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Mystery of Flight 370; Chinese Satellite Spots Floating Object

Aired March 22, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Disagreement on this panel. A lot of experts in the field. It shows the complicated nature of the search, why it's being pulled in several directions and why it has taken so long and that flight 370, where it went, what happened to it remains very much a mystery.

CNN's coverage of the search for Malaysia airlines flight 370 continues right now.

Hello. I'm John Berman in for Fredricka Whitfield today.

And of course, we are covering the news about flight of 370. A lot of developments today in just a moment. Four hours, searchers will be back in the sky over the Southern Indian Ocean looking for three now, three objects they have not been able to identify. Images of a third object were captured by a Chinese satellite four days ago and released to the public today. The object, 74 feet by 43 feet.

Just to be clear, satellite imagery from China now, has captured picture of what could be debris off the coast of Australia. This is in addition to the two pictures that were taken about a week ago now that Australia has been looking into to trying to get some kind of a visual confirmation of.

China is now sending ships to try to locate this new piece of possible debris to determine if it is wreckage from the plane. It's just about 75 miles from the two other objects, possible floating objects spotted by the commercial satellite one week ago.

The search for all three of them could be complicated by bad weather. Conditions earlier today were good enough. And crews managed to see several small items in the ocean, including a wooden palette. But none of those small items, including the palette got investigators very excited. They do not think they are substantial leads.

Families of 239 people onboard flight 370, they have been on an emotional roller coaster ride. Every new sighting of possible debris, every new satellite image we are seeing. Many families increasingly frustrated with the way the Malaysian government is handling this crisis. And today, the frustration boiled over during a briefing with Malaysian officials. Take a look.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)

BERMAN: Malaysian officials say the one thing the families want to know, they can't tell them. And that's, of course, what happened to flight 370.

So we have a lot to talk about. We gathered a fantastic panel of experts to stay with us for the hour. In Washington, Rick Castaldo is an aviation surveillance engineer. He spent 20 years in the FAA. Tom Fuentes is a CNN law enforcement analyst. And from Denver, David Soucie is the CNN safety analyst and author of "Why Planes Crash: An act of investigators fight for safe sky."

Thank you all so much for joining us.

David, I want to start with you. This new image from the Chinese satellite, 75 miles from where those other images of possible debris were found one week ago. How much of a reason for hope is this now, David?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: I don't know if it increases my hope at all. What it does is increases my optimism they will be able to find what this is because at least now, if it is the same object, at least now, they have the track on the direction it's going, approximate speeds.

Now, in that area, it could change quickly, but -- and this is two days p old. So we'll have to see if that actually pans anything out. but some people are discounting this second image because of its size. Well, at accident sites, this material could be flipping, it can be a whole bunch of small pieces especially with that particular structure because of the stringers inside of it. That it could be a lot of small pieces that are strung together with electrical cables with mechanical cables. And with this stringers themselves. So I'm not discounting it until we get in there and start finding it. But it gives me hope that they will find something down there because we have had two hits on what appears to me to be, at least, similar.

BERMAN: So David, just to be clear, you are saying at a minimum, it gives greater specificity in a possible search area?

SOUCIE: It would in my mind, yes.

BERMAN: All right, Rick, you think, though, this piece of debris, as David positive there, you think it may just simply be too big to get excited about? Some 73 feet by over 40 feet?

RICK CASTALDO, AVIATION SURVEILLANCE ENGINEER: Well, I didn't really comment on the size. There was another comment earlier about the size. I'm certainly not an expert at looking at satellite photos and the kind of terrain with the wave action, the sea states and the other pieces.

But, I guess my point was, I wouldn't solely function on one piece of debris with my entire search team. I would certainly look along both arcs based on the ping.

You know, it's not unusual to have engineers and lawyers disagree about where to look for things. You know, I like to base it on science and the available data. And the available data from the satellite is fairly reliable. A ping is awfully reliable for determines an arc where something may have flown. I was go on either side of the arc down in the sea and go along the arc looking for radar data and pull tapes over a seven to eight hour period for some of these countries.

