a very, very difficult task, as the very least.

BERMAN: Tom Fuentes, I want to shift gears to who we are getting the images from today -- China. China has always had a keen interest in this incident because the vast majority of passengers on board this plane were Chinese. But they also have had a complicated with this investigation from the beginning, not always seeming to cooperate very well with the Malaysian officials. It seems all of a sudden, today, yesterday, we are getting much more input from China on what's going on.

FUENTES: John, I think we have to understand that Chinese television is broadcasting to the people of China the hundreds of family members of victims that are at these meetings in China, at the hotel where they are conducting the briefings, and the family members are screaming at government officials for not doing enough or for lying to them or withholding information from them, and the government needs to show that it's doing everything it can do, because their own victims don't believe it.

So this is a way of saying, look, we are providing satellite data, look, we are sending surface ships, look, we're sending aircraft as a way of telling their people. So I think that they are not going to be too particular and measure a piece of debris and say, well, it's 10 feet too big to be from the aircraft. They are going to put it out there and just show their own people they are working hard at trying to help all the other countries that are working on this.

BERMAN: All right, everyone stick around for a minute. We have a lot more to talk ability, a great discussion, a lot of new information to digest. These satellite images of possible plane debris, they have sparked some hope for some people. But the daunting task of actually finding anything there, well, that daunting task begins to set in. Why the ocean made it so much tougher on investigators, we'll tell you about that coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back, everyone. The families of those on board flight 370 are desperate for any shred of hope, any idea of what happened to the airliner. And so far these satellite images are the only clues we have as to what may have happened. And so far even those images turned up little. CNN's Pauline Chiou has more on the pictures and how the families are now reacting to them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PAULINE CHIOU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: News of this latest Chinese satellite image was so new that it was actually handed on a piece of paper to the acting transportation minister of Malaysia during his news conference. It was so new that he got the dimensions wrong and had to issue a correction.

Now, this image was taken on Tuesday, March 18th at noontime. And presumably, the Chinese government spent the past couple days studying it carefully, because the last time they released satellite images it caused controversy. Here is what happened a little more than a week ago. You might remember the satellite images from the South China Sea. Those were released by the Chinese Satellite Research Center on their government website. The very next day, the foreign ministry of China said that they were not aware of the images and the Malaysian government also said they had not seen these images. In the end, it was described as, quote, "a mistake."

Now, the Chinese families of the passengers here in Beijing are not really reacting to the latest images because they are being cautious. They have gone through so many ups and downs emotionally that they just want concrete facts before they can focus on their next step.

Pauline Chiou, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Our thanks to Pauline who has been in Beijing for so many of these emotional swings over the last few days for the families on board flight 370. These new images captured by a Chinese satellite were taken days ago. It takes that long to analyze them. There is concern that strong ocean currents debris could be pulled the debris pretty far away by now. Our Jennifer Gray is live in the Weather Center with more on this and the conditions in that search region at this point. Jennifer, what do you have?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John, you are right, because days later, we are finding out about the stuff, three, four, five days later. And it's the ocean currents. But it's not just that. We are talking high winds that can move these objects. High seas can move the objects. So there's so many moving parts here. And in fact if we look at the CNN exclusive high resolution model, we are looking at another storm system to roll through in the next 24 hours.

This is looking at Sunday, around noon eastern time, which is midnight. You say so what, it's happening during the middle of the night. You can't say that because ahead of the system, we are going to be looking at very high winds, we're going to be looking at the waves to increase, the wave height, and we are going to see the cloud cover increase ahead of this. So, as we go into Sunday, it is going to be pretty difficult for searchers to look in that area.

We are also looking at an area that is known for extremely high winds, roaring 40s, furious 50s. And this is on a good day. Lucky, we have seen winds around 25, 35 miles per hour. We have seen winds gust up to 40 and even 50. As the storm system rolls through the next 24, as they go throughout the day on Sunday, conditions will deteriorate. We'll see winds topping out at 40 or 50 miles per hour. And you can expect those seas to increase in height as well.

