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Prime Minister: Flight "Ended In Southern Indian Ocean"

Aired March 24, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

NAJIB RAZAK, PRIME MINISTER OF MALAYSIA (through translator): In the meantime, we wanted to inform you of this new development at the earliest opportunity. We share this information out of a commitment to openness and respect for the families, two principles which have guided this investigation. Malaysia Airlines have already spoken to the families of the passengers and crew you to inform them of this development. For them, the past few weeks have been heart breaking. I know this news must be harder still. I urge the media to respect their privacy and allow them the space they need at this very difficult time.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The statement in Kuala Lumpur by Malaysia's prime minister saying that based on further calculations made by British officials and Inmarsat, of satellite data, the calculations that they have never been able to do before. They have been able to shed more light. Based on new analysis, Flight 370 flew along the south corridor, the last position in the middle of the Indian Ocean, far from any landing sites.

He said somberly, according to this new data, Flight MG-370 ended in the Southern Indian Ocean. There has been so much question obviously for the last two weeks now about this. This is the most definitive statement we have heard from Malaysian officials.

I am here with Richard Quest here in New York. Essentially, again, reiterating why there has been so much focus on the southern corridor and why there has been so much focus on this area about 1500 miles southwest of Perth.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Now, the sad news this morning what the Inmarsat people have done is they have gone back to those pings. They have interrogated the wattage transmission from the planes. They have looked at the angles. They have worked out the differences, the AAIB, the Air Accident Investigation Branch of the U.K., which is the British equivalent of the NTSB, enormously experienced and concluding not only the southern corridor.

But the fuel on board from the last known position puts it southwest of Perth, a remote location, no landing strip. Therefore, the conclusion being that the flight ended in the South Indian Ocean, which will now, of course, intensify the efforts to see what this debris is in the same area that they are talking about. The certainty of closure, as much as there can be, Anderson, for the families today. At least they know that the flight, that it ended the way that it did.

COOPER: And there is more debris that has been spotted really all throughout this weekend that we want to talk about. Sara Sidner is in Kuala Lumpur. She joins us now on the phone. I understand you have been talking to some families -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes. You know, we also talk about these objects as well, Anderson. Basically, I have been in one of the hotels where the bulk of the Chinese families that were in Kuala Lumpur have been housed. We have seen them go through so many emotions, hopeful ones, all the way to bursting out at tears, inconsolable. They have really gone through more than most of us ever think we might have to go through because of the waiting.

Each time you ask them about whether or not, what is bothering them the most, it is always the uncertainty and the scenario that they come up with in their heads as to what has happened to their grandparents, their mothers, their fathers, their children, their loved ones who are on this flight. So that uncertainty has been killing them.

They really, really have been talking it out with counselors, have been talking it out with other family members. They tend to move in groups. They tend to need be comforted. We have seen a large level of police, the Malaysia Airlines authorities who are here, who have been with the families, the counselors are here with them 24/7. They feel that they have been given finally some answers.

They have been meeting with authorities before this press conference. All the while, Anderson, you know this very well. At the very beginning, they felt like they were being left out, finding information as we, the media, was finding it out. That was very upsetting to them. They felt disrespected. They felt like they were the last to know. That hurt them further. That has changed over the last few days.

They are now getting that information first. Is it what they want to hear? Of course not. They were hoping beyond hope that the plane had somehow landed and their loved ones were still alive. Right now, some of these emotions were going to start settling. You may see people really breaking down now. The certainty of one thing, having some idea that something catastrophic happened is a completely different one -- Anderson.

COOPER: Officials met with family members before holding that announcement in Malaysia as is certainly appropriate in this situation. Atika Shubert is joining us from Kuala Lumpur. She was at the press conference. Atika, when word came that there was going to be a 10:00 p.m. press conference, clearly, people in Kuala Lumpur all throughout the world knew this was going to be something major. What was the atmosphere like there?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): They knew that it was going to be something big, but frankly they didn't know what exactly it would be. There was a lot of talk. Of course, a lot of search planes have been going out night and day trying to find something. But this information, the fact that it came from British investigators, from the Inmarsat satellite company, unfortunately, it is news that certainly seems to indicate the plane went down over the Indian Ocean. But the fact that there still has been no debris found. The fact that there is no way of knowing yet if they can get the flight data recorder and finding out exactly what happened on that flight. Unfortunately, even though this is very sad news for the family, there is still that sense of uncertainty. What exactly happened aboard the flight? Why did it veer so far off course to such a remote area of the world?