You will find, though, that because of the air defense mission, many of these organizations will not release data to show you one, how good the radar is, or two, how poor it is and whether or not it's properly maintained and actually works.

BERMAN: Daniel Rose, you served in the Navy. You were a naval aviator. You were involved in searches, maybe not in this scale, but that may actually be part in here. You were involved in searches in some ways that may not have been nearly as complicate and they were still difficult.

DANIEL ROSE, AVIATION AND MARITIME ATTORNEY: Right. You know, at the end of the day, even in this search, somebody has to put an eyeball on the object in the water. And it's a very difficult thing to do, extremely difficult. I mean, you can be at 50 feet and still mistake a white object like that for a white cap in a heartbeat and your eyes play games with you. So it's a very difficult thing to do.

You know, when we were in the Navy, we had the luxury of having a landing strip right there, actually, the carrier which we could go back and continuously look for the downed aircraft. You don't have that luxury here. You effectively have two hours on station and a very dangerous environment because if anything mechanical goes wrong with the aircraft up there, they have few options, except to try to make it back 1500 feet or 1500 miles.

BERMAN: It's a long way from Perth, Australia, you know, some 1500 miles. They only have got about two hours over the search area. Clearly, that's complicated the situation.

Tom Fuentes, I want to talk about another complication right now. We are more than two weeks since the plane -- since it disappeared. As time goes on, does it make it less likely we will get some kind of a break in the case in terms of the investigation if there, in fact, is anything to find there? If it wasn't simply something mechanical. At this point, will it be harder to discover?

THOMAS FUENTES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You know, John, I think you are right. As time goes on, there could be other pieces of information come up from interviews with the former colleagues or friends or family or something else come up with one of the passengers. You know, so far, we don't have that. But to do complete backgrounds on hundreds of people, which is what's happening in this case, you know, it takes a long time. They have done the searches of data bases. But there's a lot more that has to be done and learned about the people involved in this. So, you are right, it could be something more that could come up in a future date regarding the people.

BERMAN: We have talked about the list of nos, Tom. The no chatter from many possible terrorist organization. No (INAUDIBLE) things found in the background checks. Granted, they would like to do more on anyone on the plane or the pilots. You know, that fact that we now have a long list of nos, is that discouraging?

FUENTES: Not necessarily because we have had all these cases here in the U.S. of the so-called lone Wolf, where, you know, they don't disclose to family, friends, schoolmates, others that they have a terrible act in min mind. We just saw this 11 months ago here in the U.S. during the Boston marathon bombing. The two brothers weren't telling all their friends that they were going to do a bombing at the marathon. They only discussed it really with each other, as far as we can tell. And you know, even their classmates after the bombing and after they learned, you know, who they were and the fact that they had done it, you know, are saying, you know, they were great. They never talked about it. All American kid. You know, the younger one being captain of the wrestling team and going to parties and dating and smoking pot and everything else. They had no clue. There's no chatter then. There's no e-mails to other people or co-conspirators.

In the big plots, the 9/11s, you have a much larger conspiracy and then you will have the chatter of people either bragging about or discussing it because they were in the no and want to talk about it with each other. But there's many explanations why there's not a lot of outside chatter with the case.

BERMAN: Just some of the threats they are investigating now, two weeks since the plane disappeared.

Guys, stick around for a little bit. We want to talk much more about the possible scenarios, talk about the new developments, the new satellite image taken by the Chinese satellite, you know. Just one of the issues being discussed right now, it is in one of the most remote areas of the world. We'll talk about these situations when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: We are following new developments in flight 370. A Chinese satellite captured this image of a possible object in the southern Indian Ocean about 75 miles from where the other images of possible objects were seen. This is in a very, very difficult region posing very serious challenges to the searchers trying to find any confirmation of what these objects might be.

Our Alexander Field has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's one of the world's most remote and punishing regions.