You did mention the currents. We have been watching some very strong currents. Of course, they are always here. These are very swift. They can move one foot per second. So, if you think of these objects getting in one of these currents, it can be bad news for researchers, They can make it very, very difficult for them to find those objects.

And then looking at one more thing I want to show you, we have the definite currents, but we have very small currents. All of these things can definitely move the objects. You can see arrows going to the north, arrows to the south, these arrows making a swirling pattern. You can see any little bit of drift is going to move them in a different location than when they were spotted. When you are finding out about it four days later, John, no telling where they could be. They could be miles and miles from where they originated.

BERMAN: The mathematical complications, it's just amazing to think about how many different places it could have gotten to by now. All right, Jennifer Gray, thank you so much, just showing how difficult it will be to locate anything there even though they spotted something by satellite four days ago.

All right, we are going to talk about the images. This new image from a Chinese satellite, is it reason for hope? Is this a different moment now in the search for flight 370? We are more with the panel in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: We are following the latest developments in the search for flight 370. We have a lot to talk about. We've got a terrific panel of experts to stay with us for the hour. Here in New York, Arthur Rosenberg, who is an aviation lawyer and pilot. We are joined by aviation attorney Daniel Rose as well. In Washington, Rick Costaldo is an aviation surveillance engineer and spent 20 years at the FAA. Tom Fuentes is a CNN law enforcement analyst. Sean O'Connor, a former intelligence analyst for the Air Force joins us from Indianapolis. And from Denver, David Soucie, a CNN safety analyst and author of "Why Planes Crash, an Accident Investigators Fight for Safe Skies." Thank you all so much for joining us.

Sean, I want to go back to you in Indianapolis, be. part of your job over the years has been to look at these satellite images. You know the technology from the satellites that are taking the pictures. The news today, this new picture from the Chinese satellite that spotted something, could be a piece of debris about 75 miles from where the other satellites took images of debris that the planes have been looking for over time. What I want to know is how many more satellites are now taking pictures. Can we expect more coverage of this area? Are we surprised we haven't seen, if any part of this plane did go down in that area, are you surprised we haven't seen more pictures?

O'CONNOR: Well, first off, I'm not really surprised we haven't seen more pictures, yet because you have to consider the size of the area they are trying to search in. For example, when the Australians placed the order to get the imagery of the south Indian Ocean, where they got the image of the first debris from, we don't know when they found that image, whether it was from the first portion of the imagery they ordered, somewhere from the middle, from the end. So we don't know how much more imagery they may be sitting on. They are still trying to go through to find stuff.

As for other satellites being in the area, it's entirely possible. There's various other commercial satellites that are out there that can capture some of this high resolution imagery. Air Bus in France has two of them. They offer half centimeters resolution. Digital Globe has a whole fleet of imaging satellites from the U.S. So there's a lot of different options.

The problem was, up until now, we didn't have that much interest in that part of the world, so there wasn't anybody going out and collecting or archiving a lot of this data up until this point.

BERMAN: But Sean, is it naive to think that if there was something to be seen that they would have seen it by now?

O'CONNOR: Not necessarily, because, again, you're talking thousands of square miles to try and search through. And when you think about the size of some of the objects you are going to try to find objects within these thousands of square miles makes it a mindboggling task to have to sift through all of that data from various sensors just trying to pick out these little objects you might be able to see on the surface of the ocean.

BERMAN: David Soucie, we now have an Australian naval vessel that's very close to the area, the Success. Will that change the complexion of this search? Will that give them any kind of advantage in the days ahead and help them find what might be there where they haven't been able to find it over the past several days?

SOUCIE: Well, I think there's a couple things to mention. You mentioned earlier that the merchant ship had been released because the ship was showing up. I think the primary reason to have that merchant was so that if this debris was -- well, to identify the debris as to whether it was an aircraft or not. They had to get it out of the water, likely. And so I think that's why the ship was there to have that platform. Now that this other ship is going to be there, the platform will be there.