These are questions that are still unanswered. Inside the press conference, the prime minister was very somber. He was flanked by the CEO of Malaysia Airlines, the transportation minister, as well as the Department of Civil Aviation. It was a very sad moment when he announced that unfortunately, Anderson, still no answers as to what happened.

COOPER: And of course, that -- now that we know that the plane did, in fact, end up in the water. The question as Atika said, is why. Richard Quest, that is obviously the continuing effort of investigators over the last several days. A lot of people may be following this over the weekend. There was new information that at one point, the plane was flying at some 12,000 feet, very low for an aircraft of this size.

QUEST: Absolutely. The reason it was said to be flying or one of the speculative reasons at 12,000 feet, would be so it wouldn't be in an air corridor and risk other aircraft as it flew back. We don't know the reason why. The sources tell CNN that the radar data and other data showed the plane going down from 36,000 to 12,000, back across the Malaysian Peninsula. It must have gone back up to altitude again. We know that because as 12,000 feet, it couldn't have gotten out at the South Indian Ocean because the fuel burn was so much higher. It would have had to go back up to 35,000 feet, 40,000 feet to get that range.

COOPER: Which then, of course, raises the question of why these fluctuations in altitude.

QUEST: Yes. I mean, sources say it was 12,000 feet. We haven't had that confirmed. We need to put that to the side for a second. What we now can say with a degree of certainty because of what we heard this morning, is that it flew at altitude for most of that run. Because that plane flew for six, seven hours, back from Malaysia all the way down to the South Indian Ocean. You wouldn't be able to do that at anything other than full speed, 500, 600 miles per hour, depending on the winds and at altitude over 30,000, 35,000 feet.

COOPER: Richard, I want to go over with you what has been spotted about new satellite information for our viewers joining us now almost 10 past 10:00 a.m. here Monday morning, 10 past 10:00 in Kuala Lumpur and in Perth in Western Australia. According to Malaysia's prime minister making a statement that according to new data, data crunched by British officials, Inmarsat officials, he can say that based on this data, Flight 370 ended up in the Southern Indian Ocean. There has been now multiple spotting of debris by a variety of sources.

QUEST: Yes, there has. We have had some French radar satellite pictures, Chinese satellite pictures and Chinese aerials. This morning, we had Australian eyes on water from a P-3 over the water.

COOPER: Which may be the most significant because, I mean, investigators have been saying for the last several days, given the rough conditions, it is crucial to have eyes on.

QUEST: We saw this morning. We have had a picture back from the Chinese. The thing they saw over the weekend turned out to be a 15- foot carcass of a whale. However, what we are hearing this morning is that some of the items are orange. That's slightly more significant because orange is the color of the life vests and the life rafts. Now, that could have come from a ship. It could have been there a long time.

COOPER: There is a lot of junk just in this area.

QUEST: Right. But when you start to piece together, we now know the root according to the AAIB. We know where the debris has been seen, we know the nature of the debris. So HMA, the Australian naval ship, is on its way. It is going to be there and will be in a good position to pick up that debris. It is about to be on base any time now.

COOPER: In fact let's check in with our Kate Bolduan and Andrew Stevens who are in Perth, Australia for us this morning. Kate, Andrew, obviously devastating news for the families, for investigators, just another validation of their decision days ago to really focus the search on this southern sector.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You are absolutely right, Anderson. Andrew and I have been talking about this throughout the day. This search effort you really notice from here in Perth. We are here at Pierce Air Force Base. You've really noticed it's ramping up, just in the past even 24 hours. Yesterday, I took a flight with New Zealand's air force, number five squadron, to go on a flight with them.

When I was out there, you see just how amazingly vast this space is and it seems very feasible it would be impossible to find anything. On the same day that the prime minister comes out and he doesn't do this daily. Whenever he comes out, it has been a very important announcement, as this has been. Unfortunately, on the same day, we now have the sightings of these objects that you and I have been talking about. There have been a lot of false leads, but these seem more significant -- Andrew.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They do. They definitely seemed more significant. The point is that the Royal Australian vessel, which is actually now on site, has been there for four hours, had four hours of daylight looking for those objects, which the Australian Air Force have sighted. They still couldn't see them. It is now dark. It's been dark for a couple of hours there. Realize just how difficult. We now know that the plane is there somewhere. We did not know that before. Actually, still finding it is going to be a massive task. You've got vessels there, ten planes now there, another two coming tomorrow, but still this search is not over yet.