TONY ABBOTT, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: It is bout the most inaccessible spot you can imagine on the face of the earth.

FIELD: Massive waves and high winds, some of the conditions that hampers searchers scouring at daunting swamp of the South Indian Ocean for any sign of Malaysian airlines flight 370 and its 239 passengers.

More than 1400 miles off the coast of Australia, the aerial search can last just a few hours at a time before pilots head back to refuel.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is really in the middle of nowhere. And so, they are working with weather patterns that can hamper any operation, any sea operation.

FIELD: A NASA simulation shows currents and turbulence if the objects seen in three satellite images are part of the missing plane, these water conditions could push them further east and like further apart. Some Oceanographers estimate those objects, some of the strongest leads in this case could be anywhere in a 15,000 square mile area. That's roughly the size of Belgium.

Below the water's surface, an even murkier picture. The sea floor sits more than 9,000 feet down, deeper than most submarines can go. The mid ocean ridge rising from it making the search even more difficult.

The depth is a factor here? The terrain is the factor. Describe what it would like down there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like the rocky mountains.

CHRISTINE DENNISON, EXPEDITION LOGISTICS EXPERT: It is so challenging and for certain people, it's so hard to get to sort wrap your mind around what they are doing and how difficult this is.

FIELD: If the objects in the satellite images can be found, if they are from flight 370, if researchers can use the ocean's currents to zero in on the plane's data recorder, finding it among the peaks and valleys could be even harder still.

If it's in one of the deeper channel, that is going to be more of a challenge.

FIELD: Alexandra Field, CNN, York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: It will be dawn in a few hours over the Indian Ocean and searchers will be headed to that area where that large piece of debris was spotted by the Chinese satellite. But that area, so remote, so inhospitable to begin with, add that to the fact the conditions, they are deteriorating.

Jennifer Gray has a look at the forecast.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John, the Indian Ocean can be very unforgiving. It is an area known for very, very high winds, high seas, very rough conditions. And so, moving forward as we go through the next 24 hours, we are going to see a band of showers move through. This is Sunday, 10:30 eastern time meaning 10:30 p.m. And you say so what, rain is moving through at night. Well, ahead of the fronts and ahead of these features in the early afternoon on Sunday, we are going to start to see the clouds increase. We are going to see the winds increase as well as the seas. And so, that's going to make things difficult for searchers as we go through the next 24 hours. Looking at the winds for the next 24 hours, we could see winds 40 to 50 miles per hour. And then, they will start to slack off a little bit as we go through Monday for most of the day which is good news. But when you look at this and you say look at this region, seeing winds of 30 to 40 miles per hour is not uncommon. In fact, that is a good day. This area is known for 40 and 50-mile-per-hour winds. The past couple days, things have actually been a little bit better than they should be this time of year, believe it or not. So when we see winds at 40 to 50 miles per hour in this area, it with really not uncommon.

The other thing we have been watching are the currents. You can see the blue line to the south. That is a very strong current that is out there moving -- it can move an object one foot per second. That's the rate of the current. And so, when you look at the search area, you say wow, it doesn't have to drift far to the south to get caught up in a current that is moving very, very quickly.

Yes, it's in an area where the currents aren't so bad right now. But you have to keep in mind, when you look closer at these areas, we have eddies, we have smaller currents within these. And so, yes, things can definitely move. Just take a look at these arrows illustrating the current. You have arrows going around in a circle this way.

You have arrows going this way, arrows going this way and then some going down. This is the object we are searching for. And so when you see the smaller currents of these eddies out there in the middle of the ocean, it's going to drift all different kinds of waves and not to mention the wind is going to play a role, the seas are going to play a role as well when you are thinking about all of these drifting.

And so it is going to be very, very hard to find. Time is definitely of the essence when finding out about something, three, four, five days later. It just make that much more difficult to locate it -- John.

BERMAN: Very difficult and very complicated opera out there.