You mentioned Digital Globe on the satellites. That's why I'm in Colorado, I'm going to meet with Digital Globe and discuss with them why the satellite pictures are taking so long and hopefully give people a view of what it is they actually do to try to reposition the satellites and why there isn't as much coverage in that area as people might think there should be.

BERMAN: While this is all happening and they are searching the area, there are still a lot of other angles in this investigation, still trying to uncover what might have gone on in that cockpit, what might have happened on that plane. So the panel is going to stick around. We are going to ask these questions just after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: The search for flight 370 continues in the southern Indian Oceans. As soon as it's daylight, planes will again be flying overhead, surface vessels now heading to the search area. Our Sara Sidner brings up us to date in the latest developments.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Malaysian officials break the monotony of daily briefings that normally reveal almost nothing new with this.

HISHAMMUDIN BIN HUSSEIN, MALAYSIAN ACTING TRANSPORTATION MINISTER: The Chinese ambassador received satellite image of floating object in the southern corridor, and they will be sending ships to verify.

SIDNER: Moments later, China sends out this satellite image. It shows an object floating in the southern Indian Ocean, its size, 22.5 meters by 13 meters. Not much different from the six of the 24 meter long object captured on this satellite image on March 16th and released by Australian authorities on Thursday.

The Chinese say the object they spotted is about 120 kilometers southwest from the Australian sighting. That is a very short distance considering the vast area being that's being searched in the Indian Ocean.

The families have been in agony as they follow every detail, emotions spilling over time and again because nothing has led to the true whereabouts of the planes carrying their sons, daughters, grandparents, and spouses.

HISHAMMUDIN BIN HUSSEIN: The briefing for families yesterday went well. The briefing in Beijing, however, it was less productive. Despite the best intentions there were tense moments.

SIDNER: This is the third satellite image being dangled in front of the world and the suffering families, which official has said might have something to do with missing flight MH370, which disappeared more than two weeks ago with 239 passengers and crew aboard. The first one also came from China, this image of debris released March 13th off the coast of Vietnam. China says the pictures were released by mistake. The search turned up nothing.

March 20th, Australia said they found the best lead yet in the search for the missing plane. The Australian image sparked a shift in the deployment of military assets. All ships and most of the aircraft were sent to the southern Indian Ocean to hunt down the objects in the pictures.

Now China is deploying their assets in the middle of a category one cyclone, trying to find a match to the image its satellites discovered. Meantime, the families will have another night of uncertainty, forced to wait and wonder for a 15th night.

Sara Sidner, CNN, Kuala Lumpur. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: And while the search in that area continues, there is still an investigation into what happened in that cockpit, what happened to that plane, where it may have gone. They are trying to piece together that on the ground from what they know.

So I want to bring back our panel of experts right now to continue our conversation, starting the Tom Fuentes. Tom, you worked with the FBI. You have been involved with investigations. The latest tidbit we are getting from there is about the flight simulator taken from the pilot's home. Initially they said there are files deleted on February 3, well over a month ago now. Now there is word, reportedly that there were some things that were deleted as recently as March 8th, the first or second week of March there. Does that indicate a greater level of concern or would that lead to a greater level of concern about what might be on that simulator?

FUENTES: The problem, John, is they don't know who deleted what files and you don't know what the files contain. The FBI experts who are examining both pilots' computers, including the one with the flight simulator data, will be using the company to examine their own file system and help reconstruct the files.

Now, the problem with deleting is that you don't actually delete a file when you click "delete." The file is still on there, it's the space is now available for another file to write over that space and reuse it. If you don't add another file to there, that file could still be sitting there. But if it's specific file system to the company that made the simulator, that's what they will need, you know, possibly need expert help from the company with that.

But I think a lot of -- a lot has been said about the flight simulator. And, frankly, you know, I have trouble with it. The investigators will look at this. It will be one more piece of information. It's not going to solve a lot. You know, if he practiced going to the North Pole or South Pole or Africa, he also used that simulator for recreation, could have been trying to check different sites for the fun of it, not that he's got some sinister I'm going there my next flight. So we are not going to know that from that.