COOPER: You've got some severe weather conditions also said to be moving to the area. We are going to check on that. Andrew, Kate, just stand by. I wanted to go down to Beijing. Joining us on the phone is CNN's David McKenzie.

David, you have been monitoring the situation there where families were told about half an hour before the Malaysian prime minister made the announcement. David McKenzie, we will try to check back with you. Let's go back to Kate and Andrew Stevens. Kate and Andrew, we have been told that there is a very real possibility of bad weather moving into the area. What do you know about it?

BOLDUAN: It is honestly changes by day and it can change within the day. Yesterday, when I was up with one of the search teams, the conditions can change on a moment's notice when you are out there. We were flying at 500 feet above the water at one point, 200 feet above the ocean surface at another. It went from complete fog, zero visibility to wide open spaces. You could see for miles. The visibility is so key. We can talk about it, but when you're out there, you really understand. If you can't have eyes out the window of these planes, you cannot spot anything. It has been changing quite a bit, even today, Andrew.

STEVENS: Even today. Getting the vessels now, if that's the critical stage, we have got this position from RWA planes. They put flares down when they saw those which is key. They haven't actually located them yet, but those vessels are now going to be leading this search. They have to pull whatever these objects are because, Anderson, they have to get official identification of these objects and then they can start plotting back using the drift theory.

BOLDUAN: We assume they will come here. We haven't been told if they find debris, where they are going to bring it. As remote as that location is, where these things will be found, this is, Perth, is the closest place, albeit not even close to being close.

COOPER: Also we know that even with a small amount of debris, even with any debris that they begin to recover, they can, depending on where those piece of debris were from in the aircraft. They can start to perhaps understand what happened to the plane if the debris was from some critical parts of the aircraft.

I do want to go to Beijing. Our David McKenzie is back with us. David, as we said, families were briefed about a half hour before Malaysia's prime minister made his public statement.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Very desperate scenes here, Anderson. (Inaudible) walking through a crush of cameras and some paramedics with beds going in. There is steady whaling coming out of the conference room there. One woman pulled out lying on the floor shouting, saying, I only have one son, he was on that plane. He was my only son. I need to be saved from the situation. It certainly appears from the perspective of these families, who have been waiting, agonizing over these days, that the news has now come. The news has come and it is bad news that they never hoped for, but certainly extremely sad and dramatically difficult.

COOPER: David, I talked to family members on Friday who were still holding out hope that perhaps the plane had been hijacked, perhaps the passengers were hostages, that they were still alive. This really the most official confirmation that there can be that all those on board are gone, that the plane went down in the water.

MCKENZIE: Well, all that hope, Anderson, we have been speaking about for days together, that hope is now lost. I just saw a young woman flanked by two friends or family members being moved out of the hotel holding her face in her hands. There is a great deal of raw emotion. Right now, paramedics are leading them down the escalators presumably to give medical assistance. The counselors I have spoken to over the past few days have said, when the news does finally come, it will be almost too difficult to even contemplate for people who have been hoping for the worst case scenario, hoping for a hijacking.

Now, as it appears from what we know, all hope is lost for these families and certainly this is agonizing in this hotel, which has been a real hellish Experience, appears to be coming to an end. The grieving process appears to be stopping. It is very raw and very difficult for those that have spent all this time here.

COOPER: It's unimaginable. I want to go to Jim Sciutto who is standing by with us in Washington, D.C. Jim, obviously the investigation continues. The news this morning for those who are just joining, Malaysia's prime minister saying that according to latest analysis of the information by U.K, authorities and Inmarsat, the satellite company, they can say that the flight ended in the Southern Indian Ocean, MH-370, in an area where there were not any areas to land, saying that the plane ended up in the water. The investigation continues and critical to that investigation is finding first the debris and then the aircraft itself and those black boxes.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think you have two investigations, the investigation as to why this happened, but also that first step as to where the plane is. I think we can see today as the culmination of a long, difficult and often frustrating sometimes mismanaged investigation into that first question really. Where did this plane end up?

To be fair, investigators working with a lot of information, lost contact with the plane, the ACARS system, the transponder. They had to do some real satellite detective work, which was first release a little more than a week ago just to get a sense of in which direction the plane flew and then we had those two massive arcs leading north and south.