Jennifer Gray, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Ahead, we will get the latest on the search for flight 370. The latest developments today, more on the Chinese satellite image. We'll speak to our panel of experts.

But first, Russian forces pushing Ukrainian troops out of bases by force. A combustible situation. We'll have the very latest from the ground just after this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are the messages in a bottle collection we have collected over the years. This is pretty cool to find them because you will never know how far they came, where they came from, who they came from. Each one tells someone's story.

This one is pretty cool. It's from the '93 flood with a flag on it. There is a bunch of lottery tickets, I don't know if they are winners or not. But, obviously not.

Here is one. This one is cool. A picture of Bill Clinton. It's pretty neat. Some of them have been found three or four times and passed on, then it keeps going down the river, down the river, people sign and date them. This one had money in it with postage so you could send it back to them. It's cool. Haven't done that yet, probably should. Stamps went up since it was sent.

This is a voodoo one with nails in it and have a note in it with a string tied on it. It said you are bound now. You are bound now. There's actually a lot of them that are heavy. They are written to lost loved one, you know, in order to keep it because it was meant not to be kept.

It is just fun to find them. It's fun for the volunteers. But, it's a pretty unique collection because, you know, I don't know who else finds this many messages in a bottle. SO, it is pretty cool.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: We'll have much more on the search for flight 370 in a few minutes.

But first, important new developments on the crisis in Ukraine. The White House warning Russia it will be held responsible for any Ukrainian troops hurt in Crimea. This is what the White House is worried about.

Two more bases fell to pro-Russian forces today in Crimea. And some believe this could be just be the beginning. Russian troops are mask on the Ukrainian boarder, some 20,000 Moscow says it's just for training. But no one right now giving Russia the benefit of the doubt.

We are joined by now by Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr in Pentagon.

And Barbara, does the Pentagon think Russia is getting ready to perhaps move into more Ukrainian territory?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, plenty to worry about it, John. At the end of the week, defense secretary, Chuck Hagel called his Russian counterpart, the minister of defense, and bluntly said to him, what are your intentions? What are you up to? What are you doing with 20,000 troops heavily armed motorized right on the border with Ukraine. The Russian minister said we are here exercising.

But I have to tell you, behind the scenes, the Pentagon, the U.S. intelligence community, watching this literally around the clock. Watching those troops because they are so close to the border, basically, all they have to do is essentially drive across.

The feeling is the goal, if ordered, may be move into eastern Ukraine and establish a land bridge between Russia, across eastern Ukraine and into the Crimea peninsula. This would give the Russians military the ability to continually reinforce and step up their troop presence in Crimea.

I think it's most interesting, John, after the developments today when the Russians took over two Crimean bases, the U.S. no statement calling for the Russians to get out of Crimea, just saying you are there. We hold you responsible -- John.

BERMAN: Barbara, you said the United States is watching. You said the United States is worrying. Is the United States doing anything about this, working with Ukraine to discuss the possibility the Russian troops could move over the border?

STARR: I think it's very clear that the Ukrainian government, the Ukrainian government has a very good sense of what is going on. Is the U.S. going to respond militarily? Is NATO going to respond militarily? I think that almost everyone agrees there is no chance of that. So, more pressure on Russia, you know, this is a situation that now is beginning to have so many dimensions because of this. The U.S. can no longer really work with Russia on the question of Syria and chemical weapons and Iran's nuclear program potentially leading to economic turmoil in eastern Europe and instability in that area.

So it's getting much broader, much deeper. The question now really is, will Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia decide he wants to move into Ukraine, how deep, how far, what are his intentions? I have to tell you, I have talk to sources this weekend here in Washington. They are watching carefully. They have no answers just yet.

BERMAN: And of course, President Obama traveling to Europe this week to meet with key European leaders to talk about the situation in Ukraine. Any sense they will be providing further assistance whether financial or military to Ukraine?