I think what's more important is when they find out what websites he may have visited, either pilot may have been visiting, because that will give an indication in the things they have an interest in more specifically. That will offer a lot more information. What other files they may have saved, the frequency of visiting these other websites to get more information I think will have as much or more to reveal about them than just the flight simulator of where he practiced flying to.

BERMAN: An investigation like this when there's so little to go on, ruling things out can be just as helpful as ruling things in, so maybe at least they'll get that.

So Arthur, while they are searching this area off Australia, while they are going through the flight simulator, while they are talking about the transcripts of what may have been said from the cockpit, you still think a great deal of focus needs to be on the so-called northern corridor, the possibility the plane didn't turn south, but went north and flew over land. Why do you still think this is such a distinct possibility?

ROSENBERG: Well, one of the primary reasons that the northern corridor was abandoned or not focused on was because they assumed the flight path of the airplane would have taken them over India or Pakistan. Pakistan-India ostensibly had really good radar and would have picked up the airplane.

The second piece of information that we had was from the satellite. OK, that showed a corridor the plane could have been in at 8:11. Yesterday for the first time it was reported that they released additional information for six additional pings. That's very important. What does that mean? It now gave you an inside track and outside track, narrowly defined the area where the plane could have been over that additional six hours. And that took out India and Pakistani radar and gave this plane what could have been the projected path over Myanmar and Bangladesh which do not have good radar capability.

In addition, one very important point, if this plane took the southern route, with the new data, it would have gone over Indonesia. The Indonesian radar, I have not yet heard whether they have in fact reported whether this plane was seen through their military radar facilities or civilian radar facilities.

The bottom line is, as far as I'm concerned, the northern track with this new satellite data, very, very important, could very well bring the northern track back into play. And there are many airports where this airplane could have been put down and runways long enough for this airplane to take off.

BERMAN: And it's been hidden presumably now for more two weeks, Dan, does that seem plausible to you at all?

ROSE: Not really. That's the problem I have with a deliberate act, a nefarious act. I mean there's no indication whatsoever that the plane was observed to landed anywhere, no one reported seeing it. There's no cellphone contact with any of the 239 people on board. You know, the simulator, it almost seems like, you know, a rabbit trail. If you are going to be nefarious about it, why keep it out in plain sight like that? Why not have a safe house somewhere and do whatever you're going to do. It just doesn't add up.

The bottom line about a nefarious conduct is that somebody's got to take credit for it or there's got to be a suicide or something. And the fact that we don't have that evidence, the absence of that evidence I think strongly suggests moving the analysis over towards, you know, some kind of mechanical issue. And I think it casts on issue on the northern route.

BERMAN: All right, guys, sit tight. Again, we want to talk about this more. Maybe there is reason to look up to the north, as Arthur says. Maybe stay in the south as you say. We are going to talk more about the sightings of debris that the satellites may have seen off the coast of Australia, the new pictures taken by the Chinese satellite, the latest on the search for flight 370 just ahead.

But also, some other news. Russia now has Crimea under its control. Is it looking to seize now another piece of Ukraine? That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: We'll have much more on the search of flight 370 in just a few minutes. But first we do have some important new developments in the crisis in Ukraine. The White House warns Russia that it will be held responsible for any Ukrainian troops hurt in Crimea. In a statement, a spokesman writes "Reports of continues attacks against Ukrainian military personnel facilities highlight the dangerous situation created by Russia. They belie President Putin's claim that Russia's military intervention in Crimea has brought security to that part of Ukraine." The bases are Ukraine's last outposts in Crimea, but two more fell today to pro-Russian groups.

We are joined now by CNN's Ivan Watson in the Ukraine's capital Kiev and Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. Ivan, let me start with you here, because a lot of people find it curious that Ukraine hasn't evacuated these troops yet. You would think Ukraine wouldn't want to do anything provocative. This almost seems a little bit irresponsible.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And I think more and more Ukrainians are asking, hey, what kind of plan do you have for these thousands of soldiers and their families who are spread out at bases all across the Crimean peninsula? And all that we've really heard the Ukrainian government say is that they have authorized their troops to be able to fire in self-defense. That's a measure that we have not seen the Ukrainians troops doing. They have not used lethal force.