Then, as the Malaysian prime minister said just now, they used some never-before used analysis, led apparently by Britain, Inmarsat, a British company, to then determine it wasn't indeed that northern arc, but the southern arc. A combination of science, really, in addition to that detective work, where they calculated the plane's speed, altitude and how much fuel was in the tanks that allowed them to then refine that search zone, which is where they have been searching these last few day in the Southern Indian Ocean, about 1500 miles to the southwest of Australia.

Those smaller boxes which then helped lead them to the satellite images we are seeing on air now and even a next step today to what the plane spotted. Possibly debris floating in the ocean and instead of seeing it from miles up in space, they saw it from a couple hundred feet above the water.

As Richard noted, you now have the HMS Success, that's an Australian ship that cannot just drive by these pieces of wreckage, possible pieces of wreckage, but potentially pick them up. I mean, it has been a remarkable effort here frustrating for those poor families as we watch them and also unprecedented in how international it has been. Imagine the countries who have taken part and are taking part in close quarters here.

The U.S. and China with great tensions in the regions now, showing off some of their most advanced surveillance airplanes and ships, destroyers, et cetera. You have China and Japan in the midst of their own territorial dispute off islands off the coast of China with ships and planes in close proximity there. We have seen those tensions play out and possibly delay this investigation as countries have been reluctant to share their capabilities, their radar data, which in some cases has been embarrassing.

You had a plane flying across Malaysian radar without being noticed. India refusing to allow Chinese ships to search in its waters. You had some real stumbles as a result. Hopefully, we have seen now in this last week or so, better cooperation and possibly now a determination as to where this plane is. That's the first question. The next question is, why this plane ended up there.

COOPER: That certainly is the question. Jim, appreciate that. I want to show you the entire news conference given by Malaysia's prime minister. It occurred just some 24 or 23 minutes ago, where the announcement was made that many of the families, the missing passengers had feared most. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAZAK: This evening, I was briefed by representatives from the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch or AAIB. They informed me that Inmarsat, the U.K. company, that provided the satellite data, which indicated northern and southern corridors, has been performing further calculations on the data using a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort. They have been able to shed more light on MH-370s flight path.

Based on the new analysis, Inmarsat and the AAIB have concluded that MH-370 flew along the southern corridor and that it's last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean west of Perth. This is a remote location. Far from any possible landing sites. It is, therefore, with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that according to this new data, flight MH-370 ended in the Southern Indian Ocean.

We will be holding a press conference tomorrow with further details. In the meantime, we wanted to inform you of this new development at the earliest opportunity. We share this information out of a commitment to openness and respect for the families, two principles, which have guided this investigation.

Malaysia Airlines has already spoken to the families of the passengers and crew to inform them of this development. For them, the past few weeks have been heart breaking. I know this news must be harder still. I urge the media to respect their privacy and allow them the space they need at this very difficult time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: A difficult time indeed for the families, most of all. So many people have been following this story so close wondering what happened, hoping beyond hope at times that somehow this plane had made it to land and somehow these passengers might still alive. Malaysian authorities there, the most final word we have heard based on Inmarsat officials, based on U.K. officials reading of satellite data, intense reading of satellite data, that the flight ended up in the Southern Indian Ocean, far from any possible landing sites. We are going to take a short break and our coverage continues in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the crash of Flight 370. We say crash. Malaysian officials this morning announcing night time Malaysian time that based on new analysis by Inmarsat and British officials that they can say that Flight 370 ended up in the Southern Indian Ocean far from any runways. Families have been told that all those on board have lost their lives and that the flight did end in the Southern Indian Ocean.

I am here with Richard Quest. Again this focus redoubles all the efforts on this region in the Southern Indian Ocean. What, up until a couple of days ago was one theory. There was still talk of the northern arc. Now, solely, this will be the focus.

QUEST: Without a doubt. Inmarsat evidence. AAIB confirmation. Malaysian prime minister saying, it is now the southern corridor. Not just southern corridor, the South Indian Ocean southwest of Perth, which is where the plane went down. Frankly, the urgency now, despite the sadness of those involved but urgency now to locate a substantial debris field so that you can locate the wreckage, if 447 was hard in the South Atlantic, they had the whole debris field. They knew ruffle where it was.

Now, they have to locate the debris field to establish where the plane will be because locating the debris field will help get the submersibles to find the black box, the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder. So -- and of course, time is running out for the pingers. We're two weeks, maybe a week, two weeks, two and a half weeks, three weeks maximum for the pingers to still be transmitting a location of where they've fallen.