STARR: Well, there is, that's a really good point, John. There is some financeable and economic assistance to international financial organizations to Ukraine. The U.S. and others providing what they call non-lethal assistance, U.S. -- the Pentagon providing things like medical supplies, food rations, uniforms, that sort of thing.

But this is the situation that, you know, for all of the political rhetoric across this spectrum, I think it's fair to say Vladimir Putin know that the United States and NATO are not going to move in militarily. There's just no indication of that.

And so, the question is, how far -- I think the question is, how far does Putin want to go, how far does he think he can go given this current feeling that no one is going to stop him anytime soon? How far does he want to carry this?

BERMAN: You know, there are diplomats in the state department and all over Europe right now who would love the answers to those questions.

Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you so much for being with us today. We are going to return to the search for flight 370. We have something really interesting. CNN has obtained audio of what the pingers aboard the missing jet would sound like if detected by super sensitive audio equipment. We are going to let you hear that after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. Welcome back, everyone.

A new potential clue in the search for Flight 370. Here's what we know right now this afternoon: a new object has been spotted in the southern Indian Ocean. A Chinese satellite captured images of this four days ago, but analysts just completed today, the Chinese just releasing it this morning. It's about 74 feet by 43 feet.

Now, what makes it more interesting, it was spotted 75 miles north of two other objects seen a week ago. Search planes over the area did not find anything earlier today other than a wooden palette. Crews have been looking for the first two objects, the mystery objects for three days now with no luck. Soon, they'll be getting some reinforcements, more ships, more planes from several nations headed to that area.

Crews also continue searching in the so-called northern corridor. Seven countries in an area have told investigators they did not pick up any signals from the plane on their radar after it lost contact with ground control.

(AUDIO GAP) Flight 370 first appeared, no one had any idea 16 days later, we'd still be wondering where it went with few concrete clues. For the families, that time has been just a nightmare, full of false hope, very real fears they will never see their loved ones again.

CNN's Jim Clancy takes a look at what everyone has been going through.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So much ocean, so many questions, so little time. The mystery surrounding what happened to Flight 370 with 239 souls aboard confounds us all. More than two weeks after it disappeared, police have no evidence, no motive implicated either pilot. Country after country has cleared its passengers. While fantastic hijack theories abound, some worthy of movie scripts all are missing a leading man, an actual hijacker on board Flight 370.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Often thieves get away with big heists, 777s would be worth big money in the market.

CLANCY: Back in the real world, time is running out.

REMI JOUTY, DIRECTOR OF BEA: The first thing is underwater location, beacon emitting only for 30 days, which means it is almost already too late to have realistic hope of launching underwater searches based on those things. CLANCY (on camera): If the families haven't been able to get the answers to their prayers in the last two weeks, at least they are beginning to get the answers to some of the questions they had about their loved ones. But, it hasn't been easy.

(voice-over): Chinese women manhandled, demanding the truth after more than a week of promises, Malaysia delivered some of the questions to high-level officials how family members may have died weren't easy on anyone. But they needed to hear them.

Also desperate for answers, the media sometimes sacrificed dignity for a scrap of news.

(on camera): The longer the search goes on without producing any tangible evidence of what happened to Flight 370, the more likely it will be the attention will turn to how the government of Malaysia handled or mishandled the first 24 to 48 hours of the crisis.

(voice-over): Why did it take so long to admit the plane was missing? Why weren't jets scrambled? Why was Malaysia's own military radar data doubted?

As a result, almost a week was lost tracing false leads in the South China Sea. Debris, oil slicks, before the search moved on to millions of square miles in the Indian Ocean. Hindsight is perfect. The search for the Boeing 777 (AUDIO GAP) rife with human frailties. But two weeks into the mystery of Flight 370, it is still human of us all to hope.

Jim Clancy, CNN, Kuala Lumpur.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. Our thanks to Jim Clancy.