And the other thing that they've said is that they have prepared accommodations for 25,000 evacuees from the Crimean peninsula should there be a kind of mass exodus. But we haven't heard of an actual plan. So that's left individual base commanders basically to deal with a large number of pro-Russian militia members as well as overwhelming numbers of Russian troops who kind of picked bases one by one across the peninsula and encircled them and then basically forced the Ukrainian troops out. It's a humiliating thing, certainly for servicemen in the Ukrainian military. They basically are forced out of their bases, their barracks, their homes, while still in uniform. John?

BERMAN: I didn't mean to suggest it was irresponsible. All I was saying was it puts these soldiers in a very uncomfortable situation when they know those Russian troops and the pro-Russian militias are right there.

Barbara, there are also reports of Russian troops, a great many of them, thousands on Ukraine's border, not by Crimea, but further up north. Is the Pentagon worried Russia could be planning something else here, maybe some other kind of invasion?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: I think that's exactly right, John. U.S. officials for the last several days have been watching literally formation by formation of Russian troops, over 20,000 of them, assembling on the border with eastern Ukraine. The concern the U.S. intelligence community has is those 20,000 troops are so close, they can now move on a moment's notice with no warning. The feeling is they might be positioning themselves to create a land bridge, if you will, from Russia across eastern Ukraine, down into the Crimea peninsula. That will give the Russians a permanent foothold now that they have annexed the peninsula. They will be able to continue to resupply, reinforce, and move anything they want to in there. And that's the big concern right now, and no sign, at the moment, of anybody stopping them. John?

BERMAN: What do the Ukrainian leaders think about this, because there aren't going to be U.S. troops there in theory to stop the Russians from moving if they want to? There won't be NATO troops there to stop the Russians from moving, if they want to. So what would Ukraine do if Russia did something more provocative?

WATSON: Well, they have announced the partial mobilization of their military. They are calling for 40,000 new recruits to the armed forces and to a newly constituted National Guard. We have been to some of the training for the reservists they have signed up. The Ukrainian government has also earmarked an additional $700 million to help pay for the modernization and mobilization of the armed forces. And they announced that they put some of these troops on high alert. They say they are fortifying the borders.

One of the measures we heard from the Ukrainian border patrol within the last hour is that on the land borders between the Ukrainian peninsula and mainland Ukraine, they've stepped up security there and they are actually blocking in many cases men from being able to cross from Crimea into mainland Ukraine. That's a measure that's being taken ahead of a series of pro-Russian rallies planned in a number of eastern Ukrainian cities. The Ukraine government worried that provocateurs could come across the border.

And, of course, keeping in mind the Russian government has argued if Russians outside of Russian territory call for help, Russia says it will be the guardian of those Russian communities. So the Ukrainians are worried this could be a justification for a further Russian military intervention into Ukrainian territory. People are very worried here, and more and more Ukrainian men I talked to are talking about preparing to fight against their eastern neighbor, Russia. John, think about it. It's like the U.S. and Canada fighting. Two close neighbors, same language, they watch the same TV shows. That's the scenario people are starting to talk about here.

BERMAN: A worrying situation to say the least. Ivan Watson, we are lucky to have you in Kiev monitoring the situation, Barbara Starr, great to have you at the Pentagon looking at the U.S. response at this point. We will come back and talk to you again in a little bit.

Now back to the search for flight 370. Countries including the U.S. spending millions to find out what may have happened to this plane. But a device that costs a fraction of that could have helped them find it maybe in hours. That when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, welcome back, everyone. I want you to think about this possibility. The mystery of what happened to Malaysia flight 370 might have been solved days ago if the plane was equipped with a high tech data recorder. Our Laurie Segall takes a look at the technology that many airlines don't use.

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there. Well, right now, if the plane sinks to the bottom of the ocean, the flight data recorder goes with it. We spoke with a company that say that is doesn't have to be the case and we could have had more answers about the missing jet.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEGALL: When flight 370 disappeared, the story of what went wrong vanished with it. The answers might be stuck in the flight data recorder, the so-called black box. But what if we had the answers all along?