And two weeks into this mystery, CNN has now obtained audio of what the pingers aboard Flight 370 would sound like if detected by a hydrophone, a device used for locating sensitive sounds underwater. CNN obtained this audio from Dukane Seacom, the company that the NTSB confirms made the pingers used on the plane. It's normally inaudible to humans, but the company converted the sound for us so you know what it sounds like under water. Take a listening.

(PINGER AUDIO EXAMPLE)

BERMAN: It doesn't sound like much. It has to be so difficult to detect.

And then there's this, the pinger's battery life on Flight 370 is designed only to last about 14 more days. That's when it runs out completely and it will get significantly harder for searchers to find anything, any traces of this plane that might be under water.

Let's talk to our panel about this. With me here in New York, aviation and maritime attorney Daniel Rose. In Washington, Rick Castaldo, an aviation surveillance engineer. Tom Fuentes is a CNN law enforcement analyst. And from Denver, David Soucie is a CNN safety analyst and author of "Why Planes Crash: An Accident Investigator's Fight for Safe Skies."

Thank you all for joining me to talk about this.

David, I want to start with you.

We just heard those pings, what they might sound like underwater. There's also the word, the news of the deadline here now. Just about 14 days until that pinging will stop. The batteries run out.

How much pressure does that put now on investigators?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, it puts a lot of pressure on investigators, obviously, but it also puts, I think, pressure on the ICAO and FAA. And here's why: in that piece with Tom Clancy, he mentioned that Remi Jouty from the BEA gave a talk there and what he recommended after Flight 447 was that international community and the FAA respond to that accident in extending the battery life of these pingers from 30 days to 90 days.

Now, there has been a TSO, type standard order, issued so all new pingers have to have 90 days. But that starts in 2015, and that's only for new pingers. There's no regulation forcing or mandating that those pinger that is are in existence now have to be upgraded.

BERMAN: Rick Castaldo, you know, we talked about the pingers, the length of time they run and the fact they need to be extended, you know, another 30 days. You feel in some cases, the technology we are using in general isn't what it needs to be.

RICK CASTALDO, AVIATION SURVEILLANCE ENGINEER: Well, I pointed out the utilization of space-based surveillance which has been pitched both here in the United States and the FAA. And I know ICAO has a committee looking at it. But ICAO tends to spend a long time in committees and meetings.

I'd like to point out the transponder being shut off may or may not be factual. We have no idea, I have seen no previous track data regarding the ability of any radar to read transponders in that particular part of the ocean. That's not unusual.

In addition, ACARS being turned off may be completely normal. ACARS is a fee for service. That company is located in Maryland, recently purchased by Rockwell Collins. You spend, for every message, you uplink. So, having ACARS turned off in and of itself is not unusual. It would be nice to know if ACARS was continually used by Malaysian Airlines in this particular route. I see no data to support any of that.

BERMAN: Tom Fuentes, I want to talk about today's latest development. This new image taken by a Chinese satellite showing what could be debris off the coast of Perth, Australia. We've been looking at the images taken several days ago seen by Australian officials. But now, we have this new image from a Chinese satellite.

Talk to me about the difficulty of analyzing satellite intelligence.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, I think, first of all, John, by the time they go through thousands of downloaded photographs and then determine they have that piece in one of the photographs, that's already four days. By the time they get it to the search authorities and come up with a new search plan based on it, a lot of time it's been lost, the item has moved with the winds and the currents, you know, driving it to some other location in the ocean. So, that's difficulty.

Of course, the resolution isn't enough to tell is that one giant piece or several smaller pieces as suggested strapped together or the wiring of the airplane wrapped around it and makes it look like one big piece. I think all of that creates a challenge. They have had great search weather for the first couple days, or the last couple days. Now, that's deteriorated to cyclone conditions. So, the next couple days are probably not going to be able to be searched.

BERMAN: So many challenges. Daniel, I want to talk to you about this, because with all the technology out there, all the satellites in use, all these planes now flying overhead, the acting prime minister of Australia says what is really needed, human eyeballs.

Well, talk to me about the toll on these pilots, on the searchers taking that long 1,500-mile flight over that search area.

DANIEL ROSE, AVIATION AND MARITIME ATTORNEY: Yes, I mean they are the key to this puzzle, if it's going to get solved through the wreckage, because you've got the big picture satellite and you've got the ships on the ground that are going to see the objects. But you've got to get the planes in there to narrow down that giant satellite area and identify where that piece is.

And it's a huge toll for these guys to -- I mean, they are risking their lives. I mean, they are flying 1,500 miles out there in the middle of nowhere. If God forbid something happens to their aircraft, they have few very options. You know, when we did searches in the Navy, we had a term for that, it's called Blue Water Ops. You weren't going anywhere in terms of a land based runway, you were going back to the ship. But we did have the ships.

So, when doing the searches, we kept going back to the ship and relaunching. And at least you didn't have the problem of having your own malfunction while you're trying to help others find the wreckage in the middle of the ocean 1,500 miles and not have many options.

BERMAN: You know, we heard people say, if you sneeze, if you're looking out for these planes to try to spot, you sneeze, you could miss the one chance you had to spot the one thing you need to see.

ROSE: Absolutely. I mean, especially with the conditions we are seeing out there. The white caps, the waves, I mean, you can literally see the object and lose it the next second.

BERMAN: All right. Thank you so much for letting out what is entailed right now in the search because it isn't one bit easy. All right. Next, it is designed to hunt submarines but can it help find Flight 370? We will take you inside America's high-tech surveillance jet. That's coming up next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: If any plane can find Flight 370, it is the P8 Poseidon, the world's most sophisticated search plane.

CNN's David Mattingly got a rare, behind-the-scenes look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Poseidon P8 surveillance jet is designed to hunt submarines and yet when it comes to finding wreckage of the missing Malaysian flight, the Navy is not making any promises.

(on camera): You don't even know exactly where to look right now, do you?

CAPT. SEAN LIEDMAN, U.S. NAVY: Correct. And because the debris may potentially be very small we're searching with very small track links to make sure that we don't miss anything over the course of the volume of space that we're searching.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): We've been granted this extraordinary access to a P8 in flight, simulating a search off the court of Florida. Incredibly sophisticated, it can see things no other aircraft can see. So much is classified we had to obscure parts of the monitors.

There's infrared sensors to track heat and something called electro- optical sensors.

LIEDMAN: Like the best type of camera available on the market.

MATTINGLY (on camera): What you can see with that that you can't see with radar?

LIEDMAN: (INAUDIBLE)

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Which gives the P8 an advantage in picking out objects in an endless blue ocean. But the search area for the missing plane is so remote and takes so long to get to the Navy only has about three hours a day to use these hi-tech tools.

And that's not the only problem. There are so many unknowns that search teams really don't even know what to look for. It could be something as large as a piece of a plane.

(on camera): But it could be something as small as a seat cushion or a life vest.

(voice-over): Finding wreckage would be like finding the needle in the haystack. If only they could find the haystack.

(on camera): So, that's a sonar buoy? LIEDMAN: Correct. What we call a sonar buoy.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): These devices are being deployed in the Indian Ocean to monitor sound and to map the wind and ocean currents, in hopes of narrowing down the search area.

Without more direction, the P8 has to fly a monotonous straight line at 1,000 feet. At this height, even a fishing boat like this can be obscured by waves. This boat is about the same length as that piece of mysterious debris spotted on satellite days ago.

(on camera): And that could still be conceivably missed, right?

LIEDMAN: Absolutely. I would estimate that's about 80 feet long or so and you can see amidst the wave action and white caps even at that that object would be a challenge.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Now, try to imagine spotting something smaller, somewhere among the countless waves and reflections.

(on camera): Keep in mind, this is a very calm day off the coast of Florida. We have about 20 miles of visibility. And yet, the idea of finding a very small object in a very big ocean seems almost impossible.

And remember, in the Indian Ocean, where the search is going on, the seas are much rougher. The winds are much stronger.