RICHARD HAYDEN, DIRECTOR, FLYHT AEROSPACE SOLUTIONS: We would know where the aircraft has gone, where it is, and we would have information on what happened in the meantime.

SEGALL: Canadian Company Flight makes live streaming data recorders that send information in real-time. It's part of a satellite based system that monitors a planes exact location, engine conditions, and more.

HAYDEN: The system transmits every five to 10 minutes on a normal flight.

SEGALL: If something goes wrong, the system will start streaming live second by second data.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: That kind of information is not only lifesaving, but it adds a tremendous measure of security for the country.

SEGALL: There are several mechanisms that transmit a plane's data. But unlike those systems, the technology behind Flight is more extensive, sharing a tremendous amount of information, so much information, critics say it could be difficult to monitor and analyze if widely adapted. Right now, Flight's technology is fitted to 350 planes run by 40 operators. It can be installed for $100,000. Normal data transmission costs carriers between a few dollars to $15 per flight hour and goes up for continuous streaming in a rare emergency.

SCHIAVO: They are very cost sensitive and they simply will not add additional safety measures unless mandated by the federal government.

As investigators look for high-tech clues in the search for flight 370, the high-tech data recorder is getting a second look.

HAYDEN: The technology exists. It's economical. And the question now is how to get more widespread use of it.

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SEGALL: It's important to note that this technology might have been helpful if it been in use. But like the transponder on flight 370, it would have also been possible for someone to turn it off if they knew where to look.

Lori Seagall, CNN, New York.

BOEHNER: Thanks to Lori for that report. In just a moment, we are going to talk about the new satellite photos, the pieces of debris. Could they be part of flight 370? A Chinese satellite caught new images. We'll show you what they are just after this.

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BERMAN: A few minutes now to the top of the hour. We want to check in again with our panel and ask them all one question and get their view on it. I want to know what they think the most important clue is so far in the hunt for flight 370. Arthur, I want to start with you, most important clue.

ROSENBERG: The satellite ping data I think is absolutely crucial. The additional information we got yesterday I think narrows the search area and we should focus on it.

BERMAN: Daniel?

ROSE: The most important clue is that we don't have any nefarious evidence of conduct that's untoward. I think that necessarily refocuses the investigation on what happened on that plane in terms of system and malfunction, and I think that's where we going to end up.

BERMAN: Absence of any kind of terrorist chatter, absence of any kind of indication that the pilots may have been involved in some sort of plot, so the absence of anything is the most important clue.

David Soucie, what do you think the most important clue so far is, the one that investigators should be honing in on?

SOUCIE: Without a doubt it's the new satellite image. I'm not ruling it out as being the same piece of debris we saw before because debris does gather together at times, especially if it's flipping over. So I think that that also gives information about where the trail might be and where they might continue to look.

BERMAN: Tom Fuentes, most important clue, the one investigators should put before the others?

FUENTES: I think they are putting, as said, the satellite imagery of the objects in the water, both the one the Australians put out and now the recent Chinese and the fact that more ships and planes are being deployed to that area.

BERMAN: Rick Castaldo, what do you think? The satellite imagery, is that where the hope should be?

CASTALDO: No, I about agree with the satellite pinging. I believe it shows two projected circular arcs, one going north. And the fact that the aircraft was not detected by seven countries of the countries that you discussed by radar is fairly immaterial. You don't know that the radar was functioning. You don't how well it functioned. And an experienced pilot would know where not to fly if he didn't want to be detected by radar.

BERMAN: Sean O'Connor, you're an expert in some of the satellite imagery. What do you think the most important clue should be?

O'CONNOR: Given that we can't tell what we're actually seeing in the imagery yet, I might be inclined to say it is the satellite data that gives us an idea where to look in the first place.

BERMAN: Interesting disagreement on this panel here, a lot of experts in the field. It shows you the complicated nature of this search, why it is being pulled in several different directions, why perhaps it has taken so long and that flight 370, where it went, what's happened to it remains very much a mystery.