(voice-over): And even though the Poseidon P8 is the best search plane the world's nations have to offer, success still depends on time and on element of luck.

David Mattingly, CNN, Jacksonville, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: We're going to talk about more on the search for Flight 370. The weather facing the searchers right now, the challenges ahead, the resources they have. Do they have enough? We'll put that question to our panel right after this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Allison Lint began playing the violin when she was just 7 years old.

ALLISON LINT, VIOLINIST: I started piano when I was 8. Then I also play viola and a little bit of guitar. Those are the main instruments there.

GUPTA: At 16, the high school junior and student at the Cleveland Institute of Music started to feel exhausted and had difficulty breathing.

LINT: I couldn't perform everyday tasks. I couldn't remember how to dial a phone. GUPTA: She was misdiagnosed with bronchitis and then pneumonia and a few months later, she was rushed to the hospital coughing up blood from a lung hemorrhage. She spent 2-1/2 weeks then in an induced coma.

LINT: There was about a period of a week and a half where they were not sure if I was going to live.

GUPTA: When she finally left the hospital, doctors didn't know what was wrong with her.

LINT: I had a relapse. I was again coughing up blood so they sent me to the Cleveland clinic where I was diagnosed with Wegener's Granulomatosis.

GUPTA: Which causes a form of vasculitis or inflammation of the blood vessels.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It took a toll on me emotionally and mentally.

GUPTA: Depression, weight gain, they both followed and then the chemotherapy to treat the disease caused her hair to fall out.

But throughout several relapses, Allison, she never gave up on her music. Despite struggling with strength and endurance, she enrolled at the Oberlin Conservatory, even played Carnegie Hall with their symphony orchestra.

Then, she started Violin for Vasculitis, and she plans to travel to all 50 states, telling her story and performing to raise awareness and money for this disease.

LINT: It's given me the ability to combine these things in my life, my illness and my music, in a way that I never would have thought possible.

GUPTA: Last October came an invitation to join the Akron Symphony.

LINT: It's a goal I had for a long time. And it feels really, really neat knowing that I overcame all of this and I'm still able to play.

GUTPA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back to CNN coverage of the search for Flight 370.

A few minutes to the top of the hour. Before we go, we want to check in with our panel of experts right now to get the answer to the question so many people are asking right now.

Daniel Rose, in one sentence, do you think investigators will find this plane? ROSE: I do. I do. I mean, I think on one hand time is on our side and that we have as much time as we need. On the flip side, unfortunately, the longer it takes, the harder it is to get back to the wreckage. And, of course, in the interim, it's the worst thing possible for the families.

BERMAN: Rick Castaldo, we're going on two weeks now. Do you think investigators will find this plane?

CASTALDO: Boy, that's a tough one. I personally don't believe you're going to find it where you're looking for it.

BERMAN: You think they need to change the search area altogether?

CASTALDO: I think simultaneously we should be looking to the north. I think it's -- you know, the opinion you need to go after one piece of material were two large pieces floating, there's tons of debris in the ocean. You're still having, for instance, things washing up on the West Coast of the United States from the typhoon.

BERMAN: All right. I want to get Tom -- I want to get Tom's take. Do you think investigators will find this plane?

FUENTES: I agree with Rick on that one. It's going to be really tough if they are not looking everywhere it could have gone.

BERMAN: And, David Soucie, you get the last word. Right now they are looking off the coast of Australia. They haven't suspended the notion of searching other places. Do you think they will find Flight 370?

SOUCIE: As committed as they are, I don't see them giving up until they find something.

BERMAN: So, they will take whatever time they need and keep on searching, at least using some resources to find any trace of this plane. It's been two weeks now since Flight 370 disappeared. The news today, Chinese satellites spotting what could be a piece of debris off the coast of Australia.

CNN's coverage for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 will continue in just a minute.

My friend Jim Sciutto picks up with the very latest on the investigation. Stay with us.